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Our guest is journalist, author and social commentator, Melanie Phillips.
She was once a committed diaspora Jew, pledged to contribute to life and society in her native UK. Moving to Israel was not on the radar; why would it be when she lived in the “goldener mediener”, a “golden country” in Yiddish, where Jews could live and prosper?
Today she’s an arch-Zionist, living mostly in Jerusalem with her husband, the BBC’s former legal affairs correspondent Joshua Rozenberg.
This episode chronicles Melanie’s change of mindset, using her story to illustrate what’s been happening to Anglo Jewry since the end of World War II. We also ponder the modern Conservative Party, why she thinks the BBC see her as the “acceptable face and voice of lunacy” and whether zealotry can ever be a positive influence. Jonny produces these podcasts for free.
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119: Israelophobia: Jake Wallis Simons on the newest version of the oldest hatred
118: Edy Cohen: Can Saudi-Israel normalize? The tragedy of judicial reform, Swedes burn holy books
117: Jonny goes to the Knesset to meet governing Likud MK: judicial reform, Arab Israelis and Iran
116: Inside an Iron Dome staging post and crossing Kerem Shalom into Gaza: Jonny heads for Israel’s Gaza border
115: Lord Daniel Finkelstein: Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad: A Family Memoir of Miraculous Survival
114: UAE's evolving diplomacy, what's the state of the Abraham Accords. Should Israel be worried?
113: The Escape Artist: Jonathan Freedland talks to Dr Bea Lewkowicz, "I knew both Vrba and Wetzler"
112: Ronen Bergman: Rise and Kill First, Israel's secret history of targeted assassinations
111: Trevor Horn: Adventures in Modern Recording, Buggles, “whiz bang” hits and old Jewish jokes!
110: Sarah Idan: Miss Universe Iraq 2017, self-proclaimed Zionist, courageous Human Rights voice
109: Judicial Reform crisis: “If one side wins Israel will lose. We must stay Jewish, democratic”
108: Gary Lineker rushed back to air by the BBC, turning a blind eye to his toxic tweets
107: Brighton & Hove, actually: BNJC’s vision and ambition for a brand new community in Sussex
106: The Abrahamic Family House, UAE’s permanent expression of pluralism as they prepare for COP28
105: Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs' Dan Diker: Africa seeks Israeli defense, judicial reform
104: Emily Schrader: everyday Iranians love Israel! Emily’s social media outreach resets the talk
103: Yoseph Haddad: Arab Israeli defending a Jewish and democratic State of Israel
102: The Greatest Comeback, Bela Guttmann’s Benfica glory with David Bolchover
101: Uri Geller: "Israel was the making of me"
100: John Ware: Three years. Three cases. Three wins.
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