This episode is sponsored by Eden Beit Shemesh. Contact Rina Weinberg at [email protected] for more details.

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Mickey and Ortal Flaumenhaft—David Bashevkin’s Israeli neighbors in Teaneck—about their experiences living Jewishly in three different countries. 

When the Flaumenhafts were in Israel for their son’s bar mitzvah on October 7, Mickey made the decision to join his unit in Gaza. In this episode we discuss:

• What does a couple consider when making the decision to leave Israel? 
• What can Americans learn from the way Judaism permeates Israeli culture?
• How has the American Jewish community’s connection to Israel deepened since October 7?

Tune in to hear a conversation about what it means to hold the entirety of the Jewish People in our hearts, no matter where we might be. 

Interview begins at 7:45.

Mickey Flaumenhaft is the Director of Development at American Friends of Migdal Ohr, a welfare organization for Israel’s orphaned and at-risk youth. Mickey served reservist duty in Gaza this past year. Ortal Flaumenhaft is a first-grade teacher for Hebrew and Judaic studies at Yeshivat He'Atid in Teaneck.

References:

A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut

To Heal a Fractured World: The Ethics of Responsibility by Jonathan Sacks

The Legends of Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah with the Commentary of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook by Bezalel Naor

18Forty Podcast: “Bezalel Naor: Rav Kook’s Mystical Vision of Zionism”

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