Two Nice Jewish Boys

The cover of Time. Many monumental figures of history have graced this much coveted magazine cover: Albert Einstein, JFK, MLK, Pope John Paul II. This year, joining these ranks is Greta Thunberg, this year’s Time Magazine Person of the Year. So much has been said and written about Greta, the 16 year-old Swedish girl who took the world by storm with her furious speeches and international Friday demonstrations. Here in Israel, Greta didn’t receive much coverage. However, many young people felt connected to Greta’s movement, and joined the environmental zeitgeist that was taking over the world. Today we’re finally going to talk about climate change, one of the most controversial topics of our time. Michael Buckland was born in Finland, and made Aliyah 2 years ago. He quickly became aware of issues like the use of plastic and air pollution in Israel, and started getting involved. Soon enough he began organizing protests and today he’s one of the leaders of a new Israeli green movement. We’re happy to have Michael Buckland on the podcast today to talk about climate change!

Sitting right across from the Cinematheque, Bodega is Tel Aviv’s newest, American-style burger joint. That’s where Todd Aarons and James Oppenheim serve kosher Philly Cheese Steaks and B.L.T.s, and everything is certifiably, mouth-wateringly delicious. Todd Aarons grew up in LA and has been a professional chef for over 20 years. He has worked in kitchens in Italy, NYC, San Francisco, LA, and Israel, and was founding executive chef of Tierra Sur in Oxnard, CA. James Oppenheim has been working in high tech for over 20 years before entering the food business. We are super excited to host Todd Aarons and James Oppenheim on the podcast today.

The Hasidic Jewish community in Melbourne, Australia is an extremely closed community - they have no access to Radio or Television, boys and girls are separated as early as 8 years old, and the Rabbi has the final say on all issues. In 2008 the community was in havoc, due to a number of girls who complained that their school principal, Malka Leifer, sexually assaulted them when they were children at the school. The school immediately bought Leifer plane tickets and she fled to Israel before facing any charges. Leifer remains in Israel to this day, as Australia’s extradition request is suspended in endless trials and legal processes. How many Malka Leifers are there in the Orthodox communities in Israel and worldwide? It’s extremely hard to know. With a clear tendency to avoid any discussion on sex or sexuality, has the Orthodox community doomed itself to simply suffer quietly, exposing the vulnerable? In the last 15 years, one man has been trying to make sure that’s not the case. His name is Rabbi Yakov Horowitz, and he’s the author of “Let’s Stay Safe!”, a children’s book about sexual safety. Yaakov has devoted his life in recent years to fighting sexual abuse in the Orthodox community. He’s now in Israel as 15 thousand copies of his book are being printed in Hebrew and distributed for free. Rabbi Horowitz is Founding Dean of a Monsey, NY Yeshiva and Director of The Center for Jewish Family Life/Project YES, and we’re honored to have him on the show.

(Please note: this episode was recorded before the elimination of Qassem Soleimani) The Middle East is riddled with conflict. If you watch the mainstream media in the US, you might come to think that the main showdown is between the Israelis and the Palestinians but the truth is: there is hardly a stable state in the entire region. We’ve talked a lot about Syria in past episodes so today we’re dedicating an episode to take a closer look at Yemen. Since 2015 when the Iran-backed Houthi rebels drove out sitting President Hadi, civil war has claimed the lives of tens of thousands and driven millions, most of the country in fact, into a state of destitute poverty. Is this just another Saudi-Iran proxy war? What Western powers are playing a role and what role are they playing? Is there any end in sight? And ultimately, will the Middle East every see stability in our lifetimes? To answer these questions, we’re joined by Professor Uzi Rabi, Director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Tel Aviv University. Professor Rabi Rabi has written a number of books in both English and Hebrew. In 2015, he published “Yemen: Revolution, Civil War, and Unification.” We are very happy to be joined by Professor Uzi Rabi today to talk about Yemen. (Photo: Almigdad Mojalli/VOA)

EYTAN GOT ENGAGED! And a few other things... Join Two Nice Jewish Boys LIVE as we wrap up 2019!

Israel was founded largely by a group of Russian Jews. Ben Gurion, Moshe Sharet, David Remez, the list goes on and on. They came to Israel In the end of the 1800’s and early 1900’s, and were extremely influenced by Karl Marx and socialist ideas. The entire culture of Jewish Society in mandatory Palestine was socialist. If you wanted to be someone, you had to be a part Mapai, Ben Gurion’s Workers’ Party, and if you wanted a job, you had to bare the party’s famous “Red Notebook”. When Israel was founded, the socialist ideas of the founding fathers were the foundations for the country’s entire infrastructure. Every 1st of May, the entire country celebrated International Workers’ Day, and when Stalin passed in 1953 the newspapers mourned. Flash forward, 75 years later. Israel in 2020 is a thriving country, where innovation and merit are important values. But the country is more divided than ever when it comes to economic ideology, as most of the population thinks the country isn’t “social” enough, while others call for the end of what remains of the socialist system. So is Israel a social country, or a capitalist country? To clarify this daunting question, we brought Dr. Eli Cook straight from Haifa Uni. Eli is an expert for the History of Capitalism, and we’re super happy to have him here today.

Twitter. A place where you usually go when you’re in a desperate need for a good, pointless argument. Some people are drawn to this arena, like an insect to the light. And you gotta wonder - what’s the point in those endless discussions about Trump, or Bibi or Greta. No one has ever been convinced by some super witty or well articulated Tweet or Facebook comment. Right? Well, usually. Something different happened when blogger David Abitbol (aka Jewlicious) started a thread on Twitter with Megan Phelps-Roper, a daughter to a notorious family, that’s part of the Westboro Baptist Church, in Topeka, Kansas. About a week ago David sent us an email with the subject “I think we have what to talk about!‏”, followed by: I was recently on Good Morning America, a Steven Spielberg documentary and all kinds of fun stuff for something I did out of my shitty apartment in Machane Yehuda.” And that, dear listeners, is what we call an offer we cannot refuse. We’re super excited to have David "Jewlicious" Abitbol here with us on the podcast today.

The Western Wall. The outer wall of the ancient temple in Jerusalem. The site to which millions of Jews in Israel and around the world do a pilgrimage to pray and to place a small note with their deepest ambitions between the cracks of those ancient stones.  For decades, shortly after Israel reconquered Jerusalem in 1967, women and men prayed at the wall according to traditional orthodox customs - meaning women cannot read from the Torah or wear tefillin or talit, customs of the reform movement, which barely exists in Israel.  As ties between American Jewry and Israel grew stronger and more Americans began to visit Israel, and the western wall, a group of women rose up and decided to stand up for their religious freedoms. This is how Women of the Wall was born. Over the years, Women of the Wall have demanded their right to pray and worship as they wish often demonstrating and protesting the restrictions. Recently they achieved a great breakthrough. But has the fight really ended?  Today we are joined by the Yochi Rappeport, Executive Director of Women of the Wall, to talk about religious freedoms in Israel.

Today we’re doing an episode about something we’ve never really talked about. Rap. So we thought, how can we introduce such a young, hip, cool concept. Naturally, we turned to The Oxford English Dictionary. The Oxford dictionary gives the word Rap a birth-year - 1541. The definition, if you’re wondering, is "to utter (esp. an oath) sharply, vigorously, or suddenly". Indeed, many words and phrases were uttered vigorously since the Rap music style started flourishing in black neighborhoods in America, in the form of Reggae in the 60’s, and hip hop in the late 70’s and 80’s. But as the years progressed, rap and hip hop evolved and have become a rich genre in mainstream music. In the last few decades, rap was mixed with every other genre imaginable. It crosses continents, cultures and languages but remains, still today, a form of musical protest and sometimes of musical rage. So today we’re here to talk about Rap music, but not just any rap music. Jewish Rap music. We’re proud to have Kosha Dillz on the show. Born as Rami Matan Even Esh, Rami grew up in Jersey to Israeli immigrant parents. He collaborated with Matisyahu, Snoop Dog, and many many more, and now he decided to make Aliyah! It gives us the thrills to be joined by the Kosha Dillz.

Let’s say you’re a 16-year old Israeli teenager who likes computers and knows how to write some code. The day comes when you get a very important envelope in the mail (not email, but your actual mailbox) - this is called Tzav Shmone - “Draft Notice number 8”, and it’ll determine your fate for the next 5 to 20 years. Now assuming your a 16 year old computer geek you know exactly where you wanna end up in the IDF - the 8200 unit, Shmoneh Mataim. 8200 is a secret-ish unit in the IDF’s intelligence division. It’s main purpose is to conduct telecommunication reconnaissance, aka sig-int or signal intelligence. In recent years, 8200 has made a name for itself as the breeding ground for some of Israel’s leading entrepreneurs. A lot of people think of it as a ticket to success in life and indeed many of it’s alumni are snatched up by high tech companies and startups right out the gate.   But having been trained by the IDF in such confidential techniques, these veterans face a serious dilemma. Where do you draw the line between personal advancement and treasonous activity?  Today we’re joined for the second time by Dr. Ronen Bergman who recently published a series of articles in Yedioth Aharonot about veterans of the 8200 unit working for shady companies, sometimes even working for ones that are engaged in hostile activity against the State of Israel.  Dr. Ronen Bergman is a senior political and military analyst for Yedioth Aharonot and the New York Times. He’s the author of Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations and he’s been a guest lecturer at countless universities including Princeton, Yale, Oxford and Cambridge (where he received his PhD in history).   We are thrilled to be joined today by Dr. Ronen Bergman to talk about the 8200 unit and its graduates.