Think Twice with Jonathan Tobin

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The Internet and mainstream media are inundated with misinformation and superficial hot takes. That’s why you’re not getting the full story. Take another look with JNS Editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin as he takes deep dives into the most critical stories and controversies impacting the Jewish world with insightful commentary and fascinating interviews. If you want to understand the bigger picture and the context of the issues that really matter, this show is for you. Thanks for listening to Jonathan Tobin's podcast. If you appreciated today’s discussion and want to dive deeper into the issues shaping Israel and the Jewish world, join our community by subscribing to our newsletter. Your engagement keeps our journalism thriving. Your support is crucial. Support us with a donation to ensure we can continue delivering in-depth reporting: Donate Now!

  1. 4d ago

    Ep. 227: The rabbi who saved Soviet Jewry and reimagined American Judaism

    Though overlooked because of the impact and fame of his charismatic successor, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn was one of the most impactful figures in 20th century Jewish history. And he’s the subject of a new biography, Undaunted by Rabbi David Eliezrie, who joins JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin for this week’s episode of Think Twice.   Eliezrie, the founder and leader of North County Chabad/Congregation Beth Meir HaCohen in Yorba Linda, California has written the first scholarly biography of Schneersohn and acknowledges that although he was considered a major figure during his lifetime, he has been eclipsed by the seventh Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn. But the transformation of Chabad from a small sect of Hasidic Jewry to its current status as one of the most important forces in modern Jewish life was only made possible by the sixth rebbe’s successful struggles to save Soviet Jews and reimagine American Judaism.   The story of this rebbe is, as Eliezrie notes, a saga that encompasses the key struggles of 20th century Jewish history. Displaced from its traditional home in the Russian town of Lubavitch by the First World War, Schneersohn and Chabad found themselves the center of resistance against Communism efforts (led by Jewish Bolsheviks) to eradicate Judaism. Eliezrie’s book tells the story of, despite ill health, threats, imprisonment and a death sentence against him handed down by Moscow, the rebbe stubbornly insisted on fighting to keep Jewish education and practice alive in the Soviet Union.   After a narrow escape from the Nazis at the start of the Second World War, the rebbe came to the United States. There, he first supported efforts for rescue of European Jewry, which was opposed by the American Jewish establishment that feared offending President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He also chose, unlike other Orthodox movements who felt maintaining their own communities was the priority, to emphasize outreach and bringing Judaism and Jewish learning to all Jews, regardless of their affiliation and observance. In this way, Eliezrie says, he helped transform American Jewish life and set the stage for his successor’s subsequent successful revolutionary international outreach campaign.   Perhaps just as important was Schneersohn’s willingness to put aside past disagreements with Zionism after the birth of the modern state of Israel in 1948. Though not formally Zionist and opposed to secular nationalism replacing Judaism, the rebbe took a stand that opposed the Haredi world’s efforts to remain separate from modern Israeli society. As a result, as Eliezrie says, “We want to be engaged with that society. The previous Rebbe told his followers everybody has to share in the defense of the country, that we have to go to the army.” The author notes that surveys of American Jewry show that the largest percentage of American Jews who identify as Zionists are actually those who affiliate with Chabad synagogues.

  2. Jul 16

    Ep. 226: Why does the Israeli left endorse blood libels against their own country?

    The question many supporters of Israel ask is one that Israelis struggle to explain, says JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin. How can a leading Israeli institution like the Haaretz newspaper justify their role in spreading blood libels against the Jewish state which help to bolster the efforts of those who are working to eradicate it and kill Israelis? He is joined in this week’s episode of Think Twice by Israeli historian and writer Gadi Taub who has an explanation. According to Taub who wrote about this dilemma in JNS, Israelis who think of themselves as “progressives,” as is the case with the staff of Haaretz, must turn on their own country in order to maintain their standing with other leftists. Their only strategy to not be included in the antisemitic boycotts of their country is to join it. It generally doesn’t work since those who hate the Jewish state and wish to isolate it, don’t grant exemptions to Israelis who validate their false accusations. But as Taub explains, that doesn’t deter Israeli leftists. They don’t seem to connect the dots between their turn toward anti-Zionism and false accusations about Israel committing “genocide” in Gaza and the fact that the people they are aiding want to commit actual genocide against all Israeli Jews, including those who hate their own country. They justify it, Taub says, by imagining that the Palestinian Arabs are mirror images of Israelis and that their threats are either meaningless or by justifying them and embracing genocidal terrorism, such as what occurred on Oct.7, 2023, as justified “resistance” rather than mass, murder, rape and kidnapping. For many years, Haaretz and the extreme left in Israel stuck to critiques of the “occupation” and the measures of self-defense undertaken by the country’s government and military. But in the weeks before Oct. 7, the publishers of the newspaper dropped the pretense that they were merely liberal Zionists and, instead, have embraced efforts to erase the country’s identity and purpose. Taub believes the Haaretz approach to the conflict is linked to the effort to prevent reform of Israel’s out-of-control judiciary. They know that the project to essentially dismantle the Jewish state will never gain the approval of Israel’s voters. But 15 unelected judges of the Israeli Supreme Court, who have arrogated to themselves absolute power over the government, do have the ability to advance the demise of Zionism, he argues. Listen/Subscribe to weekly episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, iHeart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.   Watch new episodes every week by subscribing to the JNS YouTube Channel.

  3. Jul 9

    Ep. 225: Buck Sexton: The same trick that fooled millions is happening again

    Totalitarian regimes such as those led by Communists and Nazis have something in common with jihadist terrorist organizations and politically fashionable leftist movements. They all use propaganda, scare tactics, the law and social isolation and pressure to convince people to passively accept the unacceptable as not just normal but an inescapable imperative. That’s a key insight of radio host Buck Sexton’s new book, Manufacturing Delusion: How the Left Uses Brainwashing, Indoctrination and Propaganda Against You. Sexton joins JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin on this week’s episode of “Think Twice”. He says he was motivated in part to write the book because of the way Americans were manipulated into accepting Covid-19 pandemic measures like masks, lockdowns and vaccines that authorities imposed upon them with lies and false reassurances. But the tactics that enabled that mass deception to happen also apply to other issues including climate change alarmism, gender ideology and acceptance of myths about racist killings of African-Americans that fueled the Black Lives Matter movement. The former CIA analyst and New York Police Department terrorism consultant argues that the Islamist extremism that he witnessed in Iraq and in Nigeria was enabled by some of the same methods pursued by the tyrants that ran the Soviet Union and Communist China. The effort to force people to abandon independent judgement and accept the lies imposed on them were discussed by George Orwell in his classic novel 1984, which sought to alert the world to the threat from Communism. But these tactics have also been used by cults as well as political movements. He notes that it is no small irony that contemporary extremists who have spread antisemitism and blood libels as part of an effort to mainstream efforts to destroy Israel are using lies and slogans crafted for the same purpose by Soviet propagandists. The radicalization of those who join terrorist groups involves these methods. But it also applies to the way masses of people are convinced to believe conspiracy theories that use Jews and Israel as the scapegoats for the world’s problems. That has led to indoctrination of young people by leftist ideologues and also is part of the explanation for the Jew-hatred promoted by right-wing podcasters like Tucker Carlson. Listen/Subscribe to weekly episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Watch new episodes every week by subscribing to the JNS YouTube Channel.

  4. Jun 28

    Ep. 224: The West lacks the will to fight terror while Britain faces civil war

    The United States and Israel achieved unprecedented military success in their campaign against that started earlier this year on Feb. 28. But, according to JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin, the American decision to stop the war due to the economic pressure Iran was able to exert via its menacing of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz revealed a bitter truth about the West’s ability to defend itself.   He’s joined in this week’s episode of Think Twice by military expert Col. Richard Kemp, a veteran of several wars in which the United Kingdom took part and an on-the-scene analyst of the conflict Israel has been fighting against Iran and its terrorist proxies. Kemp says the reason why the United States pulled the plug on the war was due to President Donald Trump’s unwillingness to risk even a small number of casualties in order to ensure freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf.   “Very clearly, the United States was not, and probably would never be prepared to commit to boots on the ground in that situation,” says Kemp.   While Israelis are willing to do what is necessary to defend their country as well as their homes and families, the political leadership of the United States as well as Western Europe, lacks the will to commit to such a fight. Kemp also believes that the refusal of Britain and other NATO allies to fight alongside the United States against a nation like Iran that is as much of a threat to them as America, also played a role in Trump’s decision.   That is a political decision by London. According to Kemp, that has embarrassed the British military, since they would have been willing to defend British sovereign territory, like their bases in Cyprus, which were attacked by Iran, but their political leaders lack the will to do so.   Kemp also described the enormous difference between the image of Israel, which he visits frequently, and the way it is depicted in the Western media. “We shouldn't forget that this is not a misunderstanding or a lack of knowledge,” says Kemp. It is a deliberate campaign to delegitimize Israel, which began in the Soviet Union in the 1960s.”   In particular, he drew a strong contrast between the way Israel empowers and takes care of all of its citizens, including those who are disabled, with the way Palestinian Arabs treat their people. Israel is, he says, the only country that allows its disabled to serve their country while the Palestinians sacrifice their disabled children as human shields in the fighting in Gaza.   When asked about the future of British Jews, Kemp says the problem isn’t only the plague of antisemitism that has been tolerated by both the British Labour and Conservative parties. It’s that the rights of all British citizens, what he refers to as the “indigenous” people of Britain, are being undone by a willingness to tolerate law-breaking and Islamicization of society by immigrants from the Arab and Muslim world.   Kemp says the prospects for a political sea change that will enable any conceivable British government to protect the rights of all British citizens, including Jews, are not good. He believes it is more likely than not that future British prime ministers, like the last few, will be too afraid of violence from Muslims and the far left, to do anything about the problem. If that is the case, he predicts that it will result in a kind of civil war, comparable to the strife that prevailed in Northern Ireland for decades, where government forces strove in vain to counter violence from competing factions. In this case, that will mean Muslim terror will become a normal part of British life alongside counter-terror from “indigenous” Britons.   Listen/Subscribe to weekly episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, iHeart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.   Watch new episodes every week by subscribing to the JNS YouTube Channel.

  5. Jun 11

    Ep. 223: The biggest threat to Israel democracy is the Supreme Court

    With Israelis set to go to the polls in a few months, an issue that has been on the backburner since Oct. 7 will probably again be provoking public debate in the Jewish state. An effort to reform Israel’s Supreme Court and judicial system enraged the opponents of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in 2023 and is likely to be on the agenda again. Joining JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin in this week’s episode of Think Twice is Israel-American lawyer Yonatan Green, author of the new book, Rogue Justice: The Rise of Judicial Supremacy In Israel.   Green says that there is no court in the world in a democratic country that has the kind of power that Israel’s Supreme Court has seized for itself. And contrary to the claims of the opponents of judicial reform, “the biggest threat to Israeli democracy and the rule of law is the Israeli Supreme Court itself and its allies and its proxies.”   By abolishing the very notions of standing and justiciability, two cornerstones of English and American law, Israel’s courts have arrogated to themselves the ability to overrule the elected government on virtually any issue or action in ways unheard of in other democracies. This has created a system of judicial supremacy that is antithetical to democracy. And when you add in the fact that members of the court have the power to name or at least veto potential fellow judges, what Israel has created is a judicial oligarchy.   Nevertheless, judicial reform opponents call any effort to rein in this undemocratic system and re-establish a balance between the judiciary and the elected members of the Knesset and government a threat to democracy. Green believes that many Israelis believe this to be true because when it comes to the judiciary, citizens of the Jewish state are essentially isolated from other democratic nations and have no idea what is considered normative elsewhere.   As a result, they actually believe that democracy is not a matter of majority rule limited by independent courts that are restrained from overstepping their responsibilities. Rather, they actually are under the impression, reinforced by liberal dominance of their education system, that the rule of elites who have the right and duty to ignore the will of the voters is democracy. Moreover, they seem unfamiliar with the basic concept underlying the American system which holds that the rights of citizens are derived from God rather than a gift from a government that can be limited or taken away at will.   Green believes the danger from this undemocratic and coercive system that pretends to be democratic but is not, goes beyond the impact of an out-of-control judiciary. It has also increased polarization and made it harder for Israelis to get along with each other.   The solution to this problem, he says, is a much-needed change in Israeli education to promote knowledge about how democracy works and the election of a constitutional convention that, like the one that wrote America’s constitution in 1787, can come up with a more equitable system.

  6. Jun 4

    Ep. 222: Antisemites aren’t paying a price for their hate

    The forces behind the mainstreaming of anti-Jewish conspiracy theories have gained a foothold in both major political parties. And according to JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin, there’s no sign of them being driven back to the fever swamps of the far left and the far right where they belong. Or at least not for the foreseeable future. He’s joined in this week’s episode of Think Twice by columnist and author David Harsanyi who argues that no one would ever think about being racist and conspiratorial in the way they are about Jewish people when speaking about black Americans or anyone else. And, he says, expressions of anti-Zionism gives them the cover to get away with it.   While such people claim their beliefs are about their revulsion for Israel, Harsanyi argues that their use of tropes about Jews controlling the media, money, and being able to displace or get rid of politicians they don't like aligns with the sort of hatred that's always existed. It exists, he says, among progressives but also among the isolationist types and the paleocons. Such alleged right-wingers are very close to being progressives. “Tucker Carlson is far closer to Hassan Piker than people probably want to admit.  In fact, I'd say they're relatively indistinguishable except maybe for some cultural issues.” Harsanyi says.   What’s more, there's no real price to pay anymore for being antisemitic in society, Harsanyi points out. “If you're a racist, there's still a price to pay. If you're an antisemite, there is virtually no price to pay. You see comedians do it. You see podcasters do it, and you see mainstream media types do it as well.   While most Republican officeholders are pushing back against the antisemites, with, Harsanyi says, the conspicuous exception of Vice President JD Vance, most Democrats are giving in to their antisemites. The acceptance of people like Maine U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner, despite his Nazi tattoo and sex scandals, as well as his vicious anti-Israel rhetoric is, like the rise of the left-wing congressional “Squad,” evidence of the progressive capture of the Democratic Party.   Nevertheless, Harsanyi thinks Democrats are making a mistake by investing so heavily in anti-Israel rhetoric. Most Americans, even those who are not predisposed to support Israel, are just not that interested in the issue and the left’s commitment to smearing the Jewish state and targeting Jews is not an election-winning issue.   Listen/Subscribe to weekly episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, iHeart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.   Watch new episodes every week by subscribing to the JNS YouTube Channel.

  7. May 28

    Ep. 221: To resist antisemitism, today’s Jews must become refuseniks

    What can American Jews do to successfully respond to the surge of antisemitism that followed the Hamas-led Palestinian Arab attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023? The answer, says JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin, may be to channel the spirit of activism that characterized the movement to free Soviet Jewry in the 1970s and 80s. He’s joined in this week’s episode of Think Twice by scholar and author Izabella Taborovsky, the author of Be a Refusenik: A Jewish Student’s Survival Guide.   Taborovsky points out that the script for those engaging in what she calls “conspiratorial anti-Zionism was written by Soviet propagandists more than a half century ago. She says the Soviet Union didn’t merely engage in state-sponsored antisemitism but also in a similar effort to promote anti-Zionism in order to suppress Jewish dissent at home and to attack the United States and Israel.   What we’re facing today, she says, is, “the same language, the same ideas, the same conceptual universe and the same explanatory logic” employed by the Soviets against Jews then. The “refuseniks”—the Jews who wouldn’t go along with this assault on Jewish identity and demanded the right to emigrate—”refused this idea that in order to be accepted, we have to give up every aspect of our Jewish ideas and identity.” Moreover, she argues, they knew they weren’t accepted anyway by a society that was drenched in Jew-hatred.   The lessons she draws from this struggle, can, she asserts, be applied to the Jewish dilemmas of today. The six principles laid out in her book are to: Reclaim your Zionism and its centrality in Jewish identity; Educate yourself rather than remain Jewishly illiterate; Find comrades in arms and embrace allies, which exist in America among pro-Israel Christians; Do the unexpected and refuse to play by the rules laid down by the antisemites; Reject victimhood and embrace pride in Jewish success; and to Lead with Jewish life as a pathway to success.   Taborovsky also points out that efforts to bring up the history of the Jewish Socialist Bund as an alternative to Zionism is ahistorical. The Bund was just as nationalist as Zionism; it just wanted to practice it in Eastern Europe. To revive this doomed notion is to forget that it died in the ashes of the Holocaust and the Soviet gulags. To the contrary, she believes Jews should take heart from Israel’s successes and to realize that Zionism is the future of the Jewish people. It is those who reject it or wish to destroy it that are, as in the past, on the wrong side of history. Listen/Subscribe to weekly episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, iHeart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.   Watch new episodes every week by subscribing to the JNS YouTube Channel.

  8. May 21

    Ep. 220: American’s rageful Jacobins are the real threat to democracy

    The problem for democracies throughout the ages has always been the rage and impatience of mobs with any limits on their power to act on their impulses. According to JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin, such movements have become a major factor driving not just divisive politics  and threats to liberty but also antisemitism. He’s joined in this week’s episode of Think Twice by law professor, Fox News legal analyst Jonathan Turley, author of the new book, Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution. Turley traces the history of this potent threat to freedom by discussing both the American and French revolutions and how they differed. His hero is Thomas Paine, the author of pamphlets and books that inspired both world events but who has been shunted to the side by many historians. The problem that undermines all attempts at government by consent of the governed is when crowds of people, inflamed by the passions of the moment, seek direct democracy without limits. As history teaches us, Turley explains, that usually leads to violence and the end of freedom. The one example where that was avoided was the American experiment because of the adoption of a Constitution that created checks and balances that spoke to the founders fears of mob rule. That didn’t happen in France and that’s why their revolution failed. Yet while the American system has worked well for 250 years, the threats to its survival are real. Chief among them, Turley says, are what he calls the new Jacobins, the politicians, professors and journalists who want to “reform” or trash the Constitution in order to allow them to enact radical change that is antithetical to freedom. The same factors, he says, are behind the current surge in antisemitism. Such rage is, Turley asserts, corruptive, addictive and contagious. Revolutions, like the mythical story of Saturn, eat their children. Antisemitism is one of those forms of rage. It has that sort of release for some people. It leads inevitably to violence such as the attacks on Jews as well as the murder of Charlie Kirk and the assassination attempts on President Donald Trump. Listen/Subscribe to weekly episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, iHeart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.   Watch new episodes every week by subscribing to the JNS YouTube Channel.

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The Internet and mainstream media are inundated with misinformation and superficial hot takes. That’s why you’re not getting the full story. Take another look with JNS Editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin as he takes deep dives into the most critical stories and controversies impacting the Jewish world with insightful commentary and fascinating interviews. If you want to understand the bigger picture and the context of the issues that really matter, this show is for you. Thanks for listening to Jonathan Tobin's podcast. If you appreciated today’s discussion and want to dive deeper into the issues shaping Israel and the Jewish world, join our community by subscribing to our newsletter. Your engagement keeps our journalism thriving. Your support is crucial. Support us with a donation to ensure we can continue delivering in-depth reporting: Donate Now!

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