It’s been 2 weeks since Blue and White MK Michal Cotler-Wunsch brought her formidable skills, energy and experience to the Knesset and her passion for the challenges ahead is palpable. The Canadian/Israeli lawyer shares with Eve Harow her visions for: Aliya; a plan for Israel’s battles in the international legal arena; a burning desire to bring our hostages out of Gaza and correct the human rights wrongs that have gone on for years; how to balance government involvement with personal responsibility to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic – and much more. She’s a breath of fresh arctic air and a politician to watch in the coming months and years.

Eve Harow shares her thoughts on everything but what’s on everyone’s minds (and mouths) with July 1st looming. Touristless Jerusalem, foamy coffee, Cicero’s prescience, higher education, historical negation, wild blueberry muffins and the uncomfortable convergence of sunglasses, earrings, mask and scarf on cartilage challenged ears.

Photo Credit: Flickr / Veganbaking.net

Aharon Ariel Lavi is the founder and director of Hakhel: The Jewish Intentional Communities Incubator in the Diaspora, which just won the prestigious Jerusalem Unity Prize established by the families of the 3 boys murdered 6 years ago. Lavi, with his eclectic, broad educational background, speaks with Eve Harow on his unique vision for global Jewishly based networks and shared-ideals communities. The current COVID-19 situation is challenging for those unprepared for crises; could planning for the Torah mandated sabbatical cycle provide an economic template for our rapidly changing world?

Rabbi Dr. Joshua Berman, a professor of Bible at Bar-Ilan University, has written the book many of us have been waiting to read. An expert in the Bible as well as post Biblical Jewish and Near Eastern studies, he challenges the critics who take issue with the Torah as divinely sourced. Can we use both academics and tradition to develop our understanding of historical truth and still hold onto our principles of faith?
His book is called Ani Ma’amin: Biblical Criticism, Historical Truth and the Thirteen Principles of Faith. “Ani Maamin” means “I Believe.” Put your surety down before you pick up this book.

After sharing her thoughts on the riots in the US, Eve Harow turns her attention to the distractions of entertainment.

Izzy: Stream Israel- has just launched and media expert and co-founder Jessica Cohen joins Eve to explain the new Netflix type streaming platform that has so many people very excited about showing the magic of Israel to the world.

We’re all home more now for one reason or another, let’s enjoy it. Original content coming soon when post COVID-19 production kicks in. (https://helloisrael.tv/rejuvenation subscribe with this link and get 50% off your first 3 months, a gift for listeners of Rejuvenation.)

On the eve of Shavuot, one of the 3 Biblical pilgrimage festivals, our thoughts naturally go to Jerusalem. Eve Harow interviews Atara Spero-Harow, Director of the City of David Archives and the uber talented photographer Koby Harati on their new project, City of Gold in Black and White.

Atara and Koby took archival pictures of ancient Jerusalem and blended them with modern photos taken at the exact same spots. As with so much associated with the City of David, theirs was a labor of love and excitement, bringing the past and present together for our viewing pleasure.

Looking forward to a healthy, caring world and future pilgrimages to the Holy City. She awaits in golden splendor.

Shavuot Sameach!

On Sunday, May 24th, the first day of Sivan, there will be an unprecedented day of Achdut- worldwide Torah learning together, on line, with classes by some of the top men and women educators, rabbis, philosophers and leaders of the Jewish world. Rav Reuven Taragin, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat HaKotel, Educational Director of World Mizrachi and the force behind this initiative, joins Eve Harow to share his excitement at the ingathering of representatives of so many streams of the Orthodox community to bring ‘Sinai’ to a global audience. Rav Hanoch Teller, one of the greatest motivational speakers of our time and part of the program, also joins the show to share his thoughts on how we need to be decent, modest people in order to be good Jews. A novel way of using the distancing imposed by the COVID -19 pandemic crisis to bring us together.

Yeshivat HaKotel’s Worldwide Achdut Program.

See you Sunday at the 5780 version of Sinai. Meanwhile-Yom Yerushalayim Sameach!

It’s warming up, it’s Lag Ba’Omer and Israelis are gradually coming out of isolation and adjusting to whatever the COVID-19 chaos is deeming a new normal. Temporary, at best. Eve Harow opens up her disparate thoughts on politics, prayers, pizza and plagues and what she’s been up to as she starts to get out and about. Virtual touring, surprise tears and no standing on her head. Relate to her or not, we’re all in flux, for good or for less good. Stay well!

Israel’s Memorial Day is the 4th of Iyar because it’s the day that Kfar Etzion fell, just hours before the State was declared in 1948. In the Fall of 1967 former Angeleno Sandy Zusman moved to the newly resettled kibbutz Kfar Etzion just after the Jordanian occupation was ended in June’s Six Day War. The former kibbutz lands had been liberated along with Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, the Golan and Gaza. Many of those who had survived the fall of Kfar Etzion (and subsequent murder of its defenders after they surrendered) returned to reestablish modern Jewish life for the 4th time in the Hills between Bethlehem and Hebron. She met her husband Avinoam Amichai there and they had 3 children before he fell in battle in Sinai in 1973’s Yom Kippur War at age 28. Sandy raised her children alone on the kibbutz where they all still live, now with many grandchildren, some named for the grandfather they never knew. She speaks with Eve Harow about those years, continuing the dream, and the archives and memorial center to which she has devoted her life.

May the memory of all those who fell in uniform and were killed by terrorists give us strength to continue in their merit. Good will prevail, with the help of God. Am HaNetzach Lo Mefached MiDerech Aruka.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, today’s Yom HaShoah commemoration ceremonies are being held virtually so we must zoom in on the horrific reality of the Nazi era as the numbers of survivors dwindle every day. Debby Spero is a Holocaust researcher, educator and guide at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Remembrance Center. She shares with Eve Harow some of the personal and poignant stories from her years behind the scenes at the museum; the coincidences, the tears, the reunions, the heroism in hell. What’s it like to guide Germans? Are there films and pictures of the destroyed millennia of Jewish life in Europe yet to be found? Today let’s focus on the unfathomable and rededicate ourselves to Never Again.