Jonny Gould's Jewish State

When Tuvia Tenenbom’s in London, it’s always a pleasure to catch up with him. The Taming of the Jew, Tuvia’s book on British antisemitism and Anglo Jewry’s approach to it was showcased at London’s Jewish Book Week. And while his dim view of British Jewish leadership is pretty much the same as when he was finalising his findings back in 2019, the world has moved on and he has plenty of new observat...

What an excitement to have a very sudden opportunity to talk to Professor Dershowitz. My friend Lawrence Ryz dropped him an email on my behalf, he said “yes”, I sent him a Zoom and off we went. And the conversation was as vibrant as it was rich in anecdotes. Just need to talk to him again after this. Among the Jeffrey Epstein/Prince Andrew trial, we discuss how free speech is being imperilled on u...

Support Jonny and buy him a coffee. Yosef Haddad and Emily Schrader educate the world and rebut the lies told about the State of Israel. They’re an Israeli couple who are engaged to be married, but that doesn't mean they're a Jewish couple. Yoseph is an Arab Israeli from Nazareth while Emily, who’s Jewish is originally from Seattle, Washington in the US. They are both implacably committed to the J...

“I’m a proud Babylonian Jew”. Carol Isaacs is an author, cartoonist, accordionist and keyboard player. This is a wonderful creation matched by a wonderful conversation with Carol. And she’s poured every part of her extraordinary musical and graphic gifts into recounting her family‘s history in Babylon across 2,600 years. “The Wolf of Baghdad” is a vivid, vital recollection of Jewish life and cultu...

As Israel's skies reopened to the world, it was time to reacaquaint ourselves with Israel's national airline, El Al. This is the story of two torrid years for the airline industry, just as things were getting really good for air travel in early 2020. So how did El Al deal with the darkest days of Covid lockdown, what lessons did they learn from this unprecedented business crisis - and what's in st...

While the Prime Minister fended off opposition derision and revolt from a few of his own backbenchers with his statement on Sue Gray’s pandemic partying, I was upstairs awaiting our guest who was in the chamber listening to Boris’ party piece. But it was peace of quite another kind I’d come to Parliament to talk about - with The Right Honorable Dr Liam Fox MP, chair of the UK Abraham Accords Group...

Did Saul Singer and Dan Senor imagine their best-selling book, Start-up Nation, would reframe Israel’s brand - even its perception - right across the world? The book describes our guest today as “one of Israel’s legendary business ambassadors… whose taken on a role that anywhere else, would typically belong to the Chamber of Commerce, Minister of Trade, or Foreign Secretary.” But what is it that d...

Are you a member of a mainstream Orthodox Jewish community? Do you regard yourself as a “liberal” whether your political views are left or right? How should we include Jewish LGBTQ+ people in our communities? At the moment, they live on the fringes of the mainstream, neither included or excluded. Is that fair? Would it be so difficult to accommodate or recognise a union of two Jewish people of the...

What has happened to American foreign policy since Joe Biden took the presidency from Donald Trump? Is every despot in the world emboldened by the shocking withdrawal from Afghanistan? And what does this mean to Israel as it faces the existential threat of Iran edging closer to nuclear capability? As the latest round of JCPOA talks between Iran and the US continue in Vienna, Israel correspondent J...

Help support Jonny with a coffee right here. He’s been the youngest ever chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee with a military career served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Tom Tugendhat MBE MP is an Arabic speaker and a fervent supporter of Israel who names of one the Jewish state’s Prime Ministers as a political hero(ine), Golda Meir. He takes this opportunity to pay tribute to the small band o...

Help Jonny make these podcasts: buy him a morale boosting coffee here! A crowd of around 250 gathered to hear Gideon Falter of the Campaign Against Antisemitism demand of the BBC, “Where is the proof? Tell the truth”. This is about a bus load of Jewish people heading down London’s Oxford Street in high spirits, dancing and singing celebrating Chanukah - only to be attacked by an aggressive group o...

Beatie Deutsch, elite marathon runner, Israel’s three-time national champion, Olympic and World Championships hopeful, face of the Adidas “Impossible is Nothing” campaign - and Orthodox Charedi mother of FIVE. She won the Tiberias Marathon, which she called “a useful practice run”. Her running style and extraordinary pace isn’t the first thing one notices. She wears modest clothing and covers her...

Support thirsty Jonny's podcasting when you buy him a coffee here. President of Israel Isaac Herzog’s visit to Great Britain in November 2021 set a new high mark in the nation-to-nation relationship. His Excellency met the Prince and Princess of Wales, who themselves just returned from a Royal tour of the Middle East in Jordan and Egypt and an exhibition at Chelsea FC, honouring elite Jewish athle...

Jonny's podcast is thirsty work. Help by buying him a coffee here! Today’s guest is the UK Ambassador to Israel, His Excellency Neil Wigan. Britain and Israel have never been closer. Values are converging in the post-Brexit and the Abraham Accords eras: two nation states with common values, industries and defence challenges. And Ambassador Wigan is the embodiment of that; he’s married to an Israel...

Ambassador Dr. Michael Oren: solider, diplomat, ambassador, politician, author, journalist, opinion leader. Dr. Oren was Israel’s ambassador to the US for four years until 2013, during fraught years where allies felt a personal enmity to one other, President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu. Born into small town upstate New York in 1955, young Michael swapped the wealth and confidence of post-wa...

In this special Israel Briefing number 3, Jonny Gould’s Jewish State Israel Correspondent, James Marlow joins us to talk about the race to become the next Jewish Agency chair. The Jewish Agency is the bridge between the diaspora and Israel and prospective candidates are keener than ever to build and sustain relationships between Jews at home and abroad. You’ll hear the latest from James as the rac...

This is Jonny Gould’s Jewish State live on stage at JW3. Had it not been for the pesky pandemic, live shows would’ve been a far more frequent occurrence for yours truly. So it’s with great pleasure that we present this show in aid of Jewish Blind and Disabled with Robert Rinder LIVE in the main theatre at JW3. In this frank and funny conversation, Rob reveals how his hit daytime show, Judge Rinder...

March 2025: I am very sad to hear of Dore Gold’s passing and as tribute, here is a re-release of our discussion as way of remembering his sharp mind and sizeable place in Israel’s history. Ambassador Dr. Dore Gold has spent his professional life as a diplomat and trusted senior prime ministerial advisor pursuing peace and security for Israel with willing Arab partners. Born in Hartford, Connecticu...

Support thirsty Jonny with a coffee here! Our guest is journalist, author and social commentator, Melanie Phillips. She was once a committed diaspora Jew, pledged to contribute to life and society in her native UK. Moving to Israel was not on the radar; why would it be when she lived in the “goldener mediener”, a “golden country” in Yiddish, where Jews could live and prosper? Today she’s an arch-Z...

Our guest today is former TV and radio foreign correspondent, now acclaimed best-selling author on geopolitics, Tim Marshall. His book, The Power of Geography, Ten Maps That Reveal the Future of Our World discusses the many changes in a globalised and multipolar world. I’ve known Tim for over thirty years. Our paths have crossed radio and TV newsrooms at Independent Radio News, LBC and Sky News in...

Support Jonny Gould’s Jewish State with a cup of coffee! Our guest today is Her Excellency, Tzipi Hotevely, Israel’s first female ambassador to the United Kingdom. Her Excellency’s honeymoon as Israel’s new ambassador to the UK didn’t last long. Israel’s world leading vaccine rollout (Episode 52) dominated headlines as Ambassador Hotovely took the reigns in London from Mark Regev in August 2020. T...

Support Jonny Gould’s Jewish State: https://www.paypal.me/JonathanLGould In these troubled times, are we looking back with increased respect to Menachem Begin’s leadership? Is history being kind to one of Israel’s great prime ministers? Our guest today is Jonathan Gruber, film director of “Upheaval, The Journey of Menachem Begin”. Menachem Begin helped build then mould today’s State of Israel, a t...

Support Jonny Gould's podcast production by buying him a coffee here. Israel’s Gaza conflict in the spring of 2021 lasted eleven brutal days but tragically, there’s no sign it’ll be the last. Israel’s citizens endured a pace and ferocity of Hamas rockets unprecedented in the four conflicts dating back to 2008. Yet over 90% of the 4,200 murderous missiles were shot out of the sky by the Iron Dome r...

Jewish communities and friends right across the world came together in solidarity with French Jews in sorrow and outrage at the murder of Dr. Sarah Halimi. Episode Lineup: (02:01) Muslims Against Antisemitism’s Liz Arif-Fear (02:25) Karine Gould (07:10) Maureen Lipman (11:43) Sophie Wiesenfeld (13:22) Hen Mazzig (16:44) Raphael Landau (19:35) Gideon Falter. The 65-year-old retired medic and teache...

Our guest today is the Conservative Party candidate for London mayor, Shaun Bailey. Support Jonny Gould’s Jewish State: Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/JonathanLGould I spent more time in a modest queue of journalists observing Shaun Bailey than I did actually talking to him directly. But it was just as instructive. As a Tory, Shaun is the best-placed candidate to beat Sadiq Khan in London’s mayoral...