Identity/Crisis

By Shalom Hartman InstituteNews Religion & Spirituality News Commentary Judaism

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Typical duration
51 min
per episode

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Identity/Crisis episodes

November 30, 2021 Israel-Palestine in the College Classroom
How do Jewish identity and Israel identity manifest on campus both inside and outside the classroom? Academia today is increasingly rooted in activism, not just inquiry. Students are defineing a new 21st century Jewish identity, but many self-censor because the Israel-Palestine conflict is uncomfortable. And many Jewish studies faculty feel pressured to avoid conversations around this topic to protect their academic credentials. Is this the trend of where we're headed in the future? Hartman Fellow Dr. Sara Yael Hirschhorn (Northwestern University) discusses these trends with Yehuda Kurtzer in this week’s Identity/Crisis podcast.
39 min
November 24, 2021 Love, Thoughts, and Thanksgiving
For many American Jews, Thanksgiving is another high holiday. We celebrate our obligations of citizenship and show appreciation for all that America has granted. Perhaps, in turn, our tradition may have lessons to teach America. Could the Jewish model of interpreting our stories for the present, and our conceptions of memory, gratitude, and redemption, heal our divided country?
In this special episode of Identity/Crisis, Yehuda Kurtzer reflects on the Jewish significance of Thanksgiving.
23 min
November 16, 2021 Jewish Ethics in a Time of Power
How do we help people see democratic values as endemic to Judaism?How do we make Jewish values an integral part of Zionist governance?
At the intersection between Judaism and politics, author Mikhael Manekin (Alliance for Israel's Future) and Yehuda Kurtzer debate a virtue ethics for Judaism in a time of power.
50 min
November 09, 2021 The Conflict About the Conflict
The Jewish community is being pulled apart by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Both the left and the right are driving the debate to extremes, pushing the majority of Jews in the center to disengage. Yehuda Kurtzer and Dov Waxman, (UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies) examine this shift and ask if the positions of the new Jewish left are still compatible with liberal Zionism.
44 min
November 02, 2021 How Jews Talk About Abortion
As the U.S. Supreme Court considers the highest-profile legal challenge to Texas' new abortion law this week, Yehuda Kurtzer and Michal Raucher (Rutgers University) examine the Jewish communal conversation around abortion. Jews have historically been both pro-natalist and pro-choice. And that's not an obvious combination. How does this dichotomy manifest in attitudes, social policy, and legislation around issues of abortion in the U.S. and Israel?
38 min
October 26, 2021 Who's Afraid of Impossible Pork?
In mid-October, the OU officially rejected certification of Impossible Pork, causing a flurry of contention from kosher-keeping consumers. What does it mean for rabbis to declare a product of 100% kosher ingredients treif based on name and taste alone?
In this episode, Yehuda Kurtzer sits down with our very own producer, David Zvi Kalman, to explore the origins of this rationale and discuss the ethical factors that weave through Jewish dietary law as the climate crisis careens us toward an uncertain future of sustainable protein.
David’s opinion piece on the subject can be found here.
31 min
October 19, 2021 The Bronfman Fellowships and the Difficulty of Pluralism
For more than three decades, the Bronfman Fellowship has been a crucial incubator of pluralistic thought among future Jewish leaders. As American Judaism and media have changed, however, the work of engendering pluralistic communities has become much more difficult. In this episode Yehuda Kurtzer speaks with Becky Voorwinde, the Executive Director of the Bronfman Fellowships about how the program has tried to adapt to these challenges.
39 min
October 12, 2021 We Still Need to Talk About the Occupation
In this week’s episode, Yehuda Kurtzer speaks with Donniel Hartman about how Israeli society and the occupation are testing Zionist ideals.
Donniel Hartman's essay in Sources can be found here: https://www.sourcesjournal.org/articles/liberal-zionism-and-the-troubled-committed
43 min
October 12, 2021 Is the Occupation Breaking Israeli Society?
In this week’s episode, Yehuda Kurtzer speaks with Donniel Hartman about how Israeli society and the occupation are testing Zionist ideals.
Donniel Hartman's essay in Sources can be found here: https://www.sourcesjournal.org/articles/liberal-zionism-and-the-troubled-committed
41 min
October 05, 2021 Meir Kahane, American Radical?
In this episode, Yehuda Kurtzer chats with Hartman senior fellow Shaul Magid (Dartmouth College) about his new book Meir Kahane: The Public Life and Political Thought of an American Jewish Radical which offers an intellectual history of American Judaism and its political challenges – liberalism, race, communism, Zionism, radicalism – the poles through which American Jews have traveled in the past 60 years. Can the story of a radical thinker and controversial politician shed light on the Jewish experience in the US and, later, in Israel?
Links:
Meir Kahane debating Yitz Greenberg: https://archive.org/details/RabbiKahaneDebatesProf.Greenberg360p
Meir Kahane debating Alan Dershowitz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ykrwmaKrLg

44 min

About Identity/Crisis

From the publisher's feed

In a frenzied media cycle, Identity/Crisis creates better conversations about the issues facing contemporary Jewish life. Host Yehuda Kurtzer, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute, talks with leading thinkers to unpack current events affecting Jewish communities in North America, Israel, and around the world, revealing the core Jewish values underlying the issues that matter most to you.