This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.com

We’ve had Ariel Beery on our podcast in the past. Ariel Beery is the founding Editor and Publisher of Prophecy: A Journal for Tomorrow, and an active investor and advisor to initiatives dedicated to building a better future for Israel, the Jewish People, and humanity. His geopolitical writings can also be found on his Substack, A Lighthouse.

Not long ago (but before this current war), Ariel asked me if he could interview me for a project he’s working on. I of course agreed. We both recorded the conversation for backup (without worrying too much about audio quality).

When we’d concluded, it struck me that thanks to Ariel’s probing questions, I’d said things about being Jewish, about Israel and about Zionism that I hadn’t really thought about before. I asked Ariel if he’d be OK with our sharing the parts of the conversation that did not reveal too much about his own project, and he kindly agreed.

Many of the thoughts are stream of consciousness, but we share them today as part of this week’s exploration of varying takes on Zionism.

A number of readers who heard Rabbi Dr. Joshua Berman speak on our podcast about his new Haggadah and went to purchase it on Amazon found that Amazon could not guarantee delivery before Passover. The publishers suggested that people use this link to purchase the Haggadah: Echoes of Egypt: A Haggada and thus to get it on time.

If you are in ISRAEL, the best way to order is from Pomerantz Books, here.

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.

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.

"Now I know what it feels like to be a Jew"