A Visit to the Gaza Border

This past June, Liel took Alan, Matt, Calev and Mike to the sites that were devastated by the October 7th invasion. As a licensed tour guide, Liel wanted to share insights with her colleagues about what happened in the “Gaza Envelope” on, and since, that day. As they went from location to location, they recorded Liel speaking, as well as some of their thoughts and observations along the way.

On the one year anniversary of October 7th, we thought it would be meaningful to share the experience with our listeners. Liel, Mike and Calev sat with our engineer Ben in his studio, to choose what to include in this episode. We also added narration to explain and contextualize each of the clips. While we were doing that, we also reflected on our thoughts since the visit, and about this difficult year in general. For those interested to see what we saw, here is a link to our shared photo album of the visit.

Wishing you, our listeners, and all of our Nation a year of peace, healing and renewal.

Shana tova.

Am Yisrael Chai!

Is Israel Handling its Problems?

Everyone agrees that Israel is beset with problems. Some of them can be managed, and many of them must be solved for Israel to survive and have a healthy future. Is there a danger of reaching a tipping point where Israel has too many problems to succeed? Is whatever is right about Israel in danger of being destroyed by what’s wrong with it? Or is whatever is wrong with Israel going to be fixed by what’s right with it?

Liel hosts this debate with Matt taking the position that our problems are out of control, and Calev arguing that we have reason to be optimistic.

Am Yisrael Chai!

Are We in the 1920s or 1930s?

It is always interesting and helpful to learn from history. And so it's very natural to look to our recent past to find parallels to our current era. With the astonishing global rise of antisemitism many are looking at the previous century and seeing troubling signs for our future. But what part of 20th Century is the clearest precedent? In between the two World Wars, antisemitism rose and shook Jewish security in the Western world. Are we at an early stage like the 20s? Or in a later danger zone like the 30s? Are the analogies even accurate at all?

Liel hosts this debate with Alan taking the position that our time is more similar to the 1920s, and Matt arguing that it is like the 1930s.

Am Yisrael Chai!