\u201cJewish Crossroads: Jewish Identity in Times of Crisis\u201d<\/a> from the Jewish People Policy Institute.<\/p>\n\u201cI 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\u2019t stay until we reach \u2018total victory,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe American Jewish community fascinates me,\u201d she said, mentioning a 2008 documentary she produced for Channel 10 called \u201cAmerican Novel \u2013 A Different Look at American Jewry,\u201d which\u00a0won\u00a0a B\u2019nai B\u2019rith Award.<\/p>\n
Ish Shalom decided to host a podcast about American Jewry because of her interest in and connection to the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a privilege to be here in a historic moment,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a terrible one that we wish hadn\u2019t happened, but something significant and deep is happening in U.S. Jewry that justifies a second glance and an in-depth look.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ish Shalom said she \u201ccame 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
JPPI released four episodes of Ish Shalom\u2019s podcast so far, each an interview with a different prominent figure in American Jewish life \u2013 Rabbi David Wolpe, author Nicole Krauss, Jewish Studies scholar Susannah Heschel and Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of podcasts about the war and Israel, but a lot of it is very focused on current events,\u201d she said. \u201cThis podcast isn\u2019t about the immediate here and now of the last poll or maneuver, but about in-depth influences and what we\u2019re learning from this time, and Jewish identity.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was shocking to hear an author who isn\u2019t even Israeli, just Jewish, worry if she\u2019ll still have an audience,\u201d Ish Shalom said. \u201cWhen she started out 25 years ago, there was no doubt, there wasn\u2019t any hesitation about it. Today, she\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the episode with Hirsch, he discussed changes that should be made in non-Orthodox Jewish education.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey wanted to raise a generation committed to tikkun olam,\u201d Ish Shalom said, \u201cbut 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\u2019s call for communal introspection on this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs Israelis, we don\u2019t understand the American Jewish experience,\u201d she said, \u201cjust like American Jews don\u2019t 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\u2019s what makes it interesting. There is no conversation in which I don\u2019t learn something new.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of Ish Shalom\u2019s key takeaways from the interviews she has conducted so far is how important Israel is to American Jewish identity.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor many years, Israelis really didn\u2019t understand American Jews in general, but specifically not the depth of their connection to Israel,\u201d she said. \u201cThey know American Jews donate and they know about AIPAC \u2026 but I don\u2019t think they understood the power of that connection and how important it is to the core of their Jewish identity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a difference between empathy and something being such an important component of their identity,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
After Oct. 7, Ish Shalom said more Israelis understand that connection.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see Jews who didn\u2019t 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\u2019t understand how deep it was,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
For the full article by Lahav Harkov in the \u2018Jewish Insider\u2019 click here<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","topics-israel-diaspora-relations","library-158"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22002"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22050,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22002\/revisions\/22050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}