Episodes
Rabbi Moshe Levinger was all in favor of building settlements in the West Bank, but with a twist: he thought confrontation with the Israeli government, rather than cooperation, was the way to achieve a Jewish foothold in their historic land. He set his sights on establishing the first urban settlement in the heart of Hebron: one of Judaism’s oldest cities, now populated exclusively by Arabs.
Published 06/26/23
Palestinians hit on a winning formula for attacking Israel and publicizing their own cause: airplane hijackings. And Prime Minister Levi Eshkol dies, replaced by Israel’s first (and so far only) female prime minister, Golda Meir. By turns empathetic and aloof, ideological and pragmatic, pioneering and traditional, Golda came into office struggling to reconcile the Israel of her dreams with the changing country before her.
Published 06/11/23
The Six Day War did not mean the end of fighting, just a new phase. At a summit in Khartoum the Arabs rejected peace, negotiation, and recognition of Israel, leaving violence as the only acceptable option. Egypt and Israel began fighting the War of Attrition, while Yasser Arafat’s PLO terrorist group challenged Israel’s patience and strength. These events and the Occupation engendered a developing new Palestinian identity.
Published 06/04/23
Israel's second settlement in the Occupied Territories was Kfar Etzion, established in the West Bank on the ruins of a destroyed Jewish kibbutz. It was the first settlement of the Religious Zionism movement, merging the ideas of Zionist settlement with messianic redemption, and spawned both public support and criticism.
Published 05/14/23
Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territory began just five weeks after the Six Day War, in a small community called Merom Golan on the Syrian border. This was not a right-wing nationalist endeavor but a left-wing socialist one, intended to reinvigorate the Zionist Movement with the spirit of the early pioneering generations. But wait — isn’t this illegal under international law?
Published 04/30/23
Today we’re laying the conceptual foundations of the Occupation and Israel’s decisions immediately after the Six Day War. Having found itself in charge of an empire — territory three times its own size, with 1.2 million Palestinians — Israel flailed about for a coherent strategy to meet the challenges posed by the land, the people in it, and competing political agendas of Israel’s leaders.
Published 04/23/23
In the days and weeks following the Six Day War, Israel made three big decisions regarding Jerusalem: to raze the Mughrabi Quarter to create a central plaza in front of the Western Wall, to bestow exclusive religious rights on the Tempe Mount to the Muslims, and to annex East Jerusalem to create a unified Israeli capital. Each of these decisions had lasting consequences.
Published 04/09/23
For six days Israel fought. On the seventh day it rested. What was the impact on Israelis, and Jews around the world? How did they come to understand the greatest Jewish military victory in two thousand years? It turns out the reaction was very mixed.
Published 04/02/23
On June 5, 1967, Israel destroyed the air forces of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan in a matter of hours, kicking off what would become one of the greatest victories of modern military history. Israel thought it was fighting a defensive war for survival but instead captured five Arab territories that tripled its size. It was so surprising that, 56 years later, Israel is in many ways still dealing with the consequences. This episode takes a broad look at the six days of war that kicked off a whole...
Published 03/26/23
Season 7 begins! This is an action-packed season exploring ten crucial years in Israel, 1967-1977. We'll hear about wars and The Occupation, triumphant rescues and the tragedy of the Munich Olympics, the settlements and the rise of the right-wing. We're kicking off with the run-up to the Six Day War and an introduction to some of the ideological ideas crucial for understanding this era.
Published 03/26/23
Why the sudden burst of horrific violence in the West Bank this week? Hamas is making a play to take over the West Bank, ratcheting up attacks on Israel. And Israeli settler extremists are emboldened by support from their government to ramp up their own attacks on Palestinians, including the destruction of the village of Huwara. A weak Palestinian Authority that can’t provide security…plus increased Israeli raids targeted terrorists…all makes for a highly combustible situation that many fear...
Published 03/01/23
Why are hundreds of thousands of Israelis protesting in the streets? Why are global headlines screaming about the end of Israeli democracy? The country is griped by a profound crisis over the independence of its judicial system, as its ultra right-wing government tries to pass legislation reforming the Supreme Court. Come find out how we got here and what Israeli's are so angry about.
Published 02/23/23
Israel just held its 5th election in 4 years, returning former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to power on a hard right-wing ticket. What's going on? It's a tug of war for Israel's soul between two opposing camps: Democratic Israel and Jewish Israel. In this quick post-election analysis, we'll delve into what happened, why, and where we go from here.
Published 11/06/22
Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan redefined Judaism as an “evolving religious civilization” in need of reconstruction for the 20th century. He emphasized Jewish peoplehood, in all its complexity and diversity, as the central pillar of Jewish life and culture, and as the means of survival for Judaism in modern society. From the Bat Mitzvah to the Jewish community center, Kaplan’s ideas have since permeated into nearly all aspects of American Jewish life.
Published 09/25/22
Joy. Attachment. Intention. The Baal Shem Tov - Master of the Good Name - inspired millions of Jews in Eastern Europe by uniting ideas in mystical Judaism with daily life. He turbo-boosted Jewish identity with the notion that every individual could be closer to God and play a role in the redemption of the world. Through stories and legends his fame grew into a new movement known as Hasidism, adopted by half the Jews of Europe.
Published 09/18/22
Baruch Spinoza, it is said, wrote a book "forged from Hell by the Devil himself," rejecting 1600 years of medieval philosophy in favor of pure reason. He so angered the religious authorities that his Amsterdam Jewish community excommunicated him. He advocated for free speech, expression, and worship, ushering us all into the modern age way back in the 1600s. Today we're exploring some of his radical ideas.
Published 09/11/22
Isaac Luria is taking us into the realm of the visionary and mysterious. We’re looking into the role of kabbalah — mystical Judaism — in our everyday lives. How can an infinite God create our finite universe? How can we mere humans repair a broken world? How did the city of Tsfat in Israel end up as the center of mystical Judaism?
Published 08/28/22
Maimonides says that you might be perplexed. Your intellect tells you that the stories in the Hebrew Bible can’t be scientifically true, but your faith tells you that they are. Maimonides is here to help! He revolutionized Judaism — from law and theology, to ideas about God and approaching Torah with a rational and universal mindset, there’s something for everyone in Jewish history’s greatest philosopher.
Published 08/21/22
In 1141 CE, Judah HaLevi mysteriously disappeared on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, giving rise to legends about the scholar who became Judaism's most celebrated poet. He wrote the Kuzari, a stirring defense of the Jewish faith at a time when the Jewish golden age in Spain was under threat from Muslims and Christians vying for control of Andalusia.
Published 08/07/22
Saadia Gaon single-handedly saved Judaism from splitting apart in the 10th century. He was the first great Jewish medieval philosopher and the spiritual father of Judeo-Arabic culture, defending Rabbinic Judaism against sectarianism and insisting that reason and revelation together seek the truth.
Published 07/24/22
Rabbi Akiva — just about the greatest sage of them all. War between Romans and Jews set his destiny in both life and death. Compassionate, humble, and brilliant, he was martyred by the Romans for daring to teach Torah when it had been forbidden, and his wisdom set forth Jewish learning for the next 2,000 years.
Published 07/11/22
Philo of Alexandria straddled both the Greek and Jewish worlds. He sought to harmonize Greek philosophy's emphasis on reason with the idea of religious revelation. In doing so, he set forth a philosophical approach to the Hebrew Bible that persisted for centuries, and heavily influenced how religious texts are interpreted.
Published 06/26/22
Starting off Season 6 with one of the all-time greatest Jewish thinkers: Hillel the Elder, from the 1st century BCE. The sage who summarized the entirety of the Torah while standing on one foot, Hillel's wisdom was preserved by his greatest admirers, giving us a portrait of a man wise, humble, and inspirational.
Published 06/19/22
Season Finale. What does it mean to be an Israelite? A Jew? A Hebrew?
Published 10/31/21
Who wrote the Hebrew Bible, when, and how? Boiling a huge topic down to the basics: a thousand-year long literary tradition built by authors across the centuries, compiling story after story to arrive at what we have today.
Published 10/17/21