Impacting Israel With JJ Sussman

An authentic glimpse into the experience of these unsung heroes. How do they handle it all? Kids, support, coping mechanisms, sharing the burden, and so much more. This episode was produced and edited by thepodwaves.com    

This Podcast was Produced and edited by thepodwaves.com

On this episode I had a great conversation with Rav Stav on whether or not there is a spike in the search for one’s Jewish identity in light of October 7th in Israel, on the Chief Rabbinate, and on Tzohar’s newest initiatives including how to make this Yom Kippur look different and more united than last year’s.    “We all think we are right and the others are wrong. And it could be that it’s even true.  But for peace and unity we sometimes have to pay prices.  We don’t only have to be right; we have to be smart.  And we have to be kind enough to give space to others.  And even though we think we might be 100% right, perhaps give at least a 1% chance that the other side also has something to offer in the way he thinks.   This Yom Kippur, this should be the message. We should be ready to forgive others more than we are used to.  To change the way we talk to others who don’t think like we think.  To be a bit more open minded to others and other ways of thinking.”   This Podcast was Produced and edited by thepodwaves.com    

On today’s episode we take a deep dive with Noam to hear how he and OpenDor Media and Unpacked are reaching the next generation where they are, through social media, podcasts and videos to educate them about Israel in a way that appeals to them.  As he says, “there are so many people who are craving to learn about the Jewish story in a way that's not propagandistic, in a way that's not indoctrinating, in a way that says, oh my G-d, I actually feel closer to the Jewish people and to the Jewish story by learning the totality of the Jewish story without merely being told this one-sided narrative…The whole idea is… if the Jewish people own their story and feel like it's their story and know their story and could tell people their story,…And if you go to YouTube comments on our last video, “Are Jews Indigenous to the Land of Israel?” There are literally thousands of comments that are about, oh my G-d, I feel so proud to be part of the Jewish people.” Enjoy the interview, have a great day and make it matter!   This show was produced and edited by thepodwaves.vom  

Today, I'm looking forward to speaking with our very special guest, Daniel Goldman, Founding Partner of Goldrock Capital, social activist, philanthropist, former Chairman of Gesher, and Founder of Leshem. Leshem sponsors Haredi High School Yeshivas to blend high level religious studies with general curriculum toward obtaining a matriculation diploma. Today in particular we are discussing with Daniel the challenges we face in Israeli society bridging the gaps between the secular and Haredi religious communities, and what can be done to plan for the future. Will the Haredi community accept non-religious general studies education? Are we making progress in establishing proofs-of-concept pioneering programs for integrating the Haredim into the workforce and military? Will this happen quickly enough to convince the skeptics in government and the general public that these efforts are worth the investment?   This show was produced and edited by thepodwaves.com 

Welcome to another episode of Impacting Israel, where we hope to bring you – our English-speaking, Israel-engaged audience, a range of voices not regularly heard from in our circles. I am your host, JJ Sussman, and through my role as the International Director of Gesher, I am privileged to develop relationships with many of these important voices. Today, I'm looking forward to speaking with our very special guest Dano Syrkin, the Director and Creator of Tehran. Dani was born in Moscow, and made Aliyah with his family when he was 2 years old and grew up in Jerusalem. He graduated the Tel-Aviv University's School of Cinema. Already then, his thesis project which was a short film called And Now Rachmaninov won a prize at the prestigious Turin Film Festival in Italy. Dani has had a successful professional career in Israel, with many of his films winning prestigious international prizes and participating in major film festivals across the globe. His film, Out of Sight won the Israeli Academy Award for Best Director and was presented at the Cannes International Film Festival and on and on. Most recently, his show Teheran gained notoriety after it was broadcast in Israel and then AppleTV acquired the rights to the show. I got to know Dani when he participated on one of Gesher’s leadership courses in 2016 with a group of media and entertainment professionals that I led on a course which included an intense week getting to know the Jewish community of Los Angeles.

On this episode, we spoke with Arik Kleinstein, the founding Managing Partner of Gliliot Capital one of Israel’s leading venture capital funds. Arik has been involved in Israel’s hi tech sector for over 25 years as both an operator and for the last 13 years as a successful investor. We spoke about how the hi tech community responded to the events of October 7th. How he and his partners built Glilot from scratch to become one of Israel’s leading investors. We also spoke about the bonds created between Israelis and Jews around the world through business relationships and the need to maintain and strengthen those. Finally, we spoke about the culture of giving in Israel. Do Israelis give charity in the same numbers as their counterparts in Jewish communities around the world?

Welcome to another episode of Impacting Israel, where we hope to bring you – our English-speaking, Israel-engaged audience, a range of voices not regularly heard from in our circles. I am your host, JJ Sussman, and through my role as the International Director of Gesher, I am privileged to develop relationships with many of these important voices. Today, I'm looking forward to speaking with our very special guest Dr. Osnat Levtzion-Korach – MD, General Director of Shamir Medical Center (Assaf Harofeh). Dr. Levtzion-Korach has been named one of the 20 women who have changed Israeli healthcare, one of Israel’s most influential women, and was recently nominated by The Marker Magazine, a leading business journal in Israel, as one of the 100 most influential people in Israeli economics. Dr. Osnat Levtzion-Korach graduated from The Hebrew University–Hadassah University Medical School in both Pediatrics and Hospital Management. After earning a master’s degree in health administration from Tel Aviv University, she worked at the Center of Excellence for Patient Safety Clinical Research and Practice at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Upon her return from the US to Israel in 2008, Dr. Levtzion-Korach served as Deputy Director of Assaf Harofeh Medical Center. In 2012, she was appointed Director of Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital, becoming the first woman to ever lead a Hadassah Hospital. In 2017 she was appointed Director-General of Assaf Harofeh Medical Center, the first woman to lead an Israeli public hospital. Her areas of expertise are patient safety, quality of care, and process improvement. She is  a married mother of four sons and lives in Jerusalem.

Welcome to another episode of Impacting Israel, where we hope to bring you – our English-speaking, Israel-engaged audience, a range of voices not regularly heard from in our circles. I am your host, JJ Sussman, and through my role as the International Director of Gesher, I am privileged to develop relationships with many of these important voices. Today, I'm excited and looking forward to speaking with our very special guest, Yitzik Crombie. Yitzik Crombie is a seasoned Haredi HiTech executive entrepreneur. He is also the recent author of an important Hebrew-language book “When the Haredim Will be the Majority” analyzing the growing dominant Haredi demographic in Israel. In addition to founding Bizmax Business hub, his other ventures include iSale, the Haredi Hi-Tech forum and Mego. Bizmax – an innovative business center for Haredi men in Jerusalem – is run in collaboration with the Kemach Foundation, the Jerusalem Development Authority, and the Achim Foundation. Bizmax serves as a community and business center that caters to the Haredi community. The hub’s goal is to cultivate and nurture self-employed individuals, business owners, and entrepreneurs, and help them bring their businesses to the next level of success and productivity. He is a past researcher for,the Haredi Institute for Public Affairs. The Machon specializes in strategic planning, development, implementation and promotion of data-based policies and research in everything related to Haredi society in Israel. Yitzik lives In Kfar Chabad, a small village of Haredi people next to Ben Gurion airport, with his wife Efrat and their 5 children.

Today we are joined by Tal Shalev, one of the leading journalists in Israel and chief political correspondent for Walla News, Israel’s largest independent, 24 hour news and analysis website. With years experience as an international reporter, Tal brings insight and nuance to explaining and understanding the political landscape in Israel in a global context. As the daughter of Chemi Shalev born and raised on the news, Tal and her father continue to this day to debate current events and their likely future impacts. Five months into the war, she shares her thoughts on the US / Israeli relationship, the realignment of the Israeli electorate to the right, why the reservists are an unlikely political block unto themselves, and why the bigger issue than Haredim conscription is actually education and integration into the Israeli workforce of the future.  Please listen to our podcast, Impacting Israel, by our host JJ Sussman, to hear the full interview, and Tal’s provocative and candid reflections. You can find Tal on Instagram here. Impacting Israel is available on Google, Apple and Spotify. Reach out to me, JJ, with your comments and thoughts at jj@gesher.co.il.

On this episode we were joined by Emi Palmor. As a former Director General and career civil servant in the Israeli Ministry of Justice, Emi has been one of the leading voices in Israeli society fighting for the rights of minorities and for a more fair and balanced justice system for all Israelis. She serves on the Meta Oversight Board helping put its community standards and laws governing conduct on the platform into practice. Among her many professional accomplishments is her work with the legal non-profit Natal, the Israel Trauma and Resiliency Center (https://il.natal.org.il/?lang=en). For the past 26 years, Natal has drawn attention to and provided mental health services to communities and individuals experiencing PTSD.  We spoke with Emi about important topics such as eliminating racism in Israeli society, how to think about effective judicial reform, and the continued importance of addressing PTSD in our civil and military societies during this time of war in the aftermath of the October 7th attacks. Natal was itself on the front lines on that day, receiving calls from trauma victims from saferooms as the horrific events unfolded. Listen and be inspired by what we can each to do help.

Just last week, Yisrael Hayom’s diplomatic correspondent Ariel Kahane wrote an article entitled “Never before has the gap between the anchors in the news studios and the soldiers on the front been so large." What can we do to improve the situation? What does unity look like? Hear what he believes to be some of the ways to answer that question. And, what is the state of the Israel diaspora relationship? Has it changed since October 7th? Why is it so important? In this episode we get an insider’s opinion and cover a lot of ground with Ariel Kahane who has been an important voice in Israel’s media for decades.

My goal on Impacting Israel is to expose you -- my listeners -- to influential voices impacting Israel in so many different ways. You see, when I’m leading my delegations, I find that the most valuable element for me are the friendships I develop with incredible people. So, I started asking myself, how can I share these voices with others? Maybe I had never heard of these incredible individuals because they usually write or speak in Hebrew. But why not find a platform to introduce other English speakers to these leaders from across the spectrum of Israeli society who are really making an impact.