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 headline this week that caused Yad Vashem head Dani Dayan to speak out, "'Polish propaganda': Critics assail deal to resume Israeli youth trips to Poland." As a guardian against the distortion of Holocaust memory, in the past year, the Buenos Aires-born Dayan, a former head of the settler movement and a past Consul General of New York, has spoken up in several other cases, including when Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban made comments this summer that evoked Nazi ideology. Speaking with The Times of Israel on Thursday, Dayan says, he sees results. This week, days before Israel marks Yom Hashoah, the national Holocaust memorial day we ask Yad Vashem head Dani Dayan, what matters now? What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on iTunes, TuneIn, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, PlayerFM or wherever you get your podcasts. IMAGE: Dani Dayan in the Hall of Names at Yad Vashem (Alex Kolomoisky)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 his new book, “The Origins of Judaism.” In our lengthy conversation, we hear how he treats the origins of the practice of Judaism as an archaeological excavation, working backward in time to gather physical and textual proof of the observance of the laws and commandments charted out in the Torah. This is a topic that has engaged Adler for well over a decade -- including his doctoral research for "The Archaeology of Purity" -- and he continues to explore it through his Origins of Judaism Project. Adler, who obtained rabbinical ordination through the Israeli chief rabbinate in 2001, treats this question through a scientific assemblage of data points collected throughout the centuries and the guiding archaeological principle that "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." While Adler hasn’t yet found evidence for foil-covered kitchen counters, at the end of our discussion he does speak about the earliest evidence for the observance of Passover, and that matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on iTunes, TuneIn, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, PlayerFM or wherever you get your podcasts. Image: Ariel University's Dr. Yonatan Adler. (courtesy)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 Times of Israel's Jerusalem offices this week to discuss how the use of Canada as an example in support of the judicial overhaul package is basically "fake news." The veteran human rights lawyer discusses how Canada worked through its own constitutional crisis in the 1980s, how Israel is setting itself up for trouble with the International Court of Justice and his fervent hope that the Jewish state will reach 75 with a consensual, ratified People’s Constitution. In a week in which hundreds of thousands of Israelis spontaneously took to the streets to vote against the judicial overhaul with their feet, find out What Matters Now to international legal authority Irwin Cotler. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on iTunes, TuneIn, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, PlayerFM or wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 bystanders shouted, "shame, shame, shame." Following Bressler's short detainment, social media lit up with the news and, among other responses, Labor leader MK Merav Michaeli tweeted, “In a normal country Shikma Bressler would be given the Israel Prize.” I met with Bressler, 42, at her Weizman Institute office in Rehovot on Wednesday this week to hear how the scientist, a co-founder of the Black Flags protest movement and head of a collaborative project with CERN, originally activated her activist gene. We hear what she sees as the next steps in stepping up civil disobedience, even as she believes we're already in a form of a civil war. With her mild, almost professorial manner, she explained that Israel is quickly nearing the point of no return. That things are much worse than most international observers can imagine. During our lengthy conversation, Bressler also laughingly told me that three years ago in her initial protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, she coined the chant “De-mo-crat-ya.” This week, we ask Dr. Shikma Bressler, What Matters Now? IMAGE: Physicist Dr. Shikma Bressler, co-founder of the Black Flag protest movement. (Eldad Rafaeli, Photoactive)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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, we learn how the new legislation could affect issues of religion and state. We hear from attorney and Reform Rabbi Uri Regev, the head of Hiddush: For Religious Freedom and Democracy, which describes itself as "a non-denominational, non-partisan Israel-Diaspora partnership uniting people across political and religious spectrums." Before founding Hiddush 12 years ago, Regev served as president of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, a global umbrella organization of the Progressive, Reform, Liberal and Reconstructionist movements, and was the founding chair and executive director and legal counsel of the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC). Prophetically, back in 2015, Regev told The Times of Israel -- after facing off and winning a Supreme Court case against the future MK Simcha Rothman, the author of much of the judicial overhaul --  “it starts and ends with people fighting for the Declaration of Independence.” This week, we hear What Matters Now to religious rights activist Uri Regev. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on iTunes, TuneIn, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, PlayerFM or wherever you get your podcasts. Image: Attorney and Reform Rabbi Uri Regev (far right), head of Hiddush: For Religious Freedom and Equality, in the Israeli Supreme Court. (Courtesy)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 Israel’s 75 years of existence. “Israel 201” (Gefen Publishing) is Chasnoff’s fourth book, and Lovitt’s first, and the 265-page book is an ode to life in Israel, with all its ironic, annoying and heartwarming aspects. It's a comic -- at times -- and in-depth primer to some daily aspects of life in Israel that are rarely discussed in book form. And as Israel grapples with the vagaries of the planned judicial overhaul, a new government and its 75th birthday, we talk about their path to this manuscript and What Matters Now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on iTunes, TuneIn, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, PlayerFM or wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 many, terrifyingly indicative of what will follow once the government’s reforms are passed. Because despite the massive protests, according to many experts including The Times of Israel’s senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur, they’re sure to go through. This became more clear when, on Wednesday night, Israelis who had seen liberal Tel Aviv in turmoil that day, tuned in to primetime news at 8 p.m. to see whether this increased violence and chaos on the streets was a watershed moment. Would it prompt Prime Minister Netanyahu to slow down the judicial overhaul that was rocketing ahead through the Knesset even as tear gas was deployed on Israeli citizens? Netanyahu, like a father chiding his miscreant children, compared the anti-overhaul protestors, who are stopping traffic and disrupting the nation, to those rampaging Israelis who had torched the Arab village of Huwara on Sunday night. Netanyahu is clearly determined to charge ahead with the overhaul package — even while parts of Israel are burning. So this week, we ask Rettig Gur, how did we get here and What Matters Now? What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on iTunes, TuneIn, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, PlayerFM or wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 immigrated to Israel from Moscow at age 14. Later, as a fluent Arabic-speaking journalist, for years she was able to use her Russian passport to report from areas most Israelis will never see in the Middle East. In 2015, she renounced that Russian passport and stepped away from journalism to join the Knesset in the Zionist Union party, headed by Tsipi Livni. Svetlova served there until 2019. This week, a year into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, I made Svetlova a cup of hot tea in Jerusalem and I found out What Matters Now ahead of a new phase of the war in Ukraine-- and the legal battlefield here in Israel. Tune in to the podcast episode to hear diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman weigh in on Svetlova's statements. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on iTunes, TuneIn, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, PlayerFM or wherever you get your podcasts. Image: Ksenia Svetlova in the West Bank (courtesy)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 the bills that were, despite all their raucous energy, indeed passed for preliminary readings. Many in Israel who support the judicial overhaul say that by adopting practices from other countries’ judicial systems, they are bringing the country in line with the standards of the international community. Many who oppose the legislation do agree to a need for reform, but say they are frightened that in cherry-picking from around the globe -- an override clause from Canada, a law from Norway and elements from the United States -- we will be headed toward a “Frankenstate.” In 2013, Princeton University Prof. Kim Lane Scheppele coined the visceral term in her article, "Not Your Father’s Authoritarianism: The Creation of the "Frankenstate.'" In that essay, she writes, “A Frankenstate is an abusive form of rule, created by combining the bits and pieces of perfectly reasonable democratic institutions in monstrous ways, much as Frankenstein’s monster was created from bits and pieces of other living things. No one part is objectionable; the horror emerges from the combinations.” This week, I made my way to the heart of old Jerusalem to the Israel Democracy Institute where I asked IDI vice president Suzie Navot, professor of Constitutional Law, what could happen if other legal systems are grafted on Israel’s judiciary. Born in Uruguay, Navot made aliya to Israel at age 14. A polyglot, she has taught at the Sorbonne as a visiting professor as well as on the faculties of the Striks Faculty of Law at the College of Management and the National Security College in Israel. Navot specializes in constitutional law, law of institutions, parliamentary law and comparative constitutional law, which gives her unique insight into what could happen if indeed this global mosaic of legislation does pass. After this tempestuous week, we hear What Matters Now to leading Israeli legal expert, Prof. Suzie Navot. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on iTunes, TuneIn, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, PlayerFM or wherever you get your podcasts. IMAGE: Vice president of the Israel Democracy Institute Prof. Suzie Navot at the IDI, December 2022. (Michal Fattal/IDI)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 so fast? For weeks we've reported on protests in the street, sharp rebukes from legal experts, and businessmen threatening to take their money elsewhere. The President of Israel Isaac Herzog waded in and asked legislators for a pause for reconsideration and potential compromise. But one who doesn't think the overhaul is all that radical is the Member of Knesset who wrote the bills that are being determinedly pushed through, Simcha Rothman from the Religious Zionism party. For the past decade, Rothman, a lawyer by training, has worked towards this legislation through his advocacy work at Meshilut, the Movement for Governability and Democracy. A fixture in the halls of the Knesset, Rothman has written books and lobbied for what he terms a stronger democracy -- through a rebalancing of power from the Supreme Court to the Knesset. A member of Knesset since 2021, Rothman is clearly one of the most driven lawmakers in the new coalition. As the chair of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, he is fast-tracking these first points of reform, which include judicial appointments, curbing the Supreme Court’s test of reasonability, a slim override clause and severely limiting the High Court of Justice’s ability to strike down Basic Laws. This week, days before a first vote on Monday for two proposals, I made my way through the labyrinth of the Knesset to speak with Rothman and hear why these reforms, and why so quickly. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on iTunes, TuneIn, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, PlayerFM or wherever you get your podcasts. IMAGE: MK Simcha Rothman gives his first remarks at the Israeli Knesset in Jerusalem, August 3, 2021. (Noam Moskovitch/Knesset Spokesman)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.