The Promised Podcast TLV1 Studios

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Miriam Herschlag and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.
Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon
 
—Days of Awe—
What do Yom Ha-Zikaron (Memorial Day) and Yom Ha-Atzmaut (Independence Day) mean in this annus horribilis? How can we celebrate, now?
—School Daze—
What should we make of the enraged protests raging on university campuses? Kids these days, am I right?
—Al Jazeera on the Chopping Block—
For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: Israel blocks Al Jazeera for 45 days, on the grounds that the network is neither fair nor balanced. Dumb move?
Plus, a look back fifty years, a vegetable vending machine, and more music of these troubled times.

To mark Yom Ha-Shoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Noah describes the decades-long path Israelis followed to come to terms with the Holocaust, culminating in a record in 1988, fully 43 years after the camps were freed.
(Out of concern for the environment, this episode is reused and recycled, though not reduced.)

At Passover Seders all around the world, a place setting was laid before a chair left empty for one of the 133 hostages held in Gaza. We look back at the 200 days of anguish, hope, and despair that divide Simchat Torah on October 7 from this week’s holiday.

Linda Gradstein and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.
—Going Too Farsi? (Or, the Persian Incursion)—
We — with the help of the US, UK, Jordan and other capable allies — buffly rebuffed the biggest missile and drone attack on Israel ever. But what does it tell us about the past and augur for the future?
—Passover, 5784—
How is this Passover different from all other Passovers?
Plus, a bereaved father on solidarity, flower-girls, fruit bats and more music of our times.

Marking six months since the massacres and the start of the war, Miriam Herschlag and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.
Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon
 
—Us, Here—
Whether and how we Israelis have changed, in light of all that has happened. Are we different than we were six months and one week ago?
—Us, There—
Whether and how we Jews around the world have changed, in light of all that has happened. Are we different than we were six months and one week ago?
—Iran’s Promised “Persian Incursion”—
For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: Are we losing sleep over Iran’s promised “Persian Incursion”?
Plus, the presence of October 7 around the Seder table.  And, more music of our times.

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.
Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon
 
—Families 2.0—
The organization of the families of the hostages has decided to change strategies, linking its campaign to bring the hostages home to the campaign for “elections now.” Is the fight to get the hostages home entering a new phase?
—Sidelocks & Sidearms—
A Supreme Court injunction cuts off, cold-turkey, funding for army-aged, ultra-Orthodox Yeshiva students who learn instead of serve. Couldn’t they have let the turkey get to room-temperature?
—Snap Judgement—
For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: Should a photographer who watched and snapped his shutter while people were being killed, raped and kidnapped get a prize for a picture he took?
Plus a farewell to one of the country’s greatest novelists and activists. And, more music of our times.