Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan, speaking with author and scholar Dara Horn. Horn visited ToI's Jerusalem studio while on a break from this year’s International Writers Festival in Jerusalem, taking place May 25-28 at the city’s Mishkenot Sha’ananim cultural center An author of novels and non-fiction, including “People Love Dead Jews,” “Eternal Life,” “A Guide for the Per...
May 27, 2026•52 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Jessica Steinberg speaking with author Yishay Ishi Ron. Ishi Ron's award-winning 2023 book, "Dog," is about an Israeli combat officer returning from Gaza, grappling with PTSD and heroin addiction until a stray dog enters his life and helps save him. The novel became a bestseller in Israel, was long-listed for the Sapir Prize, and is currently being adapted into a film by di...
May 19, 2026•44 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World. This week, founding editor David Horovitz speaks with CEO of the British Board of Deputies Michael Wegier. Wegier has been the CEO of the Board, the umbrella organization representing Anglo-Jewry, for the past five years -- an increasingly fraught period, especially since October 7, 2023. Anti-Israel demonstrators routinely march through central London, Palestine Action activists ...
May 14, 2026•37 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World. This week, host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaks with legal expert Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy . Almost immediately following Hamas’s murderous onslaught on southern Israel, humanitarian law expert Elkayam-Levy established and now heads The Civil Commission on Oct. 7th Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children. On May 12, the commission released a massive report that document...
May 12, 2026•36 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib , the head of Realign for Palestine, an Atlantic Council project that challenges entrenched narratives in the Israel and Palestine discourse. This week, the Board of Peace’s top Gaza envoy, Nickolay Mladenov, is in Israel in an attempt to kick-start the Trump peace plan. He has previously urged the interna...
May 05, 2026•46 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with The Times of Israel's senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur . On Sunday, former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid announced a joint run for this year's Israeli elections. Immediately, polling showed that the combined electoral slate, dubbed “Together,” would win a total of 26 seats if elections were held Monday, placing them ahead of...
Apr 29, 2026•50 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Jessica Steinberg speaking with author Rachel Goldberg-Polin. Rachel Goldberg-Polin began writing her new book, "When We See You Again ," as a way of finding some relief from her pain after she buried her son, 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was executed by his Hamas captors in August 2024, after being held captive for 330 days in a Gaza tunnel. Goldberg-Polin speaks ...
Apr 21, 2026•52 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with journalist and debut author Aron Heller . Some 1.5 million Jewish soldiers fought for the Allies in World War II, and 250,000 of them died in battle. One of those who fought and returned was Heller's grandfather, Mickey Heller. In his new book, "Zaidy’s Band," Heller attempts to trace his grandfather's military service, but is...
Apr 13, 2026•34 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Jessica Steinberg speaking with comic Shahar Cohen. Comedian Shahar Cohen, raised in Jerusalem and living in Tel Aviv, spoofs Israeli life and society. He dons wigs and plays a cast of mostly female characters who represent the range of Israeli society. In a wide-ranging interview, Cohen discusses how each character represents part of him as well as what Israelis are feelin...
Apr 08, 2026•32 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Jessica Steinberg speaking with Rabbi Angela Buchdahl. Buchdahl speaks about being a rabbinic figure and representative of the mainstream American Jewry, particularly while on book tour for her recently published memoir, "Heart of a Stranger, An Unlikely Rabbi's Story of Faith, Identity and Belonging." Buchdahl weighs in on the current rise in antisemitism entering the work...
Mar 31, 2026•43 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib , the head of Realign for Palestine, an Atlantic Council project that challenges entrenched narratives in the Israel and Palestine discourse. This week, the Board of Peace’s top Gaza envoy Nickolay Mladenov revealed the principles of the disarmament proposal submitted to Hamas earlier this month. He urged ...
Mar 26, 2026•53 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with author and journalist Matti Friedman. The first half of our episode is dedicated to an in-depth discussion of Friedman's newest book, " Out of the Sky ," set for publication next week. The book is a deep dive into the meaning and myth surrounding a team of Jews living in British Mandate Palestine who -- after escaping the Holocaust -- parac...
Mar 18, 2026•43 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Bret Stephens, a The New York Times columnist and the editor-in-chief of Sapir magazine. Recent polling indicates that only roughly half of Americans support the US-Israel war against Iran's Islamist regime. Stephens weighs in on why the current conflict can be both "Trump's war" and a just war. Far from feeling that Israel dragged the US i...
Mar 15, 2026•44 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Einat Wilf, a former MK, author and CEO of the newly formed Oz party. Wilf describes the potential fall of the Iranian Islamic Republic's regime as a shift in the magnitude of the fall of the Soviet Union. We discuss the seismic ripple effects on Gaza and the Palestinian Authority. Wilf proposes that this moment is a window of opportunity f...
Mar 10, 2026•52 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with author and public intellectual Micah Goodman. In the sixth day of the United States and Israel's joint war against the Iranian Islamic Republic, Goodman takes stock and allows himself to wonder: What if we actually won this war against the evil regime? We discuss the trickle effect on the Iranian people, the Mideast region and the world at ...
Mar 05, 2026•42 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Jessica Steinberg speaking with Oscar film nominee Meyer Levinson-Blount. “Butcher’s Stain" is nominated for Best Live Action Short Film at the 2026 Oscars, after winning second place in the narrative category of the Student Academy Awards in the fall. The film follows Samir, an Arab butcher in Tel Aviv, who sets out on a journey to prove his innocence after he’s accused of...
Feb 24, 2026•33 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib , the head of Realign For Palestine, an Atlantic Council project that challenges entrenched narratives in the Israel and Palestine discourse. We begin the conversation with a bleak update on how Gazans are faring on the ground and hear anecdotes of poor hygiene and price gouging in the Strip. As the festiv...
Feb 18, 2026•35 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Alice Miller, the CEO of Natan Worldwide Disaster Relief. Miller is nationally known for her landmark Supreme Court case in 1995, which opened the gates of the Israel Air Force to female fighter pilots. This decision paved the way for today's female combat soldiers and made Miller a household name. However, that was just the start of Miller...
Feb 10, 2026•32 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Jessica Steinberg speaking with Unholy podcast hosts Yonit Levi and Jonathan Freedland. In this episode, Channel 12 news anchor Levi and Guardian columnist and BBC Radio 4's Jonathan Freedland look back on five years of podcasting together on "Unholy: Two Jews on the News," their weekly show that offers the perspectives of a Jewish Israeli and a Diaspora Jew. Freedland and ...
Feb 04, 2026•53 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with The Times of Israel's senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur . The body of the final hostage, Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, was recovered from the Gaza Strip this week and buried on Wednesday in his hometown of Meitar. Rettig Gur delves into the deep Jewish roots and societal promise to bring every last person home that led to this moment of relief. We t...
Jan 29, 2026•45 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib , the head of Realign For Palestine, an Atlantic Council project that challenges entrenched narratives in the Israel and Palestine discourse. This week, we dive into the 12-member National Committee for the Administration of Gaza. The technocratic council is headed by former Palestinian Authority deputy pl...
Jan 20, 2026•42 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Israel Story producer Mitch Ginsburg. On February 20, 1979, the last 33 Israelis returned from Tehran upon the forced closure of the Israeli embassy. After the rise of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khoumeini's new regime, the Israeli trade mission's location was given over to the Palestine Liberation Organization, whose supporters immedi...
Jan 15, 2026•1 hr 22 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with stand-up comedian Liz Glazer, who is coming soon to Israel as part of the annual Comedy for Koby tour. On stage and off, the former law prof -- a graduate of New York's stalwart Modern Orthodox Ramaz high school -- is loudly and proudly out about her life as the spouse of a female rabbi. Perhaps more unusually, since the Octob...
Dec 30, 2025•31 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib , the head of Realign For Palestine, an Atlantic Council project that challenges entrenched narratives in the Israel and Palestine discourse. This week, we dive into the five likely scenarios that could play out in Gaza during 2026, which Alkhatib recently proposed on his social media channels. According t...
Dec 23, 2025•53 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Jessica Steinberg speaking with cookbook author Adeena Sussman. In this conversation with the bestselling author of "Sababa" and "Shabbat," Sussman discusses the intersection of cooking, culture, and personal experiences as she continues melding her American Jewish background with her current Israeli life in her recipes. She reviews aspects of her latest cookbook, "Zariz," ...
Dec 14, 2025•30 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with James Pasch , the Anti-Defamation League's vice president of litigation. Pasch, is currently in Israel to meet with the plaintiffs in a massive lawsuit the ADL initiated against Iran, North Korea, Syria and Hamas, for their part in the October 7 massacre. In a new strategy, the legacy Jewish organization's work in fighting antisemitism is m...
Dec 09, 2025•26 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Dr. Gilad Malach, a research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute. Malach's research focuses on public policy related to Israel's ultra-Orthodox community, including issues critical to its integration into Israel's economy and society. This week, the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is debating a new bill aimed at regulatin...
Dec 02, 2025•39 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib , the head of Realign For Palestine, an Atlantic Council project that challenges entrenched narratives in the Israel and Palestine discourse. This summer, Alkhatib flew over Gaza as part of the last days of the United Arab Emirates's aid drop missions. It was the first time since he had seen his former home since leavin...
Nov 25, 2025•44 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with the past president of The Hebrew University, Prof. Asher Cohen. During the eight years Cohen served as university president, Israel encountered numerous challenges, including the coronavirus epidemic from February 2020, the uproar over the Judicial overhaul and, most seriously, of course, the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught on southern Isr...
Nov 19, 2025•38 min
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with The Times of Israel's senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur . BBC director-general Tim Davie and Deborah Turness, the chief executive of BBC News, stepped down this week after being in the firing line for months over allegations of bias — including the national broadcaster’s coverage of antisemitism, the war in Gaza, and Israel more generally. Re...
Nov 12, 2025•41 min
