People Jew Wanna Know

Shanie Reichman is a rising star in the NYC Jewish non-profit scene. Today, she directs strategic initiatives at Israel Policy Forum and hosts the new podcast, Disputed Territory, where she makes the case for liberal Zionism to people who think the phrase is a contradiction.

In a conversation that's timely given the Israeli elections, Margarita brings her questions, her skepticism, and a genuine willingness to be educated — and Shanie delivers, right down to the logistics of how you could create a two-state solution or, as IPF calls it, a two-state outcome.

Follow Shanie on Instagram @ShanieMieka and listen to Disputed Territory wherever you get your podcasts. Check out IPF at www.israelpolicyforum.org

Support our work: buymeacoffee.com/peoplejewwannaknow

**What We Discuss:**

00:00 Intro & Episode Agenda

03:36 Nash Didan and an Aramaic-speaking family

07:30 How Shanie learned about the I/P conflict

10:00 What liberal Zionism actually means

14:00 Israeli elections and Netanyahu's cracking coalition

18:00 The Haredi draft, education, and the cost to Israel's economy

23:00 Haredi feminists and the fake primary that worked

28:00 Did October 7th shatter the status quo?

35:00 Should diaspora Jews have a say in Israel?

44:00 Closing Remarks & Guest Nomination

Rabbi David Wolpe has been described as one of the most influential Rabbis in America. He's known for his pointed debates on the importance of religion, his outspokenness on current affairs, and a desire to shape today's Jewish leaders and their passion for Judaism.

In this episode, Rabbi shares countless pieces of wisdom, an inside look at what's happening to Jewish denominations today, and opens up about his hilarious personality!

Follow Rabbi Wolpe on Instagram @davidjwolpe

Support our work: buymeacoffee.com/peoplejewwannaknow

This episode is brought to you in partnership with the Center for Jewish History.

**What We Discuss:**

00:00 Intro & Episode Agenda

02:24 From aspiring writer to accidental rabbi

06:00 Native to America but immigrants to Judaism

11:30 Why young Jews lost the sense of peoplehood

16:00 Talking to students at the Harvard encampments

19:30 Courage, competence, and turning the argument around

24:00 Is Orthodoxy the "original" Judaism?

29:00 What 30 years taught him about influence

33:00 Optimism, bots, and confusing your enemy

36:30 Closing Remarks & Guest Nomination

Lindsay Pinchuk built a seven-figure company from scratch, sold it, and became a mentor to hundreds of women over 40 who thought it was too late to start. Then, October 8th, 2023 happened. She posted a video in the parking lot of Whole Foods about what it felt like to be a Jewish American woman, and woke up to 100,000 views and a comment section full of "me too."

Three years later, speaking up for what's right didn't cost her the business. Inquiries went up 500%. If you needed a reminder that it's never too late to chase your dreams - this episode is it.

Follow Lindsay on socials @LindsayPinchuk and check out her work at www.lindsaypinchuk.comSupport our work: buymeacoffee.com/peoplejewwannaknowWhat We Discuss:

00:00 Intro & Episode Agenda

02:00 From advertising to Bump Club to Dear FoundHer

07:00 The Whole Foods parking lot video that changed everything

11:00 Fracturing, infighting, and why antisemitism shouldn't have a political party

15:00 Getting brands to work with Jewish creators

20:00 Why activism isn't a career (and why you need another lane)

28:00 What hundreds of female founders taught her

34:00 Raising two daughters after October 7th

40:00 The "From the River to the Sea" shirt and the letter to the principal

47:00 The SWEEP marketing framework

52:00 Closing Remarks & Guest Nomination

Gila Pfeffer lost her mother at 20 and her grandmother before that — both to cancers she carried the genetic blueprint for. So she did something very atypical at the time: a preventative double mastectomy in 2008, years before Angelina Jolie made the choice a norm. Unfortunately, Gila got breast cancer anyway. Both a previvor AND survivor, Gila is one of the funniest people you'll ever hear talk about all of it.

An award-winning author and humorist, Gila wrote her memoir *Nearly Departed* through the lens of her Orthodox Jewish life — Shiva, mikveh, wigs during chemo, the whole thing. This conversation lands during a week built for grief, and Gila makes the case that laughter isn't a betrayal of grief. It's the way through.

Follow Gila on Instagram @gilapfeffer and check out her novel, Nearly Departed, anywhere you get your books!

Support our work: buymeacoffee.com/peoplejewwannaknow

**What We Discuss:**

00:00 Intro & Episode Agenda

06:00 Writing Nearly Departed through an Orthodox lens

12:00 Same chemo as her mother, thirty years later

17:00 Phil, and the birthday that felt like a sign

21:00 Grief you don't expect — and its sixth stage

28:00 Emuna, agency, and choosing the mastectomy

35:00 Why teenage Gila would be shocked

40:00 How Margarita and Gila actually met (a Carnegie Hall heist)

45:00 Find a way to laugh

47:00 Closing Remarks & Guest Nomination

Rabbi Leor Sinai changed Margarita's life before he ever met her. He ran Alexander Muss High School in Israel, the program that completely shaped Margarita's Jewish identity.

Years later, they finally sit down together. Now, Leor is serving as the Senior Vice President at the Israel Innovation Institute.

This is a conversation about the story we tell ourselves. Leor makes the case that "the world hates us" is a losing pitch — and that Jews are, in fact, the winningest team in human history. He also names something uncomfortable: America is in decline, and Israel was never meant to be an insurance policy.

Check out Leor's work at www.leorsinai.com and learn more about the Israel Innovation Institute at www.israelinnovation.org.il/

Support our work: buymeacoffee.com/peoplejewwannaknowWhat We Discuss:

00:00 Intro & Episode Agenda

04:21 From New York nightlife to rabbinical school

09:00 Why Muss worked: experiential learning that sticks

14:00 The winning-team pitch vs. the world-hates-us story

22:00 America in decline and the rise of antisemitism

32:00 Innovation for the Jewish world: finding root causes

40:00 Living consciously and trusting your gut

48:00 Israel as home, not insurance policy

53:00 A generation of lions, not the TikTok generation

55:00 Closing Remarks & Guest Nomination

Dara Horn, by her own admission, hates arguing with people. So how did the author of *People Love Dead Jews* become one of the sharpest, most fearless voices confronting antisemitism today? Necessity, mostly. And a refusal to keep pretending.

In her return to the show, Dara unpacks her new book, *The Final Solution to the Jewish Question: A Love Story For The Living*, and makes a case that'll stick with you: antisemitism isn't a bias, it's a lie — and the lie is always the same. Plus, why the anti-Israel movement is a "bag of hot air" with three words of substance behind it, and the data-poisoning plot she was handed in private.

Buy Dara's new book everywhere books are sold and check out her work at www.darahorn.com

Support our work: buymeacoffee.com/peoplejewwannaknow

This episode was brought to you in partnership with the Center for Jewish History

What We Discuss:

00:00 Intro & Episode Agenda

04:00 Courage over knowledge, and whether we can expect heroism

12:00 The Gentleman's Agreement and the price of passing

21:00 Standing up to an organized hate movement

28:00 Antisemitism as a lie, not a bias

37:00 Jewish civilization as a 3,000-year anti-tyranny movement

44:00 The Wikipedia and Reddit data-poisoning plot

50:00 Her son, the gaming Discord, and cowardice at Harvard

56:00 The collapse of the humanities and the lost art of argument

58:30 Closing Remarks & Guest Nomination

Nadav Roet started doing magic at 4 years old in Israel, moved to Amsterdam to live in his Holocaust-survivor grandfather's hometown, and landed in New York — where he now runs The Bluff, the city's underground magic show built for the young, cool crowd. He's an award-winning mentalist featured in Cosmopolitan and New York magazine, and in this episode, Nadav will convince you that magic is the single coolest art form ever invented.

Follow Nadav on socials @NadavRoet and @TheBluffNYC

Support our work: buymeacoffee.com/peoplejewwannaknow

**What We Discuss:**

00:00 Intro & Episode Agenda

02:00 Growing up in magic and building The Bluff

06:30 The magic renaissance and why every party has a magician now

11:00 A third-generation Holocaust survivor's Jewish identity

14:00 Israeli skeptics vs. American audiences

17:00 A live mind-reading trick (watch on video)

24:00 Why magic is a proudly Jewish — but never insular — art form

30:00 Magic Camp, meeting your heroes, and killing your darlings

38:00 Where the female magicians are

41:00 Do what you love, with what you have, and have fun

43:00 Closing Remarks & Guest Nomination

Harrison Greenbaum does 900 shows a year. The Harvard grad turned comedian-magician has been called "the hardest working man in comedy." He's also the guy who wrote his college thesis on whether jokes can make people less racist. Turns out the answer is complicated — and there's one type of humor that can actually make prejudice *worse*.

Harrison gets honest about the sharp rise in antisemitism showing up in his comments, the audience member who blurted "no" when he said he was Jewish, and why being a grandson of Holocaust survivors makes him want to talk about Jewish stuff *more*, not less. Plus: why so many magicians are terrible, and how to (maybe) reverse-pickpocket a mentalist.

Follow Harrison on socials @harrisoncomedy

Support our work: buymeacoffee.com/peoplejewwannaknow

**What We Discuss:**

00:00 Intro & Episode Agenda

02:09 From Magic Camp to Harvard's Jewish Fraternity

06:30 The Secret Algorithm of 900 Shows a Year

12:00 His Thesis on Whether Jokes Fight Prejudice

17:30 Being a Jewish Comic in a Weirder Climate

22:00 Running Off to Join Cirque du Soleil

25:00 Why Every Magic Show Looks the Same

29:00 The Reverse-Pickpocketing Sting Operation

32:00 What the Jews Bring to Magic

34:06 Closing Remarks & Guest Nomination

Chloe Hechter calls herself "the People's Jewish American Princess," and she means it as a mission, not a punchline. Former child actor, recovering sorority girl, and now a comedy creator with 300,000+ followers, she's spent years reclaiming an insult and turning private-school-summer-camp-Murray-Hill life into beloved sketches.But the skits are just the surface.

Chloe opens up about exposure therapy for emetophobia starting at age ten, why she believes Jewish women have to be "ten toes down," and her sharpest take yet: that a lot of Jinsta creators are failing.

Follow Chloe on all socials @ChloeHechterrSupport our work: buymeacoffee.com/peoplejewwannaknow

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**What We Discuss:**

00:00 Intro & Episode Agenda

04:00 Reclaiming Jewish American Princess

06:30 Becoming a full-time content creator post Syracuse

13:00 Why Chloe wants to manage her own socials

15:00 Growing up the Jewish girl at theater camp

18:00 Emetophobia and exposure therapy

24:00 The camp meds line

28:00 American Jews and the myth of the golden age

32:00 Jewish girls and the trends they started

40:00 Chloe's upcoming book, being a woman in the creator space, and why Jinsta ghettoizes Jews

49:00 Closing Remarks & Guest Nomination

Yardenne Greenspan is a Tel Aviv-born writer and Hebrew translator whose work appears in numerous publications and has earned notable awards. She's married to Shai Davidai (yes, that one — Activist, former Columbia professor, and Margarita's viral early guest), but she's built her own formidable kind of activism: humanizing Israelis one carefully chosen word at a time. She's the person you drift toward at every Jewish event without quite knowing why.

In this episode, Margarita and Yardenne discuss the importance of translation, the true reality of activism, and how to always take the high road.

Follow Yardenne on Instagram @YardenneGreenspanSupport our work: buymeacoffee.com/peoplejewwannaknow

What We Discuss:

00:00 Intro & Episode Agenda

03:27 Growing Up Secular in Tel Aviv

07:15 Meeting Shai & Moving to America

10:30 Post-Mortems on Activism

14:00 The Twitter Fight & Refusing the Bait

19:45 Translation as a Form of Activism

26:00 Vulnerability as Strength

30:30 Raising Kids Under Attack

36:00 Translating Trauma in Kazakhstan

41:00 Message to the Jewish People

44:03 Closing Remarks & Guest Nomination