Identity/Crisis

Rachel B. Gross (San Francisco State University) joins Yehuda Kurtzer to discuss her new book, Beyond the Synagogue: Jewish Nostalgia as Religious Practice, and its central argument: that foodways, children's literature, and Jewish nostalgia represent a defining feature of American Jewish religion today - and that that's not a bad thing. 

ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt joins host Yehuda Kurtzer to discuss Jewish perspectives on the emerging Biden administration, what was “good for the Jews” and what was “bad for the Jews” about the Trump administration, and most importantly, how American Jews can strengthen the precious “software” of the American government.

Journalists Isabel Kershner (The New York Times) and Ben Sales (JTA) join host Yehuda Kurtzer to discuss the successes and failures to date of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Israel, Palestine, and the global Haredi community. 

Articles mentioned in this episode: I attended an Orthodox anti-vaccine rally. Here’s what I saw. by Ben Sales in the Jewish Telagraphic Agency

Netanyahu's Two Israels by Yossi Klein Halevi the Times of Israel

Identity/Crisis is produced by the Shalom Hartman Institute in association with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Host Yehuda Kurtzer and Yoni Appelbaum (The Atlantic) come together the morning after a mob breached the US Capitol for a conversation on the roots of the chaos of January 6, 2021, the youthfulness and fragility of American multiracial democracy, and the core idea of America that we can return to and build upon.  

You can find a link to Yoni Applebaum's December 2019 essay, "How America Ends," here.

Shalom Hartman Institute Research Fellow Micah Goodman joins Yehuda Kurtzer to discuss Israeli secularism's renewed engagement with Jewish tradition, the different dynamics of change in Israel and the diaspora, and his new book, The Wondering Jew. 

Congressman-Elect Jamaal Bowman joins host and constituent Yehuda Kurtzer to discuss his campaign against 30-year incumbent Eliot Engel, the values he brings to the 117th Congress, and his message to the diverse communities he represents in the Bronx and Westchester County. 

Host Yehuda Kurtzer is joined by Muslim Leadership Initiative alumnae Inas Younis  and Rabia Chaudry to discuss Muslim-Jewish relations during and after the Trump presidency, the nature of the Israel-Palestine conflict's impact on American interfaith cooperation, and the risks and rewards of speaking across difference.

Referenced in this episode: Muslims Not Only Survived, We Thrived by Zaid Jilani - https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/muslims-survived-and-thrived

Guest host David Zvi Kalman (Shalom Hartman Institute) and Dovid Lichtenstein (The Lightstone Group, Headlines) discuss podcasting, politics, the pandemic, and halacha in the modern world. 

Hartman Fellow in Residence Mijal Bitton speaks to Yehuda Kurtzer about diverse American Jews, politics, and the goals and problematics of the project of diversity. 

Mijal's article can be found here: https://www.jta.org/2020/11/19/opinion/many-jews-of-color-and-diverse-jews-are-politically-conservative-and-many-voted-for-trump

Lila Corwin Berman (Temple University) joins host Yehuda Kurtzer to discuss the ways in which America has shaped philanthropy, and the ways in which philanthropy has shaped the American Jewish community, over the last thirty years. 

This episode was recorded live as part of the Judaism, Citizenship, and Democracy symposium hosted by the Hartman Institute from October 19-30, 2020.