Identity/Crisis

Latest Episodes:

The Conflict About the Conflict Nov 09, 2021

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The Jewish community is being pulled apart by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Both the left and the right are driving the debate to extremes, pushing the majority of Jews in the center to disengage. Yehuda Kurtzer and Dov Waxman, (UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies) examine this shift and ask if the positions of the new Jewish left are still compatible with liberal Zionism.

How Jews Talk About Abortion Nov 02, 2021

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As the U.S. Supreme Court considers the highest-profile legal challenge to Texas' new abortion law this week, Yehuda Kurtzer and Michal Raucher (Rutgers University) examine the Jewish communal conversation around abortion. Jews have historically been both pro-natalist and pro-choice. And that's not an obvious combination. How does this dichotomy manifest in attitudes, social policy, and legislation around issues of abortion in the U.S. and Israel?

Who's Afraid of Impossible Pork? Oct 26, 2021

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In mid-October, the OU officially rejected certification of Impossible Pork, causing a flurry of contention from kosher-keeping consumers. What does it mean for rabbis to declare a product of 100% kosher ingredients treif based on name and taste alone?

In this episode, Yehuda Kurtzer sits down with our very own producer, David Zvi Kalman, to explore the origins of this rationale and discuss the ethical factors that weave through Jewish dietary law as the climate crisis careens us toward an uncertain future of sustainable protein.

David’s opinion piece on the subject can be found here.

The Bronfman Fellowships and the Difficulty of Pluralism Oct 19, 2021

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For more than three decades, the Bronfman Fellowship has been a crucial incubator of pluralistic thought among future Jewish leaders. As American Judaism and media have changed, however, the work of engendering pluralistic communities has become much more difficult. In this episode Yehuda Kurtzer speaks with Becky Voorwinde, the Executive Director of the Bronfman Fellowships about how the program has tried to adapt to these challenges.

We Still Need to Talk About the Occupation Oct 12, 2021

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In this week’s episode, Yehuda Kurtzer speaks with Donniel Hartman about how Israeli society and the occupation are testing Zionist ideals.

Donniel Hartman's essay in Sources can be found here: https://www.sourcesjournal.org/articles/liberal-zionism-and-the-troubled-committed

Meir Kahane, American Radical? Oct 05, 2021

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In this episode, Yehuda Kurtzer chats with Hartman senior fellow Shaul Magid (Dartmouth College) about his new book Meir Kahane: The Public Life and Political Thought of an American Jewish Radical which offers an intellectual history of American Judaism and its political challenges – liberalism, race, communism, Zionism, radicalism – the poles through which American Jews have traveled in the past 60 years. Can the story of a radical thinker and controversial politician shed light on the Jewish experience in the US and, later, in Israel?

Links:

Meir Kahane debating Yitz Greenberg: https://archive.org/details/RabbiKahaneDebatesProf.Greenberg360p

Meir Kahane debating Alan Dershowitz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ykrwmaKrLg

#70: Sweeps Week at a Covid-Era Synagogue Sep 27, 2021

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In this episode, Yehuda Kurtzer spoke with Rabbi Annie Lewis and Rabbi Yosef Goldman of Shaare Torah in Gaithersburg, Maryland, about the experience of becoming the rabbis of a new congregation during a pandemic, adapting to limitations on communal singing, and trying to find time to appreciate services while also leading them.

#69: A Conversation with the Minister of Diaspora Affairs Sep 19, 2021

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In this episode of Identity/Crisis, Yehuda Kurtzer speaks with Nachman Shai, Israel's Minister of Diaspora Affairs, on a range of topics, including differences between Israeli and American historical consciousness, why Israel's relationship with Diaspora Jews remains important, whether Zionism allows for Diaspora to be valuable, and the possible return of a compromise around the use of the Western Wall.

Links: Has Israel Let You Down?: https://www.jta.org/2021/09/01/opinion/has-israel-let-you-down-its-minister-of-diaspora-affairs-wants-to-talk-about-it

#68: Twenty Years Later Sep 14, 2021

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Looking back at the momentous month of September, 2001, Yehuda Kurtzer speaks to writer and public speaker Wajahat Ali about the impact of 9/11 on the American Muslim community, and to Ron Kampeas (JTA) about the lasting impact of the UN World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa and the anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric that came to dominate it.

Wajahat's article: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/09/how-9-11-destroyed-the-muslim-model-minority-myth.html
Ron's article: https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/the-first-durban-conference-devolved-into-a-festival-of-hate-679119
Special thanks to Tali Cohen for editorial support on this episode.

#67: The Global Fascination with Dead Jews Sep 05, 2021

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Dara Horn, author of 6 novels, many essays, and the forthcoming non-fiction book People Love Dead Jews, speaks to Yehuda Kurtzer about the nature of the phenomenon of Jewish heritage site tourism in countries where Jews no longer live, who we write about when we write about Jewish history, and why she wrote this book now, after 20 years of refusing to center antisemitism in her work.

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