Two Nice Jewish Boys

Size matters. Or so, at least, we’ve been told from the moment we were born: the tallest guy gets the glory on the basketball courts at school; The longest thesis at the university class stands for the quality of research and work that was put into it; A filmmaker can make 50 short films but he’ll never make it if he hasn’t made a Feature. And then there's literature: Ulysses, War and Peace, and even the Lord of the Rings trilogy - all stand for the concept of size as a quality stamp. Etgar Keret’s career, however, has been proving just the opposite. For 30 years Keret has been focusing mainly on short stories, and it’s safe to say that his technique and unique style has contributed a lot to the reshaping of short storytelling as an art form. Keret’s one of the most translated Israeli writers. His books have been translated to 37 languages. His short stories were adapted to international productions, like “Wristcutters” or the stop animation film 9.99$. Keret has published 13 books, including short stories books, comics, graphic novels, and even children’s books. He won many awards, among which the Knight Medallion for Literature in France. His debut feature film, that he co-created with his wife Shira Geffen, was awarded the Golden Camera in the Cannes film festival. And now a new documentary film about him is being released. Today 2NJB are deeply honored to host Etgar Keret.

Freedom of speech or freedom of the press has been a key ingredient of healthy democracies since, well, since healthy democracies have been around. But what does it mean to be a good Journalist? Where do we draw the lines between freedom of press and national security? How do you keep a newspaper’s ethics in check without compromising on its values? As Israel's leading liberal national daily newspaper, Haaretz and its journalists must struggle with these questions on a daily basis, particularly the person who runs the paper. So, here to help us answer those questions is Aluf Benn, the editor-in-chief of Haaretz. Aluf Benn has been published in a number of international newspapers including The NYT, The Guardian and Newsweek. He joins us today to discuss journalism.

If you have kids, you probably know that television is dead, or at least, dying. Nowadays young adults and kids alike spend the vast majority of their free time on Youtube, binging endless hours of free content, tailored specifically to their tastes and desires. This revolution has afforded talented people from all around the world not only the opportunity to reach huge audiences without having to go through producers and networks - but also the chance to make a living from their art. Leigh Lahav, an Israeli-American who moved from Israel to L.A 3 years ago, is probably the most successful Israeli Youtuber out there. Her short animations, usually mash ups of shows and movies from pop culture, have accumulated millions and millions of views. She has a huge community of fans and followers, and now she’s on a journey to make it big in America. Leigh joins us today to talk about her art, career and future endeavors.

The Middle East isn’t the friendliest neighborhood to grow up in, especially for Israel. With the cold peace it shares with both Egypt and Jordan to the persistent “state of war” it holds with Iraq and Iran, Israel is hard pressed to find a friend in its corner of the world. The USA is often seen as Israel’s big brother, its protector, its ever-loyal ally, but the United States lies thousands upon thousands of miles away geographically and lightyears culturally. So how does a country like Israel fit in in its home town? What’s its role here in the Middle East? How does a young nation forge relationships in such a harsh climate? Here to help us understand the intricacies and intrigues of the Middle East is Barak Ravid. Barak is the chief diplomatic correspondent for Channel 10 News in Israel. Before that he served as the diplomatic correspondent at Haaretz for a decade, covering the Prime Minister's Office, the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Defense, dealing with issues such as U.S.-Israeli relations, EU-Israeli relations and the peace process. Barak Ravid joins us today to talk about Israel’s place in the Middle East.

Everyone loves a good adventure. Whether you're into climbing the highest mountains, bungee jumping from the highest bridges, or in my case - going to my cousin's Bar Mizvah in Delaware - a little bit of a risk can bring on a rush of adrenaline that adds that excitement we all live for. But some people take adventure to the next level. With us today is Tamara Baraaz who happens to be that kind of person. Tamara is a journalist who travels to the most dangerous countries in the world to tell the stories of the people who live there. Her journeys led her to east Ukraine, Chad, Central Africa, Somalia, and even Afghanistan, where she couch surfed, and Iraq, where she ended up in a prison. Tamara joins 2NJB to tell us about the extraordinary people that she met and the places she's seen.

We have a new podcast about aliyah and what it's like to become an Israeli, called The Melting Podcast. Here's the first episode! On this episode, we speak to Ilana Vaknine, AKA La La Vak, one of Tel Aviv’s funniest sex bloggers, plus live music by Quarter to Africa We produced this podcast for Kan, Israel's Public Broadcasting Corporation, and you can find it wherever you get your podcasts. Episode 2 is already out! Find all episodes here: www.kan.org.il/podcast/program.aspx/?progId=2052

Over the last decade, in Israel, Binary Options has become a term that carries with it a heavy stigma of fraud and theft and is generally associated with shady people. But it hasn’t always been like that. For a long time, for many people, it was just another sector of the financial industry which was raking in A LOT of dough. It actually provided an opportunity for many people who otherwise struggled to make a living in Israel, an opportunity to make good money, fast! On the 23rd of March, 2016, Simona Weinglass, a reporter for the Times of Israel, wrote an expose of the Binary Options industry. In it, she described a world that thrived on deception, illegal activity, and ultimately on preying on the weak. Since her expose in the Times of Israel, Simona has been covering the battle against Binary Options in Israel’s Parliament. Today, the industry is well on its way to being taken down. This episode is a rerun from a year ago (ep 14) when Simona joined us to talk about this dark industry and how she came to uncover it. (Photo credit: www.vpsi.org)

For thousands of years astronomers have been looking up to the sky, trying to understand what the hell's going on up there. In the last 50 years technology has led to tremendous breakthroughs, and yet, we are still very far from solving the most essential of questions: how was all this created? Prof. Tzevi Mazeh from Tel Aviv University has been trying to find answers to these questions for over 40 years. He was a guest researcher in Harvard, and as an astronomer, Prof. Mazeh took part in many important discoveries of stars, planets and other space phenomena. Prof. Mazeh published the book “introduction to the Theory of Relativity”, and co-edited the book “Drishat Shalom”, a collection of articles about peace and justice from a biblical perspective. Prof. Mazeh was also the chair of the political jewish-left-wing movement “Netivot Shalom”. Prof. Mazeh is one of the most popular lecturers in Tel Aviv University, and apart from being a leading astrophysicist, he is also an expert in the history of Astronomy. And apart from that, he has also been teaching Talmud for many years. Prof. Mazeh joins 2NJB today to talk about his out-of-this-world career.

Jews have been longing for Jerusalem for two thousand years. But in the 19th century only a few were courageous enough, some might say crazy enough, to take everything and leave their homes to the Holy Land. And that's exactly what several poor Yemenite families did. They walked by foot from Sanaa to Jerusalem, only to find out that the Holy city is actually a dump. Gil Hovav’s ancestors were one of these families, and when a few generations later, Yemenite jew Moshe Hovav Married the granddaughter of Eliezer Ben Yehuda, reviver of the Hebrew language - Gil Hovav was the result. Gil grew up amidst a clash of cultures, which took place in a city torn apart by wars and religion. His fascinating childhood is the subject of his autobiographical book, Candies From Heaven, which was just now released in English. Gil is one of Israel’s greatest experts in food and food culture. Gil has been a regular guest in every Israeli household for over 20 years. He’s a pioneer of the televised cooking shows here in Israel. He’s a food journalist and author of many cooking books and some novels as well. Gil joins us for the second time to talk about his amazing childhood in Jerusalem.

Since 2014 the world has been commemorating 100 years for the Great War, World War I. 16.5 Million people lost their lives in that war, and its results changed the world forever. Among many influences, the one that is most relevant to the Jewish people, is the liberation of Israel - then Palestine - from the turkish occupation, and the beginning of the British Mandate. This November we’re also commemorating 100 years since the Balfour Declaration. Signed by the British foreign minister Balfour, that document led to the fact that we're sitting here right now with Kobi Hubara... Koby Hubara has been filling up pubs and venues with his popular history lectures throughout Tel Aviv, for years. He’s a researcher of history, a writer and a publicist, and he’s with us to talk about the war we know almost nothing about, its affect on the Jewish fate and and how it reshaped the world.