Two Nice Jewish Boys

"The interesting thing is that Jews in the States, [...] in Canada and in Europe, are the ethnic group that is most prone to hate crimes and racially motivated attacks... They are by far the most persecuted against ethnic group in the west. [...] Far more than the black community, far more than Muslims." Beside for being the production designer for the 2009 MTV show Dj & the Fro, Roy Iddan writes a political column for NRG, one of Israel’s leading news outlets. He’s written for Israeli film and television as well, and interestingly enough for several political campaigns including that of the Likud party in 2015. Roy Iddan supports a return to classical liberal economics. But what does right-wing mean to him? Naor and I racked our brains thinking of who could best answer that question. You guessed it. With us here today is Roy Iddan to talk about the right wing in Israel.

"I'll tell you what I know for a fact: [...] in the last couple of years, social media has been a very important element in any election around the world, in any political process around the world and in the past year [...] security researchers have uncovered that there are many ways to subvert digital and social media, by creating Twitter bots, armies of Twitter profiles that are fake and actually help create an echo chamber of messages which are, maybe, pro one candidate..." -Keren Elazari, hacker, cyber security researcher and first Israeli woman to speak on Ted When we hear about cyber attacks, systems getting hacked and ransomware, we usually imagine a bunch of masked hoodlums in a dark basement, probably on the outskirts of Moscow, plotting to bring anarchy upon the world. What we seldom imagine, though, are a bunch of intelligent, successful computer scientists in a luxurious office, looking for security breaches, hacking into systems, and sometimes even taking part in cyber warfare. Keren Elazari was a geeky kid in the 90s when she discovered, at a very young age, that her peculiar hobby actually has a name: hacking. It wasn't long before she was participating in international hacking conventions, serving in a secret military intelligence unit, and finally receiving grants to conduct research in her field. Keren Elazari was the first ever Israeli woman to lecture on TED. She's an analyst and cyber researcher at Tel Aviv University, and her articles were published in many international magazines. We're very excited to have her here today to talk about cyber security and hacking. Photo by TED

"If thinking is the most important thing you have, then what you want to feed to your machine, that does the thinking, are facts - not lies. Lies are distortions, anti-facts; they disrupt the function of the human mind. [...] The idea of a post-truth era would be her [Ayn Rand's] idea of the end of the world." -Dr. Yaron Brook, Director of the Ayn Rand Institute Ayn Rand. As you read that name, half of you are thinking about Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged and how much it changed your life and the other half has already stopped listening. But regardless of your views, it’s undeniable that as a philosopher, Rand has left an enduring mark on the world. Her philosophy of objectivism preaches something called rational self-interest which maintains that as individuals we are innately selfish beings and that selfishness, however counterintuitive this might sound at first, should be the highest value of our morality. Sacrifice, in her opinion, is evil. But before we mislead you anymore about the philosophy of Ayn Rand, let us introduce Dr. Yaron Brook. Dr. Brook is the Director of the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine California and he joins us today to talk about Ayn Rand, her life and philosophy.

"When Game of Thrones aired last year, I went to L.A [...] and I met the casting team for Genius. And she told me: Listen, I have an audition for you. And I taped for Mileva, for his [Einstein's] wife. Then, a week after, I got a phone call: come to London to meet Ron Howard. [...] I met with Ron and I read for him and I didn't get the part. I cried for a month... Maybe two." Not too many people can write Game of Thrones on their acting resume, and probably only one Israeli. Anya Bukstein grew up in Moscow in the time of the USSR. She moved to Israel with her parents at age 8 and began her acting career at age 12 with her performance in the Israeli film A New Country - a performance for which she was nominated for an Ophir Award, Israel’s most prestigious acting accolade. Since then, Anya has had quite a few acting gigs, both on stage and on the screen, most recently performing alongside Jeffery Rush in National Geographic’s Genius, a drama series about the life of Albert Einstein. Singing and playing the piano since childhood, Ania decided to expand beyond the screen and in 2013 she released 8 tracks on her eponymously named debut album. She’s released a few successful singles with world renowned DJ Offer Nissim and she's now finishing up her second album. Today we’re talking to Anya Bukstein and we’ll try to steer clear of any Game of Thrones spoilers.

"We would get them to smile. And obviously every few years we had a war. There were times that we performed 4-5 times a day, either it was a place where there were 8 or 10 soldiers, and sometimes even 1000. And in my time, we never used microphones. We screamed. When I finished my service I had a neck wider than my head." Long before Gal Gadot, Topol was the first and only Israeli international superstar. His path to fame started in 1964, when he starred in Kishon’s film Sallah Shabati, the first Israeli film to be nominated for an Oscar, and for this role he received a Golden globe. From there, his road to the role of Tevye was short. He first portrayed him in West End in London,and then in the 1971 Norman Jewishon Hollywood adaptation. For this role he also received a Golden globe and was nominated for an oscar for best actor. As he continued performing on stage, he starred in numerous films, including James Bond, and appeared on British Prime time television.

“You have this city, it’s called Tacloban, it had about 250 thousand people. And a small wave hit it. Small, i say because the Japan tsunami [...] was about 130 feet high but here we’re talking about a small wave, about 15 feet, came in and the first thing it did is kill about 5,000 people in the city and leave their bodies throughout. But people don’t think about the aftermath. The aftermath is where you get a multiplying effect [...] the ripples. [...] Then to make it better, the cherry on the cake is that you have three maximum security prisons there. When the water starts to rise the guards have to make a decision: open the gates or let them drown." *** Last week we uploaded an episode with the inspiring and diligent Ophelie Namiech in which she told us about her work with IsraAID and the 5 years she spent in the freshly independent country of South Sudan from 2011 to 2016. This week we’re talking to Voni Glick, Co-CEO of IsraAID, to hear more about the organization as a whole, about its history and about his involvement. Voni was born in Israel but quickly became a classical nomadic Jew, moving to France with his family when he was only two, winding up in Canada and finally returning to the Jewish State in 2011.

Since its foundation in 2001 IsraAID has provided emergency assistance and long-term national infrastructure rehabilitation in many disaster-stricken countries around the world. What distinguishes IsraAID from other NGOs, is that while they help these traumatized countries rebuild their communities, they place an emphasis on strengthening the national entities rather than providing direct assistance. Ophelie Namiech really wanted to make Aliyah but that wasn’t her only dream. Ophelie also longed to provide humanitarian aid in the war-torn African country of Sudan. IsraAID enabled her to fulfill both these dreams. Living and working in the newly independent country of South Sudan for 5 years, Ophelie became well-acquainted with the work involved in disaster-relief. She also came back with a story or two. Tune in to hear Ophelie share her amazing experiences with 2NJB.

Everybody who comes to Israel adores the food - it's colorful, diverse and multi-cultured. As Israelies, we grow up eating Tunisian, Romanian, Iraqi and Italian food, and many other cuisines - sometimes all in the same week. And for us it's quite normal. So normal, perhaps, that we rarely stop to ask ourselves: Is there even such a thing as Israeli cuisine? To try and answer this question, Two Nice Jewish Boys called upon the master of Israeli food, Gil Hovav. Every Israeli household has been eating from Gil's plate for over two decades. He's starred in numerous televised cooking shows and food documentaries. He is a man of the world, an author, a lover of Hebrew (and Arabic!), the great-grandson of Ben Yehuda (the reviver of the Hebrew language) and above all - one helluva mench. Join us for a gastronomic episode. We also played an amazing song by Hagar Levy! Check her our on Youtube or Bandcamp.

For most Israelis, innovation means high-tech, angel investors, an exit and boatloads of cash. Truth is, though, Innovation can come in many forms. Startups make profit out of innovation, by identifying problems and offering solutions. But what if innovation were to be used not as a means to make profit, but rather a tool to achieve social goals? Irad Eichler chose this path exactly, by establishing a relatively large non-profit organization, Shekulu Tov, that works with the state and offers rehabilitation services to those in need in order to help them return to the work force. For his achievements, Irad was recently awarded a prize by the U.N. He joins us to talk about social innovation. We also played a beautiful song by The Fine Marten!

Gili Dolev wasn’t especially studious as a young kid growing up in Binyamina. However, one of his teachers saw his potential and helped him pave his way to a successful career in animation. The road was not so easy. There were ups, downs, twists and turns but eventually, at 40, against all odds, Gili sold the first Israeli kids animation series to an international TV network, Nickelodeon. Two Nice Jewish Boys had the privilege to sit with Gili and talk about his work, his career and the deal that changed his life.