Ask a Jew

DECEMBER 12 HANUKKAH PARTY IN NYC! Follow askajew.substack.com for details.

Some rational and irrational responses to the election that are sure to equally offend all the listeners, plus movies, planes, the orthodox draft in Israel, and more. This is probably the only podcast where a passionate argument about skincare will lead to a passionate argument about a hostage deal.

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Looking for a non-election podcast? How about 75 minutes of soothing soviet antisemitism? We got you. Our guest today is Izabella Tabarovsky, a scholar of Soviet antizionism and contemporary antisemitism. We discuss how everything old is new again, why being a self-hating Jewish celebrity is sooooo 1970s, and what you can do today to de-program your brain from stale propaganda.

You should read pretty much everything Izabella has ever written: start here.

The Z3 institute for Jewish Priorities (there’s a conference you can go to in the Bay Area!)

18 brave Georgian Jews in 1969

We should all be Refusenicks

Wikipedia is Disinformation with a hard D

No, it really sucks

Club Z so you can raise non-self hating kids

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Bonjour from Paris! (Bonjour means “hello” in French). Miss us? We missed you, each other, and the sound of our own voices. That maybe explains the fact that neither of us could shut up on this one, in fact we almost forgot we were recording and maybe went a little more vulnerable than expected (people like that stuff, right?). In this episode, we catch up about the holidays, Iran, the beef between Johnny Depp and Rabbi Sufrin, and of course our election ambivalence. There's lots more on Substack for you to read, and you can comment and chat there as well. 

Links:

Yezidi girl saved from Gaza testimony - actual trigger warning.

The story we discussed about a woman named Dafna from Kibbutz Reim.

Everything is Illuminated movie recommendation

Don't Dance on Graves - EdJewCation

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In this week’s episode of “people we thought were Jewish” - Christine Rosen! Christine is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, columnist for Commentary magazine, cohosts of The Commentary Magazine Podcast, and author of the new book The Extinction of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World.

We talk about Christine's very unique acknowledgments page, the good, bad and ugly of technology, IRL friendships vs. online friendships, and how with great rights come great responsibilities.

Buy the book The Extinction of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World.

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On the eve of October 7th, we gathered with 100+ of our closest friends (you guys!) to share our feelings, frustrations, sad tears and happy tears. Don't worry, we still found some space for holocaust jokes and hot dictators. Thank you to everyone who joined, from Portland to Iran -  we are very lucky to have you. Special thanks to Super Friends and former guests Eli Lake (The Reeducation, The Free Press) and Mike Pesca (The Gist) for jumping on and sharing their wisdom. Listen all the way to the end for an uplifting finish (Or dare I say...a happy ending).

Need a community? We have one! Join askajew.substack.com to continue the conversation on chat or comments.

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Sunday October 6 listener Zoom!! Go to askajew.substack.com for details.

Shana Tova from the bomb shelter! Just kidding, the IDF said we can go out, plus, after an hour we finished folding laundry and drinking a bottle of whiskey, and we were bored. This episode was recorded before Iran launched a ballistic missile attack at our faces, so if we sound a little too cheerful and irreverent....well, I guess that's on brand. Pics and links here on substack. 

In this one:

• Who’s less hot, JD Vance or Tim Walz?
• An update on Nicole Kidman’s wigs on The Perfect Couple
• Our low expectations from celebrities these days
• George Washington wrote a nice letter once to Jews an we’re still talking about it
• A distressed hostage back from Hamas captivity, and Noa Argamani
• El Al to people trying to get flight tickets to Israel: Don’t.
• What kind of Orthodox is this?
• Is Austria’s far right leader hot? AAJ investigates
• An on-an-off relationship with G_d
• We may have made a big mistake offing that austere religious scholar Hassan Nasrallah
• Our friend Eli Lake about the importance of winning, in The Free Press
• A Sephora for Beirut
• Why do Orthodox women always do this for a living?
• And a listener has an R-rated Auschwitz related question…

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This episode is brought to you by the Federated States of Micronesia. No, they aren't paying us for sponsorship, but they are the only country that still loves us, so this one's on us!

This week we discuss the Hezbollah pager explosions, the list of countries that can no longer sit with us, Hassan Nasrallah's glow-up, decolonized pizza at MIT, tips on how to focus,and more. 

The UN being the UN

MIT activists disrupt Israeli professor, steal pizzas (and a happy ending!)

The Man from Vilna - how to think about Simchat Torah this year (lyrics here)

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Greg Lukianoff is a First Amendment lawyer, President and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), and co-author of the hits "The Coddling of the American Mind"  with Jonathan Haidt and "The Canceling of the American Mind" with Rikki Schlott. He joins us to talk all things free speech, like why campuses are burning, how violence is kind of bad, actually, and why he fights for our right to say dumb things, and be called out on them. 

Also:

• What should keep us up at night?
• Culture of free speech vs. the law of free speech
• Actually, violence is bad
• 2023 was the worst year for deplatforming in history
• Harvard is so mad at Greg right now
• Even antisemites have free speech rights :(
• Are the universities redeemable?
• You're anti-intellectual! No, you're anti-intellectual! 
• Blame the lack of viewpoint diversity
• Students + admins = trouble
• Are you ever sick of all this free speech nonsense?
• Kids need to be told they are stupid more often
• FIRE-branded Shabbat dinners, coming soon to a table near you

Follow Greg on Twitter/X if you please, and also on Substack at The Eternally Radical Idea

The article that inspired the book The Coddling of the American Mind in The Atlantic (2015)

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David Christopher Kaufman is a columnist and editor at the NY Post and an adjunct fellow at the Tel Aviv institute. He joins the girls this week to talk elections, Israel, and the identity of the half black, half Jewish, totally Zionist American journalist. 
 

Also: 

* The mood in Israel

* The difference between being a Jew and being Jewish

* Why Hamas is like dating in New York

* A Zionist Jew and a non-Zionist Jew walk into a bar...

* We all feel the same and it hasn't stopped for a day

* The pressure on young black Jewish kids

* The black struggle is not the Palestinian struggle

* Pro-Trump Jews, identity politics, and Kamala Harris

* Doug Emhoff is the "right kind of Jew"

Follow David on X and Instagram

And read his writing in the NY Post

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We are joined by Brianna Wu, the Executive Director of Rebellion Pac, who proudly calls herself queer, progressive - and a friend of Israel. We discuss growing up in Mississippi, what progressives can learn from Hasidic Jews, the Women's March, Gamergate, being an inspiration for a Law & Order episode, her global ranking as an elite Super Mario 2 Runner - and more!

Follow Brianna on X

The famous Law & Order episode based on Brianna's story

Brianna's Super Mario run

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