Welcome to Times Will Tell, The Times of Israel’s weekly feature podcast.

Our guest this week is Dr. Mark Shinar, who captured the attention of host Amanda Borschel-Dan through his moving blog, “Broken roads: Leadership, authenticity and sexuality.”

The blog discusses how, as an Orthodox father, husband and educator, he came out of the closet a year and a half ago. We’ll hear segments of the blog throughout the longer-than-usual episode.

Shinar has been a Jewish day school administrator and Head of School for 20 years and has worked in Jewish summer camp for more than 25. Today, his main focus is on helping schools shape cultures that inspire within its administrators, teachers, and students a willingness to be vulnerable, to take risks, and to live lives of courageous authenticity and empathy.

Shinar made aliyah in 2017 and lives in Modiin where he and his ex-wife are raising their four sons.

Image: Dr. Mark Shinar (courtesy)

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Welcome to Times Will Tell, The Times of Israel’s weekly feature podcast.

This week, host Jessica Steinberg speaks to Dr. Tova Hartman, dean of the faculty of humanities at the Ono Academic Campus and founder of the Shira Hadasha congregation in Jerusalem, the first of its kind, a religious community that combines a commitment to Jewish law, with a commitment to prayer and feminism. At the time, it drew a lot of criticism from many Orthodox rabbis who opposed having women lead prayer and read from the Torah. 

Hartman persisted and built Shira Hadasha with her fellow founders, spawning an entire movement in Judaism, of partnership minyanim, communities committed to Jewish law, as well as to feminism in prayer and action. 

She speaks about the inspiration drawn from her father, Rabbi David Hartman, the American-Israeli leader and contemporary Jewish philosopher who founded the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.

Hartman also speaks about making the world of academia accessible to the ultra-Orthodox and Arab populations within the multicultural campuses of the Ono Academic Campus, helping change the direction and goals of those societies.

IMAGE: Dr. Tova Hartman (Courtesy Ono Academic College)

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Welcome to Times Will Tell, The Times of Israel’s weekly feature podcast.

This week, host Jessica Steinberg speaks to documentary filmmaker Tal Inbar and producer Nancy Spielberg, sister to Steven Spielberg, who premiered their new film, "Closed Circuit" at DocAviv, Tel Aviv’s annual documentary film festival.

"Closed Circuits" uses security camera footage -- much of it taken on the night of the 2016 terror attack in Tel Aviv’s Sarona market -- when two men in suits shot at a crowd eating out. The use of the footage deconstructs the event augmented by interviews with those who survived the attack, and who speak about their insights into that event.

Inbar speaks about how she came across the closed circuit footage of the attack and developed it into a fuller-length film.

Spielberg discusses her fascination with the film upon receiving a 'cold' email from Inbar, as well as her own relationship to Israel, and how the film resonates, particularly in the US, currently reeling from its own spate of tragic attacks.

IMAGE: A closed circuit screen grab from 'Closed Circuit,' Tal Inbar's 2022 film about the 2016 Sarona, Tel Aviv terror attack (Courtesy 'Closed Circuit)

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Welcome to Times Will Tell, The Times of Israel’s weekly feature podcast.

This week, host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaks with archaeologist Prof. Jennie Ebeling about women’s live in ancient Israel.

In addition to leading and participating in archaeological excavations in Israel and Jordan, Ebeling is sculpting the next generation of scholars through her teaching at the University of Evansville in Indiana.

She has written extensively about ancient food and drink technology which can offer a deeper look at women in antiquity, including a book, “Women’s Lives in Biblical Times.”

One of the ways we can learn about women’s agency is through studying ancient ovens, said Ebeling, which in part has led her to hypothesize that women were the master brewers of ancient Israel. 

IMAGE: Archaeologist Prof. Jennie Ebeling at the Jezreel Expedition. (Ashley Motes, courtesy of the Jezreel Expedition)

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Welcome to Times Will Tell, The Times of Israel's weekly feature podcast.

This week, we speak with journalist Joshua Prager, the author of "The Family Roe: An American Story," which was a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.

"The Family Roe" tells the larger story of abortion in America through focussing on the stories of "Jane Roe," Norma McCorvey, and her three daughters -- including the baby she was carrying that spawned Roe V Wade.

Our conversation was prompted by a leaked draft of a Supreme Court decision that could overturn the constitutional right to an abortion. We discuss this potential decision’s implications.

And finally, we talk about another book Prager wrote, "Half-Life," which charts the aftermath of a 1990 bus accident in Israel that left him paralyzed. 

My destruction, my resurrection

Half Life: Reflections from Jerusalem on a Broken Neck, by Joshua Prager

Image: Journalist Joshua Prager, author of 'The Family Roe.' (Peter van Agtmael/Magnum Photos)

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Welcome to a bonus episode of Times Will Tell, The Times of Israel's weekly feature podcast.

We're speaking with Joshua Cohen, the prize-winning author of "The Netanyahus, An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family," who is in Israel for the Writers Festival and a residency at Jerusalem's Mishkenot Sha'ananim.

We speak about his fictionalization of the very famous political Israeli family and how he chose the Netanyahus as his focus for the novel, as well as the twists of fact and fiction.

Cohen talks about winning the Pulitzer for a book about identity, tokenism and, the Jews.

IMAGE: American novelist Joshua Cohen speaks during a meeting with Journalists as part of the International Writers Festival, in Jerusalem, May 16, 2022. (Courtesy Yonatan Sindel/Flash 90)

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Welcome to this week’s Times Will Tell, the weekly podcast from the Times of Israel.

This week, host Jessica Steinberg speaks with Abi Dauber Sterne and Robbie Gringras, two Israel-based educators and longtime professional collaborators who have just written a book, "Stories for the Sake of Argument," a collection of 24 tales designed to provoke disagreements  about Israel.

The aim is to teach readers more about themselves, each other, and the world at large, with a how-to book of stories that address various controversial issues, taking place primarily in Israel but with universal themes.

They tackle subjects such as religious freedom in Israel, demands of history, issues of social media, praying at the Western Wall, Arab-Israeli voting issues, refugees, racial profiling and the list goes on.

Dauber Sterne and Gringrass discuss their working process, how they chose their subjects and the ultimate aims of this how-to-argue book.

Times Will Tell podcasts are available for download on iTunes, TuneIn, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, PlayerFM or wherever you get your podcasts.

IMAGE: Abi Dauber Sterne and Robbie Gringrass, educators and authors of 'Stories for the Sake of Argument' (Courtesy PR)

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Welcome to Times Will Tell, the weekly podcast from the Times of Israel. This week, we speak with Mayim Bialik, who has just released her filmmaking debut, “As They Made Us.”

Most people know Bialik from her performance as neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler on “The Big Bang Theory,” from her work as a child as the title character on the sitcom “Blossom,” or lately, as the new host of "Jeopardy!" 

Bialik wrote and directed “As They Made Us”," which is quite the departure from the rosy sitcom bubble. It is a tough look at tense family relations as the father’s life is winding to a close. It stars Dustin Hoffman as the dying father; Candice Bergen as the overbearing mother; Simon Helberg is the estranged older brother, and Dianna Agron plays the anchor of the family, Jewish journalist Abigail.

"As They Made Us" is now in theaters.

IMAGE: Filmmaker Mayim Bialik. (Storm Santos)

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Welcome to this week’s Times Will Tell, the weekly podcast from the Times of Israel.

This week, host Jessica Steinberg speaks with Dr. Stephen Daniel Arnoff, CEO of the Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center and newly minted author of "About Man and God and Law, the Spiritual Wisdom of Bob Dylan."

Arnoff discusses his own love for Bob Dylan and his personal rock 'n roll history and how that has morphed into a lifelong exploration of Dylan's music and lyrics.

He looks at Judaism and Christianity through the prism of Dylan's music and the questions asked by Bob Dylan in a lifetime of songs.

Join us for this conversation about one of music's greatest songwriters and the lessons that can be learned from Bob Dylan's music.

Times Will Tell podcasts are available for download on iTunes, TuneIn, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, PlayerFM or wherever you get your podcasts.

IMAGE: Bob Dylan performs at the 44th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California, February 26, 2002 (HECTOR MATA / AFP / File)

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Welcome to this week’s Times Will Tell, the weekly podcast from the Times of Israel. This week, ahead of Easter, host Amanda Borschel-Dan tours the Jerusalem Old City’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre with top archaeologist Prof. Jodi Magness.

Christian tradition holds that Jesus was crucified and buried on the spot of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. As we tour the church and its surroundings, we see parts of the ruins of earlier stages of the church, including a find from when it was built by Constantine in around 330 CE, as well as remains of earlier structures.

At the end of the tour, we see what Magness feels is the best evidence that supports the Christian tradition. 

For much of our tour, we are standing next to praying pilgrims, so to respect them, at times we’re almost whispering. Apologies as well for the background noise as Holy Week was being observed in Jerusalem.

Times Will Tell podcasts are available for download on iTunes, TuneIn, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, PlayerFM or wherever you get your podcasts.

IMAGE: Prof. Jodi Magness in the Jerusalem Old City's Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Monday, April 11, 2022. (Amanda Borschel-Dan/Times of Israel)

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