The Promised Podcast

Allison Kaplan Sommer and Noah Efron talk about (1) Prime Minister Netanyahu's decision to reinstate the transfer of humanitarian aid to Gaza: why did this happen now and why the hell did it not happen before; and (2) What we learn (if anything) from the fact that Israel won the popular vote in this week's Eurovision Song Contest, and what we learn (if anything) from the fact that Israel came in 1...

Linda Gradstein, Sara Hirschhorn and Noah Efron talk about (1) The "Pacts Americana," being the trade and investment pacts that US President Donald Trump is reaching with Gulf states on his visit to the region this week, and where it leaves Israel; and (2) The "Cracks Americana," being awkward ambivalence some Israelis feel about a hostage being released solely because he has an American passport...

Linda, Allison and Noah talk about (1) the reserve call-up and the new IDF operation – it's already got a name: Gideon's Chariots – that the government plans to launch in Gaza, and whether or not it is a good idea; and (2) The violent protests of a "Joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Event" in Raanana, and what we do and do not learn from them. All this and the crooked timber of humanity on the 80...

To celebrate Israel's 77th Independence Day, the crew asks "What is Israeli in our eyes?" Plus, midrashic covers of classic Israeli songs!

Linda and Noah talk about (1) Head of the General Security Agency, or Shabak, Ronen Bar's affidavits to the Supreme Court that one journalist says "will shape the security and democratic future of the State of Israel"; and (2) The strange quantum-entanglement of the Holocaust and October 7 th , and whether we learn anything about the one event from the other. All this and, ahead of Memorial Day, l...

Miriam Herschlag, Sara Hirschhorn and Noah Efron talk about (1) The open-letter from Airforce reservists and retirees, calling on the Government to end the war, the army's scorched-earth response, and the flood of letters-of-support for the original letter – What's it all mean?; and (2) The decision by Hebrew University's elite publishing house, Magnes, to shelve plans to publish a Hebrew translat...

Linda Gradstein, Miriam Herschlag and Noah Efron talk about (1) the IDF's at-least-partly debunked explanation for how and why 15 Palestinians in rescue vehicles were shot dead by Israeli soldiers in Rafah, and (2) Prime Minister Netanyahu's embarrassing visit to the White House this week. All this and new glosses on the Passover Haggadah, a living-room recital and a debate among memorial posters....

Linda Gradstein, Gilad Halpern and Noah Efron talk about (1) the anti-Hamas demonstrations in Gaza and what, if anything, we learn from them about the hearts and minds of Gazans, and (2) on the fifth anniversary of the pandemic, how, if at all, COVID-19 changed us as a society and as individuals. All this and bagels, boondoggles and kabbalistic blessings. Plus, brand new music of our troubled time...

A hundred years ago this week, a Hebrew University was founded in Jerusalem.

Miriam Herschlag, Don Futterman and Noah Efron talk about (1) Israel's return to active fighting in Gaza, and what it may mean for the hostages, for Gazans and for the rest of us here and (2) Prime Minister Netanyahu's decision to sack Ronen Bar, the head of the General Security Services, the Shabak, and what it says about the state of Israel's government and the state of Israeli democracy. All th...

Allison Kaplan Sommer and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Horror Vacui— There's an odd mélange of diplomatic proposals for what-comes-next-in-Gaza, from an Egyptian and Arab League plan to various American plans, including one hatch...

Sara Hirschhorn, Miriam Herschlag and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. —Out of Phase— With the stalled ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas giving way to the emergence of the mysterious "Witkoff Plan," what might (and should) happen next? —Commission Perdition— What should we make of...

Linda Gradstein, Gilad Halpern and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Findings— The IDF shares its investigation of itself and what it did and did not do on October 7 with the victims of the attack on a community-by-community basis. Is...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Miriam Herschlag and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Why Does a Knitted Kippah Mean Keep-on Fighting?— Religious-Zionists oppose the hostage and prisoner release and ceasefire agreement more than any other sec...

Sara Yael Hirschhorn, Gilad Halpern and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Rite of Return— How and why did the images of the gaunt, shrunken, clearly-tortured hostages change something and cast into doubt the future of the present ceas...

Allison Kaplan Sommer and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Nobody Expects the Pax Trumpiana!— What's behind US President Donald Trump's plan to move Gazans to Jordan and Egypt and turn Gaza into a place where maybe they'll film the n...

Allison Kaplan Sommer and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —A New Crisis, and this Time, It's Constitutional— What does it augur when the Justice Minister refuses to "recognize" the newly selected chief justice of the Supreme Court? —...

Miriam Herschlag, Linda Gradstein and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —You Be the Judge— Is the new "compromise" proposal for judicial reform any good, and is now the time to debates such matters? —Word— How have the hostages become...

Miriam Herschlag, Sara Hirshhorn and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Ending this F*#!ing War— What should we make of the hostage release and "permanent cessation of hostilities" agreement with Hamas, and why is the agreement only si...

Linda Gradstein, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Thinkin' Blinken— What are we to make of Antony Blinken's interview with the times, in which he said it was Hamas, not Prime Minister Netanyahu, who have scuttled th...

Linda Gradstein and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Standard Deviation— An expose in the New York Times shows that on October 7th the IDF took an extraordinary decision to double the number of civilians whose lives it was willing to...

Miriam Herschlag and Noah Efron are live from the astonishing, brilliant, taste-of-the-world-to-come Limmud Festival in Birmingham, England. —What's Changed, Here?— How we in Israel, and the lives we lead, have changed since, and because of, October 7th. —What's Changed, Everywhere Else?— How Jews around the world, and the lives they lead, have changed since, and because of, October 7th. Plus, how...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and scholar-extraordinaire Sara Hirschhorn discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment   —(Un)settling— Why do Israeli Jews who think it might be a good idea to set up Jewish towns in Gaza, think what they think? —Hostage (Dis)agreemen...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Linda Gradstein and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Gradually, then Suddenly, then OMG— The shocking, sudden fall of strong-man ophthalmologist Bashar al-Assad from power in Syria left Jihadist Islamists poise...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Boogie Unbound— Former IDF Chief of Staff and former Defense Minister Moshe "Boogie" Ya'alon's flatly asserts that Prime Minister Netanyahu's Gaza policy amoun...