Ask a Jew Yael Bar tur, Chaya Leah Sufrin

In this episode of Ask A Jew, we answer your questions like why can religious Jews go into a mosque but not a church? Does an alarm clock need to be kosher? And should you say a prayer every time you use the bathroom?

Have a question? Send it to us at askajewpod@gmail.com

Before we get to that though, we cover our thoughts on if it's ok to go back to posting day to day things on Instagram, our strange social media algorithms, the NYC Meetup wrap-up, the ugliest of all the Hadid’s, war isn’t a Loony Tunes cartoon, what we’re angry about today, AND - is TJ Maxx the secret to healing the world?

Noam Dworman is the owner of the world famous Comedy Cellar in New York City, co-host of the podcast Live From The Table, and two-time MVP of Ask A Jew.
We sat with him last week in a beautiful Soho studio (thank you Jonathan!) to talk about Israel, Trump, people you disagree with, and more. Manny Dworman, a 5th-grader with some strong opinions about free speech, made this episode even better than we could have hoped for.

Also: Thank you to everyone who came to the AAJ Happy Hour in NYC! Was great to meet you, for photos and more announcements head over to substack: askajew.substack.com

The girls welcome Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of the Park Avenue Synagogue for a very serious conversation about faith and identity in 2024, Anti-Zionist Jews, compassion, and what the future may hold for America's Jews.

* The Interview beings 31 minutes in, after we catch up on Yael's meditation retreat and other spiritual adventures.

0:00 - 47:00: the girls catch up on their week for the first part of the episode, talking about the joys of meditation (kind of), the miracle of procastination (with a touch of divine intervention), and a Eurovision recap.

47:00: In the second part of the episode, we talk to Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer, creators of the October 7 play - yes, this is a off-broadway show made entirely of testimonies of real survivors, portrayed by an amazing cast of actors. It’s playing now in NYC and we highly recommend it, check out the links in our show notes. We talk about why two non-Jewish Irish people decided to travel to Israel in November 2023 (for the first time ever!) to tell these stories, how they prepared to stage it, the reactions, and of course - what the hell is wrong with Ireland?

This week we are delighted to welcome newly-minted Jew, our number one draft pick for the Tribe this season, the Caitlin Clark of Judaism - Nellie Bowles! Nellie is the Chief Stratgy Officer at The Free Press, formerly of The NY Times, and author of the wonderful new book “Morning After the Revolution: Dispatches from the Wrong Side of History” which you should absolutely buy and read (don’t check it out of the library, pay up!).

We talk about converting to Judaism, how if you're going to be a lesbian you may as well marry Bari Weiss, why free dental dams are a 👏 human 👏 right (don't google what those are) and why we're spreading a rumor that Timothée Chalamet was just spotted at an IDF recruitment office...

Glory to the Gays! This week we are joined by Ben Appel, author of the upcoming “Cis White Gay: The Making of a Gender Heretic” AND a graduate of the Popular People's University Formerly Known As Columbia.

In this struggle session we cover the liberation of the Columbia campus, why Jews and Gays should unite against the world, and why your hairdresser probably hates you.