Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.com To long-term readers and listeners of Israel from the Inside , Professor Netta Barak-Corren is by now well known. During the height of the judicial reform debates, we hosted voices from across the political spectrum. But whenever we wanted a balanced, non-partisan, and deeply informed perspective on what was br...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.com Many Israelis noted—both publicly in the press and privately with family and friends—that there was something agonizing about this year’s October 7 commemoration that we hadn’t felt in years past. We all have our theories about why this year was so hard, and I address a few of them at the beginning of today’s v...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.com I was not in the least bit surprised by the attention that our first conversation with Dr. Yaacov Lozowick generated when we posted it last week. In these conversations, Lozowick models something rare—a willingness to reassess his own views on the basis of new documents he’s read and new history he’s encountere...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.com At this pivotal moment in Israel’s history—a week when Israelis marked the first time the October 7 anniversary arrived with no hostages left in Gaza, when Israel faces an unprecedented degree of international isolation, and as citizens prepare to go to the polls to determine what kind of country they want to b...

If you aren’t familiar with the work of Ziv Koren—one of Israel’s finest photojournalists—today is the day to discover it. Ziv Koren has been a professional photojournalist for over 30 years. Today, Koren represents Polaris Images photo agency worldwide and works for the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth . He serves as director of education at Travelog photography school, an ambassador for Canson fin...

To listen to Israeli radio this week is to subject oneself to a unique kind of pain — recordings of final phone calls between young people and their parents, recollections of last hugs from widows whose husbands went off to war but did not come back, reflections on homes lost, dreams shattered — and hope still emerging. If one doesn’t live in Israel or speak Hebrew, those radio broadcasts, especia...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.com This is a terribly painful week in Israel. The third anniversary of the barbaric Hamas attack fell this past Shabbat, and on the secular calendar, it falls this week, on Wednesday, October 7. Newly uncovered stories about what happened three years ago, stories that are now appearing on the news and in newspaper...

Earlier this week, the IDF eliminated Saher Nidal Latfi Sakr , the terrorist who was seen kidnapping Noa Argamani on a motorcycle from the Nova music festival on October 7. The video above is the IDF’s released recording of his elimination. We’ve added the subtitles for our viewers. We’ll get back to that, below. Most people who know anything about “Operation Wrath of God” know it from Steven Spie...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.com As Israel’s October 27 elections draw near—a contest some observers call a “make or break” moment for the country—our goal at Israel from the Inside is to explore the Jewish state’s challenges and opportunities from many different angles. * What vision do the country’s leaders actually have for what comes next?...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.com As Israel’s October 27 elections draw near—a contest some observers call a "make or break" moment for the country—our goal at Israel from the Inside is to explore the Jewish state’s challenges and opportunities from many different angles. * What vision do the country's leaders actually have for what comes next?...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.com

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.com What if there is never a State Commission of Inquiry into the failures that led to October 7 and the many mistakes made during the war that followed? Will Israel learn the lessons it needs to learn? Israeli voters are unlikely to get everything they want when a new government is finally cobbled together. We mig...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.com We all know that many of us spend a good deal of time eating together during this period of the Jewish year. It seems so utterly natural that we rarely ask ourselves why—but today’s podcast guest, Nissimi Naim Naor, offers profound insights into the role of food in our lives, our communities, and our healing. I...

For the record, I haven’t (yet) seen the movie NAZA . I will, when it’s available, but even without seeing it, there is plenty that can be said. If you’ve missed all the controversy over the past few days, here’s the gist: NAZA is a brand new documentary film directed by Israeli investigative journalists Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor (co-creators of the Oscar-winning No Other Land ). Taking its ti...

As the Jewish year draws to a close—a period intended for intense, and even uncomfortable, personal and national reflection begins. With that in mind, we open with a brief snippet of a longer conversation (that appeared on Israeli social media here ) between the host, Dudu Sa’aday, and his guest, Rabbi Benny Lau. NOTE, THOUGH: Even a very brief video like the one above has a great deal of subtext,...

It was around a Shabbat table a few weeks ago that today’s guest, Tamar Frank, and I got to talking. As we chatted, she shared her experiences in a program designed to build bridges between Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews, as well as at a well-known American summer camp. She attended both programs hoping to foster connections across ethnic lines in Israel and across the ocean with Jews abroad. What...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.com As Rosh Hashanah approaches, it is no exaggeration to say that the Jewish people is hurting. Bitterly divided and uncertain about the future in Israel, worried and beset by enemies in the Diaspora, we are a people much in need of a restored sense of purpose. We have had the privilege of hosting Rabbi David Stav...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.com I mentioned in my column yesterday about the IDF soldiers who refused to enter an APC with a female paramedic that Israel is in desperate need of a moderate religious leadership. Was Rabbi Menachem Froman, z’l, “moderate”? That depends. But that he was out of the box, and a model of something very different, is...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.com If you listen to the rhetoric of virtually all of Israel’s political parties—from the left (or what is left of the left) to the middle to the right, from secular to religious—you hear the refrain: “The two-state solution is dead.” They’re probably right, for many different reasons. But what comes next? A one-st...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.com A few weeks ago, I shared some thoughts on the question of whether or not each of us is prepared to acknowledge that we were wrong in positions that we held, in beliefs that we considered sacrosanct. In response to that column, a reader wrote a deeply thoughtful and respectful note. They asked if I was prepared...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.com Shortly after I shared a post on whether we are each willing to acknowledge that we were wrong, a reader wrote to ask if I was willing to admit I was wrong for urging American Jews to take a stand against judicial reform back in early 2023. This reader’s note was so thoughtful that I decided to share my respons...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.com In the midst of political intrigue as elections grow near, the very real possibility of hostilities between Turkey and Israel, Israel’s continuing itch to “finish the job” with Iran, Hamas’ clear deception about its willingness to disarm, the ongoing Jewish violence in Judea and Samaria and much more — the stor...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.com Walking into the Bennett headquarters in Ra’anana is exhilarating. One can favor the candidate, or not. One can plan to vote for the party, or not. But to see the energy, the optimism, the devotion to Israel and the huge number of young people working feverishly throughout the day is to be gifted a huge dose of...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.com Today we meet a world — part of the army, part of society, heroes who also need the help of others — in the form of combat medics. They are young people who have seen it all. They carry the weight of decisions they made — successes they had but also failures that were unavoidable — with them for years. Here’s a...

In early August, Rom Braslavski, who spent 738 days in captivity in Gaza, heard that the IDF had eliminated one of his captors. Braslavski, who as we see in the video above, learned fluent Arabic from his captors, filmed a quick video in which he warned the other still-living captors that they are living on borrowed time. The IDF got the one guy, he said, but it will also get all the others, too....