A highly competent bureaucrat who conceived the modern Israeli economy, a bungler who mismanaged the Yom Kippur War, or "the only man in the Israeli cabinet:" these are only a few of the many images of Golda Meir that remain etched in Israeli national consciousness. But who was Golda Meir, and how might her story shed light on enduring political and social questions facing the state of Israel? In this episode, Yehuda Kurtzer speaks with Pnina Lahav, Professor of Law Emerita at Boston University, about her recently published feminist biography of Golda Meir, The Only Woman in the Room: Golda Meir and Her Path to Power (Book | Audiobook). They discuss Golda Meir's political career and the conflicts that shaped it, exploring the complexities of gender, rhetoric, compromise, and power.

It's Passover, a time for new beginnings--and that's especially true for baseball fans, who celebrated this year's Opening Day just a week before the holiday began. In this episode, host Yehuda Kurtzer is joined by Ira Berkow, Pulitzer Prize-winning sports writer, to reminisce about formative moments in the history of Jewish baseball and to explore the meaning of baseball for American Jews. Whether through Hank Greenberg's "home runs against Hitler" or Sandy Koufax's famous decision to sit out a World Series game on Yom Kippur, American Jews have looked to baseball as a means of understanding their place in this country. What can a bat and a ball tell us about identity, sacrifice, and belonging?

Is the Passover Seder the right place for a political debate? Who is the target audience when your guests are generations apart? What kind of book is the Haggadah, anyway? In this episode, Yehuda Kurtzer is joined by Hartman faculty member Mishael Zion, Director of the Mandel Leadership Institute’s Program for Leadership in Israeli Jewish Culture and co-author of two haggadot, to discuss what is perhaps the most famous and widely practiced Jewish ritual: the Passover seder. They reminisce about their old family traditions, swap strategies for managing Seder stress, and think out loud about the pedagogy of Passover.

Mishael's Freedom Hagaddah can be found online here.

Ever since Israel's current government proposed a judicial overhaul that would render the Israeli Supreme Court powerless to strike down legislation, protesters have been flooding the streets. The current moment in Israel is one of tremendous anxiety and fear for the future of Israeli democracy, but it is also a moment of reckoning and of hope, as Israelis are showing up en masse to stand up for their visions of what Israel could be. In this episode, recorded in front of a live virtual audience earlier today, Monday, March 27th, Yehuda Kurtzer unpacks several different stories that are contributing to this moment in Israeli public life, and explores what the legislation and the protests might mean for the future of the Jewish people.

Organized philanthropy has become the most powerful force in American Jewish communal life. As the culture of philanthropy has transformed, so has the allocation of power in the community. In an episode originally released in May 2022, Felicia Herman, Chief Operating Officer of Maimonides Fund, joins Yehuda Kurtzer to discuss how the history of charitable giving has changed since the creation of the State of Israel, shifts in the Jewish institutional landscape with the rise of family foundations, and whether the Federation system retains its power and impact today.

This episode originally aired on May 17th, 2022.

We are all inevitably shaped by the "dusty old books" of the Jewish past: our institutions, ideas and identities are built on the thought and work of our intellectual forbearers, even when we ultimately repudiate their teachings. Host Yehuda Kurtzer is joined by David Ellenson, Chancellor Emeritus of Hebrew Union College and professor emeritus at Brandeis University, to discuss three key figures who were instrumental in the making of American Judaism as we know it today: Abraham Joshua Heschel, Mordecai Kaplan, and Joseph B. Soloveitchik. They examine what these three iconic rabbis stood for, and try to understand how their legacies have shaped American Judaism as we live it.

The Purim story is one in which the Jewish people take responsibility for their own destiny. While the story ends in triumph it also involved a great deal of violence inflicted by the Jews upon their enemies. In this episode, Yehuda Kurtzer explores the meaning of the Purim story and its relevance for our present political moment, asking what it would look like take seriously the responsibility that comes with Jewish power and agency.

Mentioned in this episode: After Kibiye, an essay by Yeshayahu Leibowitz (http://www.leibowitz.co.il/leibarticles.asp?id=85)

The Jewish tradition is full of exhortations to look after the vulnerable—to open up our pocketbooks, our hearts and even our homes to those in need—as well as stories of our own vulnerability, when we were dependent on the generosity and heroism of others. What might it look like to take those exhortations, and those stories, seriously? Last week, Rachel Jacoby Rosenfield, Executive Vice President of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, wrote an article in Tablet about opening up her home this past year to a family of Ukrainian refugees. She joins Yehuda Kurtzer to explore that experience and what it can tell us about obligation, about dignity, and about the meaning of Jewish history.

How wary should American Jews be of "airing our dirty laundry in public?" Should they resist subjecting other Jews to public scrutiny out of concern that it will lead to caricatures and stereotypes of Jewish communities—or is it our responsibility to bring our concerns to light in the hope that accountability will motivate much-needed societal change? Lani Santo is the CEO of Footsteps, an organization providing educational, vocational, and social support to people who have left or want to leave the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. She joins host Yehuda Kurtzer for a conversation about recent public discourse around Hasidic education and about how we, as Jews, can and ought to hold one another accountable in the public square.

Should religious commitments motivate political activism? How might we show up for abortion rights not only as Americans, but as Jews? Rori Picker Neiss, Director of the Jewish Community Relations Council in St. Louis and a Rabbinic Fellow of the David Hartman Center, is a leader in the fight against abortion bans and anti-LGBTQ legislation in Missouri. She joins host Yehuda Kurtzer to discuss the role of religion in shaping our political and moral choices, the place of clergy in social movements, and how faith might build bridges across the aisle.