Podcast
Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis
Hosted by Daniel Gordis · EN
Israel from the Inside is for people who want to understand Israel with nuance, who believe that Israel is neither hopelessly flawed and illegitimate, nor beyond critique. If thoughtful analysis of Israel and its people interests you, welcome!
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"Who is the most important historical figure in the history of Zionism? I would say Menachem Begin."
1w ago00:07:24Tap to summarizeThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.comOn a summer Sabbath in 1913, in the Polish town of Brisk (otherwise known as Brest-Litovsk, in Yiddish, as Brisk) a son was born to Ze’ev Dov and Chasia Begin. It was four days after Tisha B’Av, the annual fast day mourning the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem and the exiles that followed them, on the Sabbath known as Shabbat Nachamu, the Sabbath of Comfort. So the Begins named their son Menachem, “The Comforter.” Though those words are the opening of my biography of Begin, today we hear from the author of another Begin biography, Professor Avi Shilon. Shilon’s Menachem Begin: A Life, is a superb biography, and I heartily recommend it. OUR PREVIOUS CONVERSATION WITH AVI SHILON Avi Shilon was our guest on Israel from the Inside not long ago when he spoke about how both sides of our conflict ironically imitate each other in how they conduct war: Today, Avi Shilon joins us to discuss Menachem Begin. Since we’re not going to post on Erev Tisha B’av or Tisha B’av, this is our final Wednesday before Begin’s Hebrew birth date, so we’re posting Avi’s conversation today. If you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this unprecedented moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today.Avi Shilon is a lecturer at the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies at Columbia University. His course, History of Modern Israel, is regularly exceptionally well received. He has been the Visiting Scholar and Israel Institute Fellow at the Taub Center for Israel Studies at New York University, as well as a postdoctoral fellow at the Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, and at Tsinghua University, China. He is the author of The Decline of the Left-Wing in Israel: Yossi Beilin and the Politics of the Peace Process (2020), Ben-Gurion: His Later Years in the Political Wilderness (2016), and Menachem Begin: A Life (2012). His articles have appeared in Middle Eastern Studies, The Jewish Quarterly Review, and Middle East Journal, and he is a contributor to Yedioth Ahronoth (YNet). Dr. Shilon earned his Ph.D. from Bar-Ilan University, Israel, in 2015.The link at the top of this posting will take free subscribers to an excerpted portion of today’s conversation.For paid subscribers, the link at the top will take you to the full conversation; below, paid subscribers will also find a transcript for those who prefer to read, as always.For Hebrew speakers, a panel about an article I just wrote for HaShiloach, on the intellectual roots of American Jewish anti-Zionism. Panel includes Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli, Dr. Masua Sagiv (previously on our podcast) and Dr. Sagi Barmak, Editor in Chief of HaShiloach. July 21 at 630 pm in Jerusalem. For tickets: https://hashiloach.org.il/american-jewry/ Many Israelis could not travel for months this past year, because the skies were closed, or if they were open because it was not clear that they would stay open so it felt risky to leave, or because we didn’t wish to leave our children and grandchildren when war could break out again.So with things quiet(er) for the moment, many Israelis are traveling more than usual this summer.We, too, will be away the weeks of July 5th and July 12th. Podcasts will continue on schedule, as always, for our paid subscribers. But other posts will come at a slower rate during that period.
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"BEING ISRAELI AFTER THE DESTRUCTION OF GAZA"
1w ago00:05:41Tap to summarizeThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.comIt’s well known by now that Peter Beinart, no friend of the Jewish State (or to my mind, of the Jewish people) wrote a book not long ago called Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning. Beinart wrote that book (which I confess I have not read), as has been widely noted in the reviews, without ever so much as coming to Israel after the 7th to interview Israelis who’d actually been here or who actually live here. Makes sense — why complicate your theory with reality? The book we’re going to hear about today, Being Israeli After the Destruction of Gaza: Reflections and Visions, is also about moral and political reflections in light of the terrible suffering on both sides of the border. But unlike Beinart’s book, it is written by people who live here and who have committed their lives to the Jewish state. The book is composed of many essays, and is a fascinating read. We’re very grateful to these three authors for taking the time to share their thoughts with us on what it means to be a morally-nuanced Israeli at such a fraught time. If you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this unprecedented moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today.Ariel Beery was born in New York and made Aliyah at the age of 19 in 1998. He holds a B.A in Economics and Political Science from Columbia University, a MPA (master’s in public administration) in Management, and an MA from in Jewish Studies, both from NYU.Ariel is dedicated to solving problems facing humanity with sustainable and scalable solutions and has founded and led multiple ventures on every side of the innovation ecosystem. He is the founder and CEO of the PresenTense Group (founded 2005), a global accelerator franchise for social ventures, and the co-founder and CEO of MobileODT (founded 2012), a mission-driven, VC-backed medical technology company to address women’s health challenges across low-resource settings.Ariel Beery advises government officials and foundation executives on how to best support mission-driven innovation, and has lectured broadly on social entrepreneurship, its opportunities and challenges.Mike Berman is a Consultant and Venture Partner at Rivervest. A medical device entrepreneur, Mike works with a select group of high-potential, early-stage companies. As a consultant to RiverVest, Mike provides the firm with advice on existing and potential portfolio companies, especially as it relates to technology being developed in Israel.Mike was the President of the Boston Scientific Corporation Cardiology business from 1995 to 2000 and is a co-founder of eight medical technology companies including Velocimed, LLC, a former RiverVest Fund I portfolio company acquired by St. Jude Medical, Inc. In addition, he was a founding director of Lutonix, Inc., a former RiverVest Fund II portfolio company acquired by C.R. Bard, Inc. He currently serves as a board member of a number of private and public medical technology companies.Mike earned an M.B.A. and a B.S. from Cornell University.Meredith Rothbart is Co-Founder and CEO of Amal-Tikva. Meredith brings almost 15 years of leadership experience with Israeli and Palestinian NGOs. She holds an MA from Hebrew University in Community Development and a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Pittsburgh. Meredith has addressed the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the White House, the Delegation of the European Union to Israel, the UN Security Council and continues to be a strong voice for civil society peacebuilding. She lives in Jerusalem with her husband and children.The link at the top of this posting will take free subscribers to an excerpted portion of today’s conversation.For paid subscribers, the link at the top will take you to the full conversation; below, paid subscribers will also find a transcript for those who prefer to read, as always.For Hebrew speakers, a panel about an article I just wrote for HaShiloach, on the intellectual roots of American Jewish anti-Zionism. Panel includes Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli, Dr. Masua Sagiv (previously on our podcast) and Dr. Sagi Barmak, Editor in Chief of HaShiloach. July 21 at 630 pm in Jerusalem. For tickets: https://hashiloach.org.il/american-jewry/ Many Israelis could not travel for months this past year, because the skies were closed, or if they were open because it was not clear that they would stay open so it felt risky to leave, or because we didn’t wish to leave our children and grandchildren when war could break out again.So with things quiet(er) for the moment, many Israelis are traveling more than usual this summer.We, too, will be away the weeks of July 5th and July 12th. Podcasts will continue on schedule, as always, for our paid subscribers. But other posts will come at a slower rate during that period.
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Some things are forever—like European anti-Semitism, and, it seems, Israel’s ongoing war
1w ago00:02:28Tap to summarizeIt was only a five-minute drive, at the very most, from the Oslo train station to our hotel, and we could have walked it. But we’d been traveling all day and our suitcases weren’t small, so we decided to hop in a cab. “Where are you from?” the driver asked. “New York,” I answered. This, after all, is Europe, and I wasn’t in the mood. In Bergen and in Flåm, I had said “Israel” when people asked. My wife and I had agreed that we weren’t going to do that, but somehow, hiding where we live felt cowardly, so I found myself saying “Israel” and not “New York” in those places (my “coming out of the Israel closet,” as my wife called my repeated faux pas). But that was there and this was here. It turns out that “New York” was a good call. “Where are you from?” I asked the driver. “Somalia,” he said. “How long have you lived in Norway?” I asked. “Thirty years.” That, I assumed, would be the end of the conversation. After all, about 2 minutes of our five-minute cab ride were already behind us. But, no …“Norway very good country,” our driver continued. “People here very nice. Very kind. Is very democratic.” “Yeah, people here do seem very nice,” I said. That wasn’t entirely true (perhaps because I’d come out of the Israel closet a few times), but whatever. “America, terrible. Donald Trump is the face of the real America. Terrible man, terrible country. He’s with i-Pak and the Sionists.” He’d said AIPAC as if it rhymed with iPad. I was deliberating whether to respond, but the feeling of my wife’s fingers digging into my thigh, rapidly cutting off circulation to my leg, no doubt contributed to my decision not to get into it. I didn’t say anything. But he wasn’t about to let the pregnant silence continue. Did he suspect we were Jewish? I still don’t know. My wife says definitely yes. “Do you know i-Pak?” he asked. Now, I could have said that yes, I know quite a bit about i-Pak, probably a lot more than he does, or I could have mentioned that the President of i-Pak is one of my dearest friends (said friend and I don’t agree about everything, but I’m old school, and believe that you can adore people who might see things differently than you do). But there was still that circulation problem in my thigh; I said, “No, I don’t know i-Pak.” “You should. Terrible people. Sionists.” He went on a bit about the Sionists. Never have the words “Here your hotel” brought such relief.Norway is in World Cup frenzy, not surprisingly. Everyone’s wearing t-shirts with Norwegian flags, scarves with Norwegian flags, hats with Norwegian flags. All good. Late Thursday night, when France beat Morocco, we were already asleep; I thus can’t vouch for what was happening on the streets of Oslo, most likely with our taxi driver’s kids’ generation. But what happened in other places, we do know. I didn’t see this in the English press, though it may have been there — I’m trying to stay away from the news this week. But in the Hebrew press, it was all over. “Chaos” in London after Morocco fans riot; in Holland, cries of “Hamas! Jews to the gas.” A couple of years ago, we had a very long layover at the Amsterdam airport, so we went to the lounge. It was morning, and I had to say shacharit. I found a really out-of-the-way corner around a bend in the room where virtually no one could see me, and the lounge was pretty empty anyway. I put on my tallit and tefillin and was doing my thing, when a staff person (very blond, as Dutch as one can be) in that light blue KLM outfit came out of the bowels of the back area, saw me, and erupted.The details of his disgusting tirade don’t matter for the moment. Back then, though, I decided that I would, indeed, get into it with him.In the course of our “discussion,” he said something about “these are the rules.”I said, “No one can even see me here. I’m not bothering anyone.”“These are the rules.” He’d missed his calling as a German.“It has nothing to do with the rules, and everything to do with Europe,” I said.“It has nothing to do with Europe,” he said.I was still in my tallit and tefillin, which made the whole exchange rather surreal. I was tempted to tell him that he clearly didn’t know very much history, but somehow, a conversation about high school curriculum seemed ill-timed.Suddenly, though, he backed off. I imagine that in his mind, he heard his mother saying, “Jan [or Pieter, or whatever his name was], it’s not worth losing your job over this. Leave the Jew alone.”So he did. But it was ugly—the fuller details perhaps for a different time.Were the Dutch rioters who were shouting “Jews to the gas!” on Thursday night African immigrants, like my Somali taxi driver friend in Oslo? Perhaps.But very definitely, perhaps not.We’d had plans to go to Chabad over Shabbat (which, incidentally, ended at 1:21 a.m. Sunday morning). In the end, we didn’t. But in my exchanges with the rabbi—who only gave me the address of Chabad after we’d sent him scans of our Israeli IDs—he reiterated that under no circumstances were we to reveal the address to anyone. Fair enough, but wow.As I said to Jan (or Pieter, or whoever), it’s just Europe. This has always been Europe, and this will always be Europe. Until it gets worse. Which it invariably does.If you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this unprecedented moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today.If “Jews to the Gas!” is Europe’s default setting, it appears that so, too, is war where we live. People can disagree about how Israel has conducted the war, people can disagree as to whether we’ve accomplished much. People can disagree about what Israel did or didn’t do in Gaza. But it’s hard to argue with the widespread sentiment in Israel that whatever one thinks about this war, it’s not about to end. Not now, not soon.Will it end, ever? Well, it started in the summer of 1929. So ….Which is what makes the little clip (at the top of this post) that I came across on Facebook cute, but also sad. It’s a brief Kan 11 clip, to which we’ve added subtitles. It’s meant to be comedic, but it captures something about the sentiment in Israel that’s far more telling than mere comedy. Note that in the clip there’s not a lot of bitterness about the endlessness of the war. To say that Kan 11 is not hugely supportive of Netanyahu would be a dramatic understatement, but the clip isn’t political. The situation just is what it is. Will we eventually get the upper hand? Will it impact the election results? We shall see. Will young Israelis decide that forever-war isn’t for them? I’m sure that some will. I imagine that, perhaps, many will. But how many? A few years ago, I would have been more worried. But now, Europe gives me hope. After all, where are they going to flee to? Amsterdam? Oslo? New York? In the end, I suspect, most Israelis are going to decide that if they have to live in a war where they can defend themselves, or cower in their homes as marauders on the streets yell “Jews to the Gas,” …… war is going to be the more attractive option. Many Israelis could not travel for months this past year, because the skies were closed, or if they were open because it was not clear that they would stay open so it felt risky to leave, or because we didn’t wish to leave our children and grandchildren when war could break out again.So with things quiet(er) for the moment, many Israelis are traveling more than usual this summer.We, too, will be away the weeks of July 5th and July 12th. Podcasts will continue on schedule, as always, for our paid subscribers. But other posts will come at a slower rate during that period. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit danielgordis.substack.com/subscribe
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Even in the Jewish state, when people see a homeless person, they tell themselves that the person brought it on themselves.
2w ago00:12:55Tap to summarizeThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.comI was walking to a restaurant in our neighborhood a few weeks ago, and on the way, just outside the restaurant, I came across a woman — who appeared to be homeless — lying on the sidewalk. I asked her if she was OK and she said she was. I asked her if she’d like me to buy her some food, and she declined. I asked her if there was anyone she wanted me to call, but she clearly wanted me to take a hike. So I left her there, but mentioned to the friend I was having lunch with that if she was still there when we left the restaurant, I was going to call the police. As it turns out, there was no sign of her when we got out, but the brief encounter was a bit of a wakeup call to me — I had never, ever seen a homeless person in our neighborhood before, and I knew nothing about the issue of homeless people in Israel. I decided I needed to learn more, and once I’d met Ori Shoham, I asked him to share his story and his work with us. If you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this unprecedented moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today.Ori Shoham is a social and political activist, founder and CEO of the nonprofit organization "Home Field" (Migrash Beiti), with extensive knowledge of government institutions and municipal authorities. He has over a decade of experience working in the Knesset and the Israeli government, serving as a ministerial advisor and parliamentary faction director.The website for HomeBase is here. Further coverage in the Hebrew press can be found here. The link at the top of this posting will take free subscribers to an excerpted portion of today’s conversation.For paid subscribers, the link at the top will take you to the full conversation; below, paid subscribers will also find a transcript for those who prefer to read, as always.For Hebrew speakers, a panel about an article I just wrote for HaShiloach, on the intellectual roots of American Jewish anti-Zionism. Panel includes Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli, Dr. Masua Sagiv (previously on our podcast) and Dr. Sagi Barmak, Editor in Chief of HaShiloach. July 21 at 630 pm in Jerusalem. For tickets: https://hashiloach.org.il/american-jewry/ Many Israelis could not travel for months this past year, because the skies were closed, or if they were open because it was not clear that they would stay open so it felt risky to leave, or because we didn’t wish to leave our children and grandchildren when war could break out again.So with things quiet(er) for the moment, many Israelis are traveling more than usual this summer.We, too, will be away the weeks of July 5th and July 12th. Podcasts will continue on schedule, as always, for our paid subscribers. But other posts will come at a slower rate during that period.
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"The problem with any national movement is that it has certain things that it doesn't want to look at."
2w ago00:07:54Tap to summarizeThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.comThis past Thursday marked the Seventeenth of Tammuz, the Fast Day on which we recall and mourn the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem by the Romans. The three weeks between the Seventeenth of Tammuz and the Ninth of Av (which mourns the destruction of the Temples) are called the period of bein ha-matzarim — “Between the straits.” It is a widely held view in the Jewish tradition that this period should be a time of intense communal self-reflection. The Jewish calendar is composed of a series of period; understanding the flow of one to another is key to appreciating the sine-curve of the Jewish people’s soul over the course of any given year. Many modern readers understand this period of the calendar as follows: * The Three Weeks: Looking at communal, historical, and interpersonal failures * The Month of Elul, which comes just a seven weeks after Tisha Ba’Av, which is focused more on direct, individual preparation for personal judgment. On the day after Elul, we get to Rosh Hashanah. * Rosh Hashanah / Yom Kippur: The culmination of that self-reflection.In light of our now being in the middle of this period of communal self-reflection, we asked Rabbi Zachary Truboff, the author of Zionism In Crisis: Jewish Power and Moral Responsibility After October 7, to discuss the ways in which he believes those of us who are deeply committed Zionists need to think anew and ask ourselves very hard questions—a challenge that is always critical, and is even more urgent during this period. If you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this unprecedented moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today.Rabbi Zachary Truboff is the Director of the Institute for Agunah Research and Education at the International Beit Din. His latest book, Zionism in Crisis: Jewish Power and Moral Responsibility After October 7, is a call for Jewish self-criticism and teshuvah in the wake of the war. His first book was Torah Goes Forth From Zion: Essays on the Thought of Rav Kook and Rav Shagar. He received semicha from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah and from Rav Zalman Nechemia Goldberg zt”l. Before making Aliyah, he served for nearly a decade as rabbi of Cedar Sinai Synagogue in Cleveland. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife, Jen, and their four children.You can read more of rabbi Zachary Truboff’s writings in his substack.For our paid subscribersThe link at the top of this posting will take free subscribers to an excerpted portion of today’s conversation.For paid subscribers, the link at the top will take you to the full conversation; below, paid subscribers will also find a transcript for those who prefer to read, as always.For Hebrew speakers, a panel about an article I just wrote for HaShiloach, on the intellectual roots of American Jewish anti-Zionism. Panel includes Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli, Dr. Masua Sagiv (previously on our podcast) and Dr. Sagi Barmak, Editor in Chief of HaShiloach. July 21 at 630 pm in Jerusalem. For tickets: https://hashiloach.org.il/american-jewry/ Many Israelis could not travel for months this past year, because the skies were closed, or if they were open because it was not clear that they would stay open so it felt risky to leave, or because we didn’t wish to leave our children and grandchildren when war could break out again.So with things quiet(er) for the moment, many Israelis are traveling more than usual this summer.We, too, will be away the weeks of July 5th and July 12th. Podcasts will continue on schedule, as always, for our paid subscribers. But other posts will come at a slower rate during that period.
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"Being our own 'joinable tribe' in our own indigenous land is an existential need of the Jewish people."
3w ago00:41:50Tap to summarizeThere’s an interesting phenomenon unfolding on the American Jewish progressive left, or at least in parts of it. Here and there you read and hear people like Peter Beinart, Jill Jacobs of Tru’ah and other trying to deftly walk back some of the language that they’ve been using about Israel, or at least trying to distance themselves from how others are using the language that they themselves formulated—because the dumpster fires that they started have turned into forest fires. Now, they want to be part of the fire brigade, and it’s well, way too late. To follow some of this, take a look at * Peter Beinart’s comments on the Scott Wiener anti-Semitic event in San Francisco. * Or Rabbi Steven Abraham’s Substack piece, You Lit the Fire. Now You Want to Study the FlamesOr, for a very different vibe, watch Coleman Hughes go after Beinart for his duplicitousness on Israel issues. Coleman Hughes’ video conversation with Peter can be found here. Today, we’re tackling some of these issues, and in a way continuing our discussion of American Jewish anti-Zionism, by hearing from Rabbi David Ingber. Rabbi Ingber, long a fascinating combination of a deeply learned rabbi (many years in Orthodox yeshivot) also closely aligned with the progressive world, has been more vocal about how the progressive world abandoned the Jews on October 7 than have been most of his colleagues. He’s also had the courage to say what many of them still will not about an array of issues connected to this phenomenon. If you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this unprecedented moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today.Rabbi David Ingber is an American teacher and leading figure in the Jewish Renewal movement. He is the founding rabbi of Romemu, a spiritually focused Jewish community in New York City known for integrating traditional Jewish practice with meditation, mysticism, music, and contemporary spiritual teachings. Ordained by Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Ingber has become a prominent voice in modern Jewish spirituality and education. He also serves as Senior Director of Jewish Life at 92NY and teaches at several leading Jewish institutions. His work emphasizes Jewish mysticism, prayer, mindfulness, and the renewal of Jewish communal life.The link at the top of this posting will take free subscribers to an excerpted portion of today’s conversation.For paid subscribers, the link at the top will take you to the full conversation; below, paid subscribers will also find a transcript for those who prefer to read, as always.My guest today is a dear friend and a person for whom I have a tremendous amount of regard. Some of you may recall within the last couple couple of months, we linked to two YouTubes, which were conversations. They were really podcasts in a sense, but one was a conversation, one was a podcast, but three people: Jonah Platt, who is a very, very talented interviewer, Rabbi David Ingber, and Rabbi Sharon Brous. Rabbi Ingber is based in New York, Rabbi Brous is based in Los Angeles, and one of the things that they for a very long time had in common was that they were really leading figures in the progressive Jewish world. And I'm going to put words in Rabbi Ingber's mouth, and I won't put words in Rabbi Sharon Brous' mouth. I haven't spoken to her about this at all, but I have spoken to David about it at great length over the course of the last months.I think that I saw David as really one of the great Jewish voices in the progressive world, and one of the profoundly important bridges between the values of progressive life in general and progressive Judaism and the world of Torah. David, as we're going on, and I'll give you a bit of background about him in a minute, David is one of those people who has a deep, rich yeshiva background. So when he talks Jewish text, he knows deeply what he's talking about. And the number of people who have the wealth of knowledge that David has and felt comfortable bridging that with the progressive world is really very small. A number of weeks ago, I had the occasion to interview Melanie Phillips about her new book called Fighting the Hate. We did a conversation at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center here in Jerusalem. Melanie Phillips has never been, or certainly in the last several decades, has not been accused in any way of being part of the progressive world. But one of the things that I said to Melanie that night that I have tremendous admiration for is that she's one of these people who had carved out a place of importance and influence and was then able to say to herself at a certain point, "This world and I don't fit."This world has come to represent values that I am not— that they're just, they're at odds with my soul. And I'm gonna have to actually be honest and shift my seat. I'm gonna have to move to a different place." I'm not saying that David Ingber, he'll speak for himself, has necessarily shifted his seat. But David Ingber is one of the very, very few Jewish progressive voices in America, but I would say in the world, who has had the courage to say since October 7th, we were betrayed. We saw ourselves as part and parcel of a set of values that we shared with the progressive world. We went to their defense, whether it was the LGBT community, whether it was Black Lives Matter, whether it was immigration, whatever it was. But on October 7th, 8th, and 9th, and thereafter, they were not at our side. And David is one of the very few profound Jewish voices who's part of that progressive world, who has been willing to speak openly and passionately about his own disappointment, his pain, his struggle, And I believe it's really an unbelievably critical and important voice. I'm going to come back to something that David wrote recently, but let me just go for a second to David's basic bio.There's much more to say, and we'll put all of it in the written notes for today. Rabbi David Ingber is the founding rabbi of Romamu, the largest renewal synagogue in the United States, and he's the rabbi of the 92nd Street Y. So two venerable institutions in New York, of which he is the rabbi. He founded Romamu in New York in 2006 following his ordination by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, the founder of the Jewish Renewal Movement. Over the past decade plus, Romamu, which I've gone to on many occasions, has grown into a weekly home for thousands of people, growing into a membership of over 1,000 in its locations in New York. And I won't go on. There's a lot to say, and we'll put it in the notes for today. Why are we having this conversation today? Because not that long ago, within the last couple of weeks, David wrote, I think, a really critical piece in Tablet magazine called "Progressive Rabbis' Blind Spot." And it's similar to some of the points that he made in his conversation with Jonah Platt and Rabbi Brous. It's similar to some of his critiques. But I wanted to bring David on to really talk about this very important piece in Tablet magazine that deservedly got a lot of attention.But there's so much more to say, and to hear it from David's voice is so much more powerful even than reading it in David's words. And then we want to talk to David a little bit about some of the ways in which people who have progressive values can make space for the Israel that's the real Israel, parts of which we love and parts of which break our hearts. And then I want to talk to David a little bit as one of the leading thinkers about American Jewish life, about American Jewish life. And for my grandchildren and his children, what's American Jewish life possibly going to be like? There's very few people that speak about these issues as honestly as David does. So, my friend, my teacher, my colleague. David, it's really a thrill and an honor to have you on. Thank you for making the time. Take us through the argument that you made for those people who have— and of course, we're linking to it in today's notes, but take us through the argument of your piece in Tablet Magazine called "Progressive Rabbis' Blind Spot." Tell us what the blind spot is. Tell us whether you think the blind spot can be overcome. Are there progressive rabbis who have said to you, "Yeah, actually, you know what, you're helping me see the blind spot"? Are there more progressive rabbis who are saying, "You just don't get it"? So what's the argument and how's it being received?Well, as I said, it's good to be with you, Danny, and thank you for that very warm welcome, and I really appreciate being in chavrutah with you, being like, learning together. I think that, you know, I didn't start in the progressive world. I started outside of the progressive world in my Jewish journey. I grew up in a modern Orthodox home, went to modern Orthodoxy yeshivot and then had a very strong period of ultra-Orthodoxy before I left Judaism completely for almost a decade. And I came back after that decade, and I made my way through Orthodoxy again, and then eventually found my way to Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi's movement called Jewish Renewal. But now I've been in that world for over 20 years now, and, you know, and my experience in that world was that like any world you're in, you can feel like you're in an echo chamber and ...
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In Israel, scientists are actually studying hope. Hope, says one, is actually in our DNA.
3w ago00:08:50Tap to summarizeThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.comIt is by now common knowledge that in the days following October 7, many Ameican progressive rabbis felt abandoned or betrayed by the larger communities and alliances they had cultivated for so long. But very few have had the courage to call out those communities and their duplicitous leadership the way that Rabbi David Ingber has, or to double down and state, with absolute clarity, why Israel is an existential need for the Jewish people. Tomorrow, we hear from Rabbi David Ingber on this, and much more. It’s fairly common knowledge that despite all the challenges Israelis face, Israel consistently ranks as one of the “happiest” countries on earth. That didn’t change after October 7 or the war that followed, either. Even in this year’s rankings, Israel remains very close to the top. Here, for example, are the scores for 2025. Canada, by the way, ranks #18 in the study, while the United States comes in at #24. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, z’l, pointed out many times that optimism is different than hope. Hope can be cultivated. Hope is a commitment. Not coincidentally, “The Hope” is the name of our national anthem. At this time of great trauma in Israeli society, it should not surprise us that there are cutting-edge scientists actually studying “hope.” Today, we meet one of them. Dr. Ben Corn is the founder of Life’s Door: Coping with Illness and Loss, and today, he shares with us his story of coming to Israel and how his work in radiation oncology led to his work on hope. Before listening to our conversation, or after, you’re invited to watch this video of Dr Corn with President and Mrs. Herzog. If you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this unprecedented moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today.Professor Ben Corn has been the head of the Institute of Radiotherapy at Tel Aviv Medical Center (Ichilov Hospital) for 14 years and has 30 years of experience in utilizing radiation therapy to treat tumors. He has been an integral contributor to the revolution in therapeutic sophistication that has stimulated the directors general of the major hospitals in Israel to take notice and erect high-end linear accelerators in their institutions. He convinced the leadership of the National Cancer Institute in the U.S. to globalize their collaborative radiation-related research. Israel thus became the first international member of the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (the arm of the NCI responsible for cutting-edge radiation research) and Corn chairs the international committee of the RTOG that has now expanded to include over 50 member countries including Japan, Ireland, Peru, Australia and Saudi Arabia.In addition, he is the Chairman of Life’s Door, an organization co-founded with his wife Dvora, which has led the movement of integrating spirituality into healthcare as a platform to offer hope and meaning for people facing serious disease and life’s end. Over 10,000 people in the State of Israel have been directly helped by the programs of this N.G.O.For our paid subscribersThe link at the top of this posting will take free subscribers to an excerpted portion of today’s conversation.For paid subscribers, the link at the top will take you to the full conversation; below, paid subscribers will also find a transcript for those who prefer to read, as always.
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For generations, the "left" was political home for Jews, and it warmly embraced Israel. What happened?
4w ago00:09:45Tap to summarizeThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.comThe history books will, without question, see our era as one of great periods of transformation for the Jewish state and the Jewish people. In Israel, years of bitter war without the accomplishments that the government promised and that the country needed, will have long lasting impact on younger generations of Israelis — their politics, their elections, their sense of Jewishness, their decisions about whether or not to stay, and more. Meanwhile, in America, Jews looked to the political right of the Republican party and found an emerging anti-Semitic, Christian-national, isolationist Right marginalizing them in ways they had never expected. On the left, which had long been the political home of the Jews, anti-Semitism seemed to be oozing everywhere one turned. Why? Why had the Jews been so attracted to the American political left, and why did those alliances betray the Jews? No one has thought about this issue more than Batya Ungar-Sargon, and she joins us today to discuss her brand new book, THE JEWS AND THE LEFT. If you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this unprecedented moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today.Batya Ungar-Sargon is an American journalist, author, and media commentator known for her writing on class politics, media criticism, and American public life. She previously served as opinion editor of The Forward, a leading American Jewish publication, and later became deputy opinion editor at Newsweek. She holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Berkeley.Ungar-Sargon is the author of Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy (2021) and Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America’s Working Men and Women (2024). Her work focuses on the relationship between media, class, identity politics, and the challenges facing the American working class. She is a frequent commentator on political and cultural issues and has contributed to publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Foreign Policy.Ungar-Sargon’s newest book, The Jews and the Left, upcoming this June, confronts one of the most painful and consequential realignments in American political life: the rupture between American Jews and the political and cultural Left. The Jews and the Left offers essential historical context and seeks to shed light on how a movement so intrinsically tied to Jewish identity has turned its back on the Jews.To find out more about Batya Unger-Sargon we invite you to visit her Substack.The link at the top of this posting will take free subscribers to an excerpted portion of today’s conversation.For paid subscribers, the link at the top will take you to the full conversation; below, paid subscribers will also find a transcript for those who prefer to read, as always.Many Israelis could not travel for months this past year, because the skies were closed, or if they were open because it was not clear that they would stay open so it felt risky to leave, or because we didn’t wish to leave our children and grandchildren when war could break out again.So with things quiet(er) for the moment, many Israelis are traveling more than usual this summer.We, too, will be away the weeks of June 14 and June 21. Podcasts will continue on schedule, as always, for our paid subscribers. But other posts will come at a slower rate during that period.
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Israel and the Palestinians are locked in vicious war. So why are they consciously imitating each other in how they conduct the conflict?
Jun 2200:06:38Tap to summarizeThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.comProfessor Avi Shilon, a widely respected Israeli academic, author and journalist, made headlines in New York during the campus uprisings at Columbia, when his class was interrupted by Columbia students protesting “Israel’s genocide.”But I’d met Avi Shilon long before that, back in the days when I was working on my biography of Menachem Begin for the NextBook series. When I began my work, Avi had already published his magisterial biography of Begin, and when I reached out with questions, requests for advice and the like, he could not have been warmer or more forthcoming. It was truly an act of warm friendship and collegiality to someone he barely knew, and I’ve long been deeply grateful.Avi Shilon writes regularly for the Israeli press, and often, when I read him, I think to myself, “This is someone whom the readers of Israel from the Inside should really get to know. I asked Avi to speak with us about some fascinating research he’s doing with a German colleague, on the ways in which though they are in a vicious and bloody battle, the Israelis and Palestinians regularly imitate each other in how they conduct the conflict.I’m very grateful to Avi for taking the time to have this conversation and for sharing his research in progress with us.If you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this unprecedented moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today.Avi Shilon is a lecturer at the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies at Columbia University. His course, History of Modern Israel, is regularly exceptionally well received. He has been the Visiting Scholar and Israel Institute Fellow at the Taub Center for Israel Studies at New York University, as well as a postdoctoral fellow at the Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, and at Tsinghua University, China. He is the author of The Decline of the Left-Wing in Israel: Yossi Beilin and the Politics of the Peace Process (2020), Ben-Gurion: His Later Years in the Political Wilderness (2016), and Menachem Begin: A Life (2012). His articles have appeared in Middle Eastern Studies, The Jewish Quarterly Review, and Middle East Journal, and he is a contributor to Yedioth Ahronoth (YNet). Dr. Shilon earned his Ph.D. from Bar-Ilan University, Israel, in 2015.The link at the top of this posting will take free subscribers to an excerpted portion of today’s conversation.For paid subscribers, the link at the top will take you to the full conversation; below, paid subscribers will also find a transcript for those who prefer to read, as always.Many Israelis could not travel for months this past year, because the skies were closed, or if they were open because it was not clear that they would stay open so it felt risky to leave, or because we didn’t wish to leave our children and grandchildren when war could break out again.So with things quiet(er) for the moment, many Israelis are traveling more than usual this summer.We, too, will be away the weeks of June 14 and June 21. Podcasts will continue on schedule, as always, for our paid subscribers. But other posts will come at a slower rate during that period.
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Arielle Angel, a leading American Jewish anti-Zionist recently profiled by Ha'aretz, joins us in conversation
Jun 1700:06:11Tap to summarizeThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.comThere is a principle in the Talmud (applicable only in certain instances, but still very well-known) which states, in Aramaic, שתיקה כהודאה דמיא. Shtikah ke-hoda’ah damyah. Usually, it’s translated as something like “silence is considered tantamount to admission.” In its more popular usage, the phrase has come to mean, “If you don’t push back, it suggests that you agree.”That principle is most definitely not applicable to today’s conversation, in which I am in dialogue with Arielle Angel, the immediate past editor of Jewish Currents and a leading American Jewish ant-Zionist who was recently profiled by Ha’aretz.Now, I know that some of our readers, viewers and listeners will take exception to my decision to post a conversation with Arielle, and I understand them. I also know that there are serious American Jewish publications that will not only not accept submissions from anti-Zionists, but will not even publish articles about them. I get that, too, even if I chose to act otherwise at this moment.As I’ve noted in the episodes on American Jewish anti-Zionism that we’ve already posted (so far, those episodes are the introduction, “The kaffiyeh on the bimah’s table” and “Did the early DNA of American Judaism give rise to today’s American Jewish anti-Zionism?”, with others to follow), I believe that in hearing why American Jewish anti-Zionists hold the positions that they do, we can learn not only about them, about where the mainstream Jewish community may well have erred, but perhaps most importantly, about the foundational ethos of American Jewish life. That’s why I think the subject is important. And if one is going to discuss American Jewish anti-Zionism, I think it makes sense to hear from someone in that world, much though I disagree with it.It was important for me to illustrate in today’s post that two people who literally could not disagree more strongly about one of the most vital issues in each of our lives can still have a civil and respectful conversation. Of course, there was something that I wanted to say in response to virtually every sentence that Arielle uttered; but had I done that, we would have gotten nowhere, and there would have been no opportunity to hear her and to learn about how she sees the world.So no, in this instance, שתיקה לאו כהודאה דמיא. Shtikah lav ke-hoda’ah damyah. In this conversation, my silence is not anything even remotely approaching admission or agreement – it’s an attempt to let someone I disagree with speak and be heard.I’m grateful to Arielle for having the conversation. Down the road, we can unpack a few of the issues that she raises and what I might think about some of them.Arielle suggested the following links for those wishing to learn more about the world she represents: * On Zionism and Anti-Zionism (podcast about different terms of self-identification): https://jewishcurrents.org/on-zionism-and-anti-zionism* A mailbag episode on the question of how American Jewish anti-Zionists would see Israel/Palestine if there was justice: https://jewishcurrents.org/bonus-episode-mailbag* Here’s Arielle’s piece “We Need New Jewish Institutions”: https://jewishcurrents.org/we-need-new-jewish-institutionsIf you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this unprecedented moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today.Arielle Angel is an editor-at-large at Jewish Currents and the host of On the Nose, the Jewish Currents podcast.The link at the top of this posting will take free subscribers to an excerpted portion of today’s conversation.For paid subscribers, the link at the top will take you to the full conversation; below, paid subscribers will also find a transcript for those who prefer to read, as always.Many Israelis could not travel for months this past year, because the skies were closed, or if they were open because it was not clear that they would stay open so it felt risky to leave, or because we didn’t wish to leave our children and grandchildren when war could break out again.So with things quiet(er) for the moment, many Israelis are traveling more than usual this summer.We, too, will be away the weeks of June 14 and June 21. Podcasts will continue on schedule, as always, for our paid subscribers. But other posts will come at a slower rate during that period.
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