the promised podcast

A Tale of Four Cities

Fifteen times as many people are turning out for anti-government demonstrations in Tel Aviv as are coming to demonstrations in Jerusalem. But are the small demonstrations in the capital more important than the big demonstrations on the coast?

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The Painstaking Work to Locate the Tens of Thousands of Books Stolen by the Nazis

National Library Database & Reference Librarian Daniel Lipson, has spent years painstakingly locating the tens of thousands of books in the library’s collections that were stolen by Nazis. Just ahead of International Holocaust Day, he tells us why

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WWYS, or What Would Yossi Say?

Journalist, scholar, and public intellectual Yossi Klein Halevi published an essay arguing that we’re riven between those who long for a “State of Judaism”, and those who long for a “State of Jews.” How did we get here? Yossi Klein Halevi, who joined us for the discussion, has an answer!

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Estoppel Anagrams to “Lost Peeps”

The Supreme Court bars Shas head Aryeh Deri from being a minister, and half the country thinks justice has been done and half the country thinks the results of Novembers democratic elections have been undone

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Our Bialik

People still call Hayim Nahman Bialik Israel’s “National Poet.” What could that possibly mean in 2023, on the 150th anniversary of Bialik’s birth?

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Courting Disaster?

The “Judicial Reform” has so many people so very worried. Is it needed reform or coup d’état?

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You’re Not the Judge of Me!

If two people fighting who owes who what, and they both want to be tried by a rabbi instead of a judge, is that cool?

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This Time Feels Different

When historians look back, will they say the elections of 2022 were when Israel changed forever (and not necessarily for the better)?

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Getting the Book of Books on the Books

There’s a new proposed “Basic Law: Torah Study” that gives learning Talmud in a Yeshiva the same weight and status as commanding a tank in the IDF. Is it finally time to make the Torah nice and legal?

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The Paper It’s Written On?

What good are the new “coalition agreements” Benjamin Netanyahu just signed, if the guy is already saying he ain’t gonna honor at least some of them?

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