Episodes

  • Unraveling a Mother-Daughter Mystery, With Author Mary Morris

    Unraveling a Mother-Daughter Mystery, With Author Mary Morris
    Feb 18 2026

    Tune in as award-winning author Mary Morris joins Hadassah Magazine Presents to discuss her latest novel, The Red House. A mystery that toggles between contemporary New Jersey and Mussolini’s Italy during World War II, the book explores hidden Jewish identity and history and the lasting impact of trauma.

    Further Resources

    • Read a review of The Red House in Hadassah Magazine
    • Purchase a copy of The Red House on Bookshop.
    • Learn more about Mary Morris on her website and follow her on Instagram and Facebook.

    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 editor is Arielle Kaplan.

    Get more of Hadassah Magazine! Follow us on Instagram and Facebook and subscribe to get the latest print magazine delivered to your mailbox.
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    40 mins
  • Menopause: New Truths, Old Myths

    Menopause: New Truths, Old Myths
    Feb 3 2026
    With menopause suddenly everywhere, from news reports to memes on social media to pop culture, it's fair to say that menopause is having a moment. What's driving this new visibility for something women have always experienced? And how can you separate fact from fiction? Those questions and more are addressed in this episode focused on the changing conversation, latest health trends and medical protocols around menopause. Hear from Jewish women who are leaders in reframing the conversation and treatment around menopause. Panelists include health tech entrepreneur Joanna Strober, co-founder and CEO of Midi Health; Lauren Tetenbaum, a psychotherapist and author of the new book Millennial Menopause: Preparing for Perimenopause, Menopause, and Life’s Next Period; and Sheryl Kingsberg, chief of the division of behavioral medicine at MacDonald Women’s Hospital/University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center and past president of The Menopause Society. With guest hosts Libby Barnea, Deputy Editor of Hadassah Magazine, and Leah Finkelshteyn, Senior Editor.Further ResourcesRead Hadassah Magazine's feature article, “Jewish Women Are Leading the Menopause Movement”Purchase a copy of Lauren Tetenbaum’s Millennial Menopause: Preparing for Perimenopause, Menopause & Life’s Next ChapterFollow Lauren Tetenbaum on Instagram or FacebookFollow Midi Health on Instagram or Facebook Learn the latest about hormonal and non-hormonal therapies for menopause as well as sexual health from The Menopause Society and The International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health 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.Get more of Hadassah Magazine! Follow us on Instagram and Facebook and subscribe to get the latest print magazine delivered to your mailbox.
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    45 mins
  • Heart to Heart With Rabbi Angela Buchdahl

    Heart to Heart With Rabbi Angela Buchdahl
    Dec 11 2025

    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.
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    57 mins
  • Unpacking Antisemitism in America With Pamela Nadell

    Unpacking Antisemitism in America With Pamela Nadell
    Nov 26 2025
    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 ResourcesPamella Nadell's website: pamelanadell.comNadell'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 hereNadell's article "When Resisting Anti-Jewish Hate Is Women’s Work" in Hadassah MagazineLisa Hostein's interview with Nadell in Hadassah MagazineHadassah 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
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    41 mins
  • Two Years On with Yossi Klein Halevi and Lee Yaron

    Two Years On with Yossi Klein Halevi and Lee Yaron
    Oct 30 2025
    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 ResourcesYossi 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
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    1 hr and 1 min
  • 'Happy New Years' from Master of Israeli Fiction Maya Arad

    'Happy New Years' from Master of Israeli Fiction Maya Arad
    Sep 30 2025
    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 resourcesPurchase 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 MagazineRead "Israeli Female Writers Are Having a Moment" in Hadassah MagazineRead a Q and A with Jerusalem-based literary agent Deborah Harris in Hadassah MagazineWatch 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 herePlease send any follow-up questions or feedback to engagement@hadassah.org
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    39 mins
  • From Shield to Scapegoat: Jewish Literature's Past, Present and Future

    From Shield to Scapegoat: Jewish Literature's Past, Present and Future
    Aug 28 2025
    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 PANELISTSRachel 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 ResourcesPurchase 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 MagazineWatch 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
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    42 mins
  • Delphine Horvilleur, the ‘Reformed’ French Rabbi Making Waves

    Delphine Horvilleur, the ‘Reformed’ French Rabbi Making Waves
    Jul 29 2025
    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 ResourcesRead our review of ⁠Reformed⁠Read a review of Horvilleur’s ⁠How Isn’t It Going? Conversations after October 7⁠ and purchase a copy ⁠here⁠Read our review of Horvilleur’s ⁠Living with Our Dead⁠ and purchase a copy ⁠here⁠Check out ⁠Tenoua,⁠ the online French-language journal of Jewish thought and culture that Horvilleur helmsWatch 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
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    51 mins