Jews You Should Know

ABOUT THIS EPISODE Dr. David Pelcovitz has been practicing psychology for almost 40 years. The scion of a long line of rabbis and having served in a wide variety of professional capacities, Dr. Pelcovitz is uniquely position at the intersection of Jewish community and clinical research. In this conversation, we explore his background, love of empiricism, and passions within his line of work. Dr. P...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE Charlie Harary is today one of the most sought-after religious and motivational speakers in the Jewish world. But he wasn't always religiously motivated or inspired himself. It took a special mentor to ignite his passion and propel him to "own" his own spiritual journey. After time at Columbia Law School and a stint in "Big Law," Charlie moved through the worlds of venture capit...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE Allison Josephs was eight years old when a personal tragedy sparked an existential crisis that lasted years, resolving itself through an intensive Jewish search. Flashing forward, Allison found herself an unwitting ambassador of Orthodox Judaism to the press and in the emerging environments of YouTube and social media. She formalized these efforts in an organizations, Jew in the...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE Rabbi Ben Zion Klatzko began his career as a 21-year-old Brooklyn rabbi. After suffering the tragic, untimely death of his younger brother Gavriel, a 28-year-old outreach rabbi in South Africa with a remarkable young footprint, Rabbi Ben Zion determined to do more, and moved with his growing family to Los Angeles to launch educational programs at UCLA. That venture soon expanded...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE Rabbi Warren Goldstein was both the youngest and first native-born ever elected as Chief Rabbi of South Africa. In the thirteen years since assuming that post, he has engaged at every level of South African Jewish and civic society. His crowning achievement perhaps has been the Shabbos (or Shabbat) Project; what began as an initiative to encourage South Africans to observe one S...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE Ari Bergmann may be one of the most unique and iconoclastic interviewees imaginable. In many ways, he is a walking paradox: a prolific hedge fund principal who is also a prolific Torah scholar; a product of classical yeshiva institutions who embraces - and now teaches, at the Ivy Leagues no less! - academic Talmud study; a rationalist with deep appreciation for Judaism's esoteri...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE Longtime Senator Joe Lieberman is one of the nation's most accomplished politicians, and also one of its most visible observant Jews. In this wide-ranging conversation, Lieberman cover a many topics, including: his childhood and grandmother's early Jewish influence; formative event like the elections of John F. Kennedy and the Martin Luther King Jr. march in Washington, D.C.; hi...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE Malcolm Hoenlein is the Executive Vice President of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Beginning with his leadership at the forefront of the Soviet Jewry movement, Mr. Hoenlein has traveled the world advocating for oppressed and endangered Jews - and all minorities - for the past 50 years. As the head of the largest umbrella organization in the...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE Jamie Geller grew up in a traditional Jewish home, but struggled to find her Jewish identity as she attended journalism school at NYU and made her way as a producer for CNN and HBO, working on such estimable shows as The Sopranos. Jamie eventually blossomed as a Jewish woman and correspondingly shifted her creative talents towards the kosher cookbook industry. A self-professed c...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE Ari Schonbrun was on the 78th floor of Tower 1 in the World Trade Center, heading towards his Cantor Fitzgerald office on the 101st floor, on the morning of Tuesday, September 11th, 2001, when a blast shook the building and transformed his life. In this riveting discussion, Ari shares the story of his heroic efforts (my description!) on that morning, and what has changed for him...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE Robert (Yisrael) Aumann was born in pre-war Germany, moved with his family to New York and eventually ended up in Israel, where he has been a professor of economics for over 50 years at the Hebrew University, and founder of its Center for the Study of Rationality. Professor Aumann was awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in Economics for his pioneering work in the field of game theory....

Lori Palatnik has spent three decades in service of Jewish communities around North America and the world. Her most recent and most ambitious enterprise - the Jewish Women's Renaissance Project, often dubbed "Birthright for moms" - has revolutionized the Jewish adult education world, opening up opportunities to women (and now their husbands), and by extension their entire families, to new vistas o...

Eric Fingerhut joins us for a fascinating conversation covering his life journey and professional arc as a United States Congressman, The Ohio State University Chancellor and President of Hillel International. Eric shares amusing anecdotes - such as his role in the Cleveland Browns departing town - as well as more poignant reflections of hearing Nelson Mandela address a joint session of Congress,...