Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. This week, the Knesset passed the first contentious judicial overhaul bill into law. So, six months after getting perspective from philosopher Dr. Micah Goodman in the inaugural What Matters Now episode, I went back for more. “Two constitutional instincts have been unleashed and are clashing with each other: The Israelis who want to be empowered through government versus ...
Jul 27, 2023•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish world — right now. What is the tipping point between democracy and dictatorship? Why do some nations fall under one supreme leader’s sway? And what actually is the perfect storm that can turn a thriving democratic nation into a totalitarian nightmare? “Economic ruin, war, massive immigration, no money, no water, no nothing... this is a recipe for a strong leader to take over and for the arm...
Jul 20, 2023•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish world — right now. Since 1981, the archetypical image of an archaeologist has included a wide-brimmed brown hat, a brown leather jacket — and, of course, a bullwhip. This week, with a new Indiana Jones film having hit screens across the globe, we wondered how this Hollywood legend has affected the careers of the actual, digging-in-the-trenches excavators here in Israel today. So we met up i...
Jul 06, 2023•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish world — right now. This week, the Knesset’s Constitution Committee restarted deliberations over pieces of judicial overhaul legislation after compromise talks in the President’s residence broke down. 75 years after its foundation, Israel’s rules of procedural governance are still unclear, and clearly hot-button issues as the country heads into a 26th week of judicial overhaul protests. But ...
Jun 29, 2023•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish world — right now. On March 22, 2022, four Israelis were murdered in a stabbing attack in Beersheba. In the same week, a terrorist shot and killed five civilians in Bnei Brak. Days later in Hadera, another terrorist attack occurred in which two Border Police officers were killed and 12 civilians were injured. After this bloody week, the IDF initiated Operation Break the Wave, which the army...
Jun 22, 2023•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish world — right now. This past weekend, Israel marked a tragic milestone: In the first half of 2023, over 100 Arab citizens have died by violence. Just like its manifestation in every community throughout the world, this scourge has many faces — organized crime, domestic violence, random acts of anger, and more. But according to polling by the Abraham Initiative, for several years running, me...
Jun 15, 2023•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish world — right now. Eleven years ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered his much-quoted "Iranian nuclear duck" speech at AIPAC warning against United States plans for a nuclear deal. Fast forward to today and we hear reports that the United States is now looking for a “less for less” deal to stave off that Iranian duck’s final launch. This week alone, Iran made international headli...
Jun 08, 2023•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish world — right now. On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opened his cabinet meeting with an announcement that his government will draft a decision to establish a new ministerial committee -- that he will head. In his remarks, Netanyahu stated, “The fight against the cost of living tops our government's list of national priorities. We will take determined and strong action to lower pr...
Jun 01, 2023•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. This week, Jews all over the world will mark the holiday of Shavuot by reading from the Book of Ruth. In this biblical tale, disaster and famine strike and an elderly widow called Naomi loses her two sons. Childless, she tells her daughters-in-law to return to their parents’ homes in Moab and says that she will make her own way back to her family in Bethlehem. One daughte...
May 24, 2023•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. On Thursday this week, tens of thousands of marchers -- including several government ministers and MKs -- marked the 1967 reunification of Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty with participation in the annual Flag March. While most of the masses sang, danced, and yes, caused a ruckus through the Old City’s Muslim Quarter, much like every year in the recent past, at times p...
May 18, 2023•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. Israel stands unified this week as hundreds of Gaza rockets rain on the country. Unusually of late, even Israel’s political echelon has put aside its differences to stand together during the IDF’s Operation Shield and Arrow. That’s really good news for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose own coalition has increasingly taken to covert -- and overt -- threats a...
May 11, 2023•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. The Knesset reconvened this week and anti-judicial overhaul protestors ramped up their demonstrations with Thursday’s nationwide Day of Disruptions. While these protests were going on nationwide, a panel appearing on Israel’s Channel 14 talked about the upcoming protest outside former Supreme Court president Aharon Barak’s house that night. Barak, the panel agreed, is the...
May 04, 2023•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. National Resilience Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf announced Wednesday that he will advance legislation to make Zionism a “guiding and crucial value” in government decision-making. But what exactly is Zionism? In this week of Memorial Day for Israel’s fallen and Independence Day, we invited Prof. Gil Troy to The Times of Israel’s Jerusalem office to discuss the nationalist m...
Apr 27, 2023•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. This episode is being published during a uniquely Israeli window of time that occurs between Yom Hashoah — Holocaust Remembrance Day — and Yom Hazikaron — our Memorial Day for fallen soldiers. This is a liminal space naturally inhabited by our What Matters Now guest this week, former director general of the Justice Ministry Emi Palmor. A specialist in international human ...
Apr 20, 2023•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. This week, like every week, antisemitism has captured media headlines around the world, ranging from " 'Death to the Jews' chants heard at Berlin rally " to " Bone-chilling antisemitic display in Poland sparks condemnation ." These modern iterations of antisemitism are, of course, of concern to Israel’s national Holocaust memorial museum Yad Vashem. But it was yet another...
Apr 13, 2023•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — except this week. Ahead of Passover, as some Jews all over the world change sets of dishes, blowtorch their stoves and, of course, cover every last counter and corner with aluminum foil, we wonder: when did the practice of this crazy religion get its start? So I invited Ariel University's head of the Institute of Archaeology Prof. Yonatan Adler to our Jerusalem office to speak about...
Apr 04, 2023•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. Suddenly, about three months ago when Justice Minister Yariv presented the judicial overhaul package, it seemed like everyone in Israel's pro-reform camp began speaking about Canada as a justification for the coalition's controversial bills. That made this week’s What Matters Now guest, former Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, take notice. Cotler joined me at The Ti...
Mar 30, 2023•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to What Matters Now, a new weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. On Thursday, Israelis watched as Shikma Bressler, a world-renowned physicist, was arrested during the nationwide “Day of Paralysis,” a day of ramped-up civil protests against the government's judicial overhaul. Bressler, who is also one of the top leaders of the grassroots protests against the widespread changes to the judiciary, was dragged toward a police car as bys...
Mar 23, 2023•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to What Matters Now, a new weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. Wednesday night on primetime news, Israeli President Isaac Herzog presented his long-awaited "People’s Framework," a platform meant to be the basis for working toward a compromise on the judicial overhaul. A few hours later, the platform was rejected by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and judicial overhaul legislation continues apace. This week on What Matters Now, ...
Mar 16, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to What Matters Now, a new weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. As Israel celebrated Purim this week, putting on costumes and trading sweet treats with neighbors and friends, we took a brief, humorous break to speak with Benji Lovitt and Joel Chasnoff, comics, educators and speakers who recently launched a new book, “Israel 201, Your Next-Level Guide to the Magic, Mystery and Chaos! of Life in the Holy Land," written to mark Israe...
Mar 10, 2023•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to What Matters Now, a new weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. On Wednesday, stun grenades, tear gas, water cannons and horse-mounted police were deployed against Israelis protesting the judicial overhaul. Images of a wall of citizens of all ages holding Israeli flags, standing defiantly opposite a line of mounted armed law enforcement headlined Israeli media and were seen all over the world. These images are galvanizing, and to ...
Mar 02, 2023•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to What Matters Now, a new weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. A year into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, is Israel maintaining its policy of neutrality? Is the Russian presence in Syria still a good enough reason for the Jewish state to decline underdog Ukraine’s repeated requests of anti-missile defense systems? To find out answers to these questions, I turned to Middle East and Russo-Ukraine expert, Ksenia Svetlova. Svetlova...
Feb 23, 2023•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to What Matters Now, a new weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. On Monday, tens of thousands of Israelis took a day off work to protest outside the Knesset against the proposed judicial overhaul that was -- at the very same time -- being discussed at a stormy session of the Constitutional Committee inside. The crowd was a sea of blue and white Israeli flags. Mostly secular, they sang, shouted, laughed and cried together against th...
Feb 16, 2023•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to our second episode of What Matters Now, a new weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. In a rare moment of agreement, Israeli media from all sides of the political spectrum is closely following the proposed legislation for judicial overhauls — some of which will have their first preliminary votes early next week. And while almost everyone seems to agree that there is a need for a judicial overhaul, many ask, why so extreme and why ...
Feb 09, 2023•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to our inaugural episode of What Matters Now , a new weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World -- right now. Now, I don't know about you, but even for newshounds like me, sometimes the 24/7 headline barrage zooms by so fast that I feel like I don't catch all the nuance. There are so many hot-button issues that understanding the arguments for and against them feels like a Herculean task. So each week, we'll sit for an in-depth conversation and find ...
Feb 02, 2023•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week on Times Will Tell, host Amanda Borschel-Dan takes you with her to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem to view for the first time seven new contemporary art sculptures in an exhibit called Disrupted Layer. The seven pieces were all created by artist Zohar Gotesman, who was inspired by archaeological artifacts from the museum’s collection. They are distributed throughout the archaeology wing, much like stops on a treasure map. As you’ll hear, some pieces blend in more than others. Gotesman a...
Jan 25, 2023•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast On this week's Times Will Tell, we speak with Ariel Leizgold, cocktail master and one of the founders of the Bellboy Group, a hospitality and bar firm with six bars in Tel Aviv, one in Berlin and plans to expand. Leizgold talks about growing up in his Russian-Israeli family, where hospitality and vodka --along with mayonnaise -- were regularly featured, but his medical professional parents never expected him to work in the service and hospitality industry. He discusses the early days of cocktail...
Jan 17, 2023•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week on Times Will Tell we're speaking with Shalom Simcha Elbert, head of research and development at OCD, recently named Israel’s best restaurant at the 2022 Israeli Kitchen Awards, sponsored by American Express. The name (an acronym for obsessive compulsive disorder) refers to the meticulous care that the culinary team, led by chef Raz Rahav, pours into each dish of the nightly tasting menu served to every diner. The Jerusalem-born and raised, Italian-trained Elbert found his way to the w...
Jan 13, 2023•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week on Times Will Tell we’re speaking with Prof. Alvin Rosenfeld, the director of Indiana University’s Center for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism. Prof. Rosenfeld founded the Jewish Studies program at Indiana University some 50 years ago and served as its director for 30 years. But retirement has eluded Rosenfeld and in 2009 he founded the Center for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism after observing the rise of anti-Jewish hostility all over the world. "The last time I saw Elie...
Jan 04, 2023•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week's Times Will Tell is a recording of a recent sold-out Times of Israel live event in Jerusalem, featuring an English language screening of the award-winning "Cinema Sabaya" film followed by a conversation with filmmaker Orit Fouks Rotem. "Cinema Sabaya," starring Dana Ivgy, tells the story of Arab and Jewish female municipal workers who take part in a video workshop, documenting their own lives and viewing each others’ — challenging their beliefs in order to get to know one another. Fou...
Dec 23, 2022•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
