The unity government wasn’t born yesterday, it has a long history in Israel. Tune in to this ongoing exploration of the evolution of Israel’s electoral system to learn about the government shared by ex-underground fighter Yitzhak Shamir and Shimon Peres through the 80s, how it held together Mizrachi pride, religious tension and territorial confusion. A…
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Here is an interview with Rabbi Aharon Ariel Lavi, of Hakhel: The Jewish Intentional Communities Incubator in the Diaspora, an expert on the biblical sabbatical year – shemitta. This is our first taste of a “future vision” for the Jewish people, as well as some stirring thoughts for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.
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Part one of an in-depth look at the historical sources of the present issues in the Israeli elections for Knesset.
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Season six has finally begun! Here is a prologue to help frame the chapter to come. In it I touch on the power of prophetic sight, the book of Daniel and why in the month of Elul we say that the king is in the field. image from: www.flickr.com/photos/nasawebbte…scope/52212049510license: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode
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All things good things must come to an end, so here is the concluding episode of season 5. In it you will find an exploration of how to relate to the brokenness of the world, some thoughts on our present posture and even hints about what the future might hold. See you in the fall!
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A second wrap up interview for season five. Dr. Zhenia Fleisher lived in all three of the 20th century’s major centers of Jewish life – USSR, Israel and the USA. Tune in for her thoughts on past present and future.
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Here is a talk with Rav Yehuda HaKohen of the Vision Movement, the first in couple of conversations which will close our exploration of American Jewish life in the 80s. We range from the personal to the political, touching on tough Jews, Soviet Jewry and what is was like growing up at a time when…
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American Jewry in the Eighties were as safe and comfortable as a Jewish community had ever been – and yet the shadow of the Holocaust still loomed large over their identity. Here is an exploration of how the political power and personal charisma of Rabbi Meir Kahane intersected with this fear – and had explosive…
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The 1980s saw many seismic shifts in the fabric of American Jewish society, and among them was the earthquake of the Jonathan Pollard affair. The 1985 arrest of the Navy analyst rocked the US/Israel relationship and accelerated the fragmenting of attitudes toward Israeli among Jews in the US. Whether you see Jonathan Pollard as a…
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Here is the third and culminating episode in a story that we have been following since season four. The Eighties saw a welding together of American Cold War policies and the struggle for Soviet Jewry in a dramatic fashion. Super power summits, glasnost, the release of Natan Sharansky and the Freedom Sunday march all came…
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