In an interview with Lahav Harkov, Ish Shalom spoke about her new podcast: The goal is to focus on in-depth processes and the lessons we can learn from this period.
Tamar Ish Shalom was among the most recognizable faces on Israeli television, anchoring one of Israel’s few nightly news programs for a decade. But last month, Ish Shalom traded in TV cameras for a podcaster’s microphone, hosting “Jewish Crossroads: Jewish Identity in Times of Crisis” from the Jewish People Policy Institute.
“I said as long as there is a war, I will stay. I thought it would take two or three months. At a certain point, though, I said I can’t stay until we reach ‘total victory,’” she said.
Ish Shalom found her way to JPPI through journalist and researcher Shmuel Rosner, who knew that she had degrees in Jewish philosophy from Tel Aviv University and religion and modern society from Kings College London. JPPI and Ish Shalom were still looking for a way to work together when Eyal received his offer from Columbia, and she saw an opportunity.
“The American Jewish community fascinates me,” she said, mentioning a 2008 documentary she produced for Channel 10 called “American Novel – A Different Look at American Jewry,” which won a B’nai B’rith Award.
Ish Shalom decided to host a podcast about American Jewry because of her interest in and connection to the community.
“It’s a privilege to be here in a historic moment,” she said. “It’s a terrible one that we wish hadn’t happened, but something significant and deep is happening in U.S. Jewry that justifies a second glance and an in-depth look.”
Ish Shalom said she “came to this project with humility. I have connections to the community and my kids are in a Jewish school. But I am coming here with great interest, questions and empathy for what American Jews are going through.”
JPPI released four episodes of Ish Shalom’s podcast so far, each an interview with a different prominent figure in American Jewish life – Rabbi David Wolpe, author Nicole Krauss, Jewish Studies scholar Susannah Heschel and Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch.
“There are a lot of podcasts about the war and Israel, but a lot of it is very focused on current events,” she said. “This podcast isn’t about the immediate here and now of the last poll or maneuver, but about in-depth influences and what we’re learning from this time, and Jewish identity.”
The interview with Krauss was her first since the Oct. 7 attacks, and the author, who writes novels related to Jewish and Israeli themes, talked about her concerns about boycotts.
“It was shocking to hear an author who isn’t even Israeli, just Jewish, worry if she’ll still have an audience,” Ish Shalom said. “When she started out 25 years ago, there was no doubt, there wasn’t any hesitation about it. Today, she’s not sure if a young author writing about Jewish identity who does not try to distance herself from Israel can get published or find an audience.”
In the episode with Hirsch, he discussed changes that should be made in non-Orthodox Jewish education.
“They wanted to raise a generation committed to tikkun olam,” Ish Shalom said, “but it came at the cost of loving the Jewish people. Many of the leaders of campus anti-Israel encampments are Jews who received a Jewish education. They took tikkun olam but forgot about their Jewish brothers. I was impressed by Hirsch’s call for communal introspection on this matter.”
The target audience for her podcast, which is in English, is North American Jews, but Israelis could learn a lot from it as well, Ish Shalom said.
“As Israelis, we don’t understand the American Jewish experience,” she said, “just like American Jews don’t understand us totally. We are very far from one another, even though we have our connections. The dialogue is part of the attempt to understand. That’s what makes it interesting. There is no conversation in which I don’t learn something new.”
One of Ish Shalom’s key takeaways from the interviews she has conducted so far is how important Israel is to American Jewish identity.
“For many years, Israelis really didn’t understand American Jews in general, but specifically not the depth of their connection to Israel,” she said. “They know American Jews donate and they know about AIPAC … but I don’t think they understood the power of that connection and how important it is to the core of their Jewish identity.”
“There’s a difference between empathy and something being such an important component of their identity,” she said.
After Oct. 7, Ish Shalom said more Israelis understand that connection.
“You see Jews who didn’t think of Israel every day, but when its existence was in danger, as it appeared to be on Oct. 7, it shocked them in a deep way. I didn’t understand how deep it was,” she said.
For the full article by Lahav Harkov in the ‘Jewish Insider’ click here