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Wartime Diaries: Michael Vivier
For the last nine-and-a-half months, we’ve been experiencing different kinds of battlefields: There are actual battlefields, where people fight and are wounded and killed. And then, of course, there are secondary battlefields - on college campuses, in the court of public opinion, on social media, on TV, in newspapers, via text messages. And while no one has, thankfully, been killed on those battlefields, they are - in disturbing ways - no less vicious. This reality is so pervasive that for many it’s become the haunting soundtrack of the entire period. But today we want to share one small story, one of countless similar ones that have crossed our radar - about trolling, virtual bullying and Israel bashing.
The end song is Kol Ha'Olam Kulo ("The Whole Wide World") by the Djamchid Sisters.
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Wartime Diaries: One Year
01:11:20||Season 7Families, lovers, fighters, and more: one year of Wartime Diaries.The end song is B'Shana Haba'ah ("In the Next Year") by Shiri Maimon.Wartime Diaries: Sapir Bluzer
14:34||Season 7A parent being called to war impacts the entire family. So she stepped up.The end song is Imma ("Mom") by Shiri Maimon.Wartime Diaries: A Tale of Two Bus Stops
15:01||Season 7Two bus stops in two neighboring towns capture how war can unify, and how it can divide.The end song is Autobus Mispar Echad ("Bus Number One") by Shlomo Artzi.Wartime Diaries: Toby Einhorn
10:51||Season 7Seeking love. Called to war.For our Tu B'Av special, we wanted to get a bird's eye view of the local, post-October 7th dating scene. So we went to visit Rebetzin Toby Einhorn, who runs a one-stop-shop for all matters of the heart.Image courtesy of Jenny Peperman.The end song is Shir HaShadchanit ("Matchmaker, Matchmaker") from the Hebrew adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof.Wartime Diaries: Maryam Younnes
18:41||Season 7Despite all the experts and pundits out there, few know Hezbollah as well as the members of a small, and often forgotten, community living in Israel.This community has found itself in an impossible position: Their adoptive country (Israel) is at war with their sworn enemy (Hezbollah), but is also - as a by-product - bombing their hometowns and villages in Southern Lebanon, where many of their friends and family members still reside. Welcome to the Middle East. As always, it’s complicated. In today's episode, we hear from Maryam Younnes, whose father was an SLA commander who relocated to Israel back in May 2000.The end song is Shir Matzav ("A Song of the Situation") by Mika Karni.Our Friend Shai
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24:51||Season 7On Saturday, four hostages - Noa Argamani, Shlomi Ziv, Almog Meir Jan and Andrey Kozlov - were heroically rescued by the Israeli security forces, and safely brought home alive. Still, 120 hostages remain in Gaza - 43 of whom have already been declared dead - and the pressure to sign a deal that will bring them home is mounting from day to day. Such a deal, of course, has two sides: We tend to focus on what we stand to get, i.e. the hostages. To many, that’s really all that matters. But there are also those who emphasize the other side - what we’d be forced to give, the price we’d need to pay and the people we’d need to release. Our episode today brings us that part of the story. Moriah Cohen is 29 years old. She and her family are part of the small Jewish settlement of Shimon HaTzadik, inside the predominantly Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarah in East Jerusalem. For years this neighborhood has been a focal point of legal battles, demonstrations and violent clashes between Israelis and Palestinians. On December 8th, 2021, Moriah was stabbed right outside her home. Her attacker was Nafoz Hamad, her next door neighbor's 14-year-old daughter. Hamad was apprehended, tried and sentenced to 12 years in prison. But then, in November 2023, as part of the prisoner swap between Israel and the Hamas that brought 80 Israeli hostages back home, she was set free. And not only was she released, Hamad moved back home, right across the street from her victim, Moriah. We visited Moriah in her home, and talked about this complicated and utterly surreal reality.Maya Thomas is our dubber.The end song is Hacheder Ha'Intimi Sheli ("My Intimate Room") by Taarovet Eskot.