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A man is detained over a kippah bearing both the Israeli and Palestinian flags. Was it legal? Noam unpacks the surprising history of the Palestinian flag, why Israel once banned it, and why it remains one of the country's most contested symbols.
Here are pictures of Alex Sinclair's kippah:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/keeping-his-head-educator-detained-for-dual-israeli-palestinian-flag-kippa-dons-replacement/
Check out our episode Oslo: The Peace That Wasn't https://unpacked.media/oslo-the-peace-that-wasnt-2/
Here's a link to sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17R5PM2yXabVEqMKD465pAxKSGVxNINXPwzDLUFWg3VQ/edit?usp=sharing
This episode is sponsored by Karen and Mark Holzberg in recognition of the important work OpenDor Media’s ConnectEd program is doing with independent private schools. To sponsor an episode or to be in touch, please email [email protected].
Check out our episodes on Youtube. This podcast is brought to you by Unpacked, an OpenDor Media brand.
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Noam sits down with Haviv Rettig Gur in Jerusalem to unpack why Israel feels like a tinderbox, whether it's time to retire the word "Zionism," the debate over Palestinian identity, and what the future holds for the US Israel alliance. Fresh off three intense days traveling the country, from the Gaza border to Jerusalem's Old City, Haviv challenges assumptions on the left and the right, offering a provocative look at where Israel is headed.
This episode of Unpacking Israeli History is sponsored by Andrea & Larry Gill and is in memory of Leo M. Bernstein. To sponsor an episode or to be in touch, please email [email protected].
Check out our episodes on Youtube. This podcast is brought to you by Unpacked, an OpenDor Media brand.
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Fifty years ago, Air France Flight 139 took off from Tel Aviv on the morning of June 27, 1976. No one could have suspected that the soon-to-be-hijacked flight was about to lead to one of the world's most daring and risky rescue missions. To mark 50 years since the raid, we're bringing back one of our favorite episodes: Noam unpacks Operation Thunderbolt, Israel's secret operation to rescue the hostages at Entebbe, and asks whether this story has enduring lessons for us today.
This episode is generously sponsored by Marci and Alex S. Kaufman. To sponsor an episode or to be in touch, please email [email protected].
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Does identity define us or limit us? Noam searches for answers with Nuseir Yassin, better known as internet personality Nas Daily.
Nas Daily, has 68 million followers and a media company reaching 300 million people a month. He is also Israeli and Arab, and the world keeps telling him to pick one. This is not a political episode. It's a conversation about identity, belonging, and what it costs to hold complicated truths.
This episode is dedicated in memory of Armand Lindenbaum, the grandson of Rav Avigdor Amiel, by his wife, Jean, and children, Felice, Amiel, and Ariel Lindenbaum-Sebag. To sponsor an episode or to be in touch, please email [email protected].
Check out our episodes on Youtube. This podcast is brought to you by Unpacked, an OpenDor Media brand.
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Please fill out this short survey. Go to: unpacked.bio/podsurvey. We want to hear from you!In June 1967, Israeli paratroopers fought one of the Six Day War's bloodiest battles to reunify Jerusalem. Ammunition Hill, a fortified Jordanian stronghold carved into the limestone hills of East Jerusalem, became the key to the Old City. What followed was four hours of chaos, courage, and carnage in a maze of narrow trenches. This episode unpacks the battle, its heroes, and the complicated legacy of a city reunified.Here are the sources used in this episdoe.https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WIB04rolWgTnfCW-puSaNhXkQzBzS1LxABMU1pEFUKo/edit?usp=sharingHere are links to the Unpacking Israeli History's 3-Part series on the '67 War.6 days that Changed Israel Forever: Lead-up to the 1967 War (Part 1)6 days that Changed Israel Forever: The Middle East at War (Part 2)6 days that Changed Israel Forever: The Aftermath (Part 3)This episode is generously sponsored in honor of Dr. Andrew and Marci Spitzer. It is also sponsored by, and made in partnership with, Jewish National Fund-USA. Since 1901, Jewish National Fund-USA has strengthened the land and people of Israel through bold initiatives that secure the country’s North and South. By preserving heritage sites like Ammunition Hill, Jewish National Fund-USA invests in Israel’s future, driving tourism, generating jobs, and helping communities thrive.Find more information about visiting Ammunition Hill and other parts of Israel below. You belong in Israel. Find your Jewish National Fund-USA tour or mission: https://www.jnf.org/travel/ Educators can explore Israel on Jewish National Fund-USA's special mission: https://www.jnf.org/travel/tour/index/educators-mission-to-israel-2026 Jewish National Fund-USA's Alexander Muss High School in Israel offers semester, summer, and mini-mester academic experiences for North American teens. Find out more: https://www.amhsi.org/ Learn more about the Jewish National Fund-USA's work preserving heritage sites in Israel: https://www.jnf.org/our-work/heritage-site-preservation To sponsor an episode or to be in touch, please email [email protected]. -------------------Check out our episodes on Youtube. This podcast is brought to you by Unpacked, an OpenDor Media brand.For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out:Jewish History NerdsSoulful Jewish LivingStars of David with Elon Gold Wondering Jews
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Please fill out this short survey. Go to: unpacked.bio/podsurvey. We want to hear from you!Noam Weissman joins Yael Steiner and Jonathan Schwab over at Jewish History Nerds for a special crossover episode on Yitzhak Rabin through the lens of Itamar Rabinovich's Yitzhak Rabin: Soldier, Leader, Statesman from the Jewish Lives series. Yitzhak Rabin's life is the story of Israel itself. But who was the real Rabin? Two Unpacked shows, three hosts, one conversation you don't want to miss.Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and watch their latest videos on Spotify. https://open.spotify.com/show/1JrBAblXuVgF7cWF2EgRRz?si=3ecd5b9fb1274b67 .Check out Jewish History Nerds on Unpacked and YouTubeThis episode is sponsored by Jewish Lives, a prize-winning series of biographies from Yale University Press. To learn more about Yitzhak Rabin's life, identity, and legacy, check out Yitzhak Rabin, Soldier Leader Statesman by Itamar Rabinovich at www.jewishlives.org. Use promo code RabinPod for 30 % off. That's R-A-B-I-N-P-O-D.Visit jewishlives.org to explore and buy books from the Jewish Lives book series. Use the discount code JLIFE to get a discount.Check out this episode on Youtube. This podcast is brought to you by Unpacked, an OpenDor Media brand.To sponsor an episode or to be in touch, please email [email protected]. -------------------For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out:Jewish History NerdsSoulful Jewish LivingStars of David with Elon Gold Wondering Jews
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To understand why Iran and Israel are fighting, you have to understand Hezbollah. Noam Weissman revisits the story of Iran's proxy in Lebanon, which has been causing trouble for Israel since its founding in 1982.
Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d68bkgIiKIwWRCn75DGaiWry9N3Oi_rPh6-X1fn_i8Q/edit
This episode of Unpacking Israeli History is generously sponsored by Sarala and Danny Turkel. To sponsor an episode or to be in touch, please email [email protected].
Check out this episode on Youtube. This podcast is brought to you by Unpacked, an OpenDor Media brand.
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In 1954, a group of young Jewish idealists in Egypt were recruited by Israeli intelligence to plant bombs in Western institutions, only to be betrayed by their own double agent handler before the mission even began. Arrests, torture, a show trial, two executions, and a suicide followed. Back in Israel, the fallout was just as devastating: forged documents, cover-ups, and a bitter vendetta between Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon and Prime Minister David Ben Gurion that tore the ruling party apart. This is part two of our series on Israel's most embarrassing intelligence blunder. It reads like fiction. It wasn't.
Here are links to Unpacking Israeli History's 3 Part Series on the Suez Canal Crisis.
Israel's Forgotten War: The Suez Crisis (Part 1)
Combustion: The secret pact that ignited the Suez War (Part 2)
Fallout: How the Suez Crisis rewired the Middle East forever (Part 3)
This episode is sponsored by Tony Felzen in honor of Connor, and by Andrea & Larry Gill. To sponsor an episode or to be in touch, please email [email protected].
Check out this episode on Youtube. This podcast is brought to you by Unpacked, an OpenDor Media brand.
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The scandal that changed Israel forever began with a failed secret operation in Egypt in 1954. Young Egyptian Jews, recruited by Israeli intelligence, were sent on a mission meant to protect the Jewish state. But the operation collapsed in betrayal, arrests, torture, and cover-ups. The fallout shattered public trust, ripped apart Israel’s leadership, and transformed the country’s politics for decades to come. Part 1 sets the stage: the fragile world of Egyptian Jewry, the fear gripping six-year-old Israel, and the catastrophic decisions that doomed a group of young idealists.
Here are links to past episodes about the Mossad:
The Mossad: Three Tales of Assassination
Intelligence Operations That Shaped Israel’s Story with Ronen Bergman, LIVE in Los Angeles
This episode is sponsored by Tony Felzen in honor of Connor, and by Andrea & Larry Gill. To sponsor an episode or to be in touch, please email [email protected].
Check out this episode on Youtube. This podcast is brought to you by Unpacked, an OpenDor Media brand.
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Israel is no stranger to self-examination. In 1948, Ben-Gurion distributed a poem accusing Israeli soldiers of murder. In 1982, hundreds of thousands demanded accountability after Sabra and Shatila. In 2016, the IDF convicted Elor Azaria. But in a post-October 7 world of delegitimization and libels leveled at the Jewish state, that tradition is under strain. Noam unpacks the controversy around Nicholas Kristof’s New York Times column, explores Israel’s long, remarkable history of holding itself morally accountable, and examines why, in the face of fierce global condemnation, the country has suddenly become ultra-defensive.
Correction: In 2016, Moshe Ya'alon served as Israel's Minister of Defense, not Chief of Staff of the IDF.
This episode is in memory of Leo M. Bernstein. To sponsor an episode or to be in touch, please email [email protected].
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Journalist Haviv Rettig Gur joins Noam to respond to Nicholas Kristof's New York Times column alleging sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees by Israeli forces. They examine the sourcing, the suspicious timing relative to a major Hamas sexual violence report, and ask the hardest question: how do Jews stay morally serious about real problems within Israeli society when the world holds them to a standard applied to no one else?
Listener note: this episode contains strong language.
Read and listen to Haviv Rettig Gur's response here:
The Paper Trail of Nicholas Kristof’s Smear
Is Nicholas Kristof Right?
The Civil Commission’s Report on Oct 7th Sexual Violence - Silenced NO More
This episode of Unpacking Israeli History is generously sponsored by Andrea and Larry Gill and Jody and Ari Storch. To sponsor an episode or to be in touch, please email [email protected].
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How did an ancient story of mass suicide become the cornerstone of Israeli national identity? In Part 2, Noam traces Masada's unlikely revival, from forgotten footnote to rallying cry in the shadow of the Holocaust. But the story rests on a single source: Josephus, a man who surrendered to Rome and wrote under Roman patronage. That's the power of myth. And Noam explores: should Masada remain a national icon?"
Masada – In the Light of Halakhah by Dov I. Frimer
Ari Shavit, My Promised Land
Yael Zerubavel, Recovered Roots: Collective Memory and the Making of Israeli National Tradition
This episode of Unpacking Israeli History is generously sponsored by the Zalik Foundation Junior Board. To sponsor an episode or to be in touch, please email [email protected].
Check out this episode on Youtube. This podcast is brought to you by Unpacked, an OpenDor Media brand.
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A mountaintop. A siege. A mass death that became legend.
But what if the story of Masada isn’t what we think it is?
In this episode, we go back 2,000 years to the final days of the Jewish revolt against Rome, where a group of rebels made a choice that would echo through history. Along the way, we unpack the factions, the violence, and the devastating collapse of Judean society, and we ask a simple but unsettling question:
How much of this story is history, how much is myth, and what does it mean to us, today, as we think about the development of Israeli history?
For more about Josephus, see this episode of Jewish History Nerds.
Herod the Great: Jewish King in a Roman World by By Martin Goodman
This episode of Unpacking Israeli History is generously dedicated by Avi and Debra Naider in loving memory of Ari Deshe . To sponsor an episode or to be in touch, please email [email protected].
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When Rachel Goldberg-Polin buried her son Hersh, she heard part of herself go into the ground with him. Recorded live before nearly 1,000 people at Temple Judea in Miami, Rachel joins host Noam Weissman to discuss her new memoir, sharing how writing became a way to survive unbearable grief and asking what it means to keep going when the person who was your whole world is gone. Drawing on Jewish theology, Viktor Frankl, and a prophetic journal entry Hersh wrote as a teenager, Rachel wrestles with how hope and despair can coexist.
When We See You Again, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, Jon Polin
https://whenweseeyouagainbook.com/
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Franklhttps://www.beacon.org/Mans-Search-for-Meaning-P602.aspx
A Fine Line Searching for Balance Among Mountains by Graham Zimmerman
https://www.mountaineers.org/books/books/a-fine-line-searching-for-balance-among-mountains
This episode was sponsored by Neil and Pam Weissman. To sponsor an episode or to be in touch, please email [email protected].
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Scott Galloway is one of the most influential voices in the world. He's a professor, bestselling author, and podcaster with millions of followers. What most people don't know: he's also proudly Jewish. Recorded live in London, Noam sits down with Galloway for a rare, unfiltered conversation about his Jewish awakening after October 7th, why Israel keeps losing the story war, and why he's no longer staying quiet.
Notes on Being a Man by Scott Galloway:
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Notes-on-Being-a-Man/Scott-Galloway/9781668084359
No Mercy/No Malice Newsletter, May 2023
https://www.profgalloway.com/storytelling/
How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen, by David Brooks
https://www.amazon.com/How-Know-Person-Seeing-Others/dp/059323006X
This episode was sponsored by Carol and Adam Reich. To sponsor an episode or to be in touch, please email [email protected].
Check out this episode on Youtube. This podcast is brought to you by Unpacked, an OpenDor Media brand.
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Hasan Piker weaponized Albert Einstein on Pod Save America to condemn Zionism. But he left out most of the story. Noam addresses Piker's troubling statements about Einstein by tracing his full relationship with Zionism, exposing how a confident but incomplete portrait collapses under the weight of the full historical record.
The Problem with Hasan Piker's Einstein Story, by Yair Rosenberg:
https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/deep-shtetl/
Check out our past episodes of Unpacking Israeli History on topics including Deir Yassin, Hamas, Sabra and Shatila and the Right of Return.
https://unpacked.media/podcast-series/unpacking-israeli-history/
For more on the topic, listen to Jewish History Nerds' recent episode Albert Einstein: Was he a Zionist?
https://unpacked.media/albert-einstein-was-he-a-zionist-part-2/
This episode was sponsored by Travis Terry and Cathy and Barbara Malamut. To sponsor an episode or to be in touch, please email [email protected].
Visit jewishlives.org to explore and buy books from the Jewish Lives book series. Use the discount code JLIFE to get a discount.
Check out this episode on Youtube. This podcast is brought to you by Unpacked, an OpenDor Media brand.
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Why did Israel's enemies, Sinwar, Khamenei and Nasrallah, all believe Israel was on the verge of collapse? Israeli philosopher Micah Goodman joins Noam to reveal the deep misreading of Israeli society at the heart of that miscalculation. They unpack why Israel's hybrid of radical individualism and fierce collectivism is its greatest strategic asset, and why the world keeps getting it wrong.
Here is a link to Micah Goodman's work:
https://micahgoodman.com/en/books/
Note: This episode was recorded on April 7, 2026, one day before the region reached a fragile ceasefire.
This episode was sponsored by Barbara Sommer & Alan Fisher and Andrea & Larry Gill. To sponsor an episode or to be in touch, please email [email protected].
Visit jewishlives.org to explore and buy books from the Jewish Lives book series. Use the discount code JLIFE to get a discount.
Check out this episode on Youtube. This podcast is brought to you by Unpacked, an OpenDor Media brand.
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Host Noam Weissman sits down with Ittay Flescher, educator and education director at Seeds of Peace in Jerusalem, for an honest conversation about whether Israeli Palestinian peace is still possible after October 7th. Ittay, author of The Holy and the Broken, walks Noam through the major frameworks for resolving the conflict, from the two state solution to his preferred model, a confederation. Noam presses on trust, polling trends, and the enormous risks any peace proposal carries. Ultimately, this is a conversation that grapples with whether hope, in the face of devastating loss on both sides, is naive or necessary.
Resources for readers of The Holy and the Broken, including where to purchase the book, how to read news from multiple sources, and build communities of dialogue and empathy, are available on Ittay's website at:https://www.ittay.au/what-can-i-do
This episode is dedicated in memory of Armand Lindenbaum, the grandson of Rav Avigdor Amiel, by his wife, Jean, and children, Felice, Amiel, and Ariel Lindenbaum-Sebag.
To sponsor an episode or to be in touch, please email [email protected].
Visit jewishlives.org to explore and buy books from the Jewish Lives book series. Use the discount code JLIFE to get a discount.
Check out this episode on Youtube. This podcast is brought to you by Unpacked, an OpenDor Media brand.
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We're revisiting one of our most important episodes: the story of Operation Opera, Israel's 1981 surprise airstrike on Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor, because the questions it raises feel more urgent than ever. As Israel confronts Iran, what do you do about a threat that isn't fully here yet but you believe is coming? Begin faced that exact dilemma, defied the entire world, and established the Begin Doctrine in the process. With Passover approaching, a holiday about the courage to act before it's too late, this one hits differently right now.
Ronen Bergman's Rise and Kill First
Israel’s 2007 submission to the Eurovision competition: Push the Button
Visit jewishlives.org to explore and buy books from the Jewish Lives book series. Use the discount code JLIFE to get a discount.
To sponsor an episode or to be in touch, please email [email protected].
Check out this episode on Youtube. This podcast is brought to you by Unpacked, an OpenDor Media brand.
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In this special live episode from Atlanta, Noam Weissman sits down with journalist and author Yardena Schwartz to explore two of the most contested places on earth: Al-Aqsa and Hebron. Drawing on Yardena's book Ghosts of a Holy War, they unpack six pivotal but underknown moments in the conflict's history, from the 1903 Kishinev pogrom to the 1977 Mahapach. Along the way, they trace how disinformation, religious identity, and competing claims to sacred ground shaped the crisis we see today.
Please follow Yardena Schwartz's website and learn more about Ghosts of a Holy War.
https://www.yardenaschwartz.com/
https://www.instagram.com/yardenas
Filmed live at The Dupree: www.thedupree.org
Visit jewishlives.org to explore and buy books from the Jewish Lives book series. Use the discount code JLIFE to get a discount.
To sponsor an episode or to be in touch, please email [email protected]. Check out this episode on Youtube. This podcast is brought to you by Unpacked, an OpenDor Media brand
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Wondering Jews - Laat meer zien
