Alle afleveringen
160 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
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105: Why don’t we talk about Jordan?
11 april 2026 · 15 min
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East.Our current question: why don’t we talk about Jordan? If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai. Lees meer
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104: The Iran war isn’t over
8 april 2026 · 42 min
Everyone’s asking who won. That’s the wrong question. This episode explains why the war isn’t over -- and what the real lessons of this conflict mean for Israel, Iran, and the future of war. Lees meer
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This episode was sponsored by an anonymous sponsor in honor of all those we lost on October 7 and in the ensuing years of war.
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If you like what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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103: Why is the two state solution so difficult to achieve?
3 april 2026 · 19 min
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East. Lees meer
Our current question: why is the two state solution so difficult to achieve?
If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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102: Freedom under missile fire, the Passover story, with Rabbi David Stav
28 maart 2026 · 43 min
Passover is just around the corner. So we sat down with the ever-wise Rabbi David Stav to dig into the inexplicable contradictions at the heart of the holiday's traditional Seder meal -- and of Jewish life writ large. Lees meer
In the Seder's text, the Hagaddah, we are commanded to declare that “now we are slaves, but next year we shall be free” -- even if we live in freedom and prosperity. And we are commanded to thank God for "taking us out from slavery to freedom, from sorrow to joy, and from mourning to a festival" -- even in generations past when we were crushed beneath the yoke of oppressors and tyrants, and even in our own day when we must run to a bomb shelter to be safe.
So which is it? Are we free? Are we still slaves?
Rav Stav takes us through stories of Natan Sharansky, Hasidic rebbes in the ghetto, and Rav Kook’s wisdom to reveal Passover's deepest teaching -- that true freedom is an inner consciousness and moral choice, not mere political circumstance, and that the experience and remembrance of slavery teaches us how to value, safeguard and properly use our liberty.
And that is why on the evening of April 1, in this time of war and sirens, violence and fear, Jews all over the world will once again affirm, as they have done for three millennia, that “next year we shall be free.”
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This episode is sponsored by an anonymous listener who asked to share this note.
"Many thanks to Haviv, for all his insights. This episode is dedicated to Barbara S. from New Mexico on the occasion of her second Bat Mitzvah, with love from her kids and grandkids. Am Yisrael Chai."
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If you like what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episo…
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101: Will Trump finish the job in Iran? With Prof. Dan Schueftan
25 maart 2026 · 1 uur 5 min
Trump says a deal may be coming to end the Iran war. Netanyahu says it could protect Israel’s interests. Iran’s regime says little that can be trusted. So what is really happening? Prof. Dan Schueftan returns to the podcast to help us step back from the daily headlines to ask the much bigger question: If this war ends now, who actually wins? And what’s at stake? From the Strait of Hormuz to the ideology of martyrdom, we ask whether free societies still have the nerve to confront movements built on destruction. Lees meer
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This episode is sponsored by a friend of the show who has dedicated the program to the Jews who first came to Trenton, New Jersey, and built a lasting community there.
Our sponsor was born in Trenton, and he wants to thank his four families who at the turn of the twentieth century abandoned their homes in Europe and bravely crossed an ocean toward a new life. They came to Trenton with nothing but their religious faith and an unshakable belief that a better life was something worth building. They raised synagogues, built businesses, married and had children. And those children had children, including our sponsor today. This podcast is his way, after October 7, of honoring that legacy — and affirming that the Jewish story, our story, is one worth telling, worth celebrating, and worth protecting.
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If you like what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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100: They escaped Europe — then parachuted back in, with Matti Friedman
22 maart 2026 · 48 min
In 1944, as the gears of the Holocaust turned toward Hungary, 32 young Jewish volunteers did the unthinkable: they parachuted into the genocide. They were a motley bunch, including a celebrated poet and a nearsighted 40-year-old pacifist. They were sent by the British to rescue downed pilots and by the Zionist leadership to save Jews. They stood almost no chance of success, and by every military metric, they failed. They organized no uprisings; they liberated no camps. Yet, as Matti Friedman reveals in his riveting new book Out of the Sky, their mission was never really about military tactics. It was about story-telling. They set out to show that even in the 20th century's deepest, darkest valley of death, a Jew must still strike a match. To prove that the Jewish people were no longer mere victims of history, but authors of it. Lees meer
Their fame in today's Israel suggests that in that, at least, they were successful.
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This episode was sponsored by Patreon member Eric, and dedicated to the Southern California Hillel chapters at UC Riverside, Claremont Colleges, CalPoly San Luis Obispo, CalPoly Pomona, and University of Redlands. Thank you for helping young Jewish adults thrive in their identity and togetherness!
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If you like what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 99: Are we winning?
18 maart 2026 · 39 min
The rules of engagement just shattered. From the death of Ali Khamenei to the elimination of wartime mastermind Ali Larijani, Iran’s leadership hasn't just been eroded—it’s been erased. As the regime retreats into a fractured "mosaic" of local commanders and a collapsing barter economy, the US-Israeli coalition is pivoting to a final, surgical strike on the regime’s last lifeline: its internal energy grid. Can a regime built on the theology of "resistance" survive when it can no longer keep the lights on? We break down the apparent strategic shift from a war of missiles to a war of endurance. Lees meer
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This episode's sponsor asked to remain anonymous and dedicated the episode to honoring the memory of all those we have lost in the massacres of October 7 and in the wars and terror attacks that followed and continue to this day, including the brave American servicemen and women who have given their lives in the current war with Iran. May we remember them and may their memory be a blessing.
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If you like what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 98: What Israel’s founding fathers knew about terrorism, with Dr. Bruce Hoffman
15 maart 2026 · 1 uur 16 min
Terrorism scholar Dr. Bruce Hoffman joins the podcast to guide us through one of the most morally explosive chapters in Zionist and Israeli history: the Irgun, Lehi, the British Mandate, and the violent campaign that helped force Britain out of Palestine. Moving from Allenby’s conquest of Jerusalem to the King David Hotel bombing, the Lord Moyne assassination, the hanging of the British sergeants, and the bitter intra-Jewish “Saison,” the conversation refuses easy answers and asks the hardest questions head-on: When is political violence terrorism, when is it insurgency, and why does terrorism so often work? The conversation is surprisingly urgent and immediate, as we connect Menachem Begin’s mastery of narrative and information warfare to Hamas, October 7, and Israel’s catastrophic failures in the information war. The parallels and lessons are haunting. Join us for this journey into history, ethics, propaganda, the necessity of statehood, and the frightening power of violence to change the course of history. Lees meer
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This episode is sponsored by Carmela and Uzi Levin of San Francisco who asked to dedicate it to the memory of Niv Raviv and Nirel Zini, a young couple who were brutally murdered by Hamas near their home in Kfar Aza on October 7 2023. Sadly, the Levins never met Niv or Nirel. They heard of their tragic story from Tami Raviv, Niv’s mom.
Niv and Nirel met during their army service and moved to Kfar Aza in early 2023. On October 10, 2015, while serving in the IDF, Nirel was severely wounded during an operation. From then on, every 10th of October became a special day of celebration marking Nirel’s survival and rehabilitation. On October 10th, 2023, Nirel was planning to celebrate by proposing to Niv. But he never got the chance.
Niv was pursuing a master’s degree in psychology and hoped to become a therapist.
In their memory, Niv’s mother Tami founded the Niv Nirel Center in Beit Yannai, in collaboration with Dr. Kfir Feffer. The center is a tranquil sanct…
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Episode 97: Can America and Israel finish the job? A conversation with John Spencer.
11 maart 2026 · 57 min
What is this war really about, and how does it end? We sit down with warfare scholar John Spencer to explore not just the military campaign itself, but the larger stakes of this war: Whether the US, Israel and their growing list of regional allies will be able and willing (two separate questions) to carry this war to a comprehensive conclusion, one that begins the process, even if it is slow and difficult, of bringing down a regime built on terror, proxies, and chaos, or whether the world will once again step back and leave the threat intact. It’s a conversation about strategy, uncertainty, and the price of waiting too long to confront danger. Lees meer
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This episode is sponsored by Tina and Akiva Katz and is dedicated to two very different groups of Israelis who are close to their hearts.
"The first is our family – specifically Mishpachot Alfassi, Passal, Gizbar, Weiss, and Megidish – who fought and served so bravely and sacrificed so much since the 7th. We are forever grateful for your service and deeply inspired by your devotion to Medinat Israel."
"The second group is our family by choice -- Mishpachat Damari of Kfar Aza. To the quietly indomitable and fierce Mandy Damari, who fought tooth and nail to bring her amazing daughter Emily and the rest of our chatufim home. And to the Damari children -- Emily, Ben, Tom, and Sean -- we love you."
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If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 96: The first war Israel fought in English, with Yaakov Katz
9 maart 2026 · 57 min
Military analyst Yaakov Katz joins the show to break down the "first Israeli war fought in English" -- a total merger of Israeli and American military might against Iran. From the high-stakes testing of futuristic US weapon systems designed to intimidate China to the "criminal negligence" of Israel's failed PR strategy, Katz exposes how this conflict is a global chess match where the target isn't just Tehran, but the entire world order. Lees meer
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This episode is sponsored by an anonymous donor who wishes to recognize the staff and scientists of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. In June of last year, the Weizmann Institute was hit directly by two ballistic missiles from Iran. Over 60 laboratories were destroyed. In true Israeli fashion, scientists in the unaffected part of the campus opened their labs to their colleagues and doubled up and tripled up so that work could continue relatively uninterrupted. The Weizmann Institute exemplifies collaboration at its best which is, after all, the secret sauce of the State of Israel.
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If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 95: The idea that broke the Middle East, with Dr. Micah Goodman
5 maart 2026 · 1 uur 6 min
In the middle of war sirens and missile attacks, Haviv Gur sits down with Israeli philosopher Micah Goodman for a sweeping conversation about one of the biggest questions of our time: Why have some societies declined while others thrive? They trace the ideological roots of modern Islamist movements, the “politics of blame” that has hollowed out regimes like Iran, and the deep miscalculation that led Israel’s enemies to believe a liberal democracy would collapse under pressure. Instead, Israel revealed a strange and powerful formula—combining fierce individualism with tribal solidarity—that produced both technological strength and extraordinary willingness to sacrifice. The result, they argue, may be more than a military victory: It could be the collapse of an entire ideology. Lees meer
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This episode was sponsored by Glenn Bergenfield, who asked to dedicate the episode to “my quirky and loving wife, Sarah, who has studied our past, considered the present, met my family and is converting anyway. Mazal tov and welcome home.” Glenn also asked us to say, “And I’m grateful to you, Haviv, for your clarity, your relentless curiosity and your generosity of spirit in these hard times.”
Thank you, Glenn, for this wonderful dedication.
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If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 94: America's war, not Israel's
2 maart 2026 · 37 min
As missile sirens wail over Jerusalem and families crowd into bomb shelters on the eve of Purim, this episode steps back from the noise and the slogans to ask a harder question: What war are we actually watching? In a moment when pundits argue over Israel, regime change, and partisan loyalties, I lay out a different frame -- two chessboards, one regional and one global -- and argue that what looks like another Middle Eastern conflagration is in fact a pivotal move in a far larger US–China confrontation. If we misunderstand that, we will misunderstand everything that follows: America’s resolve, Iran’s desperation, and the shape of the world that may emerge from this fire. Lees meer
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This episode was sponsored by Greg Manson and dedicated to the IDF soldiers who have fallen since October 7, and to the roughly 380 Canadian servicemen who died on June 6, 1944, at Juno Beach during D-Day. We, the living, owe deep gratitude to those willing to sacrifice to preserve Western values.
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If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 93: How to win Iran's forever war
25 februari 2026 · 2 uur 7 min
The conflict with Iran isn’t just about nukes. It's about a revolutionary martyrdom ideology hiding in plain sight. In this explosive deep dive, we uncover the ideological engine behind the “Muqawama,” the Iran-led "resistance axis" — a fusion of Marx, Mao, martyrdom, and Shiite theology that teaches its followers that suffering is strength and devastation is victory. From Hamas to Hezbollah to Tehran itself, this doctrine explains why bombs don’t deter the regime — and why its greatest threat may not be Israel or America, but its own young people. If you want to understand what’s really driving the Middle East’s endless wars — and how it might finally unravel — this is the episode you can’t afford to miss. Lees meer
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This episode was sponsored by Betsy and Andy Cadel of New York City, who asked to dedicate it to our global Jewish family, but also specifically the Selbst family of Tel Aviv who made sure their son Simon was safe and protected during the 12-day war with Iran last summer while he interned in Israel. It gave him, and his very terrified parents who were thousands of miles away, immeasurable comfort knowing he was not alone.
And most of all they want to wish both Guy and Dotan Selbst congratulations on their recent engagements and upcoming weddings. A wonderful reminder of how important it is to celebrate the future.
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If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. It helps us keep the lights on. It's also a wonderful community and forum where you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our great discussions with listeners sharing news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams in which Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 92: Why does Israel hate UNRWA?
22 februari 2026 · 17 min
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East. Lees meer
Our current question: Why does Israel hate UNRWA?
If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 91: Is the Iran war about China? A conversation with Melissa Chen
18 februari 2026 · 1 uur 1 min
In this episode, we confront a critical "blind spot" in the Israeli (and too often broader Western) consciousness: The role of the People’s Republic of China as the silent architect behind the Middle East’s most volatile threats. Guest Melissa Chen, managing director at Strategy Risks, pulls back the curtain on a sobering reality where China acts as the sole guarantor of Iran’s survival, bypassing global sanctions to fuel a regime that mirrors its own anti-Western ambitions. Lees meer
From the export of advanced repression technologies that stifle domestic dissent in Tehran to the algorithmic amplification of antisemitism on platforms like TikTok, Chen argues that the "Axis of Resistance" is increasingly powered by Chinese infrastructure. Our conversation is a reflective warning on the nature of "unrestricted warfare," where the battlefield has shifted from kinetic borders to the granular data in our electric vehicles and the hearts and minds of a polarized West. It is a necessary, albeit chilling, look at how a regime thousands of miles away has become a central, malign actor in the survival of the Jewish state and the stability of the liberal world order.
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For more than a century, the Technion has powered Israel. Its graduates built the nation’s roads and bridges, its water systems and electrical grid. Israel’s high-tech industry emerged from the Technion — the very foundation of the Startup Nation.
Today, as Israel recovers from the devastation of war, it needs the Technion more than ever.
Technion scientists are developing new energy sources, sustainable food and water solutions, and breakthrough medical therapies—creating innovations for a better world that will also reboot Israel’s economy.
You want to help make Israel safe and strong. By supporting the Technion, you’re investing in the people and ideas that will rebuild Israel for a better future. Because rebuilding isn’t just about restoring what was lost—it’s about creating what comes next.
The Technion buil…
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Episode 90: Is it "fascist" to believe a state can belong to a specific people?
15 februari 2026 · 16 min
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East. Lees meer
Our current question: Is it "fascist" to believe a state can belong to a specific people?
If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 89: Who benefits from continuing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
12 februari 2026 · 15 min
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East. Lees meer
Our current question: Who benefits from continuing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 88: America's "24% problem" with young antisemitism, with Jonah Platt
7 februari 2026 · 55 min
Is American Jewish identity weakening before our eyes? Are American Jews, caught in a whirlwind of hatred directed both at Israel and at the Jews themselves, turning their backs on their Jewish identity? Lees meer
Jonah Platt joins the podcast to talk about the growing numbers of Jews moving in the opposite direction: From quiet assimilation to unapologetic, intentional pride. We confront the sobering data on the rise of antisemitism among Gen Z and discuss Jonah's defiant hope that the "switched-on" generation will reclaim its story -- both in Hollywood and beyond. A great deal depends not on the young, but on their parents. American Jews must move past defensive anxiety to become a "pillar of fire" for their children.
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This episode is sponsored anonymously and dedicated to "all those who want a better understanding of the world," including our audience community. Thank you to our sponsors.
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If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 87: How can you support a better Palestinian future?
5 februari 2026 · 21 min
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East. Lees meer
Our current question: How can you support a better Palestinian future?
If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 86: Alliances and rivalries in a new Middle East, with Dan Schueftan
2 februari 2026 · 1 uur 12 min
The inimitable Prof. Dan Schueftan joins Haviv to break down a "profoundly dangerous" turn in the Middle East. With Saudi Arabia shifting away from its alliance with Israel and the Emirates and Turkey consolidating a "puppet state" in Syria, the regional map is being redrawn. Schueftan warns that the "moderate axis" has blinked, leaving Israel to face a sophisticated Turkish adversary that is ideologically rooted in the Muslim Brotherhood and strategically positioned to disrupt Israeli interests from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. Lees meer
But despite these threats, Prof. Schueftan offers a powerful and much-needed reality check: Israel has never been stronger. Jews are the only people in the region who don't seem to grasp its power. Israel is currently in its best strategic position in history -- a 21st-century military and technological power that has outlasted every previous attempt at its destruction.
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This episode was sponsored by Alex Verjovsky. "I want to dedicate this episode to my wife Betty, without whom I would not be the person I am today. When we started our lives together, you believed in me when I had little more than a promise, something I spent the next thirty-something years trying to live up to. As we begin the countdown to our fortieth anniversary, it’s now your turn to enjoy the fruits of that journey. So get ready for another forty years together, exploring, learning, asking questions, and growing old side by side.
"Ask Haviv Anything has become a place of learning and discovery, and one of the few spaces left where ideas, rather than dogmas are openly discussed and we love listening to it and talking about it."
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If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your…
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Episode 85: How knowing your story makes you invincible, with Noam Weissman
31 januari 2026 · 58 min
In these strange times, it is easier than ever for a Jew to learn -- and easier than ever to remain ignorant. We sit down with Dr. Noam Weissman, executive vice president of the educational nonprofit OpenDor Media, to tackle a looming crisis: a generation of Jews who no longer know their own story. From Harvard Law students paralyzed by campus slogans to the staggering reality that 62% of Jewish day school students cannot define Zionism, this episode exposes the "malpractice" of outdated advocacy and offers a better blueprint for the future. What would a better Israel education look like? Haviv and Noam explore how history and identity can transform a vulnerable community into an invincible one—shifting the next generation from passive spectators in the stands to active players in the Jewish game. Lees meer
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This episode is sponsored by Max and Susan Reichenthal in honor of Friends of the IDF (FIDF), which works to ensure that the soldiers of the IDF have the support they need during their service. Max and Susan asked to dedicate the episode to the IDF soldiers who put their lives on the line to protect the people of Israel.
We thank them for their continued support.
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If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 84: Why soldiers wept when Ran came home, lessons from Tu Bishvat
29 januari 2026 · 48 min
This week, Israel finally brought home the remains of its last hostage, 24-year-old Ran Gvili. To outsiders, the sheer scale of the national sacrifice and the collective exhalation of relief that followed his return can seem like a mystery. Every nation honors its fallen, but few go to the lengths Israelis do to reclaim a body from the hands of the enemy. Lees meer
In this episode, we use the upcoming holiday of Tu Bishvat as an entryway into the Jewish psyche. We explore the idea of "hesed shel Emet" -- the "true kindness" of a dignified burial, which is called "true" because it can never be reciprocated. We dive into a world where a dignified burial is more than a ritual; it is a declaration that even in death, a human being remains a reflection of the divine. Through the teachings of the Malbim and the Sfat Emet, we re-examine Tu Bishvat not as a simple children’s holiday, but as a sophisticated meditation on the human condition. From the sap stirring in the dead of winter to the "inner light" hidden within the shells of the Seven Species, we discover a "New Year of the Human"—a day that honors our unique mission to find meaning in our mortality and uncover the sacred within the broken.
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This episode was sponsored by an anonymous donor who asked to dedicate it to all our fallen soldiers and to the sacrifices of the reservists and their families, from October 7 until today. Thank you for your sponsorship.
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If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 83: From ideology to narcotics, Hezbollah's business model, with Matt Levitt
26 januari 2026 · 49 min
The fall 2024 Israeli operations that decimated Hezbollah’s missile arsenal and leadership structure marked a pivotal turning point for the Middle East. To understand the wreckage left behind and the organization's resilient global web that is already hard at work helping it to recover, I am joined by Matthew Levitt, one of the world’s leading experts on counterterrorism. Levitt pulls back the curtain on Hezbollah’s "Golden Rule"—the less you know, the better—and explains how a group traditionally viewed through the lens of regional militancy has transformed into a sophisticated, multi-continental criminal syndicate. Lees meer
The conversation dives deep into the surprising reality of Hezbollah’s diversified portfolio, including illicit operations in Latin America and Africa. As financial support from Iran has fluctuated, Levitt details how the group has used ethical justifications to lean into organized crime to sustain its activities. We explore the implications of these global networks for regional stability the precarious future of Lebanon.
This episode was sponsored by Robert Hockett, a Rhodes scholar and professor of law and finance at Cornell University who wishes to support this podcast and this community, which, in his words, "demonstrate every day that literal truth and justice in the Middle East can be pursued and articulated both thoughtfully and civilly — without humoring or coddling, but instead gently rebuffing, both dark age bloodlust and present day blood libel.”
If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 82: 'From the River to the Sea' - Lost in Translation?
25 januari 2026 · 8 min
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East. Lees meer
Our current question: 'From the River to the Sea' - Lost in Translation?
If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 81: Israel's future and the ticking Gaza clock, with Andrew Fox
22 januari 2026 · 58 min
Andrew Fox is a frontline conflict researcher who has visited Gaza, Syria and Lebanon to study Israeli deployments and strategy there. Lees meer
He joins the podcast to talk about what he calls Israel’s ticking diplomatic clock — the inevitable moment when Israel finds itself where Europe is now: suddenly shorn of American backing and having to navigate an increasingly chaotic region and world. We discuss Israel’s strengths, its weaknesses, how Israel itself contributed to its diplomatic troubles, and what it all means for the prospects of rebuilding and deradicalization in Gaza as the territory enters Phase II of the Trump plan.
Andrew served for 16 years in the British Army, from 2005 to 2021, leaving the Parachute Regiment with the rank of major. He is currently a senior associate fellow at the Henry Jackson Society in London, the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security in Israel, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in Canada, and the Euro-Med Middle East Council in France.
Andrew co-hosts the podcast The Brink with former Jewish Chronicle editor Jake Wallis Simons.
Sponsorship:
For more than a century, the Technion has powered Israel. Its graduates built the nation’s roads and bridges, its water systems and electrical grid. Israel’s high-tech industry emerged from the Technion — the very foundation of the Startup Nation.
Today, as Israel recovers from the devastation of war, it needs the Technion more than ever.
Technion scientists are developing new energy sources, sustainable food and water solutions, and breakthrough medical therapies — creating innovations for a better world that will also reboot Israel’s economy.
You want to help make Israel safe and strong. By supporting the Technion, you’re investing in the people and ideas that will rebuild Israel for a better future. Because rebuilding isn’t just about restoring what was lost—it’s about creating what comes next. The Technion built Israel. Now, the Technion will rebuild Israel. Join us. Visit http://ats…
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Episode 80: Who is Hamas and what do they want?
19 januari 2026 · 10 min
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East.Our current question: Who is Hamas and what do they want? Lees meer
If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 79: Breaking Iran's machinery of oppression
14 januari 2026 · 35 min
Iran is burning. The streets are full of marchers demanding an end to the regime. Thousands of protesters have been murdered by the regime in recent days — we may never know exactly how many. President Trump is threatening military action. But is all this enough to bring down the regime? Lees meer
How do you dismantle a revolutionary Islamist government that has proven impervious to domestic protest and international pressure?
Here’s how.
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This episode was sponsored anonymously by a family friend of former hostage Alon Ohel in celebration of his return from Hamas captivity on October 13. We wish him and all the survivors a speedy recovery.
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If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 78: Do you still want to globalize the intifada?
13 januari 2026 · 21 min
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East. Lees meer
Our current question: What was the First Intifada? What was the Second Intifada? What does it mean to “globalize the intifada?”
If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 77: Did Israel intentionally target civilians in Gaza?
9 januari 2026 · 13 min
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East. Lees meer
Our current question: Did Israel intentionally target civilians in Gaza?
If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 76: How elites drive Jew-hatred, with Hussein Aboubakr Mansour
6 januari 2026 · 1 uur 14 min
From Manchester to Bondi Beach to Denver, from Tucker Carlson to Nicolas Maduro to Zohran Mamdani to the most significant and mobilizing political ideologies of today’s Muslim world, Jews seem to loom large in the imaginations of elites. They’re attacked physically and verbally and politically. The old obsession has well and truly returned. Lees meer
What does this return mean for the future of these societies? And for Jews?
The Egyptian-American writer and thinker Hussein Aboubakr Mansour returns to the podcast to make sense out of the chaos.
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This episode is sponsored by Max and Susan Reichenthal in honor of the work of Friends of the IDF (FIDF), which works to ensure that the soldiers of the IDF have the support they need during their service. Max and Susan asked to dedicate the episode in honor of the IDF soldiers who put their lives on the line to protect the people of Israel.
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If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 75: Power, fear, and the survival of the Iranian regime, with Roya Hakakian
2 januari 2026 · 53 min
Iran’s streets are in tumult. The latest protests are of a scale not seen before. New sections of Iranian society are in the streets — middle class merchants, the elderly and others. The protestors have more strident demands than in the past. And a regime that knows its legitimacy has been compromised by rampant corruption, systemic state failure, the collapse of the currency and economy and the 12-day war in June against Israel. Lees meer
Our guest today is Roya Hakakian, a writer, poet and human rights advocate who grew up in Tehran and fled with her family to the US at age 18 several years after the 1979 revolution. Her book Assassins of the Turquoise Palace traces the Islamic Republic’s decades-long war on dissent both inside Iran and across the globe. Her earlier book, Journey from the Land of No, relates her personal journey from a hopeful 12-year-old during the revolution to a refugee, writer and fierce advocate for democracy. A fellow at Yale University’s Davenport College and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, she has written for leading outlets including the New York Times, New York Review of Books and the Atlantic and has contributed to CBS’s 60 Minutes and ABC Documentary Specials.
We discuss the evolution of the protest movement, whether this latest round of protests is different, whether Iran really is on the brink of collapse, what Israel should do (or rather, not do), and how Khomeini’s revolution was the seed for the so-called “red-green alliance” that now defines so much of the Western left.
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This episode is sponsored by Max and Susan Reichenthal in honor of the work of Friends of the IDF (FIDF), which works to ensure that the soldiers of the IDF have the support they need during their service. Max and Susan asked to dedicate the episode in honor of the IDF soldiers who put their lives on the line to protect the people of Israel.
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If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything.…
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Episode 74: Why the global outrage at Israel's Somaliland recognition?
31 december 2025 · 13 min
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East. Lees meer
Our current question: Why the global outrage at Israel's Somaliland recognition?
If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 73: Is military aid to Israel a good deal for America?
30 december 2025 · 9 min
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East. Lees meer
Our current question: Is military aid to Israel a good deal for America?
If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 72: The women fighters behind the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, with Elizabeth R. Hyman
29 december 2025 · 1 uur 2 min
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising stands as one of the few shining moments of (temporarily) successful Jewish resistance in the bottomless evil and despair that was the Holocaust. Heroes of the uprising like Mordechai Anielewicz and Yitzhak “Antek” Zuckerman form part of the national civic religion of Israeli Jews, and of Jewish commemoration ceremonies worldwide. Lees meer
But the men of the uprising didn’t do it alone. Without Zivia Lubetkin, Tosia Altman and the other women couriers and fighters, the uprising may have failed to organize in the first place. Yet how many Jews know those names or their incredible story?
Our guest today is author Elizabeth R. Hyman, whose recent bestselling book The Girl Bandits of the Warsaw Ghetto tells the astonishing history of some of the greatest heroes the Jewish people have ever produced, but whose exploits were all but ignored and even forgotten after the war.
Through memoirs and diaries, Hyman tells their story, dragging the couriers of the ghettos into the light of history and Jewish remembrance and giving us a fuller picture of Jewish courage in the deepest darkness Jews have ever known.
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This episode is sponsored by the Persian American Civic Action Network (PACAN), a non-profit organization which asked to dedicate the episode to Israel’s generation Z as they are the embodiment of Zionism in action and spirit, as well as the incredible renaissance led by their gen-Z counterparts in Iran standing tall against the radical Islamist tyranny that has invaded Iran and the Middle East since 1979.
“In its endeavor to rebuild bridges of peace, brotherhood and good will, PACAN was the first Iranian-based organization in the diaspora to lead a mission to Israel to meet with Israeli leaders, media and NGOs in 2019.
“As much as the Islamic regime tries to erase Iran’s history or propagate the diabolical prophecy to wipe out the Jewish State, we remember the inalienable Biblical alliance of the Jews and the Iranians, known to the western audi…
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Episode 71: Why the heck does America support Israel?
25 december 2025 · 15 min
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East. Lees meer
Our current question: Why the heck does America support Israel?
If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 70: The warrior Jews who terrified Rome, with Barry Strauss
23 december 2025 · 53 min
Between the outbreak of the Jews’ Great Revolt against Rome in the year 66 CE and the final suppression of the Bar Kochba Revolt in 135, the Jews of the Roman Empire constituted the empire’s single biggest headache. None of the countless conquered peoples controlled by that world power had ever rebelled quite so often or for so long. Lees meer
Jewish memory, largely forged by the rabbinic account of these revolts as doomed failures, tends to minimize their scale and impact and the chances they had for success.
But a new book by Prof. Barry Strauss, a military historian specializing in the Greco-Roman period, argues that the Jewish revolts against Rome were not quite the folly that later generations of Jews would judge them. The Jews had a longstanding military tradition, skill and experience at irregular warfare, and good reason to hope that the Parthian Empire - itself home to a significant loyal and supported Jewish community - would come to their aid. Indeed, the first battle between the Jews and the Roman legions occupying Judea ended in a dramatic rout of a Roman legion.
Few subject peoples frightened the great empire quite as much or for as long as the stubborn Jews.
Prof. Strauss joins the podcast to talk about this astonishing saga of Jewish courage and military prowess - as well as the internal divisions and foolish decisions that ultimately doomed their cause.
Strauss is the Corliss Page Dean Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Bryce and Edith M. Bowmar Professor in Humanistic Studies Emeritus at Cornell University. He has written over a dozen books on ancient Roman and Greek history.
His newest one is “Jews vs. Rome: Two Centuries of Rebellion Against the World’s Mightiest Empire.” It was published earlier this year.
This episode is sponsored by Shimon Parker, a member of the Sydney Jewish community, in hopes that his grandchildren Ziggy, Archie and Duke will grow up to be proud Jews.
Shimon asked to dedicate the episode to the victims of the m…
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Episode 69: Israel's great divide - An insider's look at the judicial reform, with Moshe Koppel
19 december 2025 · 1 uur 37 min
Until October 7, Israel’s politics were consumed by the fight over the government’s judicial reform proposals. The issue drove hundreds of thousands of Israelis to the streets in protest. It triggered all the anxieties of right and left, to sharpen class and ethnic and cultural divides, to raise fears over minority rights and the future of Israeli democracy. Lees meer
But in all those stormy months, there was very little in the way of serious and sober debate about Israeli institutions, checks and balances, judicial overreach and the dangers of an over-powerful executive. The substantive questions seemed to be pushed aside by the culture wars.
The judicial reform was to some degree frozen - or at least dramatically slowed - in March 2023 after massive strikes broke out throughout the country. The October 7 massacre and ensuing wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran relegated it to the bottom of the public agenda.
But it never actually went away. Fights between the government and the High Court and between the government and the attorney general have only worsened, bills now stand on the Knesset docket that seek to advance in piecemeal fashion different elements of the original reform.
To understand what happened - the original proposal, the great explosion of Israeli politics that ensued, and where it might all be headed - we turned to one of the architects of the original reform, Moshe Koppel, a professor emeritus of computer science and founder and chairman of the Kohelet Forum.
It was a long conversation, often contentious and deeply interesting. We hope you find it helpful.
This episode is sponsored by Iris Engelson and dedicated to the memory of her friend Sharon Kass (z”l) who passed away two years ago at the age of 57 on 29 Kislev, December 19.
According to her friends, Sharon was fiercely independent; unpretentious and unflappable; brilliant and deeply curious; at once confident and modest; wickedly funny; and absolutely devoted to her family, to her friends and colle…
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Episode 68: Antizionism is inherently violent, with Adam Louis-Klein
17 december 2025 · 1 uur 2 min
After the massacre at Bondi Beach, anthropologist Adam Louis-Klein returns to the podcast to help us make sense of the new Jew-hatred. Lees meer
Antizionism, Adam argues, may be a form of hatred of Jews, but it's a far cry from the classical antisemitism of the 19th and 20th centuries. It's also not mere criticism of Israeli policies or governments. So what is it? And how do you fight it?
Adam Louis-Klein is an anthropologist and writer whose work focuses on Jewish peoplehood, indigeneity, and contemporary anti-Jewish ideologies, especially the rise of antizionism. He is the founder of the Movement Against Antizionism and a postgraduate fellow at the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism.
Today's episode was sponsored by our friends at the American Technion Society.
For more than a century, the Technion has powered Israel. Its graduates built the nation’s roads and bridges, its water systems and electrical grid. Israel’s high-tech industry emerged from the Technion — the very foundation of the Startup Nation. Today, as Israel recovers from the devastation of war, it needs the Technion more than ever. Technion scientists are developing new energy sources, sustainable food and water solutions and breakthrough medical therapies — creating innovations for a better world that will also reboot Israel’s economy.
You want to help make Israel safe and strong. By supporting the Technion, you’re investing in the people and ideas that will rebuild Israel for a better future. Because rebuilding isn’t just about restoring what was lost — it’s about creating what comes next.
The Technion built Israel. Now, the Technion will rebuild Israel. Join us. Visit ats.org/rebuild
If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestream…
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Episode 67: Miracles in the dark. A response to Bondi.
15 december 2025 · 49 min
This Hanukkah began in darkness, in the brutal massacre of Jews in Sydney, Australia. Our hearts are broken, but our light is not dimmed. Lees meer
In this episode, we dive into the meaning of Hanukkah in the Jewish tradition and draw lessons from it for these painful times.
This episode is sponsored by Donna Silbert and Kevin Foley and dedicated to the memory of Thomas Irwin Glasser. Tom Glasser was murdered by Islamist terrorists as he worked at his desk in the south tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
At the time of his passing the New York Times said Tom's occupation form would have read: "philosophy major-track star-standup comic-restaurant owner-bartender-partner at Sandler O'Neill." A senior partner and head of mortgage-backed securities sales and trading at the Wall Street firm Sandler O'Neill, Tom was brilliantly funny and broadly loved throughout the bond trading community, by clients and competitors alike. A talented and fiercely competitive collegiate athlete, Tom earned a gold medal in track and field representing the United States at the 1981 Maccabiah Games. One of the best athletes ever to attend his beloved collegiate alma mater Haverford College, in Pennsylvania, Haverford honored him by naming its sports hall of fame the "Thomas Glasser '82 Hall of Achievement." The Glasser family established a scholarship at Haverford in Tom's honor.
A firm supporter of Israel and Jewish causes, had he lived Tom would have led from the front in the fight against antisemitism at Haverford College.
A devoted husband and father, Tom is forever mourned by his wife Meg, sons Dylan and Lukas, parents Anne and Gerry, sisters Laura and Margie, brothers-in-law Joel and Sam, numerous nieces and nephews and hundreds of friends.
If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our great discussions where listeners share new…
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Episode 66: Do BDS campaigns help Palestinians?
5 december 2025 · 13 min
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East. Lees meer
Our current question: Do BDS campaigns help Palestinians?
If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 65: The unseen editors rigging the information war, with Ashley Rindsberg
2 december 2025 · 1 uur 9 min
The internet has democratized information. Or so we are told. The world's knowledge is now at everyone's fingertips. No government and no power structure can gatekeep what everyone sees and hears. Lees meer
But as our lives increasingly move online, we are all discovering just how many forces are at work trying to control and manipulate the flow of information online. The information that comes our way is driven by algorithms shaped by corporations or foreign governments. And those who know how to game those algorithms now possess unprecedented control over what everyone sees on their phones and computers. Governments, political campaigns, advocacy movements all invest vast resources in shaping these environments to ensure their message dominates and opposing messages are suppressed.
In this episode, we take a deep dive into the surprisingly small number of editors who have managed to take control of Wikipedia's articles related to Israel, Israeli history and Zionism, and to skew them into narrow ideological screeds that no Israelis or Jews would recognize as representing them or their story.
It's a microcosm of a much larger story about the vulnerability of this new information environment in which we all swim to such manipulation.
Wikipedia is a critical reference for hundreds of millions of people. It is often counted among the five most visited websites in the world. But its real influence is far larger: it's a favored result in any Google search and a favorite source for AIs when they answer our questions. So it matters that a tiny group of no more than 40 editors, through careful coordination, can completely dominate all editing and content in a major arena of contested knowledge.
Wikipedia, Reddit and our new age of algorithmic information flows are our subject today, and Ashley Rindsberg, an American writer and a senior editor at Pirate Wires, is our guide.
This episode is sponsored by Nancy and David Rosen of Guilford, Connecticut, on the fifth anniversary of …
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Episode 64: The Soviet roots of today's antizionism, with Izabella Tabarovsky
28 november 2025 · 1 uur 19 min
Izabella Tabarovsky is a scholar of Soviet antizionism and contemporary antisemitism, a contributor to many books and a senior fellow at the Z3 Institute. Her latest book is “Be a Refusenik: A Jewish Student’s Survival Guide.” Lees meer
It’s available here: https://www.amazon.com/Be-Refusenik-Jewish-Students-Survival/dp/B0G2GKWKCJ/ref=zg_m_bs_g_8975368011_m_sccl_1/142-8265824-8567764?psc=1
Today we are going to dive into the story of Soviet Jewry and the ideological war carried out by Soviet authorities against Jewish religious life and identity that ended up driving so many Soviet Jews to Zionism.
And we delve into the vast, well-funded, decades-long Soviet propaganda efforts against the West in the third world and how that campaign’s vocabulary about Israel still drives a great deal of academic and activist discourse on Israel today. The links run deeper than mere vocabulary. Much of what we’re seeing today — the discourse on Israel that goes beyond criticism of the Gaza war to rejecting the very idea that Jews are a nation — had its start in that Cold War context.
This episode is sponsored by Ceki Aluf Medina, a longtime listener and member of the Turkish Jewish community who is currently living in the United States. He asked to dedicate the episode to the soldiers of the IDF, the reservists and the regular army, who have sacrificed so much for the safety of the Jewish state. In Ceki’s words: “We in the diaspora recognize our obligation to support you, to vouch for you and take great pride in celebrating your accomplishments.”
He also asked to dedicate this episode to the work of Shuva Achim, “brothers return,” a volunteer based grassroots organization that has been there for the IDF soldiers since the early days of the Gaza war, providing at their cafe and way station outside Moshav Shuva on the Gaza border countless hot meals, coffee and amenities to soldiers heading in and out of war.
If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com…
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Episode 63: New York in the age of Tucker and Mamdani, with Noam Dworman
25 november 2025 · 56 min
Noam Dworman is the owner of the legendary Comedy Cellar comedy club in New York. He a lifelong New Yorker, a podcaster and an astute observer of his city and his country. Lees meer
What does he make of the incoming mayor and his anti-Israel views? What about the rabid new antisemitism on the Carlson-Owens right? And how does he understand the weak responses to both by American Jews?
And finally: Will America weather these challenges, or has American Jewish life become less safe going forward?
Today’s episode is sponsored by Ruth Adler and Eric Weinthal and is dedicated to each and every hostage brutally dragged into Gaza on October 7, and their families. In their words: “We rejoice with each hostage family reunited with their loved ones and our hearts break for those whose loved ones were murdered or died in captivity. We would also like to thank the protest groups we marched with that have organized to help amplify our voices for over 700 days, including Run For Their Lives, Bonot Alternativa and many others. We will not stop marching until the last body is returned home."
If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 62: Hard times make strong Jews. Live in London with Daniel Schwammenthal.
20 november 2025 · 1 uur 49 min
Today's episode is a very special show which was recorded live on November 10, 2025 at the Finchley United Synagogue - Kinloss in London. Haviv had the pleasure of sharing the stage with Jewish Chronicle Editor Daniel Schwammenthal. We had a great discussion about growing antisemitism in England, the war in Gaza, the possibility of upcoming elections in Israel and the many challenges facing Israelis and Jews today. Lees meer
We would like to thank Jonathan and Debra Field, who have been long-time supporters of this podcast, for bringing Haviv to London and sponsoring the event. We would also like to thank Rabbi Dr. Yoni Birnbaum, the Senior Rabbi of Finchley United Synagogue, for welcoming Haviv.
If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 61: Is criticizing Israel antisemitic?
19 november 2025 · 11 min
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East. Our current question: Is criticizing Israel antisemitic? Lees meer
If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 60: Does it matter what the world thinks? A conversation with Dr. Tal Becker
16 november 2025 · 48 min
These are strange times to be a Jew. Jews are in many ways safer and stronger than ever, but face a surge of antisemitism unlike anything seen in generations. This includes a hatred of Jewish collective identity on the progressive left as well as hatred of Jews as Jews in millions of online posts each day and in the mainstream platforming of neo-Nazis like Fuentes and Carroll by the Tucker Carlsons of the West. Lees meer
These people aren't engaged in criticism of Israeli actions or of the Gaza war, but ride the wave of legitimate critique to advance something uglier, darker and older.
What does this return of the old hatred mean? Were some of the more pessimistic Zionist thinkers right in their pessimism about the world? Do we hunker down together as Israelis or Jews and turn our backs on the world and its bigotries?
We put the question to the ever wise Dr. Tal Becker, vice president of the Shalom Hartman Institute and a preeminent international law expert who served as legal advisor to the Israeli foreign ministry.
His response, as ever, is a poignant conversation on the meaning of these strange times in the larger arc of Jewish history and Zionism.
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This episode is cosponsored by Sue Levin in honor of her father Frank Levin, who passed away on January 23, 2025 at the age of ninety-eight. "Frank, a World War II veteran, spent his entire life in Buffalo, New York, devoted to his family, his local community and his religion. He would be shocked and thrilled to know that his daughter Sue, a terrible Hebrew school student growing up, is now finally diving in and learning so much about history and current events from Haviv’s tremendous podcast."
This episode is also cosponsored by an anonymous sponsor in honor of the memory of William Isadore Eisberg, who along with the sponsor’s father enlisted in the US Navy after Pearl Harbor and was killed in action during WW2 in the battle of Tassafaronga in the waters off Guadalcanal in 1942. In addition to William Eisberg, this …
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Episode 59: Are Jews indigenous to Israel?
13 november 2025 · 13 min
We’re trying something new at AHA: Short-from episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East. Our first question sent in by a listener: Are Jews really indigenous to Israel? Lees meer
If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
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Episode 58: Rebuilding after disaster with ex-hostage Tal Shoham
9 november 2025 · 58 min
As Israelis wait with bated breath to discover if the body of Hadar Goldin, killed and taken into Gaza in 2014, will be returned for burial in Israel, we sit down with returned hostage Tal Shoham for a conversation about his harrowing experience and insights into Hamas and Gazan society. Long-time listeners will recognize Tal's name from one of our earliest episodes with his sister-in-law, our friend Shaked Haran, who described her fight to bring back the eight members of her family who were taken hostage by Hamas on October 7. Tal is the last member of her family to come home. He returned in early 2025. Lees meer
We discussed his survival in impossible conditions of abuse, torture and starvation, his grappling with the uncertainty over his children's survival, and the hard work of rebuilding a home and a sense of safety for children who'd had direct experience of evil.
Today’s episode is sponsored by my friend Elissa Wald, a writer who noticed after October 7, 2023 that American Jews were being marginalized, even ostracized, within the American publishing world. She decided to mount a fierce fight against this trend. She started the Never Alone Book Club with the goal of sending Jewish writers to the NYT bestseller list every month. It has become the biggest Jewish book club in the country but more members are still needed to create a continuous series of Jewish bestsellers.
RABBI ANGELA BUCHDAHL will be joining the Never Alone Book Club on December 10th to talk about her new book "Heart Of A Stranger." If you join the book club now, you can join that conversation. Here is the link to join on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/810380537866936/
If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your…
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Episode 57: When human rights NGOs fail, with Daniel Balson and Danielle Haas
5 november 2025 · 1 uur 6 min
Human rights organizations help shape the world's understanding of conflicts, including the one between Israelis and Palestinians. Some of the biggest groups, especially Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, are immensely influential in government, the media and civil society in Western countries. And for decades, their expertise, detailed reports and moral reputations made them agents of positive change. Lees meer
But signs are mounting that that's changing, and you don't have to be Israeli to notice it. They publish fewer professional reports, conduct fewer serious investigations, and have shifted their focus to partisan activism. They are often more quick to issue statements on climate issues or police violence in American cities or systemic racism or gender identity than the old bread-and-butter questions on which they built their reputations: international law, war and repressive regimes.
And they have become partisan to the point of often failing that old fundamental mission. One startling example: Amnesty International continues to refuse to publish its report about the October 7 massacre over two years after the event. According to emails from some of the organization's top leaders, they are concerned that such a report about Hamas's egregious human rights abuses might help Israel make the case that Hamas are...well, serial and egregious human rights abusers.
This goes beyond criticizing Israel, which any organization can and should do, to an inability to criticize Hamas.
What happened? How did these organizations become so partisan and polarized, to the point that their original missions are no longer their top priority? How does the severing of ties with Israel's domestic human rights activists - Amnesty abruptly shut down its Israel chapter last year, even as those Israeli activists were stridently critiquing the war in Hebrew to Israelis - serve the cause of human rights or help Palestinians?
We asked two former staffers at Amnesty and HRW, Daniel Ba…
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Episode 56: The industrial revolution of prehistoric Israel, with Tom Levy
2 november 2025 · 1 uur 8 min
Today we step out of the politics and anxious debates of this difficult time and go back 5,500 years to the Chalcolithic, the so-called Copper Age. Our guide is Prof. Tom Levy, eminent archaeologist and emeritus Norma Kershaw Chair in the Archaeology of Ancient Israel and Neighboring Lands at the University of California, San Diego. Lees meer
Tom's new graphic-novel memoir, The Boomer Archaeologist, tells the story of his journey into the deep past of the land of Israel, and offers an opportunity for us to talk to him about his groundbreaking work on the origins of inequality, on the vast copper industry of the ancient Biblical kingdom of Edom - a kingdom whose very existence archaeologists long doubted - and even, along the way, some thoughts on the roots of religion and technological innovation.
Tom has published 12 books and several hundred scholarly articles. The Boomer Archaeologist is available here: https://www.amazon.com/Boomer-Archaeologist-Graphic-Memoir-Identity/dp/B0F2LP47JK/ref=sr_1_1
This episode is sponsored by Renee Schweber and Matthew Schweber in memory of their late husband and father Jack Schweber, who passed away on April 30, 2020. Jack's story, retold in the podcast, is an extraordinary snapshot of the American Jewish experience writ large.
If you like what we do here, please join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join in our great discussions where listeners share news and opinions, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.
If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com.
Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.