Settlers. They are mentioned endlessly in international media, often described as religious fanatics. They are also very present in the Israeli media, which tends to blame them for much of the political distress Israel faces. On the Israeli street, no one is indifferent to this issue. The settler is either notorious for their illegal theft of palestinian land or celebrated for being the frontline pioneers of the zionist endeavor. The left and advocates of the two state solution scorn them for ba...
May 28, 2018•48 min
Nothing in Robi Damelin’s life could have prepared her for that day. Not growing up in South Africa under Apartheid. Not her immigration to Israel in 1967. Nor any other character forging event throughout her life. A mother is not meant to bear the death of her own child. But what is meant to be, is not always what ends up happening. Robi’s son David was shot by a Palestinian sniper in March of 2002. But from the endless grief and sorrow, Robi chose to re-emerge with a new purpose in life. Count...
May 21, 2018•51 min
Close to 60 years ago, in the early 1960s, Marijuana AKA Cannabis wasn’t exactly the friendly substance it is today. In pretty much every developed country, recreational use of the drug was totally illegal and medical research was limited. So as a junior faculty member of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, Dr. Raphael Mechoulam had to jump through a few loops to get his hands on a sample for his research. Luckily for Dr. Mechoulam, the director of the Weizmann institute had an...
May 15, 2018•45 min
Once upon a time there were cave walls. Our ancestors sketched hunting scenes and traced their hands on them. Thousands of years later, we humans, in our abundant ingenuity, invented papyrus, parchment, canvas and finally paper. Eventually, we began storing data digitally. Remember those 3.5 inch floppy disks with a few measly megabytes? But as men and women had more to say, more to paint, more to communicate, these methods were no longer enough. Enter Dov Moran. Dov Moran was fascinated by tech...
May 07, 2018•53 min
A little over a week ago, in the early morning of April 21st, Fadi Al-Batsh was walking down a road in Gombak, a suburb of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. He was on his way to the local mosque for dawn prayers. Suddenly, two men on a motorcycle drove up, drew their pistols and gunned down Al batsh with no less than 14 bullets before driving off. Seven years prior to his assassination, Fadi Al Batsh had moved to Malaysia from Gaza to research and acquire weapon systems and drones for Hamas, the ruling ...
Apr 30, 2018•50 min
Jerusalem. A powerful city. So powerful that we recall it when we take the oath of matrimony, on every holiday and with it we seal our national anthem. But it also has the power to divide, to tear apart families, to bring nations to wage war against one another. Jerusalem isn't only a city. It's a stoney ocean of history, of reincarnations, of dreams and of destruction, layer upon layer. All of that, and more, is encapsulated in one new book, beautifully titled “Jerusalem: Drawn and Quartered”. ...
Apr 16, 2018•47 min
What do you know about the world of ultra-orthodox Jews? Probably more or less as much as we, secular Israelis, know. Much of the ultra-orthodox community lives in self-confinement, enclosed in their almost “alternate universe”. Only seldomly do we catch a glimpse of the secrets of this fascinating and menacing world, and when we do, we’re left in awe. Meni Philip was born to a well-known ulta-orthodox family in Petach-Tikva. After studying in Yeshiva for a few years, Meni decided to pivot and e...
Apr 09, 2018•50 min
Immigrating to Israel is not easy. Alongside mastering Hebrew, finding a Job and making friends, one of the biggest challenges is simply to integrate, to find your place, to feel like a local. If you’re an artist immigrating here, it can be even more difficult. If language is not your medium, art is certainly always a cultural thing - and the divide can easily become a chasm. Nonetheless, Tel Aviv has become a vibrant multi-national city, and it seems that English speakers are thriving here. Eve...
Apr 02, 2018•46 min
It was a cold January afternoon in New York City when Adir Freilich boarded US Airways flight 1549 to Charlotte, North Carolina. He was on his way to Myrtle Beach to visit his grandparents. But Adir wasn't destined to end up in Myrtle Beach that day. No, Adir ended up in the Hudson River. The aircraft was in command of Captain Chesley (“Sully”) Sullenberg , a 57 year old former fighter pilot who had over 25 years of experience as an airline pilot. About 2 minutes after takeoff, flight 1549 struc...
Mar 26, 2018•39 min
It was a Saturday afternoon in mid December in 2010 when Kay Wilson and Kristine Luken decided to go for a hike in the Mata forest, near Beit Shemesh, west of Jerusalem. That decision proved fateful, and even fatal for one of them. Rewind 4 months. Kay, a British-born Israeli citizen, is guiding a Holocaust tour through Poland. She meets Kristine Luken, a Christian American enthralled by the Jewish people and their history. Kay is so moved by Luken’s passion that she invites her to her home coun...
Mar 19, 2018•45 min
What were the qualities that pushed mankind forward throughout history? Deduction was an important element in our ability to understand the world around us. Innovation certainly aided us in our pursuit the master the forces of nature. But perhaps one characteristic above all others has driven our species forward: Curiosity. Curiosity is almost an instinct, an impulse to find an answer to question. The itch to find new questions to which we ought to seek answers. And the ability to doubt and ques...
Mar 12, 2018•37 min
Usually a Skype call begins with a clamor of several similar, almost identical, questions: “Can you hear me?”, “Can you hear me now?”. But not this one. This one started with a series of quiet smiles, followed by all eight? people on the call bursting into tears. One end of this call is New Jersey, the kitchen table of the Katz family. The other end, a remote part of Russia called Sakhalin Island, near Japan. In April of 2016, Jess Katz picked up again on a search she'd been conducting for most ...
Mar 05, 2018•40 min
“You promised a dove.” Those words were written by the Israeli poet, Shmuel Hasfari, in his song “Winter ‘73”. Some interpreted them as a sort of eulogy to peace. A peace which was promised to a generation of Israelis who only found themselves disappointed time after time at the ever eluding prospect of peace with the Arab world. The song was written around the same time as the Oslo Accords were signed between Israel and the PLO - a time of great hope for this generation - the kids of ‘73. But s...
Feb 26, 2018•56 min
For almost seven years a gruesome civil war has been tearing Syria apart. With half a million dead, 5 million refugees and 7 million citizens who were forced to leave their homes - it seems there’s no apparent end on the horizon. The war has changed the middle east in many ways, and has affected all the neighboring countries, including Israel. But it seems that of all these states in the area, Jordan is the one who was forced to bear the brunt under the circumstances. This poor desert kingdom ha...
Feb 19, 2018•43 min
“There is no spoon.” Remember that line from the "The Matrix"? Neo walks into the Oracle’s house to discover a monk-child sitting cross-legged on the carpet. The kid holds up a spoon and begins to seemingly bend it with his mind. He hands it to Neo and urges him to realize the truth, “There is no spoon.” In August 1973, the CIA conducted a study at the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, California. Just to be clear, this is in reality, not in the movie. That study conducted by the CIA do...
Feb 12, 2018•1 hr
In the fall of 2016 something truly bizarre happened in the United States embassy in Havana, Cuba. According to reports, 22 embassy staffers were suffering from mild brain damage, concussions and permanent hearing loss. Scientists and researchers are still debating the causes of these events but many suspected covert sonic attacks. In response, the US expelled two Cuban diplomats and warned US citizens not to travel to Cuba. These peculiar events took place just one year after the US embassy was...
Feb 05, 2018•56 min
Soda water or still water? The big question. Here in Israel, we love our soda water. Maybe we relate to the pressure that builds up from those little bubbles of carbonation, or maybe we just like the fizz. Whatever the reason, in most Israeli homes you’ll probably find a carbonation device called SodaStream. Until 2015, this Israeli company held it’s main manufacturing branch in the settlement of Maale Adumim. This, to say the least, bothered some people. You see, Maale Adumim lies across the gr...
Jan 30, 2018•42 min
“Unshakable and unbreakable”. Those two words were used by the Obama administration to describe the special, intimate relationship between Israel and the United States. When Michael Oren found himself, almost against all odds, serving as Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. in 2009, he found out sooner rather than later the these relations were, in fact, very shakable, and maybe even breakable. His impossible job was to prevent that from happening. Promising change and peace, Obama entered the white ...
Jan 22, 2018•1 hr
On October 5, 2017, only a few months ago, a report published in The New York Times shook the foundations at the epicenter of America’s film and television industry - Hollywood. More than a dozen women accused the hugely successful film producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment, abuse and rape. These allegations brought about a wave of accusations against prominent male figures in film and TV. It gave birth to a movement named #metoo and recently another movement named Times Up both aimed a...
Jan 15, 2018•48 min
I (Naor) just came back from a ten day trip in Poland. What I saw there perplexed me. On one hand, Poland is going through massive political changes in which the far right have taken control over the country. Recently, a bill was passed that gives the right wing government greater control of the Supreme Court. Just last month, tens of thousands of anti semitic protesters marched through the streets of Warsaw shouting racist chants. On the other hand, the Jewish community is still present and act...
Jan 08, 2018•49 min
Size matters. Or so, at least, we’ve been told from the moment we were born: the tallest guy gets the glory on the basketball courts at school; The longest thesis at the university class stands for the quality of research and work that was put into it; A filmmaker can make 50 short films but he’ll never make it if he hasn’t made a Feature. And then there's literature: Ulysses, War and Peace, and even the Lord of the Rings trilogy - all stand for the concept of size as a quality stamp. Etgar Kere...
Jan 01, 2018•49 min
Freedom of speech or freedom of the press has been a key ingredient of healthy democracies since, well, since healthy democracies have been around. But what does it mean to be a good Journalist? Where do we draw the lines between freedom of press and national security? How do you keep a newspaper’s ethics in check without compromising on its values? As Israel's leading liberal national daily newspaper, Haaretz and its journalists must struggle with these questions on a daily basis, particularly ...
Dec 25, 2017•44 min
If you have kids, you probably know that television is dead, or at least, dying. Nowadays young adults and kids alike spend the vast majority of their free time on Youtube, binging endless hours of free content, tailored specifically to their tastes and desires. This revolution has afforded talented people from all around the world not only the opportunity to reach huge audiences without having to go through producers and networks - but also the chance to make a living from their art. Leigh Laha...
Dec 18, 2017•51 min
The Middle East isn’t the friendliest neighborhood to grow up in, especially for Israel. With the cold peace it shares with both Egypt and Jordan to the persistent “state of war” it holds with Iraq and Iran, Israel is hard pressed to find a friend in its corner of the world. The USA is often seen as Israel’s big brother, its protector, its ever-loyal ally, but the United States lies thousands upon thousands of miles away geographically and lightyears culturally. So how does a country like Israel...
Dec 11, 2017•57 min
Everyone loves a good adventure. Whether you're into climbing the highest mountains, bungee jumping from the highest bridges, or in my case - going to my cousin's Bar Mizvah in Delaware - a little bit of a risk can bring on a rush of adrenaline that adds that excitement we all live for. But some people take adventure to the next level. With us today is Tamara Baraaz who happens to be that kind of person. Tamara is a journalist who travels to the most dangerous countries in the world to tell the ...
Dec 04, 2017•48 min
We have a new podcast about aliyah and what it's like to become an Israeli, called The Melting Podcast. Here's the first episode! On this episode, we speak to Ilana Vaknine, AKA La La Vak, one of Tel Aviv’s funniest sex bloggers, plus live music by Quarter to Africa We produced this podcast for Kan, Israel's Public Broadcasting Corporation, and you can find it wherever you get your podcasts. Episode 2 is already out! Find all episodes here: www.kan.org.il/podcast/program.aspx/?progId=2052
Nov 27, 2017•29 min
Over the last decade, in Israel, Binary Options has become a term that carries with it a heavy stigma of fraud and theft and is generally associated with shady people. But it hasn’t always been like that. For a long time, for many people, it was just another sector of the financial industry which was raking in A LOT of dough. It actually provided an opportunity for many people who otherwise struggled to make a living in Israel, an opportunity to make good money, fast! On the 23rd of March, 2016,...
Nov 20, 2017•55 min
For thousands of years astronomers have been looking up to the sky, trying to understand what the hell's going on up there. In the last 50 years technology has led to tremendous breakthroughs, and yet, we are still very far from solving the most essential of questions: how was all this created? Prof. Tzevi Mazeh from Tel Aviv University has been trying to find answers to these questions for over 40 years. He was a guest researcher in Harvard, and as an astronomer, Prof. Mazeh took part in many i...
Nov 13, 2017•50 min
Jews have been longing for Jerusalem for two thousand years. But in the 19th century only a few were courageous enough, some might say crazy enough, to take everything and leave their homes to the Holy Land. And that's exactly what several poor Yemenite families did. They walked by foot from Sanaa to Jerusalem, only to find out that the Holy city is actually a dump. Gil Hovav’s ancestors were one of these families, and when a few generations later, Yemenite jew Moshe Hovav Married the granddaugh...
Nov 06, 2017•44 min
Since 2014 the world has been commemorating 100 years for the Great War, World War I. 16.5 Million people lost their lives in that war, and its results changed the world forever. Among many influences, the one that is most relevant to the Jewish people, is the liberation of Israel - then Palestine - from the turkish occupation, and the beginning of the British Mandate. This November we’re also commemorating 100 years since the Balfour Declaration. Signed by the British foreign minister Balfour, ...
Oct 30, 2017•47 min
