Two Nice Jewish Boys

Today we’re joined on the podcast by Yonatan Langer. But Yonatan’s name wasn’t always Yonatan. It used to be Lutz. And Lutz used to be an ardent Neo Nazi. Today Yonatan is an observant, orthodox Jew who lives in Israel and studies Kaballah, the Jewish Mystical school of thought. The road that led from Lutz to Yonatan was a long one. But before all that, the story begins with a kids Karate instructor. We’re really excited to have Yonatan on 2NJB today to tell his story.

In recent years, Israeli cuisine has been on the rise, becoming extremely popular throughout Europe and the United States. This has many people asking themselves, perhaps rightfully so, “what the hell is Israeli cuisine?” Some critical voices even claim that many of the wonderful dishes Israel is claiming as its “own” are actually stolen – which, of course, echoes a longer, deeper controversy that has plagued the Middle East for about a century. In a way, you might say Israeli food is the Arab-Israeli conflict in a plate. But regardless, Israeli restaurants keep opening their doors on street corner in almost every big American city. Lines of clientele stretch around the block and lines of praise stretch across the food critics’ reviews. Michael Solomonov is an Israeli-American chef, renowned for his critically-acclaimed Israeli Restaurant, Zahav, in Philadelphia. He’s the winner of several James Beard awards including Best Chef Mid-Atlantic in 2011, Cookbook of the Year in 2016, and Outstanding Chef in 2017. His cookbook Zahav: A World of Israeli Cuisine is a huge bestseller. Fortunately for us Mike is now touring Israel and was gracious enough to let us interview him here in Tel Aviv. We are honored, we’re extremely thrilled and we can’t wait to get started. So, let’s get to it!

Every doctor needs a baker to bake his bread. Every baker enjoys the occasional movie. When the filmmaker's car breaks down, he visits the mechanic, and when then mechanic breaks down he visits the doctor. This is the story of the modern world. But the thing is, each character in this story envies the other a little, the mechanic wishes he could bake cakes. The filmmaker disappointed his mother because he never became a doctor (true story). And the doctor? He was always, deep inside, an inspired artist. It’s seldom that someone manages to enjoy both worlds, maintaining a flourishing career on one hand, and making a living from his passion or hobby on the other. But such is the case with Dr. Iddo Netanyahu. Dr. Netanyahu is the third and youngest son of Zila and Prof. Ben Zion Netanyahu, brother of the belated Yoni Netanyahu, hero of Entebbe, and of The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. He grew up between Israel and America, joined the army, served, as Netanyahus tend to, in the elite Sayeret Matkal unit, and then studied medicine and became a doctor of Radiology. In parallel, he’s been maintaining another career as a writer. He’s authored several books that have been translated into many languages, and in recent years he’s published several plays which have showcased around the world. We’re proud and excited to have Dr. Iddo Netanyahu on the show today.

Every culture has a hierarchy. And there’s usually an extra special place reserved for people at the very bottom of the ladder. In Japan it might be the selfish, in America perhaps the freeloader, but to us Israelis it’s very clear who’s at the bottom. The Freiers. Freier is a Yiddish term that’s been absorbed into everyday Hebrew. It can be loosely translated to mean, a sucker, a fool, a pushover or a dupe. Whatever it is, if you live in Israel long enough, you develop a sixth sense of sorts. You can smell a Freier from a mile away. And sometimes, the smell is you. The Daily Freier is an online satirical blog founded by Aaron Scheer. Aaron made aliyah after serving in the US military, and decided to stay in this land of suckers. We’re super excited to have him on the podcast today to talk about, what it’s like to become an Israeli.

As Jews, both in Israel and in other parts of the world, we tend to go about our day-to-day lives worrying about the regular issues of our existence, like how to pay the bills at the end of the month, which Game of Thrones watch party to attend and of course the eternal Papa John's or Dominos dilemma. But not many of us stop this daily struggle with first-world problems to contemplate on the deeper questions that may lurk in our subconscious, like what is our place as Jews in Israel, or in America? What does it even mean to be Jewish in the 21st century? And what does the future hold for us as a religion and as a people? Luckily for us, some people do try to tackle these mind-boggling question, thus clearing a path for an important discussion. One of the people who do that is Tal Keinan, an extremely successful businessman, investor and social entrepreneur, author of the recently published book God is in the Crowd. Tal Keinan was born in America, and when he was 21 he decided to move to Israel and join the IDF. He became the first Oleh combat pilot, and he still serves as a reservist in the IAF. Tal is one of the founders of Clarity Capital, Israel’s first full-spectrum asset management firm. Tal also does social activism. He is the Chairman of Koret Israel Economic Development Funds, an NGO that gives credit to small businesses. 2NJB is thrilled to have Tal Keinan on the show today.

Joining Daniel Roth, host of the Angry Falafel Podcast today are Eytan Weinstein and Naor Meningher, creators of the Two Nice Jewish Boys podcast - a show they describe as a glimpse into Israel and some of the interesting people in it and I’m very happy to have them at the falafel palace today.

The day after tomorrow, Tuesday the 9th of April, all of Israel will have the day off. Elections are upon us. About 4 million of us will be hitting the ballot boxes to determine who will lead this tiny Middle Eastern country in the upcoming years. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Master Campaigner, second only to Ben Gurion in duration as Prime Minister. Or Benny Gantz, an ex-IDF Chief of Staff, who has no experience in politics, and who’s running alongside Yair Lapid and two other ex-IDF chiefs. The country is in turmoil. It’s heated. It’s dirty. It’s a close race and the polls just keep on changing. But one thing is for sure - for the first time in 10 years, Bibi’s reign is under a real and present threat. Today we’re super excited to host one of our favorite past guests again. Danielle Berrin is one of the shining stars of Jewish Journalism in America. She was a senior columnist for the Jewish Journal. She also wrote for the New York Times, The Atlantic, Yedioth Ahronoth, The Guardian and British Esquire. She’s now visiting Israel and we’re thrilled to have her on the podcast again to talk politics.

Porn. It’s one of those things we just don’t like to talk about. But by all estimates, at least half of us watch it on a regular basis. For the most part, when it comes to porn, we’re happy to consume but we wouldn’t want anything to do with it. Think about it. How would you react if you found out that a family member, a friend or anybody you knew for that matter, was working in porn? We’re not here to pass judgment, but you can’t deny the cognitive dissonance. Now, being a non-straight kid in Israel during the 1980’s was no walk in the park. Jonathan Agassi, then Jonathan Langer, from the small city of Holon, suffered throughout his childhood from bullying, from rejection and even from sexual abuse. But Jonathan made it through the rough years and eventually, he would grow up to become the most well known Israeli gay porn star. But, as is usually the case, his trauma didn’t stay behind. Tomer Heyman’s documentary, ”Jonathan Agassi Saved My Life” chronicles Jonathan’s story and is Premiering next month in Austin Texas. So without further ado, the one and only, Yonatan Agassi.

"Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves, therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he binds up, he shatters, but his hands heal." Job 5:17-18 Why did God strike Job time and time again? Was it because he wanted to win a bet with Satan? Or maybe it was a test for Job’s faith? Or maybe there is no earthly reason why, and we, humans, are doomed to suffer through life’s agonies with the notion that we will never understand God’s intentions. But then, how do we go on? Where do we gather the strength from? When you think about Yehuda Glick’s life story, you can’t help but wonder what his answers to these questions might be. Yehuda was born in the US and made Aliyah in 1974. For decades he was involved in politics and social activism, and he devoted many years from his life to the struggle of Jewish access for prayer on the Temple Mount. But Glick’s life has take quite a few twists and turns in recent years. Since 2014 he survived an assassination attempt, he became a Knesset member, he was widowed from his wife, and recently he lost in the Primaries for the next Knesset. So what does God want from Yehuda Glick? Since we weren’t able to book the Almighty himself, we have the next best person to answer this question, Knesset Member Yehuda Glick.

Here on the Two Nice Jewish Boys podcast, we’ve recorded episodes with authors, we’ve done an episode about the discovery of THC, we did one about the navigation system within bats and one about the fraudulent binary options industry. But one subject seems to be, without intent, a recurring theme. It’s not hard to guess which one, either. I suppose it just goes to show, how ingrained it is in the Israeli psyche. That is, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And it seems that every episode we do, every guest we bring to speak about this topic, has another view point. As the saying goes, Two Jews, three opinions. But regardless, however many opinions there might be, one thing seems constant. At least, so far. The conflict doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. But is there anything we can do in the meantime? Some people think that separation, walls, borders and retreats are the solution to reach peace in the area. But for others, the way to go about it, is by building - not settlements - but human relations. At least that was the notion that led Inon Dan Kehati to innovate and seek for new ways to approach the problem. Instead of looking at the macro level, he chose to look at the micro, and to build connections between people, in the hope that in the future, peace will pursue. And that’s exactly what he’s doing with his non for profit organization, The Home. We’re really excited to have Inon with us on the podcast today.