Ask a Jew

The girls welcome special guest Peter Shankman - tech entrepreneur and 5-time best selling author.  Learn more about Peter here Don't forget to sign up for our Substack newsletter and leave us 5-star reviews on Apple podcasts, you anti-semites! Joing the AAJ conversation on Susbtack! askajew.substack.com Email us your questions askajewpod@gmail.com   ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐  Want to help us grow? Rate and...

The girls welcome Yehoshua (Jason) Bedrick, fellow at the Heritage Foundation's Center for Education Policy, and the man who literally WROTE THE BOOK on Yeshivas vs. New York. What follows is a friendly sparring over religious liberty, school choice, the importance of the English language, and swinging chickens around your head for spite.  Follow Jason on Twitter @JasonBedrick Read his book Religi...

Yael and ChayaLeah need therapy over their first negative review. Yael explains that ChayaLeah failed at meditation and should never try again. They also answer a listener's questions about seven days of post-wedding parties, and give legal opinions on religious liberty (considering that neither of us went to law school you can take it or leave it!) ChayaLeah describes visiting her dead grandparen...

Please take a moment to like and review us, and also sign up to receive updates at  https://askajew.substack.com/     It's a back to school special! Today we talk about the trauma inflicted by Sesame Street (spanning continents and age groups), Chaya Leah's business idea for a fat-person only gym, the holy site to all religions that is Target, and some podcast recommendations that will make you sm...

Sign up for FREE on our Substack  to stay in touch! Today we welcome national security correspondent, journalist and podcaster Eli Lake. Since we have such an esteemed guest with us, we spend plenty of time talking about reality tv, hot members of congress, and circumcisions. But also: why are people so obsessed with Israel, the ortho-woke, Salman Rushdie, Trump vs. Netanyahu, Kanye West, Zen and...

In this episode of AAJ the girls go real deep on being confident and dealing with their shortcomings, all while blaming their moms (and the Holocaust) for their problems. They also discuss Yael's bday party that you weren't invited to, ChayaLeah's obsession with a Mormon family on Instagram, why Yael refuses to be saved by a podiatrist, and of course, cats that look like Hitler. Movie Rec: The Lit...

Yael and Chaya Leah debate the hot issues of the day, from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to something happening to someone in China? (We weren't really paying attention).   Also: how we define our Judaism (surprisingly the girls have very different answers for this), the best and worst airports, Chaya Leah gets fat-shamed by an (anti-semitic) TSA dog, Yael pulls off a major international smuggl...

Chaya Leah and Yael welcome parenting guru and "America's Worst Mom", Lenore Skenazy. We talk about how to let your child grow freely (whatever the opposite of helicopter parenting is), deadly laundry baskets, anxious parents, and crappy kids. We talk about the importance of play, take some questions about screen time, and how parents and kids can slowly learn how to chill. This is a great convers...

Rabbi Aba Perlmutter is back! He wanted to talk about laughter, but being the serious pundits that we are, we went straight to abortions. The orthodox take might surprise you. We also get some spiritual guidance on how not to hate our fellow man (even though they can be really annoying), discuss why we should hold the center and love our country, why we don’t need a Jewish president (or king), Cha...

Your two favorite Jews and backup Jew Nancy Rommelmann are back to talk about everything but abortions! We start with a historical overview of the hotness of First Ladies, a certain Israeli first lady's fondness for cases of pink champagne (I mean, who amongst us?), the royal family, getting older (related), gardening (super related) and Jews surviving in the wild in Peru (the Jews are related to...

Chaya Leah manages to ruin Yael's surprise birthday party within the first 5 minutes of the episode. Yael talks about her vegan vacation in Northern Israel, and the girls discuss the Queen's birthday (like, *the* queen, not Yael), our giant fanbase in Kuwait, a listener question about Jewish quibbles over the letters S and T (as in Shabbas vs. Shabbat), new Hebrew words that just dropped, Yiddish...

The girls welcome Coleman Hughes. If you haven’t heard the name, Coleman is a gifted writer, musician, rapper, podcaster, and probably a Nobel Prize winning physician too. After Chaya Leah makes it awkward right off the bat, we move to topics like:  * Afros make you closer to G_d,  * The season when Hasidic people bloom  * Seeing the best in people * Coleman doesn’t know much about the israeli Pal...

If NYC felt extra holy this week, it was because Chaya Leah and Yael were roaming the streets together, handing out blessings and kissing babies. They got in the sweltering studio to talk about meeting fans IRL at the Fifth Column live event , going on a tour of Crown Heights, being mocked (rightfully) by waiters at a kosher Chinese restaurant, and more. Also, Chaya Leah maps out Brooklyn, which i...

Yael prepares for the arrival of the great Rebbe aka Chaya Leah, and the girls plan all the Jewy stuff they will do on the Lower East Side. Also: A Jewish version of “the purge,” body shaming, loving yourself and other lies.  Joing the AAJ conversation on Susbtack! askajew.substack.com Email us your questions askajewpod@gmail.com   ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐  Want to help us grow? Rate and review us 5 stars o...

The girls talk a bit about abortions but don’t worry, they quickly move on to the holocaust. Also, Chaya Leah tries to educate Yael on upcoming Jewish holidays (the next one involves cheese!), Yael talks about Israeli Memorial Day (no cheese), and much much more! Sign up on Substack, askajew.substack.com And leave us a review on Apple podcasts if you so please. Joing the AAJ conversation on Susbta...

The girls welcome Liel Leibovitz, editor-at-large of Tablet magazine . Read Liel’s essay that made people yell at him. This may have been the Jewiest episode we ever recorded, but goys fear not - we’ll be back with the usual nonsense next week. Also: Please join us on Substack ! Comment! Email! Give money! Or just sign up and say hey. https://askajew.substack.com/ Joing the AAJ conversation on Sus...

The girls recap Passover and the Libs of Tik Tok kerfuffle. Also:  * Everything and nothing is antisemitic  * Blockchain! Books! And why we’re not as smart as we’d like to be.  * Yael recommends a book about how to focus but she can’t remember what it’s called  * Jonathan Haidt is a dreamboat  * Social media is bad. No wait it’s good.  * Friends are very important and never too late to find them -...

The girls fawn over Noam Dworman, owner of Comedy Cellar, and the NYC comedy scene's very own godfather, if the godfather was Jewish and generally just a cool guy. We talk about his personal history to the industry through his father, the holocaust being funnier than slavery, what American Jews get wrong about Israel, Will Smith (...we recorded this a little while ago), why comedians are funny, Ha...

Yael Bar-Tur and Chaya Leah Sufrin on Meghan Daum's "The Unspeakable" podcast Joing the AAJ conversation on Susbtack! askajew.substack.com Email us your questions askajewpod@gmail.com   ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐  Want to help us grow? Rate and review us 5 stars on Apple podcasts and Spotify  ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus e...

Just the girls this time for an intimate chat about modesty, free speech, and share the one truth about Hunter Biden that no one is brave enough to speak. Also the Messiah is coming - are you prepared? Start working on your resurrection-bod, because you're (almost) all invited. Plus: Chaya Leah proposes giving Ukrainians 50% off Starbucks on their birthday, and Yael tells a real war story about a...

Intro - Yael manages to offend our guest by mis-introducing him. 7:35 Al literature that isn't American sucks  13:00 Nick's PhD thesis, oral defense - The Great Gatsby 20:45 Immigrants - we something something done.  25:40 Famous Jewish sports legends 27:00 Thank you Dr. Gillespie. Now tell us about the time you interviewed Jason Priestly for  "Teen Machine" magazine 29:00 Nick and Yael get into a...

Chaya Leah tells the tale of how she and her girlfriends traveled around the country in a van solving mysteries with a dog... or that might be Scooby Doo. But the part about traveling around the country with a van full of Jews is true! Also, Yael tries to compliment the Rebbe but ends up offending him (of course) by comparing him to the pope. Bonus content: Purim, Brad Pitt, diets, and an accident...

" Adrift from Jewish Spaces ," by Karol Markowicz, republished on Paloma Media on March 6, 2022 Follow Karol on Twitter @karol Joing the AAJ conversation on Susbtack! askajew.substack.com Email us your questions askajewpod@gmail.com   ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐  Want to help us grow? Rate and review us 5 stars on Apple podcasts and Spotify  ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss thi...

Since being named "Best Jewish Podcast of 2022" Yael Bar Tur and Chaya Leah Sufrin have no time to write full descriptions, people! It's bullet-points from here on out! * The girls discuss how their lives have changed since they accidentally stumbled upon international fame. * Yael Jew-splains the concept of a Mikveh to Chaya Leah * The age-old Jewish ritual of taking an edible before Shabbat dinn...

On this week’s episode of ask a Jew, we get a real live Rabbi to answer our insightful and embarrassing questions about faith, meaning and Jewish humor. We also discuss this article from The New York Times and wonder: Are there things we shouldn’t laugh about? (Spoiler: no.)Joing the AAJ conversation on Susbtack! askajew.substack.com Email us your questions askajewpod@gmail.com   ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐  W...