Forty years passed before the first song was written in Israel about the Holocaust. For a long generation, Holocaust survivors, and their kids, were mostly quiet about the events that, more than any other, shaped their lives. Then that all changed.

The crew discuss: 1) new taxes meant to wean us from sugary soda pop and single-use plastic ware 2) a Haaretz story rocking the headline, “You can’t train people to be less racist, Israeli researchers find” 3) a documentary movie about ultra-Orthodox life during the pandemic

The crew discuss: 1) a new law that would make it harder to use improperly-gotten evidence in court 2) the weird ways the Olympics have become a litmus test for Israeli identity 3) what we can learn from a documentary about growing up on a kibbutz

The crew discuss: 1) a proposed “revolutionary reform” in Israel’s agriculture policy 2) a proposed “revolutionary reform” in who can certify food as Kosher 3) a new “Culinary Institute of Israel” attacked for “food-washing”

The crew discuss: 1) the spy software used to surveil journalists, political opponents and activists 2) a poll of American Jews, a 1/4 of whom think Israel is an Apartheid state 3) the decision by a beloved ice cream company to freeze out settlers

The crew discuss: 1) The Supreme Court’s rejection to strike down the “Nation-State” law 2) The decision to cancel day-care subsidies for toddlers whose fathers study full-time in a Yeshiva 3) What changes resulted from the social protests in 2011

The crew discuss: 1) The compromise that led to the peaceable evacuation of Eviatar 2) What to make of the tenure of President Rivlin 3) A shocking and controversial about Hebrew grammar

The crew discuss: Israel’s new efforts to “reset” relations with the U.S.; A grandson’s efforts to understand the Zionism of his late Grandfather; A new Israeli docu-series about American Jews

Is a new-ish law that lets Ministers resign their Knesset seats and be replaced by new MKs wasteful and corrupt? How should leftist members of the gov’t vote on a law they hate? Should there be brooks, streams, rivers and lakes reserved, for a few hours every so often, just for women or just for men?

What do the coalition agreements tell us about Israel’s new gov’t? What legacy is left by Benjamin Netanyahu after 12 years as PM? Why are most Israelis squeamish about nudity?