Everybody knows the old joke about Jewish holidays. Basically, all Jewish holidays boil down to: They tried to kill us. We survived. Let’s eat. Food and Jews is a millennia old romance. And if you visit Israel today, there’s no question that that romance has produced a lot of good food. From the empires of Eyal Shanni, Assaf Granit and Aharoni to the thousands of bistros, hummus shops and falafel stands, Israel is stuffed with delicious food! And that’s exactly what we’re here to talk about toda...
Aug 09, 2019•41 min
Talia Einhorn’s career wasn’t a walk in the park. As an accomplished law professor, she wrote countless articles and studies on important topics revolving around Israeli and international law. She’s also been serving as a member of the Advisory Committee for the Appointment of Government Officials, one of the the most important bodies in the state, which advises the government on the appointment of people to key roles. Today we’ll be asking what is the problem with the way the Israeli legal syst...
Jul 31, 2019•55 min
Here are some things that don’t go together. Caviar and Cheetos. Dostoevsky and Six Flags. Jews and the NFL. But just like there’s probably someone, somewhere who likes cheetos with their caviar, and another person who read Crime and Punishment on a roller coaster, today we’re joined by a Jew who was in the NFL. Yosef Murray, formerly Calvin Murray, was a running back in the NFL. His career started at Ohio State, playing college football. Murray was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in 81 and t...
Jul 18, 2019•54 min
Civil war. Child soldiers. Sex slaves. Underground torture chambers. And an army of women rebels. This probably sounds like the stuff of a dystopian sci-fi film to you. But the tragic truth is that this a reality, today. Northern Syria. 2014. The lives of the citizens of the are already pretty dark. But their lives are about to become a hell on earth. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, ISIS, manages to overrun the Assad Loyalists and maintain a stronghold in the are.. Women are raped and force...
Jul 11, 2019•44 min
Let’s say you’re an adrenaline junkie, there’s tons of extreme activities that will get your heart pounding to whatever level your heart desires. You can bungee jump off a bridge, swim with sharks in the open sea, or jump out of a plane... without a parachute. Or you can take the lesser known route, and go to a US college campus wearing a Star of David or an IDF T-Shirt. Careful, it’s not for the weak of heart. Being pro-Israel on American campuses has become a real struggle. The hostility towar...
Jul 02, 2019•44 min
When you think about Anti-Semitism, you probably think about the Middle East, North Africa, maybe Eastern Europe or Germany, but you don’t usually think about the UK. However, antisemitic sentiment has been on the rise in England. It’s just going by a different name, Anti-Israel. Tuvia Tenenbom visited the UK in the hopes of writing a book about Brexit but ended up doing something entirely different. When he showed up in Britain, instead of finding Union Jacks waving in the wind, he found countl...
Jun 26, 2019•48 min
We all have the power to choose. Free will is a tenet of most religions and philosophies. But there are some things in life, that no matter how you look at it, you can’t choose. You can’t choose your parents. You can’t choose your face (at least not the one you’re born with), and you can’t really choose your sex at birth. It is what it is. If Yiscah Smith would have been given the choice of how to be born, it might not have necessarily been as Yaakov, a Jewish man. But that’s what fate, or God o...
Jun 20, 2019•48 min
This Friday the streets of Tel Aviv are going to be bustling with probably over a quarter of a million people. Why? One word says it all. Pride. While we’re not at the top of the list, Tel Aviv boasts one of the world’s most impressive Pride Parades. Being situated in the heart of Middle East might have something to do with that. But what is pride? What is it that attracts over 250 thousand people to march through the streets of Tel Aviv? To many, this topic is still controversial. Not just the ...
Jun 13, 2019•1 hr 5 min
People have been dancing more or less since the dawn of mankind. Some people were born with the dancing gene. Others are so clumsy that they avoid the dance floor at all costs, even if it means the bride will do her first dance with her grandpa. Alyssa Chriqui is the former. She’s a world champion of Salsa and Samba. She’s been dancing her whole life, first in Australia where she was born, and now here in Israel. We’re super thrilled to have her on the show and discuss, among other things, how d...
Jun 05, 2019•44 min
George Lucas and Steven Spielberg are undoubtedly two of the 20th century’s best and most influential directors and screenwriters. Rarely did these two collaborate, but the first time they did, they brought to life one of the greatest adventure series of all time - Indiana Jones. What is it that draws us to Indiana Jones and his archaeological adventures? Is it the quest for hidden treasures? Is it the thrill of uncovering the secrets of our long lost past? Or is it the ridiculously life-threate...
May 28, 2019•53 min
Today we’re joined on the podcast by Yonatan Langer. But Yonatan’s name wasn’t always Yonatan. It used to be Lutz. And Lutz used to be an ardent Neo Nazi. Today Yonatan is an observant, orthodox Jew who lives in Israel and studies Kaballah, the Jewish Mystical school of thought. The road that led from Lutz to Yonatan was a long one. But before all that, the story begins with a kids Karate instructor. We’re really excited to have Yonatan on 2NJB today to tell his story.
May 21, 2019•1 hr 1 min
In recent years, Israeli cuisine has been on the rise, becoming extremely popular throughout Europe and the United States. This has many people asking themselves, perhaps rightfully so, “what the hell is Israeli cuisine?” Some critical voices even claim that many of the wonderful dishes Israel is claiming as its “own” are actually stolen – which, of course, echoes a longer, deeper controversy that has plagued the Middle East for about a century. In a way, you might say Israeli food is the Arab-I...
May 16, 2019•43 min
Every doctor needs a baker to bake his bread. Every baker enjoys the occasional movie. When the filmmaker's car breaks down, he visits the mechanic, and when then mechanic breaks down he visits the doctor. This is the story of the modern world. But the thing is, each character in this story envies the other a little, the mechanic wishes he could bake cakes. The filmmaker disappointed his mother because he never became a doctor (true story). And the doctor? He was always, deep inside, an inspired...
May 07, 2019•50 min
Every culture has a hierarchy. And there’s usually an extra special place reserved for people at the very bottom of the ladder. In Japan it might be the selfish, in America perhaps the freeloader, but to us Israelis it’s very clear who’s at the bottom. The Freiers. Freier is a Yiddish term that’s been absorbed into everyday Hebrew. It can be loosely translated to mean, a sucker, a fool, a pushover or a dupe. Whatever it is, if you live in Israel long enough, you develop a sixth sense of sorts. Y...
May 03, 2019•38 min
As Jews, both in Israel and in other parts of the world, we tend to go about our day-to-day lives worrying about the regular issues of our existence, like how to pay the bills at the end of the month, which Game of Thrones watch party to attend and of course the eternal Papa John's or Dominos dilemma. But not many of us stop this daily struggle with first-world problems to contemplate on the deeper questions that may lurk in our subconscious, like what is our place as Jews in Israel, or in Ameri...
Apr 25, 2019•48 min
Joining Daniel Roth, host of the Angry Falafel Podcast today are Eytan Weinstein and Naor Meningher, creators of the Two Nice Jewish Boys podcast - a show they describe as a glimpse into Israel and some of the interesting people in it and I’m very happy to have them at the falafel palace today.
Apr 19, 2019•49 min
The day after tomorrow, Tuesday the 9th of April, all of Israel will have the day off. Elections are upon us. About 4 million of us will be hitting the ballot boxes to determine who will lead this tiny Middle Eastern country in the upcoming years. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Master Campaigner, second only to Ben Gurion in duration as Prime Minister. Or Benny Gantz, an ex-IDF Chief of Staff, who has no experience in politics, and who’s running alongside Yair Lapid and two other ex-IDF chiefs. The cou...
Apr 08, 2019•1 hr 2 min
Porn. It’s one of those things we just don’t like to talk about. But by all estimates, at least half of us watch it on a regular basis. For the most part, when it comes to porn, we’re happy to consume but we wouldn’t want anything to do with it. Think about it. How would you react if you found out that a family member, a friend or anybody you knew for that matter, was working in porn? We’re not here to pass judgment, but you can’t deny the cognitive dissonance. Now, being a non-straight kid in I...
Apr 02, 2019•58 min
"Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves, therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he binds up, he shatters, but his hands heal." Job 5:17-18 Why did God strike Job time and time again? Was it because he wanted to win a bet with Satan? Or maybe it was a test for Job’s faith? Or maybe there is no earthly reason why, and we, humans, are doomed to suffer through life’s agonies with the notion that we will never understand God’s intentions. But then, how do we go...
Mar 26, 2019•38 min
Here on the Two Nice Jewish Boys podcast, we’ve recorded episodes with authors, we’ve done an episode about the discovery of THC, we did one about the navigation system within bats and one about the fraudulent binary options industry. But one subject seems to be, without intent, a recurring theme. It’s not hard to guess which one, either. I suppose it just goes to show, how ingrained it is in the Israeli psyche. That is, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And it seems that every episode we do, ev...
Mar 19, 2019•55 min
We all have aspirations in life. Some of these goals we might achieve through hard work, taking risks and making tough sacrifices. Others we might struggle with our whole lives but never accomplish. This is why when we see someone who has done something great, we look up to them with admiration. When you set your mind to something and you persevere, people can’t help but appreciate the feat. Yuval Feldman is a rising star in the New York Culinary scene. She graduated the Culinary Institute of Am...
Mar 13, 2019•46 min
Being an Arab living in Israel brings about many dilemmas, internal conflicts and possibly a very serious identity crisis. While some Israeli Arabs prosper, man other Arabs are living in Gaza in debilitating poverty, and suffering under the brutal, murderous dictatorship of Hamas. Most most Israeli Arabs support the Joint List of Arab parties, a minority actually support right-wing, Zionist parties like the Likud, Benjamin Netanyahu’s party. Some Israeli Arabs work in industrial areas in the occ...
Mar 06, 2019•48 min
In recent years, Israeli cuisine has been on the rise, becoming extremely popular throughout Europe and the United States. This has many people asking themselves, perhaps rightfully so, “what the hell is Israeli cuisine?” Some critical voices even claim that many of the wonderful dishes Israel is claiming as its “own” are actually stolen - which, of course, echoes a longer, deeper controversy that has plagued the Middle East for about a century. In a way, you might say Israeli food is the Arab-I...
Feb 26, 2019•43 min
Being Pro-Israeli is hard enough, doing it on social media is a whole other story. It's more than an uphill battle, it's more than bearing the brunt of the mainstream global media. In a way, you might say it’s more like a social media suicide mission. However, a few brave profiles manage to rise up, through the rubble, as pro-israel, pro-zionist, social media vanguards. One of these people is Hannyia Naftali. Hananiya was a regular soldier in the IDF who just couldn’t stand the onslaught of fake...
Feb 19, 2019•57 min
Israel and Germany’s relationship has known ups and downs over the years. When Israel was established, in 1948, it upheld a policy of enforcing a complete and total boycott on Germany. Israelis swore never to buy a Volkswagen car, never own a Bosch refrigerator, and never to accept a dime of aid from the state that inherited Germany from the Third Reich. But circumstances brought West Germany and Israel closer together during the 1950’s, as Germany needed Israel’s forgiveness for global legitima...
Feb 15, 2019•49 min
Just a couple of weeks ago we commemorated the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and the entire western world mourned for the 6 million souls that perished. But what is often missed is the fact, that the Nazis didn’t only murder the people, they murdered whole parts of the Jewish culture that thrived in Europe for many centuries. They destroyed hundreds of newspapers and obliterated whole libraries. They murdered a language, Yiddish. And indeed, before World War II, Jewish culture in Euro...
Feb 05, 2019•57 min
A few weeks ago we received this email: "Would you be interested to hear about how to survive aliyah, make it through the IDF as a Lt. Col., have the door slammed in your face, have people stand on your shoulders when you remove money from the cash machine, and peak over your shoulder at the pharmacists to see what types of medication you use, and much more... then we should talk. I do have a crazy life story and look forward to sharing it with you and your podcast audience." We took the bait. D...
Jan 29, 2019•46 min
Most American or European high school students know about the American Civil War, the Holocaust or even the French Revolution. Most don't know about the 30 years of civil war that ravaged the horn of Africa in the latter part of the last century - conflicts that together claimed the lives of over a million Africans. Much of these conflicts were inner war within Ethiopia, but the greater conflict extended beyond. In 1991, finally peace came to the region much thanks to the ad hoc Peace committee ...
Jan 21, 2019•59 min
Israel is headed to elections. On April 9th, Israelis will be called to the ballot box to support their political party. Bibi, the incumbent prime minister, is once again asking for Israelis trust and support. With tensions rising along the border with Syria and Gaza, and internal pressure building up between the left and the right here at home, this election is bound to be dramatic. In an attempt to understand the upcoming elections, the players and the current state of affairs, we’re joined by...
Jan 15, 2019•45 min
It happens one day: you meet someone special. You fall in love, move in together. Support each other. You get married, until death do you apart. You take a mortgage, buy a place in the suburbs or in the city. Everything is going according to plan, and life is smiling at you. Then you decide it’s time to take the next step. And before you know it, the stork delivers a beautiful baby to your doorstep, as if you ordered it in Amazon Prime. You want what’s best for the baby, you invest in him from d...
Jan 08, 2019•43 min
