The cover of Time. Many monumental figures of history have graced this much coveted magazine cover: Albert Einstein, JFK, MLK, Pope John Paul II. This year, joining these ranks is Greta Thunberg, this year’s Time Magazine Person of the Year. So much has been said and written about Greta, the 16 year-old Swedish girl who took the world by storm with her furious speeches and international Friday demonstrations. Here in Israel, Greta didn’t receive much coverage. However, many young people felt con...
Jan 29, 2020•1 hr 11 min
Sitting right across from the Cinematheque, Bodega is Tel Aviv’s newest, American-style burger joint. That’s where Todd Aarons and James Oppenheim serve kosher Philly Cheese Steaks and B.L.T.s, and everything is certifiably, mouth-wateringly delicious. Todd Aarons grew up in LA and has been a professional chef for over 20 years. He has worked in kitchens in Italy, NYC, San Francisco, LA, and Israel, and was founding executive chef of Tierra Sur in Oxnard, CA. James Oppenheim has been working in ...
Jan 22, 2020•1 hr 5 min
The Hasidic Jewish community in Melbourne, Australia is an extremely closed community - they have no access to Radio or Television, boys and girls are separated as early as 8 years old, and the Rabbi has the final say on all issues. In 2008 the community was in havoc, due to a number of girls who complained that their school principal, Malka Leifer, sexually assaulted them when they were children at the school. The school immediately bought Leifer plane tickets and she fled to Israel before faci...
Jan 15, 2020•44 min
(Please note: this episode was recorded before the elimination of Qassem Soleimani) The Middle East is riddled with conflict. If you watch the mainstream media in the US, you might come to think that the main showdown is between the Israelis and the Palestinians but the truth is: there is hardly a stable state in the entire region. We’ve talked a lot about Syria in past episodes so today we’re dedicating an episode to take a closer look at Yemen. Since 2015 when the Iran-backed Houthi rebels dro...
Jan 07, 2020•46 min
EYTAN GOT ENGAGED! And a few other things... Join Two Nice Jewish Boys LIVE as we wrap up 2019!
Dec 30, 2019•46 min
Israel was founded largely by a group of Russian Jews. Ben Gurion, Moshe Sharet, David Remez, the list goes on and on. They came to Israel In the end of the 1800’s and early 1900’s, and were extremely influenced by Karl Marx and socialist ideas. The entire culture of Jewish Society in mandatory Palestine was socialist. If you wanted to be someone, you had to be a part Mapai, Ben Gurion’s Workers’ Party, and if you wanted a job, you had to bare the party’s famous “Red Notebook”. When Israel was f...
Dec 25, 2019•1 hr 4 min
Twitter. A place where you usually go when you’re in a desperate need for a good, pointless argument. Some people are drawn to this arena, like an insect to the light. And you gotta wonder - what’s the point in those endless discussions about Trump, or Bibi or Greta. No one has ever been convinced by some super witty or well articulated Tweet or Facebook comment. Right? Well, usually. Something different happened when blogger David Abitbol (aka Jewlicious) started a thread on Twitter with Megan ...
Dec 18, 2019•45 min
The Western Wall. The outer wall of the ancient temple in Jerusalem. The site to which millions of Jews in Israel and around the world do a pilgrimage to pray and to place a small note with their deepest ambitions between the cracks of those ancient stones. For decades, shortly after Israel reconquered Jerusalem in 1967, women and men prayed at the wall according to traditional orthodox customs - meaning women cannot read from the Torah or wear tefillin or talit, customs of the reform movement, ...
Dec 15, 2019•52 min
Today we’re doing an episode about something we’ve never really talked about. Rap. So we thought, how can we introduce such a young, hip, cool concept. Naturally, we turned to The Oxford English Dictionary. The Oxford dictionary gives the word Rap a birth-year - 1541. The definition, if you’re wondering, is "to utter (esp. an oath) sharply, vigorously, or suddenly". Indeed, many words and phrases were uttered vigorously since the Rap music style started flourishing in black neighborhoods in Amer...
Dec 09, 2019•56 min
Let’s say you’re a 16-year old Israeli teenager who likes computers and knows how to write some code. The day comes when you get a very important envelope in the mail (not email, but your actual mailbox) - this is called Tzav Shmone - “Draft Notice number 8”, and it’ll determine your fate for the next 5 to 20 years. Now assuming your a 16 year old computer geek you know exactly where you wanna end up in the IDF - the 8200 unit, Shmoneh Mataim. 8200 is a secret-ish unit in the IDF’s intelligence ...
Dec 05, 2019•44 min
LIVE: Panic on the streets of London, Sacha Baron Cohen speaks out against FB and Louis CK stages his unholy comeback in the Holy Land. Buckle up!
Dec 02, 2019•44 min
In mid October, the IDF chief of staff, Aviv Cohavi, briefed both Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz on the state of Israel's security. The situation according to Cohavi, is grim. With regional stability at a low and threats of war on multiple fronts, Israel faces serious security challenges. Some pundits argue that Cohavi is simply trying to enrich the IDFs coffers. Others claim that this time it's for real. So, the question still stands: is Israel going to war? And if so, what wil...
Nov 27, 2019•40 min
In a free democratic state, every person is innocent until proven guilty and is entitled to a fair trial. That seems simple enough. However, sometimes the rule of law doesn’t quite line up so perfectly with our personal sense of judgement. In 1986 a man by the name of John Demjanjuk was extradited from the Cleveland, Ohio to the Israel. Demjanjuk was accused of being Ivan the Terrible of Treblinka - a notorious guard who would torture Jewish prisoners before they entered the gas chambers at the ...
Nov 20, 2019•1 hr 1 min
These are fateful days for the State of Israel. A government is still nowhere in sight, and the chances for third elections seem higher than ever, as Ganz’s opportunity to form a government ends this Wednesday at midnight. In the meantime, Prime Minister Netanyahu is facing severe criminal charges, and Israel’s Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit is due to submit his final decision on Netanyahu’s cases in the upcoming days. This decision, will determine, in many ways, Israel’s destiny. In recent...
Nov 17, 2019•54 min
(Please note: this text was written by the hosts and does not represent Ya'ara Cohen's opinions) In Israel, every year, 20 women on average get murdered by a family member. It might seem a relatively small number for an American, but in a country of 9 million - it’s a LOT. The majority of these women, are - PC TRIGGER ALERT- from Arab families, but definitely not all of them. Only recently, Israeli society was shaken by a horrendous murder of a mother by her father in front of their baby - and t...
Nov 14, 2019•1 hr 7 min
LIVE with Anna Ahronheim of The Jerusalem Post to talk about today's hostilities between Gaza and Israel.
Nov 12, 2019•43 min
Some of the biggest global companies stem from this region. From Mobileye, Checkpoint and Mellanox to Wiz, Waze and Lemonade, Israel is not only on a global level, but at the top of tech innovation. But it’s not only the big companies, the ones that reach the headlines and sell for billions of dollars that call this company home. There is an ecosystem of thousands of innovative companies like Flytrex which does drone delivery, and who’s CEO, Yariv Bash we interviewed back in Episode 92. Or Zeeki...
Nov 06, 2019•59 min
LIVE: The Two Nice Jewish Boys Podcast with the monthly recap - talking about scandals, elections and the PATRIARCHY!
Nov 04, 2019•51 min
The last elections that were held in Israel a month ago, brought the country to yet another political standstill. With no clear winner or loser, the country could very well be approaching its third elections in a single year. And the worst part? Those elections might just lead us right back to square one. How could it be that the only Jewish state, the only democracy in the Middle East, is dealing with such a deep divide? The answer, as always, is in the numbers. Israel’s inner demographics are ...
Oct 31, 2019•51 min
We’ve talked about the Syrian Civil War a lot on the podcast, but today it seems even more relevant than ever. When civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, the United States was very wary of getting itself embroiled in another conflict in the Middle East. With Iraq and Afghanistan and trying to solve the longest standing conflict in the Middle East, the Israeli - Palestinian conflict, the US had enough on their plates. But when you’re the most powerful nation on Earth, it’s hard to stay neutral. R...
Oct 24, 2019•55 min
(We apologise for the technical issues you might hear during the recording) Today’s guest is no less than extraordinary. There is no way we can do justice to his life history in this short intro, in this single episode, or even if we dedicated this entire podcast to it, for that matter. No joke. But just to give you an idea: After witnessing the Nazi book burnings and Kristallnacht, he escaped Germany in the nick of time in 1939 only to be on the front lines during the invasion of Normandy as pa...
Oct 16, 2019•39 min
Israel has certainly earned the nickname “StartUp Nation”. We have the largest number of startups per capita in the entire world. The population of this small country recently passed 9 million, so that’s about a startup for every 1,500 people. The stories abound of huge exits, like Mobileye to Intel for 15 billion dollars, Mellanox sold to Nvidia for about 7 billion dollars earlier this year, and the list goes on and on and on. But what makes Israel the startup hub that it is? What does the VC -...
Oct 10, 2019•1 hr
Eytan and Naor discuss the podcast's 3rd anniversary, election results, and much more!
Oct 04, 2019•59 min
It is an ideal of most societies to support and respect those who defend it - namely, the police and the military. That is why when someone speaks out against these institutions, things get a bit heated. Today, in many societies there are indeed movements that put into question the integrity of these institutions. Here in Israel, one of the most controversial organizations, Breaking the Silence, has made it its mission to, “expose the Israeli public to the reality of everyday life in the Occupie...
Sep 27, 2019•59 min
Think about your favorite food. Whatever it is, it’s probably safe to say, you think it’s tasty. Unless you’re some sort of foodie masochist. But do you think it’s really tasty? Objectively tasty? How much of our taste is biological and how much is constructed, culturally, socially, maybe even morally? It’s exactly questions like this one that have accompanied Ruthie Rousso on her lifelong journey to discover food. Ruthie Rousso is a well known Israeli Chef and food journalist. She’s the daughte...
Sep 20, 2019•51 min
Aesop, the great greek storyteller, once said “We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.” Israel, just like any country with a government, has a history of political corruption. Ehud Olmert, Ariyeh Deri, Moshe Katzav, these are all names that are synonymous in most Israeli minds with the concept of political corruption. One party that has been especially dogged by corruption charges is Israel Beyteinu, the party founded and headed by Avigdor Liberman. Today we’re joi...
Sep 13, 2019•54 min
In 2011 Civil War broke out in Syria. Many people had high hopes for the uprising and for the Arab spring in general. Perhaps this would end of the long reign of dictators in the Middle East. But quickly, the war took a sharp downturn into oblivion. What started out as rebels against the regime, quickly transformed into something entirely different. Since 2011, you might have noticed that Israel has struck Syria with hundreds of airstrikes. And if you’ve only been reading the headlines, you migh...
Sep 06, 2019•56 min
Throughout history, Christianity and Islam have battled it out, each vying to be the dominant religion on our planet. Jews, on the other hand, have done everything within their power to stay inside their tiny communities. Becoming Jewish, to this day, is extremely difficult. We’ve done a few episodes in the past on the struggles of “orthodox” conversion. The fact of the matter is - if you don’t go full ‘orthodox’, Israel will not consider you a real Jew. The divide between Orthodox Judaism and o...
Aug 30, 2019•49 min
If you’re looking for a stable, financially secure, safe career, one profession you definitely want to stay as far away as you can from is journalism. There’s a reason Jewish mothers aren’t praying for their kids to become doctors, lawyers, or journalists. But at the end of the day, journalism is one of the main pillars of modern society, and many would even say it’s a pillar of democracy. Itai Anghel is a household name in Israel. But while his name lives comfortably in every home in Israel, It...
Aug 23, 2019•51 min
Most Israelis are drafted to the IDF when they turn 18. For many of them, the years in the military involve extreme stress, frustration, and sometimes real life danger. It’s no wonder that the first thing most people do when they finish their service, is to go abroad for a trip that lasts anywhere between 3 to 12 months, minimum. Alongside that trip, comes a need for money. So, some become waiters, other bartenders. But in Tel Aviv of 2019, it just isn’t enough to make ends meet, surely not for ...
Aug 16, 2019•47 min
