Two Nice Jewish Boys

Everybody knows the old joke about Jewish holidays. Basically, all Jewish holidays boil down to: They tried to kill us. We survived. Let’s eat. Food and Jews is a millennia old romance. And if you visit Israel today, there’s no question that that romance has produced a lot of good food. From the empires of Eyal Shanni, Assaf Granit and Aharoni to the thousands of bistros, hummus shops and falafel stands, Israel is stuffed with delicious food! And that’s exactly what we’re here to talk about today. Ruthie Edelstein is a tour guide for Delicious Israel (or as they call them, delicious experts). Delicious Israel is an organization that offers personalized walking, travel and cooking tours for foodies seeking the real Israel experience. We’re thrilled to have Ruthie on the podcast today to talk about some of the tastiest spots in Israel, the colorful people she’s met, how she ended up moving to the Middle East from Sacramento and, whether or not a falafel ball can bring peace to the middle east.

Talia Einhorn’s career wasn’t a walk in the park. As an accomplished law professor, she wrote countless articles and studies on important topics revolving around Israeli and international law. She’s also been serving as a member of the Advisory Committee for the Appointment of Government Officials, one of the the most important bodies in the state, which advises the government on the appointment of people to key roles. Today we’ll be asking what is the problem with the way the Israeli legal system works? Prof. Einhorn joins us today to talk about all this and much more.

Here are some things that don’t go together. Caviar and Cheetos. Dostoevsky and Six Flags. Jews and the NFL. But just like there’s probably someone, somewhere who likes cheetos with their caviar, and another person who read Crime and Punishment on a roller coaster, today we’re joined by a Jew who was in the NFL. Yosef Murray, formerly Calvin Murray, was a running back in the NFL. His career started at Ohio State, playing college football. Murray was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in 81 and then in 83 he played for the Chicago Blitz of the USFL, a league that ran for 3 years back in the 80s. Murray and his wife, Emuna (formerly Jeri), were youth pastors and raised their six children in a devout Christian home. But that was all very long ago. We’re thrilled to be joined by Yosef Murray today to talk about his life, his career and his discovery of Judaism.

Civil war. Child soldiers. Sex slaves. Underground torture chambers. And an army of women rebels. This probably sounds like the stuff of a dystopian sci-fi film to you. But the tragic truth is that this a reality, today. Northern Syria. 2014. The lives of the citizens of the are already pretty dark. But their lives are about to become a hell on earth. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, ISIS, manages to overrun the Assad Loyalists and maintain a stronghold in the are.. Women are raped and forced to bear children who are then taken from them and trained to kill. Everybody is in danger of being arrested, tortured and killed. Into this hellhole, steps Efrat Lachter. Efrat is an investigative journalist for Ulpan Shishi, Israeli’s prime time weekly news show on Friday evenings. She has a masters from Tel Aviv University in Political Science and Government. A few months ago Efrat flew into the center of the storm, Raqqa, Syria. She came back with a story, which had it not been documented, would’ve been hard to believe. We are thrilled to have Efrat on the podcast with us today to tell us her story.

Let’s say you’re an adrenaline junkie, there’s tons of extreme activities that will get your heart pounding to whatever level your heart desires. You can bungee jump off a bridge, swim with sharks in the open sea, or jump out of a plane... without a parachute. Or you can take the lesser known route, and go to a US college campus wearing a Star of David or an IDF T-Shirt. Careful, it’s not for the weak of heart. Being pro-Israel on American campuses has become a real struggle. The hostility towards Israel and its supporters is palpable, and as Palestinian propaganda manages to conquer the hearts of American students, the Jewish student unions work around the clock to spread the truth. From the frontline of the battlefield, we have with us today Ofir Dayan. Ofir studies at Columbia University in New York and she’s the head of SSI, which stands for Students Supporting Israel. She’s now visiting Israel and she joins us to talk about what’s going on on US campuses today, and what can be done about it.

When you think about Anti-Semitism, you probably think about the Middle East, North Africa, maybe Eastern Europe or Germany, but you don’t usually think about the UK. However, antisemitic sentiment has been on the rise in England. It’s just going by a different name, Anti-Israel. Tuvia Tenenbom visited the UK in the hopes of writing a book about Brexit but ended up doing something entirely different. When he showed up in Britain, instead of finding Union Jacks waving in the wind, he found countless Palestinian Flags. Tuvia Tenenbom is a journalist, an author, a playwright and a theater director. He’s written several books, some of which have become bestsellers, including I Sleep In Hitler’s Room and The Lies They Tell! Tuvia was on the show almost 2 years ago on Episode 58 of the Two Nice Jewish Boys Podcast and we’re super thrilled to have him on again to discuss his upcoming book about England.

We all have the power to choose. Free will is a tenet of most religions and philosophies. But there are some things in life, that no matter how you look at it, you can’t choose. You can’t choose your parents. You can’t choose your face (at least not the one you’re born with), and you can’t really choose your sex at birth. It is what it is. If Yiscah Smith would have been given the choice of how to be born, it might not have necessarily been as Yaakov, a Jewish man. But that’s what fate, or God or whatever you wanna believe in - chose. But when the time came, Yiscah did make an incredible choice, which led her to become the observant woman that she is today. As many of you know, June is pride month. Last Friday Tel Aviv hosted its Pride Parade, and we’re continuing to discuss the fascinating questions about gender, sexuality and Jewish identity. With us today is Yiscah Smith, author of Forty Years in the Wilderness, My Journey to Authentic Living. She lives in Jerusalem and teaches at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies. We are very honored and thrilled to have her here with us on the show today.

This Friday the streets of Tel Aviv are going to be bustling with probably over a quarter of a million people. Why? One word says it all. Pride. While we’re not at the top of the list, Tel Aviv boasts one of the world’s most impressive Pride Parades. Being situated in the heart of Middle East might have something to do with that. But what is pride? What is it that attracts over 250 thousand people to march through the streets of Tel Aviv? To many, this topic is still controversial. Not just the idea of non-hetero relationships, but also the institution of marriage, the roles and makeup of parenthood and the definition of gender itself. Shirley Charlie Kleinman is an activist, a public speaker, a journalist and the Bis Dev manager at LGBTech which is a non for profit which facilitates a social business network for the LGBTQ community in the tech industry. Shirley Charlie also advocates for the community on various media platforms and outlets. We’re very excited to have Shirley Charlie on the podcast today to talk about their life story and to enlighten us a bit about what pride really is.

People have been dancing more or less since the dawn of mankind. Some people were born with the dancing gene. Others are so clumsy that they avoid the dance floor at all costs, even if it means the bride will do her first dance with her grandpa. Alyssa Chriqui is the former. She’s a world champion of Salsa and Samba. She’s been dancing her whole life, first in Australia where she was born, and now here in Israel. We’re super thrilled to have her on the show and discuss, among other things, how does one actually move, like Jagger.

George Lucas and Steven Spielberg are undoubtedly two of the 20th century’s best and most influential directors and screenwriters. Rarely did these two collaborate, but the first time they did, they brought to life one of the greatest adventure series of all time - Indiana Jones. What is it that draws us to Indiana Jones and his archaeological adventures? Is it the quest for hidden treasures? Is it the thrill of uncovering the secrets of our long lost past? Or is it the ridiculously life-threatening situations into which he inevitably stumbles? Probably all of the above. And more. But for some people, watching Indiana Jones isn’t enough. Jim Barfield is a firefighter and a criminal investigator from Oklahoma, with a passion for the bible, and a fascination with the Dead Sea Scrolls, particularly the Copper Scroll, which unlike the other dead sea scrolls, is not a literary work, but rather a list of places. But not just random places, places where supposedly, buried in the ground are various items of gold and silver. In other words, a bonafide treasure map. So in a sense, today on the podcast we’re joined by a real life Indiana Jones. Here to tell us the story of the Copper Scroll is Jim Barfield.