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Linda Gradstein, Sara Hirschhorn and Noah Efron talk about (1) The “Pacts Americana,” being the trade and investment pacts that US President Donald Trump is reaching with Gulf states on his visit to the region this week, and where it leaves Israel; and (2) The “Cracks Americana,” being awkward ambivalence some Israelis feel about a hostage being released solely because he has an American passport and the American government intervened on his behalf, doing what Israel's government could not or would not do. All this and the return of a fallen soldier after 43 years, plus more music of these times. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: Why does Israel go to such great length to return the bodies of soldiers and hostages killed and held beyond our borders?
Miriam Herschlag, Sara Hirschhorn and Noah Efron talk about (1) The open-letter from Airforce reservists and retirees, calling on the Government to end the war, the army's scorched-earth response, and the flood of letters-of-support for the original letter – What's it all mean?; and (2) The decision by Hebrew University's elite publishing house, Magnes, to shelve plans to publish a Hebrew translation of Mein Kampf, and whether or not there is a place on Israeli shelves for Hitler's now-100-year-old manifesto. All this and a singular record launch, a memorial tribute to Yaakov Kirschen, the auteur behind “Dry Bones,” and meeting a legend of Israeli song.
Sara Hirschhorn, Miriam Herschlag and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. —Out of Phase— With the stalled ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas giving way to the emergence of the mysterious “Witkoff Plan,” what might (and should) happen next? —Commission Perdition— What should we make of the controversy surrounding Prime Minister Netanyahu's proposed “Egalitarian State Commission of Inquiry” into the October 7 attacks? All this and the centenary of Israel's greatest “Bible Reciter”, plus new, sad music from Eran Tzur.
Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and scholar-extraordinaire Sara Hirschhorn 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 —(Un)settling— Why do Israeli Jews who think it might be a good idea to set up Jewish towns in Gaza, think what they think? —Hostage (Dis)agreement— Would an agreement that brings home some of the hostages might, in the end, be worse than no agreement at all? —Safe, Save for the Bombs and Bullets— For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: Why do most Israelis think the safest place in the world for Jews is Israel when, statistically, that's not even close to being true? Plus, a remembrance of Corinne Allal, may her memory be for a blessing.
Today's Guests Are: Sarah Richardson, Sara Hirschhorn, Darrin Johnson, Alfredo Calixto, Paula Liz
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. On Thursday this week, tens of thousands of marchers -- including several government ministers and MKs -- marked the 1967 reunification of Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty with participation in the annual Flag March. While most of the masses sang, danced, and yes, caused a ruckus through the Old City's Muslim Quarter, much like every year in the recent past, at times parts of the mostly under-30, largely male crowd acted like a tinderbox eager for a spark. What was different this year is a group of left-wing activists blocked a main artery from the West Bank bloc of Gush Etzion to prevent marchers from reaching the capital. Perhaps taking a page out of the judicial overhaul protests, they stood with massive banners, chanting, "Fascism will not pass; the marchers will not pass." This push-pull political situation in Israel is the stuff scholars of contemporary history dream of. And for Dr. Sara Hirschhorn, an American historian and public intellectual who focuses on the Israeli ultranationalist movement, a research visit to the Holy Land couldn't have been better timed. Hirschhorn is currently an inaugural fellow at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Center for Antisemitism Research and an instructor in Jewish and Israel Studies at Rutgers University. In addition to her research into Israeli extremism, she also focuses on Diaspora-Israel relations and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Her first, award-winning book, "City on a Hilltop: American Jews and the Israeli Settler Movement" (Harvard, 2017) will soon be followed up on with an in-progress manuscript entitled "New Day in Babylon and Jerusalem: Zionism, Jewish Power, and Identity Politics Since 1967."We sat together this week and in our wide-ranging conversation, we discuss the increasing extremist symbolism of the Jerusalem Day Flag March. We also drill down on how Israel's far-right parties are now considered mainstream as part of the Knesset coalition. And, we discuss how by simply envisioning what the world could look like the day after peace breaks out, we may actually get there. This week we ask Dr. Sara Hirschhorn, What Matters Now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on iTunes, TuneIn, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, PlayerFM or wherever you get your podcasts. IMAGE: Dr. Sara Hirschhorn in the Nomi Studios in Jerusalem. (Amanda Borschel-Dan/Times of Israel)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The Israel-Gaza conflict is a local clash playing out on the global stage, with social media a weapon of war for both sides. But how did TikTok tutorials, Instagram infographics and Twitter posts become influential news sources for millions? Also in the programme, The Week Junior is one of the UK's fastest growing magazines. Are children much more how interested in the news than we expect? Guests: Gabriel Weimann, Professor of Communication at Haifa University; Rayhan Uddin, journalist at Middle East Eye; Sara Hirschhorn, Visiting Assistant Professor of Israel Studies at Northwestern University; Chris Stokel-Walker, journalist; Anna Bassi, Editorial Director at The Week Junior. Producer: Hannah Sander Presenter: Mobeen Azhar
This week, Rabbi Wolkenfeld and Rabbanit Goldie share some Torah relating to our current moment as we begin to reopen and increase our in-person capacity on Shabbat. Rabbi Wolkenfeld also speaks with ASBI Members Joel Braunold and Dr. Sara Hirschhorn about the official definition of antisemitism, if antisemitism needs an official definition, and what that definition should entail. Music credit: “Three” from the album Proverbs, by Les Hayden, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.
In City on a Hilltop, Sara Hirschhorn tackles the much-contested American settler movement. Over 60,000 Jewish-Americans have settled in the territories since 1967. Who are they, and why did they chose to leave America to live at the centre of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? In Dov Waxman examines the seismic shift in American-Jewry’s attitude towards Israel, which is more conflicted than ever before.
Who are the American Jews behind many of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank? This is the question that Dr. Sara Hirschhorn, Research Lecturer at the University of Oxford, seeks to answer in her new book City on a Hilltop: American Jews and the Israeli Settler Movement (Harvard University Press, 2017). By analyzing archival documents along with periodicals, internet sources, and a wealth of self-conducted interviews, Hirschhorn concludes that many American-Israeli settlers are not the messianic, ultra-right-wing fanatics that stereotypes suggest. Instead, the majority come from liberal American backgrounds, are highly-educated, and have conservative—but rarely Orthodox—Jewish backgrounds. What is more, she argues, their actions, motives, and self-conceptualizations are reflective of the evolution of American and Israeli Jewish identities over time. Sara Hirschhorn is University Research Lecturer in Israel Studies at the University of Oxford and Sidney Brichto Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. Robin Buller is a PhD Candidate in History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Who are the American Jews behind many of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank? This is the question that Dr. Sara Hirschhorn, Research Lecturer at the University of Oxford, seeks to answer in her new book City on a Hilltop: American Jews and the Israeli Settler Movement (Harvard University Press, 2017). By analyzing archival documents along with periodicals, internet sources, and a wealth of self-conducted interviews, Hirschhorn concludes that many American-Israeli settlers are not the messianic, ultra-right-wing fanatics that stereotypes suggest. Instead, the majority come from liberal American backgrounds, are highly-educated, and have conservative—but rarely Orthodox—Jewish backgrounds. What is more, she argues, their actions, motives, and self-conceptualizations are reflective of the evolution of American and Israeli Jewish identities over time. Sara Hirschhorn is University Research Lecturer in Israel Studies at the University of Oxford and Sidney Brichto Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. Robin Buller is a PhD Candidate in History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Who are the American Jews behind many of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank? This is the question that Dr. Sara Hirschhorn, Research Lecturer at the University of Oxford, seeks to answer in her new book City on a Hilltop: American Jews and the Israeli Settler Movement (Harvard University Press, 2017). By analyzing archival documents along with periodicals, internet sources, and a wealth of self-conducted interviews, Hirschhorn concludes that many American-Israeli settlers are not the messianic, ultra-right-wing fanatics that stereotypes suggest. Instead, the majority come from liberal American backgrounds, are highly-educated, and have conservative—but rarely Orthodox—Jewish backgrounds. What is more, she argues, their actions, motives, and self-conceptualizations are reflective of the evolution of American and Israeli Jewish identities over time. Sara Hirschhorn is University Research Lecturer in Israel Studies at the University of Oxford and Sidney Brichto Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. Robin Buller is a PhD Candidate in History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Who are the American Jews behind many of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank? This is the question that Dr. Sara Hirschhorn, Research Lecturer at the University of Oxford, seeks to answer in her new book City on a Hilltop: American Jews and the Israeli Settler Movement (Harvard University Press, 2017). By analyzing archival documents along with periodicals, internet sources, and a wealth of self-conducted interviews, Hirschhorn concludes that many American-Israeli settlers are not the messianic, ultra-right-wing fanatics that stereotypes suggest. Instead, the majority come from liberal American backgrounds, are highly-educated, and have conservative—but rarely Orthodox—Jewish backgrounds. What is more, she argues, their actions, motives, and self-conceptualizations are reflective of the evolution of American and Israeli Jewish identities over time. Sara Hirschhorn is University Research Lecturer in Israel Studies at the University of Oxford and Sidney Brichto Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. Robin Buller is a PhD Candidate in History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Who are the American Jews behind many of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank? This is the question that Dr. Sara Hirschhorn, Research Lecturer at the University of Oxford, seeks to answer in her new book City on a Hilltop: American Jews and the Israeli Settler Movement (Harvard University Press, 2017). By analyzing archival documents along with periodicals, internet sources, and a wealth of self-conducted interviews, Hirschhorn concludes that many American-Israeli settlers are not the messianic, ultra-right-wing fanatics that stereotypes suggest. Instead, the majority come from liberal American backgrounds, are highly-educated, and have conservative—but rarely Orthodox—Jewish backgrounds. What is more, she argues, their actions, motives, and self-conceptualizations are reflective of the evolution of American and Israeli Jewish identities over time. Sara Hirschhorn is University Research Lecturer in Israel Studies at the University of Oxford and Sidney Brichto Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. Robin Buller is a PhD Candidate in History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Who are the American Jews behind many of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank? This is the question that Dr. Sara Hirschhorn, Research Lecturer at the University of Oxford, seeks to answer in her new book City on a Hilltop: American Jews and the Israeli Settler Movement (Harvard University Press, 2017). By analyzing archival documents along with periodicals, internet sources, and a wealth of self-conducted interviews, Hirschhorn concludes that many American-Israeli settlers are not the messianic, ultra-right-wing fanatics that stereotypes suggest. Instead, the majority come from liberal American backgrounds, are highly-educated, and have conservative—but rarely Orthodox—Jewish backgrounds. What is more, she argues, their actions, motives, and self-conceptualizations are reflective of the evolution of American and Israeli Jewish identities over time. Sara Hirschhorn is University Research Lecturer in Israel Studies at the University of Oxford and Sidney Brichto Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. Robin Buller is a PhD Candidate in History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Allison, Noah, and Oxford Prof. Sara Hirschhorn are live (on tape) from Limmud in Birmingham, England! They discuss three topics of incomparable importance, answering questions from the audience, and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Are reports of Israel’s demise exaggerated? What explains a recent spate of articles by bummed out Zionists suggesting that Israel’s days are numbered? The other American revolution We ask why so many of the Jewish terrorists in Israel carry American passports. What part does their American heritage play in their murderous zealotry? Thug Jews Is there anything to the claims of gadfly former Knesset Speaker Avrum Burg that, because Jews had no power in the past, Israelis today are on a power-bender and out of control? All songs with an UK theme, in honor of recording from Limmud, England: Arisa - Po Zeh Lo IropahKol Ha-Hatichim Etzli - LondonInbal Perlmutter - Zehirut Me-Ha-MervachEran Tzur - Tachlit Ba-Tachtit Technical production by Graham Harold Carpenter & Alex Benish