The student body president of UC Santa Barbara and a proud Zionist, Tessa Veksler faced a barrage of hate and narrowly survived an attempt to oust her from office. Her experience is both a warning for young Jews heading to campus and an example of what real leadership looks like.

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Israeli politics have become increasingly complicated and divisive. The Times of Israel's founding editor and returning guest David Horovitz helps us understand Israel’s internal and external struggles — the unifying fabric of Israeli society and the major debates pulling at the seams.

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Rabbi Ammi Hirsch is the guest on this special episode hosted by David Harris, past CEO of the American Jewish Committee and Jewish Broadcasting Service TV's strategic analyst. Ammi discusses the state of American Reform Judaism and the new reality liberal Jews face in the wake of October 7th.

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There's something so Jewish about using laughter to cope. British comedian, public thinker and author David Baddiel finds the humor in the world, discussing everything from comedy to antisemitism to politics. And he makes plenty of jokes.

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The chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, retired U.S. Army Major John Spencer discusses the uniquely and unprecedentedly evil tactics that Hamas has employed in Gaza to maximize civilian casualties and collateral damage in pursuit of its political and military goals.

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Martin Luther King Jr.'s biographer felt like people were yearning to strip away the mythology surrounding the civil rights leader and reconnect with his humanity. Jonathan Eig brings King back into focus — as a religious leader and a social justice activist — and discusses the evolution of the Black-Jewish partnership in the years after King's assassination.

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An expert on foreign affairs, Prof. Walter Russel Mead thinks we're heading into uniquely unstable times. He offers a historical analysis of America's relationship with the Jews, the Jewish state, and how the U.S. approaches the rest of the world.

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An exceptionally talented novelist, journalist and activist, Lihi Lapid is also the wife of Israel's opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yair Lapid. Her latest book, "On Her Own," bares the Sabra soul. And despite boycotts by the literary community, she hopes it will expose new readers to the grief, longing and love at the heart of the Israeli experience...

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The lighting rebel advance that toppled Syria's Assad regime came seemingly out of left field. Dr. Jonathan Spyer, one of the world's foremost experts on the Levant, helps explain how it happened and what this revolution could mean for Syria and the rest of the world.

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Israel is fighting a war not only on the battlefield but also in the courtroom, where the Jewish state has been misrepresented, maligned and accused of perpetrating the worst crimes against humanity. Legal expert Natasha Hausdorff helps us understand how international law applies to Israel during this war and the ways the law has been corrupted and weaponized.

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