Two Nice Jewish Boys

We all have aspirations in life. Some of these goals we might achieve through hard work, taking risks and making tough sacrifices. Others we might struggle with our whole lives but never accomplish. This is why when we see someone who has done something great, we look up to them with admiration. When you set your mind to something and you persevere, people can’t help but appreciate the feat. Yuval Feldman is a rising star in the New York Culinary scene. She graduated the Culinary Institute of America - one of the top cooking schools in the US, where she specialised in desserts. Then, she immediately started working at L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon, a 2-star Michelin restaurant. She also worked in the bakery of Dominique Ansel, who was elected the world’s top confectioner in 2018. But as if all that wasn’t enough, she then started working in the Manhatta restaurant, one of Danny Meyer’s restaurants, where she became a su-chef, a rare privilege at such a young age. Now she’s here, for a short time before she goes back to the big Apple. Yuval Feldman joins 2NJB to talk about New York City’s culinary scene, what makes a good muffin and the question of the century: peanut butter and jelly OR peanut butter and chocolate.

Being an Arab living in Israel brings about many dilemmas, internal conflicts and possibly a very serious identity crisis. While some Israeli Arabs prosper, man other Arabs are living in Gaza in debilitating poverty, and suffering under the brutal, murderous dictatorship of Hamas. Most most Israeli Arabs support the Joint List of Arab parties, a minority actually support right-wing, Zionist parties like the Likud, Benjamin Netanyahu’s party. Some Israeli Arabs work in industrial areas in the occupied territories, whereas others support the BDS movement that does everything within its power to shut down the very same industrial areas, rendering thousands of Palestinians jobless. Anyway, you get the point. Being an Arab Israeli is complicated. And now imagine what it means to be an Arab Israeli fighting BDS around the world, a supporter of Zionism, and a son of an ex-South Lebanon Army general who fled to Israel in the year 2000. Jonathan Elkoury was one of our first guests, in episode 21 titled 2001: A Lebanese Odyssey with Jonathan Elkhoury. If you wanna hear Jonathan’s story, you gotta check it out. Now, two years later he’s back to talk about his courageous journeys defending Israel’s right to exist, his political and personal struggles here in Israel, and yes, also the nation state bill. We’re very honored to be joined today by Jonathan Elkoury.

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!

Being Pro-Israeli is hard enough, doing it on social media is a whole other story. It's more than an uphill battle, it's more than bearing the brunt of the mainstream global media. In a way, you might say it’s more like a social media suicide mission. However, a few brave profiles manage to rise up, through the rubble, as pro-israel, pro-zionist, social media vanguards. One of these people is Hannyia Naftali. Hananiya was a regular soldier in the IDF who just couldn’t stand the onslaught of fake news about Israel and the IDF that circulated around the world. So he decided to do something about it. Fast forward 4 years - his videos have got MILLIONS of views, he has a huge following on facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and he even had the privilege of interviewing the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. We are super thrilled to be joined by Hananiya Naftali. Of course, if you’re watching this live, feel free to ask questions in the comments and we’ll do a bit of Q&A as we go. So without further ado, let’s get started.

Israel and Germany’s relationship has known ups and downs over the years. When Israel was established, in 1948, it upheld a policy of enforcing a complete and total boycott on Germany. Israelis swore never to buy a Volkswagen car, never own a Bosch refrigerator, and never to accept a dime of aid from the state that inherited Germany from the Third Reich. But circumstances brought West Germany and Israel closer together during the 1950’s, as Germany needed Israel’s forgiveness for global legitimacy, and Israel needed Germany’s financial aid to avoid bankruptcy. A decade later, total clemency was afforded to the Germans by Israel, embassies were opened and diplomatic relations grew deeper and deeper. To this day, Germany claims to have a special relationship with Israel, and its obligations to Israel’s future and security are constantly reaffirmed, with words at least. And indeed, in recent years Israelis travel in huge numbers to Germany. Many of them stay and dwell in Berlin, once the city of Hitler, and now a flourishing and vibrant world cultural center. But whereas young israelis fascination with Berlin has been discussed time and time again, a more overseen element of the relationship remains undisclosed - the attraction of young Germans to Israel. Alex Deize is a German born Christian. He’s been living here in Israel for some time now, in the northern city of Tiberias. But the story here is what led Alex to Israel - a shocking discovery about his family’s past and the path to God. We’re extremely thrilled to have Alex here with us today.

Just a couple of weeks ago we commemorated the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and the entire western world mourned for the 6 million souls that perished. But what is often missed is the fact, that the Nazis didn’t only murder the people, they murdered whole parts of the Jewish culture that thrived in Europe for many centuries. They destroyed hundreds of newspapers and obliterated whole libraries. They murdered a language, Yiddish. And indeed, before World War II, Jewish culture in Europe was extremely vibrant, with an endless stream of theater, books and newspapers. Literally hundreds of newspapers were published throughout Europe and America, in Yiddish, Hebrew and the local languages. The people of the book were obviously obsessed with ink and paper, and it showed. Most of these publishings didn’t make it through the war, but some survived. One of those was Új Kelet, a Hungarian-Romanian newspaper founded 100 years ago. The history of this paper is a long one, but the interesting part is how the paper nearly went bankrupt a few years back. Right when Kristof Steiner entered the story. Kristof is a Hungarian, part-Jewish model and TV celebrity. He’s been living in Israel for the past ten years and when he heard about the state of Új Kelet, he decided he simply couldn’t let the paper die. What happened next is absolutely incredible. We’re proud to have Kristof Steiner here on the podcast to tell the story.

A few weeks ago we received this email: "Would you be interested to hear about how to survive aliyah, make it through the IDF as a Lt. Col., have the door slammed in your face, have people stand on your shoulders when you remove money from the cash machine, and peak over your shoulder at the pharmacists to see what types of medication you use, and much more... then we should talk. I do have a crazy life story and look forward to sharing it with you and your podcast audience." We took the bait. Daniel Beaudoin (PhD, Lt. Col. Ret) is a speaker, educator and writer from Israel. He offers incisive and behind the scenes analysis on the assault on Israel by the UN and the international aid organizations who operate in the West Bank and the Gaza strip. He teaches on human rights, humanitarian operations and conflict resolution at Tel Aviv University. He is also a successful survivor of Aliyah and lives to tell the story.

Most American or European high school students know about the American Civil War, the Holocaust or even the French Revolution. Most don't know about the 30 years of civil war that ravaged the horn of Africa in the latter part of the last century - conflicts that together claimed the lives of over a million Africans. Much of these conflicts were inner war within Ethiopia, but the greater conflict extended beyond. In 1991, finally peace came to the region much thanks to the ad hoc Peace committee founded by Prof. Ephraim Issac. Prof. Issac's accomplishments are too numerous to list and his life story too great to paraphrase but suffice it to say that he was the first African Studies professor in the United States at Harvard University and he had the privilege of meeting Martin Luther King Jr. So without further ado, we are thrilled to be joined tonight by Prof. Ephraim Issac.

Israel is headed to elections. On April 9th, Israelis will be called to the ballot box to support their political party. Bibi, the incumbent prime minister, is once again asking for Israelis trust and support. With tensions rising along the border with Syria and Gaza, and internal pressure building up between the left and the right here at home, this election is bound to be dramatic. In an attempt to understand the upcoming elections, the players and the current state of affairs, we’re joined by Deputy Minister Michael Oren, who by now, we’re happy to say, is a regular on the podcast. Dr. Michael Oren is a Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's office, Member of Knesset in the Kulanu Party and he served as the Israeli ambassador to the United States in the years 2009-2013. In a previous life, Oren also taught history as visiting professor at Harvard, Yale and Georgetown. He is the author of several books, both fiction and non-fiction, which we’ve discuss here on the podcast. We are honored to be joined by Deputy Minister Oren to discuss what’s in store for Israel and for him.

It happens one day: you meet someone special. You fall in love, move in together. Support each other. You get married, until death do you apart. You take a mortgage, buy a place in the suburbs or in the city. Everything is going according to plan, and life is smiling at you. Then you decide it’s time to take the next step. And before you know it, the stork delivers a beautiful baby to your doorstep, as if you ordered it in Amazon Prime. You want what’s best for the baby, you invest in him from day one. You send him to the kindergarten, you play with him, sing songs together. You’re genuinely happy. When your child is two, maybe three… something seems a little off. You can’t really put your finger on it. The kid doesn’t talk yet, he seems anxious, and he never looks at you straight in the eyes. You take him to a specialist, and the news is devastating - your child is autistic. An estimated 1 out of 42 boys and 1 in 189 girls are diagnosed with autism in the United States. Autism is the fastest-growing serious developmental disability in the U.S. And the scariest thing of all - not one know what causes autism, nor why the sickness rate is in constant growth. But when your kid is diagnosed, it’s not the end. Only the beginning, and today, more and more companies are trying to develop ways to aid autistic children. But today’s guest, Gilad Piker, is a little bit different. Gilad works in Candy Bear, a production company for animated content. He co-produced Zack and Quack alongside our guest from episode 41, Gili Dolev. And one day he had an idea, that might revolutionize the world of autistic children. We’re extremely glad to have Gilad on the show today.