Ask Haviv Anything

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American and Israeli Jews make up nearly 90% of world Jewry, yet when they talk to each other, they more often than not talk past each other. Like ships passing in the night. To unpack why, Haviv is joined by his father, Rabbi Dr. Ed Rettig. Born in the US, Ed moved to Israel at 18, fought on the front lines of the Yom Kippur War just months later, and went on to become a Jerusalem police prosecutor, a rabbi, and a sociologist of the Jewish people.

Together, they break down the six hidden fault lines dividing the world’s two great Jewish civilizations: how radical American Protestantism turned American Judaism into a "religion of choice" while Israel remained a Middle Eastern "religion of fate"; why secular Judaism thrives in Israel but struggles to survive two generations in America; why "separation of church and state" and "separation of religion and state" mean opposite things; how each community understands and wields power after October 7; and how the centrality of sacrifice shapes the way they see the world.

This episode is dedicated by Michael Kapnick in memory of Max Steinberg, z"l, an American kid from Los Angeles who fell as a Golani lone soldier in Gaza in 2014, and whose life and sacrifice embody the bond between our two different worlds.

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If you like what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything or our Substack at https://havivgur.substack.com/. You can also Buy Me a Coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur. It helps us keep the lights on. Patreon and Substack are also the platforms where you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at [email protected]⁠.

Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.

To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur).

We have merch! Find our awesome new mug and hat at https://shop.askhavivanything.com.

And be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur).

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In the 1950s and 60s, Gamal Abdel Nasser promised the Arab world that unity would erase the humiliation of 1948 and ultimately destroy Israel. Instead, it led to the devastation of 1967. Enter Anwar Sadat, who engineered a limited war in 1973 not to conquer Israel militarily, but to deliver a psychological shock that would force American intervention and secure Egypt’s national interests over pan-Arab fantasies. Today, Israel faces a new regional axis led by Iran, fueled by religious redemption rather than secular nationalism. Dan Schueftan joins the podcast to unpack the strategic genius of Sadat, the miscalculations of President Carter, and the historical blueprint Israeli leaders are working from as they seek to break the Iranian ring of fire today.

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This episode is sponsored by David Allouch and dedicated to his friend Jake Marlow, whose Hebrew name was Yaakov Avraham ben Moshe, a talented musician who was murdered on October 7, 2023 while rescuing partygoers at the Nova festival where he had been working security. This episode is also dedicated to Eden Yerushalmi and the five other hostages murdered alongside her in August 2024, and to all the tzaddikim (righteous) who were murdered on October 7. It is also dedicated as “a tribute to the memory of Israel’s fallen soldiers and to the courage of the roaring lions of the IDF and the IAF in their battle against evil.”

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If you like what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything or our Substack at https://havivgur.substack.com/. You can also Buy Me a Coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur. It helps us keep the lights on. On Patreon and Substack, you can also ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at [email protected]⁠.

Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.

To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur).

We have merch! Find our awesome new mug and hat at https://shop.askhavivanything.com.

And be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur).

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On October 7 and in the months that followed, Israel’s leaders were fighting Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran -- and each other. Where was Netanyahu on October 7 and its aftermath? Did Washington’s push for de-escalation prolong the fighting? And why have American Jews struggled to mobilize against the rising antisemitism that followed October 7?

The Wall Street Journal’s Elliot Kaufman joins the podcast to answer these questions and discuss his new book, In the War Room: The Inside Story of Israel's Fight Against Hamas and the Iranian Axis, written with Jerusalem Post military analyst Yonah Jeremy Bob. The book explores the bitter rivalries, catastrophic failures and bold and successful decisions that have shaped the war and reshaped the Middle East.

In the War Room is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/War-Room-Israels-Against-Iranian/dp/B0G2JWY3TG

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This episode is sponsored by the Tikvah’s Millstone Scholars program. A unique program designed for those middle-school years when young people begin deciding what they believe and who they want to become.

For parents and grandparents wondering what comes after the bar or bat mitzvah, Millstone offers substantive, serious learning. This isn’t more Hebrew school; it’s a selective national honors program for seventh- and eighth-graders. Students meet weekly in small cohorts to study Jewish civilization, modern Israel, and the Jewish ideas that inspired America. Through primary sources and guided, seminar discussion, they develop the confidence to become proud Jews, proud Americans, and future leaders.

Millstone offers in-person and online cohorts across thirty cities. Classes begin the week of October 18. You can learn more and apply at https://tikvah.org/haviv.

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If you like what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything or our Substack at https://havivgur.substack.com/. You can also Buy Me a Coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur. It helps us keep the lights on. On Patreon and Substack, you can also ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at [email protected]⁠.

Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.

To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur).

We have merch! Find our awesome new mug and hat at https://shop.askhavivanything.com.

And be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur).

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Most Israelis agree on almost everything that matters. So why does it feel like the country is coming apart?

Two weeks before election day, Dr. Micah Goodman returns with two stories about Israel that contradict each other and are both true.

We look at two Israels: the one held together by sacrifice and solidarity, the one consumed by grievance, fear, and political loyalty – and the millions of Israelis who live in both mental worlds simultaneously. And we ask a harder question: How much of our division is real and how much is cultivated by leaders whose power depends on it?

A conversation about Israel’s hidden consensus, its failing politics, and the peace Israelis need to make with one another.

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This episode is sponsored by the Tikvah’s Millstone Scholars program. A unique program designed for those middle-school years when young people begin deciding what they believe and who they want to become.

For parents and grandparents wondering what comes after the bar or bat mitzvah, Millstone offers substantive, serious learning. This isn’t more Hebrew school; it’s a selective national honors program for seventh- and eighth-graders. Students meet weekly in small cohorts to study Jewish civilization, modern Israel, and the Jewish ideas that inspired America. Through primary sources and guided, seminar discussion, they develop the confidence to become proud Jews, proud Americans, and future leaders.

Millstone offers in-person and online cohorts across thirty cities. Classes begin the week of October 18. You can learn more and apply at https://tikvah.org/haviv.

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If you like what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything or our Substack at https://havivgur.substack.com/. You can also Buy Me a Coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur. It helps us keep the lights on. On Patreon and Substack, you can also ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at [email protected]⁠.

Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.

To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur).

We have merch! Find our awesome new mug and hat at https://shop.askhavivanything.com.

And be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur).

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What actually brought hostages home, and why did it take so long? Brett McGurk, who led Biden’s efforts to free the October 7 hostages, joins Haviv to discuss his new book, Brink: Inside the Race to Free the October 7th Hostages. From secret Saudi talks to the showdown over Rafah, he describes the decisions, failures and breakthroughs behind the negotiations -- and why he concluded that a deal would remain out of reach while Yahya Sinwar was alive.

You can buy the book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/843630/brink-by-brett-mcgurk/

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This episode is sponsored by a friend of the podcast, Professor Robert Hockett, a Rhodes Scholar and professor of law and finance at Cornell University, who wishes regularly to support this podcast and this community, he writes us, which in his words “demonstrate with astonishing frequency that theology and history in the Middle East do not code easily as Western left or right, and that treating these subjects deeply, not facily, actually makes them more comprehensible, not more obscure or intractable.”

Thank you so much to Prof. Hockett for his support.

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If you like what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything or our Substack at https://havivgur.substack.com/. You can also Buy Me a Coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur. It helps us keep the lights on. On Patreon and Substack, you can also ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at [email protected]⁠.

Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.

To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur).

We have merch! Find our awesome new mug and hat at https://shop.askhavivanything.com.

And be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur).

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Gadi Taub, historian, Hebrew University lecturer and one of the most serious defenders of the Israeli right, says October 7 was a wake-up call that half the country slept through. With elections on October 27, he and Haviv argue it out. Was Netanyahu the war's master strategist or the man who presided over the complacency before it? Was the information war lost or never winnable? They also clash over hostage deals, Gaza aid, Ben Gvir and Arab-sector crime, the attorney general, and whether Israel suffers from tyranny of the majority or of the minority.

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This episode is sponsored by the Technion.

Israel became the startup nation by turning talent into strength, ideas into industries. For more than a century, the Technion has trained the engineers, the scientists, the entrepreneurs who transformed Israel into the startup nation and delivered breakthroughs that changed the world.

Now Technion scientists are advancing the next wave of innovation to help power Israel's next chapter.

Israel, engineered by the Technion.

Join us. Visit https://ats.org/rebuild.

Thank you to the Technion for dedicating this episode.

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If you like what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything or our Substack at https://havivgur.substack.com/. You can also Buy Me a Coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur. It helps us keep the lights on. Patreon and Substack are also the platforms where you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at [email protected]⁠.

Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.

To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur).

And be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur).

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Hebrew University historian Prof. Alexander Yakobson returns for a subscriber Q&A: Did the Arabs really “miss an opportunity” in 1947? Can Europe reclaim its national identities without falling into old, dangerous chauvinisms? What happens if Israel’s “modern” class walks away after years of war and a rightward political shift? Do liberal democracies fuel extremism when they abandon patriotism?

From Germany’s struggle with its past to a pointed debate over Israelis leaving their country, we ask what holds a nation together and what happens when those bonds are tested.

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This episode is sponsored by David Allouch and dedicated in honor of his dear friends Ezra and Michele Chammah for their enduring friendship and unconditional support throughout the years, and to the memory of his late father Abraham Ben Haim who passed away on 25 Elul, 2023, and his mother Sarah Simcha who passed away on 6 Adar, 2025.

Thank you, David, for that dedication.

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If you like what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything or our Substack at https://havivgur.substack.com/. You can also Buy Me a Coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur. It helps us keep the lights on. Patreon and Substack are also the platforms where you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at [email protected]⁠.

Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.

This episode we are trying something a bit different. First you will hear a three minute video by American journalist Ayman Mohyeldin, and then a 12 minute response by Haviv Rettig Gur. This segment was originally published to our YouTube channel and I encourage everyone to watch it there so you can also see the visuals.

To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur).

And be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur).

On Patreon and Substack, you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at [email protected]⁠.

To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything ), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/ ), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur ).

And be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/ ) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur ).

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Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews and lectures that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East.

In our current episode we ask: Are the allegations in NAZA true?

If you appreciate what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything or our Substack at https://havivgur.substack.com/. You can also Buy Me a Coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur. It helps us keep the lights on. Patreon and Substack are also the platforms where you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at [email protected]⁠.

Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.

To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur).

And be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur).

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Israel’s democracy wasn't designed in a grand constitutional convention. It was patched together quickly in the middle of a war in 1949. Yet, for nearly 80 years, this chaotic system miraculously prevented civil war and built a powerhouse state. Dr. Shany Mor, lecturer in political thought at Reichman University, joins the podcast ahead of the October elections to explain the hidden brilliance of the Israeli electoral system and how well-intentioned reforms like raising the electoral threshold spectacularly backfired to empower the extremes.

If you’ve ever wondered why Israeli politics looks insane and still somehow works -- or whether it still will as the country’s crises seem to accumulate -- this is the episode for you.

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This episode was sponsored by Congregation Adath Jeshurun of Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. “Congregation Adath Jeshurun was founded in 1858 and later became one of the original synagogues of the Conservative Movement. We at AJ, as it is widely known, are deeply appreciative of the historical perspective, political analyses, and theological contexts that Haviv provides. May we go from strength to strength.”

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If you like what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything or our Substack at https://havivgur.substack.com/. You can also Buy Me a Coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur. It helps us keep the lights on. Patreon and Substack are also the platforms where you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at [email protected]⁠.

Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.