The Pluralist Podcast - with Orly Erez-Likhovski and Rabbi Josh Weinberg

Three years after October 7, can we begin again — without forgetting what happened or the questions that remain unresolved?

As Israel marks three years since the October 7 massacre, Orly Erez-Likhovski and Rabbi Josh Weinberg reflect on how the day has changed Simchat Torah, Israeli society, and the relationship between Israel and Diaspora Jews — and what it means to remember while also choosing life and looking toward the future.

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The conversation begins with Simchat Torah and the challenge of celebrating a holiday forever connected to October 7. Orly and Josh ask whether it is possible to begin anew while so much remains unresolved — particularly the absence of accountability for the failures of October 7 and the government's handling of the hostage crisis.

They also look at what happens after the immediate crisis ends: how returned hostages and their families rebuild their lives, how Israelis are choosing to commemorate October 7, and whether the extraordinary solidarity between Israelis and Diaspora Jews after the attack can endure.

And they wrestle with a harder question three years later: how to hold Israel's trauma alongside Palestinian suffering, and how liberal Zionists can remain deeply connected to Israel while confronting government failures, racism, violence, and the consequences of the war. The conversation ultimately returns to Simchat Torah and to the possibility of beginning again — not by forgetting, but by remembering and choosing life.

In the conversation, they discuss:

• How Simchat Torah has changed since October 7 — and whether it is possible to celebrate again
• Why Israel still has not established a state commission of inquiry into the failures of October 7
• The unresolved questions surrounding the hostages and government accountability
• How returned hostages and their families rebuild their lives after captivity
• How Israelis are choosing to commemorate October 7 three years later
• What October 7 revealed about Israeli civil society and the solidarity of Diaspora Jews
• Whether the connection between Israel and North American Jews has changed since the immediate aftermath of the attack
• How Israelis and Diaspora Jews are grappling differently with Palestinian suffering and the consequences of the war
• The challenge of maintaining a nuanced, liberal Zionist position amid growing polarization
• And what it means, three years later, to remember — and choose life

What does it take to organize liberal Jews at a moment when democracy is under pressure, political alliances are strained, and many people are exhausted?

As 5787 begins, Orly Erez-Likhovski and Rabbi Josh Weinberg sit down with Rabbi Jonah Pesner, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, to explore how Jewish values can be translated into political action — and how progressive Jews can stay engaged with both democracy and Israel in a deeply polarized time.

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The conversation looks at what it takes to organize liberal Jews at a moment of democratic strain, political exhaustion, and growing polarization in both the United States and Israel.

Together, they examine why democracy can be understood as a Jewish responsibility, how effective organizing turns broad concern into focused action, and how progressive Jews can remain in coalition with people who disagree sharply about Israel. They also explore Israel’s changing place in American politics, the strain in the relationship between liberal American Jews and Israel, and what meaningful partnership between Jews in Israel and the Diaspora should look like in the year ahead.

In the conversation, they discuss:

• Why democracy is not just a political system, but a Jewish responsibility
• What successful organizing actually looks like — and why movements need to choose battles they can win
• How to keep people engaged when fear, anger, and exhaustion start to take over
• What the upcoming U.S. and Israeli elections reveal about the political moment facing liberal Jews
• Whether political change in Israel could begin repairing Israel’s standing in America
• How Israel and AIPAC became flashpoints in U.S. campaigns — and when political criticism crosses into antisemitic tropes
• What it takes to stay in coalition with people who strongly disagree about Israel
• Why “calling in” can sometimes accomplish more than calling out
• How liberal Jews can remain deeply connected to Israel without defending everything Israel does
• And what Israelis and Diaspora Jews should actually expect from one another in 5787

What does it mean to reckon honestly with extremism when the threats are coming from very different directions?

Just before Yom Kippur, Orly Erez-Likhovski and Rabbi Josh Weinberg sit down with Dr. Tomer Persico—scholar of religion, liberalism, Jewish identity, and fundamentalism—to explore the rise of Jewish extremism in Israel, the crisis facing liberal Jews, and whether these trends can still be reversed.

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As Yom Kippur approaches, Tomer argues that liberal Jews are being asked to hold several difficult truths at once: to confront racism, Jewish fundamentalism, and violence carried out in the name of Judaism, while also pushing back against antisemitism, the justification of terrorism, and efforts to delegitimize Israel entirely.

That tension is challenging, but this is precisely where our Jewish values should help us navigate complexity with honesty and nuance.

In our conversation, we discuss:

• What Israeli society should be reckoning with as Yom Kippur approaches.
• How Religious Zionism changed—and how fundamentalist currents within it gained political influence.
• Why Tomer distinguishes mainstream Religious Zionists from Kahanists, Hilltop Youth extremists, and other fundamentalist movements.
• How the theology of Rav Kook, the Six-Day War, and the 2005 disengagement from Gaza shaped the Religious Zionist movement.
• Why Jewish terrorism in the West Bank has been tolerated—and whether the state can still confront armed extremist groups.
• How liberal Jews can acknowledge serious Israeli wrongdoing without abandoning Zionism or Israel’s right to exist.
• Why parts of the progressive left have come to view Islamist terrorist organizations as liberation movements.
• Whether political change can repair Israel’s international standing and reverse deeper trends within Israeli society.
• Why Tomer remains hopeful about liberalism despite its current global crisis.
• And whether liberal Jews can reclaim Judaism itself from those who present racism and fundamentalism as its most authentic expression.

What does it mean to begin a new year when we are not starting over?

Just before Rosh Hashanah, Orly Erez-Likhovski and Rabbi Josh Weinberg sit down with Rabbi Professor Dalia Marx—scholar of Jewish liturgy, author, and one of the leading voices in Israeli Reform Judaism—to explore what teshuvah, prayer, and hope can mean in this moment.
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After years of war, political division, religious extremism, protest, and trauma, Dalia argues that Rosh Hashanah does not ask us to forget what has happened or abandon justified anger. Instead, teshuvah begins with a deeply optimistic Jewish idea: that there is something good within us to return to—and that we must allow ourselves to believe that things can be different.

In our conversation, we discuss:

• What Rosh Hashanah means when the calendar changes but the problems around us do not.
• Why October 7 pushed so many Israelis to search for prayer, ritual, and spiritual meaning.
• What Israelis should carry with them into 5787—and what they should leave behind.
• How Havdalah became part of the language of protest and what Jewish ritual offered that politics alone could not.
• Why Dalia believes liberal Jews must offer a compelling Jewish alternative to religious extremism.
• Whether a society can do teshuvah—and what accountability, repair, and changed behavior would actually require.
• Why justified anger should be channeled rather than simply abandoned.
• The difference between teshuvah and forgiveness.

And what Dalia would say from the pulpit as we enter a new Jewish year.

As Israel prepares to enter 5787 — with national elections just weeks away — Orly Erez-Likhovski and Rabbi Josh Weinberg return for a new season of The Pluralist Podcast: From Both Sides of the Ocean to look back at an extraordinarily difficult year and ask what Israelis and Diaspora Jews should be working toward next.

In this episode:

• What Israeli and North American Jewish teens learned from one another this summer — and what those encounters reveal about Israel today.
• If Israel elects a new government, how long will it actually take to repair its relationship with Diaspora Jewry?
• Looking back at 5786: where did we actually make progress — from bringing the hostages home to long-running IRAC struggles entering the Israeli mainstream?
• The darkest developments of the past year — from religious extremism and violence in Israel to attacks on Reform congregations in Israel and North America.
• What rising antisemitism in North America means for Israel and the Diaspora.
• Looking ahead to 5787: where Orly and Josh see opportunities for change, what worries them most, and whom they are asking for forgiveness — or willing to forgive.

The elections may change Israel’s political direction, but rebuilding trust, strengthening democratic and pluralistic Jewish life, and repairing the relationship between Israel and Diaspora Jewry will take much longer. For Orly and Josh, that is also the meaning of hope: not assuming things will get better, but continuing to work toward the society we want to see.

In partnership with Israel Policy Forum, join the “Everything You Want to Know About the Israeli Elections” series:

• September 9, 2:00pm ET — Israeli Elections 101 — Register
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And on October 11 at 1:00pm ET, join IRAC and global Reform Movement partners for a special webinar on what the election could mean for the Israeli Reform Movement, religious pluralism, and democracy. Register here

All election webinars and shareable materials: arza.org/webinars

Liberal Zionists cannot influence Israel’s national institutions by abandoning them.

In this episode of The Pluralist Podcast, Rabbi Josh Weinberg and Orly Erez-Likhovski speak with Eyal Ostrinsky, Chair of KKL-JNF, the youngest person to hold the position and the first Reform Jew to lead one of the Zionist movement’s most powerful institutions.

KKL-JNF is known around the Jewish world for blue boxes, forests, and tree planting. But it is also a major political institution whose decisions affect land, education, environmental policy, the rebuilding of Israel’s north and south, and the relationship between Israel and Diaspora Jewry.

Eyal explains how participation in the World Zionist Congress elections enabled Reform and liberal Zionist representatives to gain real influence over those decisions. He discusses KKL-JNF’s investments in communities devastated since October 7, its approach to community-led memorialization, and his commitment not to purchase land in the West Bank during his leadership.

The conversation also examines the decision to stop support for agricultural farm outposts where programs presented as education for at-risk youth were contributing to settlement expansion, as well as KKL-JNF’s responsibilities toward Bedouin, Druze, and other non-Jewish communities.

At a time when many liberal Jews feel alienated from Israel’s government, this episode asks whether national Zionist institutions can offer a different path: neither disengagement nor uncritical support, but organized participation capable of shaping policy, budgets, and the future of Zionism itself.

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Young Jews are often asked to form strong opinions about Israel before they have had the chance to encounter the country for themselves.

In this special live episode of The Pluralist Podcast, Rabbi Josh Weinberg and Orly Erez-Likhovski sit down in Jerusalem with participants from Yallah! Israel, the URJ’s immersive Israel experience for teenagers.

The students reflect on what surprised and challenged them: praying together at the egalitarian section of the Kotel, meeting Palestinian Arab teenagers, visiting Druze and Bedouin communities, confronting Israel’s security reality, and hearing perspectives that did not fit neatly together.

Their experiences did not give them a simpler story about Israel. They gave them the knowledge, relationships, and confidence to begin forming their own views.

The conversation asks what it takes to build a relationship with Israel that can hold Jewish connection, criticism of the government and Israeli society, responsibility, and hope. It also explores what young Diaspora Jews can do after returning home—not as uncritical defenders or distant observers, but as partners with Israelis working for democracy, equality, religious freedom, and pluralism.

Yallah! Israel gives young people the opportunity to see Israel for themselves—and to begin building a relationship worth continuing.

Learn more about Yallah! Israel:
https://yallahisrael.org/

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What does Tisha B’Av ask of Jews who have returned to Jerusalem and now possess the power of a sovereign state?

In this episode of The Pluralist Podcast, Rabbi Josh Weinberg and Orly Erez-Likhovski speak with Rabbi Professor Michael Marmur, theologian, educator, activist, former provost of Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, and former chair of Rabbis for Human Rights.

Together, they explore what Jewish mourning means in an age of sovereignty. If Jerusalem has been rebuilt and Israel represents a renewed Jewish national home, what remains broken—and what would a truly rebuilt Jerusalem look like?

The conversation examines sinat chinam, religious and nationalist zealotry, and the dangers of calls for unity that obscure racism, violence, and attacks on democracy. It also confronts one of the most difficult questions facing Jews today: how to grieve Jewish trauma and suffering without becoming blind to the devastation of Palestinian lives, homes, and communities in Gaza and the West Bank.

Drawing on the Book of Lamentations, Rabbi Marmur reflects on the line, “Is there any pain like my pain?” and challenges us to recognize that there is pain like our pain. Jewish grief and Palestinian grief are not in competition, and acknowledging one does not diminish the other.

The episode concludes with a demanding alternative to easy hope: even when hope feels distant, we still possess responsibility and agency.

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Liberal Zionists can either remain isolated and anxious about Israel’s direction—or organize to help shape its future.

In this episode of The Pluralist Podcast, Rabbi Josh Weinberg and Orly Erez-Likhovski speak with Shanie Reichman, Director of Strategic Initiatives and Director of IPF Atid at Israel Policy Forum, about young liberal Jews’ relationship with Israel, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Diaspora engagement, and the institutions and political power needed to advance a different vision for Israel.

Learn more about IPF Atid:
https://israelpolicyforum.org/atid/

Subscribe to The Pluralist Podcast for more conversations from both sides of the ocean about Israel, democracy, Jewish life, religious freedom, and pluralism.

If this conversation matters to you, please consider supporting IRAC’s work to defend democracy, equality, religious freedom, and pluralism in Israel:
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Many young liberal Jews remain deeply connected to Israel while feeling profoundly troubled by its government and uncertain about how their involvement can make a difference. Shanie challenges the idea that they have simply stopped caring. Many are instead watching from a distance, discussing Israel only with trusted friends, and becoming increasingly isolated.

This conversation asks how they can move from concern and “quiet doomscrolling” to meaningful partnership with Israelis working for democracy, equality, religious pluralism, peace, and human rights.

It also explores what liberal Zionists can learn from movements that have invested patiently in education, leadership, funding, institutions, and political action. Safeguarding the future of both Israel and American Judaism will require a deeper partnership between liberal Jews in Israel and the Diaspora—and a shared ability to help shape Israel’s future.

This is a conversation about liberal Zionism, Israel-Diaspora relations, young Jewish leaders, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, democracy, civil society, institution-building, political power, and the future of Israel.

Religious communities can either deepen division — or help repair democracy.

In this episode of The Pluralist Podcast, Rabbi Josh Weinberg and Orly Erez-Likhovski speak with Rabbi Michael Holzman, rabbi of Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation and founder of Faith 250, about America’s 250th birthday, democracy, religious nationalism, and how communities can practice the habits liberal democracy needs.

Learn more about Faith 250:
https://faith250.org/

Subscribe to The Pluralist Podcast for more conversations from both sides of the ocean about Israel, democracy, Jewish life, religious freedom, and pluralism.

If this conversation matters to you, please consider supporting IRAC’s work to defend democracy, equality, religious freedom, and pluralism in Israel:
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As America approaches its 250th birthday, this conversation asks how we celebrate an imperfect democracy without denial or despair. Rabbi Holzman helps us think about houses of worship as “little democracies” — places where people can practice listening, disagreement, responsibility, and care for the vulnerable.

This is a conversation about religion, democracy, America at 250, Israel, religious nationalism, interfaith work, civic responsibility, and hope.