Jewish People & Ideas: Conversations with Jewish Thought Leaders

Dara Horn, People Love Dead Jews

Dara Horn is an American novelist, essayist, and professor of literature. She has a Ph.D. in comparative literature in Hebrew and Yiddish from Harvard University. Dara is the author of five novels and in 2021 released a nonfiction essay collection titled People Love Dead Jews, which was a finalist for the 2021 Kirkus Prize in nonfiction. I spoke with Dara online about antisemitism in America, the Holocaust in Jewish memory, why people love dead Jews and living ones not so much, the state of the American Jewish community and much more. This conversation was recorded a few weeks before October 7th. I had planned on editing it and uploading after Simchat Torah but since the war began my free time has been spent on trying to explain Israel’s position in the world and pushing back against anti-Israel voices online. My apologies to my loyal listeners, I hope in the future to have new episodes ready much faster than this time. If you're enjoying these conversations, please take a quick moment to buy me a coffee. https://ko-fi.com/barakhullman Thank you! I deeply appreciate your support! Also available at https://soundcloud.com/jewishpeopleideas/dara-horn. To hear all of the episodes go to https://soundcloud.com/jewishpeopleideas or https://jewishpeopleideas.com/ Also, please check out my other podcast, The Chassidic Story Project, where I share a new Chassidic story every week, available at https://hasidicstory.com or https://soundcloud.com/barak-hullman/tracks. To support this project, please go to https://www.patreon.com/barakhullman. Find my books on Amazon by going to https://bit.ly/barakhullman.

Donniel Hartman, President of the Shalom Hartman Institute

Donniel Hartman is the President of the Shalom Hartman Institute, a Jewish research and education institute based in Jerusalem, Israel that offers pluralistic Jewish thought and education to scholars, rabbis, educators, and Jewish community leaders in Israel and North America. He’s the author of three books, the Boundaries of Judaism, Putting God Second and the upcoming Who Are The Jews? Donniel and I sat down in the podcast studio at the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem to discuss the role of Israel and Jews in the Diaspora, the Kotel, Democracy in the State of Israel, the Occupation, the role of the Holocaust in Jewish identity and much more. Also available at https://soundcloud.com/jewishpeopleideas/donniel-hartman. To hear all of the episodes go to https://soundcloud.com/jewishpeopleideas or https://jewishpeopleideas.com/ Also, please check out my other podcast, The Chassidic Story Project, where I share a new Chassidic story every week, available at https://hasidicstory.com or https://soundcloud.com/barak-hullman/tracks. To support this project, please go to https://www.patreon.com/barakhullman. Find my books on Amazon by going to https://bit.ly/barakhullman.

Yossi Klein Halevi on American Jews and the State of Israel

Yossi Klein Halevi is a Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. He is the author of the New York Times bestselling book, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor and Like Dreamers which won the Jewish Book Council’s Book of the Year. You can see Yossi’s op-eds in the New York Times, Los Angles Times and other leading newspapers. I sat down with Yossi in his office at the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem for the first of a four-part series on conversations with Yossi over the next year and a half. In this episode we spoke about American Jews and their relationship with the state of Israel. Amongst the topics we spoke about were who exactly is the American Jewish community, the rift between them and the state of Israel, what role Israel should play in the lives of American Jews, how much influence American Jews should have on the state of Israel and much more. Also available at https://soundcloud.com/jewishpeopleideas/yossi-klein-halevi-american-jews. To hear all of the episodes go to https://soundcloud.com/jewishpeopleideas or https://jewishpeopleideas.com/ Also, please check out my other podcast, The Chassidic Story Project, where I share a new Chassidic story every week, available at https://hasidicstory.com or https://soundcloud.com/barak-hullman/tracks. To support this project, please go to https://www.patreon.com/barakhullman. Find my books on Amazon by going to https://bit.ly/barakhullman.

Rabbi David Aaron, Author of The Secret Life of God

Rabbi David Aaron, a visionary educator and author is the founder of Isralight and the Rosh Yeshiva of Orayta in the old city of Jerusalem, Israel. He is the author of multiple best-selling books including Endless Light, Seeing G-d, Love is My Religion, The Secret Life of G-d, Inviting G-d In, Living a Joyous Life and The God Powered Life published by major publishers such as Random House and Putnam. His teachings have reached millions of people around the world through his appearances on Larry King Live and E! Entertainment. Even though Rabbi Aaron and I both live in Jerusalem we conducted the conversation through Zoom because of the rabbi’s busy schedule. We covered a wide range of topics including Who is God, why would God care if I married a non-Jew, what is a meaningful life, the role of Holocaust in Jewish identity, Jewish atheists and atheism, why Israel should matter to Jews abroad and much more. Also available at https://soundcloud.com/jewishpeopleideas/rabbi-david-aaron. To hear all of the episodes go to https://soundcloud.com/jewishpeopleideas or https://jewishpeopleideas.com/ Also, please check out my other podcast, The Chassidic Story Project, where I share a new Chassidic story every week, available at https://hasidicstory.com or https://soundcloud.com/barak-hullman/tracks. To support this project, please go to https://www.patreon.com/barakhullman. Find my books on Amazon by going to https://bit.ly/barakhullman.

Ruth Wisse, Moral Self Confidence, Jews & Power, Free as a Jew

Ruth Wisse is the recently retired Professor of Yiddish and Comparative Literature at Harvard University, currently a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Tikvah Fund. Ruth is known for what she calls “moral self-confidence.” Ruth was top on my list of guests from the start and it took time and patience to get her on the podcast. She recently released a new memoir, Free as a Jew. I had a remote conversation with Ruth where we discussed the role of the Holocaust in Jewish identity, why some Jews are anti-Zionist, how to combat Palestinian propaganda, American Jews, Israeli Jews, Jews and Power, the Iran deal, Yiddish writers and Chabad on campus. Also available at https://soundcloud.com/jewishpeopleideas/ruth-wisse. To hear all of the episodes go to https://soundcloud.com/jewishpeopleideas or https://jewishpeopleideas.com/ Also, please check out my other podcast, The Chassidic Story Project, where I share a new chassidic story every week, available at https://hasidicstory.com. To support this project, please go to https://www.patreon.com/barakhullman. Find my books on Amazon by going to https://bit.ly/barakhullman.