On Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Hebrew calendar, Israeli Jews in Tel Aviv clashed about what it means for Judaism to manifest in the public square, tensions that relate directly to recent political battles over the character of the Jewish State. Yehuda Kurtzer sits down with Yossi Klein Halevi and Masua Sagiv to process these events and interrogate their emotional reactions to the protests, the integrity of Jewish prayer, the perils of partisanship, and what it means to be consistent in one’s commitment to democracy.

Related articles:

Masua Sagiv  Street fights over prayer offer liberal Israelis a chance to define a Judaism they can believe in

Yossi Klein Halevi  The state of our brokenness

A transcript of this episode is available here.

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In a frenzied media cycle, Identity/Crisis delves into the big ideas behind the news from a uniquely Jewish perspective. Host Yehuda Kurtzer, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, talks with leading thinkers to unpack current events effecting Jewish communities in North America, Israel, and around the world, revealing the core Jewish values underlying the issues that matter to you.