Jewish People & Ideas: Conversations with Jewish Thought Leaders

Jonathan Tobin is an American journalist and editor in chief of JNS.org, the Jews News Syndicate which provides news, opinions and analysis on Israel and the Jewish World for nearly 100 print newspapers and digital publications. He has a daily column on JNS and is also a contributing writing to the National Review, the New York Post, The Federalist, Haaretz, The Forward and many other publications. He lectures widely across the US, including college campuses and has appeared on CNN, the BBC, Fox News and many other TV and radio shows. In an interview for the New York Times he said, “My job as editor is talk about the things people are not willing to talk about.” This was my first remote conversation. Unfortunately there were some technical issues with the recording, but I cleaned most of it up. Jonathan and I discussed the relationship between American Jews and the state of Israel, the Kotel agreement, the rise of violent anti-Semitism in America, relations between Israel and America, anti-Zionism and much more.

My conversation with Natan Sharansky about his time in the Soviet Union, American and Israeli Jews, the Kotel agreement, aliyah, peace with the Palestinians and how to live a meaningful life. Natan Sharansky is the author of Fear No Evil and The Case For Democracy which was a New York Times Best Seller. He is a former Knesset member and minister and the former Chairman of the Jewish Agency.

Yehuda Kurtzer is the President of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. Yehuda is a leading thinker and author on the meaning of Israel to American Jews, on Jewish history and Jewish memory, and on questions of leadership and change in American Jewish life. He is the author of Shuva: The Future of the Jewish Past, which offers new thinking to contemporary Jews on navigating the tensions between history and memory; and the co-editor of the forthcoming volume The New Jewish Canon, a collection of the most significant Jewish ideas and debates of the past two generations. I sat down with Yehuda in his office at the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem when he was visiting from New York to discuss his relationship with God, American Jewry, the Reform movement, Israeli-American Jewish relations and much more.

Nathan Lopes Cardozo is a Dutch-Israeli rabbi, philosopher, and scholar of Judaism. A sought-after lecturer on the international stage for both Jewish and non-Jewish audiences, Cardozo is known for his original and often controversial insights into Judaism. He’s the author of 13 books and the founder of the David Cardozo Academy. I sat down with Rabbi Cardozo at his office to discuss his unique upbringing, his philosophy of halachic Judaism, the Reform movement, the Kotel agreement, the Holocaust, God and much more.

My conversation with former Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren. We discussed American Israel Jewish relations, the Kotel agreement, peace with the Palestinians, his time as ambassador and much more.

My conversation with Yossi Klein Halevi about his work, the Jewish people, Chabad, the future of Judaism and much more.