Ask Haviv Anything

"Ask Haviv Anything" is a podcast about history, a podcast you, dear listener, will help to shape and direct, focusing not just on what I want to talk about but on what you want to learn and discuss. Nothing is off limits. We're going to talk about big and painful things, and also beautiful and fascinating things, wars and identities and painful history. And also more light-hearted things. Humor matters, especially when facing tough subjects. Join me on this journey. A podcast by Haviv Rettig Gur

Last refreshed: June 21st, 2026 at 4:25 PM

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Episodes

Comment: We will protect our own

Recorded Thursday, February 20th Israelis watched horrified on Thursday, as Hamas gunmen conducted a ceremony handing over four coffins, two of them with the bodies of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, aged 1 and 4, when they were murdered in Gaza, along with their mother Shiri. Oded Lifshitz, 83, was the fourth body handed over to Israel. Around the ceremony, Gazan civilians cheered and threw rice, people brought their kids to watch. What should we make of this gruesome spectacle, of a festival conducted o...

Feb 20, 2025•21 min

Episode 2: The lost history of American Jews

Explore the unique paradox of American Jewry: a community of immense power and wealth, yet culturally weak and anxious about its future. This episode traces their origins from the mass exodus of destitute Eastern European Jews fleeing pogroms and oppression, and their reception by earlier, more established German Jewish immigrants. It reveals how a foundational ethos of mutual aid built unparalleled institutions, while a deep historical trauma led to a deliberate forgetting of traditional Jewish elites, ultimately shaping a distinctly American Jewish identity. The discussion highlights how this community, despite its impoverished roots, transformed itself to embody an imagined ideal, fulfilling a unique American promise of self-creation, and now faces the challenge of reconnecting with its true, complex history.

Feb 18, 2025•44 min•Ep. 2

Episode 1: The Untold Story of Herzl's Journey to Zionism

This episode debunks the popular myth that the Dreyfus Affair was Theodor Herzl's Zionist awakening, revealing his contemporary journalistic neutrality. Instead, Herzl's true inspiration stemmed from the profound psychological torment and popular antisemitic surge in Vienna during the 1890s, catalyzed by democratization and the failure of Jewish emancipation. His journey evolved from radical assimilation ideas to conceiving Zionism as a means for Jews to achieve authentic self-realization and freedom from external judgment.

Feb 13, 2025•51 min•Ep. 1

Extra: Hamas holds Gaza's future hostage

*Recorded Saturday night, February 8, 2025*First reflections in response to Hamas's hostage release ceremony in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza on Saturday, when Israelis discovered the extent to which the hostages had been tormented and starved. Episode first aired Sunday on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnything).

Feb 10, 2025•22 min

Episode 0: History That Matters

Feb 05, 2025•28 min

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