Allison Kaplan Sommer, Miriam Herschlag and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Days of Awe— What do Yom Ha-Zikaron (Memorial Day) and Yom Ha-Atzmaut (Independence Day) mean in this annus horribilis? How can we celebrate, now? —School Daze— What should we make of the enraged protests raging on university campuses? Kids these days, am I right? —Al Jazeera on the Chopping Block— For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporte ..read more

To mark Yom Ha-Shoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Noah describes the decades-long path Israelis followed to come to terms with the Holocaust, culminating in a record in 1988, fully 43 years after the camps were freed. (Out of concern for the environment, this episode is reused and recycled, though not reduced ..read more

At Passover Seders all around the world, a place setting was laid before a chair left empty for one of the 133 hostages held in Gaza. We look back at the 200 days of anguish, hope, and despair that divide Simchat Torah on October 7 from this week’s holiday ..read more

Linda Gradstein and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. —Going Too Farsi? (Or, the Persian Incursion)— We — with the help of the US, UK, Jordan and other capable allies — buffly rebuffed the biggest missile and drone attack on Israel ever. But what does it tell us about the past and augur for the future? —Passover, 5784— How is this Passover different from all other Passovers? Plus, a bereaved father on solidarity, flower-girls, fruit bats and more music of our times ..read more

Marking six months since the massacres and the start of the war, Miriam Herschlag and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Us, Here— Whether and how we Israelis have changed, in light of all that has happened. Are we different than we were six months and one week ago? —Us, There— Whether and how we Jews around the world have changed, in light of all that has happened. Are we different than we were six months and one week ago? —I ..read more

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Families 2.0— The organization of the families of the hostages has decided to change strategies, linking its campaign to bring the hostages home to the campaign for “elections now.” Is the fight to get the hostages home entering a new phase? —Sidelocks & Sidearms— A Supreme Court injunction cuts off, cold-turkey, funding for army-aged, ultra-Orthod ..read more

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and newly-minted Doctor of Thinkology Gilad Halpern discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Abstention Dissension— There seems to be a very fast decline in US-Israel relations, after the Americans abstain on a UN Security Council resolution that Israel expected them to veto. Are Israel and America, like Ross and Rachel, on a break? —Standard Deviation— An expert in urban warfare says Israel is more careful to ..read more

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and ubermensch writer Bradley Burston discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Despite It All, Peace?— Is all we are sayin’, just give peace a chance? —Amalek— Is it like reverse anti-Semitism? —The End of Israel— For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: Kafka said, “A book must be an ice-axe for the frozen sea within us.” This one is. Order Bradley ..read more

Miriam Herschlag, Allison Kaplan Sommer and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —אַ סוף צו אַ גאָלדען עלטער אין אַ גאלדענע מדינה— This month’s Atlantic cover story argues that the “Golden Age” for American Jews has come to a close and, with it, maybe the “Golden Age” for America and the “Golden Age” for Jews. Is the US putting the “mean” back into “reversion to the mean”? —Retracted— A well-regarded literary journal retracts an ..read more

Miriam Herschlag, Allison Kaplan Sommer and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Going Local— They say that, in a democracy, even the most humble among us can be elected to public office. Now we know it’s true! —Mayor for Life— Few positions have more job security than mayor of a major city in Israel. —Jon Stewart Goes Viral on the Gaza War— For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special ext ..read more