This week on Unorthodox, we’re highlighting the latest installment of The Minyan, Tablet’s roundtable series on American Jewish life, hosted by Abigail Pogrebin. Tablet’s Executive Editor Wayne Hoffman discusses the newest offering, which features a conversation with Jews from the former Soviet Union. Their stories of endurance and emigration resonate always, but especially during Passover. You can read this and previous installments of The Minyan at tabletmag.com/minyan. And don’t miss the...

This week on the show, we’re taking time to remember.  Memory is at the core of so much of Jewish life and tradition, especially during Passover. So we’re sharing several stories about memories, from the individual to the collective, and from the difficult to the uplifting.  Tablet writer Gabriel Sanders reads his essay about preparing for his first Passover without his father, who spent the last years of his life with Alzeimer's disease. (The version of Ma Lecha Hayam featured in this...

Around the world, food insecurity impacts far too many lives. As the war rages on, and hunger threatens so many inside and outside of Israel, the words of the Haggadah implore: “Let all who are hungry come and eat.” Before we sit down for our festive Passover meals, Unorthodox is shining a light on those who help make sure everyone has access to food, year-round. Producers Courtney Hazlett and Elie Bleier visit the Jerusalem food pantry of Meir Panim, which gives out meals to those in need,...

This week on the show, there’s a new (Jewish) sheriff in town. First, another story from our recent reporting trip to Israel. Liel sat down with IDF soldier Shavit Romero, who shared his journey from growing up non-Jewish in Tel Aviv, to getting wounded in Gaza and starting his conversion process.  Our Gentile of the Week is Caroline D’Amore, founder of Pizza Girl, who tells us how October 7 and its aftermath sparked her viral support for Israel and her visit to one of the kibbutzim...

This week on the show, we’re sharing stories from our second reporting trip to Israel.  Former First Lady of Israel Lihi Lapid joins us to discuss her newly translated novel, On Her Own, about two Israeli families in crisis, as well as finding a way through the Jewish state’s present crises.  Jon Polin shares his experience advocating for the return of his son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, nearly 200 days after he was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7.  And we visit Tel Aviv’s Social Grocery Store,...

This week on Unorthodox, we’re hoping the Jewish James Bond rumours are true. Plus, interviews with three awesome Jews:  Dan Pashman, host of The Sporkful podcast, joins us to talk about his new cookbook, Anything’s Pastable: 81 Inventive Pasta Recipes for Saucy People, which includes a very special kugel recipe. He also talks about how his Jewish identity inspires his inquisitive approach to food and storytelling. Highlights include a recipe. Podcaster and writer Zibby Owens returns to...

This week on the show, we are all about Shabbat.  First, we’re sharing the latest installment of Beautifully Jewish, in which Stephanie Butnick and Tanya Singer explore all the beauty of Shabbat with the help of Adeena Sussman, author of the new cookbook, Shabbat: Recipes and Rituals from My Table to Yours, and AHYIN Judaica designer Micaela Ezra.  We’re also showcasing our newest Tablet Studios podcast, Sivan Says: Taking the Torah Personally with Sivan Rahav-Meir. Each week, Israeli...

This week on the show, we refuse to refute. Phil Rosenthal of Somebody Feed Phil returns to the show to discuss his new children’s book, Just Try It!, which he co-wrote with his daughter Lily. (You can listen to Phil’s previous Unorthodox interviews here and here.) Eric Cohen and Abe Unger introduce their new school, Emet Classical Academy, set to open this fall, which they describe as the nation’s first Jewish classical school. Rabbi Meni Even-Israel talks about leading the Steinsaltz...

This week on Unorthodox, we can’t believe we missed YentaCon.  Our first guest is director Andrew Goldberg, whose new PBS documentary Armenia, My Home uncovers some of the parallels between Armenian and Jewish life. We also speak with Eylon Levy, official spokesman for the Israeli government. He joined us to talk about manning the war’s digital front, and his viral interview on British TV, aka “the eyebrow incident.”  The version of “Matchmaker, Matchmaker” you heard was by our friends at...

Unorthodox is off this week, but today we're sharing an episode from the Tablet podcast What Really Matters with Walter Russell Mead This week, Walter and Jeremy talk Putin endorsing Biden, Putin dissing Tucker Carlson, Trump dissing NATO, and Biden stumbling in the Middle East.

Unorthodox is off this week, but today we're sharing an episode from Jewish Priorities: Life After 10/7, a 6-part series of panels taken from a live event hosted by Stephanie Butnick and Liel Leibovitz at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History last October. This discussion focused on the charged rhetoric we’re seeing within the Jewish community during the war in Israel and features Rabbi Shlomo Elkan, Jodi Rudoren, and Rabbi David Wolpe, with moderators Stephanie Butnick and...

This week on Unorthodox, we won’t be hitting the slopes in Switzerland. Our Jewish guest this week is Ted Deutch, former U.S. Congressman and current CEO of the American Jewish Committee. He joins us to talk about the AJC’s new Report on the State of Antisemitism in America.  Plus, to mark the two-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine, producer Quinn Waller visits an unexpected school in South Brooklyn that is making America feel like home for some of the war’s youngest refugees.  We also...

This week on Unorthodox, we’re kashering the FIESTA dishware.  Our Jewish guest this week is Neta Ariel, director of the Maaleh School of Film and Television in Jerusalem. She shares how her film students are working to raise awareness for the hostages still held in Gaza.  Our Gentile of the Week is Dr. Phil. He joins us to talk about his new television network as well as his new book, We’ve Got Issues: How You Can Stand Strong for America's Soul and Sanity, and offers our hosts some advice...

This week on Unorthodox, we’re regretting doing those DNA tests. Our Gentile of the Week is NBA All-Star and former New York Knick Allan Houston, who shares his new faith-based initiative, FISLL. He was joined by FISLL Youth Ambassador, Jewish teen Nate Sugar, to discuss their work. We also welcome Richard Sandler to discuss his new book, Witness to a Prosecution: The Myth of Michael Milken. Sandler was Milken’s personal lawyer and the book chronicles the injustices of the...

This week on Unorthodox, we’re all about the two-strain solution.  We talk to Jewish actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who played Meadow Soprano on the HBO show, The Sopranos. She tells us about her experience on the hit show, and everything she’s been up to in the 25 years since.  We also share another story from our Israel trip: producer Elie Bleier takes Tanya Singer to his favorite hummus joint and makes the case that one of their dishes might truly bring peace to the Middle east. Write to us...

This week on Unorthodox, we’re devoting the episode to stories of remembrance.  We share a teaser from Covering Their Tracks, a new Tablet Studios series that tells the story of the French National Railway’s complicity with the Nazis during WWII, and a decades-long pursuit of justice. We sat down with host and documentarian Matthew Slutsky to discuss the show.  Our Gentile of the Week is Kathryn Huether, a professor of musicology at Vanderbilt who studies sonic representations of the...

It’s been more than 100 days since Hamas massacred more than 1,300 Israelis and kidnapped hundreds more into Gaza. To commemorate this grim milestone, we are pausing our regular programming to honor those who were killed that day and those still being held captive. We’re sharing stories reported from Israel and segments from our Testimonies Archive. List of hostage names courtesy of BringThemHomeNow.org.  Write to us at [email protected], or leave a voicemail on our listener line:...

This week on Unorthodox, we’re trading Shia LaBeouf for Alanis Morrisette.  Our Jewish guest is comedian and podcaster Moshe Kasher, who tells us about his new book, Subculture Vulture: A Memoir in Six Scenes—especially the Jewish stuff.  We’re also sharing another story from our December trip to Israel, about Blend.ar, a nonprofit Arabic and Hebrew-language program that connects Jewish and Arab Israelis.  Listen to the Testimonies Archive for more eyewitness audio accounts from Israel,...

This week on Unorthodox, it’s our final episode of 2023. We bring you the latest installment of The Archive, our series exploring the collection of the National Library of Israel. This one is all about Franz Kafka: his feelings on Zionism, his attempts to learn Hebrew, and the tangled web in which his manuscripts were trapped. Then, we hear from Israeli historian and political commentator Gadi Taub about his new video podcast, Israel Update, which he hosts alongside the Hudson Institute’s...

This week, Unorthodox is publishing daily dispatches from Israel.  On Friday, Tanya Singer delivers the fruits of the Beautifully Jewish Craft-Along, bringing handknit hats to IDF soldiers, crocheted dolls to hospitalized children, and handmade cards to Israelis across the country. Along the way, she encounters all sorts of crafters and creators, and reveals the common threads of resilience and generosity that make the tapestry of the Jewish people so strong. For information about all the...

This week, Unorthodox is publishing daily dispatches from Israel.  On Thursday, we meet some of the non-Jews who make up the Jewish state. We visit El Masar Elementary School in Daliyat El Carmel and speak with Druze students, parents, and teachers affected by the war. We also meet Tareq Nassar and Mona Suliman of the Sinsila Center Beekeeping Project in East Jerusalem, which encourages Muslim women to cultivate profitable and climate-friendly beehives on their rooftops. Plus, a special visit...

This week, Unorthodox is publishing daily dispatches from Israel.  Today, we catch up with cookbook author Adeena Sussman and take a trip to the Shuk HaCarmel, southern Tel Aviv’s famous open-air market, to get a taste of how Israel’s famed food scene has been impacted by Oct. 7 (and, of course, sample the delicious local wares).  For information about all the individuals and organizations featured this week and ways to support them, head to tabletmag.com/unorthodoxinisrael. For more...

This week, Unorthodox is publishing daily dispatches from Israel.  Today, we visit Roy Shimshon at his dog sanctuary in Moshav Tidhar in Southern Israel, where he is caring for nearly 100 dogs, most of whom have been separated from their owners since Oct. 7. His story gives voice to those who can’t speak for themselves: The animals left behind when their owners were killed, kidnapped, or displaced from their homes.  For information about all the individuals and organizations featured this...

This week, Unorthodox is publishing daily dispatches from Israel.  Today, we head to Kibbutz Kfar Aza, one of the communities most brutally attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7. Liel, Josh, and Tablet’s Armin Rosen meet up with Chen Kotler, a lifelong Kfar Aza resident, who shows them the devastation firsthand.  For information about all the individuals and organizations featured this week and ways to support them, head to tabletmag.com/unorthodoxinisrael. For more eyewitness accounts from Israel,...