18 Questions, 40 Israeli Thinkers

Nov 18 2024 21 ep. 55 mins 50
18 Questions, 40 Israeli Thinkers Podcast artwork

18 Questions, 40 Israeli Thinkers is a new podcast by 18Forty interviewing Israel’s leading voices to explore critical questions on Zionism, the Israel-Hamas War, democracy, morality, Judaism, peace, Israel’s future, and so much more. We introduce you to fresh perspectives and challenging ideas about Israel — from across the political and religious spectrum — that you won’t find anywhere else.

Join us on our journey as we pose 18 pressing questions to the 40 Israeli journalists, scholars, and religious thinkers you need to hear from today.

Have questions you want us to ask or guests to feature? Shoot us an email at [email protected]. 

  Religion & Spirituality  News  Society & Culture
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Yaakov Katz: 'The Israeli military has fought in probably the most humane way possible'

Nov 18 2024 75 mins  
If you asked Yaakov Katz, the world should be lining the streets to applaud the IDF's military campaign in Gaza.The decades-long journalist and political thinker is emphatic that the IDF fights in the most humane and moral way possible. A senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute and former editor in chief of the Jerusalem Post, Katz has his pulse on many sectors of Israe

Uri Zaki: "The war has to end in Gaza'

Nov 11 2024 78 mins  
Uri Zaki supported Israel's war against Hamas from the getgo—but the killing of six hostages and Sinwar's assassination were a turning point. Now, he thinks it needs to end.Uri Zaki is a left-wing political thinker and activist. He founded the New Israel Fund’s The Front for the Protection of Democracy and was previously the chairperson of the Meretz (Israel’s left-wing party

Nechumi Yaffe: 'I hate the idea that we are being killed and need to kill'

Nov 04 2024 60 mins  
As a Haredi woman of the Israeli left, Nechumi Yaffe lives between a few different worlds—and she feels at home in Israel's new "Religious Left" movement.A professor of public policy at Tel Aviv University, Nechumi is a political and social psychologist focused on the Haredi communities in America and Israel (of which she is a part). She is a leading expert guiding the Israeli go

Lahav Harkov: 'We are winning'

Oct 27 2024 61 mins  
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Netta Barak-Corren: 'I hope that Gaza will see a day when it is no longer ruled by Hamas'

Oct 13 2024 69 mins  
Israel is facing several existential crises—at least three, by Netta Barak-Corren's account.The legal scholar and law professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is intimately concerned with Israel's future and current threats. During the judicial reform, Netta authored a 45-page document (later translated into English) breaking down the problems and proper courses of action

Despondent, Unmoored, Hopeful: How Israeli Thinkers Feel After October 7

Oct 06 2024 34 mins  
How do Israeli thinkers feel after October 7?Israelis have lived in a new reality over the last year—one haunted by the horrors of the day Hamas terrorists massacred 1,200 Israelis, kidnapped 251 others, and dragged the country into an existential war.To feel October 7 one year later, we bring voices and perspectives from the Israeli thinkers we interviewed thus far to connect to

Rivka Ravitz: 'Being separated is at the core of being Haredi'

Sep 29 2024 49 mins  
Rivka Ravitz may be a long-time Haredi political thinker, but that doesn't mean she thinks politics is always the answer.Since her father-in-law first employed her in the Knesset at age 18, Rivka has spend decades working in Israeli politics. She was chief of staff to President Reuven Rivlin and a senior fellow at the Jewish Public Policy Institute; now she is chief of staff to the

David Stav: 'Israel as a state should not be a religious state'

Sep 23 2024 55 mins  
Israel should not be a religious state, Rabbi David Stav says, and then its citizens could more freely welcome religion into their lives.The Chief Rabbi of Shoham, an Israeli town with a large secular populace, Rabbi Stav has long dedicated his life to bridging the social divides between religious and secular life. After the Rabin assassination, he and other rabbis founded Tzohar�

Haviv Rettig Gur: 'Hamas is upset that the death toll in Gaza isn't higher'

Sep 15 2024 81 mins  
Until Hamas is gone, Haviv Rettig Gur says, Gaza will be unable to recover after the war.The Times of Israel journalist and political analyst has emerged as a leading voice for the Israeli public and the Jewish world for deeper understandings of the war's developments. Haviv has covered Israeli politics — domestic and foreign — for nearly two decades and speaks internationally

Yossi Klein Halevi: 'Anti-Zionism is an existential threat to the Jewish People'

Sep 02 2024 79 mins  
What began on Oct. 7, Yossi Klein Halevi says, is not the Israel-Hamas War but the Israel-Iran War.A senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, the journalist and author has been intimately invested in Israel since he was a boy. Two of his books in particular—Like Dreamers and Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor—capture the tensions he embraces in Israel, and his own dedicat