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Elon Musk recently reignited discussion of a decade-old child sex scandal in England, in which more than 1,000 girls were groomed and raped by gangs largely composed of men of Pakistani descent. The scandal was mismanaged by the authorities, and British journalist Melanie Phillips joins us to share her take on why this is. She discusses how this tragedy was made worse by the impacts of multiculturalism and explains how this ideology puts the values of liberal democracy at risk. She also discusses her new book The Builder’s Stone: How Jews and Christians Built the West – and Why Only They Can Save It.
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On the brink of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, Yohanan ben Zakkai made an astonishing decision.
When faced with an opportunity to ask for anything from the new Roman emperor, Vespasian, rather than choosing to ask him to spare the Temple, Yochanan asked only for permission to start a school and preserve Jewish teachings in Yavneh, south of modern day Tel Aviv.
Rabbi Marc Katz argues that this decision underscores how the Rabbis were the ultimate pragmatists in his new book Yochanan’s Gamble: Judaism’s Pragmatic Approach to Life. Is Katz right, and how should we consider pragmatism through a modern perspective? -
Saknas det avsnitt?
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According to reports, Israel is about to sign a ceasefire deal with Hamas that will secure the return of some hostages in return to a partial Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, paving the way to ending the war. Gadi Taub, the co-host of Tablet’s popular Israel Update podcast and one of Israel’s most influential journalists, opposes the deal. He joins Liel to shed light on the Israeli government’s challenges and missteps, on the incoming Trump administration’s potential and worrying decline in support for Israel, and on how the Israeli public is reacting to this difficult and flawed deal.
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We are re-releasing this episode with an update from Courtney on the situation in Los Angeles.
History-making wild fires have been raging nearly out of control across the Los Angeles area, destroying homes, businesses, schools, and even synagogues. How is the community responding, and what can the greater jewish community do? Rabbi Beau Shapiro joins us to give a clergy’s eye view on how our faith helps us cope with loss and events beyond our control.
Support Links:
Nechama Disaster Relief
Los Angeles Fire Department Fund
Baby2Baby
Wildfire GoFundMe spreadsheet for vetted families who are impacted
MULAN Resources hub
Hosted by Courtney Hazlett, Rabbi Diana Fersko, and Josh Kross, each episode of How to Be a Jew takes a look at a current, cultural topic and what it means for us as Jews, and how we react to it because we are Jews.
Want to send us an email? Send it off to [email protected]
For more podcasts, visit tabletmag.com/podcasts -
For the past two years, a group of esteemed Christian and Jewish thinkers and theologians met regularly to discuss the one thing they felt was most sorely missing from the cultural and political landscape: Forgiveness. Rather than rage or despair, they argued, society ought to turn to the possibility that even the bitterest of foes can reconcile and even the most brutal of transgressions be atoned for and forgiven. R.R. Reno, editor of First Things Magazine, joins Liel to discuss the statement the group eventually released, ask whether we can reconcile forgiveness with justice, and expound on the immensely healing power of hope.
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History-making wild fires have been raging nearly out of control across the Los Angeles area, destroying homes, businesses, schools, and even synagogues. How is the community responding, and what can the greater jewish community do? Rabbi Beau Shapiro joins us to give a clergy’s eye view on how our faith helps us cope with loss and events beyond our control.
Support Links:
Nechama Disaster Relief
Los Angeles Fire Department Fund
Baby2Baby
Wildfire GoFundMe spreadsheet for vetted families who are impacted
MULAN Resources hub
Hosted by Courtney Hazlett, Rabbi Diana Fersko, and Josh Kross, each episode of How to Be a Jew takes a look at a current, cultural topic and what it means for us as Jews, and how we react to it because we are Jews.
Want to send us an email? Send it off to [email protected]
For more podcasts, visit tabletmag.com/podcasts -
In 2012, tens of thousands of Orthodox Jews packed Citi Field to protest the Internet and demand that believers tune out of the new nascent new medium. Rabbi Gil Student, an influential writer and thinker, opposed the move, arguing that even the most stringently observant Jews could learn to live out their values while still making good use of the new technology. His latest book, Articles of Faith (https://kodeshpress.com/product/articles-of-faith/), is a collection of meditations on this and other provocative questions that arise when the old time
religion meets new world platforms and values. -
Movies about remembrance are incredibly complicated and difficult to pull off. In his latest film, A Real Pain, actor, writer, and director Jesse Eisenberg tackles grief, family, and memory with echoes of the Holocaust as a haunting background. The film, which was inspired by a piece Jesse wrote for Tablet in 2017, was nominated for four Golden Globe awards.
Hosted by Courtney Hazlett, Rabbi Diana Fersko, and Josh Kross, each episode of How to Be a Jew takes a look at a current, cultural topic and what it means for us as Jews, and how we react to it because we are Jews.
Want to send us an email? Send it off to [email protected]
For more podcasts, visit tabletmag.com/podcasts -
This show takes no weeks off for holidays, whether they are on the Jewish or Gregorian calendars. What are the differences and similarities between Rosh Hashanah and the “secular” new year’s and more importantly how are we marking them? Tablet’s executive editor Wayne Hoffman joins us to discuss the true meaning of starting a new year.
Hosted by Courtney Hazlett, Rabbi Diana Fersko, and Josh Kross, each episode of How to Be a Jew takes a look at a current, cultural topic and what it means for us as Jews, and how we react to it because we are Jews.
Want to send us an email? Send it off to [email protected]
For more podcasts, visit tabletmag.com/podcasts -
Today on Jewish Studies Unscrolled, we explore the history and evolution of “Rozhinkes mit Mandlen” (Raisins and Almonds), the iconic Yiddish lullaby written by Avrom Goldfaden for his 1880 operetta Shulamis. Our guest, Pulitzer Prize finalist Alex Weiser, Director of Public Programs at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, joins us to discuss the song’s transformation from its original folk origins in the rendition, “Unter dem Kinds Vigele” (Under the Child’s Cradle), to a theatrical centerpiece, as well as its lasting influence on Jewish music. Beginning with a field recording by the folklorist Ruth Rubin, we discuss how this simple lullaby inspired classical compositions by Lazare Saminsky, Joseph Achron, Stefan Wolpe, and Judith Shatin.
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Today on Jewish Studies Unscrolled, we delve into a rare cultural intersection: Jewish life and the genre of horror. While Jewish contributions to American culture often focus on comedy, literature, or music, horror remains largely unexplored, even by prominent Jewish filmmakers. We’re joined by Jeremy Dauber, Columbia University professor and author of American Scary: A History of Horror from Salem to Stephen King and Beyond. Together, we examine Sidney Lumet’s 1964 film The Pawnbroker as a rare exception, highlighting its haunting depiction of Holocaust survivor Sol Nazerman’s trauma, particularly through the “thin place” of the subway—a space where the present collides with the horrors of the past.
You can watch the subway scene we discuss here. -
Today on Jewish Studies Unscrolled, we dive into the fascinating world of kvitlekh—19th-century petitions addressed to Rabbi Elijah Guttmacher, a misnagdic rabbi whose miracle-working reputation drew thousands of supplicants. Discovered in a Polish attic in 1932 and preserved by the YIVO Institute, these handwritten pleas offer vivid, if fragmentary, snapshots of Jewish life in Eastern Europe, revealing stories of financial struggles, illness, and family crises. Glenn Dynner, historian and author of The Light of Learning: Hasidism in Poland on the Eve of the Holocaust, joins us to share how he has teased history from these tantalizingly incomplete records.
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Today on Jewish Studies Unscrolled, we talk about Bruce Springsteen and his iconic song “Thunder Road.” While Springsteen himself isn’t Jewish, this song, and his songwriting in general, invites reflections on themes central to Jewish life: tradition, leaving home, and coming back again. We’re joined by noted Bruce fans, Park Avenue Synagogue rabbis Elliot Cosgrove and Neil Zuckerman. Drawing on their personal connections to the song and their shared journey through rabbinical training, Cosgrove and Zuckerman unpack the spiritual resonance of Springsteen’s work, asking why certain texts—whether Torah or rock lyrics—speak to us anew across the decades.
You can buy Rabbi Cosgrove’s book, For Such a Time as This: On Being Jewish Today, here. -
Today on Jewish Studies Unscrolled, we explore Nathan Hanover’s 17th-century work, The Abyss of Despair, or, in the original Hebrew, Yeven Metsulah. The text documents the Chmelnitski Revolt of 1648, a catastrophic uprising that devastated Jewish communities in Eastern Europe. We’re joined by Adam Teller, historian and author of Rescue the Surviving Souls: The Jewish Refugee Crisis of the Seventeenth Century, to examine how Jews across Europe and the Middle East organized a remarkable rescue network to ransom hostages, despite the era’s limited communication tools. Drawing parallels to modern events, Adam Teller sheds new light on this often-overlooked chapter of history, showing how The Abyss of Despair holds untapped insights into Jewish resilience and global solidarity.
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Hosted by Courtney Hazlett, Rabbi Diana Fersko, and Josh Kross, each episode takes a look at a current, cultural topic and what it means for us as Jews, and how we react to it because we are Jews.
This year, the first night of Hannukah falls on Christmas, so we are talking about how each of us, and Jews in general, relate to the most famous Christian holiday, and how some customs might find their way into our own lives. We are joined by musician Peter Himmelman to discuss his view on the relationship between music, holidays, and spiritual practice.
Want to send us an email? Send it off to [email protected]
For more podcasts, visit tabletmag.com/podcasts -
Jewish Studies Unscrolled features host Alyssa Quint in conversation with expert guests and historians. Each episode focuses on a single classic Jewish text and covers topics ranging from a 17th-century hostage crisis, to modern classical interpretations of a Yiddish lullaby.
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It’s been a whopper of a year: Israel at war with Hamas and Hezbollah, a decisive Trump victory, anti-Semitism on the rise, and formerly great American institution on the decline. Yet as this look back at 2024 in Rootless reveals, we’ve many reasons to be hopeful, at home and abroad. Why? Join us in looking back at the year and find out. -
Hosted by Courtney Hazlett, Rabbi Diana Fersko, and Josh Kross, each episode we'll take a look at a current, cultural topic and talk about what it means for us as Jews, and how we react to it because we are Jews.
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When Jordan Neely, a mentally disturbed man with a long rap sheet began threatening his fellow subway passengers one day last year, they were all terrified. But one straphanger, a Marine vet named Daniel Penny, stepped up, wrestling Neely to the ground and putting him in a chokehold. Tragically, Neely, who had health complications and was abusing drugs, died shortly thereafter, and New York’s ideologically motivated District Attorney decided to make an example of Penny. Nicole Gelinas, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, and a columnist for the New York Post, joins Liel to talk about how the progressive obsession with race is crippling the justice system, about the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and about how pro-Palestinian activists are now leading vocal demonstrations about matters that have nothing at all to do with Palestine.
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There are few political issues we consider more contentious than abortions. But what if we are getting this critical subject all wrong? Erica Pelman, the founder and director of SHIFRA, a group that helps Jewish women dealing with unplanned pregnancies, tells Liel about her journey from a high-powered job at the Department of Labor to starting her own organization, about the importance of listening to expecting mothers in distress, and about how we should rethink pretty much everything we think we know about abortion and have a more soulful and helpful debate that transcends those deeply flawed labels, “pro-choice” and “pro-life.”
- Visa fler
