Many months ago, we solicited questions from you, our listeners, for our first-ever mailbag episode. The result was a wide-ranging conversation that wandered from the serious (Torah study) to the relatively frivolous (HBO’s Girls). We planned to release the episode in early October, but shelved it in the wake of Hamas’s attack on Israel and amid Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza. We’re sharing it now as a piece of bonus holiday content because many of your questions still feel relevant—even if we might have answered them differently from within this moment. In this episode, editor-in-chief Arielle Angel, executive editor Nora Caplan-Bricker, managing editor Nathan Goldman, and associate editor Mari Cohen discuss, among other things, how to deal with right-wing family members and what we say when people ask us why we care about Jewishness.

Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).” And many thanks to everyone who sent us such thoughtful questions.

Articles Mentioned and Further Reading:

JewBus

Daf Yomi

“A ufologist claims to show 2 alien corpses to Mexico's Congress,” Eyder Peralta, NPR

“In the sky! A bird? A plane? A ... UFO?,” Jon Hilkevitch, Chicago Tribune 

“Former Israeli space security chief says aliens exist, humanity not ready,” Aaron Reich, The Jerusalem Post

HBO’s Girls

 “Old Loves (feat. Rebecca Alter),” Girls Room

“On Loving Jews,” Arielle Angel, Jewish Currents

Hora Haslama!, Habiluim