Identity/Crisis

Why have universities become flashpoints for broader cultural and political battles and what can higher education do to repair a fractured public sphere?

In a conversation recorded live at the Vilna Shul in Boston, Yehuda Kurtzer and Harvard president Alan Garber reflect on leadership in a moment of crisis—exploring free speech and protest, institutional neutrality, and the rise of antisemitism on campus. As a university president and a Jew, Garber shares what worries him about the current moment, what gives him hope, and what it will take for universities—and the country—to move forward.

We're grateful to the Charles H. Revson Foundation for supporting the Shalom Hartman Institute's digital work, including Identity/Crisis.

You can now sponsor an episode of Identity/Crisis. Click HERE to learn more. 

Here’s more from the Shalom Hartman Institute this week:

Learn more about and apply to the Hevruta Gap-Year Program.

Learn more about and register for our 2026 Rabbinic Torah Seminar.

How do ideas travel—and what happens when they cross borders? In this episode of Identity/Crisis, Yehuda Kurtzer sits down with author and historian Adam Ferziger to explore how liberal and moderate forms of Judaism, forged in North America, took root in Israel and helped shape a distinctly Israeli religious center. Drawing on Ferziger's new book Agents of Change, the conversation examines education, power, backlash, and belonging—and asks what it really means for Jewish ideas to be “imported,” translated, and transformed in a sovereign Jewish society.

 We're grateful to the Charles H. Revson Foundation for supporting the Shalom Hartman Institute's digital work, including Identity/Crisis.

You can now sponsor an episode of Identity/Crisis. Click HERE to learn more. 

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This episode was originally released on December 24, 2024

The relegation of Hanukkah merchandise to a tiny corner of the grocery aisle can cause Jews to feel excluded or marginalized by the Christmas holiday season. But the impact of Jews on the history and culture of secularized Christmas is deeper than you might think.

In this exciting Yuletide episode of Identity/Crisis, host Yehuda Kurtzer and American composer and music commentator Rob Kapilow sit down at the keyboard to better understand the relationship between Jews and Christmas through the holiday music that Jewish composers have contributed to the canon.

We're grateful to the Charles H. Revson Foundation for supporting the Shalom Hartman Institute's digital work, including Identity/Crisis.

You can now sponsor an episode of Identity/Crisis. Click HERE to learn more. 

What does it take to rebuild Jewish community after two years of trauma and division? On this special episode of Identity/Crisis, Senior Editor Claire Sufrin turns the tables and interviews Yehuda Kurtzer about his article in the newest issue of Sources: A Journal of Jewish Ideas, where he unpacks why communities need clearer values and a renewed ethic of care to move beyond crisis. Their conversation offers us a roadmap for belonging, boundaries, and rebuilding connection after October 7.

We're grateful to the Charles H. Revson Foundation for supporting the Shalom Hartman Institute's digital work, including Identity/Crisis.

You can now sponsor an episode of Identity/Crisis. Click HERE to learn more. 

Read Our Fragile Tents: Community, Consent, and Care in Sources: A Journal of Jewish Ideas. Check out the Fall/Winter 2025 issue and subscribe to our print edition.

What does it take for Black–Jewish partnerships to flourish in a moment of rising fear, political polarization, and mutual misunderstanding? On this episode of Identity/Crisis, Yehuda Kurtzer and scholar Terrence Johnson discuss the stories we carry — about vulnerability, power, Israel, America, and identity — and why they often fail to translate across racial lines. Together, they explore how demythologizing each other and leaning into deeper, more intimate conversations might reshape the future of Black–Jewish relations.

We're grateful to the Charles H. Revson Foundation for supporting the Shalom Hartman Institute's digital work, including Identity/Crisis.

Listen to the recording of the SAPIR debate HERE

You can now sponsor an episode of Identity/Crisis. Click HERE to learn more. 

JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS 

Here’s more from the Shalom Hartman Institute this week:

Join Pathways to Hope and meet young Israeli changemakers.

Learn more about positions available at Hartman North America.

If you read Sources, complete a brief reader survey.

This episode was originally released on Tuesday, November 26th, 2024

This political moment may cause American Jews to ask: “Where have we seen this before?”

In this episode recorded live in NYC, Yehuda Kurtzer challenges the impulse to reach backwards for old frameworks to describe our current situation, and instead offers a vision for a new era in American-Jewish

We're grateful to the Charles H. Revson Foundation for supporting the Shalom Hartman Institute's digital work, including Identity/Crisis.

You can now sponsor an episode of Identity/Crisis. Click HERE to learn more. 

Why are conspiracy theories about Jews surging in the American mainstream — and why are so many young Americans embracing them? In this episode of Identity/Crisis, Yehuda Kurtzer and Yair Rosenberg, staff writer at The Atlantic, unpack how Tucker Carlson’s platforming of

 We are grateful to the Charles H. Revson Foundation for supporting the Shalom Hartman Institute's digital work, including Identity/Crisis.

You can now sponsor an episode of Identity/Crisis. Click HERE to learn more. 
JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS 

Here’s more from the Shalom Hartman Institute this week:

Register for Tomer Persico’s book talk in NYC on December 9.

Watch the recording of the Hevruta Gap-Year Program Open House.

What’s next for Israel’s democracy after years of polarization, war, and political stagnation? In this episode of Identity/Crisis, Yehuda Kurtzer talks

We're grateful to the Charles H. Revson Foundation for supporting the Shalom Hartman Institute's digital work, including Identity/Crisis.

You can now sponsor an episode of Identity/Crisis. Click HERE to learn more. 

Subscribe to our new podcast Thoughts & Prayers here

Learn more about Hartman’s Winter Leadership Seminar here

Thirty years after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, Yehuda Kurtzer speaks with Yossi Beilin, one of the architects of the Oslo Accords, about the night that changed Israel forever. Together they revisit Rabin’s legacy, the rise of extremism that followed, and ask: what will it take to revive the hope of peace?

We're grateful to the Charles H. Revson Foundation for supporting the Shalom Hartman Institute's digital work, including Identity/Crisis.

You can now sponsor an episode of Identity/Crisis. Click HERE to learn more. 

Learn more about Hartman’s Hevruta Gap-Year Program HERE

JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS 

What does Zohran Mamdani’s rise reveal about the shifting power, politics, and identity of New York City’s Jews?

 As New York stands on the verge of electing its first anti-Zionist mayor, on Identity/Crisis, Yehuda Kurtzer and political strategist Howard Wolfson explore what happens when the Jewish community, who once defined New York’s political center of gravity, finds itself on the outside looking in.

We're grateful to the Charles H. Revson Foundation for supporting the Shalom Hartman Institute's digital work, including Identity/Crisis. 

You can now sponsor an episode of Identity/Crisis. Click HERE to learn more. 

JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS