"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
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Is Zionism colonialism? Are Jews an authentic people, or merely a religion? What about Palestinians? What are Zionism’s moral costs, and what are those of opposing Zionism? I asked one of my teachers, Hebrew University historian Prof. Alexander Yakobson, some of the great questions now being advanced in Western academic and progressive discourses about Israel. Alex has that special fearlessness of an intellectual who takes the other side's position seriously. It makes his answers all the more va...
What if everybody is right on judicial reform? Israel's highest court is immensely and unreasonably powerful. But if it is weakened, what other checks stand in the way of the tyranny of the majority, that great Achilles' heel of democracy since the dawn of Western civilization? This question is especially urgent for Israel, whose politics are more Middle Eastern than Western, more tribal than ideological. It's not unreasonable to weaken the court, but it would be disastrous to do so without broa...
Abandoning the Democrats is a losing strategy for Israel, says Rep. Ritchie Torres, perhaps the most outspoken supporter of Israel in the US House of Representatives. The fight over Israel inside American politics is a proxy for a much larger battle over the future of the Democratic Party and the character of America, he argues. Those who don't like Israel, he says, tend to take a dim view of the promise of America. And who is Clarence Jones, and why does Torres consider him "the greatest living...
Warfighting has resumed in Gaza. Israel's message is clear: Gaza's future depends on Hamas releasing hostages and surrendering its control of the territory. But there is a larger pivot underway, a regional strategic realignment. Hamas once hoped its attack on Israel would trigger a broader regional war. In a sense, it succeeded, relegating Gaza to a marginal arena in the larger strategic struggle. That alone, gives Israel a freer hand to resume war whenever it wants. Hamas is now truly strategic...
This is a podcast about history, but also about this moment in history. Today's episode is a special one. Many of you asked about the hostages, about the activism of their families, about their shattering experiences on October 7 and how they have worked to piece their lives back together since. I can think of no better way to begin to answer these questions than by posing them to our good friend Shaked Haran. There's no one story of the hostage families. Their experiences vary, their opinions o...
Israeli Jews are the last surviving remnant of dozens of devastated Jewish communities across three continents. How did this history shape them? What do they understand about the world that few others see? Join Haviv Rettig Gur for a deep dive into the historical experience that shaped this largest community of Jews ever. Thank you to Joe and Shira Lieberman for sponsoring this episode in honor of those we lost on October 7th. Please join me on Patreon to support this project: https://www.patreo...
In our first interview episode, Haviv Rettig Gur sits down (virtually) with Prof. John Spencer of West Point, one of the foremost experts in urban warfare who has made a special study of Israeli warfighting tactics and strategy. Many subscribers to this podcast have asked us why Israel doesn’t seem to have won this war, why Hamas is still standing after 17 months of fighting and why Israel must still negotiate for its hostages. For answers we turned to Prof. Spencer. We learned about the IDF’s a...
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...
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.
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.
*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).
"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. Please join me on Patreon to...
