Podcasts about kibbutzim

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When the USC Shoah Foundation named three sisters and their brother from Sanok, Poland the oldest surviving siblings of the Holocaust, Canadian Jewish filmmaker Allan Novak, the son of one of those shvesters (sisters in Yiddish), realized it was time to use the footage he'd been collecting for years to tell their story.  The result? Crossing the River: From Poland to Paradise – a heartwarming short documentary about how members of one family miraculously survived the Holocaust by staying together with each other and their parents. Listen to this conversation with Novak on his family's dream of moving to Israel, unwavering resilience, and positive outlook, despite losing 80 family members to the horrors of Nazism.  *The views and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views or position of AJC.  Watch: Crossing the River Listen – AJC Podcasts: The Forgotten Exodus: with Hen Mazzig, Einat Admony, and more. People of the Pod:  Israeli Hostages Freed: Inside the Emotional Reunions, High-Stakes Negotiations, and What's Next Bring Them Home: Understanding the Israel-Hamas Hostage Deal and Its Impact Pack One Bag: Stanley Tucci and David Modigliani Uncover His Jewish Family's Escape from Fascism and Antisemitism in 1930s Italy Gov. Josh Shapiro and AJC CEO Ted Deutch on Combating Antisemitism 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 Conversation with Allan Novak: Trailer: Ruth Zimmer:  That's a camera. Allan Novak:  No, this records sound. Sally Singer: [in Yiddish: It's so small.] Ruth Zimmer:  Ok, Sally. Allan Novak: Meet the shvesters: Auntie Ruthie, Auntie Sally, and my mum, Anne. Anne Novak: I'm the quiet one. Ruth Zimmer:  And I'm the pisk (loudmouth). Allan Novak: Along with my uncle Saul, they've been together since the 1920s. As they began to hit 100 the media started to take notice, and when the USC Shoah Foundation named them the oldest Holocaust survivor siblings in the world, I knew I needed to tell their story now. Ruth Zimmer: What do you want us to . . you want to ask questions? Okay, that's easier.  Allan Novak: I want to talk about the war. ____ Manya Brachear Pashman:   When the Shoah Foundation named three sisters and their brother from Sanok, Poland the oldest surviving siblings of the Holocaust, filmmaker Allan Novak, the son of one of those sisters, realized it was time to use the footage he'd been collecting for years to tell their story. The result? Crossing the River: From Poland to Paradise – a heartwarming short documentary about how members of one family miraculously survived the Holocaust by staying together with each other and their parents. Allan is with us now to talk about his extraordinary aunts, uncle and mom and this equally extraordinary Holocaust story.  Allan, welcome to People of the Pod. Allan Novak:   Thank you, Manya, great to be here. Manya Brachear Pashman:   So you had been recording interviews and kind of a life with your family for decades, right, while kind of working on various other projects. But what finally moved you to make this a project? Allan Novak:   Sure, well, I've been filming them since I got my Bar Mitzvah Super Eight camera a while ago, in the 70s, actually. And, yeah, I've been collecting footage, you know, at different times. Was inspired to interview, to capture their story, but really, more is just kind of a personal archivist kind of project. But then when the Shoah Foundation identified them as the oldest Holocaust survivor siblings in the world, as you mentioned, I kind of posted that in my social media. And then there was a huge reaction.  People just loved this idea that these people survived all this, and we're still together and survived, and we're thriving, in fact. And actually had a producer friend of mine inquire about where the rights available to their story. So I had to laugh, because, you know, I'm a filmmaker, so I immediately realized that somehow, you know, my little family story had kind of broken in a way, and it didn't deserve to be told and shared with the world. Manya Brachear Pashman:   So without giving too much away, can you tell our listeners a little bit about these extraordinary family members and what your relationship with them was like growing up? When did you realize they had such an extraordinary backstory? Allan Novak:   Well, you know, they often talked about, you know, Siberia, which is where they survived the war. And they were, they were kind of small little stories. And I understood they were hungry and it was cold and that kind of a thing, but it was always kind of light hearted, and there was laughter. You know, my auntie Ruthie, who is prominent in the film, she was an actress in the Yiddish theater, and she's really a natural comedian, and so she would always, they would make it funny. And my uncle, Saul, I call him the most positive person in the world. He actually also would look on the bright side of things.  So although they went through, you know, really tremendous trauma, somehow the way they processed it was with a positive outlook. And that kind of rubbed off on me. So I never felt, you know, unlike the people whose parents were unfortunate enough to have been in places like Auschwitz and under the Germans, I didn't have that sort of really, really dark sense of a traumatic story, but rather kind of this sort of triumphant survivalist story. So survival is kind of the key word and positivity together. So that's how I saw them growing up, as sort of somewhat fun old country of uncles and aunts. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Now one of the reasons your mother and most of her siblings survived is because the river that ran through Sanok also divided it into German and Russian territory, and your family fled to your great grandparents home on the Russian side, but about 80 of your family members stayed on the Nazi occupied side of Sanok and were murdered. One of them was your uncle Eli? Allan Novak:   Yeah, yeah. Eli. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Eli, yeah. Who did not stay with the siblings and parents. He had a bad feeling about where the Russians might take them. Did you ever get a sense of why the rest of the family stayed on the west side of the river in Nazi occupied Sanok? Allan Novak:   You know, it's a sad thing, but part of it was economic. You know, my grandfather had a relatively prosperous butcher shop. It was unusual because he supplied meats to the Polish military regiment there, but also to Jews. So he sort of had a half kosher, half not kosher shop, which was, I didn't even realize that could exist, but it did. He was quite Orthodox, and so they were sort of comfortable, but they shared a house, for instance, with my grandfather's brother, and he had like nine kids, and he wasn't so successful.  And so when I asked them, like, Why didn't everybody go over to the other side? It's like they didn't have the money to hire a driver, horseman, get across the river. And so it was just unfortunate. And as well, it was my mother's grandmother that had the property, so on the father's side, they didn't really have that option to sort of show up on the other side of the family. So it was kind of cruel twists of family and economics and also nobody knew, like they didn't know that that would be the right side. Nobody knew what would happen. You know, the week the Germans marched into Poland in September. So, you know, they went with their instinct, stay with the grandmother. But nobody knew what would happen. And of course, Eli, the brother, thought he was making the clever choice. He thought he was going to survive because he didn't want to get on the train. Manya Brachear Pashman:   How old were these people when they made these decisions to stay together or stay in Sanok? Allan Novak:   So there were five siblings. Sally, the oldest, would have been 19. So they were like 1917--15, 13, and 11. So Eli was 11, so they stuck together. They were young, you know, it probably seemed like a bit of an adventure, you know, to a 13 year old Auntie Ruthie, they didn't know, nobody knew what was to come. But Eli was 11, and he was, by all accounts, a stubborn child and a willful kid. A tough cookie, as my uncle Saul says. And so there's a point in the story where everybody was told you have to get on this train by the Russians, and the family huddled together. And this 11 year old boy who thought he was smarter than everyone and was more willful, said, I'm not getting on that train. I'm going to stay with my grandparents, who were not being sent out. The others were deported because they were Polish citizens, and on the other side, they weren't. So that's what happened. So he was 11, strong willed, and he made a choice. And then in the end, obviously, like one of those sort of lessons of the story is families that stay together do better than not. Manya Brachear Pashman:   As you mentioned, your family ends up in Siberia. That's where this Russian train takes them. I'll let listeners kind of watch the film to find out exactly how that unfolds. There is a story that did not make it into the film, but I read about the spilled milk, and I'm hoping that you can share that story as I think it's so sweet, but it also just gives listeners an idea of the conditions that your aunts, uncle and mom survived.  Allan Novak:   I mean, they were living essentially in a small wooden room inside of a long wooden barrack, and every family didn't matter how many people you got this, this wooden room. There were no beds. There were just sort of boards that came down from the wall. And there was like a bucket where they would put wood in and that sort of all they had to kind of keep them warm. But sometimes they could do things like they could trade.  There were Siberian peasants around. And if you had an earring or something, you could get some milk, right, from a farmer nearby. And so, yeah, I think my Aunt Sally, she was able to kind of get this milk for the family. And it was this huge, huge treasure to have this small little pail of milk. And she put it under the bed for safekeeping until she could share it the next morning, and then she knocked it over in the night, and this precious, precious milk spilled on the floor, and she really like, for her whole life, she just had this deep sense of regret and shame for spilling this milk, because it was just so precious to have anything to eat other than the few grams of bread they were given. Manya Brachear Pashman:   She literally cried over spilled milk for decades.  Allan Novak:   Yes. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Did her siblings know about this? And I'm just curious, what was the dynamic? You actually asked this very question in the film. You asked them, what is the dynamic between all of you? And they interpreted that as the difference. But I'm curious, just from your perspective, what was the dynamic of these siblings through the years?  Allan Novak:   Well, you know, they came from a traditional family. The father was Orthodox, you know, Shomer Shabbos, kosher, as probably were most of the Jews in Poland at that time, in the 20s and 30s. So they had a great deal of respect for the mother and father, would be nothing like today. It was just pure respect and love. And so between them, Sally, who's in the film, they called her the smart one. She was the most educated one. So she kind of ruled the roost, in a way. But Ruth, the youngest, she was a troublemaker. She's my auntie Ruthie, the comedian. And so she would make trouble.  She would follow them. If somebody had a date, like if Sally had a date with a boy, you know, Ruthie would be sneaking up behind and, like, harassing them and not going home, or chasing after them. She was kind of wild and incorrigible. My mother was always the middle child, so she was the peacemaker, which you see in the film, always trying to bridge between Sally and the younger Ruth. And Saul was kind of, he was the boy, the only boy, and they really just cherished him. He was good with his hands. He could fix anything.  There's a story in the film of how he had to kind of steal little parts, pieces of wood and things to end up building a cart that he could sell to get milk, that kind of thing. So they really appreciated each other, and they each had their positions, you know, judging by birth order, in a way. Manya Brachear Pashman:   You also talk in the film about how Saul and your aunt Ruthie, they were determined to fulfill their dream of going to Israel and going to a kibbutz in Israel. Spoiler alert, they did not make it, because, again, they put family first. Was this family first theme, a through line of your upbringing? And also, did they ever make it to Israel as just tourists?  Allan Novak:   Yeah, family first, certainly. Yeah. I grew up with a lot of cousins, the uncles and aunts, and they all lived very close to each other for their entire adult lives. You know, every night, one of the uncles and aunts would be walking over down the street and sitting there, so yeah, and we would hang with my cousins during the summer. So yeah, family first, definitely. We were all very close with our cousins, and we still continue to be. With respect to Israel, I mean, it was really something. They really wanted to be in Israel. You know, they were part of Zionist groups called Akiba growing up. My father, this story isn't in the film, was actually the head of, like, a whole group of Kibbutzim in Poland, and he ran the organization getting people over to Israel, you know, in 1947-48 and it was actually a great embarrassment to him that he ended up going with his new wife to Canada versus Israel. And he was very embarrassed because, you know, Oscar, you know, she and Novak, the organizer, ended up going to Canada. So it was a bit awkward. But, you know, they went where they got their immigration, and there was already family there. And just a very quick sidebar, so my father had one sister. My father lost like nine siblings, but he had one sister who emigrated to Palestine at the time in the 20s, and she had one son. And so my only living relative in Israel was the greatest living soccer star of his era. It's the equivalent of like having Pele as your cousin. His name is Nahum Stelmach. They called him Rosh Zahav, the golden head, because he won a famous match against Russia in the 60s. And this small country beat Russia, and he won. Sidebar.  So they did get to Israel. It took until the mid 60s to get there to visit his, you know, Nahum, and then they went subsequently a few more times, but, you know, it was expensive, particularly, you know, in the 50s, and you know, until the 60s. So it took until the 60s, till they got there. But, yeah, it was a lifelong regret, but it was just kind of the twists of fate. Well, it's in the film. They might have ended up in Israel. They were on the Exodus. They were booked on the boat the Exodus, and then my grandfather had a stroke just before. So part of the themes of the film is kind of the random twists of fate and the choices that we make, and what happens is unknowable. Manya Brachear Pashman:   The film includes footage of your mother turning 100, the birthday party, and she would always say that the best revenge against Hitler was to live long lives. What do you think has kept your family members alive for so long, what has kept them alive? Allan Novak:   Coincidentally, Uncle Saul just had his 100th birthday party three days ago. Now, three of them hit 100 and over, and Ruthie just is gonna have her 90th birthday next week. One of the things I say is they live with intense moderation. Everything they did was moderate. They didn't eat too much, they didn't tan too much, they didn't smoke, they didn't travel, just everything was just kind of this moderate lifestyle and exercise, right? So I believe that's part of it. They really were well preserved, physically and mentally like, right to the end.  And then, of course, you know the closeness, I think, the social cohesion that the fact that they, three of them, moved in together to assisted living facilities, you know, in their late 90s together. You know, as they lived in a condo. They all had three apartments next to each other for 20 years as well, with Saul close by. So I think that family cohesion and closeness and they didn't fight. They never fought, never saw a feuding moment. So, you know, we know things like stress and all of that contribute to long lives. So I think they sort of had this mild and loving long life.  Manya Brachear Pashman:   I'm sure their experience gave them some perspective. There's nothing really worth fighting about when you've survived what you did together.  Allan Novak:   Yes, absolutely right.  Manya Brachear Pashman:   What has kept them so young, not so old? What lessons can we take away from the shvesters story today? Allan Novak:   Certainly take care of your siblings. Stay close. Keep them close, keep relations good. Choose togetherness over isolation when the chips are down. Positive spirit, Uncle Saul's positive spirit and their positive outlook. Again, never wallowing in what had happened to them and the things that were lost, even the family members that were lost, moving forward and cherishing what they have. And you know, loving your children, if you have them, and their caring family gave them a lot of meaning.  They did everything for us, everything for the kinder, even to the point of when the film initially premiered, actually at Lincoln Center last January, and my mother was in the hospital at 100 and a half, and she stayed alive and alert until we had this premiere. We flew back, and then it was kind of like three days later, she let herself go with us there and said proper goodbyes. And I firmly believe that she just held on for the kinder, as they would say, for the children. So I think that's part of what kept them vital and youthful and alive.  Manya Brachear Pashman:   Thank you so much. Allan, thank you for making this documentary and sharing it with the world.  Allan Novak:   My complete and utter pleasure, and I hope people take as much joy and uplifting positive and laughter, which is ironic for a film dealing with that time period, but they won. Hitler lost, and they won.  And so it's kind of a triumphant story. And there's a final image which people would see of them on their balcony, you know, all around 100. In the snow in Winnipeg, holding hands, just persistent and alive. And they're together, immortalized now in the film. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Thank you so much, Allan.  Allan Novak:   My pleasure.  Manya Brachear Pashman:   To watch the short film, head to the link in our show notes.  And a special thank you to Debi Wisch, AJC Board of Governors member and the producer of Crossing the River, for her work to further Holocaust education through the arts. If you missed our last two episodes, be sure to tune in for my conversations with AJC Jerusalem Director Avital Leibovich and AJC Managing Director of Policy and Political Affairs Julie Fishman Rayman about the high stakes negotiations to bring the October 7 hostages home.

Supporting lone soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)—those serving without immediate family in Israel—has never been more crucial. These soldiers face challenges such as language barriers, adjusting to a new culture, and coping with the emotional and physical demands of service, all while navigating feelings of loneliness, especially during holidays.  This Thanksgiving, hear from lone soldiers Kerren Seidner and Nate LeRoy about their experiences and how they support fellow soldiers through Ach Gadol (Big Brother), an organization dedicated to helping those serving without family support. Resources: Ach Gadol: Big Brother Organization for Lone Soldiers Be Kind As Omer Balva Instagram page Listen – AJC Podcasts: The Forgotten Exodus: with Hen Mazzig, Einat Admony, and more. People of the Pod:  The ICC Issues Arrest Warrants: What You Need to Know What President-Elect Trump's Nominees Mean for Israel, Antisemitism, and More What the Election Results Mean for Israel and the Jewish People The Jewish Vote in Pennsylvania: What You Need to Know 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 Conversation with Nate LeRoy and Kerren Seidner: Manya Brachear Pashman: Lone soldiers are members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who don't have immediate family to support them while they're serving. They face many challenges, including learning Hebrew, adapting to a new culture, and the physical and emotional demands of IDF service. And it may come as no surprise that lone soldiers also experience loneliness, especially on holidays celebrated back home. For two decades, AJC Jerusalem has held a special Thanksgiving dinner for lone soldiers. But after the Hamas terror attacks on October 7, 2023 as many lone soldiers were dispatched across the country, AJC sent boxes of sweets and other Thanksgiving delicacies to 48 lone soldiers deployed at different bases.  Here to talk about why they served as lone soldiers, and the unique way they have volunteered their services since October 7, are two former lone soldiers, Kerren Seidner and Nate LeRoy.  Kerren, Nate, welcome to People of the Pod. Nate LeRoy:   Hi, thank you for having me. Manya Brachear Pashman: Kerren, I'll start with you, if you wouldn't mind sharing with listeners your back story. You were born in China, and then an Israeli couple living in the United States adopted you. Kerren Seidner:   Correct. So I was adopted around 11 months old, both my parents, my Israeli Jewish family, my parents, they were living in Los Angeles, California at the time. They adopted me. They went to China to come adopt me, and I have an older brother who is biological to my parents. And then I grew up, my entire family, in a Jewish Israeli home. Manya Brachear Pashman: And so had you ever been to Israel? What inspired you to go to Israel for the first time and then later to serve? Kerren Seidner:   For me, I always grew up in Israeli household. Growing up with the Israeli culture. I heard Hebrew every single day in my life. Although I did not learn Hebrew, my parents did not teach me.  I think the first time I went to Israel was for my brother's Bar Mitzvah when I was six years old, and so ever since then, we would always go to Israel for the summer vacation. So I always grew up going to Israel. I've always been in touch with all my family and cousins, aunts and uncles that I have here in Israel.  But I never thought I would ever come to Israel to serve until the age 18, where you grew up in American house, like in the American lifestyle, where at age 18, you need to decide if you want to go to college or university, or figure out what you want to do in life. So then I started thinking, You know what, maybe studying in Israel might be an option.  But then my older brother, decided that he had just decided to draft to the army. So I thought maybe that might be a possibility for myself. And then overnight, it just kind of happened that I wanted to make Aliyah and draft to the army. My mom said, you know, you should be a combat soldier. It was very new at that time for girls to be in combat. Manya Brachear Pashman: So why did she encourage you to do combat? Kerren Seidner:   Growing up, I've always done sports. I played soccer for 11 years. So I was always active. And I think my mom knew, coming from my dad, because most of the time I would spend with my dad, my mom in our household was different, where my mom was out working and my dad was a stay at home dad mostly.  So I was always with him, and I always heard the stories of him being an officer in combat, and then right at age 16, my brother had just drafted to Said Golani. So hearing all these stories, my mom just knew it was very fitting for me to go to combat as well. Manya Brachear Pashman: Nate, you grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, and did you first come to Israel on a gap year, or had you been before? Nate LeRoy:   So my first trip to Israel was actually with my Jewish day school. We have a small, strong Jewish day school in Charleston called Addelstone Hebrew Academy. Every eighth grade there does each year, does a trip. So that was my first experience in Israel. I came back with Young Judea on a summer program before senior year of high school, and then lived here on my gap year, Young Judea Year Course immediately after high school as well. Manya Brachear Pashman: And then what drew you to serve as a lone soldier? Nate LeRoy:   I think a huge part of it, like Kerren was talking about, was growing up with, for me, it wasn't an Israeli family, but a really strong, close, tight knit community in Charleston. And I have to give a lot of credit to Young Judea as well, especially to Camp Judea, where I grew up in just an extremely Zionist, welcoming, loving environment. And we had dozens of Israelis working on our staff every summer.  So having that kind of constant flood growing up of Israelis each summer, even if it wasn't in the house. Camp is really that home for a month each year, especially later on in high school, working there, and ultimately the gap year as well. Being here, living here for a year, being able to experience Israel, really feeling like you get kind of absorbed into society, was a huge part of it.  And I kind of looked around at the time, at Israelis my age, and felt okay, I'm 18 years old. They're 18 years old. We hear all the time that Israel is the Jewish nation, the Jewish state. We never hear that it's the Israeli nation, the Israeli state. So why do only the people who are born here have to serve?  And I kind of felt like, for me, the best way to do something and to serve the Jewish people and the Jewish state in Israel was through the army. And kind of like, my service for myself was also mandatory, and that was the path I chose, was to serve through that way. Manya Brachear Pashman: And what year did you serve Nate? Nate LeRoy:   I drafted in 2020. Manya Brachear Pashman: In 2020, and then served until when? Nate LeRoy:   I served until the end of 2021, through the Machal program. Which allows you to draft before you make Aliyah, so you do a shortened service of 18 months. Manya Brachear Pashman: And then, Kerren, when did you serve? Kerren Seidner:   I drafted December 2019. Manya Brachear Pashman: And served for how long?  Kerren Seidner:   Until August 2022. Manya Brachear Pashman  And so you said, Kerren, that you wanted to be, you sought to be in combat. Did you see combat as an IDF soldier? Kerren Seidner:   Yes, I was in Ariot Ha'edan. It's a coed unit in Israel. It's a regular reconnaissance unit, like Golani, Tzanchanim, but coed, and we're just mostly on the border, so the main underneath the unit Kchi Gvulot, so that translates to Border Patrol. So there's other units like Caracal, which was very much known in the recent war, and Bardelas, they're on the borders, mostly with Egypt. I was on the Jordanian border within the West Bank. Manya Brachear Pashman: And Nate, how did you serve? Or where did you serve? Nate LeRoy:   I served in Golani, in dud chamishim v'achat. So the 51st brigade. And we serve kind of all around. We did our training in the Merkaz Israel, the middle of Israel, in the north, and then served on various borders, on Gaza and up north and throughout the West Bank as well. Manya Brachear Pashman: Now, are you both in reserves now? Nate LeRoy:   I currently serve in reserves. I'm not at this moment, I finished reserves in the summer. We were in Gaza for two months with my unit most recently.  Manya Brachear Pashman: And Kerren, how about you? Are you still a reservist?  Kerren Seidner:   Yes, from October 7. I served about two months, and then I got released for about half a year, and then I just did about two months in the summer as well. Manya Brachear Pashman: All right. And can you say where? Kerren Seidner:   They put me wherever they need. In the first part, I moved eight times in the span of two months. So wherever they put me. Manya Brachear Pashman: When you're not serving, when you're not fighting or seeing combat, you volunteer in a very unique way. Can you tell our listeners how you have continued to serve those who are in the IDF? Kerren Seidner:   For me, for us, we volunteer with Ach Gadol. It's a special program where people like us, who are post lone soldiers who, we have lone soldiers who are currently serving, and we mentor them throughout their entire service. I currently have three soldiers, and two of them are actually combat soldiers. Manya Brachear Pashman: And Nate?  Nate LeRoy:   Yeah. So like Kerren said, it's a great summary. Ach Gadol, which means big brother, can translate it to big sister as well. We both volunteer with the organization. I have the privilege of being volunteering in a lone soldier house in Tel Aviv as well. So it's just a place where lone soldiers can stay on the weekends when they're off base, if they don't have a place to go, or some of them who might do kind of daily jobs where they go to and from their army service each day. If they're in intelligence, they can stay there as well if it's closer to base. So I volunteered there a little bit, and have a little brother.  It's funny to say, because he's my age. We actually both overlapped at Tulane University in the States for a year, but didn't meet each other, and so we got here and got matched through the organization, so he's my one little brother right now, and it's been great. It's a great way to have a connection with someone.  I personally received a lot of help from the generations before me. And I think most lone soldiers did because you really can't do this by yourself. As funny as that is being called a lone soldier, you really can't do it alone. And it's just great. It felt definitely like the right thing to do, to turn around and give it to the current generation and future generations. Manya Brachear Pashman: What do lone soldiers need now, that's different from when you served? Nate LeRoy:   I think a lot of the challenges stay the same. In terms of, you encounter adulthood all of a sudden, when you get here, in terms of finding an apartment, figuring out how to live your life by yourself, figuring out all that sort of adulthood stuff. And on top of it, you have the army, which is a massive thing to navigate, a massive language issue.  And I think right now I'll speak personally with my own relationship with the person I volunteer with, with Josh, when you throw war on top of that, which by itself, is more than enough to deal with, you know, how can you figure out your apartment in your contract when you've been in Gaza for the last two months? How can you figure out, you know, you have to leave combat in a war zone and go back and do your own laundry? And it's those little things that really make a difference. Where someone who is Israeli and has a family here and has the support they need, you know, they go back and they're in that support circle.  And no matter what you come back from, even if you come back from, you know, when I was serving just the most regular week in the army, when you come back and you just want to check out for the weekend and be with your friends, and you have this kind of list of errands piling up, it's difficult.  And coming back from combat, from war, from fighting, from losing friends, you know, it just 100 times more difficult. I think it's super important to make sure people have the support they need in all of those things, and also know that they have the space to talk about stuff and to share things that are difficult for them, and to reach out to someone who's going through similar things. Kerren Seidner:   For me, it's a very deep question, but I think that, like how Nate said the whole thing about being a lone soldier, no matter times of war or normal times. We like to say normal times, but it's still hard. You need the support no matter what I think, especially just during the times of this war, and in any war, just the mental because I feel like, having to have been in miluim, I also struggled with it as well, going to miluim, being in the duty of being in the Army and that mindset as a soldier, and then coming home to civilian life, it's very different.  Especially then you come to civilian life, and I'm here, like in Herzliya, and you also don't feel necessarily safe, because you have also rockets all the time, like I had one this morning as well. So it's really can be scary at times, but I think what's so special about Israel, we have the support from one another, not just from people like me, who was a lone soldier trying to help out with other lone soldiers, but just random civilians on the street, really just uplifting.  Manya Brachear Pashman: Can you kind of describe what you're talking about? What do you mean by that? Kerren Seidner:   I think for me, ever since I moved to Israel, I say, Israel is definitely home, the people here are very different. I grew up in the Los Angeles area, so I really feel like there was very materialistic. But I think there's so many people that just want to help one another. And I really seen that a lot throughout the war, even through my service, being a lone soldier, people would just hand me money left and right. People constantly are asking, Do you have a place for Shabbat to not feel alone on Shabbat, which means a lot. Manya Brachear Pashman: And what about Thanksgiving and other holidays that you traditionally celebrated in Los Angeles or in Charleston. How have you been able to mark those occasions in Israel? Nate LeRoy:   I think for me, in going off of a big thing, Kerren spoke about. I also lived in Herzliya during my service, and there's a fantastic self made group of just moms and dads and everyday people from the community there of Israelis who, whenever we'd go home, especially on holidays, Rosh Hashanah and stuff, people would either volunteer to host us, or a lot of times we just receive Friday afternoon, someone would come by. They have a list of all of our addresses, if we're in this group chat, and they just drop off home cooked meals and say, you know, this Friday night, you and your roommates, have this Shabbat dinner. Enjoy. Don't worry about cooking. And having that home cooked meal, even if it's not my mom, you know, mom's cooking. It's a great feeling and a great experience.  And another thing that I've had, and I've been super fortunate to and I know a lot of us do as well. A lot of lone soldiers. Is in the absence of your immediate family, your friends really become your family. And I'm still lucky to this day to have people who I met during my time in the army and I served with who, we're still in touch. We still hang out together, and some of us, Thanksgiving specifically, you know people who can get home, and it works out with work, they go, and I'm jealous of them. I wish I could as well, but we do our best to cook a great Thanksgiving dinner. And turkeys are a little hard to come by here, but we get a couple of rotisserie chickens, and a bird's a bird, and we try to do the best we can to have this sort of family experiences and family holidays. Manya Brachear Pashman: Kerren, how about you? Do you mark Thanksgiving in any particular way or other holidays? Kerren Seidner:   For me, Thanksgiving, honestly, I don't think I do, only because for me, every Friday night is like Thanksgiving to me. For me, yom shishi, the arcuchat shihi is super important for me. I because we are lone soldiers. I always try to make sure I spend it with friends who how, like Nate said, it's become like family. So living here in Herzliya, there is a big community of people, olim like myself. So we became like a little family of our own. So I would always do Shabbat together, or I am in touch with, when I moved here and did the army, I had a host family. So I am still in touch with my host family from the army. And I see them. They just live in the north in a moshav. So it's kind of hard for me to get there all the time, but I try to celebrate the Hebrew holidays, the Jewish holidays, mostly.  Manya Brachear Pashman: Do your families get to Israel throughout the year? Have they traveled there to see you, even if you aren't able to get to, back to Los Angeles or Charleston to see them? Kerren Seidner:   For me, my dad was really nervous when the war first broke out and Nefesh b'Nefesh opened up flights for one parent to come to Israel for lone soldiers. So he was able to get one of those flights and was able to see me during the war. And then my mom came not too long after that for a wedding, our cousin's wedding was canceled throughout the war, so it was postponed, and so she came for our cousin's wedding. But I haven't gone home in a year and a half, so I'm luckily going back in February to visit.  Nate LeRoy:   My family was able to come to visit at the end of my service, which was really important for me, for them to be able to see me. I guess we both, you drafted just a few months before me, but we both served during COVID. Kerren Seidner:   Yeah. Nate LeRoy:   Which is just also just, I mean, now, nothing compares to serving now, but it was a super weird, wild time of all sorts of closures and rules and different things. So for my family to be able to come after the kind of general lockdown and everything of COVID was really great for them, to be able to be here while I was in the army, and they haven't been able to come visit since then, but they still want to, and still will. I think sometime in this coming year, my parents may be able to come out to visit. Manya Brachear Pashman: And when was the last time you went to Charleston?  Nate LeRoy:   I was lucky enough. I was able to go back a few months ago, when I finished my reserve service, over the summer, I went back for a little bit to see my family and see some friends. Manya Brachear Pashman: What did you gain from serving in the IDF? Nate LeRoy:   I think it's kind of immeasurable to an extent. I think that the person I was when I went in, it's still very much the person I am now. But you experienced so much, and you changed so much. And I drafted at 21 years of age, but growing so much over those kind of really formative years, but I think that I learned more about myself than I ever expected to. I learned about the importance of commitment to other people and the reaffirmment of committing to the greater good.  And I think something I learned about people is just always, always to give people the benefit of the doubt and to know that people usually do try their best and they have their best intentions in mind, and to give them the space to be able to show that, improve that, you're in a lot of really just within your team and people you're shoulder to shoulder. You know, you never get a minute by yourself, and it gets very intense. A lot of situations with you or the people you serve with.  But just learning to kind of give them that space and trust people and know that they want what's best for you and you want what's best for them, no matter how much each moment might get kind of chippy at certain points. It's something that you can only really experience through those tougher, tougher ordeals. Manya Brachear Pashman: Kerren, what did you take away from your service in the IDF? Kerren Seidner:   I think for me, it was really hard. I was going through a lot. I also, when I first moved to Israel, I was 18, and I didn't necessarily want to leave LA at that moment, I was finally in a friend group where I felt like I belonged. So it was really hard for me to have just decided to move across the country or the world, not the country, and I didn't really know the language.  So it was still hard, which is always going to be a little hard, but then getting put somewhere in the middle of nowhere, not knowing anything. I think I definitely change in a way that I've opened up a lot more. I was very closed off. And I tell people all the time, like my friends today, they didn't know me when I was 18, and I was very closed off. I don't even think I would be doing something like this even today. And in the army, you're just put with a bunch of girls, and you don't know the full language, but you just got to get to know them. And I even tell my friends today that the girls who are with me in the army, who are my best friends today, hang out with them all the time.  And they will even say that the first year, I did not talk to them, and I think because we were stuck in quarantine for two weeks, we were forced to spend time.  I had to just open up and actually get to know them. And I regretted not getting to know them earlier, and I'm so much happier that I open up and reach out. And that's something with Ach Gadol, where you just kind of maybe need to make that extra step, the first step, because there's new lone soldiers today who are just maybe scared to do that first step because they're in a new country, and we've been there before.  Manya Brachear Pashman: I asked you both what you gained from your time in the IDF, but it is a sacrifice. For which we are very grateful that you made. What did you lose by serving in the IDF? What did you sacrifice? Nate LeRoy:   I think, without the risk of being overly cheesy, I feel very lucky to have had a great service and to have experienced the army in a I got lucky, and I had a great service. And there are a lot of people around me who weren't so lucky, and kind of you know, things didn't fall their way, and they had a less good service or a bad service to a certain extent. So I'm very fortunate. That I can say I didn't lose anything that I wasn't willing to and I didn't know I was going to sacrifice beforehand. I did a year at Tulane before, and chose to leave that behind and come and do the army, and knew I had finished my studies at some point, which I'm doing now.  And I guess I lost, you know, two or three more years of partying in college in the States and a lot of experiences with close friends, who I'm fortunate to still be close with. But that's a decision and choice that I made, and knew I was making when I came over here. And, you know, a couple of Mardi Gras would have been great. COVID softened the blow a little that it, you know, they were canceled or didn't happen to the full extent. But again, I'm just fortunate to have. You know, only missed the experiences that I thought I would be able to miss. Kerren Seidner:   Yeah, I honestly, I think I lucked out, that I really enjoyed my service, and I don't regret anything about it. And I always say that I'm, I'm going to stay here in Israel forever. This is home. I always say, like to my friends who are drafting now and to my soldiers now that: I'll support them no matter what. If they have any regrets, or if they went to combat and they regretted that decision, or any other decision.  I really do believe God has a path for every single person, and I think that we make mistakes, we have to learn, and we may regret some things, but I think that doing the army was the path that I was meant to do, and I don't regret any of it. Manya Brachear Pashman: One more question for you both, and that is, I asked you, what you lost from serving in the IDF, but so many people lost loved ones and friends on October 7. Did you lose anyone, or know anyone who was killed or kidnapped on October 7? Kerren Seidner:   For me, not on October 7. I have a friend of mine. His name is Omer Balva. They actually have an Instagram page called Be Kind as Omer. And we did Garin Tzabar together. He was in the Moshav next to me. And he actually started university with me at the same time, so that was really hard for me. And I was able to go to his funeral. That was the first time I was out of miluim.  And then throughout, after I got released in July, my mifached, unfortunately, was killed in a motorcycle accident, and he did miluim and everything. It was just very unfortunate to have lost him in such an unfortunate way. And then a far relative cousin on my dad's side is actually kidnapped still to this day. Manya Brachear Pashman: I want to let listeners know you are referring to your cousin Tzachi Idan. Kerren, I hope you don't mind me sharing that his 18-year-old daughter Ma'ayan was murdered in their home on October 7 before her father was taken into Gaza. In fact, she was helping her father hold the door to the safe room closed and she was shot through the door. It is a horrific story.   Thank you, Kerren, for sharing that about your friend and your cousin. Nate? Nate LeRoy:   So I was fortunate to not have anyone that I was close with who passed away on the seventh. There were several people I served with kind of an extended, extended relationship with, or distant relationship with, who passed away fighting in the Kibbutzim in the south and about a month after the seventh, someone in my extended family, one of my cousins, a lone soldier from Atlanta, Rose Lubin, was killed in a terrorist attack in Jerusalem, and actually, this coming week is her the yard site for the first time. So a lot of the family, a lot of family on her side, live here in Israel. So everyone's kind of has a fantastic week of really meaningful, important events taking place. Everyone's coming over for it from the States as well, so it'll be a really meaningful, moving week to remember her. Manya Brachear Pashman: Thank you both so very much for your service, for all you've done to and you're doing to support the soldiers, especially at this time. Thank you both for joining us. Nate LeRoy:   Thank you. And just one last thing, anyone who's interested in Ach Gadol wants to find us online. I'm sure there'll be a link somewhere with this podcast, but feel free to search us on Google or wherever Ach Gadol or in Hebrew, Ach Gadol L'Ma'an Chayalim Bodedim, and thank you so much for having me on the show.  Kerren Seidner:   What he said. Thank you. Manya Brachear Pashman: If you missed last week's episode, tune in for my conversation with Belle Yoeli, AJC's Chief Advocacy Officer, about the International Criminal Court's charges against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. She explains why regardless of political views about this Israeli administration, the charges tied to Israel's defense operations in Gaza are unjust.   

Miriam Herschlag, Allison Kaplan Sommer 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   —TIME Is on His Side?— Prime Minister Netanyahu gives his longest interview since October 7. What's it tell us? —Time Is on HIS Side?— How is this man growing more popular at this time, after everything? —Fraying at the Edges— For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: How we doin' at this moment? Plus, co-joined Kibbutzim, Tisha B'Av at Hostage Square, and the bipolar music of Tamir Grinberg.

In Slovakia president Petr Pellegrini has hinted he may take reciprocal measures against Ukraine, after Kyiv halted the transit of crude oil from Russia to Central Europe. In India a religious guru has refused to take responsibility for a stampede causing 121 casualties, and in Israel some Kibbutzim remain uninhabited after October attacks.

An American, a Canadian and an Israeli Jewish educator walk into a….well a discussion. About the Israel-Hamas war, the state of Gaza and state of mind of Israelis, no less. So, this conversation is really no joke. Huge thanks to Yair Alon, Adam Levi and Zev Dever for this sometimes hard, always thoughtful, and very nuanced and compassionate conversation, and the healing and shared understanding they are working to reach.  You may remember my baby brother Zev from Season 1, when he taught us about how much of modern Western Judaism formed into what we see in places like the U.S. today. He's recently back from Israel, and he and his colleagues Adam and Yair squeezed in a late night podcast recording with me while in D.C. on a listening and discussion tour for their NGO Hechalutz, exploring what American Jewish communities are experiencing in the aftermath of the October 7 Hamas attack. They bring us clear-eyed assessments of what Israelis and American Jews alike are experiencing, and how those might create challenges or hopes for a peaceful resolution to the war. Listen in to hear what Israel was like in the immediate aftermath of October 7, how Israelis are feeling now, and the implications of coping--or not--with the destruction of some of their most basic concepts of safety and security. This was a long conversation, and cutting too much would have damaged the depth of the discussion, so we've divided it into 2 parts. Please be sure to come back for part 2, where we'll get a deep dive into the huge differences in the discourse for American and Israeli Jews, and hear about the individual, and yet sadly universal, experiences of these three on October 7, and how they personally are working to process all that has happened and all that remains to be faced. GLOSSARY:Kibbutz: traditionally agrarian, these communal living settlements now take various forms around an "intentional", voluntary social contract. Aaliya: from the Hebrew word meaning "to rise" or "to go up", this is the term for becoming a citizen of Israel. "Olim" is the plural noun for people who have done this, like Zev.Diaspora: a general term for peoples living outside their homeland. Generically often refers to Jews living outside Israel.Habonim D'ror: MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Ezra Klein Show: She polled Gazans on Oct. 6. Here's what she found.Effects of the war on Israeli and Palestinian economies.Hostage families protest the Israeli governmentIsrael's far right on resettling GazaLearn about the Rise of the Israeli Right and Hamas from one of the very best in the biz, NPR's Throughline.  Support the showLike the show? Support it! Or don't, that's cool too. Just glad you're here! https://www.buzzsprout.com/2196108/supporters/new

FIDF Chief Executive Officer Steve Weil welcomes the Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum. A soldier in the narrative war against Israel, the Deputy Mayor works to counter and dismantle the inaccurate and dangerous accusations waged against Israel as it works to defend itself from what ultimately is a clash of civilizations. Presenting compelling arguments against the forever mutating virus of antisemitism, she summarizes the ideological war Jews face in the wake of October 7th and the physical proxy war Jews face against Iran's many terror arms. Detailing how Jerusalem has absorbed evacuees of the South, she offers her view on a Two State Solution, and finally assures viewers that Israel WILL win this War for Our Home, and that it is only a question of at what price to live, in order to live as a free people in our ancestral homeland. Next, FIDF National Director Nadav Padan briefs us on the war on the ground. Hearteningly, he shares that we are starting to see cracks in the fight: namely that Palestinian civilians – as we saw in Rafah - feel safe enough to come onto the streets and protest their leadership, calling on Hamas to give up. Nevertheless, Hamas ignores their pleas and continues its brutal tactics. We are also witnessing terrorists in Judea and Samaria adopting their strategies. The North too changed operationally: Hezbollah is destroying empty houses in Northern border Kibbutzim; these homes belong to people who evacuated. This damage resembles what happened to homes in the South on October 7th. Simultaneously, an international naval fight continues to grow around the Red Sea and Suez Canal with Iranian support now apparent, as terrorists attempt to control key areas of commerce. Despite these many complexities, MG Padan assures viewers that the IDF's maneuvers are succeeding and urges viewers to retain vigilance and moral clarity, for this is truly a war of good versus evil. (Recorded 12/24/2023)

The prayer life of the Jewish people gives voice to contradiction and dissonance. On the one hand, all week long we have been singing Hallel, in which we acclaim how God saves us: I called on Adonai; I prayed that God would save me.... God has delivered me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. I shall walk before Adonai in the land of the living. On the other hand, a poem by Israeli Asaf Gur, called Kadish, offers a different reality. Yisgadal V'yiskadash Shmei Raba And no one came Many thousands called Him on Shabbat morning Crying His name out loud Begging Him with tears just to come But He ceased from all His work No God came And no God calmed Only Satan celebrated uninterrupted Dancing between Kibbutzim and the slaughter festival... This poem evokes the spirit of the Kaddish we recite on Yom Hashoah: Yitgadal Auschwitz Vyitkadash Lodz Sh'mei raba Ponar... What do we do with this dissonance? Is the Joseph story helpful? When Joseph is sold into slavery, when he is unjustly sent to prison for a crime he did not commit, when he lives as a prisoner, three times the Torah says "The Lord was with Joseph." What does that mean, and what does that mean to us?

In this Special Episode of The Holy Sparks Podcast, I interviewed Adi Hayun Perez who lives locally here in San Francisco.I'm Her family grew up on Kibbutz Kfar Aza, one of the first Kibbutzim to be raided by Hamas Terrorists on October 7th. In this interview you will hear about life growing up on Kfar Aza, what happened on October 7th, and how Adi's sister's family miraculously escaped. ------ Story Ima [mom] is it the end of the world...? This is the question Yahav Hadar, just seven years old, asked his parents during the terrorist attack on Kibbutz Kfar Aza. As the sounds of gunfire and explosions filled the air, parents Tal and Roy Hadar sought refuge in their bomb shelter with their three children - eldest son Yahav, four year old toddler Reef, and infant Libi, born just two months before. For ten long, excruciating hours, the Hadar family sheltered in place as father Roy blocked HAMAS terrorists from breaking down the door while mother Tal soothed her traumatized and starving children. Unable to enter into the shelter, the terrorists set their newly constructed home on fire, in hopes of burning alive the five innocent Jews locked inside. After enduring agonizing hours of sweltering heat, and as the lethal smoke fumes from the fiery blaze began to seep into their shelter, parents Tal and Roy made an unthinkable but courageous, split-second decision to attempt a dangerous and daring escape by crawling out the window and racing barefoot through the site of an heinous and unspeakable massacre which was - just hours before - a serene and sleepy Shabbat morning in the quiet desert plains of Israel's southern region. Miraculously, the Hadar family discovered a car, allowing them to expedite their journey and relocate to relative safety. While the Hadar family is thankfully all alive, they have lost everything… their new home, kind neighbors, beloved community, and any semblance of the secure life they had carefully crafted and fearlessly forged as a loving - and much loved - family of five, living peacefully and purposefully as Israeli citizens of the Jewish state. And now they need our help. Together we CAN inspire hope and allow the Hadar Family to heal. Together we CAN restore their honor and defy the harrowing hate they endured. Together we CAN make a difference, in the life of this one family, right now. And in so doing, together, we WILL ensure a brighter future... ...not only for Tal and Roy, but for the next generation of Jews that Yadav, Reef and Libi will now live to be a part of. click here to make a tax deductible donation now https://givebutter.com/HadarFamilyFund Thank you for your support. Please share this video with as many people as you can to help #israel #war #donation #podcast #help

In episode 1581, Jack and Miles are joined by award winning journalist, Aymann Ismail, to discuss…How The Media Has Been Covering The War In Gaza From The Start and more! Intensified Israeli Surveillance Has Put the West Bank on Lockdown Posting Empathy for Gaza Ended One of Her Friendships. An Expert on This Thinks That's Fine. Haaretz.Com The Origins of the Gaza Strip, and the Israeli Communities Nestled by It Aymann Want's You To See This: That New KFC...? LISTEN: Greg Abbott's Maxi Pad by Farmer's WifeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Niv Shimshon woke up to the horror of what happened in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, he immediately contacted his friends and family back in his home country. The Israeli-born photographer—who moved to Canada 10 years ago, now living in Hamilton with his wife and two young children—could only donate a bit of money to his family's kibbutz and offer words of support. Feeling helpless, he decided to take action. He began contacting Jewish and Israeli photographers across Israel and North America, inviting them to contribute to a fundraising project, wherein they would sell prints of their work and donate all proceeds to the kibbutzim attacked near the Gaza border. Word quickly spread, and soon Shimshon had assembled a collective of more than 20 photographers on the website Photographers for Israel. In less than a week, they've raised $1,500 in net profit for their cause. Ilana Zackon sat down with Shimshon and one of the project's Canadian contributors, Brant Slomovic, a emergency physician-turned-photographer, about their initiative and how Jewish artists from afar can help Israel in these difficult times. Show notes Visit the store at photographersforisrael.com See more of Niv Shimshon's work on his website See Brant Slomovic's work on his website Get tickets to "Jewish Futures: An Arts and Culture Salon", happening Nov. 26 at the Prosserman JCC Credits Culturally Jewish is hosted by Ilana Zackon and David Sklar. Our producer is Michael Fraiman, and our theme music is by Sarah Segal-Lazar. We're a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To support The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt, please consider a monthly donation by clicking here.

As time goes by, the numbers are still growing - So far, more than 1,400 people have died in the horrific Hamas massacre in Israel, and more than 200 people are still being held hostage under Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Almost 200 people are still considered missing (Neither dead nor hijacked. Status unknown). Avi Dabush is a social activist and the CEO of Rabbis for Human Rights. He was also living in Kibbutz Nirim, one of the 11 Kibbutzim built as part of the 11 Points project to settle the area bordering Gaza / Egypt (1948 border). On the Black Sabbath, Avi was seiged with his family in the shelter for 8 hours; his Kibbutz lost 5 community members who Hamas terrorists murdered.   Hear his story - that is the story of the survivors. If you wish to help the Kibbutzim Nirim and Nir Oz who were attacked and suffered heavy losses in lives (Nir Oz lost more than 100 people out of a community of 400 people in total!) and property, here are a few links to donate and also a campaign to free our hijacked civilians with Posters you can download and hang -  Nirim - https://my.israelgives.org/he/fundme/Nirim Nir Oz - https://my.israelgives.org/he/fundme/kibbutzniroz Kidnapped from Israel Campaign - https://www.kidnappedfromisrael.com/languages

On Saturday, October 7th, At 6:29, simultaneously with an attack of hundreds of missiles fired at Israel and under the IDF radar, more than 1,500 armed Hamas terrorists breached the wall between Gaza and Israel. In a well-planned attack, they raided 11 IDF outposts and bases and more than 20 Israeli civilian settlements - The city of Sderot, Kibbutzim, and Moshavim, all in the Gaza envelope (A description of the area surrounding the Gaza Strip, which is located up to approximately 6.5 miles / 10 kilometers from the border). They were well armed, crossing the wall with well-weaponized vans and motorcycles by land, motorboats by sea, paraglides, and drones by air. What Happened? A special episode of BALAGN. To join the campaign to release the hostages - https://www.kidnappedfromisrael.com/ To see Nas Daily videos - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNW2p0nTEto&ab_channel=NasDaily https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw9bfddQzxw&ab_channel=NasDaily  

How many of you have seen the play or the movie Golda's Balcony?  If you have, you know about that powerful moment, early in her career for Israel, she is Golda Meyerson at the time, it is January, 1948, it is three years after the Shoah, it is five months before Israel's independence would be declared and the war for independence would start, and Golda is with American Jews, at the General Assembly of Jewish Federations, held in Chicago on January 21.  Her mission was to inspire American Jews to support the incipient Jewish state and the Jewish army in the war for its very existence.  She was supposed to raise $25 million.  She ended up raising $50 million.  Make no mistake.  This is our Golda moment.  Golda's secret sauce contained three ingredients.  They apply to us with equal force. First, American Jews in 1948 learned of horrors and atrocities, murder and death, that befell innocent Jews of Europe.  Slaughter.  It made American Jews angry, sick to their stomach, nauseous, worried, grief-stricken, and determined to fight back. Check.  American Jews in 2023 woke up last Shabbat morning, and every day and every sleepless night, through our insomnia, through the pits in our stomachs, we read stories that claim us, stories of horrors and atrocities, murder and death, that befell innocent Jews in the towns and villages near Gaza.  By the way, none of these areas were settlements.  None of these areas could in any remote way be called occupied lands.  None of these areas carry moral complexity.  These were indisputably and properly Jewish communities whose Jews, celebrating Simchat Torah, celebrating a peaceful music festival were slaughtered precisely because they are Jews living in Israel. There was a second secret sauce to Golda's success:  American Jews in 1948 knew that if Jews were to make good on their promise of Never Again, we would have to create, sustain, and defend the State of Israel. Europe was a killing field for Jews. Part of the infinite tragedy of the Simchat Torah massacre was that Israel also became a killing field for Jews; and that peaceful Kibbutzim and villages were soaked through with Jewish blood.  The Kishinev pogrom came to Israel.  It was not supposed to be that way. Hatred of the Jewish people continues in these shores.  Elias and Lorena are in New York, with Mikey at Columbia for a freshmen parents' weekend.  But in our Talmud conversation yesterday, Elias shared that on Thursday night Mikey called him and Lorena and was very rattled.  New York, and Columbia, have a significant Jewish population. You would think in the week that Hamas had committed these atrocities, Columbia would be a safe space where Jewish students could protest.  Two hundred Jewish students showed up.  But there was a counter protest of 700 Palestinian students and sympathizers.  Campus police were so concerned about the safety of Jewish students at Columbia that they were whisked away to the Kraft Hillel Building, where the 200 students could continue their protest, in private, behind locked doors. What? How could it be? How could it be that 700 people at Columbia University, or the Harvard students that signed that odious statement, would walk with Hamas?  The American Jews to whom Golda spoke knew what we now must also know: that evil is real, hatred is real, and if never again was to be real, it would take a partnership between Israeli Jews and American Jews.  Israeli Jews, then and now, are on the front lines.  What do we do to help? Which leads to the third ingredient of Golda's secret sauce: we are not helpless and we are not hopeless.  We have agency and we have power.  That's what those American Jews on January 21, 1948 understood when Golda raised 50 million dollars. David Ben Gurion, Israel's first Prime Minister, called Golda Meir the “Jewish woman who got the money which made the state possible.” Golda's generation in America helped create the state.  Our generation in America now can help sustain the state. 

This week we mark 50 years to the Yom Kippur War. Micky Bentov from Melbourne, was born in Jerusalem and grew up in Kibbutz Heftziba, one of the oldest, most beautiful Kibbutzim in Israel. We hear some stories about the war that changed the lives of many Israelis.

Judaism takes a very different view of sex than much of mainstream culture in the U.S. Mischaracterization or misunderstanding of some of these differences may have evolved into some of the many anti-Semitic stereotypes (including conflicting ones…goes to show the solid reasoning behind stereotypes), but the general discourse among modern American Jews at least is, overall, pretty sex-positive. My views of sex were always a bit different, a bit more nuanced, perhaps, from my peers, so I went to the source: my mother. She's a pretty unusual sort in her own right, and has diligently passed along some of our rule-bending values and family traditions I didn't even know about. We'll learn how her parents talked to her about sex in the ‘60s, her youth as a “flower child,” and how that informed her dealing with my own and my siblings' high school hijinks. Join me and my little old Jewish mother for some laughter and insight, and maybe even a fresh perspective of how sex, love, and responsibility for one another are a perfectly natural—and often wonderful—part of life. GLOSSARY:Kibbutznik: A resident of a kibbutz, a type of communal agricultural settlement founded in Israel at the beginning of the 20th century where members shared income, meals, housing, duties and decision-making responsibilities. Kibbutzim (the plural of kibbutz) have changed a lot since the first one was founded in 1909; there are only about 250 today with about 125,000 members, and individuals and families often have personal income and property.John Birch Society:  A far-right anti-communist group founded in 1958 by businessman Robert Welch, named after an American Baptist missionary and Army officer who was killed by the Red Army in China in 1945.Tonsure: a hairstyle where a priest or monk's scalp is shaved bare on top, Other sources:https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/12/06/how-marvelous-mrs-maisel-fights-against-jewish-stereotypes/https://icsr.info/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/ICSR-Report-Sleeping-with-the-Enemy-Sex-Sexuality-and-Antisemitism-in-the-Extreme-Right.pdf https://www.britannica.com/topic/kibbutz Support the showLike the show? Support it! Or don't, that's cool too. Just glad you're here! https://www.buzzsprout.com/2196108/supporters/new

Ein junger Gitarrist reist 1963 nach Israel. Anatol Regnier wollte „den Rucksack des Holocaust“ nicht mehr tragen, wie er sagt. Er hofft im Judenstaat „auf der moralisch richtigen Seite“ zu stehen. Der Deutsche gibt sich als Engländer aus, wird herzlich empfangen und spielt klassische Musik in Kibbutzim. Eines Morgens hört er im Halbschlaf aus dem Radio eine unglaubliche Frauenstimme. Bald werden er und die international renommierte Sängerin ein Paar. Igal Avidan berichtet über diese 30 Jahre lange musikalische und spirituelle Reise zwischen Tel Aviv, Sydney und Wolfsburg. Die Shownotes zur Folge: https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/hendel-nechama https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/autor-und-musiker-anatol-regnier-mit-dem-schreiben-hat-mein-100.html

In dieser Radioreise nimmt Sie Alexander Tauscher mit ins heilige Land. Freuen Sie sich auf eine Reise unter dem Motto "Israel Cross Over" von den Golan-Höhen bis in die Wüste Negev. Dabei lernen wir auch viele unbekannte Orte kennen und treffen Menschen mit bewegenden Geschichten. Die Israel-Reise starten im Norden des Landes im fruchtbaren Weinbaugebiet der Golan-Höhen. Von einem Aussichtsplateau schauen von nach Syrien in das Dorf Quneitra. Wir erinnern an die wechselvolle Geschichte des Golan und den Konflikt zwischen Isreael und Syrien. Dann geht es weiter ins Hula-Tal, wo wir tausende Zugvögel auf ihrem Weg von Europa nach Zentral-Afrika beobachten. Wir besuchen eine israelische Stadt, die immer wieder vom Libanon aus beschossen wurde, die aber eines der schönste Kibbutzim des Landes hat. Von Kirjat Schmona aus schauen wir auf den Libanon und erinnern auch hier an spannungsgeladene Zeiten. In Naharayim südlich des Sees Genezeret im Jordantal besuchen wir den Friedenspark „Island of Peace" und hören die bewegende Geschichte eines Vorfalls an der israelisch-jordanischen Grenze. Anschließend geht es nach Süden in die heilige Stadt. Bei unserem Stadtrundgang in Jerusalem lassen die Klagemauer und die Grabeskirche links liegen und tauchen in das Nachtleben dieser City ein. Außerdem betreten wir den Stadtteil Me'a Sche'arim, in dem die ultra-orthodoxen Juden leben. Freuen Sie sich auch auf einen Besuch beim Sender "Voice of free Jerusalem". In der Wüste Negev stehen wir vor einem gigantischen Krater und lernen ein Projekt kennen, dass die Wüste grüner machen soll. Am Toten Meer treffen wir schließlich einen Überraschungsgast: Tony Marshall. Was der Fröhlichmacher der Nation in der Judäischen Steinwüste machte, erfahren Sie in unserer Show. Viel Spaß in dieser Radioreise "Israel Cross Over"!

In dieser Radioreise nimmt Sie Alexander Tauscher mit ins heilige Land. Freuen Sie sich auf eine Reise unter dem Motto "Israel Cross Over" von den Golan-Höhen bis in die Wüste Negev. Dabei lernen wir auch viele unbekannte Orte kennen und treffen Menschen mit bewegenden Geschichten. Die Israel-Reise starten im Norden des Landes im fruchtbaren Weinbaugebiet der Golan-Höhen. Von einem Aussichtsplateau schauen von nach Syrien in das Dorf Quneitra. Wir erinnern an die wechselvolle Geschichte des Golan und den Konflikt zwischen Isreael und Syrien. Dann geht es weiter ins Hula-Tal, wo wir tausende Zugvögel auf ihrem Weg von Europa nach Zentral-Afrika beobachten. Wir besuchen eine israelische Stadt, die immer wieder vom Libanon aus beschossen wurde, die aber eines der schönste Kibbutzim des Landes hat. Von Kirjat Schmona aus schauen wir auf den Libanon und erinnern auch hier an spannungsgeladene Zeiten. In Naharayim südlich des Sees Genezeret im Jordantal besuchen wir den Friedenspark „Island of Peace" und hören die bewegende Geschichte eines Vorfalls an der israelisch-jordanischen Grenze. Anschließend geht es nach Süden in die heilige Stadt. Bei unserem Stadtrundgang in Jerusalem lassen die Klagemauer und die Grabeskirche links liegen und tauchen in das Nachtleben dieser City ein. Außerdem betreten wir den Stadtteil Me'a Sche'arim, in dem die ultra-orthodoxen Juden leben. Freuen Sie sich auch auf einen Besuch beim Sender "Voice of free Jerusalem". In der Wüste Negev stehen wir vor einem gigantischen Krater und lernen ein Projekt kennen, dass die Wüste grüner machen soll. Am Toten Meer treffen wir schließlich einen Überraschungsgast: Tony Marshall. Was der Fröhlichmacher der Nation in der Judäischen Steinwüste machte, erfahren Sie in unserer Show. Viel Spaß in dieser Radioreise "Israel Cross Over"!

In this episode, I speak to both my father Pete and my mother Marie about their time living and working on a Kibbutz in Israel. Growing up, I was always fascinated by the story of how my parents travelled to Israel to live on a Kibbutz called Kfar Giladi. On this episode they share their stories about life in the commune, their experiences, and the history behind Kibbutzim.

In our last episode we talked about the kibbutz movement—the collective farming system that began in Israel in 1909 in Degania just south of the Sea of Galilee. While I am no fan of socialism, it was successful as long as Israel’s existence depended on it. But what happened once Israel stabilized? First, let me tell you how a kibbutz worked. The ideology came out of Eastern Europe and Russia. The layout of a kibbutz was simple. You had a residential area. The children, at least for the first few decades, would sleep not in their homes, but in the children’s house. Remember, everything was equal. There were common grounds for swimming and dining and an auditorium for meetings and entertainment. Elana and I once went to a costume party on the Jewish feast of Purim at a kibbutz.  The kibbutz life is simple. Everything you needed is on the kibbutz. In most cases, cars are not needed, as you either walk or bike to your destination. In comes cases, golf carts are used.  AD Gordon, was the father of Israel agricultural movement. He was an exhorter credited with getting the Jews of Eastern Europe to get their hands direty and become farmers. He said, You work here [on the farm] simply without philosophizing; sometimes the work is hard and crowded with pettiness. But at times you feel a surge of cosmic exaltation, like the clear light of the heavens... . And you, too, seem to be taking root in the soil which you are digging, to be nourished by the rays of the sun, to share life with the tiniest blade of grass, with each flower; living in nature's depths, you seem then to rise and grow into the vast expanse of the universe. He turned farming into a religion.  In the early years, there was a large focus on equality in all things. Women would do any job that the men did. However, things have changed today. While the women still work, no so much in hard labor. Teachers are needed in every kibbutz, not mention doctors and nurses.  Everyone in the kibbutz works on the kibbutz. In rare situations, some are sent outside of the kibbutz because of their skill in a particular area. One of my wife’s childhood friends is a leader in his kibbutz outside of Beersheva in the desert. Each day he leaves to go work in the computer industry. But, according to the ideals of kibbutz life, he freely turns over his entire paycheck to the kibbutz. Why would he do that? He loves the kibbutz life. It is called voluntarily socialism.  If ever there was a model of socialism that should have succeeded it was the Israeli Kibbutzim. Why? Unlike in the Soviet Union and its satellites, there was no one getting fat at the top at the expense of the workers.  What held them together was not a totalitarian government as we see in Cuba, but a shared desire to see Israel succeed as a nation—they were committed to the prophetic declarations, such as we see in Ps. 102 verse 16, “For the Lord will rebuild Zion and appear in his glory.” And Amos 9,14 “They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.” Nevertheless, the Kibbutzim were dependent on the state to forgive their debt. But in the mid-80s the state could no longer afford the status quo. Things had to change. While a minority of kibbutzim remain loyal to the founders’ motto, “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need,” most have abandoned the socialist system. When kibbutzim kids would go to university, they were often presented with a new and exciting world of opportunities. To make ends meet, most of the Kibbutzim, in addition to farming opened up wedding halls, hotels and even water parks.  In nearly 80% of kibbutzim there have been massive reforms. Children sleep together, but with their families. Members get paid according to their contribution, not need. Home ownership is now allowed. And members can work outside jobs and contribute a portion to the kibbutz.  This has led to a revival in the kibbutz movement which still contributes over 80% of Israel’s produce. It is hard to separate the Kibbutz movement from the Zionist dream. They go hand in hand. And while communism never works long, it did work long enough in Israel’s kibbutz movement for the nation to stabilize. 

In our last episode we talked about the kibbutz movement—the collective farming system that began in Israel in 1909 in Degania just south of the Sea of Galilee. While I am no fan of socialism, it was successful as long as Israel’s existence depended on it. But what happened once Israel stabilized?

Would you believe it if I told you that socialism helped young Israel survive? That was what I told a conservative talk show radio host some 30 years ago and he simply could not believe it. Personally I am a fan of the free market. But about 40 years before Israel become a nation, they realized that the only way they could survive was to start collective farms where everything was equal. They called these farms Kibbutzim.

Would you believe it if I told you that socialism helped young Israel survive? That was what I told a conservative talk show radio host some 30 years ago and he simply could not believe it.    Personally I am a fan of the free market. But about 40 years before Israel become a nation, they realized that the only way they could survive was to start collective farms where everything was equal. They called these farms Kibbutzim.  When the Jews returned to the promised land, it had been badly neglected by the Ottoman Empire and the Arabs who lived there. It was unfarmable. In the south, rocks had to be cleared and in the north malaria infested swamps had to be drained. The Jewish people worked together for the common good.  Degania—from the Hebrew word for grain—was the very first kibbutz, located at the southern end of the Sea of Galilee. The idea of reclaiming the soil had become something of a religion for the early Jewish Chalutizm, or pioneers. The young men and women came mostly from Eastern Europe. They were not used to physical labor and knew little about agriculture. But they had memorized of the prophecies about rebuilding the land.  They overcame these odds to create the foundation for Israel’s booming agriculture. Israel is famous for her creativity, but few people believed you could grow potatoes in the desert. Kibbutz Yotvata, after failing with fruits and vegetables, determined to grow potatoes. They were told it wouldn’t work, and yet 60 years later it is one of their main products. By bringing the Jewish people back to this barren land, the Lord would test his people. It would take faith. Author Moshe Kempinsky says, “God says, ‘I’m going to do something miraculous—I'm going to create a land that even though those climate issues don't call for it, it's going to be a land that's going to be filled with dates and honey, and also with milk so that you know that... nothing in this land comes here except when it’s from Me.’” Is that not what we see in the Scriptures? Did not God say that the dessert will blossom like a rose? Isaiah predicted that, “Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit (Isa 27.6) and Ezekiel said, “The trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase” (Ezek 34.27) And Did not God promise a land flowing with milk and honey? CBN’s Julie Stahl writes, “It appears God has delivered on that promise. Despite the heat, humidity and limited resources, Israeli cows produce more milk per year than cows in the United States, European Union, and Australia.” The aforementioned Kibbutz Yotvata is the largest milk producing facility in the country. They were laughed at when they said they would raise cows in the desert heat. It was an impossible mission, but by 2008 they were churning out 62 million liters of milk per year.  Stahl claims that ancient honey came mainly from dates. She writes, “Today, Israel's dates are still famous throughout the world. Israel exports some 12,000 tons of dates each year to 20 countries.” The Kibbutz movement is largely to thank for Israel’s becoming a world leader in agriculture. But it was not without controversy. Socialism is a failed economic system. The Kibbutz movement was great when Israel’s existence depended on it, but would it survive once Israel stabilized? I will let you know in part 2. 

On this week’s episode, Professor Samuel Brunson joins Nico and Richard to discuss his 2018 book, God and the IRS: Accommodating Religious Practice in the Tax Law. Topics ranged from taxing clergy, to exploring communities abroad such as Kibbutzim, creating an exception for Islamic home financing, his recommendation of a framework for legislature to apply for religious tax accommodation, and more.

We shared in part one how Moshe Dayan rose to fame as a military hero. He joined the Hagana militia at the age of 14 and guided Israel through the Six Day War to one of the most lopsided victories in the history of warfare. In Part two we learn However, in 73, with Dayan still the defense minister, the Arabs launched a surprise attack from Syria and Egypt on Yom Kippur. While Israelis were fasting all over the nation, Egypt and Syria attacked. Expect for a few IDF commanders whose concerns fell upon deaf ears, no one saw it coming. Israel was caught off guard.   As we will detail in our episode on the Valley of Tears, Israel, though outnumbered by the Soviet-backed Syrians, miraculously drove the them out of the Golan Heights. Israel won the Yom Kippur War, but it was Dayan who blamed for not being battle-ready.  Dayan’s actions just after the miraculous recapturing of Jerusalem during the Six-Day-War may have sealed his fate, if you believe that God was behind the victory and had an opinion regrding the aftermath. After removing the Israeli flag from the Temple Mount, and then commanding the paratroopers to evacuate, Moshe Dayan declared, “We have returned to the holiest of our places, never to be parted from them again…We did not come to conquer the sacred sites of others or to restrict their religious rights, but rather to ensure the integrity of the city and to live in it with others in fraternity.” On the one hand, this showed that Israelis were not like the Jordanians, who destroyed every Jewish building or symbol after 1948, when all Jews were removed from the ancient Old City of Jerusalem. On the other hand, if God had returned the Temple Mount to Israel, who were we to allow Islamists free access…to the point that today, I, as an Israeli can only visit the Temple Mount and that with great difficulty, while Hamas activists have constant and free access. Dayan made it possible for Jews to visit the Temple Mount, but were forbidden to pray. Later, the secularist Dayan remarked that the Temple Mount is a Prayer mosque for Muslims, but merely an historical site for Jews.     I remember many years ago, leading a group of tourists up on the Temple Mount. I didn’t know the rules. As I gathered them together I boldly declared, “I don’t care what the Muslims say! This is our Temple Mount and we will pray here whether they like it or not.” As I began to pray the tour guide broke through our little circle in a panic, “You can’t do that! They are listening to you. There are microphones everywhere.”  Suddenly I didn’t feel so bold, knowing that some Hamas activist was monitoring my bravado. How sad that neither Jews nor Christians are allowed to utter a word of thanksgiving at the place where Abraham bound Isaac, and where the first and second Temples stood—the greatest monument to the existence of Ancient Israel.  Moshe Dayan, for all his heroics, was a secularist. He was not seeking what was in God’s heart, but what was politically acceptable. He did not want to keep the Golan Heights, but wanted to trade it back to the Syrians for peace—as if that was even a possibility. He opposed the Kibbutzim, the collective farms that settled the Golan.  Dayan was thought of by his peers to be brilliant, yet irresponsible, brave, yet, not willing to be held accountable for mistakes. While he loved the Jewish people, he had little respect for Judaism, once remarking when rabbis flocked to the Temple Mount just after it was liberated, “What is this? The Vatican?” Dayan died of a massive heart attack in 1981. Make sure you go to God.tv so you never miss an episode and you can find me at roncantor.com. Shalom.  

Economist and author Ran Abramitzky of Stanford University talks about his book, The Mystery of the Kibbutz, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Abramitzky traces the evolution of the kibbutz movement in Israel and how the kibbutz structure changed to cope with the modernization and development of the Israeli economy. The conversation includes a discussion of how the history of the kibbutz might help us to understand the appeal and challenges of the socialism and freedom.

Economist and author Ran Abramitzky of Stanford University talks about his book, The Mystery of the Kibbutz, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Abramitzky traces the evolution of the kibbutz movement in Israel and how the kibbutz structure changed to cope with the modernization and development of the Israeli economy. The conversation includes a discussion of how the history of the kibbutz might help us to understand the appeal and challenges of the socialism and freedom.

Happy 70th birthday, Israel! Israeli Independence Day has officially begun, so let's see the streets to see what Israelis had to say, and let's just say, the answers weren't exactly what we expected. Who's lighting Israel's Independence Day torch? It's that time of year again, 12 of Israel's top innovators, entertainers and war heroes will be illuminating Israel, by lighting the Independence Day torch this evening, so let's take a look at some of those that have been selected to take part in the special event. 3. Shaping Israel's future Naftali Bennett, Israeli Minister Of Education, Minister Of Diaspora Affairs speaking at ILTV Studio with an exclusive interview for Independence Day, and Israel's 70th Birthday. 4. What is a Kibbutz? A Kibbutz is a special collective community that is unique only to Israel, Kibbutzim have been around since 1909, and are known for pioneering the state and here's the real break down of what it's like to live in a modern-day socialist community. 5. Spreading Israeli goodwill worldwide Tal Brody, Goodwill Ambassador of Israel; Former Capt. Of Maccabi T.A. Basketball speaking at ILTV Studio about the challenges that Israel faces 70 years on. 6. Top 5 Independence Day events Here is out top 5 events for Independence Day, so get ready to represent the blue and white flag with ILTV's Emanuelle Kadosh. 7. The Weather Forecast Tonight is expected to be clear and warm with a low of about sixty-three, or seventeen degrees Celsius. Tomorrow should be sunny and clear, again, but with a slight drop in temperatures to a high of seventy-eight, or twenty-six degrees Celsius. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

While the Western world is turning away from God and religion, it is surprising to read a headline on Israel's left wing Ha'aretz news site saying: "Once bastions of secularism, Israel's kibbutzim find God". While the Western world has began to have the "Atheist Church", why would Israel's bastions of secularism rediscover God?

Kunst im Krieg, erzählt von seinen Zeichnungen die er während des Jom Kippur Krieges als Soldat gemacht hat. Harry und Batia lernen sich kennen und werden wegen eines Kusses von ihren Jobs bei der Post gefeuert. Polizist bei Interpol am Flughafen ,und wie Raymond King und eine Flasche Whiskey dazu führen, dass sich Harry plötzlich auf der falschen Seite der Gitterstäbe im wieder findet. New York und wie Elaine Kooning Harry hilft, dass am ende doch noch einen sehr erfolgreiche Ausstellung in New York stattfindet.

Wie Harry einen Freund im Krieg verlor. Ein Spass auf die kosten Hanoch Levin und die Folgen.

Der Künstler Harry Baron erzählt von der Schachleidenschaft seines Vaters.

Der Künstler Harry Baron erzählt die Geschichte seiner Eltern und vo seiner Kindheit und Jugend in Tel Aviv. Er erzählt über seinen Deutschen Vater und seiner Marokkanischen Mutter, über die brutalen Erziehungsmethoden der Französischen Mission in Jaffa und von seine Jungen Clique in den Strassen von Tel Aviv.

Why would anyone be in favour of a Palestinian state? Hi, this is David Billington with the Bible in the News. Today according to Israel National News some 30 mortar shells and rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel. There have been a daily stream of rockets falling on Israel from Gaza, ever since Israel pulled out from there 2 years ago. They are indiscriminately fired at Israeli towns and Kibbutzim hitting businesses, homes and schools. Before the pullout the Israeli governments mantra was that after we leave Gaza we will have a free hand to severely respond to any attack--with world support.

“You need more than thousand days to hear thousand stories of what happened here in Israel.”In this episode, Israeli citizen and tour guide Rueben Nevo provides insights about the Israel–Hamas conflict from his perspective as an Israeli living in the country.Discussions cover the experiences of Israeli soldiers returning from battle, tensions among citizens, the effects of Hamas' actions on Israel and the Palestinians, to potential strategies for peace in the region.Nevo is joined by Mike Fanning, the founder of MBF Enterprises, a Bible study tour ministry; Dr. Jim Denison, the CEO of Denison Ministries; and Dr. Mark Turman, the Executive Director of Denison Forum.Topics(00:00): Introduction and Guest Introductions(00:25): Guest Backgrounds and Personal Stories(01:41): Discussing Israel Tours and Experiences(02:48): Introducing Reuben and His Background(06:27): Reuben's Personal Experiences and Observations(06:37): Understanding the Impact of Conflict on Kibbutz Life(08:54): The Role and Importance of Kibbutzim in Israel(14:02): Personal Experiences and Impact of the Conflict(15:42): The Psychological Impact of the Conflict(21:54): Supporting Soldiers and Their Families(24:01): Discussion on Relationships with Palestinian Arabs(24:47): Arab Israelis and the Impact of October 7th(26:01): Differentiating Palestinian Groups(26:50): The Impact of October 7th on Israeli Politics(28:13): Understanding the Complexities of Israeli and Palestinian Identities(28:36): The Intricacies of Geography, Race, and Religion in Israel(31:01): The Challenges of Defining Identity in Israel and Palestine(44:33): The Need for New Leadership in Israel and Palestine(50:23): The Power of Unity in Israel(51:17): Closing Thoughts and Prayers for PeaceResourcesFurther resources on the war in IsraelTranscript (PDF)About Reuben NevoReuben Nevo is an Israeli citizen and tour guide. Since 1984, he's guided tours of Israel for many Christian groups, government delegations, educational programs, and Jewish federations. Nevo has spoken at many US churches about Jewish heritage. He served as an officer of combat forces in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), representative of the Jewish Agency and the government of Israel in Chile, as a teacher and director of a guide school in Jewish agency, as developer of the program “Jewish roots in Spain and Europe,” and as an official government tourist guide at the Ministry of Tourism. He holds a masters in History of the Jewish People from Hebrew University in Jerusalem.  About Mike FanningMike Fanning is the founder and president of MBF Enterprises, “a group tour operations company that specializes in organizing, marketing and leading unique, one-of-a-kind trips. These trips include pilgrimage tours to Israel, Jordan and Egypt, as well as "Journeys of Paul" cruise tours to Greece, Turkey and Italy.” He holds a PhD in Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology, Modern Middle East History, Anthropology, and Hebrew/Greek from Baylor University.About Dr. Jim DenisonJim Denison, PhD, is a cultural theologian and the founder and CEO of Denison Ministries. He speaks biblically into significant cultural issues at Denison Forum. He is the chief author of The Daily Article and has written more than 30 books, including The Coming Tsunami, the Biblical Insight to Tough Questions series, and The Fifth Great Awakening.About Dr. Mark TurmanDr. Mark Turman is the Executive Director of Denison Forum and Vice President of Denison Ministries. Among his many duties, Turman is most notably the host of The Denison Forum Podcast. He is also the chief strategist for DF Pastors, which equips pastors and church leaders to understand and transform today's culture.About Denison ForumDenison Forum exists to thoughtfully engage the issues of the day from a biblical perspective through The Daily Article email newsletter and podcast, The Denison Forum Podcast, as well as many books and additional resources.