Jew Oughta Know

178. Israel at War, Explained: Getting to a Palestinian State, Part 2

Israel has to make changes to get to a Palestinian state, but so do the Palestinians. Violent rejectionism, delegitimization of Israel, and the right of return all perpetuate the conflict. To achieve their own state, Palestinians have to give up trying to eliminate Israel.

177. Israel at War, Explained: Getting to a Palestinian State, Part 1

If a Palestinian state is the ultimate goal, then Israel, the Palestinians, and the international community are all going to have to do things they really don’t want to do. Today we’re looking at this from Israel’s angle, with the focus on security.

176. Israel at War, Explained: Eyes on Lebanon

Israel has fought two wars in Lebanon — is a third one coming? Today we’re taking a brief look at the history of Israel’s involvement in Lebanon.

175. Israel at War, Explained: Reoccupy Gaza?

Should Israel reoccupy Gaza eighteen years after leaving it? And if not, does the government have a better vision?

174. Israel at War Explained: What's the Deal?

There are hopes for a huge deal in one fell swoop: end the war, return the hostages, make peace with Saudi Arabia, and get a Palestinian state. But is this realistic? What are the dilemmas involved?

173. Israel at War, Explained: The ICJ Ruling

The International Court of Justice issued a ruling in Israel’s trial on charges of genocide. Was it a defeat or victory for Israel — or a little bit of both? A sign of the sober application of international law, or the hypocrisy of politicized demonization of the Jewish State?

172. Israel at War, Explained: Palestinian Perspectives

A survey of Palestinian attitudes from December makes for bleak reading: increased popularity for Hamas, more support for armed violence, widespread belief that Hamas will still be in charge in Gaza after the war, and more. Is there any way forward?

171. Israel at War, Explained: Israel on Trial for Genocide

South Africa has brought charges of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands. What is this case about, and what does it all mean?

170. Israel at War, Explained: Where We Are, Entering 2024

Diving into the start of 2024: the ground war in Gaza, escalating conflict with Hezbollah, the Houthis attacking cargo ships in the Red Sea, and a return to Israeli domestic politics with a major ruling from the Supreme Court.

169. Israel at War, Explained: the IDF and the Laws of War

The tragic killing of three Israeli hostages by the IDF raises questions about the military’s conduct during this war. Is Israel adhering to the laws of war?

168. Israel at War, Explained: Conversations Not Worth Having

There are conversations no longer worth having because their answers have no meaningful impact. Is anti-Zionism antisemitism? Who actually hates Jews? Are Jews indigenous to Israel? Let’s stop debating these distractions.

167. Israel at War, Explained: The United Nations

Why is the relationship between Israel and the United Nations so bad? Historical events, the makeup of the UN, and its relentless condemnations of Israel explain why Israel no longer considers the global body a neutral actor.

166. Israel at War, Explained: The West Bank

The West Bank — what many Jews call Judea and Samaria — is another sector of this war that is boiling over with tension and violence. While Israeli forces arrest thousands of Hamas terrorists, fanatical Jewish settlers attack Palestinian civilians. What is going on and how did we get here?

165. Israel at War, Explained: The Hostage Deal

After seven weeks of fighting, Hamas and Israel agreed to a deal to release some of the Israeli hostages, who have started returning home to great joy and relief. How can we understand this deal in context? What should we make of the role of Qatar as mediator? What does it tell us about Hamas? What are the dilemmas facing Israel going forward?

164. Israel at War, Explained: "Never Again"

“Never Again” evokes the promise of no more genocide, as the world has learned the lessons of history and the Holocaust. But “Never Again” has a different connotation for the Jewish People — and helps us understand the decisions Israel is making in fighting this war against Hamas.

163. Israel at War, Explained: "From the River to the Sea"

Hamas’ massacre unleashed a worldwide wave of hatred and vilification against Israel and the Jewish People, summed up in the noxious idea of “Palestine will be free from the river to the sea” — a call for the destruction of Israel. Leftist ideology, classic antisemitism, and Israel demonization all play a role in this stunning display of moral blindness.

162. Israel at War, Explained: The Options for Gaza

Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza is underway. It is difficult, dangerous, and deadly fighting that has already claimed dozens of Israeli soldiers. The goal is to eliminate Hamas. But what about afterwards? Today we’ll look at five options for post-war Gaza.

161. Israel at War, Explained: The PR War

In the constant struggle to keep up with what’s happening, how can we understand what we’re seeing on the news? The media ecosystem often accepts Hamas’ claims uncritically, while Israel’s are subjected to days of scrutiny and doubt. Skepticism and patience are our best tools to navigate the complexities here.

160. Israel at War, Explained: Iran & Hezbollah

What does Iran have to do with Israel’s war against Hamas? A lot! We’re zooming out to look at Iran and it’s proxy army, Hezbollah, the terrorist group threatening to start a war along Israel’s northern border.

159. Israel at War, Explained: Hamas & Gaza

Day Eleven of the war between Hamas and Israel. For years Israel has brought sick Palestinian children into Israel for lifesaving medical care. Hamas responded by sadistically massacring Israeli children. Today we’re talking about Hamas and its intersection with Gaza’s history, crucial context for understanding how we got to this moment.

158. Israel at War, Explained. Oct 15

Unimaginable savagery in the worst attack on the Jewish People since the Holocaust. It's a declaration of war by Hamas, the genocidal group dedicated to the complete destruction of Israel. What's going on? How did we get here? What's next?

157. Israel 1967-1977: Scenario 21

Black September cruelly murders 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The local police are helpless to resist, the rescue operation goes wrong, the world watches on live TV, and Golda Meir sees that, once again, Jews are being killed on European soil.

156. Israel 1967-1977: Black September

A civil war in Jordan between King Hussein and the PLO threatens to bring in Israel and its neighbors. Though a victory for Jordan, it created one of the most deadly terrorist groups that Israel would face: Black September. A daring commando operation thwarts an airplane hijacking, but that would prove to be just the beginning of the group’s ambitions.

155. Israel 1967-1977: The "Not Nice Boys"

The early 1970s saw the rise of the Israeli Black Panthers — a movement of young Mizrahi Jews fed up with systematic inequality and social discrimination that left Jews from the Middle East and North Africa lagging behind the Ashkenazi Jews of Europe. The met their match in Prime Minister Golda Meir, whose disapproval only fueled their efforts to wake Israeli society up to their plight.

154. Israel 1967-1977: The Eighteen

Israel was founded to provide a safe place for Jewish life to flourish. But by the late 1960s, millions of Jews remained trapped in the Soviet Union, refused the emigration visas necessary to leave. The plight of these “refuseniks” kicked off an international campaign to free them, and in 1969, eighteen Jews wrote to Prime Minister Golda Meir explaining why they looked to Israel for rescue.

153. Israel 1967-1977: Settlements: Hebron

Rabbi Moshe Levinger was all in favor of building settlements in the West Bank, but with a twist: he thought confrontation with the Israeli government, rather than cooperation, was the way to achieve a Jewish foothold in their historic land. He set his sights on establishing the first urban settlement in the heart of Hebron: one of Judaism’s oldest cities, now populated exclusively by Arabs.

152. Israel 1967-1977: Golda

Palestinians hit on a winning formula for attacking Israel and publicizing their own cause: airplane hijackings. And Prime Minister Levi Eshkol dies, replaced by Israel’s first (and so far only) female prime minister, Golda Meir. By turns empathetic and aloof, ideological and pragmatic, pioneering and traditional, Golda came into office struggling to reconcile the Israel of her dreams with the changing country before her.

151. Israel 1967-1977: The Three No's

The Six Day War did not mean the end of fighting, just a new phase. At a summit in Khartoum the Arabs rejected peace, negotiation, and recognition of Israel, leaving violence as the only acceptable option. Egypt and Israel began fighting the War of Attrition, while Yasser Arafat’s PLO terrorist group challenged Israel’s patience and strength. These events and the Occupation engendered a developing new Palestinian identity.

150. Israel 1967-1977: The Second Settlement: Kfar Etzion

Israel's second settlement in the Occupied Territories was Kfar Etzion, established in the West Bank on the ruins of a destroyed Jewish kibbutz. It was the first settlement of the Religious Zionism movement, merging the ideas of Zionist settlement with messianic redemption, and spawned both public support and criticism.

149. Israel 1967-1977: The First Settlement: Merom Golan

Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territory began just five weeks after the Six Day War, in a small community called Merom Golan on the Syrian border. This was not a right-wing nationalist endeavor but a left-wing socialist one, intended to reinvigorate the Zionist Movement with the spirit of the early pioneering generations. But wait — isn’t this illegal under international law?

148. Israel 1967-1977: The Occupation Begins

Today we’re laying the conceptual foundations of the Occupation and Israel’s decisions immediately after the Six Day War. Having found itself in charge of an empire — territory three times its own size, with 1.2 million Palestinians — Israel flailed about for a coherent strategy to meet the challenges posed by the land, the people in it, and competing political agendas of Israel’s leaders.

147. Israel 1967-1977: The Jerusalem Decisions

In the days and weeks following the Six Day War, Israel made three big decisions regarding Jerusalem: to raze the Mughrabi Quarter to create a central plaza in front of the Western Wall, to bestow exclusive religious rights on the Tempe Mount to the Muslims, and to annex East Jerusalem to create a unified Israeli capital. Each of these decisions had lasting consequences.

146. Israel 1967-1977: The Seventh Day

For six days Israel fought. On the seventh day it rested. What was the impact on Israelis, and Jews around the world? How did they come to understand the greatest Jewish military victory in two thousand years? It turns out the reaction was very mixed.

145. Israel 1967-1977: The Six Day War

On June 5, 1967, Israel destroyed the air forces of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan in a matter of hours, kicking off what would become one of the greatest victories of modern military history. Israel thought it was fighting a defensive war for survival but instead captured five Arab territories that tripled its size. It was so surprising that, 56 years later, Israel is in many ways still dealing with the consequences. This episode takes a broad look at the six days of war that kicked off a whole ne...

144. Israel 1967-1977: "The Temple Mount Is In Our Hands"

Season 7 begins! This is an action-packed season exploring ten crucial years in Israel, 1967-1977. We'll hear about wars and The Occupation, triumphant rescues and the tragedy of the Munich Olympics, the settlements and the rise of the right-wing. We're kicking off with the run-up to the Six Day War and an introduction to some of the ideological ideas crucial for understanding this era.

143. Current Events: West Bank Violence, Explained

Why the sudden burst of horrific violence in the West Bank this week? Hamas is making a play to take over the West Bank, ratcheting up attacks on Israel. And Israeli settler extremists are emboldened by support from their government to ramp up their own attacks on Palestinians, including the destruction of the village of Huwara. A weak Palestinian Authority that can’t provide security…plus increased Israeli raids targeted terrorists…all makes for a highly combustible situation that many fear ...

142. Current Events: Israel's Judicial Crisis Explained

Why are hundreds of thousands of Israelis protesting in the streets? Why are global headlines screaming about the end of Israeli democracy? The country is griped by a profound crisis over the independence of its judicial system, as its ultra right-wing government tries to pass legislation reforming the Supreme Court. Come find out how we got here and what Israeli's are so angry about.

141. Current Events: Israeli Elections 2022

140. Ten Philosophers: Mordecai Kaplan

Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan redefined Judaism as an “evolving religious civilization” in need of reconstruction for the 20th century. He emphasized Jewish peoplehood, in all its complexity and diversity, as the central pillar of Jewish life and culture, and as the means of survival for Judaism in modern society. From the Bat Mitzvah to the Jewish community center, Kaplan’s ideas have since permeated into nearly all aspects of American Jewish life.

139. Ten Philosophers: The Baal Shem Tov

Joy. Attachment. Intention. The Baal Shem Tov - Master of the Good Name - inspired millions of Jews in Eastern Europe by uniting ideas in mystical Judaism with daily life. He turbo-boosted Jewish identity with the notion that every individual could be closer to God and play a role in the redemption of the world. Through stories and legends his fame grew into a new movement known as Hasidism, adopted by half the Jews of Europe.

138. Ten Philosophers: Baruch Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza, it is said, wrote a book "forged from Hell by the Devil himself," rejecting 1600 years of medieval philosophy in favor of pure reason. He so angered the religious authorities that his Amsterdam Jewish community excommunicated him. He advocated for free speech, expression, and worship, ushering us all into the modern age way back in the 1600s. Today we're exploring some of his radical ideas.

137. Ten Philosophers: Isaac Luria

Isaac Luria is taking us into the realm of the visionary and mysterious. We’re looking into the role of kabbalah — mystical Judaism — in our everyday lives. How can an infinite God create our finite universe? How can we mere humans repair a broken world? How did the city of Tsfat in Israel end up as the center of mystical Judaism?

136. Ten Philosophers: Maimonides

Maimonides says that you might be perplexed. Your intellect tells you that the stories in the Hebrew Bible can’t be scientifically true, but your faith tells you that they are. Maimonides is here to help! He revolutionized Judaism — from law and theology, to ideas about God and approaching Torah with a rational and universal mindset, there’s something for everyone in Jewish history’s greatest philosopher.

135. Ten Philosophers: Judah HaLevi

In 1141 CE, Judah HaLevi mysteriously disappeared on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, giving rise to legends about the scholar who became Judaism's most celebrated poet. He wrote the Kuzari, a stirring defense of the Jewish faith at a time when the Jewish golden age in Spain was under threat from Muslims and Christians vying for control of Andalusia.

134. Ten Philosophers: Saadia Gaon

Saadia Gaon single-handedly saved Judaism from splitting apart in the 10th century. He was the first great Jewish medieval philosopher and the spiritual father of Judeo-Arabic culture, defending Rabbinic Judaism against sectarianism and insisting that reason and revelation together seek the truth.

133. Ten Philosophers: Rabbi Akiva

132. Ten Philosophers: Philo of Alexandria

131. Ten Philosophers: Hillel the Elder

Starting off Season 6 with one of the all-time greatest Jewish thinkers: Hillel the Elder, from the 1st century BCE. The sage who summarized the entirety of the Torah while standing on one foot, Hillel's wisdom was preserved by his greatest admirers, giving us a portrait of a man wise, humble, and inspirational.

130. TFTYOS: Back to the Beginning

Season Finale. What does it mean to be an Israelite? A Jew? A Hebrew?

129. TFTYOS: Who Wrote the Bible?

Who wrote the Hebrew Bible, when, and how? Boiling a huge topic down to the basics: a thousand-year long literary tradition built by authors across the centuries, compiling story after story to arrive at what we have today.