Chosen People Problems

By Ark MediaNews Religion & Spirituality Judaism

Chosen People Problems episodes

August 11, 2023 Eastern Winds with guest Hen Mazzig
The girls welcome Israeli author and co-founder of the Tel Aviv, institute Hen Mazzig. Hen, who identifies as a Queer, Mizrahi Zionist, has a huge online footprint, where he shares stories about Israel that people may not have seen before.

We talk about everything from his family's Jewish roots in North Africa and Iraq, American Jews and Israel, being a Mizrahi or Sephardi Jew, progressive politics, and more! You can find him at Henmazzig.com or on social media @Henmazzig. Check out his book "The Wrong Kind of Jew: A Mizrahi Manifesto" wherever you get books.

Follow his work on Twitter @HenMazzig, Instagram and Facebook and on his website: www.HenMazzig.com

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1 hr 5 min
July 31, 2023Eat, pray, kvetch
Chaya Leah is back from Italy and France
The hazards of kosher fine-dining in Europe
Harvard loves dead Nazis
Yael is traumatized by classic Europe
Americans love standing in line
The Jewish ethics of having an affair
You don’t *have* to love thy neighbor in America
A solemn yet insightful conversation about Israel
Is hatred of the religious people in Israel out of control?
Save us, Eurovision!
Barbie’s Kosher Dreamhouse
Archie comics were more damaging than Barbie
Congratulations Rabbi Shmuly!
Oh look another sad Jewish holiday
Yael suprises Chaya Leah by announcing a new project - The AAJ Book Club! There is no deadline and definitely no meetings (unless you guys want to do that). Our book is “Arc of a Covenant” by Walter Russel Mead.

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Shownotes:

Israeli protestors connecting

Jewish students giving it to Titus

Liel Leibovitz on Commentary - do you agree or nah?

The Arie Deri law

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1 hr 12 min
June 30, 2023 Ask a Rabbi III - The Rabbi Rises
Yael is stuck in Texas, so Chaya Leah and her father, Rabbi Aba Abba Perelmuter, take to the stage for some light Torah studies.

They were left with explicit instructions to answer listener questions, but you know, these people...instead they have an enlightening conversation about the Talmudic interpretations of the Russia/Ukraine conflict, honoring thy father and thy mother (complete with loopholes), and this weird modern idea of following your passions.

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We are off for a summer break, but will be back soon with exciting guests and much to catch up on! xoxo

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1 hr 7 min
June 20, 2023 The Ministry of Agitation and Propaganda/ With guest Matti Friedman
This week we are joined by author and journalist Matti Friedman, who recently penned "Who by Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai" (you can hear him discuss it with Bari Weiss here) and before that the incredible "Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel" about the founding of the Mossad and the nation.

A former AP correspondent, Matti blew the lid on what the media gets wrong about Israel, in this badass essay in The Atlantic and in Tablet.

We cover a lot of ground in this one, and manage to make it all the way to the end without talking about current Israeli politics, but then discuss Matti's impactful and insightful letter to American Jews (with OG's Yossi Klein Halevy and Daniel Gordis) on why they need to raise their voice against Israel's current government.

Also:

From Toronto to Jerusalem

The myth of the KibbutzIf someone offers to introduce you to an old spy - you say yes!There are no delis in israel This ain’t Norway Why the media is so obsessed with Israel (maybe because there are more staffers covering Israel than all of China and Africa?)Save us Bruno Mars Herzl the Hipster Media literacy Where does Matti get his information? (in books, like some nerd)News is activism We want to believe...The NY times Can we afford to criticize Israel publicly? Let’s end on a pessimistic note J/k we’re never letting him go The orthodox scene in israel is thriving...and it’s terrifying (to some of us)We want to be socialists, as long as everyone else is a libertarian Draft theo orthodox to the army? Yael puts chaya Leah on the spot Matti's Hotmail

We want to give Matti an out but then we remember Indian Jews

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1 hr 19 min
June 13, 2023 Kosher K-Pop
New segment: What kind of Jew is this?

Podcast about K-Pop and the war in Gaza (Hebrew)

Robbie Williams does Pride TLV

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1 hr 7 min
May 31, 2023Bring Back Bullying, with Meghan Daum
We are back with our friend and reluctant mentor, Meghan Daum! Meghan is an author, host of The Unspeakable podcast, co-host of A Special Place in Hell with Sarah Haider, and founder of the Unspeakeasy, a special online community for special online women (we are both members!). As usual, we start light and breezy by gushing over hot dictators and 90's TV dads, and end up musing about regret, marriage, and successful divorces.

Here's what made the cut:
Jews and Muslims both hate pets
Whatever you do, do not Google “Do monkeys menstruate?”
With the right Instagram filters, you too can look like Martha Stewart
The missing Friday Night Lights sex scene
Birth control and mikveh apps
Do women even drink beer?
Everybody should be assigned a “bully buddy”
Can women have it all? How about some? How about anything?
The nature of regret
Hasidic influencers, but not that kind
The Unspeakeasy AAJ crossover spectacular shabbat crossover.

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1 hr 41 min
May 22, 2023The Doctor Is In - Ask Dr. Drew
The girls are very excited to welcome a real doctor to today’s episode, and not just any doctor - Dr. Drew Pinsky! In case you you live under a rock (or in Israel): Dr. Drew is a board certified physician and addiction medicine specialist known for his shows Loveline, Celebrity Rehab, Teen Mom, and currently Dr. Drew After Dark, the Dr. Drew Podcast, and The Adam and Drew Show (co-hosted by Adam Carolla) - busy guy! He is not to be confused with Dr. Dre, as Wikipedia warns us. You can find him on https://drdrew.com/ and all the socials.

Warning: in this episode we talk a lot about sex, drugs, addictions - all from a medical perspective of course! Trust us, we’re a doctor.

In this episode:
Chaya Leah shares her origin story, and how Dr. Drew guided her through the radio
Who is a worse Jew - Yael or Dr. Drew?
Chaya Leah educates Dr. Drew about the Mikveh
Lessons about attraction and love from Fiddler on the Roof
Yael provides some Israeli context to sexual freedom - suprise suprise, it’s full of contradictions
TV raised me, and I turned out TV
What the heck is wrong with young people?
We will look at screens the way we look at tobacco one day
Even the French are making fun of us!
A detour into homelessness and mental illness (here’s a link to “The Great Pretender”, the book Yael mentions)
The Skid Row Run Club
Armenians are bros!
What Dr. Drew would have done differently with his kids (triplets!)
How Me Too and dating apps affected dating
What they’re not telling you about birth control
Why Israelis were so good at Covid
The orthodox are the only ones who had fun in the summer of 2020
Sex in your 40s and perimenopause - listen up ladies!
Why can’t we have a realistic conversation about weed (and who is smoking it at 8am?)
It’s addictive genetics, not addictive personality!
A mind-blowing study about alcoholism (involving drunk fruit flies)
A little (scientific!) discussion about porn

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1 hr 7 min
May 15, 2023Bad News Batya
We are thrilled to chat with Batya Ungar-Sargon, deputy opinion editor for Newsweek and author of "Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy."

In this Megillah (am I doing this right?):
The Islamic jihad comes for the Backstreet Boys
What kind of Jew is Batya?
Jewish matchmaking
I'm not Jewish, I'm Israeli: An intervention
Our various Jewish Identities
Batya's bananas background
Jews from authoritarian countries rule
Is Bernie Sanders a messianic Jew?
Batya's great un-wokening
Working class people are not as dumb as you think
A Bernie impression!
Real subway face punching has never been tried
The power of lurkers
Is wokeness a religion? Discuss
The secular world used to be one big orgy, now it’s just lame
It's been more than a year and Yael still doesn't understand what a Mikveh is, but she manages to tie it in to Donna Martin from Beverly Hills 90210
Batya's upcoming book about the working class

Between the war for Israel's security in the Middle East and the war for Israel's heart in Liverpool (Eurovision... Google it!) we cover it all. Don't forget to follow us on Substack: Askajew.substack.com and on Instagram @Askajewpod

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1 hr 13 min
May 11, 2023The Fifth Golem
Just in time for Mother's Day, we are joined in the studio by the man who birthed us, Matt Welch!

From his humble beginnings as a Newsie in Prague, to head of a podcast empire and reluctant cult leader, Matt makes idol worship almost acceptable to a religious Jew. Most importantly, Chaya Leah and Yael's love story began when they were both listening to The Fifth Column, the podcast Matt hosts with Kmele Foster and former guest Michael Moynihan. So extra special.

In almost two hours, we cover:
Why was Matt blocked by Salman Rushdie on Twitter?
Libertarians are a lot like Jews in the sense that they all hate each other.
The miracle that is Lakewood, CA
An Ask A Jew Happy Hour recap
New York is an absolute shithole and still the best place in the world
THE LONGEST WE'VE EVER GONE WITHOUT TALKING ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST
Family Feud is everything that's right with America
Chaya Leah is very bad with money, despite what you might think
LA Times confidential
Spilling all the tea on The Fifth Column
A newsie in Prague
Does paying a podcaster earn you their love and respect? Absolutely.
Matt wants to go back to Israel (but we recorded this before rockets started raining from Gaza)
something something baseball

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1 hr 45 min
May 02, 2023 Take a Blue Square and Call Me in the Morning
Join us for our first real meetup in NYC, May 8th! Details in the episode.

For more info: Sign up for our Substack newsletter askajew.substack.com, and email us at [email protected]

*The rebranding of Antisemitism https://nypost.com/2023/04/28/nyc-council-progressives-vote-no-from-end-jew-hatred-day/

*Guess who leads the hate crimes chart?? That's right baby.

*Whine smarter, not harder

*We discuss which of our friends and non-Jewish guests would hide us in the event of a holocaust, and the answers may surprise you! We even ran a poll on our instagram @askajewpod

*Armenians are so dope

*We would kill for a Kardashian!

*Israeli Memorial Day vs. Tisha B'Av

*Fruit roll-ups are worth their weight in gold in Israel

* G-d wants you to pull your head out of your A_s

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1 hr 4 min