Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis

I’ve mentioned this a few times in recent months, but beyond hostages (always my primary concern), war and politics, one of the questions that has lodged itself in my mind is that of what I would call “Jewish religiosity with moderation at its heart.” By that I don’t mean this movement or that movement, or this way of Jewish life or that way of Jewish life, this mode of practice or that mode of pr...

Here’s what appeared on all our screens in the middle of the day yesterday. Already yesterday afternoon, the country was abuzz with the news that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had spoken publicly about trading an end to the war for the return of all the hostages. Later, in the evening, the government announced that Israel would be providing humanitarian aid throughout the Gaza strip. Both topi...

A few day ago, I was having lunch with some friends from abroad along with some people who live here, when the friends from abroad asked, “Are you worried? Are you scared? How do you think it’s going to play out?” One of the people who lives here said, “I’m very worried about our son getting called up. For me, personally, I’m not scared. I’m terribly worried about the future. And there’s nowhere e...

When I lived in Israel as a kid, there was Yom Ha-Zikaron (Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terror), and then, the next day, Yom Ha-Atzma’ut (Independence Day). The transition, at least as I recall from back then, was harsh and immediate. The entire country went from the agony of cemeteries to barbecues and celebrations. It made no sense. Some thirty years ago (I believe that was wh...

A while back, I saw the opening to a book review in Haaretz with the following question in large black letters: Reform Rabbi Meir Azari: “When Jews go into an Arab Village and burn homes on Shabbat, that’s Judaism?” To a certain ilk of Jews in this country, of course, the answer is “yes.” They won’t quite say that explicitly, but their actions leave no doubt as to what they think. Their rabbis don...

Noam Kalush has actually spoken on our podcast once before, when we interviewed him and colleague who are very active in the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. In the course of that conversation, several months ago, Noam mentioned that he, his wife and their children made a harrowing escape from their community, Netiv Ha’Asara, which sits on Gaza’s northern border. In the map above, you can see...

The fast pace of the news cycle in the US — the tariffs and their impact on the economy around the world, fears (on the part of some) about the freedom of speech and the independence of academia, the deportations of an innocent man to Salvadorian prisons from which he will or will not be extricated, and more — make some of what is happening in Israel less than the high profile news it would once h...

Today, in the final segment of our three part conversation with Professor Kandel, I sought to articulate, however inadequately, why I found his proposal brilliant but also unsettling. Is three semi-independent cantons really the state that we hoped it would be? Was it what the founders labored and died for? What about limits? If the “Haredi” canton decided that women could not vote, would the rest...

When you look at photos of Eli Sharabi before he was kidnapped on the day that his wife and two daughters were murdered, it’s hard to believe that it’s the same human being we see upon his release from Gazan captivity. Sharabi’s interview with Ilana Dayan on UVDA, Israel’s “60 Minutes,” more or less, has had a huge impact in Israel. It has now been posted on Facebook and Twitter with English subti...

On many of the critical issues facing the State of Israel, reasonable minds can differ. End the war or do not end the war? Draft the Haredim by force or let their evasion continue? How Jewish should the public square be, and how do we ensure that it remains Jewish while safeguarding Israelis’ individual rights? There are hundreds of such issues. But it would be hard to argue that prostitution, and...

The poster reads: 500 days. Get them out of hell. There must be ways of tracking the mood of a country, its ups and downs, its moments of celebration and its moments of mourning. Social scientists, I imagine, have their ways of calculating. Perhaps they’re measuring such data even as we speak. Even those of us who are not social scientists, though, know. We don’t have the data, but we also have no...

In a recent Haaretz opinion piece , leading Israeli security expert Chuck Freilich wrote that it’s time to give up on the “mindless ‘two-state solution’ mantra.” There’s no way that Israel will get the security guarantees it needs in a two state solution, so it’s time to get honest and to move on. That, he believes, is the main contribution of the Trump “Riviera” plan—it’s likely not realistic, bu...

At the conclusion of the video below, you’ll see this: It translates as follows: Over the past year, we spoke with dozens of young people and asked to hear their stories as they are, without filters. Evacuees, survivors of the massacre, bereaved families, widows, reserve soldiers – the stories they told us are stories of friendship, courage, resilience, and of a generation that sees without illusi...

For those of us who didn’t hear the news until after Shabbat, it was an intense Saturday night. The three additional hostages, it turned out, had been released. But as we’d all become accustomed to seeing their faces on the hostages posters, the faces that we now saw when they actually left Hamas captivity were simply hard to believe. Comparisons like these flooded Israeli social media: The same i...

Eretz Nehederet , Israel’s more-or-less SNL, did a piece on the Red Cross this week that it clearly wanted the Red Cross and the international community to understand —which is why they produced it in English. It’s gotten more than a few chuckles out of Israelis as it’s made its way across social media, but not much more than a chuckle—because the whole International Red Cross thing and the staged...

I recently had the pleasure of reading a pre-publication copy of Melanie Phillips’ new book, The Builder’s Stone: How Jews and Christians Built the West—and Why Only They Can Save It . In classic Melanie Phillips style, it is powerfully written, pulls no punches and cuts to the very heart of some of the most pressing issues of our time. I then had an opportunity to discuss with book with Melanie f...

Yesterday, we shared Yoni Bloch’s now viral song and music video , “Good End,” which envisions an Israel at peace, a region united, a future radically different from our difficult present. As we noted, it has taken Israel by storm. In the video above, Aviva Siegel’s daughter, Shir (to whom Aviva refers as “Shirkush”), filmed her mother watching that same video. As you may recall, Aviva was release...

What’s the mood here? What are Israelis feeling? Everything. Unbridled joy at the sight of returning hostages, worry about what we’re going to see when the returned hostages are not health, or alive, horror as hints of what these hostages went through begin to spread, disgust as we see mass murderers released from Israeli jail and celebrated by Palestinian civilians. Hope that the ceasefires in th...

Today, one haunting image and a brief video. We’ll come back to the video above, which is a clip share by Amit Segal, a highly regarded Israel journalist. Segal shared it on his X feed — it’s a clip of his comments on Israeli TV on Sunday, the day that the first three hostages of this deal were freed. But first, a haunting drawing. A day or two after the hostages returned home, this image by Moshe...

A number of weeks ago, I had a conversation with Sruli Fruchter of 18Forty, in a series called “ 18 Questions, 40 Israeli Thinkers .” We posted the audio of the conversation shortly after it went live, but in response to those have requested it, are posting the video as well, split into two segments, because the full video conversation is long. We’re grateful to 18Forty for their having granted us...

A number of weeks ago, I had a conversation with Sruli Fruchter of 18Forty, in a series called “ 18 Questions, 40 Israeli Thinkers .” We posted the audio of the conversation shortly after it went live, but in response to those have requested it, are posting the video as well, split into two segments, because the full video conversation is long. We’re grateful to 18Forty for their having granted us...

On July 27, 2024, just about half a year ago, Hezbollah fired a projectile that hit a soccer field in the Druze town of Majdal Shams Israel’s north. The toll was horrific. Twelve children were filled, and forty-two were wounded. Interestingly, none of the children killed had Israeli citizenship. Israel has allowed the Druze in the north to decide whether they want citizenship, and for a variety of...

Yesterday, we shared a recording of a talk I gave to a group of Christians visiting Jerusalem, all of them very dedicated to Israel who have been here on multiple visits. I thought that some of their questions were very important and interesting, so today we’re sharing portions of the Q&A session that followed. The link above will take you to a brief excerpt of this portion of the conversation. Fo...

Today’s post is a clip from the Knesset channel of a speech given last week by MK Gilad Kariv , to which we have added subtitles for our readers. Gilad Kariv is currently a member of the Knesset for the Democrats and previously for the Labor Party, in the 25th Knesset. He gave a speech at the Knesset during Hanukkah which, I think, ought to be heard and admired by everyone who cares about Israel’s...

Before we get to today’s podcast. There are photos that shouldn’t exist. Period. This one is of the entrance to our shul, a small community, with the names of the two young men it has lost in this war. Hersh Goldberg-Polin z”l on the right, and the sign regarding Yuval Shoham’s z”l funeral and shiva on the left. But this is Hanukkah, and we deserve some miracles, too. If there’s a central question...