How should we really be talking about Israel - in the classroom, or anywhere else? This week, Uri speaks to Dr. Noam Weissman, Executive Vice President of OpenDor Media, where he spearheads the educational vision and leads content creation across all divisions. Noam heads a team of content creators and educators for the Unpacked brand which reaches millions of young Jews each year with articles, videos and social media content. He is also the host of the popular Unpacked podcasts “Unpacking Israeli History” and “The Power Of” as well as the host of the YouTube channel, Today Unpacked.

For more, see:
https://jewishunpacked.com/deir-yassin-the-battle-for-truth/
https://jewishunpacked.com/the-altalena-israels-almost-civil-war/
https://jewishunpacked.com/the-kastner-trial-why-a-jew-who-saved-many-was-put-on-trial-for-working-with-the-nazis/
https://jewishunpacked.com/kfar-qassem-a-wound-that-still-bleeds/

NY Times - the gift that keeps giving. Last week, you may have read: “For Strictly Observant Jews in Brooklyn, the Sabbath Expands," an article that highlights the new, expansive eruv covering most of Brooklyn. Within hours, there were hundreds of comments on the article, many of which were disparaging and mocking towards Orthodox and Chasidic Jews. This week, Uri and Rivky break down the article and comments, but they also go further - are loopholes a bad thing? And just as importantly, what do ritualistic mitzvot mean to us, as observant Jews?

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/16/nyregion/brooklyn-observant-jews.html

The new Netflix movie “You People” is a romantic comedy centering around Ezra Cohen, a white Jew, who falls in love with Amira, a black Muslim. Very much in the style of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, or Fiddler on the Roof, there are culture clashes and tension, much of which stems from Amira’s dad, played by Eddie Murphy, and Ezra’s mom, played by Julia Louis Dryfus.

The movie touches on a lot of hot button issues that are very much in the news (or, "the culture"), and much negative feedback in the Jewish community centers around particular lines on scenes. This week, Uri and Rivky ask,  what were the filmmakers trying to achieve with this film, what does this say about American culture and society, and what does it say about the state of Jews in America?