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Martini Judaism

Martini Judaism

Written by: Religion News Service
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 For those who want to be shaken and stirred. Join one of American Judaism’s most prolific thought leaders and his special guests as they talk about the current state of Judaism, American culture, politics, religion, and spirituality.© 2023 Judaism Politics & Government Spirituality
Episodes
  • How To Love Israel, Even When It Is Hard

    How To Love Israel, Even When It Is Hard
    May 5 2026
    I was talking recently with a young man about his social life. He described an evening that did not sound like the stuff of romantic legend. The dinner seemed to be going well. The wine flowed, as did the conversation -- with just enough spark to suggest possibility. He leaned into the moment, sensing chemistry, feeling that quiet optimism that accompanies a promising first date. And then she leaned forward, lowered her voice, and asked a question that changed everything. “I really like you,” she said. “I feel attracted to you. "But I need to know something. Are you a Zionist?” He had expected something more intimate, something more personal. Instead, he found himself fumbling through an answer about loving Israel, supporting Israel, caring about Israel. Let’s just say there would be no second date. The young woman, by the way, was also Jewish. There is an elephant in the Jewish living room, and that elephant is: Israel. That is the subject of my podcast conversation with Dr. Yehuda Kurtzer, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America and one of the most compelling interpreters of contemporary Jewish life. Yehuda writes and teaches with intellectual rigor and moral urgency. He spends his days helping Jews think more honestly about power, responsibility, and identity. He embodies the name Yisrael itself — the one who wrestles — because he refuses easy answers and insists on staying in the struggle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    55 mins
  • Why Judy Blume Matters

    Why Judy Blume Matters
    May 1 2026
    I had weird reading habits when I was a kid. For one thing, no one ever told me that there were certain books that boys should read, and certain books that girls should read, and that there was a mechitza (a barrier in a traditional synagogue that separates the sexes) between the two of them. What did I know? That was how I came to devour the entire Harriet the Spy series. Because, well, I liked spies. And then, there was Judy Blume, born Judith Sussman, in 1938. Judy Blume is one of the most important Jewish writers of the twentieth century. Judy Blume? The lady who wrote about training bras and embarrassing gym classes? Yes, that Judy Blume. OK, she’s not Philip Roth or Saul Bellow, or Cynthia Ozick. And, yes, the "serious" literary establishment never really invited her into their club. They might have been wrong. Mark Oppenheimer has just published the definitive biography of Blume: Judy Blume: A Life. As I read the biography, and as I reflected on my podcast interview with Mark, I kept thinking: someone needs to make the Jewish case for Judy Blume. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    54 mins
  • Whom Does Your God Love? A Jewish Case for the Stranger. With Shai Held

    Whom Does Your God Love? A Jewish Case for the Stranger. With Shai Held
    Mar 10 2026
    What does the Torah actually say about immigrants — and what does it demand of us? Rabbi Jeff Salkin sits down with one of the Jewish world's leading theologians, Rabbi Shai Held, to explore the Bible's most repeated commandment: love the ger — the stranger, the sojourner, the immigrant. Held argues that "immigrant" is not just the most accurate translation of ger, it's the most morally urgent one. When the Torah says to love the immigrant, it's making a claim on us every single day. Together, Salkin and Held trace the Torah's radical counter-vision to Egypt — a society built not on cruelty and power, but on empathy and care for the vulnerable. They explore what it means to imitate God by loving those whom God loves, why the stories of Abraham, Sarah, and Lot are really lessons in empathy, and how the Holocaust's legacy shapes the Jewish moral imagination. And they end with the question Rabbi Held says belongs on the doorpost of every house of worship in the world: It's not whether you believe in God. It's whom your God loves. Rabbi Shai Held is President, Dean, and Chair of Jewish Thought at the Hadar Institute, which he co-founded. His most recent book is Judaism Is About Love: Recovering the Heart of Jewish Life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    46 mins
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