Two Nice Jewish Boys

In 2014, Vanessa Lapa had just released her new documentary film, ‘The Decent One’, about the lost diaries of SS commander Heinrich Himmler. Diaries which miraculously landed in her hands. The film was a huge international success. And after years and years of thorough research, archive deep dives and a life that revolved around Himler - Lapa thought it was probably time to move on and put the Nazis where they belong - on the shelves of history. But fate had other plans for her. During one of the screenings of ‘The Decent One’ in New York, an old Jew approached Lapa with an extraordinary offer which eventually led to her next documentary “Speer Goes to Hollywood.” Just when she thought she was out - they pulled her back in. Albert Speer was one of the closest men to Hitler, his minsiter of Arms and the mastermind architect behind Nazi grand-architecture. Now, ‘Speer Goes To Hollywood’ is premiering worldwide, and we have the great privilege of hosting Vanessa Lapa on the podcast tonight. NYC screening: October 29th L.A screening: November 5th More info: http://speergoestohollywood.com/

We all remember the Holocaust. The gas chambers, the piles of dead bodies, the merciless murder of women and children and men. Of course, you also remember that girl in red. Benigni’s kid on the tank. Or Adrian Brody playing that dusty piano. And how can we forget, Shoshana. So much of our imagery and memory of the Holocaust has been informed by stories, some purely fictional. But that’s the nature of time. So much of history is surrendered to the narrative - to the storytellers, the filmmakers and the poets. What a heavy responsibility that must be. Rich Brownstein was born in Portland, Oregon in 1962. In 1989, Rich created what became Hollywood’s largest transcription company: The Transcription Company, used by virtually every major studio and network, including NPR, ABC News, and Oprah. In 2003, he sold the business and moved his family to Jerusalem. He started teaching Holocaust film for Young Judaea in 2010 and branched out into Jewish film in 2013. Since 2015, Rich has been a lecturer at Yad Vashem, specializing in teaching educators how to teach the Holocaust using film. He has lectured at many colleges and universities about the history of Holocaust film. We’re very honored to be joined by Rich today to talk about the Holocaust in film. Rich's new book: https://www.amazon.com/Holocaust-Cinema-Complete-Analysis-Teaching/dp/1476684162

Check out our NEW merch store! www.2njb.com/merch *** The government in Israel is celebrating 2 months since its establishment, and boy, what a ride has it been! This week, PM Bennet will go to Washington for his first meeting with President Biden. But here in Israel, many people feel this government doesn't represent them. 1 million Likud voters were left out of the party, because their leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, is boycotted by the leaders of the left and central wing parties. Some people in Israel claim that Israeli society is divided into two - First Israel, mostly left wing ashkenazis, and second Israel - mostly right wing mizrahis. The elites, which includes mostly ‘first Israel’, is depriving second Israel from the game, according to those who believe in this theory. Many of them are Likud voters. In his new book, ‘The Mobiles and The Fixed - The Struggle of the Elites Against Israeli Democracy’, Taub is debating that the struggle between First Israel and Second Israel, will define the future of the country. Dr. Gadi Taub is probably one of the most hated and despised people among Tel Aviv’s intellectual elite. The reason is simple: once, he was one of them. An eloquent left winger, a senior lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, with a PhD in American Studies from Rutgers University and all the right opinions. But alas, Dr. Taub woke up one morning and decided to “shift sides”. Now Taub publishes in-depth, highly controversial, right-wing op-eds in Haaretz. We’re thrilled to have Dr. Taub on the show to talk about his new book.

Naor and Eytan talk about all the recent events in Israel and around the world. *** Check out our NEW merch store! www.2njb.com/merch

Check out our NEW merch store! www.2njb.com/merch *** For so many, the Arab-Israeli World is a mystery. Even in Israel, where we live side by side with Arab-Israelis, it’s a foreign culture to us non-Arabs. We read about it in the news, we see it depicted in movies and television and we hear it talked about endlessly. But we don’t really know what it’s like. Probably the only part of their culture some of us know fairly well is Arab food - Shawarma, Knaffeh, Msabaha, the list goes on and on. It’s a good list too. But other parts of the culture are alien to us. For example, what is it like to study in an Arab academic institution? Well, our guest today might just have some insight. Avi Shalev served in Military Intelligence and the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip for 24 years. And then, he had what some might call a crazy idea. He wanted to obtain a teaching certificate in order to teach Arabic in schools and he decided to do it in Al Qasemi College, a Sufi Muslim academic institution in Baqa al-Gharbiyye, an Arab village along the border with the West Bank. Avi wanted to cross the imaginary lines that divide Jewish and Arab Israelis and try to understand what life is like on the other side. Avi documented his experiences in his new book Al Qasemi Journal, or Yoman Al Qasemi in Hebrew and he joins us today to share his experience. We are thrilled to have Avi Shalev on the podcast today. "The Al-Qassemi Diaries" on Headstart: https://headstart.co.il/project/64485

On October 1st, 1939 Winston Churchill gave a speech on BBC Radio. When talking about the Soviet Union, Churchill said it is ‘A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma’. Now, 82 odd years later, while that definition is still true to modern time Russia, it’s just as much true about another country the west is struggling to understand. It’s Iran. Iran is vast. With 1,684,000 square Kilometers, it is larger than the combined territories of France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Portugal. It’s the 16th most populous country in the world, with almost 83 million citizens. It has an army of almost a million people. And all of this might is ruled by a bizarre combo of a kinda-democratically-elected president, alongside an almighty supreme leader, the Ayatolla. Iran is the number 1. sponsor of terrorism on the entire globe, with the intent to ‘spread the shiite-islamic revolution’. They are the main funding source for terror organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah. And they also don’t hesitate to kill their own, with tens of thousands of innocent Iranians who died for no reason since the 1977 revolution. Last week a new president was sworn to office in Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, ‘The Butcher of Tehran’, who massacred thousands of innocent Iranians when he served in various roles in Iran’s judiciary system. Today, it is safe to say Iran seeks to become a world superpower, and eventually destroy the ‘small devil’ - Israel, and the ‘Big devil’ - the United States. Will they succeed? To try and understand what makes Iran tick we figured we’d bring someone who knows it best. Today we’re joined by Dr. Thamar E. Gindin. Dr. Eilam Gindin is an Iran expert from the Ezri Center in Haifa University. She is also the host of the Podcast ‘Enriched Iranium’ in Hebrew. We’re super happy to have her on the show today!

In a little over a year, the United States will head to midterm elections. While these elections usually get less coverage and less voter turnout than presidential elections, they play a major role in American Politics. Congress is the main event with all 435 seats up for election. Also up for grabs - about one third of the senate seats and two thirds of the gubernatorial seats. With the progressive discourse growing more dominant in the states, these upcoming elections are not only relevant for the US but also foretell of US - Israel relations and American foreign policy in general. One thing’s for sure, Andrew Cuomo will most likely no longer be the governor of New York… To discuss all this and more, we’re joined today by Yiftach Dayan. Yiftach is a commentator of American politics and author of the Hebrew blog “On Elephants and Donkeys.” And according to his Twitter bio, apparently a world renowned bed sheet folder - we’ll have to see about that.

US President Joe Biden has just decided to nominate Deborah Lipstadt as the next US Ambassador to Combat and Monitor Antisemitism. We interviewed Prof. Lipstadt in 2017 when the movie 'Denial' premiered. The movie depicted her incredible life story. We're re-uploading the episode so that you can listen to it if you haven't yet!

Join us as we talk about the latest news this month in Israel. The delta variant ushers back mask mandates and other restrictions; NSO sells spyware to Morocco helping in their surveillance of French President Macron; and the Israeli governments mulls new taxes on everything from electricity to plastic.

*This episode is sponsored by Masa Israel Journey. Check them out at masaisrael.org/twonicejewishboys * Since Delta is on the rise and we might all be put back in our cages in a few weeks time, we thought it would be a great idea to revisit our old friend, Covid. But this time, from a different angle. The poop angle. Dr. Yair Lewis was part of the team led by Health Ministry’s national lab for environmental virology which is testing sewage across Israel to help pinpoint high risk coronavirus infection areas. Dr. Lewis is also the VP Medical at Navina, a medical AI startup that makes patient data accessible for care providers. He earned his MD from the Hebrew University, and is board certified in Internal Medicine. Yair also holds a PhD in molecular biology from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. We are super excited to be joined by Dr. Yair Lewis today to talk about Covid… and poop.