The Promised Podcast

In this very special episode, recorded on a “National Day of Resistance Against Dictatorship,” Noah tries your patience trying to figure out what the hell this conflict is about.

Allison Kaplan Sommer and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —In Flames— We just witnessed the rampage on Huwara that many here are calling a pogrom. A pogrom in 2023? —Flagging Spirits (or, Vexing Vexillology)— Israeli flags are weirdly prominent in the protests against the judicial reform. What’s with the flags? —Piece of Pottery Possibly Proves Purim— For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: One of the president’s senior staff finds an ancient pottery shard with the name of the father of King Achashverosh, from the Purim Megillah, which somehow makes Noah feel nervous, but why, exactly?!? All that and Rena Gluck and the birth of modern dance in Israel, Sara Netanyahu besieged in a salon, and the music of J.Lamotta!

In this first-in-all-of-human-history, cross-over edition of TLV1’s Tel Aviv Review and TLV1’s The Promised Podcast, we discuss the open letter of more than 160 renowned historians of Jews, Judaism and/or Israel (“Israel on the Edge of an Abyss”), which opens, “We, historians of the Jewish people and of the State of Israel, accuse the sixth government of Benjamin Netanyahu of endangering the very existence of the State of Israel and the Israeli nation.” Joining us is the author of the letter, the brilliant historian Orit Rozin.

Miriam Herschlag and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Uncivil Disobedience?— Strikes, blocking roads, doxing, boycotts, intimidating demonstrations right outside the doors of legislators and ministers – Where’s the line that divides legitimate protest from the other kind? —Barak and a Hard Place— Why is former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Aharon Barak, the most revered and reviled man in Israel? —The Great Zionist That Denounced Zionism— For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: What are you supposed to feel when a person who inspired you to become a Zionist renounces and denounces Zionism? All that and the return of Guns N’ Roses, the very public coming-out of a religious journalist, and the music of Akiva!

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Sally Abed and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Presidential Importunity— President Herzog addressed the nation, looking like he’d just seen a ghost. Many say it was the most important speech of Herzog’s life, but was it the speech we need to hear and will it do a damn thing? —A Protest of All its Protestors!— In demonstrations demanding democracy, why does one hear so few Palestinian voices? —How We Holdin’ Up?— For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: Kafka would say, Lighten up, dudes! All that and the music of sing-songwriter-Mensch Bradley Burston!

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —The Invisible Hand that Rocks the Cradle— Newly proposed reform of the schools would give principals the power to fire bad teachers and give extra pay to the good ones, bringing free-market principles to grade-school principals. Do we really need another major reform right now? —SS, Mein Kind— It seems like Nazis are so much on the minds of so many who are fighting Netanyahu’s judicial reforms. Are we a Godwin-forsaken country? —An Open Letter to Israel’s Friends in North America— For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: When American-immigrant-Israeli “Dream Team” issues a Cri de Coeur you pay attention! All that and Kiss’s Gene Simmons singing the praises of Hebrew and the music of Avi Aburomi!

Allison Kaplan Sommer and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —When Cannons Roar— There were 32 attacks on Israeli Jews – some deadly – in January. How does the violence affect the protests over Netanyahu’s reforms that have roiled the country? —Keeping the Faith— Is religious-left and oxymoron? —Caught Diddling the Fiddle— For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: Israel Bar Association head, and leader of the protest movement, Avi Himi is caught diddling his fiddle on a video call with a young lawyer eager for his recommendation for a seat at the bench. Oy. What happens now? All that and the twentieth anniversary of the Columbia space shuttle disaster, young professors cruising bars for the sake of politics, and a mother-daughter dance at Suzanne Dallal! Plus, the hippest of hip hop by Talis, on the release of his first album!

Allison Kaplan Sommer and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —A Tale of Four Cities— Fifteen times as many people are turning out for anti-government demonstrations in Tel Aviv as are coming to demonstrations in Jerusalem. But are the small demonstrations in the capital more important than the big demonstrations on the coast? —U & Us— University students hold every imaginable political belief. So is it right for university administrators and faculty to encourage their students to protest the new government? —The Smart, Successful Jew— For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: Successful Israeli businessman Ohad Torpor says Jews are so successful at business because they love learning, hate being told what to think, are into family, and are improvisational. Where does pride end and self-congratulatory fantasy start? All that and, to mark International Holocaust Day, a discussion with Daniel Lipson, a librarian at the National Library who has worked for years to identify the books in the library’s collections that were stolen by the Nazi’s during the war, and recovered later and shipped to Israel. Plus, the music of Subliminal and Ha-Tzel, who just reunited fourteen years after they stopped making music together.

Miriam Herschlag and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Estoppel Anagrams to “Lost Peeps”— The Supreme Court bars Shas head Aryeh Deri from being a minister, and half the country thinks justice has been done and half the country thinks the results of Novembers democratic elections have been undone. —WWYS, or What Would Yossi Say?— Journalist, scholar, podcaster, public intellectual Yossi Klein Halevi published an essay on the Times of Israel arguing that we’re riven between those who long for a “State of Judaism”, and those who long for a “State of Jews.” How did we get here? Yossi Klein Halevi, who joined us for the discussion, has an answer! —Ha’Trempistim – The Hitchhikers— For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: A documentary web series shows Israelis at our pushy, boundary-less best. All that and the first 7Eleven in a Jewish State in 5,000 years, a new Hebrew word from beyond the grave, and the music of Daria Vered!

Noah Efron and prodigal son Ohad Zeltzer-Zubida discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Courting Disaster?— The “Judicial Reform” has so many people so very worried. Is it needed reform or coup d’état? —Our Bialik— People still call Hayim Nahman Bialik Israel’s “National Poet.” What could that possibly mean in 2023, on the 150th anniversary of Bialik’s birth? —The Ultimate Guide to All That Tel Aviv Has to Offer— For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: Ohad spills about the coolest eating and drinking spots in Tel Aviv-Jaffa. All that and Pooh in the Promised Land, the Museum of Illusions, and Bialik’s words set to hip new music.