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Recommended Podcasts
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Berel Leib Epstein: Why Be a Believer?
We talk to Berel Leib Epstein about rational reasons to choose to believe in Judaism and live a Jewish life.
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Haviv answers 18 questions on Israel.
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Shalom Rosner and Sara Zimbalist: Loss, Faith, and Gratitude
We speak with Rabbi Shalom Rosner, who delivered a widely shared eulogy for Eliyahu Moshe Zimbalist—and with Eli Mo’s mother, Sara Zimbalist.
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Joey Rosenfeld: Can Mysticism Heal Us?
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we sit down with Joey Rosenfeld, social worker and kabbalist, to talk about the differences between mysticism and rationalism and the roles they should play in our lives.
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Menachem Penner & Gedalia Robinson: A Child’s Orientation
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Rabbi Menachem Penner—dean of RIETS at Yeshiva University—and his son Gedalia—a musician, cantor-in-training, and member of the LGBTQ community—about their experience in reconciling their family’s religious tradition with Gedalia’s sexual orientation.
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Why 1840?
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we sit down for a special podcast with our host, David Bashevkin, to discuss the podcast’s namesake, the year 1840.
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Benny Morris: ‘We should have taken Rafah at the start’
Leading Israeli historian Benny Morris answers 18 questions on Israel, including Gaza, Palestinian-Israeli peace prospects, morality, and so much more.
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Dr. Ora Wiskind: How do you Read a Mystical Text?
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we sit down with Dr. Ora Wiskind, professor and author, to discuss her life journey, both as a Jew and as an academic, and her attitude towards mysticism.
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Lizzy Savetsky: Becoming a Jewish Influencer and Israel Advocate
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Lizzy Savetsky, who went from a career in singing and fashion to being a Jewish activist and influencer, about her work advocating for Israel online.
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The Dardik Family: A Child Moves Away From Zionism
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Judah, Naomi, and Aharon Akiva Dardik—an olim family whose son went to military jail for refusing to follow to IDF orders and has since become a ceasefire activist at Columbia University—about sticking together as a family despite their fundamental differences.
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Eitan Hersh: Can the Jewish Left Talk With the Jewish Right?
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Eitan Hersh, a professor of political science at Tufts University, about teaching students of radically different political and religious views how to speak to one another.
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Joshua Leifer and Shaindy Ort: How Progressive Activists Rediscovered Traditional Jewish Life
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Judah Mischel: ‘I identify as someone who is living in the times of redemption’
Judah Mischel discusses mysticism, simple faith, and the miraculous nature of the State of Israel.
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Einat Wilf: ‘Jews Are Never Allowed To Win, and Arabs Are Never Allowed to Lose’
The true enemy in Israel’s current war, Einat Wilf says, is what she calls “Palestinianism.”
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Yossi Klein Halevi: ‘Anti-Zionism is an existential threat to the Jewish People’
Yossi answers 18 questions on Israel.
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Rabbi Dr. Haym Soloveitchik: The Rupture and Reconstruction of Halacha
In this episode of 18Forty Podcast, we had the privilege of speaking with Professor Haym Soloveitchik, University Professor of Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University.
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Anita Shapira: ‘You cannot wipe out Hamas’
Leading Israel historian Anita Shapira answers 18 questions on Israel, including destroying Hamas, the crisis up North, and Israel’s future.
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When the Poor Never Cease
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(What) Do Jews Believe About the Afterlife?
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American Judaism is Falling Apart. We Have Ourselves to Blame
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Can Censorship Edit Our Past?
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‘Are Your Brothers To Go to War While You Stay Here?’: On Haredim Drafting to the IDF
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How Archaeology Rewrote the History of Tefillin
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Intergenerational Divergence
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An Orthodox Rabbi Interviews a Reform Rabbi | Dovid Bashevkin & Diana Fersko
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Moshe Benovitz: Why Religious Change Doesn’t Always Last
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Torah Study and ChatGPT: How Should Jewish Education Respond to AI?
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Is AI the New Printing Press?
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Moshe Gersht: ‘The world of mysticism begs for practicality’
Rabbi Moshe Gersht first encountered the world of Chassidus at the age of twenty, the beginning of what he terms his “spiritual…
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Zevi Slavin: ‘To be a mystic is to be human at its most raw’
As a Chabad Hasid, Rabbi Zevi Slavin’s formative years were spent immersed in the rich traditions of Chassidut and Kabbala.
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Suri Weingot: ‘The fellow Jew is as close to God as you’ll get’
What does it mean to experience God as lived reality?
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The Hasidic Rebbe Who Left it All — And Then Returned
Why did this Hasidic Rebbe move from Poland to Israel, only to change his name, leave religion, and disappear to Los Angeles?