Podcast appearances and mentions of Yossi Klein Halevi

To help struggling Israeli combat veterans find their way back, please visit the American Friends of Israel Navy SEALs' (AFINS): afins.us/warriorcareUpcoming Event Notice: Dan Senor will be delivering this year's State of World Jewry Address at the 92nd Street Y (92NY) on Tuesday May 13 at 7:30 pm. To register: 92ny.org/event/the-state-of-world-jewry-addressWatch Call me Back on YouTube: youtube.com/@CallMeBackPodcastSubscribe to Ark Media's new podcast ‘What's Your Number?': lnk.to/HJI2mXArk Media on Instagram: instagram.com/arkmediaorgTo contact us, sign up for updates, and access transcripts, visit: arkmedia.orgDan on X: x.com/dansenorDan on Instagram: instagram.com/dansenorToday's episode:Flames that engulfed more than 5,000 acres around Jerusalem as Israel marked its 77th Independence Day. Dozens of Independence Day ceremonies were canceled, and according to many Israelis — the feelings of national solidarity that normally characterize this day were scarce. For the families of hostages in Gaza,  this was their second Yom Haatzmaut without their loved ones. And yet, Israelis are nothing if not resilient. The country's population has now surpassed 10 million people. Forty-five percent of all Jews on Earth today call Israel home. So, while there are reasons for concern, there are also reasons for hope. Reflecting on how far Israel has come, and where it may go from here, we are joined by bestselling author and senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, Yossi Klein Halevi, to discuss the debt we have to Israel's founders, and to the soldiers who have fallen in its defense. For Yossi Klein Halevi's books: tinyurl.com/ycfcn72uCREDITS:ILAN BENATAR - Producer & EditorMARTIN HUERGO - Sound EditorGABE SILVERSTEIN - ResearchYUVAL SEMO - Music Composer

On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust, calling it Operation Al Aqsa. For journalist Yardena Schwartz, the massacre was a chilling echo of the 1929 Hebron Massacre—the brutal slaughter of nearly 70 Jews, incited by propaganda that Jews sought to seize the Al Aqsa Mosque. At the time, she was deep into writing her first book, Ghosts of a Holy War: The 1929 Massacre in Palestine That Ignited the Arab-Israeli Conflict. In this episode, Yardena shares how history repeated itself, how the October 7 attack reshaped her book, and why understanding the past is essential to making sense of the present. ___ Read:  Ghosts of a Holy War: The 1929 Massacre in Palestine That Ignited the Arab Israeli Conflict Listen – AJC Podcasts: The Forgotten Exodus: Untold stories of Jews who left or were driven from Arab nations and Iran Social media influencer Hen Mazzig on leaving Tunisia Chef Einat Admony on leaving Iran Playwright Oren Safdie on leaving Syria Cartoonist Carol Isaacs on leaving Iraq Novelist Andre Aciman on leaving Egypt People of the Pod:  Latest Episode: Higher Education in Turmoil: Balancing Academic Freedom and the Fight Against Antisemitism Held Hostage in Gaza: A Mother's Fight for Freedom and Justice Yossi Klein Halevi on the Convergence of Politics and Religion at Jerusalem's Temple Mount Follow People of the Pod on your favorite podcast app, and learn more at AJC.org/PeopleofthePod You can reach us at: peopleofthepod@ajc.org If you've appreciated this episode, please be sure to tell your friends, and rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. __ Transcript of Interview with Yardena Schwartz: Manya Brachear Pashman: Hello, and welcome to People of the Pod, brought to you by American Jewish Committee. Each week, we take you beyond the headlines to help you understand what they all mean for America, Israel and the Jewish people. I'm your host Manya Brachear Pashman:. In October 2023 journalist Yardena Schwartz was in the middle of writing her first book exploring the rarely talked about 1929 Hebron massacre, in which nearly 70 Jews were murdered, dozens more injured by their Muslim neighbors during riots incited by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who spread lies that Jews wanted to take over the Al Aqsa Mosque. When she heard reports of the October 7 terror attacks by Hamas dubbed Operation Al Aqsa, she realized just how relevant and prescient her book would be, and began drafting some new chapters. Yardena is with us now to discuss that book titled Ghosts of a Holy War: The 1929 Massacre in Palestine that ignited the Arab Israeli conflict. Yardena, welcome to People of the Pod.  Yardena Schwartz: Great to be here, Manya. Manya Brachear Pashman: So full disclosure to you and our audience. You attended Columbia Journalism School 10 years after I did, and you took Professor Ari Goldman's class on covering religions 10 years after I did that, class had always traveled to Israel, and I had hoped it would be my ticket to go to Israel for the first time, but the Second Intifada prevented that, and we went to Russia and Ukraine. Instead, your class did go to Israel, and that was your first visit to Hebron, correct?  Yardena Schwartz: So it was in 2011 and we went to Hebron for one day out of our 10 day trip to Israel, and it was my first time there. I was the only Jewish student in our class. It was about 15 of us, and I was the only one who had been to Israel. I had been all over Israel, but I had never been to Chevron. And our tour was with Breaking the Silence, an organization of former Israeli soldiers who had served in Hebron or in other parts of the West Bank and wanted Israelis to know what was happening in Hebron and how Palestinians were living there, and the various restrictions that were put in place as a result of terrorist attacks. But nevertheless, you know, those restrictions were extremely disturbing, and that brief visit in 2011 made me really never want to go back to Hebron. And when I moved to Israel two years later to become a freelance journalist there, and, you know, to move to Israel because I loved Israel, and still obviously love Israel, I didn't really go back to Chevron because I, you know, was really troubled by what I saw there. But this book took me, of course, back to Chevron hundreds of times, spending hundreds of hours there. And it came to be, you know, my expertise in this conflict, in my reporting. And you know, of course, Heron is kind of the main character in this book, Manya Brachear Pashman: Tell us how you came to find out about this massacre. Was it mentioned during that class visit in 2011 or was it later that you learned about it? Yardena Schwartz: So that was one of the most interesting things about my early adventure into writing this book, was that I had of course been to have Ron, and yet, during that day that we spent there learning so much about the history of this place, this deeply holy place to so many people, there was no mention of the massacre of 1929, so, you know, I knew that Chevron is, you know, the second holiest city in Judaism, the burial place of Abraham And the matrix and patriarchs of the Jewish people. And you know the first place where King David established his kingdom before Jerusalem. So it was holy before Jerusalem. And yet I had no idea that this ancient Jewish community in Hebron had been decimated in 1929 in one of the worst pogroms ever perpetrated. We all know about the kishineff pogrom of 1904 and yet the pogrom in 1929 in Hebron, perpetrated by the Muslim residents of Hebron, against their Jewish neighbors, was more deadly and more gruesome than the kishineff pogrom, and it effectively ended 1000s of years of Jewish presence in this holy city. And so when I was told by my mentor, Yossi Klein Halevi, the amazing writer, that there was a family in Memphis, Tennessee that had discovered a box of letters in their attic written by a young American man from. Memphis, who had traveled to Chevron in 1928 to study at the Hebron yeshiva, which was at the time, the most prestigious yeshiva in the land of Israel in what was then, of course, British Mandate Palestine. And that this young man had been killed in that massacre. Yet his letters, you know, painted this vivid portrait of what Chevron was before the massacre that took his life. I was immediately fascinated. And I, you know, wanted to meet this family, read these letters and see how I could bring the story to life. And I was introduced to them by, yes, in 2019 so that's when I began working on my book. And you know, as you mentioned, I was still writing the book in 2023 on October 7, and this book I had been writing about this massacre nearly a century ago immediately became more relevant than I ever hoped it would be.  Manya Brachear Pashman: The young American man from Memphis. His name was David Schoenberg. Give our listeners a history lesson. Tell us about this 1929 massacre. So Yardena Schwartz: On August 24 1929 also a Shabbat morning in crevorone, every Jewish family had locked their doors and windows. They were cowering in fear as 1000s of Muslim men rioted outside their homes, throwing rocks at their windows, breaking down their doors and essentially hunting down Jews, much like they did on October 7, families were slaughtered. Women and teenage girls were raped by their neighbors in front of their family members. Infants were murdered in their mother's arms. Children watched as their parents were butchered by their neighbors, rabbis, yeshiva students were castrated and Arabic speaking Jews, you know, Sephardi, Mizrahi, Jews, who composed about half of the Jewish population in Hebron at the time, and were very friendly with their Arab neighbors. You know, they went to each other's weddings and holidays, went to each other's shops, and these people were also slaughtered. It wasn't just the yeshiva students who had come from Europe or from America to study there, or, you know, the Ashkenazi Jewish families. It was, you know, Arabic speaking Jews whose families had been there for generations and had lived side by side in peace with their Muslim neighbors for centuries. They too were slaughtered. Manya Brachear Pashman: Why did their Muslim neighbors turn on them so suddenly and violently? The Yardena Schwartz: rioters that day were shouting Allahu Akbar. They claimed to be defending Islam and Al Aqsa from this supposed Jewish plot to destroy Al Aqsa in order to rebuild the Third Temple. This is what they had been told by their leaders and by Imams and their mosques and in Hebron, that Lai had also extended to the tomb of the patriarchs and matriarchs, which is known in Arabic as the Ibrahimi mosque. Imams there had told Muslims in Hebron that the Jews of Hebron were planning to conquer Ibrahimi mosque in order to turn it into a synagogue. So this incitement and this disinformation that continues to drive the conflict today. Really began in 1929 the rumors about this supposed Jewish plot to destroy Al Aqsa that began in 1928 around the same time that David Schoenberg arrived in Palestine to study at the yeshiva. Manya Brachear Pashman: So in addition to the letters that David Schoenberg wrote to his family back in Tennessee. How else did you piece together this history? How did you go about reporting and researching it? Who kept records?  Yardena Schwartz: So it's really interesting, because I was so surprised by the lack of literature on this really dramatic moment in history, in the history of Israel, the history of this conflict. And yet, despite the fact there are really no books in English, at least, about the massacre and about these riots and what led to them, there were mountains of, you know, testimony from victims and survivors. The British carried out this commission after the riots that produced this 400 page report filled with testimony of British officials, Arab officials, Jewish officials, survivors. So there was just so much material to work with. Also, survivors ended up writing books about their experiences in Hebron, very similar to David's letters, in a way, because they wrote not only about the riots and the massacre itself, but also what they experienced in Hebron before they too, wrote about, you know, the relatively peaceful relations between the city's Jewish minority and the Arab majority. And I also relied on archival newspaper reports so the. Riots really occupied the front pages of American newspapers for about a week, because it took about a week for the British to quell the riots, and they did so with an air, land and sea campaign. They sent warships and war planes from across the British Empire and sent troops from other parts of the British Empire. Because one of the reasons the riots were so effective, in a way, you know, were so deadly, especially in kharag, was because there was just no military force in Palestine. At the time, the British did not have a Palestine military force, and it was only after the 1929 riots that they did have troops in Palestine. Until then, they had the Palestine police force, and that police force was mostly Arabs. In Hebron, for example, there were about 40 policemen under the stewardship of one British police chief, and all but one of those policemen were Arabs, and many of them participated in the massacre or stood by outside of Jewish homes and allowed the mobs to enter the homes and carry out their slaughter. And Manya Brachear Pashman: I'm curious. There was a lot of newspaper coverage, but what about the international community's response beyond the British Empire? Yardena Schwartz: So there were actually protests around the world against the massacre in New York. 35,000 people marched through the streets of Manhattan to protest the British failure to protect their Jewish subjects from these riots. Most of the marchers were Jewish, but nevertheless, I mean 35,000 people. We didn't see anything like that after October 7. Of course, we saw the opposite people marching through the streets of New York and cities around the world supporting the mass of October 7. You know, I mentioned this March in New York, but similar protests were held around the world, mostly in Jewish communities. So in Poland, Warsaw and in England, there were protests against the British failure to protect Jews in Palestine from these riots. And the American government was livid with the British and they sent statements put out, statements to the press, criticizing the British inaction, the British failure to protect the Jewish subjects and the American citizens who were in Palestine at the time, there were eight Americans killed in Hebron on August 24 1929. Out of the 67 Jewish men, women and children who were killed, and all of them were unarmed. The Haganah at the time, you know, the underground Jewish Defense Force that would later become the nucleus of the IDF, the Haganah was active then, mostly in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, there were no Haganah members in Hebron. The Hebron Jewish community was very traditional, very religious, and when Haganah came to Hebron two days before the riots erupted, they because they knew that these riots were going to happen. There had been calls from Arab officials to riot, to attack Jewish communities across Palestine. And so the Haganah came to Hebron to warn Jewish leaders of Hebron that they could either come there to protect them or evacuate them to Jerusalem to safety until the riots subsided and the Jewish leaders of Hebron were unanimous in their opposition. They said, No, you know, we're friends with our Arab neighbors. They'll never hurt us. We trust them. If anything happens elsewhere, it won't happen here. And they believed that because, not only because they had such a good relationship with their Arab neighbors and friends, but also because in previous outbursts of violence in other years, like in 1920 1921 when they were much smaller riots and much less deadly riots. When those riots reached other parts of Palestine, they didn't reach Hebron because of those relations and because they weren't fueled by incitement and disinformation, which was what led the riots of 1929 to be so massive and so deadly, and what led them to be embraced by previously peaceful neighbors. Manya Brachear Pashman: How did that disinformation travel in 1929 How did it reach those neighbors in Hebron? Yardena Schwartz: When we talk about disinformation and misinformation today, we think of it as this, you know, modern plague of, you know, the social media era, or, you know our fractured media landscape. But back in 1929 disinformation was rampant, and it also traveled through Arabic newspapers. They were publishing these statements by Arab officials, mostly the Grand Mufti Hajime Husseini, who was the leader of Palestinian Muslims under British rule, he began this rumor that the Jews of Palestine were plotting to conquer Al Aqsa mosque to rebuild their ancient temple. Of course, Al Aqsa is built upon the ruins of the ancient temples. Temple Mount is the holiest place for Jews in the world. And in 1929, Jews were forbidden from accessing the Temple Mount because it was considered, you know, a solely holy Muslim site. But the closest place they could pray was the Western Wall, the Kotel. And Jews who were demanding British protection to pray in peace at the Western Wall without being attacked by Muslims as a result of this disinformation campaign were then painted by the Arabic press as working to conquer the Western Wall, turn it into a synagogue, and then from there, take Al Aqsa Mosque.  So this disinformation traveled from the very highest of Muslim officials. So the imams in mosques across Palestine, specifically in Al Aqsa and in Hebron, were repeating these rumors, these lies about this supposed Jewish plot. Those lies were then being published in flyers that were put in city squares. Jewish officials were warning the British and telling, you know, they should have known and they should have done more to end this campaign of disinformation, not only to achieve peace in this land that they were ruling over, but also because they were responsible for installing hajamina Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, into his position they had chosen him for that position, that all powerful position. And so they were responsible, in a way, for all of these lies that he was spreading. And yet they took no responsibility.  And even in the commission that they sent to Palestine from London to investigate the causes of the riots, despite the fact that, you know, if you read these, you know, 400 pages, I don't recommend it. It's a tough reading. But, you know, I did that for this book. And it's so clear from all of these hearings that this disinformation campaign was very obvious, very clear and very clearly to blame for the riots. And yet, because saying so would have made the British responsible for so much death, their conclusions in this commission was that it was Jewish immigration to Palestine and Jewish land purchases at the time that had sparked the riots, and that it was this Jewish demonstration, peaceful demonstration at the Western Wall on to Shabaab in August of 1929 that had sparked these riots.  So there's just, you know, this absolute lack of accountability, not only for the Mufti, who retained his position and became even more powerful and more popular as a leader after these riots, but also for the British and instead, you know, the Jewish victims were blamed for their suffering. At the time, Jews were just 20% of the Palestinian population, which was just 1 million people. Of course, today, Israel is home to more than 10 million people. So you know, clearly there was room for everyone. And the Jews at the time were very peaceful. The Haganah was a very, you know, weak, decentralized force, and after these riots, it became much stronger, and Sephardi Jews and Mizrahi Jews, more traditional Jews who had not joined the Haganah before 1929 had not really embraced Zionism before 1929 now agreed that if Jews were going to be safe in our homeland, then we would need our own army. Manya Brachear Pashman: Can we talk a little bit about the turn toward radicalization and extremism during this time, and what role that has played in the years since? Yardena Schwartz: you know, the Zionist leadership was very adamant that Jews in Palestine should not be carrying out attacks against Arabs in Palestine. You know, it should be really about defending Jews, preventing attacks, but not carrying out retaliatory attacks. But as we've seen throughout the century, of this conflict. You know, extremism begets extremism. And you know, when violence is being used by one side, it is going to be used by the other side as well. And so the rise of a more militant form of Zionism was a direct result of 1929 and this feeling of just helplessness and this feeling of relying on this foreign power, the British, to protect them, and realizing that no foreign power was going to protect the Jews of Palestine and that Jews would have to protect themselves, and the radicalism and the extremism within the Muslim population, particularly the Muslim leadership of Palestine, really just accelerated after the massacre, because they saw that it succeeded. I mean, the British punished the Jewish population of Palestine for the riots by vastly limiting Jewish immigration, vastly limiting Jewish land purchases. Notice, I use the word land purchases because, contrary to a lot of the disinformation we hear. Much today, none of this land was being stolen. It was being purchased by Jews from Muslim land owners. Many of them were absentee landowners. Many of them were from the wealthiest families in Palestine. And many of them were members of, you know, this anti Zionist, pro Mufti circle, who were then telling their own people that Jews are stealing your land and evicting you from your land, when, in fact, it was these wealthy Arab landowners who were selling their land to Jews at exorbitant prices. Manya Brachear Pashman: Did you establish a motive for the Mufti and what were his intentions spreading this disinformation? Yardena Schwartz: Great question. So it was very clear. I mean, he never admitted this, but it was very clear what his motives were, and that was to counter the criticism and accusations of corruption that had dogged him for years, until he began this campaign of propaganda which led much of that criticism and much of those stories of his corruption within the Arabic press and among his Arab rivals to essentially disappear, because now they had a much more threatening enemy, and that enemy was the Jewish community of Palestine, who was plotting to destroy Al Aqsa, conquer Al Aqsa, rebuild their temple, take over Palestine and his campaign worked. You know, after that propaganda campaign became so successful, there were very few people willing to stand up to him and to criticize him, because after 1929 when he became so much more powerful, he began a campaign of assassinations and intimidation and violence used against not only his political rivals and dissidents, but also just Anyone who favored cooperation between Arabs and Jews in Palestine. So there were various mayors of Arab cities who wanted to work together with the Jewish community of those cities or with other Jewish leaders to bring about various economic initiatives, for instance. And some of those mayors were assassinated by the muftis henchmen, or they were just intimidated into silence and into kind of embracing his platform, which was that Palestine is and has always been and should always be, a purely Muslim land, and that there is no place for any kind of Jewish sovereignty or Jewish power in that land.  So, you know, the Mufti, in 1936 he ended up leading a violent rebellion against the British. And the British at that point, had gotten tired of ruling Palestine. They realized it was much more work than they were interested in doing, and they were interested in leaving Palestine, handing over governance to the local population to the Jews and Arabs of Palestine, and they had been interested in figuring out what could be done. Could there be a binational state with equal representation, or representative governance? If Jews are 40% of the population and Arabs are 60% then there could be some kind of governance on those ratios, all of those solutions, including a two state solution, which was presented in 1937 all of those solutions were rejected by the grand mufti, and his platform was embraced by the other Arab officials within Palestine, because if it wasn't, they could face death or violence. And he even rejected the idea of Jews remaining in Palestine under Arab rule. You know when the British said to him, okay, so what will be done with the 400,000 Jews who are in Palestine right now? He said they can't stay. So he didn't only reject the two state solution. He rejected, you know, this bi national, equal utopian society that we hear proposed by so many in pro Palestine movement today. You know, all of these solutions have been on the table for a century and always. They have been rejected by Palestinian leaders, whether it was the Grand Mufti or his apprentice, his young cousin, yas Arafat. Manya Brachear Pashman: Ah, okay, so what happened to Grand Mufti Husseini? Did he stick around? So The Mufti was eventually, finally wanted for arrest by the British after his rebellion claimed the life of a British official. Until then, it had only claimed the lives of Jews and Arabs, but once a British official was killed, then the British had decided that they'd had enough of the Mufti, and they ordered his arrest. He fled Palestine. He ended up in Iraq, where he was involved in riots there the far hood in which many Jews were massacred, perhaps hundreds, if not over 1000 Jews were slaughtered in Baghdad, which was at the time home to about. 100,000 Jews. He then fled Iraq and ended up in Berlin, where he lived from 1941 to 1945 in a Nazi financed mansion, and he led the Arab branch of Joseph Goebbels Ministry of Propaganda. He was the Nazi's leading voice in the Arab world, he spread Nazi propaganda throughout the Muslim world and recruited 10s of 1000s of Muslims to fight for the Nazis, including in the Waffen SS and when the war ended, when world war two ended, and the UN wanted him for Nazi war crimes, he was wanted for Nazi war crimes, placed on the UN's list of Nazi war criminals. Once again, he fled, first to France, then to Cairo, eventually settling in Beirut, where he continued to lead his people's jihad against the Jews of Palestine. So when, in 1947, when the UN voted to partition British Mandate Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish state so that the British could finally leave Palestine. He declared jihad, and he rejected the Partition Plan, along with every other Arab state which also rejected it. Of course, the Jews of Palestine embraced it, celebrated it, and the very next day after the UN vote, riots erupted throughout Palestine, and he helped. He was kind of pulling the strings of that Jihad taking place in Palestine. And in fact, 1000 Muslim men who he had recruited for the Waffen. SS joined that holy war in Palestine. The Mufti helped create the army of the holy war. Yasser Arafat, who was also in Beirut at the time, also assisted the army of the holy war. He actually fought in the war that began in 1947 alongside the Muslim Brotherhood. So, you know the legacy that the Mufti had? You know, it doesn't end there. It continued to his dying day in 1974 and Arafat took over his mantle as the leader of the Palestinian people. And you know, we see how the disinformation and incitement and rejection of Jewish sovereignty in any part of the ancient land of Israel has continued to be a prominent force in Palestinian politics no matter who was in charge. You know, the Fatah, Mahmoud, Abbas and Hamas, of course, perpetuate the same lies about Al Aqsa. They perpetuate the same denial of a Jewish right to live in peace in our homeland, deny the history of Jewish presence in Israel. So, you know, it's really astounding to me how little is known about the Grand Mufti and how little is known about his impact on this conflict, and particularly in the very beginnings, the ground zero of this conflict in 1929 Manya Brachear Pashman: It's so interesting. We talk so much about Hitler, right? And his antisemitism, but we don't talk about Husseini. Yardena Schwartz: Yeah, and they were good friends. I mean, they met in 1941 shortly after the Mufti arrived, he had a private chauffeur. He was lavishly paid by the Nazis, and he was good friends with Himmler. He toured concentration camps. He knew very well about the final solution. Hitler himself considered the Mufti an honorary Aryan. I mean, the Mufti had blue eyes, fair skin, light hair. Hitler believed that Husseini had Roman blood, and he saw him as someone who could lead the Nazi forces once they arrived in the Middle East. He saw him as, you know, a great ally of the Nazis. He didn't just participate in the Nazis quest to eradicate the Jewish population of Europe and eventually arrive in Palestine, but he also the Mufti worked to convince various European leaders not to allow Jewish refugees from fleeing Europe and not allowing them to come to Palestine. He told them, send them to Poland, and he knew very well what was happening in Poland. Manya Brachear Pashman: So I want to go back to this family in Tennessee, the genesis of this story, and I'm curious. David Schoenberg's niece said that at one point in the book, she said they're Southern, so they sweep ugly under the rug in the south. And so they just didn't talk about that. And when I read that, I thought, actually, that's kind of a Jewish approach, not a southern approach, except we wouldn't say we sweep things under the rug. We move on, right? We treasure our resilience, and we move on from that pain and we build anew. But is moving on really in the Jewish community's best interest? Is that how we end up forgetting and letting this history and this very important history fade?. Yardena Schwartz: Yeah, absolutely. You know, I think it is possible to do both. It is possible to take great pride in our resilience and in our strength and our ability to experience so much devastation and suffering, and yet every time emerge stronger.  I mean, think about the Holocaust. First of all, for many years, we did sweep that under the rug. Survivors were discouraged from speaking about what they went through. They were seen as, you know, especially in Israel, they were seen as, you know, people who went like sheep to the slaughter. It wasn't something to talk about. It was something to move on from. And yet now we are able to hold both in both hands. You know. We're able to honor and commemorate the memory and speak about the atrocities that millions of Jews suffered during the Holocaust, while also celebrating where we went after the Holocaust. I mean, three years after the Holocaust, Israel was born. You know, that's just, on its own, you know, a remarkable symbol of our resilience and our strength as a people. But I think the way we commemorate the Holocaust is a really great example of how we do both how we honor the memory and use that as a lesson so that it never happens again.  And yet, I think that when it comes to the conflict and the various forces that have led us to where we are today, there is this tendency to kind of try to move on and not really speak about how we got here. And it's really a shame, because I think that this is the only way we'll ever find a way out of this tragic cycle of violence, is if we learn how we got here, the forces that continue to drive this conflict after a century, and you know, the people who brought us here. Not only the Grand Mufti, but also, you know, the leaders today who are very much capitalizing on fear and religion, exploiting religion for their own, their own interests, and utilizing disinformation to remain in power. And I think that, you know, we can't afford not to speak about these things and not to know about our own history. It's really telling that, you know, even in Jewish communities, where people know so much about Israel and about this conflict, there is just a complete lack of knowledge of, you know, the very bedrock of this conflict. And I think without that knowledge, we'll never get out of this mess. Manya Brachear Pashman: Yardena, thank you so much. This is such a wonderful book, and congratulations on writing it.  Yardena Schwartz: Thank you so much.  Manya Brachear Pashman: If you missed last week's episode, be sure to tune in for my conversation with Dr Laura Shaw Frank, Director of AJC Center for Education Advocacy. We discussed the delicate balance between combating antisemitism, safeguarding free speech, and ensuring campuses remain safe for all students.  Thank you for listening. This episode is brought to you by AJC. Our producer is Atara Lakritz. Our sound engineer is TK Broderick. You can subscribe to People of the Pod on Apple podcasts, Spotify or Google podcasts, or learn more at ajc.org/PeopleofthePod. The views and opinions of our guests don't necessarily reflect the positions of AJC. We'd love to hear your views and opinions or your questions. You can reach us at PeopleofthePod@ajc.org. If you've enjoyed this episode, please be sure to tell your friends. Tag us on social media with hashtag People of the Pod and hop on to Apple podcasts to rate us and write a review to help more listeners find us. Tune in next week for another episode of People of the Pod.

We don't have a new episode this week, but we invite you to revisit our 18Forty Podcast conversation with Yossi Klein Halevi, originally aired on Dec. 26, 2023. In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Yossi Klein Halevi, a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, about what it means to be a Zionist and a Jew post-October 7.Since Simchas Torah, we've spent lots of time airing our political differences with others. What might be harder, though, is asking the uncomfortable questions about our own beliefs. Our guest today has decades of experience with this kind of soul-searching. In this episode we discuss:What is our relationship to the State of Israel, and how seriously must we take our participation in the building and rebuilding of the nation we envision?How might we maintain a sense of empathy for and kinship with the Muslim world and the Palestinian people?Why is it so important that we continue to have a Jewish state?Tune in to hear a conversation about the tensions that come with trying to uphold the rights of both Israelis and Palestinians. Interview begins at 6:54.Yossi Klein Halevi is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. Together with Imam Abdullah Antepli of Duke University, he co-directs the Institute's Muslim Leadership Initiative (MLI), which teaches emerging young Muslim American leaders about Judaism, Jewish identity and Israel. Halevi's 2013 book, Like Dreamers, won the Jewish Book Council's Everett Book of the Year Award. His latest book, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor, is a New York Times bestseller. He writes for leading op-ed pages in the US, including the Times and the Wall Street Journal, and is a former contributing editor to the New Republic.References:“What Israelis Fear the World Does Not Understand” with Ezra Klein and Yossi Klein HaleviLetters to My Palestinian Neighbor by Yossi Klein Halevi Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation by Yossi Klein HaleviArab Strategies and Israel's Response by Yehoshafat Harkabi

Room for Discussion is proud to announce a new interview series.❗Disclaimer: Room for Discussion is a journalistic student-led interview platform which encourages open dialogue and the sharing of diverse perspectives. The opinions expressed by individual guests and audience members in our interviews are solely their own and do not reflect the views, opinions, or positions of Room for Discussion.How does Israeli society relate to the current war? How is history narrated in the Middle East? Is communication between Israelis and Palestinians possible? How?Yossi Klein Halevi is an Israeli-American writer and journalist. He wrote award-winning books, including “Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor”, a book aiming to initiate dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians.

Voters were aghast, world leaders were outraged, and Netanyahu seemed jubilant, when President Trump recently doubled down on a plan that seems totally detached from reality: a U.S. take-over, clean-out, and transformation of Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” Though the White House has since clarified that Palestinian relocation would only be temporary, the shockwaves it caused in the region, and the reaction of the Israeli public, are telling.   In this episode, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi talk messianism, morality, and this strange new chapter of U.S. relations, as they assess Israeli attitudes towards the proposal and the precarious fate of the hostage deal.   This episode is sponsored by Nancy Cahners.   JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Sponsor an upcoming episode of For Heaven's Sake. Click here to learn more.

Many Israelis are grateful to the Trump administration for pushing forward the hostage deal, but an unsettling reality seems to be taking hold. Has Netanyahu become subservient to the returning US President, even at the expense of his own coalition? As newspapers across Israel are abuzz with the “Trump Plan” for Palestinians in Gaza, some question whether Israel has relinquished its sovereignty and moral fortitude to the whims of America's new leader.   In this episode, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi react to the President Trump's call to purportedly “empty out Gaza” and discuss the moral and political discourse in Israel—or lack thereof—that has allowed him to call the shots.   JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Sponsor an upcoming episode of For Heaven's Sake. Click here to learn more.

Israelis watched the video on October 7, 2023 in shock. A teenage girl, bloodied and terrified, was being pulled by her long hair from the trunk of a jeep by a heavily armed Hamas terrorist. Naama Levy, a newly conscripted IDF soldier, had been brutalized, and the short clip of her went viral globally. When they first saw it even her parents did not recognize their daughter. In a dramatic few weeks leading up to last Saturday, the fate of Na'ama—as well as four other female IDF soldiers also kidnapped on that dark day by Hamas—hung by a thread. Negotiations were so tense. So much was and is at stake. And Israel is forced to negotiate with one of the most barbaric terror groups in the world. Hamas is ISIS is al-Qaeda. Qatar, a backward country that supports Islamist terror financially and diplomatically, is the “neutral” mediator. It's all like a bad hallucination, but true. Until the last moment on Saturday morning, there were so many snags that arose. Miraculously, they were overcome, and four of the five girls are home. Still to be saved are 90 hostages remaining in Hamas hell. Some are alive; many are not. We will get into the minefield that lies ahead in due course, but today we focus on the joy of the return of Naama, Daniela, Karina, and Liri. And what the return of all the hostages means for the people and state of Israel. It's always enriching and interesting speaking with Yossi Klein Halevi, our fabulous guest today.State of Tel Aviv is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.stateoftelaviv.com/subscribe

Three hostages have been safely returned to Israel, with more to be returned each week. But while Israelis share the relief of this long-awaited moment, Hamas is emerging from the shadows with victory cheers and a deep ambivalence over the ceasefire deal is brewing in Israel. Who has won this war, and can Israelis come to terms with the price they must pay to bring all the hostages home? In this episode, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi discuss the divide in Israeli opinion, the country's unmet military goals, and whether a return to war could be on the horizon.   This episode is sponsored by Nancy Cahners.   JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Sponsor an upcoming episode of For Heaven's Sake. Click here to learn more.

On Sunday evening in Israel, after 471 days in captivity, three hostages — Romi Gonen, Emily Damari, and Doron Steinbrecher  — were released from Gaza and returned home to Israel, as a ceasefire in Gaza went into effect. There has been speculation as to why this deal was agreed upon now, and about whether January […]

Watch Call me Back on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CallMeBackPodcast To contact us, sign up for updates, and access transcripts, visit: https://arkmedia.org/ Dan on X: https://x.com/dansenor Dan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dansenor On Sunday evening in Israel, after 471 days in captivity, three hostages — Romi Gonen, Emily Damari, and Doron Steinbrecher  — were released from Gaza and returned home to Israel, as a ceasefire in Gaza went into effect.  There has been speculation as to why this deal was agreed upon now, and about whether January 19th effectively marked the end of the Gaza war. And more than anything, there is palpable anxiety about the fate of the remaining hostages.  To take in this moment and unpack these questions about what comes next, we are joined by Yossi Klein Halevi and Wendy Singer. Yossi Klein Halevi is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. Yossi has written a number of books, including his latest, "Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor," which was a New York Times bestseller. He has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Times of Israel. He is co-host of "For Heaven's Sake" podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/for-heavens-sake/id1522222281 Yossi Klein Halevi's books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001IXOA04 Wendy Singer was the professional founder of Start-Up Nation Central (SNC), where she served as Executive Director for nine years. Wendy currently serves as a strategic advisor to select Israeli start-ups and NGOs, including the National Library of Israel. Before joining Israel's tech scene, she spent sixteen years as Head of AIPAC's Israel office. Wendy is a board member of the Shalom Hartman Institute; and a Trustee of the Russell Berrie Foundation. 

A ceasefire deal has just been reached.   In the past, Israelis have been united in elation and relief about the return of hostages, even at a high cost to national security. But not this time. Far-right MKs and ultranationalists had vigorously decried the deal, protesting any concession that would allow Hamas to hold on to power, no matter how small. What is behind their bitter dissent, and will this deepen rifts in Israeli society?   In this episode, recorded as the deal was still being finalized, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi consider closure, family loyalty, and the basic value of derech eretz (common decency) in negotiating the return of the hostages, and why the lens for ultranationalists in Israel is so starkly different.   JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Sponsor an upcoming episode of For Heaven's Sake. Click here to learn more.

Israelis often speak proudly about their army's rigorous moral standards. But after falling prey to the barbaric massacre by Hamas on October 7, national security has become top of mind for many Israelis while topics like Gazan civilian casualties are avoided. Are these two values—morality and survival—mutually exclusive? This week, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi tackle the state of moral discourse in Israel, international criticism of the war, and the troubling relationship between victimhood and brutality. JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Sponsor an upcoming episode of For Heaven's Sake. Click here to learn more.

Most Israelis want a comprehensive hostage deal but seem unwilling to call out actions by Netanyahu which have sabotaged negotiation efforts with Hamas. Have Israel's citizens become complacent?   This week, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi diagnose Israelis' passivity in the face of deeply unpopular government decisions and their reluctance to consider the future of Gazans or of Palestinians in general.   This episode is sponsored by Lois Kohn-Claar and Gary Claar.   JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Thoughtful debate elevates us all. Partner with us to continue these important conversations. Make a gift now.

01:00 ‘Could populism and nationalism be a parallel to religious revivals?', https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=158488 08:00 Religiosity can bring personal stability in a volatile world, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/guest-avi-liberman/id1732222323?i=1000657987899 17:00 NYT: Israel Loosened Its Rules to Bomb Hamas Fighters, Killing Many More Civilians, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/26/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-gaza-bombing.html 19:40 The Brutality of War - with Yossi Klein Halevi, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE3NfvEubF0 33:00 Daniel Lobell only wanted to date gentiles, found love with a non-Jew, and she decides to convert to Orthodox Judaism, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/guest-avi-liberman/id1732222323?i=1000657987899 58:00 Laura Loomer On The Dark Enlightenment World View Of Big Tech Leaders, https://rumble.com/v64f3fs-laura-loomer-on-the-dark-enlightenment-world-view-of-big-tech-leaders.html 1:05:00 Kip joins 1:46:30 Curtis Yarvin: The Edgelord's Guide to Monarchy, https://decoding-the-gurus.captivate.fm/episode/curtis-yarvin-the-edgelords-guide-to-monarchy-40k 2:07:00 Ungar-Sargon: “Of Course Mass Immigration Raises The GDP, It Makes Oligarchs Unbelievably Wealthy.”, https://rumble.com/v64khk4-ungar-sargon-of-course-mass-immigration-raises-the-gdp-it-makes-oligarchs-u.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp 2:17:30 Steve Bannon Calls For A Moratorium On All Immigration, https://rumble.com/v64kpa1-steve-bannon-calls-for-a-moratorium-on-all-immigration.html?e9s=rel_v2_pr 2:23:40 Sean Spicer H-1B Visa Poll Shows That MAGA Sides With Bannon Stance, https://rumble.com/v64k317-sean-spicer-h-1b-visa-poll-shows-that-maga-sides-with-bannon-stance.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp 2:30:20 Ben Bergquam Calls For Immigration Moratorium Live From Sanctuary City San Diego, https://rumble.com/v64kr5j-ben-bergquam-calls-for-immigration-moratorium-live-from-sanctuary-city-san-.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp 2:35:00 Ryan Long - Problem Solved, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBrdMrbmz1c 2:37:40 I Became A Full On Incel | Denise Taylor | Stand Up Comedy, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqqDmwakswQ 2:39:40 Taylor Lorenz got giddy about the healthcare CEO assassination, https://decoding-the-gurus.captivate.fm/episode/supplementary-material-20-stolen-valour-based-murder-and-eric-weinsteins-phonecall-problems 2:49:00 Decoding Elon Musk, https://decoding-the-gurus.captivate.fm/episode/elon-musk-the-techno-shaman 2:55:00 Death of a Gentleman: What cricket is really about, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4kjWqPbcYM

Last Thursday, The New York Times published a long investigative piece titled “Israel Loosened Its Rules to Bomb Hamas Fighters, Killing Many More Civilians”. The article tries to identify an unprecedented shift in the IDF's military strategy and rules of engagement during its response to Hamas's October 7 invasion, and reports on the impact on […]

01:00 ‘Could populism and nationalism be a parallel to religious revivals?', https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=158488 08:00 Religiosity can bring personal stability in a volatile world, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/guest-avi-liberman/id1732222323?i=1000657987899 17:00 NYT: Israel Loosened Its Rules to Bomb Hamas Fighters, Killing Many More Civilians, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/26/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-gaza-bombing.html 19:40 The Brutality of War - with Yossi Klein Halevi, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE3NfvEubF0 33:00 Daniel Lobell only wanted to date gentiles, found love with a non-Jew, and she decides to convert to Orthodox Judaism, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/guest-avi-liberman/id1732222323?i=1000657987899 58:00 Laura Loomer On The Dark Enlightenment World View Of Big Tech Leaders, https://rumble.com/v64f3fs-laura-loomer-on-the-dark-enlightenment-world-view-of-big-tech-leaders.html 1:05:00 Kip joins 1:46:30 Curtis Yarvin: The Edgelord's Guide to Monarchy, https://decoding-the-gurus.captivate.fm/episode/curtis-yarvin-the-edgelords-guide-to-monarchy-40k 2:07:00 Ungar-Sargon: “Of Course Mass Immigration Raises The GDP, It Makes Oligarchs Unbelievably Wealthy.”, https://rumble.com/v64khk4-ungar-sargon-of-course-mass-immigration-raises-the-gdp-it-makes-oligarchs-u.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp 2:17:30 Steve Bannon Calls For A Moratorium On All Immigration, https://rumble.com/v64kpa1-steve-bannon-calls-for-a-moratorium-on-all-immigration.html?e9s=rel_v2_pr 2:23:40 Sean Spicer H-1B Visa Poll Shows That MAGA Sides With Bannon Stance, https://rumble.com/v64k317-sean-spicer-h-1b-visa-poll-shows-that-maga-sides-with-bannon-stance.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp 2:30:20 Ben Bergquam Calls For Immigration Moratorium Live From Sanctuary City San Diego, https://rumble.com/v64kr5j-ben-bergquam-calls-for-immigration-moratorium-live-from-sanctuary-city-san-.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp 2:35:00 Ryan Long - Problem Solved, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBrdMrbmz1c 2:37:40 I Became A Full On Incel | Denise Taylor | Stand Up Comedy, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqqDmwakswQ 2:39:40 Taylor Lorenz got giddy about the healthcare CEO assassination, https://decoding-the-gurus.captivate.fm/episode/supplementary-material-20-stolen-valour-based-murder-and-eric-weinsteins-phonecall-problems 2:49:00 Decoding Elon Musk, https://decoding-the-gurus.captivate.fm/episode/elon-musk-the-techno-shaman 2:55:00 Death of a Gentleman: What cricket is really about, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4kjWqPbcYM

What is Hanukkah? A military victory by Maccabean heroes? A miracle of light in the darkest of times? This year it's something more complicated.   In this episode Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi consider how Hanukkah's classical Zionist narrative of power and sovereignty was challenged by October 7th, and how the Festival of Lights has changed again after Israel's recent war victories.   This episode is sponsored by Lois Kohn-Claar and Gary Claar.   JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Thoughtful debate elevates us all. Partner with us to continue these important conversations. Make a gift now.

Now that Israel has succeeded in defeating the Iranian axis on its borders, Netanyahu—and Hamas—seem earnest about a ceasefire deal. Can all the hostages and the remains of those deceased be returned? And how will Israelis heal from the lingering trauma of October 7th? In this episode, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi consider the harsh likelihood of a partial hostage deal and analyze how Ben Gvir and Netanyahu are jockeying for the hearts of Israelis as the war winds down. JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Sponsor an upcoming episode of For Heaven's Sake. Click here to learn more.

Less than two weeks after Hezbollah and Israel agreed to a ceasefire deal, the Assad regime in Syria was overthrown by rebel militias and Hamas is showing more openness to a hostage deal than ever before. As Iran's siege along the borders of Israel unravels, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi ask in this episode: are Israelis ready for the war to wrap up? They discuss the new geopolitical reality in the region, the success of the judicial system in bringing Netanyahu to trial, and the fate of Gaza post-war in the minds of Israelis who are deeply divided. JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Sponsor an upcoming episode of For Heaven's Sake. Click here to learn more.

What is motivating Netanyahu's coalition government to undermine Israel's democratic checks and balances, even as a ceasefire with Hamas becomes a serious possibility?   In this episode, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi examine how the Jewish State's early decades under Labor Party rule influenced the current government's actions, and explore how Israel can heal from deepening partisan rifts.   JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Sponsor an upcoming episode of For Heaven's Sake. Click here to learn more.

As of Tuesday, November 26, Netanyahu is on the cusp of signing a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah. Why, after all this time stalling on a deal with Hamas—with hostages on the line—is the Prime Minister considering this separate arrangement in Lebanon?   In this episode, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi debate Netanyahu's motives for the deal, and what it will mean for the fate of Gaza, the unretrieved hostages, and the psyche of Israelis who have endured over a year of war.   JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Sponsor an upcoming episode of For Heaven's Sake. Click here to learn more.

Dozens of hostages are still struggling to survive in captivity under terrible conditions, 410 days after the war in Gaza began. On this episode of For Heaven's Sake, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi examine the ways that the hostages have been neglected and used as political pawns as they advocate for the prioritization of their return.   JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Sponsor an upcoming episode of For Heaven's Sake. Click here to learn more.

On Thursday, November 7, Israeli soccer fans were beaten and harassed by hordes of masked assailants on the streets of Amsterdam, followed by calls for a “Jew hunt” on social media.   In this episode, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi discuss the shockwave this sent to Israelis about traveling abroad, Jewish vulnerability, and how a reemergence of violent antisemitism in post-Holocaust Europe could have occurred. JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Sponsor an upcoming episode of For Heaven's Sake. Click here to learn more.

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Today, we bring you a bonus episode of What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World. This week, we hand the mic over to Yossi Klein Halevi, a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute and an author, thinker and writer for The Times of Israel and many other outlets. Recently, Klein Halevi shared with us his longtime interest in interviewing Rabbi Irving Yitz Greenberg, whom he called one of this generation's most important Jewish theologians. Greenberg has been a central figure in the creation of a post-Holocaust Jewish identity and in establishing Holocaust commemoration projects like the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. He is a leader in inter-denominational Jewish pluralism and in Jewish-Christian interfaith dialogue. Now, at age 91, Greenberg has published his magnum opus, “The Triumph of Life,” which, according to Klein Halevi, offers a brilliant and original argument for a new understanding of Judaism. So this week, we ask both Yossi Klein Halevi and Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, what matters now. For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel's ongoing live blog. Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: Left to right: Author Yossi Klein Halevi. (Shalom Hartman Institute); Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg. (Courtesy)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World. This week, we hand the mic over to Yossi Klein Halevi, a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute and an author, thinker and writer for The Times of Israel and many other outlets. Recently, Klein Halevi shared with us his longtime interest in interviewing Rabbi Irving Yitz Greenberg, whom he called one of this generation's most important Jewish theologians. Greenberg has been a central figure in the creation of a post-Holocaust Jewish identity and in establishing Holocaust commemoration projects like the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. He is a leader in inter-denominational Jewish pluralism and in Jewish-Christian interfaith dialogue. Now, at age 91, Greenberg has published his magnum opus, “The Triumph of Life,” which, according to Klein Halevi, offers a brilliant and original argument for a new understanding of Judaism. So this week, we ask both Yossi Klein Halevi and Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  Image: Left to right: Author Yossi Klein Halevi. (Shalom Hartman Institute); Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg (Courtesy)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Wednesday, November 6, 2024, the morning after Benjamin Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and spurred a public outcry, Americans and Israelis woke to the news that Donald Trump had been reelected President of the United States. With intense political upheaval in both nations, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi speculate on how a second Trump administration could impact Netanyahu and his far-right coalition, and what Gallant's replacement by Israel Katz might mean for the war. JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Sponsor an upcoming episode of For Heaven's Sake. Click here to learn more.

According to a poll released on Monday, October 28, Netanyahu is now the preferred candidate for prime minister for the first time since his return to office two years ago. Has his reputation truly been salvaged simply by the success of the Saturday strike on Iran?   In this episode, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi dig into Netanyahu's methods of leadership and the psyche of Israelis to understand why public opinion has suddenly rebounded in his favor.   This episode is sponsored by Eileen and Howard Dubner.   JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Sponsor an upcoming episode of For Heaven's Sake. Click here to learn more.

Send us a textJoin us for a live conversation with Yossi Klein Halevi, author of the New York Times bestseller "Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor", as we explore Rabbi Menachem Froman's groundbreaking vision for peace. Known for his efforts to unite Jewish and Palestinian communities through faith, Rabbi Froman's legacy is brought to life in the newly released book "Chasidim Just Laugh". This remarkable collection of his teachings highlights his radical approach to Jewish-Arab relations, offering profound insights into peace, joy, and religious coexistence.Yossi, who penned the book's introduction, will delve into Rabbi Froman's unique perspective on interfaith dialogue, reflecting on how these principles continue to inspire efforts for peace in Israel/Palestine today.Support the show

Almost one month after Israel began its ground invasion into Lebanon with no clear objective, the path to victory remains uncertain.   In this episode, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi discuss what it would take to declare an end to the war against Hezbollah, how Israel can grow its allyship with its Sunni neighbors, and whether defeat of the Iranian axis of power in the Middle East is even possible.   JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Sponsor an upcoming episode of For Heaven's Sake. Click here to learn more.

After a year of grief, pain, and war on multiple fronts, the Israeli psyche has been fundamentally transformed.   In this special episode recorded live on October 7, 2024, for members of the Shalom Hartman Institute Giving Society, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi reflect on the fragility of the nation, Netanyahu's rising poll numbers, and a resurgence of existential crisis not seen in Israel since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.   Stay tuned after the episode to hear Donniel and Yossi answer questions from the live audience.   Learn more about our Giving Society, which recognizes the generosity of individuals and families who annually support the mission and growth of the Shalom Hartman Institute. JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Sponsor an upcoming episode of For Heaven's Sake. Click here to learn more.

The Bulletin welcomes American-Jewish journalist Yossi Klein Halevi to recall the tragic events that took place in Israel on October 7, 2023 and discuss the year of turmoil that has come after.  GO DEEPER WITH THE BULLETIN: Follow the show in your podcast app of choice. Find us on YouTube. Rate and review the show in your podcast app of choice. Leave a comment in Spotify with your feedback on the discussion—we may even respond! ABOUT THE GUEST:  Yossi Klein Halevi is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. Together with Imam Abdullah Antepli of Duke University, he co-directs the Institute's Muslim Leadership Initiative (MLI), which teaches emerging young Muslim American leaders about Judaism, Jewish identity and Israel. He writes for leading op-ed pages in the US, including the Times and the Wall Street Journal, and is a former contributing editor to the New Republic. His first book, Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist, tells the story of his teenage years as a follower of the militant rightwing rabbi Meir Kahane, and his subsequent disillusionment with Jewish radicalism. The New York Times called it “a book of burning importance.” Born in Brooklyn, Yossi moved to Israel in 1982, and lives in Jerusalem with wife, Sarah, who helps run a center for Jewish meditation. They have three children. ABOUT THE BULLETIN: The Bulletin is a weekly (and sometimes more!) current events show from Christianity Today hosted and moderated by Clarissa Moll, with senior commentary from Russell Moore (Christianity Today's editor in chief) and Mike Cosper (director, CT Media). Each week, the show explores current events and breaking news and shares a Christian perspective on issues that are shaping our world. We also offer special one-on-one conversations with writers, artists, and thought leaders whose impact on the world brings important significance to a Christian worldview, like Bono, Sharon McMahon, Harrison Scott Key, Frank Bruni, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After Nasrallah, where are we now? Following the killing of Hezbollah's long-time leader, the situation on Israel's northern border is more uncertain than ever. In this special episode hosted by UJIA and recorded live at JW3, London's Jewish Community Centre, Yossi Klein Halevi and Donniel Hartman discuss the delicate balance between the deterrence of despair and the arrogance of power.   JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Sponsor an upcoming episode of For Heaven's Sake. Click here to learn more.

Israelis are reeling from a massive Iranian ballistic missile attack which forced over 10 million people to take cover in bomb shelters and threatened to pull both countries into an open war. How will Israel respond to this attack? Can they restore deterrence in the region? And will they have the support of the US and other western nations? To make sense of the events of the last few days, and its impact on the collective Israeli psyche, we're joined again on the program by Yossi Klein Halevi. Yossi is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and the author of the New York Times bestseller, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor.  The host of this Munk Dialogue is Rudyard Griffiths To support civil and substantive debate on the big questions of the day, consider becoming a Munk Member at https://munkdebates.com/membership Members receive access to our 15+ year library of great debates in HD video, ticketing privileges to our live events, and a charitable tax receipt (Canadian residents). This podcast is a project of the Munk Debates, a Canadian charitable organization dedicated to fostering civil and substantive public dialogue - https://munkdebates.com/   Executive Producer: Ricki Gurwitz Editor: Kieran Lynch

As the conflict on the northern front escalates, the path to peace seems to be getting longer and more complex. In this episode, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi unpack the recent surge in action along Israel's northern border and reflect on the differences between fighting Hezbollah and fighting Hamas.   JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Sponsor an upcoming episode of For Heaven's Sake. Click here to learn more.

WATCH THE CONVERSATION ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GKPqu3CUtg UPCOMING LIVE EVENTS: September 24 — Join us for the first major live recording of Call Me Back, held at the Streicker Center, featuring Amir Tibon. To register, please go to: https://streicker.nyc/events/tibon-senor   SPECIAL SERIES: As we approach the grim one-year anniversary of 10/07, we are featuring a dedicated series in which we take a longer horizon perspective, asking one guest each week to look back at this past year and the year ahead. If you are listening to this episode on a podcast app, please note that this series was filmed in a studio and is also available in video form on our YouTube channel.  For the third installment of this special series, we sat down with Yossi Klein Halevi, who is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. Yossi has written a number of books, including his latest, "Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor," which was a New York Times bestseller. He has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Times of Israel. He is co-host of "For Heaven's Sake" podcast. Yossi Klein Halevi's books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001IXOA04

WATCH THE CONVERSATION ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GKPqu3CUtg UPCOMING LIVE EVENTS: September 24 — Join us for the first major live recording of Call Me Back, held at the Streicker Center, featuring Amir Tibon. To register, please go to: https://streicker.nyc/events/tibon-senor SPECIAL SERIES: As we approach the grim one-year anniversary of 10/07, we are featuring a dedicated series […]

On Tuesday, September 17, Mossad-planted explosives were detonated in hundreds of beepers carried by Hezbollah operatives, killing at least a dozen and injuring thousands more.   While new details come to light, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi debate the efficacy of this surprise attack, the public reaction to it, and whether Israel is ready for another major military operation now that further engagement in the north seems inevitable.   JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Sponsor an upcoming episode of For Heaven's Sake. Click here to learn more.

Israeli Knesset members Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich have been advancing “total victory,” and they don't just mean defeating Hamas or returning the hostages.   This week, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi discuss the small but powerful far-right messianic movement in Israel that these MKs represent, and how the current war has emboldened their agenda in the West Bank, on the Temple Mount, and across the region.   JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Sponsor an upcoming episode of For Heaven's Sake. Click here to learn more.

On Saturday, August 31, the bodies of six hostages were discovered by the IDF in a tunnel under Rafah. Murdered by Hamas shortly before they were found, they include Hersh Goldberg-Polin z"l, beloved cousin of our Hartman colleague Eliot Goldstein and a friend to many in the Hartman community, as well as Carmel Gat z"l, Ori Danino z"l, Eden Yerushalmi z"l, Alex Lobanov z"l, and Almog Sarusi z"l.     Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi express their grief and rage over this tragedy and assess the choice Israel must make between disabling its enemies and bringing the remaining hostages home when trust in the government has eroded.   JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Sponsor an upcoming episode of For Heaven's Sake. Click here to learn more.

What began on Oct. 7, Yossi Klein Halevi says, is not the Israel-Hamas War but the Israel-Iran War.A senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, the journalist and author has been intimately invested in Israel since he was a boy. Two of his books in particular—Like Dreamers and Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor—capture the tensions he embraces in Israel, and his own dedication to the Zionist dream. At Hartman, Yossi co-directs the Institute's Muslim Leadership Initiative and is a long-time teacher, writer, and thinker on Israel, Zionism, and Judaism.Now, he sits down with us to answer 18 questions on Israel, including whether anti-Zionism is antisemitism, how Western media covers the Israel-Hamas War, the threat of Iran, and so much more.This interview was held on Aug. 28.Here are our 18 questions:As an Israeli, and as a Jew, how are you feeling at this moment in Israeli history?What has been Israel's greatest success and greatest mistake in its war against Hamas?Do you think Western media covers the Israel-Hamas War fairly?What do you look for in deciding which Knesset party to vote for?Which is more important for Israel: Judaism or democracy?What role should the Israeli government have in religious matters?Should Israel treat its Jewish and non-Jewish citizens the same?Now that Israel already exists, what is the purpose of Zionism?Is opposing Zionism inherently antisemitic?Is the IDF the world's most moral army?If you were making the case for Israel, where would you begin?Can questioning the actions of Israel's government and army — such as in the context of this war — be a valid form of love and patriotism?What do you think is the most legitimate criticism leveled against Israel today?Do you think peace between Israelis and Palestinians will happen within your lifetime?What should happen with Gaza and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict after the war?Where do you read news about Israel?Where do you identify on Israel's political and religious spectrum, and do you have friends on the “other side”?Do you have more hope or fear for Israel and the Jewish People?

This episode originally aired on June 19th, 2024.     Religious Zionists are one of the most multifaceted—and misunderstood­—subsets of Israeli society today.     In this episode, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi detail the strengths and weaknesses of this diverse community; champions of Jewish Peoplehood at their best, but a host for fundamentalist ideology at their worst.       ----    JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS  Sponsor an upcoming episode of For Heaven's Sake. Click here to learn more. 

Over the course of the 10-month war with Hamas, anti-Zionist sentiment has been brought to the forefront around the world and also closer to home, within the ranks of North American Jewry. In this session recorded at the Shalom Hartman Institute's Rabbinic Torah Seminar in Jerusalem on July 11, Yossi Klein Halevi outlines the connections and distinctions between anti-Zionism and classical antisemitism, and how this war is testing the morality of modern Jewish power. For more information about our Rabbinic Torah Seminar, visit shalomhartman.org/rts.   JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Sponsor an upcoming episode of For Heaven's Sake. Click here to learn more.

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Author Yossi Klein Halevi joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode, a bonus replay of our What Matters Now weekly podcast. This week, we turn to Klein Halevi for a deeply intense probe into what it means to be part of the existential Israeli struggle. We discuss how, as the war in Gaza continues, the different forces in Israeli society are caught up in a destructive push-pull dance even as Israel is losing its moral capital during this long war. During this time of existential schism in the Jewish state, we also hear how to weave threads of unity. So this week, we ask best-selling author Yossi Klein Halevi, what matters now. For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel's ongoing live blog. Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Ben Wallick.  IMAGE: Author Yossi Klein Halevi. (Shalom Hartman Institute)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hours after Israel killed Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in a strike on Beirut on Tuesday, July 31, Hamas' senior political leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran.   Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi examine the impact of these events on the progress towards a hostage deal and the transformation of Israelis' attitudes as a pattern of retaliation emerges.   JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Sponsor an upcoming episode of For Heaven's Sake. Click here to learn more.

The day after a rocket attack from Lebanon killed 12 Druze children and teens in the Golan Heights, far-right activists broke into the Sde Teiman IDF army base. Israel's overworked military is now also being threatened by its own citizens. In this episode, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi unpack the protesters attempts to undermine the IDF's investigation of prisoners' abuse and discuss the Israeli army's ability to retaliate in the north.   JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Sponsor an upcoming episode of For Heaven's Sake. Click here to learn more.

U. S. politics are in turmoil. In the span of just 8 days, Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt, Joe Biden dropped his bid for a second term, and Kamala Harris now appears destined to become the Democratic presidential nominee. In this episode, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi discuss the likely U.S. presidential candidates through an Israeli lens, and question Netanyahu's commitment to address Congress in Washington, D.C. despite the recent election campaign upheaval. JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Sponsor an upcoming episode of For Heaven's Sake. Click here to learn more.

To an outside observer, there are many places where an eerie sense of normalcy has settled over Israeli society, but the reality is anything but normal. On this episode of For Heaven's Sake, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein-Halevi discuss the very real needs of Israelis who have been immersed in war and loss for so many months, and why we must resist falling entirely back into the status quo.     JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Sponsor an upcoming episode of For Heaven's Sake. Click here to learn more.

Recorded in front of a live audience at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem on Tuesday, July 9, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi analyze Netanyahu's impact on the hostage negotiations and how persistent fighting in Gaza exposes deep-seated misconceptions about Israel's military power.   JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Sponsor an upcoming episode of For Heaven's Sake. Click here to learn more.

On Sunday, June 30, Israel's Labor and Meretz parties made the astonishing decision to merge into a single entity representing the Israeli Left. In this episode, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi identify the shift in attitudes and priorities across Israeli politics since October 7, and speculate on who may replace Netanyahu as Israel's next Prime Minister. JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS Sponsor an upcoming episode of For Heaven's Sake. Click here to learn more.