Ask a Jew Yael Bar tur, Chaya Leah Sufrin

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.

Forget college campuses, the real culture war will take place next week in Malmo, Sweden, where the Eurovision Song Contest (otherwise known as the "gay olympics") takes place. We are joined by sports journalist and Eurovision rainman Sharon Davidovitch to talk about how Israel will fare this year in the glitter soaked battlefield - even if you know nothing of what is as big as the Superbowl across the pond, this episode offers fascinating takes about the Intersection between gepolotics and culture. We talk about why Israel had to change the name of it's song this year or risk being kicked out, how Dana International blew the world's mind in 1998 as the first transgender winner (from Israel!), why the 1983 outfits of the Israeli team were a big F U to Germany, how we determine who is antisemitic based on how they vote, and a little about what it's like to play and cover sports on behalf of Israel abroad. Come for the music, stay for the weird insights into Scandanavian incestuous voting habits.

Sarah Rose Siskind is a science comedy writer and psychedelic comedian who came by to tell us about how she hosted a "psychedelic Shiva" after October 7th (which she also wrote about for Psychology Today). We also discuss how drugs may have influenced Nova festival survivors, why Chaya Leah and Yael need to go on a “trip” to Auschwitz, and proposing to her fiancé Nick Gillespie at Burning Man.