The Promised Podcast

Latest Episodes:

The "Selling Out?" Edition Jul 25, 2019

Show notes

Don Futterman, Noah Efron and journalist and host of the spectacular "The Branch" podcast about Jewish-Palestinian Coexistence, Dina Kraft discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.

Looking for the extra segment?

Labor Unions and Disunions

The Labor Party says "Yes" to merging with a party on the center-right, and "No" to merging with parties on the Left. A brilliant stratagem or a strategic blunder?

The Ambassador from Soda Stream

Israel's Foreign Ministry retools its diplomats to promote Israeli companies, not policies. Is diplomacy dead?

Let Television be Television

Israel's national-treasure folk-singer, Chava Alberstein, retools a beloved protest song as an ad for cable and internet service. Is this the end of culture as we know it, or have we maybe lost a little perspective?

Can Stories of "Co-existence" Teach Us Something New?

For our most extremely generous Patreon supporters, we discuss what Dina Kraft has learned from podcasting stories of coexistence, and what she (and we) think of the common-on-the-left-but-still-annoying-as-Hell assertion that there is something unproductive and even untoward about all the efforts to promote "co-existence" because these efforts imply that if we just learned to know and love each other, intractable political problems would suddenly become tractable.

Music

Danny Gilboa

Shavir (featuring Amnon Fisher & Oshrat Pahina)
Latet
Yomuledet (with Izi Gaon)
Rah ve-Tov

The "And What If You Don't Will It?" Edition Jul 18, 2019

Show notes

Don Futterman, Noah Efron, and the scholar-host of the brilliant feminist Yiddish podcast Vaybertaytsch, Sandy Fox discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.

Looking for the extra segment?

Everyone from Benny Gantz to Ayman Odeh

Is a true Jewish-Arab partnership possible on the Israeli Left?

Goodbye to All That!

Forty Jewish-American Rabbis, professors and activists say it's time to say goodbye to Zionism once and for all. Do they have a point?

Where We Live, There Is Our Country!

For 68 years, there were Bundists in Israel – socialist, internationalist Yiddishists. Finally, only now, their Tel Aviv headquarters is shuttering. But what is their legacy?

American Jewish Summer Camp

For our most extremely generous Patreon supporters, we discuss what Sandy Fox discovered over long years of scholarly archival study about the golden age of American Jewish summer camp, the results of which research will soon turn up in an as-yet-to-be-named book in a bookstore near you!

All this and the New Wave Klezmer of Oy Division!

Music

The New-Wave Klezmer of Oy Division:

Slushay Zemlyak (with Psoy Korolenko)
Ekh Vel Zayn (with Psoy Korolenko)
Dumay!
Oy Gewald a Ganef

The "The Distance from You to Me" Edition Jul 11, 2019

Show notes

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman, and Noah Efron discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.

Looking for the extra segment?

You Don't Have to Be Religious to Be Religious, but It Helps

Can Israel's religious right be led by a very secular, very feminist woman?

Eilat: Hot, Fraught & Overwrought

What, if anything, ought to be done about the woes of southern resort city Eilat?

Je m'accuse

A week after we buried another Ethiopian kid killed by a police officer, the eleventh in two decades, what accounts for our omnipresent racism? As Tolstoy never said, "Every racist society is racist in its own way." What is our way of being racist?

Guilt by Association?

For our most extremely generous Patreon supporters, we discuss in our extra-special, special extra segment the brief but vicious twitter war between Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Prime Minister Ehud Barak over Barak's perhaps remunerative relationship with billionaire sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein. Should consorting with mega-rich scumbags be an election issue for the leader of the new Democratic Israel party?

All this and the soulful folk (or is it folky soul) of TamaRadah!

Music

TamaRadah:

Ai Sham (אי שם)
Abba AyYahoi (אבבה איהוי)
Tehushat ha-Zilut (תחושת הזילות)
Zeh ha-Geshem (זה הגשם)

The "Parties Like It's 1999" Edition Jul 04, 2019

Show notes

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman, and Noah Efron discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.

Looking for the extra segment?

Parties Like It's 1999

Israel's Left recombobulates itself by returning to yesterday's leaders, all of whom are men. What explains this sudden lurch to the Father-Knows-Best ghosts-of-politics past?

Is a Dream a Lie if it don't Come True?

Ten years have passed since PM Benjamin Netanyahu endorsed a Palestinian state in his famous "Bar Ilan Speech." Did that speech have an enduring impact on Israeli politics, or was it just a thing that happened long ago and then dissipated into the fetid vapors of time?

Protean Protein

Is a key to Middle East peace … hummus?

"Silence!"

For our most extremely generous Patreon supporters, we discuss in our extra-special, special extra segment the Supreme Court's response to a suit brought against an ultra-orthodox radio station by the Reform Movement's Israel Religious Action Center and the religious feminist group Kolech, hoping to assess against the station for refusing to air women's voices from 2009 to 2011, a fine so great that the broadcast towers would fall silent forever. The court said, basically, do a brother a solid and let the station survive, and we'll try to figure out whether a brother who shuts up a sister even deserves a solid.

All this and the power punk joy of Tabarnak and Yishai Berger!

MusicTabarnak, in honor of Yishai Berger's terrific set at Levontin 7 last week:

Ha-Shir Ha-Chi Tov Hu Ba-Olam
Ya Sefel
Le-Ha-Eef Mashehu Kmo 400 Taklitim
Lihitraot Ya Hnunim

The "Huddled Masses Yearning for GDP?" Edition Jun 27, 2019

Show notes

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman, and Noah Efron discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.

Looking for the extra segment?

Black & Blue & White

The Blue & White party are facing a dilemma: Should they attack the ultra-Orthodox, whom they may want as coalition partners after the election? What should Blue & White say about the men in black?

Huddled Masses Yearning for GDP?

The Trump administration unveils its long awaited plan to enrich the Palestinian economy. Is it a Marshall Plan for our generation, or a Marie Antoinette-ish bit of Let-them-eat-cake-ism?

Last Picture Show?

Tel Aviv will soon have only one movie theater, down from more than 50. Why are pictures leaving the city and what, if anything, can be done about it?

"Concentration Camps"

For our most extremely generous Patreon supporters, we discuss in our extra-special, special extra segment American congressional Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's description of the dismal places where the Trump administration is warehousing undocumented immigrant kids under lock and key as "concentration camps", and the angry and anguished responses it provoked (and the angry and anguished responses that the angry and anguished responses provoked, and so on and so forth, ad infinitum).

All this and the hip hop electronica of Ido Maimon and his many talented friends!

Music

Ido Maimon:

Litfos Otah, featuring Guy Mazzig
Moreh Mahlif, featuring Tuna
Shivilim Hadashim, featuring Eden Derso
Seratim, featuring Alon Eder

The "Pleas Don't Please" Edition Jun 20, 2019

Show notes

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.

Looking for the extra segment?

The Center Will Hold?

Avigdor Lieberman – head of the secular, right-wing Yisraeli Beiteinu Party – made a bombshell announcement that, after our do-over elections, he will force the Likud and Blue-and-White parties to form a centrist, secular "National Unity Government." Has Israel's next government just been formed?

Hard Night for Sara

Sara Netanyahu pleads guilty to ordering expensive take-out food to the Prime Minister's residence, ending an ugly four year investigation and trial. What should we make of this whole pathetic affair?

A Contrarian Century

Ha'aretz celebrates a century of cheesing people off. What impact does this indispensable, infuriating newspaper have on Israeli politics?

The Mainstreaming of the LGBTQ Movement in Israel

For our most extremely generous Patreon supporters, we discuss in our extra-special, special extra segment the quick spread of LGBTQ parades, events and public presence from Israel's big cities to, well, most everywhere. What accounts for mainstreaming of the LGBTQ movement, and what does it augur?

All this and the newlywed poppiness of Ben Zini ve-Taylor.

Music

Ben Zini ve-Taylor:

Hey Tay (היי טיי)
Tay (טיי)
Minimor (מיינימור)
Nisikhah Sheli (נסיכה שלי)

The "Labor Savers?" Edition Jun 13, 2019

Show notes

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and journalist and educator Ittay Flescher discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.

Labor Savers

Young Turks, Old Guard, and Stern Generals battle for control of Israel's Labor Party. Who has the best chance of saving from extinction the party of David Ben Gurion, Golda Meir and Yitzhak Rabin?

Good Checkpoints Make Good Neighbors?

New tricked-out hi-tech checkpoints that dramatically reduce the time it takes for Palestinians laborers to enter Israel, and make the process less frustrating and degrading: This sounds like good news, but it is?

Nothing to be Proud Of?

Israel's first openly gay minister is jeered and hounded from Jerusalem's Gay Pride parade, because of his poor record on LGBTQ issues, and his support of the Occupation. But should anyone be Queer-Non-Grata at the Pride Parade?

Why All the Fuss Around David Friedman's Times Interview?

For our most extremely generous Patreon supporters, we discuss in our extra-special, special extra segment discuss American Ambassador to Israel David Friedman's assertion to the Times that, among other things, "Under certain circumstances, I think Israel has the right to retain some, but unlikely all, of the West Bank." Surely it was an interview full of sound and fury. Was it also an interview signifying nothing?

All this and the indie, new wave pleasures of Yesh Lah Haver!

Music

Yesh Lah Haver:

Adon ha-Selihot (אדון הסליחות)
Hey (היי)
Sippur Aher (סיפור אחר)
Mizmor Ga'agu'im (מזמור געגועים)

The "Money, God and Country" Edition Jun 06, 2019

Show notes

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.

Looking for the extra-special, special extra segment?

The Small Matter of the Bill

New elections may cost Israel as much as 5 billion shekels. Should politicians take into account the small matter of the bill?

Friedman is the New Jabotinsky

The "First Conference on Israeli Conservatism" fills a huge conference center, mostly with kippah-capped men. What accounts for the new affinity between Reagan-Thatcher politics and economics and Israeli Modern Orthodoxy?

Heschel is the New Herzl

Should Reform, conservative and reconstructionist Jews in Israel take to the streets to fight for political causes that have nothing to do with religious pluralism like, say, social and economic justice?

Why Has TAU Declined to Denude the University of All Its Sackleriana?

For our most extremely generous Patreon supporters, we discuss in our extra-special, special extra segment the urgent request sent by Physicians for Human Rights, Israel, to Tel Aviv University, asking to remove the name "Sackler" from the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, on the grounds that the famous family of Jewish philanthropists' own Purdue Pharma, the makers of Oxycontin, a drug that has ravaged so much of the US (which request the university refused because, you know, money is useful to buy things).

Music

New singles by Adiel Tiri:

Halas (חלאס)
Behiat Iyuni (בחייאת עיוני)
Zeh Mesubah (זה מסובך)
La-Hatzot Yabeshet (לחצות יבשת)

The "Over Again" Edition May 30, 2019

Show notes

Don Futterman, Noah Efron, and Times of Israel Ops-&-Blogs editor Miriam Herschlag discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.

Over Again

What just happened? Why is Israel going to new elections, just a month and a half after the last elections?

Center-Left 2.0

Israel's Center-Left just staged one of the most successful and powerful demonstrations in recent memory. Did it set the anti-Netanyahu forces on a new path? If so, where will that path lead?

Skin in the Game

Woman in Jerusalem take off their tops to send ultra-Orthodox protesters scurrying away. Is that a good thing?

Their Fears, Our Problem?

For our most extremely generous Patreon supporters, we discuss in our extra-special, special extra segment the recent poll showing that three in four American Jews feels less safe than they did two years ago. What, if anything, should Israel do about this?

Music

Daniel Sun Krief, off her much-anticipate, soon-to-be-released album "Tori Lomar":

Yodaat et Hakol
Tori Lomar
Henech le-Atzmekh
Ani Zeh Beiti

The "Heroes & Beeros" Edition May 23, 2019

Show notes

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron, and Don Futterman discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.

Looking for the extra-special, special extra segment?

Sa'ar in a Storm

What does once-and-future Likud leader, Gideon Sa'ar, PM Netanyahu's nemesis on the premises, promise for Israeli politics?

Pains in the Glass

An ultra-Orthodox boycott threatens to close down a glass factory that keeps its furnaces glowing on Shabbat. Politics in the marketplace ain't a bad thing in general, but what about when lots of jobs are on the line?

A (2nd Century) Star is Born!

Bar Kokhba led a tragic and disastrous revolution against the Romans in the 2nd century. Why is he a Zionist hero today?

Trumpville? Trumptown? Trump City?

For our most extremely generous Patreon supporters, we discuss in our extra-special, special extra segment the Golan settlement slated to be named after Donald Trump – Trumpville? Trumptown? Trump City? Trump Valley? Trump Heights? Trumpboro? Trumpopolis? – and what we make of having a town renamed after the American president.

Music

Jonamoon, after their triumphant appearance at the Jacob's Ladder Folk Festival:

Valentines
Friends
Magic Eyes
Symphony

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