The Jew Function Podcast

Savvy Auntie, Melanie Notkin, opens her heart to us and it's all warm and fuzzy and why can't we have that feeling between us in spite of our born differences? We don't know if Jews listen to anyone even when our wellbeing is on the line but maybe women, with their natural ability to embrace and bring together, can make us do things even when we don't initially want to do them. Sounds like growing...

Chanale Fellig-Harrel is an unstoppable force of nature. The ridiculously talented singer, songwriter, sat down with us to kvetch about the decline of the internality of Jewish religion, sing the praises of Jewish pride and propose to overcome antisemitism by tapping into our unique function according to the 12 tribes. Listen in to find out if Chanale ended up singing for us or telling us an antis...

They say we are products of our environment and the exception proves the rule. But what can we learn from one would-be Jihadist who decided to follow his heart and question everything that he was raised on? Could his journey of transformation teach Jews something about the attitude of the world toward them and, equally, the attitude they should take toward the world T: @HusseinAboubak "Minority of...

Not many people wake up in the morning with an urge to explain Israel to the world. Fewer still actually take up English to do a better job at it. This guy is all heart and runs on what feels like pure love of his country. Is this enough to save the Jewish state? See for yourself. One thing is for sure, he was good enough to become the social media content producer for Israel's PM Benjamin Netanya...

If, as a Jew, you're waiting for the world around you to change its mind about you and stop hating you cause you're just like everyone else, then this talk is not for you. If you want to take an hour to walk in someone else's shoes, and bring change to the discourse, then you're in the right place. Our guest was de-platformed for being too outspoken against the purported Jewish power structure. He...

Seriously, it's a video game where you can play a Jewish person and experience first hand the looming horrors as they gradually close in on your family. Why would anyone create such a game? You'll have to hear it directly from game director Luc Bernard: French born, British accent, LA based heart of Gold. Hopefully this game will encourage us to take action, the right action, before it's too late....

Here's a person committed to bringing goodness, justice, and tough love to the whole world, often in the face of waves of antisemitism, a skewed administration, and indifferent students. And he's doing it by running the Hillel chapter in Baruch college and overseeing 7 others in the NYC area including SVA, City College, FIT, Pace, The New School... It's the kind of man you wished you had as a teac...

In between missile attacks, power outages, and near-paralyzing uncertainty, we had a rare opportunity to chat with a dear friend of ours, Vlad from Kiyv. What does it mean to be a Jew in Kiyv during this war, what can Jews do when everything seems lost and what do you really need to survive an ungodly war. Listen to the mystery book podcast series: https://anchor.fm/thejewfunctionpodcast Vlad Gold...

Part 2 picks up where part 1 left off.  Wild ride.  Listen to the mystery book podcast series: https://anchor.fm/thejewfunctionpodcast  Prof. Magid's prolific writing includes "Meir Kahane: The Public Life and Political Thought of an American Jewish Radical", "Piety and Rebellion: Essays in Hasidism", "American Post-Judaism: Identity and Renewal in a Postethnic Society" , and with "...

The professor, no stranger to thejewfunction, gave us a run for our money. With his broad academic knowledge, his penetrating eloquence, and his big open heart he helped us go deeper than ever into the big Jewish questions that we like to ask. In fact, we loved it so much that he came on for a part 2! Listen to the mystery book podcast series: https://anchor.fm/thejewfunctionpodcast Prof. Magid's...

Double standards, fear, frustration. It's not easy being a Jew on campus these days. We talk to Rafaella Gunz on the experience that made her change her academic choices, her career choices, and her political choices. Listen to the mystery book podcast series: https://anchor.fm/thejewfunctionpodcast Find Rafella on Twitter @DiscoxBloodbath Link to Seth's book: https://amzn.to/3AAg6Hu FREE audioboo...

Why would a rational, sensitive, lawyer choose to convert to Judaism then suddenly start to feel that antisemitism as a personal attack on her people. Where is that feeling coming from and what is she doing to combat the general psychosis gripping so many people around us. Listen to the mystery book podcast series: https://anchor.fm/thejewfunctionpodcast Find Nicole on Twitter @LevittNicole7 Link...

We're talking to a great guy. He came out of college wanting to bring what he got in his home community to Jewish students everywhere. He's Campus Regional Manager: Central Area for @StandWithUs.   Listen to the mystery book podcast series: https://anchor.fm/thejewfunctionpodcast  Find Josh on Twitter @j_arbital   Link to Seth's book: https://amzn.to/3AAg6Hu  FREE audiobook (Wi...

We're talking to a woman who's all contradictions and all harmony. Our favorite expression of what it means to be Jewish. Angela Van DerPluym takes us through her struggle to reconcile growing with a White Supremacist dad and a Jewish mom. There's a lot we, as a people, can learn from her triumph. Listen to the mystery book podcast series: https://anchor.fm/thejewfunctionpodcast Find Angela on Twi...

We hosted blunt black Jew Tyler Samuels to talk about the rifts in Jewish society, and how, as a polite historian he's dealing with racism and antisemitism with a big smile. Listen to the mystery book podcast series: https://anchor.fm/thejewfunctionpodcast Find Tyler on Twitter @bluntblackjew And follow his work as Program Coordinator @TLVinstitute Link to Seth's book: https://amzn.to/3AAg6Hu FREE...

We hosted Arielle Kaplan, aka The Seductress of Zion and talked about using sex positive to unite the Jews. Can it work? Only way to find out is to listen. Listen to the mystery book podcast series: https://anchor.fm/thejewfunctionpodcast Please check out Arielle's stuff: She's a writer, podcaster, media personality, jewish Internet Princess, she writes the Hey Bubbela column for Jewcy Magazine an...

In this final episode of the 'mystery book series' we reveal the book and have its author, Chaim Ratz, join us for an uplifting conversation about the darkest time in our history. This episode also marks the first in a series of video casts that will feature regular guests to discuss our hypothesis that Jewish unity (or lack thereof) is at the heart of anti-Jewish sentiments and how it also holds...

Irony is one of the hallmarks of Jewish existence. After all, who could've thought that the same Jewish ideas that would help explain the psychology of the masses, and pave the way to modern PR and consumerism, would also be among the primary building tools of Nazi propaganda? What does Freud's nephew, Ed Bernays, have to do with the lucrative yet deadly love triangle between captains of industry,...

What the hell freezes over? Why is there a swastika and a star of David on the same commemorative medal? Who would commemorate such an unholy alliance and for what reason? Was there a moment in the dark days before the holocaust that offered a way out for European Jewry? And if there was one, why didn't we take it? Why didn't all Jews unite and return to their homeland? Was it a matter of personal...

WWI was one of the most pointless wars in the history of mankind. But it did serve to prove one point, namely, that try as they may, society will always look at Jews as social pariahs. It didn't matter that Jewish deaths in the war were proportional to their numbers in the population or that the wealthy industrialist Walther Rathenau used his resources and ingenuity to give Germany a lease on life...

Tolstoy said that everyone thinks to change the world but nobody thinks to change themselves. But what if your life depended on it? would you change then? Can the most stubborn people on earth look at one of its most painful episodes and draw new lessons? Although it was recorded mid 2020, this episode was eerily prophetic in anticipating the meteoric rise of antisemitism we see today. As we muste...

This is part three on the birth of Zionism and the relationships between Jews in Europe at the turn of the 19th century. The world is not a nice place but if you have a desire for unity, then maybe, just maybe, you have a little Jew in you. Why is it so hard for us to accept the conditions that led to the birth of Zionism? Why is it so difficult to connect with someone when you disagree? How come...

The moment the gates of the shtetl were thrown open by the Tzar, there was nothing keeping the Jews of Eastern Europe together. Why do some Jews feel compelled to keep to the religious tradition while others become hopeless social revolutionaries? Is this because we intuitively feel the plight of the oppressed? Or is it an unconscious defense mechanism working to ensure the society we’re in will g...

The state of Israel wouldn’t be born if not for the effects of the holocaust which in turn wouldn’t have happened if not, in part, due to the assimilation attempts of German Jews and the deep schism between them and Orthodox and Zionist Jews, the latter of which wouldn’t have existed if Jews didn’t feel they needed to aspire to return to Israel, which wouldn’t have happened if not for the “Storms...

They say history repeats itself. But it's not an exact rerun. There's always room for free choice to change the course we're on - but only if we have enough relevant information.  The human-animal was endowed by nature to be a pattern cognition machine,  evaluating the past in real-time, to predict a good positive outcome in the future. The events of the first days of 2021 and the reacti...