Two Nice Jewish Boys

*This episode is sponsored by Masa Israel Journey. Check them out at masaisrael.org/twonicejewishboys * It seems that in the past couple of years, the ultra-orthodox and Charedi community in Israel are constantly under the spotlight. It began with the Corona outbreak, when they were, quite despicably, tagged by the media as ‘disease spreaders’. Then, a couple of months ago, with the disaster at Mount Miron, in which 45 Charedis lost their lives as they visited the holy grave of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai. And now, the Charedis are again in the spotlight, as the new minister of Finance, Avigdor Liberman, announced that he will be cutting funds to the community unless, as he says, Orthodox men go out to work, instead of studying Torah all day. Exactly a month ago, on June 15th, Rabbi Doniel Katz wrote a post on Facebook that went viral. “Having lived exclusively immersed in this culture for the last 21 years, I think I'm sufficiently qualified and well-researched enough to state that the consistent depiction of Chareidim and Torah Judaism by mainstream media, from Netflix to the daily news, is somewhere between delusion, slander and the literal equivalent of racism.“ We’ll read the entire post for you soon. Rabbi Katz is the founder and director of The Elevation Project, an organization which aims to unlock the Torah & Kabbalah's definitive model of consciousness, meditation, and human psychology. Rabbi Katz is of course by no means an official representative of the ultra-orthodox community. But he is an educator, a lecturer, and a member of the Charedi community, so we thought it’d be interesting to hear his perspective. We’re extremely happy to have Rabbi Katz on the show.

*This episode is sponsored by Masa Israel Journey. Check them out at masaisrael.org/twonicejewishboys * A few months ago, on episode 237, we had Daniel Wolfson on the show. Daniel told us her incredible story, about how she almost became handicapped but eventually recovered and became a mountain climber. Daniel was going to peruse her biggest dream, and become the first woman ever to climb mount Everest. Well, a few weeks ago, it happened. Daniel did it, and made history. Today, we’re super proud to have Daniel again to talk about her incredible, extremely dangerous journey.

Naor and Eytan talk about everything that happened in Israel this month. *This episode is sponsored by Masa Israel Journey. Check them out at masaisrael.org/twonicejewishboys * *Support Jeremy's Circle! Jeremy’s Circle is the first and only community in Israel to support children and teens growing up in families struggling with cancer or cancer loss. www.jeremyscircle.org *

*This episode is sponsored by Masa Israel Journey. Check them out at masaisrael.org/twonicejewishboys * Exclusive subscription offer for podcast listeners: Get 6 months of The Forward for only $15: Forward.com/partneroffer promo code: 2NJB As we record this episode, we are about 2 weeks after Operation Guardian of the Wall, aka - Israel’s 4th war with Gaza. In the 12 day war, Hamas shot thousands of rockets on innocent civilians, as the IDF retaliated against military targets in Gaza, doing everything it could to harm as few civilians as possible. While Operation Guardian has come to an end, there is another battle that is ongoing. One that probably won’t end anytime soon. The battle for public opinion. Israel is fighting an uphill battle when it comes to advocating its case to the world. And some say it’s not doing the best job. As the Palestinians have a sophisticated propaganda wing, reinforced by a chain of influencers and celebrities like the Hadid family, John Oliver and Trevor Noah, we have…. well, not much at all. Even our biggest celebrity, Gal Gadot, refrained from stating her clear unequivocal support for Israel. So, on to that almost empty stage stepped Rudy Rochman. Rudy is a noted speaker and writer on Jewish rights and an avid advocate for Israel worldwide. He was born in France but made aliya at the age of 3. He studied at Columbia University, where he joined Students Supporting Israel and served as the president. Since then he’s been creating viral content on Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We are super thrilled to have Rudy Rochman on the podcast today!

*This episode is sponsored by Masa Israel Journey. Check them out at masaisrael.org/twonicejewishboys * Exclusive subscription offer for podcast listeners: Get 6 months of The Forward for only $15: Forward.com/partneroffer promo code: 2NJB Last February, Gal Uchovsky said something provocative. So far, that’s not really news - since Uchovsky, who’s a very well known publicist, filmmaker and gay-rights-advocate, is also very well known for his eccentricity, his though provoking columns and television appearances. But this time, things have gotten a bit out of hand. On a Friday-evening family talk show, Uchovsky said ‘we should declare war on the Charedis. They’re like a cult.” Almost immediately, Uchovsky received hundreds of phone calls and messages, from random people who called him for very peculiar reasons. Thankfully, Uchovsky’s life and career has made his skin thick. As a screenwriter, he wrote some of Israel’s most famous movies, including ‘Walk on Water’ and ‘The Bubble’, directed by Eitan Fox, his partner. Those movies redefined the conversation about homosexuality in Israeli cinema. As a columnist, he wrote for many years in Maariv newspaper, and now he’s writing for the popular website ‘mako’. And in 2020, his documentary series, ‘The Gay Revolution’, was aired and was in the center of numerous debates and opinion pieces. Uchovsky is the producer of Eitan Fox’s new movie, ‘Sublet’ now in theaters! It’s safe to say then, that today’s guest is an extraordinary and opinionated person, so tune in, because today’s episode is bound to be interesting!

*This episode is sponsored by Masa Israel Journey. Check them out at masaisrael.org/twonicejewishboys * Exclusive subscription offer for podcast listeners: Get 6 months of The Forward for only $15: Forward.com/partneroffer promo code: 2NJB It seems like forever ago when rockets hit Israel and we ran to shelters to the soothing sounds of the sirens. Actually, wait, that was a week ago! That’s the pace of things in the Middle East. Still, something big happened here. Tectonic changes. Things will never quite be the same as they were. Many people blamed the recent round of hostilities on Jerusalem-related events. Be it the Temple Mount, where we made the Palestinians angry, or Sheik Jarah, where… Apparently we made the Palestinians angry. They get angry quite often, I’ve noticed. But I digress. In the aftermath of Operation Guardian of the Walls, we decided to summon some of our favorite past guests to talk about what went down and the current situation. Ofir Dayan is a Temple Mount Enthusiast, an Al Aqsa aficionado if you will, and an advocate for Israel in the world. As a student at Columbia University in New York, she served as the head of SSI, Students Supporting Israel. Our second guest tonight, Jonathan Elkoury, was one of our first guests on the podcast back in 2001. Jonathan is an avid advocate for Israel in international media, he’s a political activist and recently, a reality tv star in a new upcoming show. We are thrilled to be joined by Ofir and Jonathan today to try and understand what the hell happened here, and what the future holds for Israel and Jerusalem.

*This episode is sponsored by Masa Israel Journey. Check them out at masaisrael.org/twonicejewishboys * Exclusive subscription offer for podcast listeners: Get 6 months of The Forward for only $15: Forward.com/partneroffer promo code: 2NJB *** Naor and Eytan talk about the current hostilities in Israel

(This episode was recorded before the recent events in Jerusalem and Gaza) *This episode is sponsored by Masa Israel Journey. Check them out at masaisrael.org/twonicejewishboys * *We’re also sponsored by the Susie & Kevin Davis Foundation, please check it out at FirstWorkings.org, and consider supporting their efforts.* Exclusive subscription offer for podcast listeners: Get 6 months of The Forward for only $15: Forward.com/partneroffer promo code: 2NJB Our guest today is a great friend of the podcast. We’ve had the honor of hosting him quite a few times, but always in a very different capacity than today. In the past, we’ve introduced Dr. Michael Oren as someone who served as the Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's office, as Member of Knesset in the Kulanu Party and as the Israeli ambassador to the United States in the years 2009-2013. Today, we’re introducing Dr. Michael Oren as a novelist. Dr. Oren has released several non-fiction books in the past, including Sand Devil, Reunion and a collection of short stories titled The Night Archer and Other Stories. But in just about a week, Michael’s latest novel is going to hit the bookshelves. To All Who Call In Truth tells the story of Sandy Cooper, a guidance counselor and coach in a suburban junior high school, who’s otherwise uneventful life turns upside down after a word of advice to a troubled student embroils him in a forbidden relationship and the exposure of a twisted murder. Aside from his extensive service to the country, Dr. Michael Oren also taught history at the Ben Gurion University and was a visiting professor at Harvard, Yale and Georgetown. We are thrilled to be joined by Dr. Oren on the podcast today to talk about his new novel and of course a little bit of politics - how could we not?

*This episode is sponsored by Masa Israel Journey. Check them out at masaisrael.org/twonicejewishboys * *We're also sponsored by the Susie & Kevin Davis Foundation, please check it out at FirstWorkings.org, and consider supporting their efforts.* Exclusive subscription offer for podcast listeners: Get 6 months of The Forward for only $15: Forward.com/partneroffer promo code: 2NJB CEO of a company that was valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, executive at Nickelodeon and MTV and novelist. These are just a few of the entries on today’s guest’s resume. Shaul Olmert was CEO of Playbuzz, a company that for quite a while dominated online content. If you were on Facebook in 5 years ago, there’s 0 chance you didn’t come across a Playbuzz article. Today he is CEO and Co-founder of a stealth-mode startup called Piggy. And, recently, he’s written a novel. One that’s caused him to ask himself: Is Shaul Olmert an entrepreneur and businessman who just wrote a book? Or is he a novelist who’s been masquerading as an entrepreneur and businessman? Well, today we get to find out. We are super excited to be joined by Shaul Olmert to talk about his business endeavors, his new novel and what his favorite Playbuzz article was.

*This episode is sponsored by Masa Israel Journey. Check them out at masaisrael.org/twonicejewishboys * Exclusive subscription offer for podcast listeners: Get 6 months of The Forward for only $15: forward.com/2njb Naor and Eytan talk about everything that happened in Israel this month.