Podcasts about haredi

Unpacking Israeli History is coming to Chicago on June 8 for its first ever LIVE event!  Buy Your Tickets Now DISCOUNT: Get 20% off your tickets using the discount code UIHCHI. NB: Click "Unlock" and enter the discount code before selecting your tickets. This week, host Noam Weissman revisits one of Israel's most explosive debates, why don't most Haredim—often referred to as the ultra-Orthodox—serve in the IDF? As Israel endures one of the longest wars in its history, this deeply divisive question has returned to the forefront. Noam first tackled the issue in Season 3 and now it has been reignited by the ongoing war that has touched nearly every family in the country. This episode unpacks the roots of the draft exemption granted to yeshiva students by David Ben Gurion, the philosophy behind the "Torah Dome," and the fierce cultural battle between Haredi and non-Haredi Israelis. Please get in touch at noam@unpacked.media. This podcast was brought to you by Unpacked, a division of OpenDor Media. ------------------- For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out: ⁠⁠Jewish History Nerds⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Soulful Jewish Living⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Stars of David with Elon Gold ⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Wondering Jews

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Political reporter Sam Sokol and reporter Sue Surkes join host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode. The Knesset came back from spring break last week and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox coalition partners have been pushing for the passage of legislation enshrining military exemptions for their community, after the High Court ruled in June last year that the dispensations, in place for decades, were illegal since they were not based in law. The legislation has long been held up in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, whose chairman, Yuli Edelstein (Likud), has pledged that he will “only produce a real conscription law that will significantly increase the IDF’s conscription base.” Sokol unpacks this complicated situation. Surkes reports on Magen 48, an initiative to train civil defense teams at 66 localities within the Gaza border area — including the city of Sderot — and raise their skill set to that of IDF fighters. We then learn about "She-Rise," a program that teaches women in the western Negev how to leverage their skills and create change in their communities. Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates. For further reading: ‘The final deadline’: Could the IDF conscription crisis bring down Netanyahu’s government? After October 7, IDF said to increase penalties for deserters, but not draft dodgers Edelstein urges ‘real solution’ as work set to begin on revising Haredi draft bill IDF joins forces with NGO to turn community security teams into lean fighting machines Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and video edited by Thomas Girsch. IMAGE: Haredi Jews protest and clash with police during a protest against the drafting of ultra-Orthodox Jews to the Israeli army, Jerusalem, May 5, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Send us a textBarak Herscowitz, former head of communications for the Israeli government and the whistleblower who exposed TikTok's anti-Israel bias, joins Eylon Levy to dissect the spin dominating the international conversation around Israel, Hamas, and the Gaza war.

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. US bureau chief Jacob Magid and political correspondent Sam Sokol join host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode. As an Israeli official states that Qatar isn't being helpful in the hostage talks and an Arab official tells The Times of Israel that reports are being manufactured by Israeli officials looking to harm the negotiations, Magid offers a deeper look. We hear about the last few days of the talks and the government's desire for victory in Gaza, which could lead Israel into a deeper, more extensive battle against Hamas. Magid reports on a conversation he had with Republican lawmaker Rep. Marlin Stutzman, one of the first US lawmakers to meet Syria's new Islamist leader, President Ahmed al-Sharaa. Stutzman cautions against Israel's interest in dividing the fledgling government into several autonomous regions and the Syrian president's vehement opposition to that idea. Several top aides to former US president Joe Biden commented in a TV interview on several aspects of Israeli relations with the US during the Biden administration, including a missed opportunity to reach a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia last year. Magid fills us in. Sokol speaks about a demonstration of Haredi protestors outside one of two IDF recruitment centers on Monday, where ultra-Orthodox men harassed conscripts to the new ultra-Orthodox brigade. He discusses the IDF's inability to recruit 4,8000 Haredi men during the 2024-2025 draft cycle, given the lack of consensus in the ultra-Orthodox community, while Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Likud MK Yuli Edelstein is determined to finalize the draft of a law regulating ultra-Orthodox enlistment. Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates. For further reading: Arab source: To shield Netanyahu, Israel leaking false claim Qatar sabotaged talks GOP lawmaker cautions Israel against ‘dividing’ Syria, after meeting with Sharaa Biden officials vent frustrations in dealing with Netanyahu, decry missed chance of Saudi deal ‘Zionists are not Jews’: Haredi extremists harass recruits from their community at IDF centers IDF won’t meet 2024-2025 Haredi conscription targets, official tells Knesset defense committee Edelstein says Knesset close to drafting new enlistment law, won’t accept ultimatums Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and video edited by Thomas Girsch.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In light of the critical shortage of IDF combat troops, retired general Noam Tibon is calling on the government to immediately enlist the Haredi ultra-Orthodox . He told KAN's Mark Weiss that biting economic sanctions must be imposed, if necessary. (Photo: Flash90)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Political correspondent Sam Sokol joins host Jessica Steinberg for today's Daily Briefing. As the IDF faces problems recruiting reserve troops after more than 15 months of war and mounting anger against the ultra-Orthodox for not shouldering the burden, Sokol discusses the latest in the Haredi draft issue, coming to a head in the current budget debates. Sokol says the various ultra-Orthodox parties are playing this issue differently, although they all appear to want the same thing: exemptions for yeshiva students and will use different tactics to achieve their goals. He also describes his ongoing investigation into the growing number of Haredi organizations offering advice to yeshiva students and families about how to dodge draft notices. Sokol is investigating the pattern of behavior that's emerging, the illegalities involved in advising someone to avoid the draft, and the security apparatus's reticence to take action on this growing trend. Please see today's ongoing liveblog for more updates. For further reading: AG, police silent in face of growing ecosystem of Haredi evasion organizations Hasidic MKs tell Netanyahu they’ll oppose budget if draft exemption law not passed Haredi lawmakers split on approach to budget, which must pass this month or gov’t falls ‘Do not cooperate’: Nonprofit linked to top Haredi rabbis encourages draft dodging Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: Haredi Jews clash with police during a protest against the ultra-Orthodox draft on Road 4 outside Bnei Brak on March 2, 2025 (Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A video from an ultra-orthodox wedding last week went viral and stoked fresh rage targeting the ultra-orthodox population.In his column in the Jerusalem Post last Friday (see the Podcast Notes for the link), State of Tel Aviv regular, Ya'akov Katz, gave voice to the growing anger that many Israelis feel towards the ultra-orthodox population in Israel. This time, it was triggered by the wedding video, showing a prominent Rabbi leading what looked to be many hundreds, maybe more than a thousand, men in a frenzied song and dance. As they rocked to the beat, they referred to the nation of Israel as a country of heretics and celebrated their continued refusal to serve in the IDF. Well… hell hath no fury like a population that has given its all to the war effort for 17 months now, being scorned and mocked so openly. This same ultra-orthodox population also receives tens of millions of shekels in funding for their educational institutions annually from this nation of heretics. And they use this funding to provide an education that further demonizes the Israelis who serve and work, entrenching this insane cycle of entitlement, dependence, and exploitation. Ya'akov Katz is hopping mad, and rightly so. We discuss the policies, the gutter political reality, and how this very broken paradigm cannot continue. The IDF has a severe shortage of soldiers—in the draft and reserve armies. This Haredi holiday is over. Ya'akov and I get into it. And pull no punches. You can listen to the podcast on the State of Tel Aviv site or, if you prefer, click on YouTube and have the full AV experience. Please like and subscribe. Ring the bell on YouTube. We're working hard to build our YouTube presence and really appreciate your support.State of Tel Aviv is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Podcast Notes:1) Column by Ya'akov Katz published in The Jerusalem Post, Friday March 14: “The IDF needs soldiers but Israel is paying yeshivas to dodge the draft—opinion”This might have been possible to tolerate before October 7, but definitely not now, at a time when the IDF is missing over 10,000 soldiers to fulfill the missions it already has.2) Column By Ya'akov Katz published in the Jewish Chronicle, Tuesday March 11, 2025: “Dismissing Israel's Attorney-General is a distraction from government's failures.”Yaakov Katz is an Israeli-American author and journalist. Between 2016 and 2023, Yaakov was editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post where he continues to write a popular weekly column.He is the author of three books: “Shadow Strike – Inside Israel's Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power”, “Weapon Wizards—How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower” and “Israel vs. Iran: The Shadow War.”Prior to taking up the role of editor-in-chief, Yaakov served for two years as a senior policy adviser to Naftali Bennett during his tenure as Israel's Minister of Economy and Minister of Diaspora Affairs.In 2013, Yaakov was one of 12 international fellows to spend a year at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.Originally from Chicago, Yaakov has a law degree from Bar Ilan University. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife Chaya and their four children.Find Yaakov Katz on X @yaakovkatz This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.stateoftelaviv.com/subscribe

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Times of Israel founding editor David Horovitz joins host Jessica Steinberg for today's Daily Briefing. As Israel’s hostage negotiating team remained in Doha, Qatar overnight, Horovitz reviews the latest in the ceasefire situation and the sense that US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff appears to be the only person who can push Israel toward a second phase of a hostage deal. Horovitz discusses how it was Witkoff who pushed Israel toward the first stage of the deal that brought 33 hostages home, eight of them no longer living. Horovitz also notes that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition are on a two-week deadline to pass the budget by March 31, and if they fail, his government will fall. Horovitz notes that Netanyahu has to mollify coalition partner Bezalel Smotrich, who has threatened to leave if Israel doesn't return to war in Gaza, as well as the ultra-Orthodox, who want a permanent IDF exemption for Haredi yeshiva students. Another deadline looming for the prime minister's coalition is pushing through laws that will neuter the Supreme Court and give the political echelon control over how Israel's judges are selected. Horovitz also talks about US President Donald Trump's statements about the future for Gazans, as he softened some of his previous comments regarding their relocation, underlining how complicated the entire topic is for all of the countries involved. Please see today's ongoing liveblog for more updates. For further reading: Steve Witkoff, Israel looks to you Meet Adam Boehler, Trump’s complacent, confused and dangerously naive hostage envoy Coalition to drive forward budget, judicial appointments bills in intense Knesset push Trump says ‘nobody’s expelling any Palestinians,’ in apparent softening of Gaza plan Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: Singer Kobi Oz and the Teapacks band perform for Einav Zangauker and Ilana Gritzewsky, mother and girlfriend of hostage Matan Zangauker on March 13, 2025 at the hostage family tent encampment on Tel Aviv's Begin Road outside the Defense Ministry (Credit Amir Yaacobi)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mijal and Noam dive into the complexities of religious Zionism in Israel with renowned journalist, Yair Ettinger. They explore the historical roots of the movement, from the pragmatic vision of Rabbi Reines to the messianic approach of Rabbi Kook and discuss how these ideologies helped shape modern Israeli society. They ask tough questions, including why figures such as Meir Kahane are resurfacing in popular discourse. With the rise of hardline religious Zionist factions, Mijal and Noam delve into what religious Zionism means today, its diversity and its role in Israel's security, politics, and peace efforts. Frayed by Yair Ettinger Click here for Yair Ettinger's full bio. Yair Ettinger is a former Kogod Research Fellow at Shalom Hartman Institute of North America and an Israeli journalist whose work focuses primarily on religious affairs, the religious and Haredi communities, and their politics. Previously, he covered issues relating to Palestinian citizens of Israel and was a foreign affairs correspondent in Paris. Until 2017, he served as a journalist with Ha'aretz for 20 years. Get in touch at our new email address: WonderingJews@unpacked.media and call us, 1-833-WON-Jews. Follow @jewishunpacked on Instagram and check out Unpacked on youtube. ------------ This podcast was brought to you by Unpacked, a division of OpenDor Media. For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out: Jewish History Nerds Unpacking Israeli History Soulful Jewish Living Stars of David with Elon Gold 

Esty Shushan is a Haredi woman who founded Nivcharot — a Good People Fund grantee — to promote the status and rights of ultra-Orthodox women in Israel through education, advocacy and cultivation of women leaders. In conversation with GPF Executive Director Naomi Eisenberger, Esty describes her personal journey finding her voice as a social visionary, … Continue reading For Haredi Women in Israel, Gaining a Voice →

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Political correspondent Sam Sokol and environmental reporter Sue Surkes join host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode. Sokol looks at the coalition's struggle over ultra-Orthodox army service exemptions, between those who want to minimize exemptions and those who want to use legislation to create a gradual increase leading to universal enlistment. He discusses a recent Likud lawmaker conference on the subject, that called for a more universal Haredi draft and sanctions on draft dodgers. In honor of Tu B'Shvat, the Jewish holiday of the trees, Surkes reports on the new Jewish Climate Trust, with heavy involvement from philanthropist Steven Bronfman, of the Canadian Bronfman family. The fund, which is launching next month, will be the first to focus specifically on climate, aiming to help Jewish and Israeli climate organizations build interfaith bridges and regional bridges in the Middle East. Surkes also speaks about several moshav communities in the south that were attacked by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023. Two are located just outside the designated zone of the Gaza Envelope and are therefore not eligible for the funding necessary to rebuild after the October 7, 2023 attacks. Please see today's ongoing live blog for more updates. Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. For further reading: Likud lawmakers hold conference calling for Haredi draft, sanctions on dodgers Budding climate fund seeks to guide Jewish response to era’s greatest threat Just 138 yards too far from the Gaza border, towns are denied post-Oct. 7 state support IMAGE: Haredi men protest and clash with police against the ultra-Orthodox draft on January 28, 2025. (Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we hear questions, criticisms, complaints, thoughts, and feedback from our listener community. We respond to your comments about the direction of the podcast, the diversity of Jewish experience, and the increased centrality of Israel of our lives. In this episode we discuss:How has the 18Forty mission evolved in light of changes in the world and in Jewish life?Is there an opposite phenomenon to “gvir culture”?How should we discuss important issues that are contentious and divisive, such as the Haredi draft and the identity of the messiah?Tune in to hear a conversation about how 18Forty might become “a beis medrash for the Jewish People.”Voicemails begin at 19:23References:“Switch To Orthodoxy: Continuity Rather Than Triumph” by Sergey Kadinsky“First-ever Solomon Schechter day school in North America goes Orthodox” by Jackie HajdenbergDonate to 18FortySubscribe on YouTube18Forty Podcast: “Pawel Maciejko: Sabbateanism and the Roots of Secular Judaism”18Forty Podcast: “Joshua Leifer and Shaindy Ort: How Progressive Activists Rediscovered Traditional Jewish Life”Sliding to the Right: The Contest for the Future of American Jewish Orthodoxy by Samuel C. HeilmanBeyond Sectarianism: The Realignment of American Orthodox Judaism by Adam S. FerzigerAuthentically Orthodox: A Tradition-Bound Faith in American Life by Zev EleffModern Orthodox Judaism: A Documentary History by Zev Eleff18Forty Podcast: “Eli Rubin: Is the Rebbe the Messiah?”Basi Legani, 5711 by the Lubavitcher Rebbe18 Questions, 40 Israeli Thinkers“My Chevruta” by Itzhak David GoldbergBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/18forty-podcast--4344730/support.

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Legal reporter Jeremy Sharon joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode. Late last week, almost two years exactly to the unveiling of the initial judicial overhaul legislative package, Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar unveiled a far-reaching package of changes to Israel’s judicial system which would increase political power over judicial appointments and curb the High Court’s ability to strike down legislation. The new package would stop short of some measures that sparked massive anti-government protests in 2023, but are potentially just a beginning. We unravel the new initiative and try to understand its implications. The High Court of Justice on Friday gave the state until the end of January to explain what steps it was taking to maximize Haredi enlistment to the Israel Defense Forces and to penalize draft dodgers.The instruction came in response to several petitions calling for the immediate conscription of all previously exempt ultra-Orthodox men. We learn about the court's impatience with the government's lack of action on this flashpoint issue. For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog. Discussed articles include: Overhaul redux: Levin’s ‘compromise’ proposal would again radically constrain the judiciary Levin, Sa’ar unveil new judicial overhaul plan; wary opposition heads hold off response High Court orders state to clarify plans to draft Haredim, penalize dodgers Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Ben Wallick. IMAGE: Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar (left) with Justice Minister Yariv Levin at the Knesset on November 6, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    In 2012, tens of thousands of Orthodox Jews packed Citi Field to protest the Internet and demand that believers tune out of the new nascent new medium. Rabbi Gil Student, an influential writer and thinker, opposed the move, arguing that even the most stringently observant Jews could learn to live out their values while still making good use of the new technology. His latest book, Articles of Faith (https://kodeshpress.com/product/articles-of-faith/), is a collection of meditations on this and other provocative questions that arise when the old time  religion meets new world platforms and values.

In this episode, Yaakov Lappin and I discuss several of this week's events, many of which emanate from Israel previously allowing its enemies to operate far too close to its borders.Those subjects include the recent recovery of the body of a hostage kidnapped on October 7th, an overview of the tragic number of hostages kidnapped alive who are now dead, the lack of enforcement of the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire by the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), as well as the urgent man-power needs of the IDF in the wake of a multi-front war that has endured for well over a year. We also analyze efforts to draft the Haredi population and the implications of doing so, or failing to do so.Enjoy!Support the showThe MirYam Institute. Israel's Future in Israel's Hands.Subscribe to our podcast: https://podfollow.com/1493910771Follow The MirYam Institute X: https://bit.ly/3jkeUyxFollow Benjamin Anthony X: https://bit.ly/3hZeOe9Like Benjamin Anthony Facebook: https://bit.ly/333Ct93Like The MirYam Institute Facebook: https://bit.ly/2SarHI3Follow Benjamin Anthony Instagram: https://bit.ly/30m6uPGFollow The MirYam Institute Instagram: https://bit.ly/3l5fvED

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Military reporter Emanuel Fabian joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara filed the state’s response to High Court petitions on Haredi military enlistment, stating that there is no limit on the numbers of ultra-Orthodox men recruited into the Israel Defense Forces from mid-2026. This comes as coalition members have often insisted that the IDF is not capable of absorbing the estimated 70,000 Haredi young men currently eligible for service. We dive into the divisive issue and why the army needs more soldiers. The IDF said that this past week, 338 members of the ultra-Orthodox community enlisted in the military for mandatory service — 211 combat soldiers and 127 combat support. We hear the breakdown of numbers and also how the army said it had completed sending out a wave of 7,000 draft orders to members of the ultra-Orthodox community, after 3,000 were sent out over the summer. What have been the results so far? We learn about the ongoing manhunt in the West Bank after the fatal shooting on Monday near the Jewish settlement of Kedumim. The shooting attack, which targeted a bus and two cars, occurred inside the Palestinian village of al-Funduq, which straddles a major artery used by thousands of Israelis and Palestinian drivers daily. And finally we discuss the deployment of the IDF in the Gaza Strip and in southern Lebanon, among efforts by US envoy Amos Hochstein to lengthen the 60-day truce with Hezbollah. For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog. Discussed articles include: Survey: Public support for conscripting ultra-Orthodox has surged throughout war First 50 ultra-Orthodox soldiers drafted to IDF’s new Haredi brigade Soldier killed fighting in Gaza as IDF withdraws brigade from northern Strip Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Ben Wallick. IMAGE: Israeli soldiers and ultra-Orthodox Jews at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site in the Old City of Jerusalem, July 10, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dina Goldman is at the frontier of researching and understanding the Chasidish and Yeshivish communities. She has spent over a decade working in marketing and advertising within the Orthodox Jewish community. Seeing how many businesses really lack solid information that they need, she founded Mispar – The Jewish Community, a Story of Numbers, a company focused on providing rich, timely data to help businesses and non-profits make informed decisions. Dina and her team conduct all kinds of studies, and she often uses creative methods to reach the Orthodox community … and that can be challenging. Mispar has also Orthodox Jewish research panel, giving researchers and businesses access to authentic voices within this community. In this episode we discuss how Orthodox and Charedi businesses and non-profit organizations can better understand their customers and the public, to develop and sell products, and meet their need. We also discuss some of the really fascinating issues she has explored, such as Orthodox finances, the businesses that Orthodox people are involved in and the related challenges, Shidduchim, and lots more. Raised in a Chasidish family, Dina now lives in Monsey with her husband and their happily blended family of four. In the episode closing we discuss some of our political research, which can be found in our 2023 Study and 2024 Study.  

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Political correspondent Sam Sokol joins host Jessica Steinberg on today's show. Sokol discusses the political machinations in the Knesset as voting over the 2025 budget leads National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and several ultra-Orthodox parties to threaten to oppose the bill, given some of the planned cuts. While Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich have banded together in the past over their political aspirations, the two have been at odds for some time, which could possibly lead to a break in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition, explains Sokol. Sokol reviews the further political dramas that played out on Tuesday in the Knesset, as Netanyahu, recovering from a successful prostate removal surgery at the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, was forced to leave his hospital bed and return to the Knesset, in order to cast a decisive vote on the budget law, and thwart Ben Gvir. Another Knesset member, Likud MK Boaz Bismuth, who was in the midst of the seven-day mourning period for his mother, was also pushed to leave the shiva and come to the Knesset and vote in favor of the bill. Sokol also offers a brief description of the fragment of a Houthi missile that landed in his Beit Shemesh neighborhood late Monday night. For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog. Discussed articles include: PM leaves hospital to cast decisive vote on a budget law, thwarting Ben Gvir revolt Coalition factions threaten to vote against key budget bill over cuts, Haredi draft In rare cross-aisle cooperation, MKs back bill to penalize ministers who snub oversight IDF downs ballistic missile from Yemen as sirens heard across central Israel Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a vote at the plenum of the Knesset in Jerusalem, on December 31, 2024. (Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

   In this episode we look at why all the different parts of the Haredi world have deep hesitance with basic pshat and Tanach. Why is this true? Is this an example of the cure is worse than the disease? What is worse over simplifying Midrashim or treating Midrashim disrespectfully?    This week's episode is dedicated by Mr and Mrs Pinchas and Malka Friedman in honor of their parents Mr and Mrs Heshy and Raizy Friedman and Mr and Mrs Chaim and Toby Ginsberg.    And also by an anonymous donor לרפואה שלימה ליונתן איתן בן בת שבע ברכה  Nach Yomi: Join R' Wittenstein's Nach Yomi on WhatsApp. We learn a perek a day five days a week, with a nine minute shiur covering the key issues. Click here to join!  For tours, speaking engagements, or sponsorships contact us at jewishhistoryuncensored@gmail.com PRODUCED BY: CEDAR MEDIA STUDIOS  

Ants embody the power of adaptability and collective responsibility, offering timeless lessons for human behavior. Rabbi Dunner explores the wisdom of Proverbs and the Talmud, drawing parallels to the challenges facing Israel's Haredi community. With insights from Jacob's journey in Parshat Vayeitzei, he argues for individual initiative and embracing change without compromising tradition, highlighting how adaptability and shared purpose can ensure a thriving future for the Haredi world and all of Klal Yisrael.

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Arab Affairs correspondent Gianluca Pacchiani and environmental reporter Sue Surkes join host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode. Pacchiani reviews the reactions from Lebanese Shiites following the temporary ceasefire with Hezbollah, and how the Iran-backed terrorist organization will presumably lay low after being battered during the last months of the war with the IDF. He also looks at rebel groups in northwestern Syria fighting the weakened regime of the Bashar Al Assad regime. The rebel forces, who are against Hezbollah, hope that Israel will strike Iranian convoys and Hezbollah forces inside Syria, aiding their cause. Surkes discusses the weak climate bill that's being pushed through the Knesset, a piece of legislation that lacks targets, has no budget and won't serve as a tool in petitioning the government on climate targets. She also looks at a Greenpeace Israel project that tracked used clothing by using AirTags, and found that the used textiles ended up mostly in the West Bank and Africa, where they were primarily dumped or turned into rags. For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel's ongoing live blog. Discussed articles include: Lebanon's Shiites increasingly reject role of scapegoat in Hezbollah's war on Israel Who are the rebels battering Syria's regime, and do they pose a risk to Israel? Most used clothes deposited in textile recycling bins end up in Africa — report Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: Children take part in recycling and environmental activities in southern Tel Aviv, November 28, 2024 (Photo by Dor Pazuelo/Flash90)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Political correspondent Tal Schneider and health editor Diana Bletter join host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode. Schneider discusses the latest in the hostage talks as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems to be showing a growing interest in connecting with hostage families and discussing negotiations, possibly as a result of incoming President-elect Donald Trump. She also looks at the visit of Housing and Construction Minister Yitzchak Goldknopf to sites in the Gaza Strip where he says he wants to reestablish Jewish settlements, and why an ultra-Orthodox Knesset minister would involve himself in that political storm. Bletter speaks about her visits in the last week to several northern communities and cities that were devastated by the last 14 months of war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, and what residents who were visiting their homes or stayed in the north have to say about the temporary ceasefire. Bletter also looks at Tel Aviv University research that could be promising in terms of treatment for aspects of a certain type of autism. For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel's ongoing live blog. Discussed articles include: Netanyahu convenes discussion on hostage negotiations with new ceasefire push Top Likud minister said to support ousting Netanyahu in talk with hostage relatives Touring Gaza border region, senior Haredi minister calls to resettle the Strip In northern border town of Shlomi, a wary trickle home in the shadow of a fragile ceasefire Northern evacuees question whether a ceasefire deal is enough to see them home Israeli study finds gene mutation that may cause some autism, possibly enabling treatment Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: Minister of Construction and Housing Yitzchak Goldknopf at the Knesset on November 11, 2024 (Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In his third appearance on the show, Rabbi Abe H. Faur joins us for a thought-provoking conversation about the evolving dynamics of leadership and tradition within the Jewish community. We begin by examining the concepts of "Gedolim" and "Daas Torah," cornerstones of Haredi influence. Rabbi Faur shares his perspective on whether these ideas align with Torah values and how they shape the Haredi community's approach to authority and decision-making. Next, we turn to the groundbreaking work of his father, Hakham Yosef Faur a'h, and his seminal book Horizontal Society. Rabbi Faur explains the essence of the Horizontal Society concept, its roots in our mesorah, and how it contrasts with the hierarchical, dynastic structures that dominate today. He also unpacks the idea of "Alphabetic Judaism," offering a powerful vision for the Jewish nation rooted in Sepharadi tradition and standing in stark contrast to Greek philosophical and societal frameworks. Finally, we address the challenges faced by his father, Hakham Faur, in his mission to revive and preserve the traditions of Old Sepharad, particularly in the face of opposition from the "black hat" community. Rabbi Faur reflects on his father's legacy, his unwavering commitment to authenticity, and the personal struggles he endured. In closing, Rabbi Faur shares his thoughts on the future of Judaism and whether he remains hopeful in light of these challenges. This episode is a heartfelt and inspiring tribute to a towering legacy and a powerful call for introspection as a nation. --- • Bio: Rabbi Abe H. Faur is the rabbi of Congregation Ohel David & Shelomo, in Manhattan Beach, NY. Rabbi Faur was ordained by Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu and Rabbi Abraham Shapira. He teaches Talmudic and Rabbinic thinking in accordance with the Andalusian sages, and the teachings of his father, the Great Hakham José Faur a"h. His father was a Sepharadi rabbi, teacher and scholar in the Syrian-Jewish community in Brooklyn for many years. He was also a professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership, and Bar Ilan University, and was Professor of Law at Netanya Academic College. Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu once said "the greatest Sephardic Hakham living in the US today is Rabbi Faur" and his books and articles continue to have a tremendous impact in both religious and academic circles around the world. You can find his shiurim on his YouTube channel, @toratandalus4535 . --- • Yafe Be'ito, meaning "nice in its time" in Hebrew, is a foundation devoted to spreading the profound Torah teachings of Hakham Dr. José Faur: https://yafebeito.com/ --- • Welcome to JUDAISM DEMYSTIFIED: A PODCAST FOR THE PERPLEXED | Co-hosted by Benjy & Benzi | Thank you to...Super Patron: Jordan Karmily, Platinum Patron: Craig Gordon, Gold Patrons: Dovidchai Abramchayev, Lazer Cohen, Travis Krueger, Vasili Volkoff, Rod Ilian, Silver Patrons: Ellen Fleischer, Daniel Maksumov, Rabbi Pinny Rosenthal, Fred & Antonio, Jeffrey Wasserman, and Jacob Winston! Please SUBSCRIBE to this YouTube Channel and hit the BELL so you can get alerted whenever new clips get posted, thank you for your support! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/judaismdemystified/support

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Legal reporter Jeremy Sharon and environment reporter Sue Surkes join host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode. Last night, some 150 right-wing activists rally outside the Tel Aviv home of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to demand her ouster. These protesters arrived after roughly twice as many people began protesting in support of the attorney general. Baharav-Miara has frequently clashed with members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government, and disagreements have increased amid ongoing investigations into the premier's staff. Sharon explains what the most recent controversies include. Surkes returned earlier this week from Baku, Azerbaijan, where she attended a large chunk of the annual United Nations COP (Conference of the Parties) confab — better known as COP29. It kicked off on November 11 and will end on Friday. We discuss what the conference is meant to accomplish versus the cognitive dissonance she found on the ground. For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel's ongoing live blog. Discussed articles include: Ministers rage at ‘anarchist' AG, with one implying she's trying to ‘kill' Netanyahu Cabinet okays forced retirement for government legal advisers, ignoring AG criticism Labor minister agrees to court-proposed compromise on Haredi daycare subsidies At the third UN climate confab to be held in a petrostate, fact and fantasy collide Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: Activists participate in a demonstration for transforming food systems at the COP29 UN Climate Summit, November 19, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

https://www.npr.org/2024/11/19/nx-s1-5196116/capitol-transgender-bathroom-ban-nancy-mace-sarah-mcbride https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5000650-mace-bill-transgender-bathrooms/ https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/nancy-mace-anti-trans-lgbtq-sarah-mcbride-rcna180884 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/11/20/sarah-mcbride-nancy-mace-bathrooms-trans/ https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/2024-11-21/ty-article-opinion/israels-haredim-are-also-shirking-their-share-of-the-economic-burden/00000193-4b8f-d54f-afdf-7b8f47790000 The war has brought into focus the issue of equally "sharing the burden" – specifically, the participation of the ultra-Orthodox in the draft. But inequality in sharing the burden does not stop at the gates of military bases. It is also reflected in the economy, in the ultra-Orthodox community's low proportion of those being educated and working to provide for their families. The employment rate among Haredi men is 53 percent, far below the 87 percent among non-Haredi Jewish men. Moreover, those Haredi men who are employed mostly work part-time, with low levels of productivity and wages, thanks in large part to a lack of quality education. At the same time, Haredi families tend to be large, putting strain on the national budget and gross domestic product. https://odysee.com/@LukeFordLive, https://rumble.com/lukeford, https://dlive.tv/lukefordlivestreams Superchat: https://entropystream.live/app/lukefordlive Bitchute: https://www.bitchute.com/channel/lukeford/ Soundcloud MP3s: https://soundcloud.com/luke-ford-666431593 Code of Conduct: https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=125692 http://lukeford.net Email me: lukeisback@gmail.com or DM me on Twitter.com/lukeford, Best videos: https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=143746 Support the show | https://www.streamlabs.com/lukeford, https://patreon.com/lukeford, https://PayPal.Me/lukeisback Facebook: http://facebook.com/lukecford Book an online Alexander Technique lesson with Luke: https://alexander90210.com Feel free to clip my videos. It's nice when you link back to the original.

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Military reporter Emanuel Fabian joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode. A barrage of some 20 rockets was launched from Lebanon at the Western Galilee and Haifa Bay area just ahead of this conversation. Yesterday also saw some 80 rockets fired at the same areas. At the same time, the IDF has reportedly removed roadblocks on the northern border which were to prevent civilians from driving on roads that were exposed to anti-tank missile fire from Lebanon. Is this a sign that northern residents may soon return home? This morning, the IDF has issued additional evacuation orders for four more buildings in Beirut's southern suburbs ahead of a second wave of airstrikes on Hezbollah assets. We hear what is happening with this increased daytime strikes and learn about how Hezbollah fights differently from Hamas on the ground. In recent weeks, the turnout rate in the reservist units currently fighting in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip has varied between 75% and 85%, according to defense sources. But today, some 7,000 enlistment orders to ultra-Orthodox Israelis will begin to be delivered and, as Fabian reported last week, we've already seen some signs that this year already represents a larger turnout than years past. Fabian weighs in. For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel's ongoing live blog. Discussed articles include: IDF said to remove roadblocks near northern border ahead of possible return of displaced residents Soldier killed in Lebanon as IDF pounds Hezbollah; rocket hits Haifa synagogue Reservist killed in northern Gaza Strip; hostage holders said incommunicado Sharp drop seen in reservist response rate due to burnout amid long war Angering coalition ally, new Defense Minister Katz okays 7,000 more Haredi draft orders IDF sees increase in draft of Haredi troops, but is still far off from goals Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: Damage caused to vehicles and buildings from a missile fired from Lebanon on November 16, 2024, in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, photographed on November 17, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan and senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. At the start of the war in retaliation for Hamas's murderous onslaught on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, the Israel Defense Forces reported that more than 100 percent of reservists called up for duty had shown up — nearly 300,000 reservists in total, marking the largest-ever call-up of reservists in Israel's history. This week, we learned that there has been a significant decline in the rate of reserve soldiers showing up for duty and the turnout rate in the reservist units currently fighting in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip has varied between 75% and 85%. In an effort to bolster the standing army, over the summer, the IDF Personnel Directorate sent out 3,000 draft orders to Haredi men aged 18-26. Out of those 3,000 men, only around 10% have shown up to be drafted into the military. The IDF's overall goal for the just concluded draft period — about four months — was 1,300 ultra-Orthodox soldiers. Ultimately it reached just over 900, including those who were drafted outside of the 3,000 new orders. This means that the IDF has seen an 85% increase in the number of Haredi soldiers joining the army, compared to the same draft period in previous years. However, the military has said that it currently requires some 10,000 new soldiers — 75% of whom will be combat troops. In our conversation this week, we hear personal anecdotes about the service of Borschel-Dan and Rettig Gur's family this year and how they fit into the broader Israeli experience. We also learn about rising resentment among many segments of Israeli society over the entrenched refusal of Haredim to draft in necessary numbers -- and what could be a way out. So this week, we ask Haviv Rettig Gur, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGE: An IDF soldier walks among Haredi Jewish men during a protest against a potential new draft law that could end their exemptions from military service in Jerusalem, October 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Some 64 percent of IDF reservists and immediate family members say that the burden of reserves on them is heavy, with personal and family hardship outweighing emotional difficulty, according to an October poll commissioned by the Israel Hofsheet NGO. The survey also found that as the war continues and reserve service lengthens, an increasing percentage of respondents say that passage of a law that would exempt haredi Orthodox from military service would harm their own personal motivation to do reserve duty. Uri Keidar, Executive Director of Israel Hofsheet spoke to KAN reporter Naomi Segal. (Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Political correspondent Sam Sokol and reporter Sue Surkes join host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode. Sokol discusses this week's surprise dismissal of former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, it's effect on the Likud party and the government coalition as well as the prime minister's continued efforts to appease his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners, regarding the draft evasion bill. Surkes talks about her visit down south to several Gaza border communities that are trying to rebuild their homes and structures and replace equipment but are hampered by the holdup in compensation funds from the government. Sokol looks at a series of government bills aimed at fighting terror, including deporting terrorists' relatives, cutting welfare benefits for convicted terrorists and firing teachers who identify with terror. Surkes talks about climate confab COP29 beginning next week with the Israeli delegation attending under heightened security efforts. For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel's ongoing live blog. Discussed articles include: Likud clamps down on dissent over Haredi draft bills after Gallant pushed out In new coalition deal with Likud, Sa'ar relinquishes right to oppose Haredi draft bills MKs push bill to create new intelligence oversight body under Netanyahu Despite constitutional concerns, Knesset passes law on deporting terrorists' relatives Lawmakers advance bills cutting welfare benefits for convicted terrorists Knesset passes law allowing government to fire teachers it asserts identify with terror Buzzed but never drunk: Research shows Oriental hornets defy alcohol's effects Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: A plenum session on the appointment of Israel Katz as Defense Minister and Gideon Sa'ar as Foreign Minister at the assembly hall of the Knesset  on November 8, 2024. (Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Editor David Horovitz joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode. In the wake of Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election on Tuesday, two settler leaders called for Israel to annex the West Bank, describing the development as a new opportunity to expand Israeli sovereignty to the disputed territory. The demand was also backed by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. We discuss Israeli perceptions of a new Trump term in comparison to his actions during his previous presidency. In light of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant's ouster on Tuesday evening, Horovitz discusses the new constellation of Israel Katz as defense minister and Gideon Sa'ar as foreign minister and what this means for the increasingly strong push to conscript Haredi men. For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel's ongoing live blog. Discussed articles include: Two very different comebacks 79% of US Jews voted for Harris, according to largest preliminary exit poll GOP spokesperson says Trump wants Israel's wars to end soon, with decisive victory Two settlement leaders, Ben Gvir call to annex West Bank after Trump victory In new coalition deal with Likud, Sa'ar relinquishes right to oppose Haredi draft bills Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: A billboard that displays a photo of US President-elect Donald Trump and reads 'Congratulations! Trump, make Israel great' is projected a day after the US election, in Tel Aviv, Israel, November 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What do the results of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, a sweeping victory for President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, mean for the U.S. Jewish community and Israel? How did the Jewish community vote? What are the top takeaways from the Senate and the House elections? Get caught up on all the latest election data points and analysis in this week's episode, featuring Ron Kampeas, JTA's Washington Bureau Chief and guest hosted by Julie Fishman Rayman, AJC's Managing Director of Policy and Political Affairs. AJC is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization. AJC neither supports nor opposes candidates for elective office. The views and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views or position of AJC. AJC's Policy Priorities: AJC Congratulates President-Elect Donald J. Trump Listen – AJC Podcasts: The Forgotten Exodus: with Hen Mazzig, Einat Admony, and more. People of the Pod:  The Jewish Vote in Pennsylvania: What You Need to Know Sinwar Eliminated: What Does This Mean for the 101 Hostages Still Held by Hamas? From Doña Gracia to Deborah Lipstadt: What Iconic Jewish Women Can Teach Us Today Follow People of the Pod on your favorite podcast app, and learn more at AJC.org/PeopleofthePod You can reach us at: peopleofthepod@ajc.org If you've appreciated this episode, please be sure to tell your friends, and rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Transcript: Julie Fishman Rayman:  Hello, I'm Julie Fishman Rayman:, AJC's managing director of policy and political affairs. Today, I have the pleasure of guest hosting people of the PA and speaking with Ron Kampeas, JTA's Washington bureau chief, to discuss the results and the implications of the 2024 US presidential election as the nonpartisan global advocacy organization for the Jewish people, AJC congratulates Donald J Trump on his election as the 47th president of the United States and Senator J.D. Vance as vice president. AJC looks forward to working with the president-elect and his administration on the domestic and foreign policy concerns that are AJC advocacy priorities to learn more about our policy priorities for the incoming administration. Head to the link in our show notes as a reminder. AJC is a 501(c)3 non partisan, not for profit organization. AJC neither supports nor opposes candidates for elected office. Ron, welcome to people of the pod. Thank you for being here Ron Kampeas:  Of course. Julie Fishman Rayman:  Well, I'd like to start in asking you if you have a sense about the Jewish vote, because there have been a number of different exit polls, which, I guess, not surprisingly, because exit polls are what they are, say vastly different things. There are some that say it's the biggest Jewish vote in support for a Democratic candidate ever, and then also the highest percentage ever for a Republican candidate. What do we know to be true? And what would you sort of be looking at in terms of, you know, as we're examining this moving forward? What are we looking for? Ron Kampeas:  So first of all, I know I've seen those very extreme assessments as well, and I know what they're based on, and even when what based on what they're based on, and we, I'll talk about that too. That's just not correct. So they're talking about a 79% turnout, according to a poll the consortium of a number of organizations like the CNN and the New York Times. And that poll is not reliable yet. It does show 79% and think 21% in other words, an even split. Nobody seemed to have voted for at least among the Jews for third party candidates. And I'm not sure what number of Jews who were included in that poll were. I mean, it's a vast, vast poll. They do talk to a lot of people, but even they will say, and I think they put it on their things, that it's just preliminary, the more reliable analysis is considered to be the one that came out of the Fox AP analysis that showed 66% 67% for Paris, 32% 31% for Trump. And I think that's what the Trump people are talking about in terms of the highest for Republicans. It's just not the highest for Republican. I think if you count in the margin of error, that's not even like recently the highest for a Republican. Nothing's changed in the last four years. I think what it is showing is that whereas Republicans, when I started at JTA in 2004 they were happy to get 25% they've gone up from 19% with George W Bush in 2020 to 25% with John Kerry a few years later, now they can comfortably say they're getting about 30% of the Jewish community. People love to attach everything that happens to the very current politics of the day. So however you count it, nothing seems to have changed. Julie Fishman Rayman:  So interesting, because for I think a lot of Jews around America, we feel as though so much has changed. But when you go to the voting booth, Jews consistently aren't necessarily thinking just about either Israel or antisemitism, AJC does a survey looking at American Jewish opinion, not every year, but almost every year. And we did it in June, and asked questions about political affiliation. Who are you going to vote for? And one of the things that we asked was, what drives your vote, and foreign policy is always low down on the list. On election night, CNN asked that same question, of course, to all Americans, and I think 4% said that their vote was driven by foreign policy. Has there been a moment where the American Jewish vote is more focused on issues that feel perhaps a bit more parochial. Ron Kampeas:  No, certainly within the Orthodox subset, and it's always difficult to tell, because it's the smaller the subset, the bigger the margin of error. But when there's consistency over time and survey after survey after survey, I think you can conclude that, yes, Orthodox Jews do attach. Of more importance to the US Israel relationship and how it's manifesting, how they're perceiving it. The only time that a Democrat, at least since FDR, I think, a Democrat, didn't receive a majority of the Jewish vote was Jimmy Carter, who, in 1980 got a plurality of the Jewish one, I think, about 45%. People sort of conflate things in their head. In his post presidency, Carter became very identified with being very critical of Israel, and it's true, in 1980 he'd had difficult relationships with Menachem Begin, but he brokered the most important peace treaty in Israeli history. He saved a lot of lives. So I don't think people were feeling bad about Carter in 1980 because of Israel. I like to tell people, Jews are like everybody else. You know it's true that a majority of us vote for Democrats, and there are other subsets where, like a majority vote for Republican more majority for Democrats, but we vote for the same reasons as everybody else. Our votes will get more enthusiastic for a Democrat on one circumstance, just like everybody else's will, or might get less enthusiastic just like everybody else's will. We're susceptible to the same things. Julie Fishman Rayman:  It's really interesting. So at this moment, there's so much Monday morning quarterbacking happening, and I don't want to look too far in the rear view, but I do want to ask you for your take on this question of, would the result have been different had the Vice President selected Shapiro, Governor, Shapiro from Pennsylvania, as her running mate. Ron Kampeas:  Maybe it's hard to say vice presidents have had such a little impact on nominations. But on the other hand, Pennsylvania was close enough, and Shapiro is popular enough that perhaps it might have made the difference. She might have had Pennsylvania, and then if she had Pennsylvania, I don't know, she would have gotten to 270 but you know, Nevada and Arizona are still being counted. They might still go in her column. If they do go in her column, although I don't think they will, I think it looks like they're going to go into Trump's column if Nevada and Arizona go into her column and she missed out on Pennsylvania, you could say that her decision to go with Tim Walz instead of Josh Shapiro was faithful. On the other hand, everybody's a cynic. Nobody actually believes anything anybody says. But I tried to get away from that. I try not to be too much of a cynic. And when Josh Shapiro said afterwards that he had second thoughts about taking other thing because he's he's like a hugely successful governor so far in Pennsylvania is this is two years into his first term. You know, if I'm Josh Shapiro, I'm thinking about my legacy, and I'm thinking about running for president in the future and two years, just, yeah, I'm not going to make an impact in Pennsylvania in just two years. If I'm the 60% governor who can get Republicans to vote for me in the middle of the state, I'm thinking two terms will make me like, well, you know, get me a statue in some building at one point, there's this whole narrative that there was an anti semitic pushback. It was an anti semitic pushback against Shapiro. It was anti-Israel at times. I really believe it did cross over antisemitism. I'm not sure that that had the effect on the Harris campaign in terms of its decision making. She clicked with Tim Wallz. Shapiro wasn't so eager. Shapiro was going to be a co president. Walls wanted to be a vice president. He made that very clear. He had no intentions of ever running for the presidency. So if you're a Harris, do you want to have a Dan Quayle, or do you want to have a Dick Cheney kind of thing? You know as somebody who who's prone to take over, or somebody who's prone to do what needs to be done to be vice president. And obviously she preferred the latter. Julie Fishman Rayman:  It's a great analogy. Can we talk for a minute about sort of Jewish representation in Congress where Israel was on the ballot? What are your perceptions there? Ron Kampeas:  I think that it might have made a difference in Mark 17th, where Mike Lawler defeated Mondair Jones. Mondair Jones was perceived when he first ran into 2020, and he was elected. He was perceived initially as somebody who would be very different from Nita Lowey, who he was replacing because she's a very solid, long time pro-Israel and an AJC board member and an AJC board member. He actually declared before she retired, so he was a little bit confrontational with her, which happens, obviously, I don't know if Israel came up in that equation, though young progressive people thought he'd be a squatter, but he wasn't. In his two years in Congress, he wasn't a member of the squad, and he went out of his way to align with the pro-Israel community, and this because it was so important in his district. But Lawler is just like he's been. He's a freshman, but he's been out front. He's been very good at cultivating the Jewish people in his district. And he's not just led on a number of Israel issues, but he's always made sure to do it in a bipartisan way, partnering with Jared Moskowitz in Florida, or Josh got him or in New Jersey, and you know, that might have helped him in the district. It was a close race. He won by a close margin. So I think maybe that was definitely a factor there. I think that one of the group's decision desk that declares winners just declared for Jackie Rosen in Nevada. She's been reelected, according to them, but we'll wait. We'll see if and when AP calls it. But again, a state with a substantial Jewish population, she is, like, one of the premier Democrats. She's Jewish, but she also is like, very, very upfront about Israel. She co chairs an antisemitism Task Force. She has a bill that would designate a domestic antisemitism coordinator. So in such a close race or such close margins with the Jewish community, that's actually much larger than the margin that might have helped put her over the top. On the other side, you. Know, you have Michigan, which might have also, like we looked at Pennsylvania and Josh Shapiro, Michigan also might have cost Kamala Harris the presidency because of her support for Israel, because, you know, President Trump managed to peel away Muslim American and Arab American voters in in Michigan, in a kind of a weird slate of hand, because he said that he would be more pro their issue than Kamala Harris was, even though he's more pro Netanyahu, definitely than Kamala Harris is. But also, there were third party voters, people who voted for Jill Stein. Julie Fishman Rayman:  Pretty significant numbers for Jill Stein from Michigan. Ron Kampeas:  Pretty significant numbers for Jill Stein. But Elissa Slotkin over the top, very pro Israel, centrist Democrat Jewish. Very much a foreign policy, you know, specialist. She came out of the CIA and the Defense Department. Also very partisan. She was meeting with red constituents, like veterans, and she was doing a good job of it. She had that appeal. And I think that's why she ran for Senate. I think that's where Democrats are excited to have her run for Senate. And then October 7 happened, and she had to navigate a very difficult situation in her state, which has a substantial Jewish community, has an even bigger Muslim American and Arab American community. She had meetings with both leaders. She put out sensitive statements after the meetings. I think one of the most interesting sort of developments with her is that Rashida Tlaib, the Palestinian American Congresswoman attacked Dana Nessel for prosecuting people who were violent were allegedly violent at protests. She put out a statement that, without saying it was because Dana Ness was Jewish, she was said that Dana Nessel had other sort of considerations. When she brought these prosecutions, Dana Nessel outright accused her of antisemitism, and then Rashida Tlaib was the subject of a lot of Islamophobic, anti Palestinian vitriol. And it was interesting because there were two letters that went out at the time from Congress members, one condemning anything that insinuated that Dana Nessel had dual loyalties, or anything like that, and one condemning the anti Islamic rhetoric that Rashida clade faced, and the only person who signed both letters was Alyssa Slotkin. That was interesting. Julie Fishman Rayman:  I want to to turn a little bit if we can, to the expectations for for the next administration, even for the next Congress. When we last spoke, right after the Republican National Convention, JD Vance had been selected as the running mate, and you and I, we talked about what that means for a Trump foreign policy in the next administration. Will it go in a more isolationist direction, more aligning with JD Vance's world view? What do you think now and what might we expect? Ron Kampeas:  But still a potential for sure, there are names being rooted about for Secretary of State. One of them is Rick Grinnell, who's completely a Trumpist, who will do what he wants, his former Acting CIA director. And the other is Marco Rubio, gave one of the best speeches at the convention, I thought, and who is very close to the pro Israel community, who's an internationalist, but who has tailored his rhetoric to be more to make sure he doesn't antagonize Donald Trump. He was, you know, he was a came close to being the vice presidential pick himself. I mean, if Marco Rubio becomes Secretary of State, I think that's a good sign for internationalists. I mean, you know, Israel has kind of a buffer, because the Republican Party is very pro Israel. And there are people like JD Vance says, who say, you know, Israel is the exception when it comes to what I think about pulling United States back from the world, even though he says it's not so much the exception. And then there are people like Marco Rubio who are internationalists. Does Marco Rubio get to run an independent foreign policy? That would be very good news, I think, for for internationalists, if, if Donald Trump doesn't get in his way. But I don't know if that that happens. There's a view of pro israelism that says internationalism is necessary. I always like to say when a pack used to have its policy conferences, and it's a shame it doesn't any more, they would have a little brief talk before on Tuesday morning, before going up to the Hill, they would have, like, some prominent Senator come out and give a rah rah speech, and then like, three officials would come out on the stage Howard core, late Richard Fishman, and Esther Kurz. And Esther Kurz had handled Congressional Relations, and they would talk about the three items they were bringing up the Hill, usually two laws in a letter or a resolution or something like that.  And she would always say, and this was like the one moment like they would sort of reveal this. They'd be very candid about this. You have to push not for assistance for Israel, but foreign assistance generally, because there is no such thing as sort of singling out Israel and saying, Okay, we're going to take care of Israel, but nobody else in the world that it's all it's all interconnected, and it's such a true thing now, because you can say, you know, let's just cut off Ukraine. But if you're cut off Ukraine, you're bolstering Putin. If you're bolstering Putin, you're bolstering somebody who has a substantial and military alliance with Iran, if you're bolstering Iran, that is not good for Israel. And it's like it's kind of circuitous to get there, but it's also very substantive point. I think those are the things the pro Israel community is going to be looking at with genuine concern. Julie Fishman Rayman:  Indeed, it's all about sort of the strength of the American global leadership regime. And when you start to whittle away at one, the overall package ends up being weaker. Speaking of Israel, I can't speak to you this week and not ask you about the news out of Israel, about Netanyahu firing the defense secretary, gallant and what that means. And also, if we can extrapolate, if we can prognosticate what might happen vis a vis Israel in this lame duck session, while we still have Biden as president, but moving through the transition towards a future Trump administration. Ron Kampeas:  Yeah, you know, there a lot of Israelis are actually worried about that. Like, Oh, Biden's gonna take his frustrations out on VB in the lame duck doesn't have anything stopping him. I don't think that's going to happen. I think what's interesting is, like, you had a couple of instances in American history where a lame duck president used the fact that he didn't care, you know, what anybody thought of him, to push something through in 1988 Ronald Reagan recognized the PLO because it's something George H W Bush wanted him to do. George H W Bush wanted to push like more Israel Palestinian peace he did with the Madrid Conference, but he didn't want to be the one to invite the PLO into the room, so he got Ronald Reagan to do it in his last two months in office. In 2016 Barack Obama allowed through a Security Council resolution of that condemned the settlements. The United States didn't vote for it, but it also didn't veto it. That really kind of shook Israel up. But was interesting. I've done the reporting on this. When he was taking advice, Should I, should we vote for the resolution? Should we veto it, or should we just allow it through? There were people voicing opinions on all sides. Joe Biden and Jack Lew, who was then the Treasury Secretary, is now the ambassador to Israel, both said, veto it. Don't let it through. Don't let it through because, partly because it's going to really upset our Jewish supporters. If you let it through, you're not going to be president anymore, but somebody in the room is going to probably try and be president. I think that Joe Biden still has that sense of responsibility. I could be wrong. You know, four years or a year of like, from his perspective, being very strongly supportive of Israel and not getting anything back. From Bibi, from his perspective, might have changed his mind. Something might occur now. But the question is, like, you can tell Israel if they hit anything, but if they hit, if they hit anything, if they elevate it at all, they're going to need US assistance. And Trump hasn't said he's going to give that. Biden has. Biden's proven he's going to give it. So you've got two months of a president who will, who will back up Israel with American might, and then you have a president who has isolationist tendencies and who doesn't want to get involved with wars for another four years. Julie Fishman Rayman:  Is there anything else that you're hearing, perhaps, from the Israeli perspective, about Gallant departure, and what that signal? Ron Kampeas:  I think, that Netanyahu, you know, he's just trying to keep his government intact. Gallant is very vocal in opposing or in supporting drafting the ultra orthodox the Haredi orthodox Netanyahu government relies on Haredi orthodox parties. So there's that he's also facing a kind of spy scandal from his own circle. Just a weird, weird story. Somebody who's in his circle is alleged to have tried to help Netanyahu politically by leaking highly classified documents and altering them as well to foreign news outlets. The allegation is that whatever the guy's motivation was, he's actually put Israel at risk. So Netanyahu is suddenly in a position of facing allegations that he put Israel at risk. Now he's faced a lot of scandals in his time. Israelis have a high level of tolerance for people who are alleged to have skimmed off the top, alleged to have helped themselves, and that's what the scandals are about. They have no tolerance for anybody who puts Israel's security at risk. So if this comes back to Netanyahu that could be more damage than than any other scandal that he's endured so far and so notably, I think, you know, when he was firing Galant, he said he accused Galant of leaking information, although, I mean, what he was seemed to be referring to was Galant didn't leak anything. Galant openly said that he disagreed with Netanyahu on certain tactics, and that, you know Netanyahu is casting is putting Israel at risk, which is not to say that Netanyahu is necessarily going to be implicated by the scandal, but it's certainly not of a piece with leaking, actually classified documents that reveal methods and sources can put Israel's intelligence gathering methods at risk. Julie Fishman Rayman:  As always, there's so much more to the story, right? Ron Kampeas:  Yeah, yeah. There always is. Julie Fishman Rayman:  Ron, we could probably talk for a very long time about the American elections and what's going on in Israel and the degrees of various scandals and how populations will take them, and what the future of our country in the region looks like. But I know that you're very busy, especially this week, and I just want to say how grateful we are they always make time for AJC and for people of the pod. Ron Kampeas:  Of course.

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Editor David Horovitz joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode. Today is election day in the United States and yesterday, the Israel Democracy Institute released a poll of some 750 Israelis — Jews and Arabs — and asked, “In terms of Israel's interests, which of the two candidates for the US presidency would be better?” Horovitz weighs in on the response and some of the factors that went into the responses. The IDF will be sending out another 7,000 draft orders to members of the ultra-Orthodox community next week and as of this morning, we are hearing that the coalition may have lost the votes it needs to pass the controversial so-called Daycare Law being pushed by the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party to preserve subsidies for Haredi draft-evaders. We hear which politicians are dissenting and what this symbolizes. Investigators suspect that the theft of classified intelligence documents from Israel Defense Forces databases and the transfer of those files to people in the Prime Minister's Office was “systematic,” and the publication of one such document in foreign media is a source of “ongoing” danger to the lives of both soldiers and hostages in Gaza. Horovitz updates us on new details of the continuing investigation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly ordered that a “solution” be found for Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara's “adversarial” relationship with his government, as ministers railed against her office and called for her ouster Monday. We learn how this comment was somewhat pulled back by the prime minister and why. For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel's ongoing live blog. Discussed articles include: Poll: Some 65% of Israelis believe Trump victory would be best for Israel Senior Likud MK says he won't back daycare subsidies bill for Haredi draft-evaders Theft of sensitive IDF intel, transfer to ‘people at PMO' was ‘systematic' – report Netanyahu demands ‘solution' to ‘adversarial' AG as ministers call for her ouster Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: Illustrative: A Haredi man looks at Israeli soldiers gathered at the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, March 14, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As a Haredi woman of the Israeli left, Nechumi Yaffe lives between a few different worlds—and she feels at home in Israel's new "Religious Left" movement.A professor of public policy at Tel Aviv University, Nechumi is a political and social psychologist focused on the Haredi communities in America and Israel (of which she is a part). She is a leading expert guiding the Israeli government on Haredi affairs—from COVID-19 to the education system.Since Oct. 7, Nechumi has coordinated over 100,000 Haredi emergency volunteers as part of the "Unity Command Center" and has risen as a social leader of the Religious Left ("Smol Ha-Emuni").Now, she joins us to answer 18 questions on Israel, including the Haredi draft, Israel's hostage negotiations, and religion since October 7.Here are our 18 questions:As an Israeli, and as a Jew, how are you feeling at this moment in Israeli history?What has been Israel's greatest success and greatest mistake in its war against Hamas?How have your religious views changed since Oct. 7? What do you look for in deciding which Knesset party to vote for?Which is more important for Israel: Judaism or democracy?Should Israel treat its Jewish and non-Jewish citizens the same?Now that Israel already exists, what is the purpose of Zionism?Is opposing Zionism inherently antisemitic?Should Israel be a religious state?If you were making the case for Israel, where would you begin?Should all Israelis serve in the army?Can questioning the actions of Israel's government and army — even in the context of this war — be a valid form of love and patriotism?What do you think is the most legitimate criticism leveled against Israel today?Do you think the State of Israel is part of the final redemption?Do you think peace between Israelis and Palestinians will happen within your lifetime?What should happen with Gaza and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict after the war?Where do you identify on Israel's political and religious spectrum, and do you have friends on the “other side”?Do you have more hope or fear for Israel and the Jewish People?

“I never thought there's antisemitism. It's something from the past, for my grandparents, for my mom a little, but it's not something in my generation, or my kids' generation. It's done . . . apparently, not.” Einat Admony is a chef, cookbook author, comedian, and social media star who grew up in Bnei Brak, Israel. With parents from Iran and Yemen, Einat spent her childhood in the kitchens of Mizrahi, Sephardi, and Ashkenazi neighbors. Learn about her family's deep-rooted Jewish heritage in Iran and the broader Middle East. Along with her mother Ziona's journey from Iran to Israel in 1948, Einat discusses the antisemitism she's dealt with online and on the streets in the past year. Hear her stories of Jewish-Muslim coexistence in Iran and memories of spices and perfumes that inspire Einat's dishes. Her cookbooks Balaboosta and Shuk, along with her Manhattan restaurant Balaboosta, reflect a blend of tradition and innovation. “You could not have Judaism today, if it were not for the Jews of Iran,” says Houman Sarshar, an independent scholar and director of publications at the Center for Iranian Jewish Oral History in Los Angeles. Sarshar highlights the historical relationship between Iran and Israel, noting that Iran was the second Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel post-1948.  The conversation also touches on the challenges faced by Jews in Iran, their cultural integration, and the impact of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.  —- Show notes: How much do you know about Jewish history in the Middle East? Take our quiz. Sign up to receive podcast updates. Learn more about the series. Song credits:  Pond5:  “Desert Caravans”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI), Composer: Tiemur Zarobov (BMI), IPI#1098108837 “Suspense Middle East” Publisher: Victor Romanov, Composer: Victor Romanov; Item ID: 196056047 ___ Episode Transcript: EINAT ADMONY: I've been in Israel a few months ago. It's like you always feel loved, you always feel supported. It's still home. It's always going to be my home. MANYA BRACHEAR PASHMAN: The world has overlooked an important episode in modern history: the 800,000 Jews who left or were driven from their homes in the Middle East and North Africa in the mid-20th century. Welcome to the second season of The Forgotten Exodus, brought to you by American Jewish Committee. This series explores that pivotal moment in history and the little-known Jewish heritage of Iran and Arab nations. As Jews around the world confront violent antisemitism and Israelis face daily attacks by terrorists on multiple fronts, our second season explores how Jews have lived throughout the region for generations despite hardship, hostility, and hatred, then sought safety and new possibilities in their ancestral homeland. I'm your host, Manya Brachear Pashman. Join us as we explore untold family histories and personal stories of courage, perseverance, and resilience from this transformative and tumultuous period of history for the Jewish people and the Middle East.  The world has ignored these voices. We will not.  This is The Forgotten Exodus. Today's episode: Leaving Iran. MANYA: Whether she's deviling eggs soaked in beet juice, simmering Oxtail in shawarma spices, or sprinkling za'atar on pastry dough, chef Einat Admony is honoring her family's Middle Eastern heritage. Both the places where they have lived for generations, as well as the place they have and will always call home: Israel.   EINAT/Clip: Start with brushing the puff pastry with olive oil and za'atar. Have some feta all around and shredded mozzarella. Take the other sheet and just cut it to one inch strips. Now we're going to twist. Need to be careful. Now we're just gonna brush the top with the mix of oil and za'atar. Get it some shiny and glazy. This is ready for the oven. Bake at 400 until it's golden. That's it super easy, just sprinkle some za'atar and eat. MANYA: For the chef, author, reality TV star, and comedian, food reflects the Zionist roots that have been a constant for Einat, the self-made balaboosta, who is largely credited with introducing Israeli cuisine to the U.S. That love for Israel goes back generations, long before the modern state existed, when her maternal ancestors lived in the land, that until 1935 was known as Persia, but is now known as Iran. Her own mother Ziona, the third of seven siblings, was even named for the destination where Einat's grandparents aspired to one day raise their family. Returning home to the land of Zion from which Jews had been exiled centuries earlier was always the goal. When you ask her why, Einat laughs in disbelief.  EINAT: Why? Why? That's homeland. I think a lot of Jewish people for hundreds of years was, that's in every prayer, it's in every Shabbat dinner evening. MANYA: The hatred directed toward Israel by Iran's regime in the form of the deadly attacks on Israel by Iran-backed terrorist groups and the Islamic Republic of Iran itself make it hard to believe that Iran was once a place where Jews and the Zionist movement thrived. But in fact, Iran's history includes periods when the wide-open roads between Iran and Israel ran two ways and the countries not only lived in harmony but worked in close partnership.  Iran was the second Muslim-majority country after Turkey to recognize the modern state of Israel after its formation in 1948, and the two established diplomatic ties. Regular flights ran between Tehran's Mehrabad International Airport and Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport.  SARSHAR: We cannot overlook the fact that since October 29, 539 BCE the Jewish community of Iran remains to this day the largest community of Jews anywhere in the Middle East outside the state of Israel. To this day. You could not have Judaism today, if it were not for the Jews of Iran.  MANYA: Houman Sarshar is an independent scholar and director of publications at the Center for Iranian Jewish Oral History in Los Angeles. He has edited a number of books, including Esther's Children: A Portrait of Iranian Jews.  SARSHAR: The history of the Jews in Iran begins about 2,700 years ago, when the first community of known Jews was taken to Iran. They are commonly believed to be one of the 10 Lost Tribes. And then when we fast forward to when Nebuchadnezzar came and destroyed the temple in Jerusalem and took Jews into captivity. Some years after that at 539 BCE on October 29, 539 BCE, to be exact, Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Achaemenid dynasty, liberated Babylon and gave Jews the permission to go back to Israel and rebuild the Second Temple. MANYA: Cyrus the Great – a Persian emperor particularly renowned among contemporary scholars for the respect he showed toward peoples' customs and religions in the lands that he conquered. According to the Book of Ezra in the Hebrew Bible, Cyrus even paid for the restoration of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. SARSHAR: This is known as the Second Temple period in Jewish history, and under the Achaemenid dynasty, Jews participated in every level of society. And a few centuries forward, around the 5th Century, we know the Jews continue to live with many freedoms, because that is the era when the Babylonian Talmud was originally produced in Iran by Rav Ashi. So, you know, there was a thriving rabbanut (rabbanite) in Iran who had the freedom and the luxury and the time to be able to produce such an important document as the Talmud, which has become the cornerstone of all jurisprudence that we know, Western law, and everything. MANYA: The advent and arrival of Islam in Iran in the 7th Century CE changed circumstances somewhat. As was the case across the Middle East, all non-Muslims became dhimmis – residents who paid a special tax and lived under certain restrictions. The situation for Jews worsened in the 16th Century when the Safavid dynasty made the Shiite creed the dominant form of Islam in Iran. Fatwas made life for all non-Shiites quite difficult. SARSHAR: And for reasons that are still open to discussion, all of these restrictions were most vehemently imposed on the Jews of Iran. And because of these restrictions, all non-Shiites were considered religiously impure. And this religious impurity, kind of like the concept of the untouchable sect in India, they were considered pollutive. MANYA: Jews could not look Muslims in the eye. They were placed in ghettos called mahaleh where they could not leave on rainy days for fear the water that splattered on them could contaminate the water supply. They wore yellow stars and special shoes to distinguish them from the rest of the population. They were not allowed to purchase property from Muslims or build homes with walls that were higher than those of their Muslim neighbors. SARSHAR: They could not, for example, participate in the trade of edible goods because, you know, fruits and vegetables and meats carried this pollution. So Muslims could no longer consume the foods that were touched by Jews. And as a result, this created a certain path forward in history for the Jews of Iran.  They went into antique trades. They went into carpet trades. They went into work of textiles. They became musicians. And for the following 500 years, these restrictions kind of guided the way the Jews of Iran lived in that country, even though they had been there for thousands of years previously. MANYA: Houman said the 1895 arrival of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, a Paris-based network of schools for Jewish children throughout the Middle East and North Africa, including within the mahalehs in Persia, was the first step in a series of improvements for Jews there. SARSHAR: Previous to that, Jews were not allowed to get any kind of an education whatsoever. The only teachers were the Muslim clergy, and they refused to teach anything to Jewish students. So this allowed for the Jewish community to finally start to get a Western-style education, which was very important at that time, given all of the dynamics that were going on in society with modernity. MANYA: As educational opportunities increased in the middle of the 19th Century, so did opportunities for the courtiers and elite to travel and see the Western world as it industrialized and modernized, expanding international trade and sharing wealth more widely. SARSHAR: Often they would be sent by their families to go and try to see if they can, you know, find a way to expand the family's businesses and lives as merchants, and they would come back shocked. I mean, Iran was a place where you know of mostly mud brick homes and dirt roads and people riding around on donkeys. And imagine this is all you've known. You never see women walking around the street. The only women you have ever seen with your own eyes in your life are your mom, your sister, your daughter or your wife, and occasionally, sex workers. And that's it. So all of a sudden, you know, you travel a couple of months by boat and train, and you get to Paris, and it's impossible to try to even conceive of the experience. It must have been something like the Hegelian experience of the sublime. What can the world look like? And where is it that I live in, and why isn't my country the same as this? MANYA: By the early 20th Century, the Persian people concluded the answer to that question was in the rule of law. The reason the European nations provided such opportunity for the community at-large had to do with the fact that the law of the land was not arbitrary or enforced by religion or royalty. It was embedded in a constitution – a set of laws that define the structure of a government and the rights of its citizens – a Western tenet that reduced the power of the clergy and created a parliament called the Majles. SARSHAR: They were starting to read travel journals. They were starting to understand the perspective that Westerners had on Iranians, and those perspectives were often awful. You know, the Western world believed, for example –the country was corrupt to the bone in every respect.  So all of these things gradually led to a call for a constitution, the major pivot of which was the establishment of a legislature of law that would start to create a community where everyone can feel like they're equal in the eyes of the law and have something to gain by trying to improve the country as a whole. Iran became the first constitutional monarchy in the Middle East in 1906 when that revolution happened, it was a momentous event. And really, things really, really did, in fact, start to change. MANYA: In 1925, Reza Shah Pahlavi – an arch nationalist who wanted to propel Iran forward into the industrial age – took over the crown of Iran. He welcomed any Iranian citizen to participate in that agenda. SARSHAR: By now, we had a good two generations of Jews who had been French-educated by the Allianz Society.  They had all gone to France at some point in their lives, so they were able to participate in this industrialization of the country, given the language skills that they had and some of the connections they had built in the Western world. MANYA: Both World Wars in Europe took a massive toll on Iran. Despite declaring neutrality, Iran was occupied by European nations that took over the nation's agriculture, treating Iran as a pantry to feed the armies. Droughts and disease worsened the toll. SARSHAR: One of the lesser-known factoids about history is that during World War I, the nation that lost the most individuals as a result of the war was Iran. Above and beyond all European nations who were at war, because of a famine that had started in Iran. The same dynamic started to happen in World War II. MANYA: With nationalist fever sweeping Europe and Iran, the Allies feared the arch-nationalist Shah would go the way of Franco in Spain, Mussolini in Italy, and Hitler in Germany. They also feared the Shah would collaborate with Hitler's Germany to provide oil for the German oil machine and cease being the pantry the Allies needed it to be. In 1941, the Western powers convinced him to abdicate the throne to his son Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. And when the war ended, Iran was able to enjoy the same economic benefits as the rest of the world at peace time. Most importantly, it was able to profit from its own oil reserves, significantly boosting Iran's national income. SARSHAR: In 1941, it was really the beginning of what is commonly referred to by the scholars of Jewish Iranian history as the Golden Age of Iranian Jewry. From 1941 until the revolution in 1978, the Jewish community of Iran saw a meteoric rise to power and social wealth. Industries such as pharmaceuticals, banking, insurance, real estate development, and other major industries, the aluminum plastics industries in Iran, all were either directly owned by the Jews of Iran or managed under their management.  And during this period, really, we can say that for the first time, after 2,500 years, the Jews of Iran really started to experience the kinds of freedoms that they had not seen since the Achaemenid dynasty. And it is during this time that, you know, we see, really, that life started to change for the Jews of Iran, even though some of the age-old social dynamics were still there.  The institutionalized antisemitism had not been completely wiped out. But for the most part, things had changed because Iranian society in general was also being Westernized, light speed. And many educated people had realized that antisemitism was really looked down upon, you know, that kind of prejudice was really no longer acceptable in the world at large. So many, many sections of the community really had shifted, genuinely shifted. And some, even though maybe their feelings had not changed, knew that their antisemitism was something that they needed to keep private. MANYA: At that time, Iran also became a refuge for Jews fleeing Europe and other parts of the Middle East. On June 1, 1941, a brutal pogrom in Iraq known as the Farhud, incited by Nazi propaganda, targeted Jews celebrating the holiday of Shavuot. Nearly 200 Jews were murdered in the streets. The violence became a turning point for Iraqi Jews. Thousands fled, many stopping in Iran, which became a way station for those headed to Palestine.  In 1942, thousands of Jewish refugees from Poland who had fled across the border into the Soviet Union during the German invasion traveled on trains and ships to Iran. Among the refugees – 1,000 orphaned children.  As Zionist leaders worked to negotiate the young Jews' immigration to Palestine, the Jewish Agency established the “Tehran Home for Jewish Children” – a complex of tents on the grounds of a former Iranian Air Force barracks outside Tehran. More than 800 orphans, escorted by adults, most of them also refugees, moved from Tehran to kibbutzim in Palestine the following year. Later, in 1948, when most Arab League states forbade the emigration of their Jews after the creation of Israel, the Zionist underground continued to smuggle Jews to Iran at about a rate of 1,000 a month, before they were flown to Israel. SARSHAR: The Zionist movement was fairly strong in Iran. It was a very lively movement. The Balfour Declaration was celebrated in all of the Allianz schools in Iran, and very soon thereafter, the first Zionist organization of Iran was established. And truly many of its founding fathers were some of the leading industrialists and intellectuals in Iranian society, in the Jewish Iranian community for the years to come. It was not unlike the kind of Zionism we see today in the United States, for example. You know, the wealthy families of the Jewish communities in New York and Los Angeles, all are very passionate about Israel, but you don't see very many of them selling their homes and packing up and moving to Israel because they just don't want to do it. They feel like they're very comfortable here. And what matters is that a state of Israel should exist, and they are political advocates of that state and of that policy and of its continued existence, but not necessarily diehard participants in the experiment itself. Iranians, after the establishment of the State of Israel, were being encouraged to move to Israel, and the Israeli government was having a lot of difficulty with that, because a lot of Iranians were seeing that life had become better for them, and they weren't as willing to leave, despite the fact that the Kourosh Project provided airplanes to get Jews out of Iran. My own great-grandmother was one of those passengers. She is buried in Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. She was one of the early citizens of Israel who went to live out the Zionist dream. MANYA: Both sides of Einat's family – her mother and father's ancestors – were among those early Israeli citizens. Einat's father was born in Tel Aviv. His parents and grandparents had come from Yemen in the late 19th Century. Einat's mother Ziona was 10 years old when in 1948, the family left Kerman, a city in southeastern Iran known for its carpet weaving and woolen shawls. They arrived in Israel with their suitcases ready to fulfill their dream. But living the dream in the new Jewish nation was not easy. After all, the day after Israel declared its independence, Arab nations attacked the Jewish state, launching the first of a series of Arab-Israeli Wars. EINAT: The story of my mom, it's a very interesting story. The family didn't have much money. There wasn't like, rich family that left, very different story. No, both of my parents come from very, I would say, very poor family. My grandpa was, like, dealing with textile. He was like, traveling from town to town with fabric. And that's what they did. They put them in what's called ma'aborot, which was like a very kind of small villages, tin houses. My mom always said there were seven kids, so all of them in one room. In the winter it's freezing; in the summer, it's super hot. But it was also close to the border, so the one window they have, they always had to cover it so at night, the enemy cannot see the light inside that room and shoot there. Also in the ma'aabarot, nobody speaks the same language. So, it was Moroccan and Iraqi and nobody speak the same dialect or the same language. So, they cannot even communicate quite yet. MANYA: Most of Ziona's six siblings did not go to school. To make it possible for Ziona, her parents placed her in a foster home with an Iraqi family in Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv. EINAT: My mom's family decided that for her, she should get education, because most of the siblings didn't went to school or anything, So they put her in a foster home. In an Iraqi home, and she didn't speak a word there. So my mom, as a 10 years old, became a kid for foster parents that live in a center in Ramat Gan, where I basically grew up. And she got education, which was great. She learned also Iraqi, which is Arabic. So she speaks fluent Arabic, but she had not an easy life in coming to Israel from a different country. MANYA: Ziona has shared many of these stories with her daughter in the kitchen and dining room as they prepare and enjoy dishes that remind them of home. When she visited her daughter at her home in upstate New York at the end of the summer, Einat collected as many stories as she could over cutting boards, steaming pots, and sizzling pans. EINAT: There's a lot of story coming up, some old story that I know, some new stories. And it's really nice, because my mom is 84, 85. So, it's really nice to capture all of it, all of it. There is a lot of interesting stuff that happened during the first 10 years when she came to Israel.  That's the main, I think, I always talk about, like, how I grew up and how much food was a very substantial part of our life, if not the biggest part. You know, it's like, family can fight and this, but when it's come to the dinner, it's just change everything, the dynamic. For us, it was a big, significant part of everything. So obviously, most of these stories and memories come in while we're cooking or eating. A lot of time she used to talk about, and still talking about the smells, the smells of the flowers, the smells of the zafar (perfume). She still have the nostalgia from that time and talking very highly about what Iran used to be, and how great, and the relationship between the Muslims and the Jews back then. My grandpa's best friend was crying when he left, and he said: ‘Please don't go. Stay with us.' And he said: ‘I want to go to homeland.' So, they have a really great relationship. She's always talking, actually, about how they come for Shabbat dinner, the friends if they put the cigarettes outside of the door in Shabbat because they were observant. So cigarettes, lighter, everything, they keep it outside, in the garden, not coming inside the house. So a lot of mutual respect for the religion to each other. And I love that stories. It just showed what's happened when people take it extreme. MANYA: Einat's cookbooks and restaurant menus are filled with recipes from her own childhood and her parents' upbringing. To satisfy the appetite of her father, a former Israeli athlete, her house always had hummus and every weekend, the family made a hilbeh sauce --  a traditional Yemenite fenugreek dip made with cardamom, caraway seeds and chili flakes. Other recipes reflect her mother's Persian roots. And then there are recipes that, at first blush, seem to come out of left field, but are inspired by the Iraqi Jewish foster family that raised her mother, and the Mizrahi, Sephardi, and Ashkenazi neighbors that passed through the dining room and kitchen where Einat was raised in Bnei Brak.  Now a Haredi town east of Tel Aviv, it was then a diverse population of Jews from, well, everywhere. Einat still remembers standing on a stool next to the Moroccan neighbor in her building learning how to roll couscous. EINAT: One neighbor that was my second mom, her name was Tova, and she was Moroccan, so it was like, I have another Moroccan mom. But all the building was all Holocaust survivors. None of them had kids, and they were all speaking in Yiddish, mostly. So I grew up with a lot of mix. I wouldn't say, you know, in my time, it's not like our neighborhood. I grew up in Bnei Brak, and our neighborhood was very, it was before Bnei Brak became so religious like today. It was still religious, if you go really in, but we're close to Ramat Gan, and I have to say that it's, I would say, I didn't grow up with, it's very mixed, very mixed.  Wouldn't say I grew up just with Moroccan or Mizrahi, I say that it's very, very mixed. And my mom same. I think a lot of her friend is like, It's my mom would speak some Yiddish. She would do Kugel on Shabbat next to the jachnun and all the Mizrahi food. You know, this is the multi-pot and one things I love in Israel. You can see in one table so many different cultures. And that's something that would have happened in my house a lot. MANYA: That amalgam of Jewish cultures is reflected in her cookbooks Balaboosta and Shuk. It also shows up in her menu at the brick-and-mortar Balaboosta, a quaint Middle Eastern trattoria on Mulberry Street in Manhattan.  The name Balaboosta is borrowed from Yiddish meaning “a perfect housewife” – a twist on ba'al habayit, Hebrew for master of the house, or boss. But Einat insists that the term is no longer exclusively Ashkenazi, nor does it refer exclusively to a woman's domestic role. EINAT: An old friend, chef, asked me when I went to open Balaboosta, and I said, ‘I don't have a name.' She said: ‘What do you call a badass woman in Hebrew?' I'm like, ‘balaboosta.' She said, ‘It's a perfect name. We done.' Took five minutes to find this name, and I love it. It's really connected because for me it's so so much different things. You know, I always talk about the 20th century balaboosta. The balaboosta that outside going to work, the balaboosta that asking a man for a date. The balaboosta that it's not just like she's the housewife and the homekeeper. It's much more than that. Today, she's a multitask badass.  It's much more spiritual than what it is. I think it's the one that can bond the people together and bring them together and make peace between two parties clashing. So for me, it's much more than somebody that can cook and clean. So, much, much more than that. MANYA: Einat's parents became more religious when she was 12, which of course had the opposite effect on their daughter: she rebelled. When her time came to do her mandatory service in the Israel Defense Force, she was determined not to serve in a role typically assigned to women. She requested a post as a firing instructor. But after reviewing the high school transcript shaped by her rebellious adolescence, the IDF assigned her to the Nevatim Air Base where she served as a chauffeur for fighter pilots. EINAT: Back then most women would be secretaries giving coffee to some assholes. I was trying not to do that, and somehow I got very lucky, and I was in the same division, I was in the Air Force. I had amazing time for two years. I start the military a very different person, and left a very different person. I used to hang with a lot of bad people before, really bad people. And when I get to the military, I was a driver of pilots, it's the top of the top of the top in the hierarchy in the military in all IDF. So now I'm hanging with people that have the biggest ambition ever, and I'm learning new stuff, and everything opened up, even my language changed completely. Everything. I was want to travel more than I ever want before, and I have like, crazy dreams. MANYA: To make sure the elite pilots were well-fed, the IDF bused in a group of Yemenite grandmothers to provide ochel bayit, or home-cooked meals. Einat befriended the kitchen staff and helped out from time to time. Then in January 1991, she was tapped to cook a meal that probably launched her career. The IDF chiefs of staff had convened at Nevatim base to discuss the U.S. plan to bomb Iraq during the Gulf War and what Israel would do if Saddam Hussein retaliated with an attack on the Jewish state. But they needed to plot that strategy on full stomachs. A couple of pilots served as her sous chefs. That night, the Israeli generals dined on Chinese chicken with garlic, honey, and soy. And a rice salad. EINAT: It was definitely the turning point, the military.  I would say there is some values of relationship and working ethics that I wouldn't see anywhere else, and that's coming, I think because the military. They're waking up in the morning, the friendship, they're no snitching or none of this. It's to stand up for each other. There is so many other values that I grabbed from that. So when I start my culinary career, and I was in a fine dining kitchen, it was very helpful, very helpful. MANYA: After spending five years in a van driving around Germany – an extended celebration of freedom after IDF service --  it was time to get serious about a career. A culinary career made as good a sense as any. Einat worked as a waitress in Eilat and enrolled in culinary school. At the end, she marched into the kitchen of Keren, one of the first restaurants in Israel to offer haute cuisine. She got an internship, then a job. The former restaurant, run by Israeli Chef and television host Haim Cohen, is credited for reinventing Israeli cuisine. Now, as a restaurant owner and TV personality herself, Einat is largely credited for introducing Israeli cuisine to the U.S. But before she became the self-made Balaboosta of fine Israeli dining, Einat was America's Falafel Queen, made famous by two victories on the Food Network's show Chopped and her first restaurant – now a fast food chain called Ta'im Falafel. But her fame and influence when it comes to Israeli cooking has exposed her to a fair bit of criticism. She has become a target on social media by those who accuse Israelis of appropriating Palestinian foods – an argument she calls petty and ridiculous. So ridiculous, she has found the best platform to address it is on the stage of her new hobby: stand-up comedy. Cooking has always been her Zen. But so is dark humor. EINAT: I like comedy more than anything, not more than food, but close enough. EINAT/Clip: Yeah, this year was great here on Instagram, lot of hate comments, though. A lot about food appropriation, me making Arabic dishes. So let me clarify something here. I check my DNA through ancestry.com and I am 97% Middle Eastern, so I fucking bleed hummus. EINAT: It's very petty. Food, supposed always to share. Food supposed to moving forward.  It's tiring and life is much more complex than to even argue and have a debate about stupid things. I'm done. OK, yes, we're indigenous.I have connection to the land. My parents, my grandparents and great grandparents have connection to that land. Okay, I get it. Now we need to solve what's going on, because there was Palestinian that lived there before, and how we can, for me, how we change the ideology, which I don't see how we can, but how we can change the ideology, convince them that they want peace. And they want…I don't know. MANYA: Needless to say, in the year that has followed the attacks of October 7, stand-up comedy has not been the balm it once was. The attacks that unfolded that day by Iran-backed terrorists that killed more than 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped more than 250 more was simply too devastating. EINAT: I was broken there, my husband was with me, I was every day on a bed crying, and then going to work, and it was like I couldn't hear music, because every music thinking about Nova and my friends and then I couldn't see babies with a mom. Everything was a trigger. It was bad. We had a disaster of October 7 and then October 8 to see the world reaction was another. It's not just enough that we going through so much grief and need to kind of contain all that emotion and crazy and anger and rage and now we need to see the world's. Like, ok. I never thought there is antisemitism. It's something from the past, for my grandparents, for my mom a little, but it's not something in my generation, or my kids' generation. It's done, apparently, not. MANYA: The lack of sympathy around the world and among her culinary peers only amplified Einat's grief. As a way to push for a cease-fire and end U.S. support for Israel, nearly 900 chefs, farmers and others in the food industry signed a pledge to boycott Israel-based food businesses and culinary events that promote Israel. EINAT: I felt very, very alone, very alone. The first few months, I felt like, wow, not one call from anyone to check on me. It was pretty sad. At the same time, I'm in the best company ever Jewish community. There is nothing like that, nothing. MANYA: Her team at Balaboosta also checked in on their Israeli boss. But they too were scared. Soon after she posted pictures of the hostages on the window of her restaurant, she confronted a group of teenagers who tried to tear them down. EINAT: I stand in front of them and I said, ‘You better move fast'. MANYA: It's no secret that Iran helped plan Oct. 7. What is not as well known is how many Jews still live and thrive in Iran. Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, there were nearly 100,000 Jews in Iran. Today, Israeli sources say the population numbers less than 10,000, while the regime and Iran's Jewish leaders say it's closer to 20,000. Regardless, Iran's Jewish community remains the largest in the Middle East outside Israel.  To be sure, the constitution adopted in 1906 is still in place nominally, and it still includes Jews as a protected religious minority. Jews in Iran have synagogues, access to kosher meat, and permission to consume wine for Shabbat, despite a national ban on alcohol. There's also a Jewish representative in Iran's parliament or Majlis. But all women and girls regardless of religion are required to wear a veil, according to the Islamist dress code, and Jews are pressured to vote in elections at Jewish-specific ballot stations so the regime can monitor their participation. Zionism is punishable by death and after Oct. 7, the regime warned its Jewish citizens to sever contact with family and friends in Israel or risk arrest. They also can't leave. Iranian law forbids an entire Jewish nuclear family from traveling abroad at the same time. At least one family member, usually the father, must remain behind to prevent emigration. But Houman points out that many Iranian Jews, including himself, are deeply attached to Iranian culture. As a resident of Los Angeles, he reads Persian literature, cooks Persian herb stew for his children and speaks in Persian to his pets. He would return to Iran in an instant if given the opportunity to do so safely. For Jews living in Iran it may be no different. They've become accustomed to living under Islamist laws. They may not want to leave, even if they could. SARSHAR: The concept of living and thriving in Iran, for anyone who is not related to the ruling clergy and the Revolutionary Guard, is a dream that feels unattainable by anyone in Iran, let alone the Jews. In a world where there is really no fairness for anyone, the fact that you're treated even less fairly almost fades. MANYA: Scholars say since the Islamic Revolution, most Jews who have left Iran have landed in Los Angeles or Long Island, New York. Still, more Jews of Iranian descent live in Israel – possibly more than all other countries combined. The reason why? Because so many like Einat's family made aliyah–up until the mid-20th Century.  It's hard to say where another exodus might lead Iranian Jews to call home. Einat will be forever grateful that her family left when they still could and landed in a beautiful and beloved place. Though she lives in the U.S. now, she travels back to Israel at least twice a year. EINAT: It's a dream for every Jew, it's not just me. It's the safe zone for every Jew. It's the one place that, even if we have, it's not safe because there is people around us that want to kill us. It's still emotionally. You know, I've been in Israel a few months ago, it's like, you always feel loved, you always feel supported. It's incredible. And it's still home. It's always going to be my home. MANYA: Persian Jews are just one of the many Jewish communities who, in the last century, left Middle Eastern and North African countries to forge new lives for themselves and future generations.  Many thanks to Einat for sharing her family's story. You can enjoy some of her family's favorite recipes in her cookbooks Balaboosta and Shuk. Her memoir Taste of Love was recently released in  an audio and digital format.  Too many times during my reporting, I encountered children and grandchildren who didn't have the answers to my questions because they'd never asked. That's why one of the goals of this project is to encourage you to ask those questions. Find your stories. Atara Lakritz is our producer. T.K. Broderick is our sound engineer. Special thanks to Jon Schweitzer, Nicole Mazur, Sean Savage, and Madeleine Stern, and so many of our colleagues, too many to name really, for making this series possible. You can subscribe to The Forgotten Exodus on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and you can learn more at AJC.org/theforgottenexodus.  The views and opinions of our guests don't necessarily reflect the positions of AJC. You can reach us at theforgottenexodus@ajc.org. If you've enjoyed this episode, please be sure to spread the word, and hop onto Apple Podcasts or Spotify to rate us and write a review to help more listeners find us.

Rivka Ravitz may be a long-time Haredi political thinker, but that doesn't mean she thinks politics is always the answer.Since her father-in-law first employed her in the Knesset at age 18, Rivka has spend decades working in Israeli politics. She was chief of staff to President Reuven Rivlin and a senior fellow at the Jewish Public Policy Institute; now she is chief of staff to the mayor of Bet Shemesh.Rivka is intimately involved in the personal and political sphere of Haredi life—a focus of her PhD, which she is pursuing at Haifa University.Now, she joins us to answer 18 questions on Israel, including Israeli politics, the Haredi draft, and Israel as a religious state.This interview was held on Sept. 24.Here are our 18 questions:As an Israeli, and as a Jew, how are you feeling at this moment in Israeli history?What has been Israel's greatest success and greatest mistake in its war against Hamas?How have your religious views changed since Oct. 7? What do you look for in deciding which Knesset party to vote for?Which is more important for Israel: Judaism or democracy?Should Israel treat its Jewish and non-Jewish citizens the same?Now that Israel already exists, what is the purpose of Zionism?Is opposing Zionism inherently antisemitic?Should Israel be a religious state?If you were making the case for Israel, where would you begin?Should all Israelis serve in the army?Can questioning the actions of Israel's government and army — even in the context of this war — be a valid form of love and patriotism?What do you think is the most legitimate criticism leveled against Israel today?Do you think the State of Israel is part of the final redemption?Is Messianism helpful or harmful to Israel?Do you think peace between Israelis and Palestinians will happen within your lifetime?Where do you identify on Israel's political and religious spectrum, and do you have friends on the “other side”?Do you have more hope or fear for Israel and the Jewish People?

This series is sponsored by Mira and Daniel Stokar, and this episode is sponsored by dailygiving.org.In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Tuvia Tenenbom, a formerly Haredi and now secular Jew and the author of Careful, Beauties Ahead!, about how he developed a new love for Haredi religious life.When Tuvia Tenenbom wrote a book about Haredim in Mea Shearim, he found that all Jews—no matter how different their communities—are interconnected in more ways than we might think. In this episode we discuss:How did the Haredi community respond to October 7?What do outsiders misunderstand about Haredi Jews?Is humor the universal Jewish language? Tune in to hear a conversation about what it means to truly love the entirety of the Jewish family. Interview begins at 28:37.Tuvia Tenenbom is an Israeli-American theater director, playwright, and author who is the founding artistic director of the Jewish Theater of New York. He authored several books that deal with themes of Jewish life, Jewish culture, antisemitism, and the Holocaust, including his well-known Catch The Jew!. He joins us to discuss the year he, a secular Jew, spent with the Haredi Jews of Mea Shearim. References:18Forty Podcast: “Joshua Leifer and Shaindy Ort: How Progressive Activists Rediscovered Traditional Jewish Life”Tosafot on PesachimCareful, Beauties Ahead! by Tuvia TenenboCatch The Jew! by Tuvia TenenbomWorks of Tuvia TenenbomBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/18forty-podcast--4344730/support.

The Haredi community has been facing — and facing down — mounting pressure to participate meaningfully in areas of Israeli civic life, including military service and the workforce. While many in the community wish to maintain their isolation, it is widely seen by the rest of Israeli society as unfair and unsustainable. Haredi community rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer, head of the Iyun Institute, an organization that promotes Haredi integration and responsibility joined SAPIR Managing Editor Philip Getz for a conversation on the ideas and fears that have shaped Haredi opinion against IDF service and civic engagement, and how to change the status quo.

In this episode of People of the Pod, Ambassador Michael Oren dives into Israel's escalating conflict with Hezbollah, which has turned Israel's northern border into a war zone and caused 60,000 to remain displaced from their homes. Oren emphasizes Israel's need to defend itself on multiple fronts, including threats from Hamas, the Houthis, and Iran, warning of the risk of all-out war. He also discusses the formation of the Israel Advocacy Group (IAG) to bolster Israel's media and diplomatic efforts and shares how his vision for Israel's future, as outlined in 2048: The Rejuvenated State, remains critical post-conflict. Listen – AJC Podcasts: The Forgotten Exodus:  Explore the untold stories of Jews from Tunisia, Syria, Yemen, and more. People of the Pod:  Paris 2024: 2 Proud Jewish Paralympians on How Sports Unites Athletes Amid Antisemitism The DNC with AJC: What You Need to Know about the Democratic Party's Israel Platform Follow People of the Pod on your favorite podcast app, and learn more at AJC.org/PeopleofthePod You can reach us at: peopleofthepod@ajc.org If you've appreciated this episode, please be sure to tell your friends, and rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. __ Transcript of Interview with Michael Oren: Manya Brachear Pashman:  Michael Oren served as Israel's ambassador to the United States between 2009 and 2013. As ambassador, he was instrumental in securing US support for Israel's defense and upholding Israel's right to security. His current role isn't all that much different.  After October 7, he launched the Israel Advocacy Group (IAG), which has worked to strengthen diplomatic relations for the Jewish state and support Israelis during wartime. Ambassador Oren is with us now to explain the challenge Israelis are now facing. Ambassador Oren, welcome to People of the Pod. Michael Oren:  Good to be with you, Manya. Manya Brachear Pashman:  Ambassador, you are touring the US with residents of Northern Israel who've been displaced by near daily attacks from Hezbollah terrorists across the border with Lebanon. As we speak, Israel is conducting a military operation in Beirut. Can you tell us what is happening and why? Michael Oren:  Okay, let me begin by saying that Israel has not taken credit from the pager and walkie talkie attacks Has not. And so we want to avoid that type of symmetry, because on one hand, Hezbollah is very proud of the fact that they're firing hundreds of rockets and hundreds of explosive drones at civilians in Israel. Literally. Israel's not taking that credit. Okay.  So let's begin with this. October 8, a day after the horrendous Hamas assault on southern Israel. Hezbollah, out of a vowed desire to show solidarity with Hamas, opened fire on Northern Israel. To date, about 10,000 rockets, explosive domes, have been fired at Galilee. It began along the immediate border, some 18 communities along the immediate border, but it creeped downward. Creeped downward now where rockets are falling along the Sea of Galilee, which is in southern Galilee, and moving its way toward Haifa, nd the suburbs of Haifa, moving westward.  100,000 Israelis have been rendered homeless. 10s of 1000s of acres of farmland, forest land have been incinerated. 1000s of houses have been destroyed, and dozens of people have been wounded and killed, as well. Civilians, as well as military. The entire North has been transformed into a war zone. Cities that you know, like Kiryat Shmona, Metula, are ghost towns today.  One of the members of our delegation, Her home was rocketed in Metula yesterday. Is the 215th home destroyed by Hezbollah in that once beautiful, beautiful town of Metula. So that's the objective situation. Is it an utterly, utterly unprovoked attack on the land and the people of Israel. And Israel, of course, has to defend itself.  The great complaint among the people of the north, it is that the state has not done enough to defend the people of the north. And so any actions now taken, including last night, where Israeli warplanes were attacking Hezbollah emplacements and targets, not just in southern Lebanon, but throughout Lebanon, is very much welcomed by the people of the north. So they have yet to see how the state intends to return them and store them to their homes.  I'll just add one more point that is widely misunderstood in this country. There's a notion that somehow, if a ceasefire is attained with Hamas in Gaza, which is highly, highly unlikely, but if it is attained, then Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, said, he too will accept a ceasefire, but a ceasefire will restore the status quo of October 6. And Israelis simply won't go back to their homes if the situation that obtained on October 6 where Hezbollah was exactly on the opposite side of the fence, no one's going back to communities that are opposite side of the fence, because now we know what terrorists can do to Israelis on the other side of that fence, our side of the fence. So there is really no alternative but to drive Hezbollah back. It's to drive them back beyond the Litani River, which meanders opposite our northern border, between 13 and 20 kilometers. There's a diplomatic initiative by American Special Envoy Amos Hochstein to try to convince Hezbollah to retroactively implement Resolution 1701, of the Security Council. It's from 200. They called on his Hezbollah to withdraw north of the Litani River. Hezbollah never accepted it. Hezbollah violates it daily, flagrantly. I wish Mr. Hochstein all the best of luck. I don't know what leverage he can bring to bear to convince Hezbollah to implement 1701 but barring that, Israel will have absolutely no choice to push Hezbollah back physically from that fence.   Manya Brachear Pashman:  In fact, returning residents home, to their homes in northern Israel has become a war goal. The cabinet has just announced this week, right?  Michael Oren:  Well, it's about time. It's about 11 months too late. Manya Brachear Pashman:  So I guess, what does that mean? Does that mean that this conflict with Hezbollah or Lebanon could escalate? Michael Oren:  Oh, I would expect it would escalate. Yes, and that we have to prepare it for any scenario, including an all out war. Now, an all out war is no small thing. It's a war that's many times more severe than that, with Hamas in the South. First of all, Hezbollah is one of the largest military forces anywhere, not just in the Middle East. It's got upwards of 170,000 rockets hidden under villages, under hundreds of villages. It has a fighting force of terrorists that's three, four times that of Hamas. It has cyber capabilities. And it's not just Hezbollah. It's the Shiite militias that are backed by Iran and in Iraq and Syria, the Huthi rebels in Yemen. We know that they can fire Israel well. And there's Iran itself. Iran, which, on April 14, launched 315 rockets at Israel.  So the IDF estimate for rocket fire per day in any war with Hezbollah could reach as much as 10,000 rockets a day. And that will overwhelm our multi-tiered anti-missile system. We will require assistance from the United States, and even then, it will be quite a challenge. Manya Brachear Pashman:  As you mentioned, this is all happening simultaneously with the war against Hamas in Gaza. Yes, Houthis also are firing rockets, one of which, I think at least one reached, or almost reached, central Israel just this past week. And I mean, how many fronts is Israel fighting on right now? And could this escalate? Could, though, that number of fronts grow even more?  Michael Oren:  Well, right now we're at about seven fronts, according to the defense Minister's calculation. So what is it? It the North. It is the south. It is the Huthis, very much to the south, but are capable of firing into Tel Aviv. It is the Judean Samaria, the West Bank front, which is very severe indeed.  So that's just sort of the bottom line of the fronts we're firing. We're also fighting a front against Iran, more distantly, against the Shiite and militias in Iraq and Syria. So a multi, multiple front war. And make no mistake about it, this is an existential struggle for the State of Israel. Manya Brachear Pashman:  And you said that returning to October 6 or what the status was on October 6 is now not acceptable. I mean, was there a short window of time where that was, what the wish and the hope was? And that has shifted.? Michael Oren:  I think it was lost on October 7. So if you were to go to Metula on October 6, you could stick your hand through the fence, and I wouldn't recommend you do this. You could stick your hand through the fence, and you would touch Hezbollah. They're right there. And the people of Matula and other communities along that border simply won't go back under those circumstances. And you can understand why.  I don't know if you have young children, I don't think you put your children in a house that's looking at Hezbollah across from a fence. Now we know what terrorists can do to Israeli families, civilians, women, babies, who are on the other side of the fence. And a fence is no guarantee against any assault.  The people from the north also believe that there are still tunnels under that fence that we haven't discovered all of the Hezbollah tunnels. There are people in our delegation from the north who believe that Hezbollah still has tunnels that have not been detected under that fence, because Hamas digs tunnels in sand, Hezbollah digs tunnels in rock, and they're deeper and harder to detect. Manya Brachear Pashman:  You said that you wondered, if I have small children, I do. I have two small children. We go to well, they're not. They're getting less small by the day. But it made me think of a column that you wrote back in March for The Forward about how Jews are cursed to be a lonely people. And I actually gave a speech to our synagogue congregation just last week, talking about how I was so grateful to be part of a congregation on October 6, celebrating Simchat Torah when I woke up on October 7, because otherwise I would have felt and my children would have felt so alone. And I am curious where you were on October 7, and how you have combated that loneliness, that lonely feeling. Michael Oren:  Hm. Well, I had an unusual experience. On October 5, I was giving a speech in Dallas, Texas, and the speech was interesting, because at the end of my remarks, I told the audience that I believe that Israel would soon be going to war. And everyone gasped, and I'd actually been briefing foreign diplomatic personnel about this for about two weeks.  And the reason I thought Israel was going to war was because of the divisions within Israeli society, the divisions within American societies, that Iranians were following very, very closely. But the most important point was that the United States was trying to broker a peace agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and as part of that deal, Saudi Arabia was going to get nuclear power. And my line was that if anybody thought that the Iranians would sit quietly while the Saudis got nuclear power, they were kidding themselves, and the Iranians would start a war. All right, I had other information, but that was the major thrust. So two days later, I was coming back to Israel. I was stopping off at my mother's house in New Jersey, woke up to the messages you never want to receive on your cell phone, which is, are you okay? Are you okay? Are you okay? And learned about this. Now for many years through the generosity of the Singer Foundation. Whenever there's a national emergency, I'm immediately put on television. So starting on the morning of October 7, I was on CNN, MSNBC throughout the day, called some friends in ElAl and got myself on the first flight out of Newark that night, and landed in a war zone the next morning and went immediately to work.  So around a small kitchen table in my house, a group of volunteers together formed an emergency NGO called the Israel Advocacy Group, because what can I say, the state wasn't doing a particularly excellent job in defending itself in the media and other forums. And what began as a small sort of a ma and pa operation around the kitchen table has now become the Israel advocacy group, IAG, dealing with international media, mainstream, non mainstream, and with track two diplomacy.  So track two diplomacy is what we're doing in Washington now by bringing the delegations to the hill. We've had meetings on the hill with both parties, both houses, and today we're in the White House. So we've gone to the White House twice with these delegations. That's tracked two diplomacy and so it's a big undertaking.  So my way of dealing with the loneliness is certainly joining with other people, especially young people, who are committed to defending Israel in every possible form. I'm very blessed because I'm a member of a community in Jaffa, a kehilla, which is just wonderful and, of course, the family, the family, the family. Tammy, my, my beloved and children and grandchildren, 6.5 and counting.  Manya Brachear Pashman:  You are heading up this Israel advocacy group that's post October 7. But before October 7, you had started a think tank. I don't know if you would call it an advocacy group. I've been calling it a think tank. Called Israel 2048. You also wrote a book titled 2048: The Rejuvenated State.  It was published in one single volume in English, Hebrew and Arabic, very, very symbolically. And I'm curious if this vision that you laid out for the next century of the Jewish state, is it stalled by all of this? Michael Oren:  So first of all, 2048 it was a project that grew out of my time in Knesset, and I was the deputy in the prime minister's office, and sort of realizing that Israel is so bogged down in its daily crises, little do we know what a daily crisis was, that we never really think about our future. And the goal was to envision the Jewish state on its 100th birthday. Our 100th birthday would be 2048, and how can we assure a second successful century? What changes had to be made in the State of Israel? And they're pretty big, far reaching changes.  And it began as a discussion group online. We had a 2048 seminar at the Hartman Institute with Natan Sharansky for about a year, then covid hit and retreated to the room and wrote this book. It's an 80 page manifesto that covers 22 aspects of Israeli society. Its educational policy, social policy, health policy, foreign policy, America-Israel diaspora relations, of course, the US relations and the peace process. Certainly the largest section on the peace process and our relationship with Israeli Arabs, the Haredi issue, the ultra orthodox issue, the Bedouin issue. It's all in 80 quick pages. And the idea of the book was to sort of to spur conversation, especially among young people within Israel and in the United States elsewhere in the diaspora. In the way Zionist thinkers used to think about the future Jewish state, starting in the 1880s up to the 1940s. Huge literature on what this Jewish state was going to look like. And we seem to have lost the ability to have that sort of broad discussion about our future. And it was going very, very well, the discussion.  It was not a think tank. It was actually an anti think tank. I didn't want to produce any papers. I just wanted to have discussions. When the war broke out. Looking back at this book now, it is actually a better seller now than it was before the war, because many of the problems that were revealed by the war were anticipated by the book. And it's actually more crucial now than ever before.  You know, Manya, I'm often asked, What wars does this war most resemble? Is it the 67 war where we were surrounded by enemies, the 73 war, when we were surprised by our enemies? But truly, the war that most resembles this one is the War of Independence, where we are fighting on multiple fronts, in our neighborhoods, in our communities, and everybody's in the army. And the tremendous, tremendous cost.  So really, we're in a second Israel war of independence. And that's the bad news. The good news is we get to rebuild afterward the way we rebuilt post 1948. I don't know any other manifesto that sets out the goals that we have to strive if we're going to have a successful Second War of Independence. Certainly, we have to address the Haredi issue. That's not sustainable.  We have to address the Bedouin issue, you know, the IDF secured the release of one of the hostages several weeks ago, a Bedouin gentleman. It was an extraordinary event, definitely praiseworthy, but that Bedouin had two wives, and had settled illegally on state land, and that sort of it was indicative of the type of problems we face with a Bedouin that no one's addressing.  But it's also our education system. How can we proceed and a road to some type of better relationship with the Palestinians? How can we maintain unity within Israel, within the Jewish world? Everything from the Kotel to teaching math on a high school level in a Haredi school. Manya Brachear Pashman:  How dismaying that there are so many wars to choose from for comparison. But I, but I appreciate the one that you the analogy that you've made and the hope that that carries with it. So, Ambassador Oren, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Michael Oren:  Thank you. Let me say Shana Tova.  Manya Brachear Pashman:  Shana Tova.  Michael Oren:  I also want to give a special thank you to the American Jewish Committee. Yesterday morning, we through the office under the aegis of the the AJC, our delegation of displaced northerners met with about 20 representatives of the diplomatic community here in Washington, including the German ambassador, the Czech ambassador, the Slovakian ambassador, diplomats from Spain, Italy, and for the first time, this diplomatic community was able to hear firsthand what it is to live under daily Hezbollah rocket and drone fire, to be displaced from their homes, and it was extremely important. We're very, very grateful to AJC. Manya Brachear Pashman:  Ambassador Oren, thank you so much for joining us. Michael Oren:  Thank you. Manya Brachear Pashman:  If you missed last week's episode, be sure to tune in for my conversation with two proud Jewish Paralympians on how sports can unite athletes amid antisemitism, which surfaced during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. ToI founding editor David Horovitz joins host Jessica Steinberg on today's episode. Horovitz discusses the latest Hezbollah attack in the northern coastal town of Nahariya, and the mounting concerns regarding the terrorist organization in Lebanon, and whether the threat can be contained by diplomatic means. Horovitz then describes the anguished but clear comments made to the prime minister by the bereaved father Rabbi Elhanan Danino, whose son, Ori Danino, was one of the six hostages killed in Hamas captivity ten days ago. During a condolence call visit by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Danino told Netanyahu that it was his policies that led to the death of his eldest son. Horovitz also reviews the latest machinations on the part of Justice Minister Yariv Levin regarding the appointment of a new High Court president. He also speaks about the Toronto Film Festival screening of 'Bibi Files,' the documentary about the Netanyahu graft trials, and the prime minister's attempts to stop the Canadian screening. For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel's ongoing live blog. Discussed articles include: Hezbollah drone hits Nahariya high-rise, as over 20 rockets fired at north After Hezbollah strike on Nahariya, residents say government abandoned them Gantz says military focus should shift from Gaza to Lebanon: ‘We're late on this' Top US official warns of ‘catastrophic consequences' to war in Lebanon – reports Bereaved father of hostage to Netanyahu: ‘My son was murdered in a tunnel you built' Levin mulls legislation to change majority for appointing Supreme Court president ‘Bibi Files' Canada premiere puts PM interrogation footage on screen for first time Court denies Netanyahu bid to block Canadian screening of leaked interrogation footage Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod Waves. IMAGE: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walking outside his office at the Knesset in Jerusalem on September 9, 2024. (Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Military correspondent Emanuel Fabian and political writer Tal Schneider join host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode. Fabian discusses the timing of Sunday's visit of Airforce General Charles Q. Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to Israel, hours after Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel, that were mostly thwarted.  He mentions a military probe into the death of one Navy soldier and two injured soldiers on a Navy vessel, as a result of the Sunday Hezbollah rocket and drone attack. Fabian also speaks about the IDF drone strike in the West Bank that killed five people situated in a terror command room — including a Hamas member released by Israel in the November 2023 hostage-release deal. Schneider takes another look at National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, and the latest in his recent, incendiary statements regarding Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount, causing an ultra-Orthodox newspaper to call him out for his actions. For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel's ongoing live blog. Discussed articles include: Top US general says risk of broader war ‘somewhat' abated after Israel-Hezbollah clash Israeli Navy sailor killed, two hurt by interceptor missile amid Hezbollah attack Halevi: IDF working to return displaced northern residents ‘as quickly as possible' IDF says it carried out drone strike on West Bank terror cell; 5 reported killed Haredi newspaper calls Ben Gvir ‘pyromaniac politician' over Temple Mount remarks Ben Gvir says Jews can pray on Temple Mount; Netanyahu insists status quo unchanged Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Ben Wallick. IMAGE: IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halev and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr, August 26, 2024 (Israel Defense Forces)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Military reporter Emanuel Fabian joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode. Four Israeli settlers, including one minor, were detained overnight by police over their suspected involvement in an attack on the Palestinian West Bank village of Jit last week. According to a joint statement issued by police and the Shin Bet, the four are suspected of terrorism against Palestinians in several incidents, including the attack on Jit. We explore how rare this accusation is. The army announced it was operating at “peak readiness” three weeks ago, following the dual assassinations in Teheran and Beirut, and was able to immediately pivot to try to avert any attack from Iran and Hezbollah. Fabian assesses whether this is still the case amid the continuing conflict along the northern border. More than 150 tunnels have been demolished along Gaza's southern border, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced Wednesday while speaking with soldiers at the Philadelphi Corridor, as the army said it destroyed some 30 terror sites and killed dozens of gunmen in airstrikes across the enclave over the past day. We hear what else is happening on the ground. Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, in his last speech as head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, said Wednesday that he was responsible for not providing a warning ahead of Hamas's October 7 terror onslaught. He also seemed to indicate that others who are responsible for the failure should likewise take responsibility and leave the IDF. But where would he stop? Amid a persistent manpower shortage caused by the ongoing war in Gaza, the defense establishment has started recalling to duty some 15,000 previously exempted reservists. We hear who is affected by this recall to reserves even as only seven ultra-Orthodox men report for duty yesterday -- and 70 in the past month -- amid riots. For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel's ongoing live blog. Discussed articles include: Gallant: IDF razed 150 tunnels on Egypt-Gaza border, defeated Hamas's Rafah Brigade Israeli hurt in rocket barrage on Golan; Fatah official tied to Iran killed in Sidon strike Outgoing IDF intel chief Haliva says he failed to warn of Oct. 7, urges state probe Amid troop shortage, IDF begins calling up 15,000 previously released reservists IDF: Only some 70 Haredi men have reported to induction centers since High Court ruling Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Ben Wallick.  IMAGE: A man stands in front of burnt cars, a day after an attack by Jewish settlers on the village of Jit near Nablus in the occupied West Bank that left a 23-year-old man dead and others with critical gunshot wounds, on August 16, 2024. (Jaafar Ashtiyeh / AFP)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Editor David Horovitz joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan in the Jerusalem office on today's episode. Back in April, Iran directly targeted Israel with some 500 projectiles, including drones, missiles and rockets. Since the assassination in Teheran of Hamas head Ismail Haniyeh, which Israel has not taken credit for, paired with the overt assassination of Hezbollah chief of staff Fuad Shukr, Israelis have been waiting for a retaliatory strike. Horovitz weighs in on how this is playing out on the diplomatic stage and at home. According to the IDF, only 48 out of 900 Haredi men who received call-up notices last month showed up at the army's induction center over the past several days for an initial evaluation. Horovitz and Borschel-Dan discuss some of the implications of the lack of manpower on the IDF and how this thorny problem must be solved through dialogue. For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel's ongoing live blog. Discussed articles include: The waiting Israel said to believe Hezbollah will respond before Iran to deaths of terror chiefs Western ambassadors pull out of Nagasaki memorial after Israel not invited Harris tells anti-Israel hecklers to be quiet unless they ‘want Donald Trump to win' IDF claims violent enlistment protests scaring off ultra-Orthodox draftees Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  Check out yesterday's Daily Briefing episode here: https://omny.fm/shows/the-daily-briefing/day-306-resolute-christian-israelis-stay-put-near IMAGE: Iran's acting foreign minister Ali Bagheri (L) welcomes his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi ahead of their meeting in Tehran on August 4, 2024. (AFP)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're taking a week off from our main podcast, but we want to share with you an episode of our new podcast, 18 Questions, 40 Israeli Thinkers  Subscribe to on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to catch the latest episode every Monday. The Israeli government's draft of Haredi men is no simple matter—but Yehoshua Pfeffer has some ideas for moving forward.Rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer is a Haredi social thinker and activist intimately involved in Haredi affairs. He heads the Iyun Institute—which operates programs and publications in the Haredi space—is the founding editor of Tzarich Iyun journal, and serves on the executive board of Netzah Yehuda, which serves Haredi soldiers in the IDF.While also teaching as a professor at Hebrew University's law school, he is the rabbi of Ohr Chadash in Ramot Bet, Jerusalem. Yehoshua's life is guided by his convictions.Now, he sits down with us to answer 18 questions on Israel, including the Haredi draft, Israel as a religious state, Messianism, and so much more.This interview was held on July 2.Here are our 18 questions:As an Israeli, and as a Jew, how are you feeling at this moment in Israeli history?What has been Israel's greatest success and greatest mistake in its war against Hamas?What do you look for in deciding which Knesset party to vote for?Which is more important for Israel: Judaism or democracy?Should Israel be a religious state?Do you think the State of Israel is part of the final redemption?Is Messianism helpful or harmful to Israel?Should Israel treat its Jewish and non-Jewish citizens the same?Should all Israelis serve in the army?Now that Israel already exists, what is the purpose of Zionism?Is opposing Zionism inherently antisemitic?If you were making the case for Israel, where would you begin?Can questioning the actions of Israel's government and army — even in the context of this war — be a valid form of love and patriotism?What do you think is the most legitimate criticism leveled against Israel today?Do you think peace between Israelis and Palestinians will happen within your lifetime?Are political and religious divides a major problem in Israeli society?Where do you identify on Israel's political and religious spectrum, and do you have friends on the “other side”?Do you have more hope or fear for Israel and the Jewish People?Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/18forty-podcast--4344730/support.

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Military reporter Emanuel Fabian and Tech Israel editor Sharon Wrobel join host Amanda Borschel-Dan on today's episode. The Israel Defense Forces is increasingly convinced that Muhammad Deif, the commander of Hamas's military wing, was killed in an airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday. We hear what additional information has been released about the strike. Over the past day, more than 25 targets were struck by Israeli fighter jets and other aircraft in the Gaza Strip, the IDF says. Fabian notes an uptick in strikes on schools as Hamas is increasing leaving the tunnels and embedding itself with civilians. Where does this leave the Hamas hostages? Around 100 Hezbollah rockets targeted several different areas of northern Israel in four separate waves on Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning, as the Israel Defense Forces responded with strikes on Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon. We hear that while this barrage isn't unprecedented in number,  the impetus behind the rocket fire is less clear than in previous large volleys. Yesterday, the IDFs announced it will begin to send out initial draft orders to members of the Haredi community on Sunday. What is the expected procedure and how long will it take to see more ultra-Orthodox soldiers in uniform? The Finance Ministry has warned that enlisting working ultra-Orthodox men into the army will damage efforts to integrate this group of the population into the labor market. Wrobel explains what else we are hearing out of the Finance Ministry. Many aspects of Israel's cost of living have just been going up during this war. We focus on housing prices. According to a Wall Street Journal report, Google is nearing a record-breaking deal to purchase Israeli-founded cybersecurity startup Wiz for $23 billion. How sure are we this deal will go through and what does it mean for Israel? For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel's ongoing live blog. Discussed articles include: IDF increasingly certain Deif died in strike, says Hamas fighters in ‘survival mode' 100 rockets target northern Israel as IDF strikes in Lebanon said to kill 5 Syrians IDF says it will begin drafting ultra-Orthodox from Sunday; protesters block road Finance Ministry warns enlisting Haredim to IDF will damage efforts to integrate them into workforce Inflation edges higher, bolstered by uptick in housing prices Google said nearing record-breaking $23 billion buy of Israeli-founded cyber startup Could Google's $23b bid for Israel-founded cyber unicorn boost local tech outlook? Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  IMAGE: Israel Defense Forces operate in Gaza, July 17, 2024, in this handout image. (Israel Defense Forces)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's Talmud pages, Bava Batra 8, shares a discussion over whether or not Torah scholars should be required to pay taxes. These discussions are a powerful reflection of the present debate about Israel's Haredi community and military service. What can this ancient and modern debate teach us about leaning on our affinities over our divisions? Listen and find out.

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Legal reporter Jeremy Sharon joins host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode. Sharon first discusses how the IDF will go about recruiting ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students following the High Court ruling ordering the state to begin conscripting tens of thousands of eligible young men. He lists the various possibilities, including a more random lottery, or the option of the IDF following up with what he terms "the low-hanging fruit," those young Haredi men who do not attend the more elite yeshivas but have received some secular academic education and whose parents are part of the workforce. Sharon then speaks about a High Court ban of the Jordan Valley settlement council from seizing stray Palestinian livestock, as part of an ongoing situation in which the court aims to avoid a de facto annexation of land belonging to the local Palestinian population. For more updates, please check out The Times of Israel's ongoing live blog. Discussed articles include: The army must soon begin enlisting ultra-Orthodox men. How will that work? High Court bans settlement council from seizing stray Palestinian livestock THOSE WE HAVE LOST: Civilians and soldiers killed in Hamas's onslaught on Israel THOSE WE ARE MISSING: The hostages and victims whose fate is still unknown Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.  IMAGE: Police clash with ultra-Orthodox demonstrators during a protest against the recruitment of Haredim to the IDF, in Jerusalem, June 30, 2024. (Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We focus once again on the ongoing genocide in Gaza with Delinda Hanley, executive editor of the “Washington Report on Middle East Affairs” who tells the heartrending story of an undertaker in Gaza who since October 8th personally has had to bury over 17,000 people. Then, Ralph welcomes back retired Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft to widen out the discussion to include the war in Ukraine and contends that “the Pentagon runs America.”Delinda Hanley is news editor and executive director of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. She writes extensively for the magazine on an array of topics and her stories have also been published in the Arab News, Saudi ARAMCO World, The Minaret, Islamic Horizons and other U.S. magazines, including The Jewish Spectator. She has written extensively on Palestine, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Libya, the emergence of the Muslim voice in Arab politics, and fairness in the mainstream American media.During this (Gaza) crisis, it's been a meeting point for people on the sidewalk. We've had fundraisers, people just come and vent because they're so upset about our U.S. foreign policy. Diplomats come in and vent about how they don't get a say anymore—it's just top-down foreign policy decisions. We've had ex-military people, who served in Iraq, vent. Everyone just comes here and starts to feel a little better because they're talking to like-minded people. The only people who don't come here are the media. We've never had a story about the magazine. It's just verboten.Delinda HanleyWhile most publications depend on advertising to last, we don't have much advertising. Only charities dare to advertise with us because if you're a lawyer or insurance salesman, you get phone calls from our adversaries saying, "That's an anti-Semitic magazine. Don't do that. You won't have our business." We have a real problem with advertising. And also, may I say, we are so happy to send free subscriptions to libraries…Libraries are afraid to have us on their shelves sometimes because they get complaints. Delinda HanleyLawrence Wilkerson is a retired U.S. Army colonel. Over his 31 years of service, Colonel Wilkerson served as Secretary of State Colin Powell's Chief of Staff from 2002 to 2005, and Special Assistant to General Powell when he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993. Colonel Wilkerson also served as Deputy Director and Director of the U.S. Marine Corps War College at Quantico, Virginia, and for fifteen years he was the Distinguished Visiting Professor of Government and Public Policy at the College of William and Mary. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Eisenhower Media Network, senior advisor to the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, and co-founder of the All-Volunteer Force Forum. AIPAC—the Israeli-government-can-do-no-wrong lobby here—poured over $14 million to defeat Jamaal Bowman, the Democrat from the Bronx and Westchester County just this week in the primary. And it came down to $17,000 an hour they were spending on blanket ads and other media against this super progressive member of Congress who dared a few weeks after October 7th to call for a permanent ceasefire and describe what Netanyahu was doing as genocide.Ralph NaderWe know, all of us know, that the armed forces of the United States are broken. They are broken from years and years of the all-volunteer force, years and years of war, years and years of stupid idiotic war with no purpose, years and years of wounds, PTSD, suicides just off the charts now. And the armed forces are not doing well. Colonel Lawrence WilkersonIn Case You Haven't Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 6/26/241. In a story that could have been written 200 years ago, independence activists in the French territory of New Caledonia in the Pacific have been sent to mainland France for pre-trial detention, per Al Jazeera. According to this report, these seven detainees include Christian Tein, head of the pro-independence group Field Action Coordination Cell, or CCAT. Tein's lawyer Pierre Ortent said he was “stupefied” that Tein was being being held in France, accusing authorities of “answering to purely political considerations.” A lawyer for another detainee said these actions would only create “martyrs for the independence cause.” Riots broke out in New Caledonia earlier this year when France instituted new rules allowing long-term, non-indigenous residents to participate in independence referenda – which “Indigenous Kanaks feared…would dilute their vote.” France deployed 3,000 soldiers in response. New Caledonia remains on the United Nations list of “non-self-governing territories,” the modern euphemism for imperial colonies.2. Following a decade-long legal battle, the saga of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is finally coming to a close. Defending Rights and Dissent reports “On Monday, it was announced that Assange had filed a guilty plea in the US District of Northern Mariana Islands. Assange, who faced 17 counts under the Espionage Act and one count of conspiracy to violate the Computer Fraud And Abuse Act, pled guilty to [a] single count of conspiracy… Assange…will make an appearance in court and be sentenced to time served. He will then return to Australia a free man.” However, Policy Director Chip Gibbons was quick to note “Plea deals…set no legal precedent…the US government's decision to charge Assange under the Espionage Act remains unconstitutional due to the First Amendment's press freedom guarantees.”3. In an interview with Declassified UK, reported by Yahoo News, Independent MP Candidate and former Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn recounted how he was pressured to give blanket support to military actions by Israel. In the interview, he said “During one extremely hostile meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party Committee they confronted me and said will you give a blanket undertaking that you, as party leader and potentially prime minister, will automatically support any military action Israel undertakes?” Corbyn responded “no, I will give no such undertaking, because the issue of Palestine has to be resolved and Palestinian people do not deserve to live under occupation…” Corbyn is currently fighting to keep his longtime seat in Islington North after being expelled from the Labour Party by it's reportedly CIA-linked new leader, Keir Starmer.4. British humanitarian group Save the Children has published a new report which finds “Over 20,000 children [are] estimated to be lost, disappeared, detained, buried under the rubble or in mass graves,” in Gaza. A Child Protection Specialist with the group, on the ground in Gaza, is quoted saying “Every day we find more unaccompanied children and every day it is harder to support them…there is no safe place in Gaza… Neighbours and extended family members who have taken in lone children are struggling to meet their basic needs, such as shelter, food, and water. Many are with strangers - or completely alone - increasing the risk of violence, abuse exploitation and neglect.” Jeremy Stoner, the group's regional director for the Middle East, says “Gaza has become a graveyard for children.”5. On Tuesday, a new citizenship law took effect in Germany, allowing new immigrants to obtain a German passport within five years – but only if they declare that the State of Israel has the right to exist, per the Financial Times. This piece notes that the “[German] government…has…sparked anger by…[cracking] down on…criticism of the Israeli government over its conduct in Gaza, fuelling (sic.) a debate over free speech in Germany, particularly among artists and academics. Sabine Döring, Germany's junior minister for higher education, was forced to resign earlier this month after her ministry started exploring legal options to defund the research of German academics who had signed a public letter criticising a police crackdown on anti-Israeli student protests.”6. AP reports Israel's Supreme Court issued a ruling this week that “the military must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox men for compulsory service…[putting] an end to a decades-old system that granted ultra-Orthodox men broad exemptions from military service while maintaining mandatory enlistment for the country's secular Jewish majority.” The exemption from military service for the ultra-Orthodox Haredim has been a long-term flash-point in Israeli society and the issue has only grown more contentious as the recent campaign in Gaza has dragged on. The Netanyahu regime, which rules in coalition with Haredi parties, fought this ruling tooth and nail, claiming that forcing the Haredim to serve would “tear Israeli society apart.” Many speculate that the ruling will cause the ultra-Orthodox parties to leave Netanyahu's coalition, which would precipitate the collapse of his government.7. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, over 20 elder care facilities in the area have closed in just the last few weeks, which this report ascribes to “The long-term mismanagement of nursing homes by private equity firms,” like the Carlyle Group. Specifically, the paper excoriates how “Private equity firms extract money from nursing homes,” using “sale-leaseback[s]…selling the land out from under the facilities for lump payments…[meaning] Nursing homes are suddenly forced to pay rent or ‘management fees' to occupy facilities they once owned…the same process…that resulted in the bankruptcy of the Red Lobster restaurant chain.” The paper notes that the Biden administration is promulgating a new rule that elder care facilities must disclose their ownership, while acknowledging that “This will hardly solve the problem, but it will allow families to make informed decisions about their loved ones' care.”8. Rumblings suggest Congress may raise the corporate tax rate. POLITICO reports “anti-corporate sentiment is running high among increasingly populist-minded Republicans,” and this article quotes Congressman Chip Roy of Texas saying “There's a bubbling-up concern that we should not be doing the bidding of corporate America.” Roy is reportedly “consider[ing] kicking the corporate rate up to 25 percent, from the current 21 percent, if it means being able to extend breaks for individuals and small businesses.” On the Democratic side, Representative Don Beyer said “Every Democrat thinks the 21 percent corporate rate is far lower than is necessary,” and Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden added “Western civilization is not going to end if there's some increase.”9. The Guardian reports DC area coffee chain Compass Coffee is “hiring dozens of friends of management, including other local food service executives and an Uber lobbyist, in an effort to defeat a union election.” Compass Coffee United, the union representing these workers, “accused the coffee chain of hiring 124 additional people at cafes that are attempting to unionize…[and] manipulating worker schedules retroactively to try to make the new employees eligible to vote in the union election.” The union has filed an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB. Senator Bernie Sanders wrote on Twitter “Claiming that a lobbyist from Uber & CEOs from other companies are workers in order to rig a union election is totally absurd & disgusting.”10. Finally, in more labor news, CNN reports Teamsters President Sean O'Brien will speak at the Republican National Convention. Former President Trump wrote on Truth Social “Our GREAT convention will unify Americans and demonstrate to the nation's working families they come first…When I am back in the White House, the hardworking Teamsters, and all working Americans, will once again have a country they can afford to live in and be respected around the world.” Trump and O'Brien previously met at Mar-a-Lago in January. According to Teamsters spokesperson Kara Deniz, “O'Brien's appearance does not represent an endorsement of Trump,” and “O'Brien has requested the opportunity to also speak at the Democratic National Convention…The DNC has yet to accept that request.”This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven't Heard. Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. ToI senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's special episode of What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World. Ultra-Orthodox men of military age have been able to avoid being conscripted to the IDF for decades by enrolling in yeshivas for Torah study and obtaining repeated one-year service deferrals until they reach the age of military exemption. This week, a historic High Court ruling — which found that there is no legal basis for excluding Haredi men from the military draft -- brought the need for a true Haredi draft law into focus.  So when Likud MK and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein delayed a vote on a Defense Ministry-backed “draft Security Service Law” due to what he said was a failure to reach a “broad consensus” on the matter, political pundits paid attention. Likewise, polls indicated this week that a "fantasy" political party of former prime minister Naftali Bennett, Yisrael Beytenu party leader Avigdor Liberman, New Hope head Gideon Sa'ar and former Mossad director Yossi Cohen would be the largest faction in the Knesset if elections were held today, winning 25 seats. Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.  Illustrative image: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waves to his supporters after the first exit poll results for the Israeli parliamentary elections at his Likud party's headquarters in Jerusalem, March. 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Linda Gradstein, Allison Kaplan Somer and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Exemption Preemption— A bombshell unanimous Supreme Court decision says that, until the Knesset passes a law that says otherwise, Haredi men of army age need to enlist, and those that don't cannot get government stipends. Are we about to find Yeshiva boys in foxholes? —New Day in Gaza?— A new report is making the rounds in Jerusalem about how to end the war and coax Gazans to accept Israel, which, new report, may or may not be nuts. —AIPAC vs. Bowman— For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: AIPAC vs. the Squad's Jamaal Bowman. Decision, AIPAC? Plus, Hebrew Book Week 100 years on, and more music of our times.

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Editor David Horovitz joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode. Following Tuesday morning's landmark High Court ruling which found that there is no legal basis for excluding Haredi men from the military draft, yesterday, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein delayed a vote on a Defense Ministry-backed “draft Security Service Law” due to what he said was a failure to reach a “broad consensus” on the matter. What should we make of this breaking of Likud party ranks? Yesterday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and US President Joe Biden's administration announced that progress had been made toward resolving what Jerusalem considers to be an insufficient flow of arms from the United States to Israel. Horovitz breaks down the situation as we know it and describes how this may affect a potential war with Hezbollah. Tonight, US President Joe Biden and former US president Donald Trump will meet in Atlanta for a debate moderated by CNN's Dana Bash and Jake Tapper. What could be on the table? Horovitz weighs in on the upcoming July 4 British elections in which Labour leader Keir Starmer is projected to win a vast parliamentary majority. For more updates, please check out The Times of Israel's ongoing live blog. Discussed articles include: Edelstein delays IDF reservists law amidst growing coalition tensions over draft PM meets Edelstein over remarks on Haredi draft bill seen as imperiling coalition Gallant, US declare progress on expediting arms delivery, but bomb shipment still frozen Evading national service in the Jewish state is the opposite of authentic Judaism From antisemitism to Israel: The Jewish topics to watch for in the Biden-Trump debate 10 contests for Israel supporters to watch in the UK's July 4 general election THOSE WE HAVE LOST: Civilians and soldiers killed in Hamas's onslaught on Israel THOSE WE ARE MISSING: The hostages and victims whose fate is still unknown Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.  IMAGE: Likud MK Yuli Edelstein leads a Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on June 26, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.