Jewish People & Ideas: Conversations with Jewish Thought Leaders

Dara Horn is an American novelist, essayist, and professor of literature. She has a Ph.D. in comparative literature in Hebrew and Yiddish from Harvard University. Dara is the author of five novels and in 2021 released a nonfiction essay collection titled People Love Dead Jews, which was a finalist for the 2021 Kirkus Prize in nonfiction.

I spoke with Dara online about antisemitism in America, the Holocaust in Jewish memory, why people love dead Jews and living ones not so much, the state of the American Jewish community and much more.

This conversation was recorded a few weeks before October 7th. I had planned on editing it and uploading after Simchat Torah but since the war began my free time has been spent on trying to explain Israel’s position in the world and pushing back against anti-Israel voices online. My apologies to my loyal listeners, I hope in the future to have new episodes ready much faster than this time.

If you're enjoying these conversations, please take a quick moment to buy me a coffee. https://ko-fi.com/barakhullman Thank you! I deeply appreciate your support!

Also available at https://soundcloud.com/jewishpeopleideas/dara-horn.

To hear all of the episodes go to https://soundcloud.com/jewishpeopleideas or https://jewishpeopleideas.com/

Also, please check out my other podcast, The Chassidic Story Project, where I share a new Chassidic story every week, available at https://hasidicstory.com or https://soundcloud.com/barak-hullman/tracks.

To support this project, please go to https://www.patreon.com/barakhullman.

Find my books on Amazon by going to https://bit.ly/barakhullman.

Donniel Hartman is the President of the Shalom Hartman Institute, a Jewish research and education institute based in Jerusalem, Israel that offers pluralistic Jewish thought and education to scholars, rabbis, educators, and Jewish community leaders in Israel and North America. He’s the author of three books, the Boundaries of Judaism, Putting God Second and the upcoming Who Are The Jews?

Donniel and I sat down in the podcast studio at the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem to discuss the role of Israel and Jews in the Diaspora, the Kotel, Democracy in the State of Israel, the Occupation, the role of the Holocaust in Jewish identity and much more.

Also available at https://soundcloud.com/jewishpeopleideas/donniel-hartman.

To hear all of the episodes go to https://soundcloud.com/jewishpeopleideas or https://jewishpeopleideas.com/

Also, please check out my other podcast, The Chassidic Story Project, where I share a new Chassidic story every week, available at https://hasidicstory.com or https://soundcloud.com/barak-hullman/tracks.

To support this project, please go to https://www.patreon.com/barakhullman.

Find my books on Amazon by going to https://bit.ly/barakhullman.

Yossi Klein Halevi is a Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. He is the author of the New York Times bestselling book, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor and Like Dreamers which won the Jewish Book Council’s Book of the Year. You can see Yossi’s op-eds in the New York Times, Los Angles Times and other leading newspapers.

I sat down with Yossi in his office at the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem for the first of a four-part series on conversations with Yossi over the next year and a half. In this episode we spoke about American Jews and their relationship with the state of Israel. Amongst the topics we spoke about were who exactly is the American Jewish community, the rift between them and the state of Israel, what role Israel should play in the lives of American Jews, how much influence American Jews should have on the state of Israel and much more.

Also available at https://soundcloud.com/jewishpeopleideas/yossi-klein-halevi-american-jews.

To hear all of the episodes go to https://soundcloud.com/jewishpeopleideas or https://jewishpeopleideas.com/

Also, please check out my other podcast, The Chassidic Story Project, where I share a new Chassidic story every week, available at https://hasidicstory.com or https://soundcloud.com/barak-hullman/tracks.

To support this project, please go to https://www.patreon.com/barakhullman.

Find my books on Amazon by going to https://bit.ly/barakhullman.

Rabbi David Aaron, a visionary educator and author is the founder of Isralight and the Rosh Yeshiva of Orayta in the old city of Jerusalem, Israel. He is the author of multiple best-selling books including Endless Light, Seeing G-d, Love is My Religion, The Secret Life of G-d, Inviting G-d In, Living a Joyous Life and The God Powered Life published by major publishers such as Random House and Putnam.

His teachings have reached millions of people around the world through his appearances on Larry King Live and E! Entertainment.

Even though Rabbi Aaron and I both live in Jerusalem we conducted the conversation through Zoom because of the rabbi’s busy schedule. We covered a wide range of topics including Who is God, why would God care if I married a non-Jew, what is a meaningful life, the role of Holocaust in Jewish identity, Jewish atheists and atheism, why Israel should matter to Jews abroad and much more.

Also available at https://soundcloud.com/jewishpeopleideas/rabbi-david-aaron.

To hear all of the episodes go to https://soundcloud.com/jewishpeopleideas or https://jewishpeopleideas.com/

Also, please check out my other podcast, The Chassidic Story Project, where I share a new Chassidic story every week, available at https://hasidicstory.com or https://soundcloud.com/barak-hullman/tracks.

To support this project, please go to https://www.patreon.com/barakhullman.

Find my books on Amazon by going to https://bit.ly/barakhullman.

Ruth Wisse is the recently retired Professor of Yiddish and Comparative Literature at Harvard University, currently a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Tikvah Fund. Ruth is known for what she calls “moral self-confidence.”

Ruth was top on my list of guests from the start and it took time and patience to get her on the podcast. She recently released a new memoir, Free as a Jew. I had a remote conversation with Ruth where we discussed the role of the Holocaust in Jewish identity, why some Jews are anti-Zionist, how to combat Palestinian propaganda, American Jews, Israeli Jews, Jews and Power, the Iran deal, Yiddish writers and Chabad on campus.

Also available at https://soundcloud.com/jewishpeopleideas/ruth-wisse.

To hear all of the episodes go to https://soundcloud.com/jewishpeopleideas or https://jewishpeopleideas.com/

Also, please check out my other podcast, The Chassidic Story Project, where I share a new chassidic story every week, available at https://hasidicstory.com.

To support this project, please go to https://www.patreon.com/barakhullman.

Find my books on Amazon by going to https://bit.ly/barakhullman.

Dov Lipman is a former Knesset member from the Yesh Atid party. He was the first American immigrant to be elected to the Knesset in 30 years. He became well known in Israel for his role in combating religious extremism in Beit Shemesh. Dov is an author of seven books about Zionism, Judaism and Israel and a sought after international speaker.

I sat down with Dov at his home in Beit Shemesh to discuss the Israeli-American Jewish relationship, the integration of Haredim in Israel, the liberal movements and the Kotel, why the state of Israel should matter to American Jews, dismantling the Rabbanut, the Jewish religious authority in the state of Israel and much more.

This episode is also available at https://soundcloud.com/jewishpeopleideas/dov-lipman

To hear all of the episodes go to https://soundcloud.com/jewishpeopleideas or https://jewishpeopleideas.com/

Also, please check out my other podcast, The Chassidic Story Project, where I share a new chassidic story every week, available at https://hasidicstory.com.

To support this project, please go to https://www.patreon.com/barakhullman.

Shmuel Rosner is a senior fellow at The Jewish People Policy Institute, a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, the Senior Political Editor for the Jewish Journal, a columnist for Israel’s Maariv, and the chief non-fiction editor for Israel’s largest Publishing House, Kinneret-Zmora-Dvir.

He was previously a columnist for The Jerusalem Post and Chief U.S. Correspondent and Head of the News Division and Head of the Features Division for the Israeli daily Haaretz. He has been published in many magazines, including Foreign Policy, Commentary, The New Republic, The Jewish Review of Books, and more.

I visited Shmuel on a hot summer day in his Tel Aviv home. We discussed his new book Israeli Judaism, are Israeli Jews becoming more religious or secular, American Israeli Jewish relations, the Reform movement in Israel and much more.

Einat Wilf is the co-author of the Israeli best selling book, The War of Return: How Western Indulgence of the Palestinian Dream Has Obstructed the Path to Peace. She is a leading intellectual and original thinker on matters of foreign policy, economics, education, Israel and Zionism. She was a member of the Israeli Parliament from 2010-2013, where she served as Chair of the Education Committee and Member of the influential Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. She is considered one of Israel’s most articulate representatives on the international stage.

I got on the train from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv to have a conversation with Einat in her apartment. We spoke about her book, the Palestinians, American Jewish-Israeli relations, the Kotel, nationalism, Zionism, feminism, atheism and much more.

Rabbi Eric Yoffie served as the President of the Union for Reform Judaism, the congregational arm of the Reform Movement in North America from 1996 to 2012. Yoffie received his rabbinical ordination from the Hebrew Union College in 1974 and served in many high-level roles until being elected the President of the Union for Reform Judaism.

This was a remote interview with Eric in New Jersey and me in Jerusalem. We spoke about what Judaism expects of a Reform Jew, the Kotel, conversions, Chabad, the Palestinians and much more.

You can find all of the episodes of this podcast and the different places it can be listened at by going to jewishpeopleideas.com. Find Barak’s books on Amazon by searching for “Barak Hullman” or going to https://bit.ly/barakhullman. Become a supporter of this podcast by going to http://patreon.com/barakhullman.

Mimi Feigelson—also known as Reb Mimi—is the Mashpiah Ruchanit—Spiritual Mentor—of the Schechter Rabbinical School in Jerusalem where she also teaches Talmud and Chassidic Thought. She served in the same position for 16 years at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles.

Born in the United States, Mimi moved to Israel at age 8 and began studying with Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach at 15.

In 1994, She was ordained by Rabbi Carlebach. In a secret ceremony, she became the first Orthodox Female Rabbi post Shoah. This was only made public in 2001. Still, 20 years later, the Orthodox Jewish community is challenged when it confronts the growing number of female Orthodox rabbis.

She was also the Associate Director of the popular Yakar synagogue and Beit Midrash in Jerusalem and it’s Rosh Beit Midrash l’nashim – the women’s beit midrash.

I sat down with Mimi in her apartment in Jerusalem to discuss her experience as a spiritual mentor for American and Israeli Jews, what it’s like to be the public figure “Reb Mimi”, her time with Reb Shlomo Carlebach, and many deep answers to simple questions.