Recordings

Maimonides Fund Scholar in Residence and Downtown Minyan Rosh Kehillah Mijal Bitton crystalized the despairing unity felt by Jews around the world on October 7 in her essay “That Pain You’re Feeling Is Peoplehood” published on November 1, 2023. After the brutal attacks in southern Israel, “many of us — thousands of miles away — cried out in visceral pain,” wrote Bitton. “This is what Jewish peoplehood feels like.”

Mijal Bitton joined SAPIR Institute Director Chanan Weissman for a conversation on how Jewish peoplehood has evolved in the year since October 7. Prior to streaming this conversation, we encourage you to revisit Bitton’s essay and reflect on how things have changed in the last year.

This is the first of three conversations in SAPIR’s virtual ‘One Year Later’ series, where we revisit our ideas and presumptions following the tragic events on October 7.

The Haredi community has been facing — and facing down — mounting pressure to participate meaningfully in areas of Israeli civic life, including military service and the workforce. While many in the community wish to maintain their isolation, it is widely seen by the rest of Israeli society as unfair and unsustainable. Haredi community rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer, head of the Iyun Institute, an organization that promotes Haredi integration and responsibility joined SAPIR Managing Editor Philip Getz for a conversation on the ideas and fears that have shaped Haredi opinion against IDF service and civic engagement, and how to change the status quo.

Is the recent uptick in antisemitism a sign that a golden era of American Jewish life is over? Or is it the latest chapter in a long history of prejudice that American Jews can, and will, overcome? Historian Pamela S. Nadell joined SAPIR Institute Director Chanan Weissman to answer these questions and unpack her essay, “For America’s Jews, Past is Prologue.”

Americans’ faith in our leaders and institutions is at an all-time low. What is the source for this loss of confidence and what are the implications for the Jewish community? Yuval Levin of the American Enterprise Institute joined SAPIR Editor-in-Chief Bret Stephens for a conversation on addressing the “trust trap” and restoring faith in our future.

Can uncertainty — and even full-on doubt — about the future of democracy be an unlikely source of democratic strength? Watch as SAPIR Institute Director Chanan Weissman and SAPIR Editor-in-Chief Bret Stephens come together for a conversation on “Democracy’s Pessimism Paradox” and its implications for Jewish communities worldwide.

Fifty years after the Yom Kippur War, Israel’s vaunted military and intelligence establishment again failed to protect the Jewish state. What must it do to regain its reputation and deterrence? Former Israeli deputy national-security adviser Chuck Freilich joined Bret Stephens for a conversation on his recent SAPIR article, “Can Israel’s Intelligence Services Be Saved?”

Since October 7, American Jews have been pushed out of the places that were once their cultural and political homes. This feeling of outsiderdom is a new one for American Jews, and one that took them by surprise. New York Times–bestselling author Noa Tishby, whose piece “The Courage to Be Uncool” was the most-read of the Resilience issue, joined Bret Stephens for a conversation on the new position American Jews find themselves in and the steel they need in the battle to support Israel.

Writer and podcast host Coleman Hughes joined Bret Stephens for a conversation on antisemitism in the black radical tradition. Hughes, the author of “Black Radicalism” in the Friends & Foes issue, analyzed the narratives driving rising antisemitism among black Americans — and how they can change. Plus, as a Columbia graduate, Hughes weighs in on recent developments on campus.

In stark contrast to previous generations, younger American Jews are growing up increasingly disconnected from Israel and Zionism. What accounts for this shift? How durable is it? And what are the implications for tomorrow’s leaders of American Jewish communities? Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue and Dr. Noam Weissman of OpenDor Media discuss the future of Zionism among Gen Z.

Former Human Rights Watch senior editor Danielle Haas sits down with SAPIR Editor-in-Chief Bret Stephens to discuss her recent essay, “The Human-Rights Establishment,” which chronicles years of behind-the-scenes experience and presents deep-seated concerns that human rights NGOs have become “increasingly hijacked by politics and dominated by groupthink.”