This is Sarah Idan’s story, Sarai more informally and publicly. She used to enter beauty pageants “to help bring people together”. But as Iraq’s winning Miss Universe in 2017, she got much more than she bargained for. Sarai’s new life as a renowned Human Rights campaigner started there and then, when she took a selfie with Adar Gandelsman, participating alongside her as Miss Israel. All hell let loose back home as the Iraqi tourism ministry ordered her to take the selfie down, “because it was harming the Palestinian cause“.  “I said, what?”, Sarai replied and in that moment knew her feeling as an outsider even at home, was being realised. The flurry of events which followed saw her family flee Baghdad and join her in a new life in California.  Her Iraqi citizenship has been revoked, and she knows full well if she ever returned there, “I’d be killed in the airport”. Sarai now uses her fame and notoriety to push against despotism and terror. She’s represented Hillel Neuer’s UN Watch in Geneva and as you’ll hear in this characteristically fearless discussion, she’s a champion of combating racism, prejudice and anti-Zionism among her own people, Arabs and Muslims.  She describes herself as a Zionist despite growing up around the incessant antisemitic echo chambers of Baghdad. Sarai is a lover of music and chose the theme tune for this episode, a stirring and emotional opus by Rachmaninov, “Symphony No. 2 Opus 27 III. Adagio” by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra - conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy. The contrast between the music and her early life is rather striking. She is the CEO of an NGO called Humanity4Ward and has a podcast, The Sarai Talk Show”. Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is always thankful for the support of Dangoor Education.

These are the sage words of President Isaac Herzog as Israel's Head of State tries to bridge the gap between his people, the biggest schism in the young country’s history. Jonny poses the questions and well-positioned experts and well-positioned protestors present opposing arguments. PLUS we have an exclusive interview with Professor Avi Bell from the Kohelet Policy Forum, the very think tank who designed the proposals which threaten to tear Israel apart, conducted by the expert hosts of the IDDF podcast, Professor Chuck Freilich and Ambassador Danny Ayalon.

The unedifying scurry by BBC management to get Gary Lineker back on air after suspending him, diffuses both a row with its staff and kicks the can of impartiality into the long grass. A couple of tweets by the BBC’s lead football presenter brought down the entire coverage of the Corporation’s TV and radio sport for a weekend. Lineker compared the government’s language on immigration as "not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 1930s”. He was suspended by the BBC’s Director General, Tim Davie on the grounds of breaking their social media guidelines. In this special episode, we mop up the layers of unresolved issues that have fallen by the wayside in the rush to appease Gary and chums to get BBC Sport back onair. Listen now for exclusive quotes from Panorama documentary maker John Ware, Theresa May’s former Chief of Staff, Nick Timothy, prominent journalists Nicole Lampert and Jonathan Sacerdoti, author of The Greatest Comeback, David Bolchover, Alex Hearn, Director of Labour Against Antisemitism and CEO of UK Lawyers of Israel, Jonathan Turner. Jonny Gould's Jewish State is supported by Dangoor Education,

A shining light in the shimmering city. “If you build it, they will come”, said Kevin Costner in the baseball movie, Field of Dreams – and there’s a similar vision for BNJC, Brighton & Hove’s new Jewish community synagogue and residential property development. There are around 4,000 to 5,000 Jewish people in the East Sussex city and this audacious project is an attempt to revitalise Brighton & Hove’s Jewish community. The foundations were laid in 2015 and now it’s open. BNJC has a beautiful modern synagogue with a tranquil feel, surrounded by 45 flats and houses built in a tower and around a mews courtyard, There are 55 underground parking spaces. The bar/cafe and restaurant with a kosher kitchen has the capacity to cater for your simcha of upto 220 people. There’ll be a nursery onsite from the get-go as the aim is to encourage young families to live down on the Sussex coast. Let’s hear more from CEO Marc Sugarman in this episode.

Big things are happening in the United Arab Emirates, really big things. As the nation which reached out to Israel in the most expansive expression of peace yet with an Arab partner, it’s time Jewish people understood more about this nation. Abu Dhabi is the stage for a new era of religious pluralism. The Emirati capital has opened the Abrahamic Family House, a beacon of mutual understanding, coexistence and religious peace. It consists of a mosque, church, synagogue and educational center. In this episode, we hear from the Chief Rabbi of the UK and the Commonwealth, Ephraim Mirvis at the opening of the first purpose-built synagogue in the Arab world for a century - and a few words from Pope Francis, who conducted mass in front of 130,000 Catholic faithful in Abu Dhabi. It’s also the year of COP28 in the capital and we hear from the president-designate, His Excellency Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, who spoke about the future transition of the United Arab Emirates’ energy industry. Mr Al Jaber serves as the UAE's special envoy for climate change and the Emirates' state oil producer — the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. In this episode, His Excellency explains the need to balance the realities of providing the world with oil and gas today while creating a new future of clean energy tomorrow. You don’t have to be Jewish to engage with Jonny Gould’s Jewish State. It’s a venture out for those who want to know more about the world which affects them and for non-Jews, who interact with Israel and Jewish people in the most positive and progressive way.

Israel's judicial reform row is proving an awful spectacle for the watching world. I wanted to find voices of moderation and considered opinion - and in particular, within the ruling Likud Party: is there anyone willing to stand up to Benjamin Netanyahu over the division this is causing? As a diaspora Jew, I look on in dismay at the threat to unity of the Jewish people. And not saying for a moment the judiciary doesn't need reform. It's just the way this is unfolding which is causing such upset. Benjamin Netanyahu's government are trying to force legislation "down the throat of half of the population", according to Israel's former ambassador to the US, Danny Ayalon. Danny also appears in this episode with his views, a Likud grandee confronting this issue. There's also comment from Jerusalem's deputy mayor, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum. Just as bad has been some Jews in the diaspora publicly dissociating themselves with the Jewish State. Never. Not in this podcast. We also talk about the long-awaited arrival of Sudan to the Abraham Accords table and the sudden opportunities for defence and security from Africa plus the "untenable" violence from the Palestinians against everyday Israelis. Then there's a definition of Jeremy Corbyn's version of political antisemitism and in the shifting sands of Middle Eastern diplomacy, what on earth has happened to Oman, who seem to have fallen under the spell of Iran's mullahs. LISTEN to this fascinating, passionate, eyewitness conversation with the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs' new president, Dan Diker.

Emily Schrader was back in London with Yoseph Haddad on a whistlestop UK speaking tour, which included a nasty confrontation with pro-intifada students on campuses in London and Nottingham. Scroll back an episode for one of his energetic and hopeful speeches from the tour. Emily is an American-Israeli journalist and opinion former, a regular on the Jerusalem Post and the co-host of TV show, Headlines with the Haddads, an explainer on the Middle East to American audiences and tackling biogotry misinformation. In planning our conversation, we decided this time to take a snapshot of where the Middle East is on Iran. Emily is in touch with normal Iranian people everyday, thanks to the marvels of social media. We also unpack what a two state solution can look like in the era of the Abraham Accords – and wave a magic wand over the constitutional crisis drummed up by the Netanyahu government who want to take advantage of Israel’s unwritten constitution and plan to make the Knesset superior over the judiciary. A move to greater democracy or an illiberal elite, who won’t look after Israel’s minorities? LISTEN to this captivating and informed conversation. Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is brought to you with Dangoor Education.

Yoseph Haddad is an Arab Israeli who believes with body, mind and soul in his country. And by his country, I mean the State of Israel, Yoseph joined up with StandWithUs UK at one of London’s oldest continuous communities, the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in west London. Being counterintuitive, Yoseph is the target of constant protest, even death threats – some substantial - as he advocates for both a Jewish and democratic state. A smallish opposition greeted his arrival at University College London. Campuses are at the epicentre of anti Zionism and Palestinianism. Yoseph was born in Nazareth and raised in Haifa, he served in the IDF’s elite Golani battalion and served in the 2006 Lebanon War. He was badly injured and lost friends and comrades beside him in battle. He was a commander, which means an Arab commanding among others, Jews. Because as he says, it’s the IDF, the Israel Defense Forces, not the JDF, it’s not exclusively Jewish. He runs Together Vouch for Each Other, an organisation building bridges between Arab and Jewish Israelis and to aid Arab mobility in Israeli society. Yoseph is a captivating speaker, and I recorded his speech for this latest episode.

This is a truly heroic story which starts in Holocaust disaster and heads to the glory of winning Europe’s greatest football prize. David Bolchover is the author of a biography on Bela Guttmann, “The Greatest Comeback, From Genocide to Football Glory”. David recounts the story of Bela, the ultimate Jewish footballing hero, who survived to become a twice-winner of the European Cup with Benfica and the inspiration for one Portugal’s greatest stars, Eusebio. Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is brought to you with the support of Dangoor Education.

Uri Geller went around the world, found and fame and fortune and has now returned home to Israel. Before Gal Gadot and Lior Raz, who was Israel’s biggest celebrity? Uri magnetised the world - literally - with his amazing feats of showmanship. Jonny Gould’s Jewish State wouldn’t be complete without a record of the life of Uri Geller! So what’s he doing now? Where is he? How did he attain such huge fame and notoriety and I ask him if Israel is the only place he could’ve possibly come from? He’s also furious with Harry Kane. Find out how and why in this thrilling episode! Jonny Gould's Jewish State is supported by UK Toremet.