Defining Moments

In this powerful episode, we meet Roni Bluth, whose life changed dramatically when her husband was severely wounded in combat on Israel's northern border. The bullet missed his brain stem by just one millimeter, beginning a journey that countless families of wounded soldiers face. From explaining to her eight-year-old daughter why dad couldn't speak with his jaws wired shut to eventually putting on a uniform herself to serve in the...

Since October 7th, communities across Israel have faced unprecedented challenges, with religious leaders like Rabbi Zev Rosenfeld at the forefront of offering emotional and spiritual support. In this episode of Defining Moments, Rabbi Rosenfeld, the Chief Rabbi of Talmon, shares his experiences and unique perspective as an Anglo-Rabbi leading an Israeli yeshuv.

Talmon, which has tragically lost four soldiers in the current war, is ...

On October 7th, Hamas terrorists hunted Jews house to house, burned families alive, and committed atrocities that immediately evoked memories of the darkest chapter in Jewish history - the Holocaust. While the systematic Nazi genocide remains uniquely incomparable in its scope and horror, the echoes of that period have haunted our collective consciousness since October 7th. Now, as we've just marked Asarah B'Tevet and approach the...

At 14, Avi Samter sparked his family's aliyah with a simple question in his mother's car. By 23, he was commanding an elite IDF counter-terrorism unit during Israel's darkest hours. In this powerful conversation, Avi shares his journey from New York's Five Towns to the frontlines of Israel's war against Hamas, offering a deeply personal account of October 7th, his multiple missions in Gaza, and the profound loss of his close friend...

Mental health awareness has undergone a remarkable transformation in Jewish communities over recent years, and today's guest, Rabbi Yoni Rosensweig, has been at the forefront of this change. Through his groundbreaking work integrating mental health into a halakhic framework and his book 'Nafshi Bishe'elati,' he has helped create a new language for discussing mental health within Orthodox Judaism. While his work has taken on additio...

In an article about Jewish Comedy Sarah Groustra writes:

"Arguably, the most important aspect of Jewish comedy is release. Judaism is diasporic, which brings with it a legacy of restlessness, fear, and loneliness. The diaspora leaves in its wake the stereotype of neurotic Jewish parents who instill fear of persecution in their Jewish children. Jewish comedy serves to mitigate the tension of living in a world where you...

The recent killing of 12 Druze children playing soccer in Majdal Shams by a Hezbollah missile sent shock waves throughout Israel. That’s only the most recent tragic event, as many Druze soldiers have been killed in the current war, where they have served with distinction in the Israeli army. The Druze are obviously giving and loyal members of Israeli society, and I learned this first-hand when I, along with many others, visited Maj...

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wrote, "Hope is one of the very greatest Jewish contributions to Western civilisation, so much so that I have called Judaism 'the voice of hope in the conversation of humankind.'" 

But what exactly is hope ? Is hope synonymous with optimism- that everything will turn out alright at the end? 

Today we welcome to the podcast world renowned physician Dr. Ben Corn. As an oncologist at Shaarei Tzedek Medical Cente...