Episodes

Dec 11

In conversation with Hadassah Magazine Executive Editor Lisa Hostein, Angela Buchdahl, the trailblazing senior rabbi of New York City’s Central Synagogue and one of America’s most influential Jewish spiritual leaders, joins Hadassah Magazine Presents to discuss her remarkable journey from South Korea, where she was born, to the rabbinate; finding light and joy in Judaism today amid the many challenges; and her new memoir, Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi’s Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging . Further Resources Purchase a copy of Heart of a Stranger on Bookshop Read Hadassah Magazine 's profile "Angela Buchdahl, ‘An Unlikely Rabbi’" by Gary Rosenblatt Follow Rabbi Buchdahl on Instagram and on Facebook Listen to Rabbi Buchdahl's sermons from Central Synagogue The show is hosted by Hadassah Magazine Executive Editor Lisa Hostein and produced by Hadassah Magazine with the support of the Engagement and Marketing divisions of Hadassah. Arielle Kaplan edited this episode. Get more of Hadassah Magazine ! Follow us on Instagram and Facebook and subscribe to get the latest print magazine delivered to your mailbox.

Nov 26

Recorded live at the Miami Book Fair, this episode features award-winning historian Pamela S. Nadell, director of the Jewish Studies Program at American University, about her new book, Antisemitism, an American Tradition . Nadell addresses the dark history of how antisemitic hate threaded across the American past from colonial times to today, uncovering centuries of prejudice — but also Jewish perseverance — in America. Further Resources Pamela Nadell's website: pamelanadell.com Nadell's article, " A Turning Point for Antisemitism? " in Hadassah Magazine Hadassah Magazine' s review of Antisemitism, An American Tradition Purchase a copy of the book here Nadell's article "When Resisting Anti-Jewish Hate Is Women’s Work " in Hadassah Magazine Lisa Hostein's interview with Nadell in Hadassah Magazine Hadassah Magazine Presents is hosted by Hadassah Magazine Executive Editor Lisa Hostein and produced by Hadassah Magazine with the support of the Engagement and Marketing divisions of Hadassah. Our podcast editors are Arielle Kaplan and Eli Hershko. Get more of Hadassah Magazine ! Follow us on Instagram and Facebook subscribe to get the latest print magazine delivered to your mailbox

Oct 30

In conversation with Hadassah Magazine Executive Editor Lisa Hostein, renowned Israeli writers Yossi Klein Halevi ( Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor ) and Lee Yaron ( 10/7: 100 Human Stories ) join Hadassah Magazine Presents to discuss what it means to be a Jew today, in a post October-7 world as well as what two years of war and rising global antisemitism mean for the future of the Jewish people. Further Resources Yossi Klein Halevi’s “Choosing Between October 6 and October 8” in Hadassah Magazine. Lee Yaron’s " October 7 Survivors, Then and Now " in Hadassah Magazine. Review of Yaron’s 10/7: 100 Human Stories in Hadassah Magazine. Purchase a copy of the book here . Review of Halevi’s Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor in Hadassah Magazine. Purchase a copy of the book here . The show is hosted by Hadassah Magazine Executive Editor Lisa Hostein and produced by Hadassah Magazine with the support of the Engagement and Marketing divisions of Hadassah. Our podcast editors are Arielle Kaplan and Eli Hershko. Get more of Hadassah Magazine ! Follow us on Instagram and Facebook and subscribe to get the latest print magazine delivered to your mailbox. Follow Hadassah Magazine Presents wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Help others discover our podcast by writing a review. Liked this episode? Share with a friend! Please send any follow-up questions or feedback to engagement@hadassah.org

Sep 30

As non-Hebrew readers are at last able to access and enjoy the work of acclaimed Israeli-born author Maya Arad, one of the "finest living authors writing in Hebrew today" ( Haaretz ), this candid and illuminating conversation highlights what makes Maya and her work so vital. In dialogue with Hadassah Magazine Executive Editor, Lisa Hostein, Maya discusses her new book, Happy New Years , which, among many engaging themes, sheds light on what it means to be an Israeli living in America — a pertinent question as we all continue to grapple with the ongoing war in Gaza and the fate of the hostages, Israelis, Jews everywhere, and Gaza itself. Maya shares the inspiration for her novel and how she both resembles and significantly differs from her protagonist, an Israeli woman who moves to the United States to teach Hebrew at a Jewish day school in the 1960s. The novel features letters she proceeds to write to college friends back in Israel over the span of 50 years, a period that sees huge developments in the status of women, LGBTQ+ rights, and how Israelis view compatriots who moved to America, among other things. Talking about her cohort of Israeli-born female authors, Maya observes that compared to her childhood, "Now, today, writers come in all shapes and colors, right? There are women, there are immigrants from Russia and from Ethiopia, there are expats, like me, there are, you know, Israeli Arabs who write in Hebrew, so it's really … there's so much diversity, which is great." Providing her deeply personal response to the October 7th attacks, which particularly hit close to home as she spent part of her childhood at Kibbutz Nahal Oz, a Gaza border kibbutz that was devastated in the attacks, Maya paints a vivid picture of how the Israeli American community came together even more deeply as a result. Further resources Purchase a copy of Happy New Years and read a review in Hadassah Magazine Purchase a copy of The Hebrew Teacher and read a review in Hadassah Magazine Read "Israeli Female Writers Are Having a Moment" in Hadassah Magazine Read a Q and A with Jerusalem-based literary agent Deborah Harris in Hadassah Magazine Watch the program recording here . Follow Hadassah Magazine Presents wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Help others discover our podcast by writing a review. Liked this episode? Share with a friend! The show is hosted by Hadassah Magazine Executive Editor Lisa Hostein and produced by Hadassah Magazine with the support of the Engagement and Marketing divisions of Hadassah. Our podcast editors are Arielle Kaplan and Eli Hershko. Get more of Hadassah Magazine ! Follow us on Instagram and Facebook Subscribe to get the latest print magazine delivered to your mailbox. Read the transcript here Please send any follow-up questions or feedback to engagement@hadassah.org

Aug 28

Jewish writers are being blacklisted and review bombed as antisemitism runs rampant in the book world. Tune in as Hadassah Magazine Executive Editor Lisa Hostein moderates a panel of prestigious literary insiders discussing the challenges and opportunities facing Jewish authors amid the current climate of rising antisemitism. THE PANELISTS Rachel Gordan is the Samuel "Bud" Shorstein Professor of American Jewish Culture and Society at the University of Florida and the author of Postwar Stories: How Books Made Judaism American . Talia Benamy is an editor and backlist manager at Philomel, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers and author of the forthcoming Twinkle, Twinkle, Hanukkah . Lissette Méndez is Executive Director of the Miami Book Fair, one of the largest and most inclusive literary festivals in the US. Further Resources Purchase a copy of Postwar Stories: How Books Made Judaism American and read a review in Hadassah Magazine. Preorder a copy of Twinkle, Twinkle, Hanukkah . Find Israeli reads for you and your book club on Hadassah Magazine ’ s Bookshop . Preview Judaic topics at the 2025 Miami Book Fair and the Jewish authors who are presenting here and register to attend here . Read an interview with Jerusalem-based literary agent Deborah Harris in Hadassah Magazine Watch the program recording ⁠ ⁠⁠⁠here.⁠⁠⁠ Follow Hadassah Magazine Presents wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Help others discover our podcast by writing a review. Liked this episode? Share with a friend! The show is hosted by Hadassah Magazine Executive Editor Lisa Hostein and produced by the editorial team at Hadassah Magazine with the support of the Engagement and Marketing divisions of Hadassah. Our podcast editors are Arielle Kaplan and Eli Hershko. Get more of ⁠⁠⁠⁠ Hadassah Magazine !⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Subscribe⁠⁠⁠⁠ to get the latest print magazine delivered to your mailbox. Please send any follow-up questions or feedback to ⁠⁠⁠⁠engagement@hadassah.org

Jul 29

Tune in as Hadassah Magazine Executive Editor Lisa Hostein interviews Rabbi Delphine Horvilleur , author of the recent best seller ⁠ How Isn't It Going? Conversations After October 7 ⁠ and the inspiration behind the hit streaming series ⁠ Reformed, ⁠ which is loosely based on her award-winning 2021 essay collection ⁠ Living With Our Dead ⁠ . One of only a handful of female French rabbis, Horvilleur has become a leading public intellectual in her native country and a powerful proponent for plurality and interfaith dialogue. The New York Times has called her "the rare public intellectual to bring religious texts into the public square." And the French Elle Magazine , which put her on the cover, said she "finds the right words to describe our time and our ghosts." In this episode, Horvilleur recounts her unconventional path to the rabbinate (with stops in medical school and as a journalist along the way), and talks about why being a female rabbi and a reform rabbi is still so unusual in France. She delves into the TV show inspired by her book, talking about what the show gets right and where it departs from her own experience. Tackling larger questions about "What is true leadership" and "What is the purpose of rabbinic leadership," she turns to the antisemitism facing French Jews, how it anticipated what American Jews are facing today and what it looks like in France at this moment. She says: "I'm pretty convinced that I want to dedicate my rabbinate to the bridge building business, but I have to admit that in a situation like ours it's quite obvious and normal and understandable that people also want to strengthen protective walls around their Jewish identity. And the question for me as a Jewish leader is ... how do you reconcile these two existential needs." Further Resources Read our review of ⁠ Reformed ⁠ Read a review of Horvilleur’s ⁠ How Isn’t It Going? Conversations after October 7 ⁠ and purchase a copy ⁠here⁠ Read our review of Horvilleur’s ⁠ Living with Our Dead ⁠ and purchase a copy ⁠here⁠ Check out ⁠ Tenoua ,⁠ the online French-language journal of Jewish thought and culture that Horvilleur helms Watch the program recording ⁠ ⁠⁠here.⁠⁠⁠ Follow Hadassah Magazine Presents wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Help others discover our podcast by writing a review. Liked this episode? Share with a friend! The show is hosted by Hadassah Magazine Executive Editor Lisa Hostein and produced by Hadassah Magazine with the support of the Engagement and Marketing divisions of Hadassah. Our podcast editors are Arielle Kaplan and Eli Hershko. Get more of ⁠⁠⁠ Hadassah Magazine !⁠⁠⁠ Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe⁠⁠⁠ to get the latest print magazine delivered to your mailbox. Please send any follow-up questions or feedback to ⁠⁠⁠engagement@hadassah.org⁠

Jun 27

Anyone who has visited a college campus or scrolled social media has seen the alarming anti-Israel rhetoric running rampant among young people, including young Jews. But there are young people who have emerged in this difficult environment with a renewed passion for Israel and dedication to fighting for its future. Hear from some of them and the leaders supporting them in this informative and inspiring episode hosted by Hadassah Magazine Executive Editor Lisa Hostein. In the words of guest panelist Yocheved Ruttenberg, "We have a Jewish state but we are far from done fighting for it." Guests include Ruttenberg , who founded the 40,000-strong Facebook group Sword of Iron-Israel Volunteer Opportunities in the immediate aftermath of October 7 and who has been named to Hadassah’s 2025 list of 18 American Zionist women everyone should know; Reform Rabbi Ashira Boxman , who has written about the need for Jewish unity in a time of threat for Israel and Jews everywhere; David Hazony, editor of the 2024 anthology Young Zionist Voices: A New Generation Speaks Out and director and senior fellow of the Z3 Institute for Jewish Priorities; and Adina Frydman , CEO of Young Judaea, the oldest Zionist youth movement in America. Further Resources Purchase a copy of Young Zionist Voices ⁠Read essays from the book by Rabbi Ashira Boxman and Talia Bodner in Hadassah Magazine Read about Yocheved Ruttenberg and others on Hadassah's 2025 list of 18 Zionist Women You Should Know Watch the program recording ⁠ here.⁠ The show is hosted by Hadassah Magazine Executive Editor Lisa Hostein and produced by Hadassah Magazine with the support of the Engagement and Marketing divisions of Hadassah. Our podcast editors are Arielle Kaplan and Eli Hershko. Follow Hadassah Magazine Presents wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Help others discover our podcast by writing a review. Liked this episode? Share with a friend! Get more of ⁠ Hadassah Magazine !⁠ Follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠ and ⁠Facebook⁠ and ⁠subscribe⁠ to get the latest print magazine delivered to your mailbox. Please send any follow-up questions or feedback to ⁠engagement@hadassah.org

May 30

In this compelling conversation, Hadassah Magazine senior and books editor Leah Finkelshteyn speaks with Israeli-Canadian writer Ayelet Tsabari, whose debut novel, Songs for the Brokenhearted , won a National Jewish Book Award for Fiction. The rich and complex novel unfolds across two pivotal moments in Israel's history: one set in an immigration camp in the 1950s, shortly after the founding of the modern state of Israel, as thousands of Yemeni Jews arrived seeking a better life; the other in the 1990s, just before the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, when a young Yemeni Israeli woman uncovers her mother’s secret romance through a dramatic journey into lost family stories. Ayelet discusses the complex history of Yemeni Jews in Israel, drawing on her own family background that inspired her novel and highlighting the central role of music in Yemeni culture and in her lyrical storytelling. Further Resources Purchase a copy of Songs for the Brokenhearted Read the review in Hadassah Magazine Watch the program recording here. The show is hosted by Hadassah Magazine Executive Editor Lisa Hostein and produced by Hadassah Magazine with the support of the Engagement and Marketing divisions of Hadassah. Our podcast editors are Arielle Kaplan and Eli Hershko. Follow Hadassah Magazine Presents wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Help others discover our podcast by writing a review. Liked this episode? Share with a friend! Get more of Hadassah Magazine ! Follow us on Instagram and Facebook and subscribe to get the latest print magazine delivered to your mailbox. Please send any follow-up questions or feedback to engagement@hadassah.org

May 5

From Miriam to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, strong Jewish women have had the guts to speak out, impact history, break barriers and make a difference. We celebrate those women in this empowering episode. Tune in as Hadassah Magazine Executive Editor Lisa Hostein moderates a panel discussion with actor and neuroscientist Mayim Bialik , who is profiled, along with Hadassah founder Henrietta Szold, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and dozens more remarkable leaders, in the new book Chutzpah Girls: 100 Tales of Daring Jewish Women . Co-authors, Julie Esther Silverstein and Tami Schlossberg Pruwer discuss powerful stories of both famous and less-well-known women with chutzpah to awaken your pride, inspire you to explore your heritage, and dream bigger than ever before. Further Resources Purchase a copy of Chutzpah Girls: 100 Tales of Daring Jewish Women Read New Books Spotlight the Jewish Female Heroes We Need in Hadassah Magazine Watch the program recording here . The show is hosted by Hadassah Magazine Executive Editor Lisa Hostein and produced by Hadassah Magazine with the support of the Engagement and Marketing divisions of Hadassah. Our podcast editors are Arielle Kaplan and Eli Hershko. Follow Hadassah Magazine Presents wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Liked this episode? Share it with a friend and help others discover our podcast by writing a review. Get more of ⁠ Hadassah Magazine !⁠ Follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠ and ⁠Facebook⁠ and ⁠subscribe⁠ to get the latest print magazine delivered to your mailbox. Please send any follow-up questions or feedback to ⁠ engagement@hadassah.org

Apr 30

Hadassah Magazine Executive Editor Lisa Hostein interviews three-time National Jewish Book Award Winner Dara Horn about her latest work, the Passover-set graphic novel One Little Goat , and about the alarming rise and historical roots of antisemitism. Horn, one of America’s most insightful Jewish commentators, is also the author of five best-selling novels, as well as the 2021 essay collection People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present. She says she has been “completely obsessed” with Passover since she was a child and sees a link between her new graphic novel, One Little Goat: A Passover Catastrophe , and the nonfiction work that has made her a leading voice in the discussion of the global rise of antisemitism. Pesach, she says, represents the “institutionalization of resilience.” Further Resources Purchase a copy of One Little Goat: A Passover Catastrophe Read our review of the book Watch the program recording here . The show is hosted by Hadassah Magazine Executive Editor Lisa Hostein and produced by Hadassah Magazine with the support of the Engagement and Marketing divisions of Hadassah. Our podcast editors are Arielle Kaplan and Eli Hershko. Follow Hadassah Magazine Presents wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Liked this episode? Share it with a friend and help others discover our podcast by writing a review. Get more of Hadassah Magazine ! Follow us on Instagram and Facebook and subscribe to get the latest print magazine delivered to your mailbox. Please send any follow-up questions or feedback to engagement@hadassah.org

Apr 21

More than any other work of literature, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl helped the world comprehend the tragedy of the Holocaust. Anne’s diary now merits revisiting — not just as an inspiring tale of a girl coming of age under unimaginable circumstances, but as a siren alerting us to the malevolent potential of antisemitism anywhere. Hadassah Magazine Executive Editor Lisa Hostein hosts a discussion on the legacy of Anne Frank and her best-selling diary, which has been published in more than 70 languages. Panelists include Ruth Franklin, author of the biography The Many Lives of Anne Frank , and Professor Doyle Stevick, executive director of the Anne Frank Center at the University of South Carolina and educational adviser to Anne Frank The Exhibition , which recreates the annex where Anne and her family hid in Amsterdam. Further Resources Read an excerpt from The Many Lives of Anne Frank Purchase a copy of The Many Lives of Anne Frank Read The ABCs of Holocaust Education in Hadassah Magazine Read Bringing Anne Frank to New York City in Hadassah Magazine Watch the program recording here. The show is hosted by Hadassah Magazine Executive Editor Lisa Hostein and produced by Hadassah Magazine with the support of the Engagement and Marketing divisions of Hadassah. Our podcast editors are Arielle Kaplan and Eli Hershko. Follow Hadassah Magazine Presents wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Liked this episode? Share it with a friend and help others discover our podcast by writing a review. Get more of ⁠ Hadassah Magazine !⁠ Follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠ and ⁠Facebook⁠ and ⁠subscribe⁠ to get the latest print magazine delivered to your mailbox. Please send any follow-up questions or feedback to ⁠ engagement@hadassah.org