Jewanced

On this episode of Jewanced, Dan and Benny sat down with the ever-fascinating Abigail Pogrebin, an award-winning author, journalist, former Emmy-nominated television producer, Jewish leader and Jewish outreach director for former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's 2020 Presidential campaign.

We talked for what felt like the shortest two hours of our lives about being a part of a presidential campaign, American politics, Abigail's current and most recent book projects on God and the Jewish holidays, rediscovering Judaism and Jewish literacy, how Covid-19 is affecting Jewish life, working on CBS’s 60 Minutes and much more.

Abigail Pogrebin is the author of My Jewish Year: 18 Holidays; One Wondering Jew, which was a finalist for the 2018 National Jewish Book Award. She is also the author of Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk about Being Jewish, for which Abigail interviewed 62 famous American Jews — from Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Steven Spielberg — about their religious identity. Her book, One and the Same delved into every aspect of growing up as a twin — of which Abby is one. (The identical kind.) Her bestselling Kindle Single, Showstopper, chronicled her teenage adventures on Broadway in a rare Sondheim flop. She was an Emmy-nominated producer for Mike Wallace at 60 Minutes, and before that produced for Bill Moyers at PBS. She has moderated conversations at The Streicker Center, The JCC in Manhattan, UJA Federation, and the Shalom Hartman Institute. Tablet Magazine’s podcast, “Parsha in Progress” features a regular Torah discussion with Abigail and Rabbi Dov Linzer (President of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah). Abby received the “Impact Award” from the JCC in Manhattan, and the “Community Leader Award” from The Jewish Week in 2017. She served as President of Central Synagogue from 2015-18, and was Director of Jewish Outreach for Michael Bloomberg’s 2020 presidential campaign.

Links:

• Abigail's official website
• Selected photos of Abigail's interviews
• My Jewish Year: 18 Holidays; One Wondering Jew on Amazon.com
• Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk about Being Jewish on Amazon.com
• Tablet Magazine’s podcast, “Parsha in Progress” co-hosted by Abigail and Rabbi Dov Linzer

We invite you to follow Jewanced TODAY on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, and we'd love it if you leave us a 5-Star review!

https://open.spotify.com/show/6984NiP7H1ULW9lJeVt8Ie?si=4we8PR7dSJyav4np2foRWA

For more info about Jewanced, visit us at http://www.jewanced.com

Is there an end to this madness? 

We’re in unprecedented times that we’d rather not be in. We long for the day that we can go about our regular business without concern or fear, yet we remain uncertain when or how this will happen. In this special bonus episode, Dr. David Manheim discusses herd immunity, vaccines, and whether there’s a silver bullet for Covid-19.

In Episode #6, together with Dr. David Manheim, Jewanced takes a deep-dive into Israel's and the world's response to Covid-19, as well as embarks on a truly mind-blowing journey into the heart of understanding large-scale catastrophic risks to humanity. We discuss how the pandemic might end and what governments are doing right and wrong, as well as learn about the incredible idea of effective altruism and how to better ‘win’ an argument.

Dr. David Manheim works as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Haifa's Health and Risk Communication Research Center, as well as with many other leading universities and NGOs in the UK and US. His recent work has focused on modeling test and trace programs for the UK, and policy options for COVID-19 in the US and internationally. Long before the pandemic, David was working on understanding and mitigating global catastrophic biological risks including work on bioweapons, natural pandemics, and other disasters with groups at the University of Oxford such as the Future of Humanity Institute and for various nonprofits and NGOs in the United States. He has a Ph.D. in public policy and decision theory at the RAND Corporation and has done work that ranged from informing policy decision making for infectious diseases to modeling risks from earthquakes, hurricanes, and terrorism, and from flood insurance and resiliency building in the wake of catastrophes, to how bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies affect counter-terrorism finance.

Check out our full episode with Dr. Manheim and follow Jewanced TODAY on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, and we'd love it if you leave us a 5-Star review!

https://open.spotify.com/show/6984NiP7H1ULW9lJeVt8Ie?si=QEXRjxIJThybqx3xtSWZiA

For more info about Jewanced, visit us at http://www.jewanced.com

Together with Dr. David Manheim, Jewanced takes a deep-dive into Israel's and the world's response to Covid-19, as well as embarks on a truly mind-blowing journey into the heart of understanding large-scale catastrophic risks to humanity. 

We discussed how the pandemic might end and what governments are doing right and wrong. David also introduced us to the incredible idea of effective altruism, as well as how to more effectively conclude arguments. 

Dr. David Manheim is currently a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Haifa's Health and Risk Communication Research Center, as well working with universities and NGOs in the UK and US. His recent work has focused on modeling test and trace programs for the UK, and policy options for COVID-19 in the US and internationally.

Long before the pandemic, David was working on understanding and mitigating global catastrophic biological risks including work on bioweapons, natural pandemics, and other disasters with groups at the University of Oxford such as the Future of Humanity Institute and for various nonprofits and NGOs in the United States.

He has a Ph.D. in public policy and decision theory at the RAND Corporation and has done work that ranged from informing policy decision making for infectious diseases to modeling risks from earthquakes, hurricanes, and terrorism, and from flood insurance and resiliency building in the wake of catastrophes, to how bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies affect counter-terrorism finance.

Links

• David's Linkedin
• A selection of David's published scholarly articles
• Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute
• The RAND Corporation
• Effective Altruism
• "The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity" by Tony Ord
• "Automation and Utopia: Human Flourishing in a World Without Work" by John Danaher

Do you know what public lobbying is? On this episode of Jewanced, we sat down with the ever-fascinating and impressive Rachel Gur, Director of Public Policy at Lobby 99 - Israel, and probably the world's very first non-profit public lobbying firm. Lobby 99 is a crowd-funded project that takes on corporate interest lobbying firms in the name of the average citizen.

Together, we learned about political lobbying and how frankly, this idea could be revolutionary for transforming democracies and how citizens participate in and influence society, as well as some of the many more fascinating elements of how Israel’s democracy works and of the challenges it faces as we enter one of the most difficult periods in recent history.

Links

• Lobby 99 website (English)
• Lobby 99 website (Hebrew)

In this episode of Jewanced, Dan and Benny speak with Rabbi Chaya Rowen Baker of Kehillat Ramot Zion, a Masorti (Conservative) congregation in Jerusalem's diverse French Hill neighborhood. Together, they discuss an interesting array of topics ranging from the unique identity and state of Conservative Judaism in Israel, the nuanced relations between Orthodox and pluralistic streams in the Jewish State, some of the challenges facing female rabbis, reflections on the upcoming Tisha B'Av observance, as well as how Rabbi Baker's congregation is gearing up for the High Holidays during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Links:

• Congregation Ramot Zion's webpage & Facebook page
• The Masorti Foundation for Conservative Judaism in Israel's webpage
• YouTube clip produced by 'Kan' (Israel's public broadcaster) featuring Rabbi Baker about Jerusalem's diverse French Hill neighborhood
• YouTube clip of Ramot Zion's 'drive-by' style blessing of recent school grads.
• Talmudic fable cited by Rabbi Baker during the podcast
• Photos of Congregation Ramot Zion

This episode of the podcast, we hosted the always fascinating and original MaNishtana -Rabbi Shais Rishon. We discussed the experience of being an African-American Orthodox Jew, the hidden and complex history of black Jews in America, racial tensions, protests, riots, statues, cancel culture (light stuff), and the intersection of all of this with Judaism - specifically some of the anti-Israel strains within the BLM movement.

It was not an easy conversation (although Shais is always a pleasure to talk to) - but hey, those conversations we grow from usually aren't the easy ones.

Check out Rabbi Shais Rishon's webpage at manishtana.net

Rabbi Uri Pilichowski (@rationalsettler) talks with Jewanced about Israel's possible annexation/extension of sovereignty of the West Bank, a far-reaching vision for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, US-Israel relations and shares some awesome White House stories (from his time as a lobbyist), tells us about the time he (almost) spoke to Michael Jordan, and imparts us with some inspirational words of Torah.

Rabbi Uri Pilichowski is an educator. As a teacher, author and speaker, he teaches Torah and politics, where he specifically emphasizes rational thought and conceptual analysis.

Links:

Uri's blog posts at the Times of Israel

Peace to Prosperity - The Trump administration's vision to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Annexation of The West Bank: Where Does It Lead? Insights from a conference held at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). Includes many maps of the West Bank.

Check out these photos we took of Uri's home (the Pilichowski Palace), the settlement of Mitzpe Yericho and its surroundings.