The Promised Podcast

Elul is here and people all over the country are keeping the before-the-high-holidays tradition of saying Selihot, asking for forgiveness and offering atonement. All this as rockets and planes fly, and bombs fall.

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Linda Gradstein and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Major Pager Rager— A stunning attack-by-pager left dozens of Hezbollah militiamen dead and thousands maimed and wounded. What are we to make of a thing like t...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Miriam Herschlag and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Not Too Brotherly, Not Much Love— How did the "Philadelphi Corridor" become a matter of life and death? —Errors of Omission and Commission— The government h...

For 331 days, Rachel Goldberg-Polin went everywhere, spoke to everyone and did everything to save her son, Hersh.

703 IDF soldiers have fallen since October 7th. Each was an entire world. This is a small bit of the story of one of them, Zachariah Haber.

Linda Gradstein, Allison Kaplan Sommer and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Bennett, Done That— Israel's next prime minister will be … Naftali Bennett? —Jewish Life During Wartime— Why does war make more-secular Israelis more secular...

Miriam Herschlag, Allison Kaplan Sommer and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —TIME Is on His Side?— Prime Minister Netanyahu gives his longest interview since October 7. What's it tell us? —Time Is on HIS Side?— How is this man growin...

Miriam Herschlag, Linda Gradstein and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Dead to Rights?— When, if ever, is it o.k. to assassinate deadly enemies? —Now, in the Awful Quiet of the Moment— Six-packs of water and go bags: Are we doing thi...

Allison Kaplan Sommer and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Will Israel and Hezbollah (and Who Knows? Maybe Iran) Go to War?— Will Hezbollah's murder of twelve kids in Majdal Shams lead to all out war? —Druze Clues— What is it like to...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Linda Gradstein and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Move Over, Winston— Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to congress, again. What did he say to the senators and congresspeople, and what didn't he say?...

Allison Kaplan Sommer and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —The Valley of the Shadow of Deif— Can you do a cost-benefit analysis of assassinating a man personally responsible for thousands of Israeli deaths? —Unboxing Gaza?— What's it...

Miriam Herschlag and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —God Will Avenge His Blood?— The IDF has allowed, for the first time ever, military gravestones to add "הי״ד" — "God will avenge his blood" — after the name of a slain soldier. Ven...

In a very special, tribute-to-America episode, the sax-and-fiddle player (Alon Tal), the lead-singer-and-keyboardist (Bill Slott), and the bass-player (Noah Efron) of the fondly-remembered band, "Liquid Plumr" discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —B...

Linda Gradstein, Allison Kaplan Somer and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Exemption Preemption— A bombshell unanimous Supreme Court decision says that, until the Knesset passes a law that says otherwise, Haredi men of army age need...

Linda Gradstein, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Special on Patreon   —The Other War— The war with Hezbollah up north seems to be getting hotter and more deadly with each passing day. Will missiles rain down on Tel Aviv? And when can th...

Linda Gradstein, Allison Kaplan Sommer and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Home— Four hostages were rescued from the depths of Gaza. We need a new word for absolute joy mixed with absolute worry mixed with absolute sadness. —Gantz,...

Linda Gradstein, Allison Kaplan Sommer and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Prisoner's Dilemma— A new Israeli proposal to bring home hostages puts the brakes on the war and signs some sort of pact with the Saudis. So why are religiou...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Miriam Herschlag and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Golan Heights?— We just witnessed the huge victory of IDF Reserve Major-General and former deputy chief-of-staff Yair Golan in the primary for Labor leaders...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Gantz and Gallant Game the Endgame— Two of five of the members of Israel's "War Cabinet" tell Prime Minister Netanyahu that he has to figure out what comes nex...

Allison Kaplan Sommer and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Now, Rafah— What are we to make of Israel's rolling incursion into Rafah? Oy. —On Film— There's a new hour-long movie about the rape and sexual assault of Israeli women on Oc...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Miriam Herschlag and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Days of Awe— What do Yom Ha-Zikaron (Memorial Day) and Yom Ha-Atzmaut (Independence Day) mean in this annus horribilis? How can we celebrate, now? —School D...

To mark Yom Ha-Shoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Noah describes the decades-long path Israelis followed to come to terms with the Holocaust, culminating in a record in 1988, fully 43 years after the camps were freed. (Out of concern for the environment, this episode is reused and recycled, though not reduced.)

At Passover Seders all around the world, a place setting was laid before a chair left empty for one of the 133 hostages held in Gaza. We look back at the 200 days of anguish, hope, and despair that divide Simchat Torah on October 7 from this week's holiday.

Linda Gradstein and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. —Going Too Farsi? (Or, the Persian Incursion)— We — with the help of the US, UK, Jordan and other capable allies — buffly rebuffed the biggest missile and drone attack on Israel ever. But what does it tell us about the past and augur for th...

Marking six months since the massacres and the start of the war, Miriam Herschlag and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Us, Here— Whether and how we Israelis have changed, in light of all that has happened. Are we different than we we...