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

War. Democracy. Relationship.

In this special episode of The Pluralist Podcast, we share an edited conversation recorded live at the Religious Action Center’s Consultation of Conscience conference in Washington, D.C.

Moderated by Daryl Messinger and featuring Orly Erez-Likhovski (IRAC), Rabbi Josh Weinberg (ARZA), and Michael Koplow (Israel Policy Forum), this panel wrestles with the evolving U.S.–Israel relationship in the shadow of war and growing democratic strain.

How are Israel’s internal political battles affecting its relationship with American Jewry?
What responsibility do American Jews have — and what influence do they actually hold?
How do we remain in relationship when disagreement feels sharp and generational divides widen?

This episode opens up a conversation that often happens in leadership rooms and brings it to you.

The Pluralist exists to make these tensions speakable — and to strengthen the relationship between Israel and Diaspora Jewry through honesty, accountability, and shared responsibility.

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Haredi society. Shared responsibility. Israeli democracy.
In this episode of The Pluralist Podcast, Orly Erez-Likhovski and Rabbi Josh Weinberg take on one of the most sensitive and misunderstood questions in Israeli society today: the place of Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) society in a shared Jewish and democratic state.

Sparked by a recent tragedy in an unsupervised childcare setting, the conversation moves beyond headlines to examine deeper questions of power, accountability, and belonging. What happens when a community holds significant political power but feels alienated from state institutions? How should a democracy balance religious autonomy with public safety, equality, and shared civic obligations?

Drawing on legal advocacy, Jewish history, and lived experience in Israel and the Diaspora, this episode insists on dignity without demonization — and pluralism with responsibility.

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What does it mean to grow up Jewish when the only Israel you’ve ever known is a Netanyahu-era Israel — and October 7 made everything harder?

In this episode of The Pluralist Podcast: From Both Sides of the Ocean, Orly Erez-Likhovski and Rabbi Josh Weinberg listen to three young Reform Jewish leaders — Tamara Upfall, Daniel Block, and Blake Ziegler — as they reflect on Israel, campus life, peer pressure, and identity in a moment that leaves little room for nuance.

These voices are not walking away from Israel. They are wrestling with how to hold Jewish peoplehood, Zionism, democracy, grief, and empathy at the same time — often feeling caught between generations and pushed to choose sides.

This conversation is about listening, bridging generational gaps, and staying in relationship when it’s hardest.

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What does it mean to stand with Israel without looking away?

In this episode of The Pluralist Podcast: From Both Sides of the Ocean, Orly Erez-Likhovski and Rabbi Josh Weinberg take on one of the hardest questions facing Jews today:

How do we hold deep commitment to Israel while speaking honestly about the actions of its government?

While much of the world has been focused on war, grief, and recovery after October 7, Israel’s Knesset has quietly returned to an agenda that threatens democratic guardrails — not loudly, not dramatically, but steadily.

From inside Israel’s parliament and from the perspective of Reform Zionism in North America, this conversation explores:
- The renewed push to weaken key democratic institutions, including the Attorney General
- Legislative efforts targeting civil society, independent media, and academic freedom
- How the judicial overhaul is advancing in quieter, more incremental ways
- Why accountability for October 7 is a democratic necessity, not a political attack
- What real resistance looks like today — in the courts, in Knesset committees, and in civil society

Orly draws on her work leading the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), offering an inside view of how democratic defense actually happens: through legal filings, position papers, and relentless presence behind the scenes.

Josh gives voice to what many in the Diaspora are feeling — the pull between solidarity and alarm, loyalty and moral responsibility.

This is not a conversation about abandoning Israel.
It’s about protecting the democratic foundations that make Israel worth standing with.

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Subscriptions help this podcast grow and reach people who are trying to stay engaged — without denial or despair.

What happens when anti-Zionism and antisemitism blur together—and the people most affected are left to navigate the fallout alone?

In this episode of The Pluralist Podcast: From Both Sides of the Ocean, Orly Erez-Likhovski (Executive Director of IRAC) and Rabbi Josh Weinberg (URJ Vice President for Israel & Reform Zionism, Director of ARZA) are joined by Marc Dollinger, Professor of Jewish Studies at San Francisco State University, for a deeply human conversation about life on campus after October 7.

Drawing on more than two decades of teaching—and lived experience on one of the most politically charged campuses in the United States—Professor Dollinger reflects on what it means to defend nuance in environments that increasingly punish it.

“At one university, I was labeled a self-hating leftist Jew,” he recalls. “And after a 400-mile drive north, I arrived in San Francisco as a right-wing Zionist colonial conspirator.” The journey between those two labels, he explains, is not just personal—it reveals how easily complex identities are flattened into caricatures.

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Together, they ask:

How do we distinguish legitimate political critique from antisemitism—not in theory, but in the lived reality of students and educators?

The conversation explores how academic ideas like “constructed narratives” move from theory into real-world clashes, and how groupthink on campus often replaces curiosity with certainty.

“If I treated all anti-Zionism as antisemitism,” Professor Dollinger explains, “that’s all I would be doing—and I’d burn out.”

They also reflect on the emotional toll this moment has taken on Jewish students, many of whom feel isolated or afraid to speak, and on the limits of institutional responses in spaces driven by polarization rather than care.

And yet, the conversation does not end in despair.

“My hope is in the humanity of individuals,” Professor Dollinger says. Not in slogans or movements, but in moments when people sit down, take a breath, and allow their souls to be open. In those encounters, he argues, understanding—fragile but real—is still possible.

This episode is for anyone trying to hold complexity without hardening, to listen without surrendering values, and to believe that individual openness can still push back against fear, flattening, and false binaries.

What happens to the Israel–Diaspora relationship when solidarity isn’t enough—and silence isn’t an option?

In this episode of The Pluralist Podcast: From Both Sides of the Ocean, Orly Erez-Likhovski (Executive Director of IRAC) and Rabbi Josh Weinberg (URJ VP for Israel & Reform Zionism, Director of ARZA) sit down with Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President of the Union for Reform Judaism, for a wide-ranging, values-driven conversation on Israel, Zionism, and what it means to be in community through crisis.

“This moment demands more than solidarity. It demands partnership.”

→ Support IRAC’s work for religious freedom, democracy, and equality in Israel:

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→ Sign up for Orly’s weekly updates from Israel:

https://www.irac.org/sign-up

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https://cloud.email.rj.org/blankSubCenter?formid=701UG00000Is8uHYAR

Together, they ask:

How do we show up for Israel—and each other—when the stakes are this high?

🎧 In this episode, Rick, Orly, and Josh explore:

• Why liberal Jews must not stay silent on Israeli policy: “To criticize the policies of the State of Israel? It’s not only permitted — it’s required.”

• A generation struggling with false binaries: “What have we done wrong, that Jewish students don’t know they can say both: I’m a Zionist and I care about Palestinian dignity?”

• A shifting paradigm: “We’ve been living near each other for decades. But now, finally, we’re meeting.”

• Showing up beyond solidarity: “We’re not just here to give Israel a hug when it’s hurting. We’re here to agitate, to participate, to be real partners.”

They also reflect on moments that shaped their leadership—from college in Jerusalem after the Yom Kippur War, to the streets of Tel Aviv during the pro-democracy protests, to campus conversations and congregational tensions across North America.

“I’m a Zionist, 100%. And yes, I believe in the dignity and rights of Palestinians. These are not contradictions.”

This episode is for anyone navigating Jewish identity, moral clarity, and the hope of a more just future—on both sides of the ocean.

What does it mean to be a Jewish pluralist in Israel—and why does it matter right now?

In the launch episode of The Pluralist Podcast: From Both Sides of the Ocean, Orly Erez-Likhovski, Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), and Rabbi Josh Weinberg, Executive Director of ARZA and URJ Vice President for Israel & Reform Zionism, sit down in New York for an honest, thoughtful conversation about Israel, Jewish identity, and the future of pluralism.

Together, they ask a deceptively simple question:
What does Jewish pluralism look like in Israel today—and why is it so contested?

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Sign up for Orly’s weekly updates:
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👉 https://cloud.email.rj.org/blankSubCenter?formid=701UG00000Is8uHYAR

In this conversation, Orly and Josh explore:

• Why there isn’t really a Hebrew word for pluralism—and what that reveals about Israeli society
• The current status of Reform Judaism in Israel and how it is perceived by Israeli Jews
• Shared struggles around women’s rights, LGBTQ+ equality, and confronting racism in Israel and North America
• The evolving relationship between Israel and the Diaspora at a critical moment for Israel’s democratic future

They also reflect on their personal Zionist journeys:

• Orly’s story—from a secular Israeli upbringing to discovering Reform Judaism through a preschool in Mevasseret Zion, and finding her life’s work at IRAC defending democracy and challenging religious extremism through law
• Josh’s story—from a Chicago youth movement kid to rabbi and Zionist leader, shaped by the Oslo years, the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, and years of living and teaching in Israel

This episode sets the tone for the entire season of The Pluralist Podcast:
honest, nuanced, deeply rooted in love for Israel, and committed to liberal Jewish values—on both sides of the ocean.

➡️ Subscribe to Pluralist Newsletter: Subscribe to the Pluralist — The Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC)

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What happens when courts stop protecting us—and start protecting power?

In this urgent episode of The Pluralist Podcast, IRAC Executive Director Orly Erez-Likhovski is joined by award-winning journalist and legal analyst Dahlia Lithwick to explore the fragile state of democracy in Israel and the United States. From the refusal to appoint justices in Israel to the partisan tilt of the U.S. Supreme Court, the two legal minds unpack what Princeton Professor Kim Lane Scheppele calls “autocratic legalism”—when leaders use the law itself to dismantle democracy from within.

📌 Topics include:

– The erosion of judicial independence in Israel and the U.S.

– How Netanyahu and Trump use legal systems to consolidate power

– Why the courts must be both respected and defended

– The public’s role in protecting democracy

– What IRAC is doing on the legal front lines in Israel

🎧 The Pluralist Podcast is where Jewish values meet the struggle for a just, equal, and inclusive Israel.

What does it mean to be queer, religious, and Israeli in 2025? In this powerful Pride Month episode of The Pluralist Podcast, IRAC Executive Director Orly Erez-Likhovski speaks with Rabbi Efrat Rotem—an LGBTQ+ activist, liturgist, and the head of Maram, the Reform rabbinic council in Israel.Together, they explore:🌈 Rabbi Efrat’s journey from secular upbringing to queer Reform rabbi🕊 How the Reform Movement creates space for LGBTQ+ Jews in Israel📜 What it means to reinterpret Judaism with values of love and equality🔥 The growing backlash against LGBTQ+ rights—and why visibility matters more than ever💬 How queer rabbis are rewriting Jewish liturgy to reflect real, sacred livesThis is more than a Pride story. It’s a story about reclaiming faith, resisting erasure, and building a Judaism where everyone belongs.

Every Shavuot, we read the Book of Ruth—the ancient story of a woman who chose to join the Jewish people with the words: “Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” But in today’s Israel, conversion is no simple act of faith. It’s a legal, political, and deeply personal challenge.

In this special Shavuot episode of The Pluralist, Orly Erez-Likhovski, Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center, reflects on her own connection to Ruth’s story and the ongoing struggle for inclusive conversion in Israel. She’s joined by Rabbi Galia Sadan, head of the Reform Movement’s Beit Din for Conversion and rabbi at Congregation Beit Daniel in Tel Aviv.

Together, they explore:

• Why the Chief Rabbinate's monopoly on conversion excludes so many

• How the Reform Movement provides a meaningful, welcoming path to Judaism

• What recent Supreme Court victories mean for converts—and what challenges remain

• The real-life stories behind the headlines

🎧 Tune in to hear how the spirit of Ruth is alive today—and why keeping the gates open matters more than ever.