In the first two years of his administration, President Donald Trump has already redefined the American approach to Israel and the Middle East: fulfilling his promise to move the American embassy to Jerusalem, working to dismantle the Iran nuclear deal, confronting anti-Israel sentiment at the U.N., and promising to put forward a new approach to […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher.  Chapter 1: The Chabon Speech and Its Aftermath Chapter 2: Pluralism, Prayer Books, and Peoplehood Chapter 3: Outsourcing Observance  Chapter 4: Presiding over a Funeral Chapter 5: The State of Israel—A New Life Just Beginning On May 14, 2018, […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher.  Chapter 1: The Protestant Fundamentalists Chapter 2: The Protestant Modernists Chapter 3: The Cold War, Jacksonianism, and Russia Chapter 4: Zionism and American Foreign Policy America is living through a partisan age, with the seemingly intractable divides between Republicans […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher.  Chapter 1: Sex, Gender, and Embodiment  Chapter 2: Is the Science Settled? Chapter 3: “Girls Like Us” Chapter 4: People of Faith and Our Transgender Moment Contemporary Americans are living through an age of expressive individualism. No right, it […]

For modern readers, the story of Pinhas is one of the most vexing episodes in the Hebrew Bible. The Israelites have been seduced by foreign women, and the head of the tribe of Simeon has ceremoniously escorted the daughter of Midian’s king into his tent. In an act of seemingly unsanctioned zealotry, Pinhas take his […]