Jew-Washing

0:00[upbeat music] Hi, welcome back to Ask A Jew, where a secular sinful Israeli speaks to her wholly religious friend. I'm Yael, here with Chaya. We're the Michelle and Bangarang of Judaism. That's a Eurovision reference. Don't worry. [laughs] We're not gonna talk about Eurovision a lot. [laughs] Uh, this is- First of all... Wait, no. Survey. Survey- Oh, right. Right... survey, survey. Survey. First of all, survey. Survey. Do you wanna tell our listeners about the survey? We are conducting a survey. [laughs] Yes. Because [laughs] we do not know what we are doing. We were told to. Yes. No. Yeah. We don't know what we're doing. No.

0:37Honestly, we've been doing this podcast for four years, and someone asked us a ques- the most basic question about our listeners, and we were like, "I don't... How should we know?" [laughs] We just, like, talk into these microphones every week, and we have no clue who we're talking to. And sometimes people email us, and we're like, "Oh, okay, cool." Yeah, but we have no clue who we're talking to- No... what we're talking about generally. So we are conducting a survey, only because, you know, we're thinking about the future and how w- what things we wanna do or thing... You know, different opportunities.

1:05So it'd be really helpful if everybody would fill it out. It's extremely short. I did not add a lot of questions. Yeah. It's very basic. I wanted a lot of questions- Yeah, yeah. I, I know... but it would've taken people 20 minutes. You're lucky. I wanna be like, "What's your Social Security number?" Mm-hmm. "What are your hobbies?" You're lucky Eld was not in charge- Yeah... because she would've add, added 100 questions. I cannot- But there would've been less spelling mistakes probably. I had two spelling mistakes. It's very hard to see them- [laughs]... on that form, Google Forms, okay?

1:29To be fair. Um, but anyway, which, by the way, it's my worst nightmare. When I send out an official thing, and it- Yeah... has a spelling mistake, I, I, I feel like I have lost everything in life. [laughs] Like I am Job. You know what I would tell my, my cops when we did, when I did social media for the NYPD, and I always tell this to everybody, your mistakes, your typos, they hide after you hit send. So as soon as you hit send- Yeah... on a post, read it. Because then you can still delete it or edit it immediately. Yeah, you're right. You're right. No, thankfully we have listeners who are astute readers and pointed it out to me. Thank you. Yes.

2:08If you know, you know. Um, but whatever. It's fine. Uh, yeah. So we'll put a link in the show notes. Yes. If... Please take a minute, uh, and do the survey, 'cause we'd like to get to know who you are so we can tailor our content or blah, blah, blah. And we like getting compliments too, which is really nice. I've been reading through some of them. Um, you know, shockingly our listeners are very opinionated. Yeah. [laughs] Um, so that's, that's been fun to read. Um, but- I just wanna state one thing though.

2:33Like, I don't care if every listener writes, "We want more wellness content." I mean, go to a different podcast. That's not... I'm not doing wellness. Yeah. Well, friend, nobody has said that. I'm just using it as an example if someone- Yeah... like, I'm... We're gonna be who we are no matter what- Yeah... the survey says, 'cause this is who we are. But- Yeah... it's just helpful for different things that we- Yeah. Yeah... know. I mean, I'm looking at it now. We have a ton of non-Jewish listeners- Yeah, that's nice... um, which is pretty interesting. Uh, we...

2:57We're very politically even, so a lot of our listen- Mm... our listeners really, like, it's a nice pie chart of political opinions. Uh, but most importantly, if you do fill out the survey, it... Which is anonymous by the way, but you can put in your email if you like, and we won't tie it to your answers. But- No. No, no... you get a chance to win a, drum roll please, Chaya, what do they win? I'm going to bake you my famous mandel bread and challah maybe. I'll see about challah. I'm not sure. We'll see. Um, um- Depends how many people fill out the survey. No, I just, it just...

3:31I don't know about challah traveling, and, like, my challah's really best fresh. I don't wanna send them hard challah, you know? So they'll... So you'll invite them over for Shabbat. Either... Yeah. But I'm definitely gonna send you, if you win the raffle, you're gonna get my homemade mandel bread and something else. So either another cake or brownie, something that I'm gonna make you. Okay. All right. So that's, it's gonna be two homemade items that I will ship- Two homemade items... to your door. Thankfully, my husband is very good with shipping, 'cause that's what he does. Yes.

3:58[laughs] I've seen some people, some people already in the survey have said, "Oh, I live in Canada," so they didn't, they didn't include it. We can send it. But I'm like, we'll still send it to you to Canada. Um, you know. Yeah. Why not? Canada and Puerto Rico and Alaska- Puerto Rico... Hawaii. Yeah. No problem. Totally. Uh, yeah. Alaska, we won't deliver it. I'm gonna be there. Oh, we have a listener. I saw we have a listener in Barbados. No way. We probably won't ship it to you, but I would love to know. I really hope it's, like, somebody from Barbados and not, like, a Chabad house. I mean, that, that...

4:27Nothing wrong with that. [laughs] Wow. But, um, you know, tell us where you're from. I don't know, whatever you wanna tell us. I'm gonna be... If you're in Alaska, let me know, 'cause I'm gonna be in Alaska soon. Really? Mm-hmm. Oh, I've always wanted to go to Alaska. Yes. I'm going to Alaska. You know me, the big outdoorsy nature type. So- Yeah... I'm going on- One of the hottest guys I ever dated was from Alaska. Really? He was, like, a native, a native Alaskan in a green beret. Eld, you should move there. I... Well- They say, they say it's really good for women. He's also a- [laughs]

4:56He's also a, like, he's a nature, like, tour guide or something. No. Yeah. What? Really nice guy too. I mean, is he still single? He might even listen to this podcast. [laughs] Is he still single? Now that I think about it, no, he's not still single. [laughs] Oh, that's too bad. Anyway, now that I think about it, maybe he listens. Let's move on. Anyway, that's fine. He knows he's hot I hope. [laughs] Oh, God. Um- Anyway... yeah. So do our survey. So fill out the survey. Link in the show notes or on Substack, askajew.substack.com. Thank you. Yeah. Another important announcement is if you are in... I don't know what...

5:26Now that I have YouTube, I'm very self-conscious about what I'm doing, 'cause we're... I'm pointing at the, at the camera- Oh, my God... with my pen. Um, if you are in New York or the Tri-State Area, or you like to travel, June 1st, Ask A Jew meetup/happy hour. Uh, we'll tell you the details now, but you should probably follow our Substack just in case there are any changes. But if not, this is it. This is what's happening. You know, if we don't show up We don't show up. Yeah.

5:52But this is probably happening, uh, June 1st at 6:00 PM at a place called, uh, Spring Lounge in SoHo. It's on the corner of Spring and Mulberry. You can Google it for the exact address. Uh, 6:00 PM, June 1st. Both Chayla and I will be there. I will. Maybe some special guests, who knows? Mm-hmm. We're recording right before that with a special guest. I mean, am I not a special guest? Wow. You are the specialist guest. Right away you jump to other guests. I'm flying all the way from California. But maybe even special-er. Wow. Um- Wow... Chayla will be in town. Uh, you know, a, a rare opportunity to meet us- Mm... face to face.

6:27That sounded really, uh, bad. [laughs] Um, you know, we'll be, uh, we'll have a g- we'll have a green room just for you and I, Chayla. Yeah. And we'll put everybody else in a different room. That's a great idea. And then we'll come out every once in a while to say hello. No, but it will be really fun. It's, it's a bar, so it's... unfortunately, if you're, if you keep kosher, um, have a sandwich before. Mm-hmm. But, um, it's a bar, so, uh, you know, you can have a drink or drink soda and chat with us. We've done these before. They're really, really fun. They're fun. Yeah. 90, 90% of our listeners are not weird.

6:58[laughs] Some of you are, and you know who you are. Only 50% of our hosts are not weird, so [laughs] Only 50%, yeah. [laughs] It's a good ratio. [laughs] Uh, but you know, we, we hear a lot from listeners about community and, and finding and talking to other normal people and feeling like, you know, they, they're not alone when they listen to us, which is one of my favorite things to hear. So actually come actually not be alone and meet- Mm... other people- Mm-hmm... uh, who also think Mandy Patinkin sucks. Great pitch. Thank you. Great pitch. Okay. I hope to see a lot of you there.

7:30Now let's talk about Eurovision. Oh, God. No, I'm kidding. What do you... We don't have time. What are you gonna do now that Eurovision's over? I, I don't know. I don't have an identity anymore. That's what I... [laughs] You have no identity. I don't. And no, but this happens to me every year, and it's only, like, two weeks, so- Yeah... is this what it's like to be into sports? Mm-hmm. Probably. Yeah. Except it's much longer. I went... I, I will say this though. I went... First of all, I wrote an article in our Substack.

7:54You can read it, but Eurovision, it's, it's not really about the music, even though the music is fun, but it's about the geopolitics and all the, the drama behind the scenes. Um, but I did go to a, a bar here in Hell's Kitchen, 'cause only gay bars show Eurovision 'cause nobody else cares. Mm. Right. Gays and Europeans, which are frankly the same thing sometimes. [laughs] There's a, a great song in the musical Legally Blonde called Gay or European. [laughs] Oh, that's cute. And they say how they both do things like kiss you on both cheeks and- [laughs]... you know. That's cute.

8:25Anyway, um, I went with a few other Israelis, and I was a little, little hesitant, not gonna lie. Uh, but it was, it was beautiful. Uh, everybody except for one person was really, really nice to us. Oh, really? Uh, there were people from all over the world there. Uh, it was very, very tight at the end. Uh, Israel and Bulgaria were competing- Right... for the first place. Uh, Bulgaria won, and the Bulgarians were weeping. Aw. They were weeping. It was- Is it 'cause no one knows that Bulgaria is a country and so they're proud of themselves? Yeah, and it was their first time winning Eurovision. Like, listen- That's nice...

9:00we've won Eurovision a few times. I'm not- Yeah... you know. That's nice. Um, they deserved it. It was a great, great, great song. Really good performance. Um, go on YouTube and look, look it up. Um, but we went and we kinda hugged them and, you know, it felt, like, very... Yeah. I, I assume that's what happens in sports when your team loses, is you go and you hug the other team fans. Yeah. Right? I... Well, kind of. Yeah. Sometimes. Um- My problem with Eurovision is it's th- during Sefirah. It's during the time- [laughs]... when we don't listen to music [laughs] You, you don't have Sefirah-vision? I...

9:32[laughs] We don't have Sefirah-vision. [laughs] I think it's pretty antisemitic of them, actually. Because- They're... It's not been only antisemitic [laughs] they've times-... between Pesach and Shavuot, we don't listen to music officially. Mm-hmm. And for them to host Eurovision smack in the middle of this time period of mourning for the Jewish people, it just, it hits differently, you know? Wow. And I just, I wanna put it, a shout-out to all the Haredim who weren't listening because of Sefirah, and not because they have no clue what Eurovision is and never heard of it.

10:01[laughs] But maybe they just weren't listening 'cause they don't listen to music right now. Oh, I didn't even know that. But I don't know. Even though our, our, um, our, uh, performer, uh, Noam Bitan, who represented Israel, is wonderful. Um- Yeah... he's, he's quite, um- He's cool... he's quite mesulthi, as we say. He... Yeah, he is. He's very traditional. Not religious, but, like, spiritual. Traditional. Very. Traditional. Yeah. He's a doll. Very sweet. Oh, so sweet. So sweet. So sweet. Completely, like, took every... In addition to being a phenomenal performer- Yeah...

10:32um, really phenomenal, uh, he was... He's just, like, lovely and sweet and- Yeah... you know, there's so much hate towards Israel. Do you know that they rehearse with booing because there's so much booing- Oh... when they go on stage? Could you imagine? It's terrible. And, and, you know, five countries decided that they're not going to be in Eurovision this year. Oh, losers. Oh, my God, what are we gonna do without Spain? I know. You know, who cares? Losers. Um, so it was a, there was a lot of drama, but he got... He... There were a lot of videos of, going around of him hugging other contestants- Oh, that's nice...

11:06like they were long-lost friends. So... But I'll say one last thing about Eurovision, and this is, nobody has to care anymore. It tells an amazing story, because every year there is, since October 7th, of course, there is a huge campaign to try to boycott Israel. Right. A huge campaign. Countries drop out, people threaten, performers say they won't perform if the genocidal Zionist regime is performing. Um, and New York Times, New York Times dedicates an investigation to how Israel is, like, trying to- Yeah, win... get people to vote, which- Yeah... yeah, that's- They're trying to win. How scandalous.

11:41Yeah, they're trying to win [laughs] Eurovision. They're trying to win a competition. Yeah. Disgusting. Ugh. And in the last two years especially, the, the, the votes go two ways. There's, uh, judges' votes, and a panel of judges from every country, and then every country sends text messages from listeners. Mm. Both years, the judges scored Israel relatively low. This year was a little better, and Israel won first last year and second place this year, I think, in popular vote. Wow. And- So the people are voting for Israel... the people are voting for Israel. That's cool.

12:17And I looked at the breakdown, and the countries, some of the countries that awarded Israel the most votes... Are you ready for this? Let's go. Think beacons of the Jewish community. Poland. Poland. Poland, actually, the judges gave Israel 12 points. Wow. Um, yeah, still a little guilt there going on. Yeah. Good. That's fine. Everybody's with that. No. Portugal, listeners in Portugal gave Israel the maximum number of points. Really? Um, yeah. Finland. Wow. Uh, uh, where else? Serbia, I think, gave Israel- Ooh, really?... 10 or 12. Uh, Albania. Oh, good.

12:50Uh, Switzerland gave Israel 12 points, so stop telling us we're trying to game the system, you know. Uh, uh, Finland's thriving Jewish community didn't make this happen. Yeah. People just really- Albania? What do you mean?... love the song. The millions and millions of Albanian- Yeah, Albania, of course. Muslim country... [laughs] Love the song because it was amazing, because we are amazing, and we love excellence, and we send the best of the best. It's- And- It's interesting. My son works with a bunch of Albanians- Mm-hmm...

13:16and he's learning Albanian. [laughs] He speaks- Like, a lot of doormen are Albanian here. Yeah. Well, he w- my son's a medical assistant, and he, um, he works with a bunch of medical assistants who are Albanian, and he started learning how to count and how to say a bunch of words. Really? And he's like, "They're so nice. It's a totally Jewish office." Oh, yeah. And they're- No, they're very nice... really, really nice. But it was fun... It was funny for him because, like, during Ramadan, they were f- some of them were fasting, and it's just interesting, that cultural meeting of, like, Orthodox Jews and Muslim Albanians working together.

13:46I, I think it's really sweet. I might be getting this wrong. This may be misinformation. Maybe I'll Google it- Oh... while you're talking about Shavuot. [laughs] But I'm pretty sure my father told me, my father's been everywhere in the world, including Albania, that Albania is the only country, or one of the only countries, that did not lose a single Jew during the Holocaust. Hmm. 'Cause their leaders were like, "Nope." All right. Interesting. So. Okay. Yeah. Shout-out to Albania. And I heard it's beautiful there. Yeah. I would love to go there one day. Yeah. I'm sure.

14:19Um, yeah, so sh- mentioning Shavuot or Shavuot, by the way. Shavuot. Yeah, I don't know. I, I- See, this is your influence on me. Why am I saying Shavuot? 'Cause it's Shavuot. Uh, no, Shavuot. Shavuot. Whatever. And do you know what it's called for non-Jews? Like, it's called Pentecost. Hmm. Doesn't that sound so Christian? That is the least Jewish thing I've ever heard in my life. [laughs] I know. I think we should call it- They call the day Pentecost... we just, we should call it Weeks because- Yeah, Weeks... Hebrew lessons include the weeks... that's what Shavuot means, actually. It's actually Weeks. Yeah.

14:46What are you doing for Weeks? Yeah. But in, in the Torah, it's called a few different things. It's called Chag Habikkurim. It's the holiday- Mm-hmm... when the Jews would bring their first fruits to the temple to give- Yeah... to the priests. Would you like me to Jew-plain it to you? Yeah. We haven't done one in a while. I'm telling you, 'cause you don't know this stuff. No. It's also- We haven't done this segment in a while, where I explain Jewish holidays to you. [laughs] Oh, yeah. Remember? Yes. You know anything about this holiday?

15:08Of course. You wear white. Mm-hmm. You eat cheesecake. That's true. Um, you dance? No. It's kind of like a harvest. Yeah. The... Okay. I g- I could see where you mean, what you mean about that. And you go- Yeah. What's a harvest? I know that you go to Israel [laughs] or something because people were making fun of Mamdani, rightfully so, that he celebrated it, and everybody's like, "Where did the Jews go, Mr. Mayor?" Yes. "Where did they go?" There are three holidays in the Torah that we are commanded to be olah l'rega, like you're supposed to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem- Mm-hmm... to the temple.

15:45That's- Another very Christian-sounding word... Sukkot. Yeah. But it's actually ours. We're... It's Jewish. [laughs] It's Sukkot, it's Passover, and it's Shavuot. Mm-hmm. Three times a year, the Jews were commanded to go to the temple in Jerusalem, and this is one of them. Are you sure they weren't commanded to go to Al-Aqsa? Yeah. I'm, I'm 100% sure. Okay. Just wanted to check. 'Cause that didn't even exist. That religion didn't even exist then. Mm-hmm. So, you know, there's a timeline issue. Okay. There's this historical fact issue.

16:08We just shouted out Albania, so let's make sure we also offend the Muslims. Um. [laughs] No. So Shavuot is... It's sad, 'cause I feel like a lot of American Jews don't really care about it, because- It's not a top three. No. It's not a top three. Because it... You know why? I, I think I know why. It's 'cause it's, like, in middle of sort of the end of the school year season, and for some schools, over. A lot of Hebrew schools are over. Hmm. So, like, you can't be... They don't learn about it 'cause they're not in Hebrew school. We're giving it better, better branding. It's a l- Yeah, but it's the best holiday. It's a lot of people's favorite holiday.

16:39Oh, I, I love it. It's... So what we're s- actually celebrating is the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai, and we c- it's called Shavuot 'cause we counted s- weeks from Passover till now. It's... We count 49 days of the Sefira, and on the... we're given the Torah on the sixth day of Sivan, which is happening this week. Um, and it's a holiday, and we, like, go to the... we go to temple. We hear the Ten Commandments read, which is a reenactment of what happened that day at Mount Sinai. Um- Hmm... and it's tradition to eat dairy for lots of different reasons, but that's where the cheesecake comes in.

17:14There's a custom to stay up all night learning Torah the night before. Hmm. So this year, it would be Thursday night would be the night, and I loved doing that as a teenager. It was the most fun thing. We would stay up all night, and we would have different speakers or we would hang out, and then we'd go to school at, like, 5:00 in the morning. And everybody in the community would be there, you know, up all night, then praying early in the morning. It's just a really fun, beautiful tradition.

17:40Um, I'm actually teaching a class this year if anybody who lives nearby- Ooh... wants to join. From 10:00 PM to 12:00 AM, I'm gonna be- Ooh... teaching a class. Yeah. Uh- It's kind of cool... and- Wait, people can email us if you wanna do that and also if you wanna ask us questions or whatnot AskAJewPod@gmail.com You can. I really appreciate it. Somebody f- a listener emailed me today that they have to teach something, and they were asking my advice, and that actually made me feel good.

18:03'Cause half the time I feel like all I do on this podcast is talk about Brad Pitt and nonsense. So the fact that the listener thought that I could contribute meaningfully to something Torah related really boosted- Maybe it was from me, the email... it gave me a boost. No, I know who it was, so shout out to you listener. Thank you for doing that- Wait, wait... 'cause it gave me a boost. [laughs] Speaking of our emails, do you ever read through the AI pitches that we get for guests? No.

18:28They are hilarious. We get like, I'm not even exaggerating, sometimes we get five a day- Really?... AI pitches for guests, so people who wrote a book. Sometimes it's somehow related to Judaism. Right. It always starts the same way. It's like, "Hiya, El and Chaya. I really enjoyed your latest episode with," insert latest guest episode- Right... "where you talked about," insert keywords. Right. Right. But I have one here, I wanted to put it on our Instagram 'cause it's so funny. I'm, I just want, have to, have to read you the headline. Okay. Okay?

18:56This is from, from one digital marketing person to another, like, hats off to you. The headline is The Wine Purifier Trick Your Listeners Want. What? Okay. Stop. "Hiya, El and Chaya. Just reaching out one last time in case my previous note got buried. I know how busy things get, so I wanted to qu- quickly reiterate why," and I'm not gonna say the name of the brand, not to shame them- Okay... "why mm could be such a memorable guest for your audience.

19:22The conversation around wine usually focus on region or tasting notes, but the reality is that so many people avoid enjoying a good glass because of worries about headaches or other unwelcome effects." [laughs] "So next month will be..." One day we should have one of these people on just- Oh my God, we should... make fun of them- [laughs] Yes... for using the AI pitches. So, you know- That's hilarious... if you answer the survey and you wanna, you feel like there's not enough wine purifying content- Like, can I tell you something? I just had an idea. We should write one of our, for Ask a Jew.

19:51We should make AI write us a pitch- Mm-hmm... and then send it to, like, Sam Harris. Yeah, 'cause he'll definitely- And he'll be like, "Sam Harris, [laughs] we have these two women." It would be perfect for your pod. "Dear Sam, we really enjoyed your latest episode about Trump and meditation." [laughs] Yeah. Oh my God. I, how do we get on Sam Harris? Someone has to help us or get him on us. I mean, he'll come on eventually. Well, I mean, like that. We're gonna have some big guests, and we have some- I mean, we have some-... we have some pretty big guests coming up. I know. It's very exciting.

20:20We have, I mean, you know, we, we, we can only... The- there's, there's a pretty high bar for us after Gad Saad and- Yeah, Gad wa- Oh, that was a great one... that was a fun- Yeah... that was a fun episode. I mean, I, of course, had to embarrass myself three minutes in by mentioning a random kosher restaurant- [laughs]... in Montreal. Like, am I even a podcaster? How did I even do that? You know what? But he's... Where, where are people gonna ask him these questions? That's... Yeah. Who else is gonna ask him if he's ever been to Ernie and Ellie's? Yeah. Only my family understood that question. What are you gonna ask...

20:52Let, let's do, if Sam Harris is here right now, okay, "Hi, I'm Sam." What are you gonna be, what are you gonna ask? Sam, what Bar Mitzvah parsha were you? What- [laughs] Do you remember your Bar Mitzvah parsha, and what did you do? I don't think, do you think he had a Bar Mitzvah? I feel like he must have known. I don't know. I don't know. It's a good question. He's an atheist. See? There we go. That's our first question. Have you had your Bar Mitzvah? And if not, can I make you one right now? Oh, that would be so fun. Can I come? No. Can I come? It's just gonna be me and him. Just the two of you.

21:23[laughs] That's romantic. [laughs] It's gonna be a new kind of Bar Mitzvah. Yeah. Um, no, but seriously, I, I, I just can't believe that came out of my mouth with Gad, and, like, as I was saying it, I was embarrassed for myself, but then it just flowed. Like, I, where's the, where's the button between my brain and my mouth that I could pause sometimes? We wouldn't have a podcast if such a button existed. I don't know. I was cringing. I mean, here's a guy who, like, Elon Musk retweets every five seconds, and I'm like, "Have you ever been to Ernie's and Ellie's? They have the best peanut- [laughs]...

21:55[laughs] they have the best peanut wontons that I've ever tasted in my whole life." [laughs] Well, I think the funny thing- Wow... about that actually is that you've never actually had Ch- non-kosher Chinese food. Never. So, like, how do you know? It's kind of like if a tree falls in the forest, you know? Last week I went to Genghis Khan. Do you know what that is? [laughs] Do you? By the way, also a Eurovision, uh, song from many years ago. Do, do you... Oh, that's a great song. Yeah. Do you know what Genghis Khan is, the restaurant? I don't. It's in the lo- it's in the mall near my house.

22:25[laughs] Basically, you fill up a container, okay? They have, like, all kinds of vegetables and then, like, meat and chicken, and then they have this big stove top, right? And it's, like, round, and the guy dumps the whole pile on the stove top and with pasta, and then he has these two huge, um- At your table or at the counter? No, no, no. This is, like, in the restaurant. So this huge- Oh, yeah, like a wok place... round thing. It's a wok, right, except flat.

22:51And then he does this whole thing with these two huge long, like, f- sticks, and they pour sauce on it, and then they, like, keep moving it around that round thing. I could stand there for hours and watch. I mean, I can't eat it. Yeah. I don't know if it's delicious. Oh, it's not even a kosher restaurant. Okay. It's not kosher. I go there just to watch. [laughs] Anyway, my sister and I were in the mall last week. [laughs] I'm sorry, that might have been the funniest thing you've ever said on this podcast. [laughs] Wait, wait, wait.

23:17So we were in the mall last week going to pick something up, and I was like, "We should go check out Genghis Khan." [laughs] We should go watch the goyim eat. And... Yeah, and nothing was happening. Nobody was in line. I'm like, "This is a travesty. There's nothing happening right now." So- What does the Talmud say about ordering non-kosher food but not eating it? Like- I was so close. I was- Giving it to a homeless person... I would bring it to a homeless person. Yeah. It just, I, even watching it, I love, just the enjoyment of seeing it made is worth it. Wait.

23:44Watching people enjoy their meals in the mall, I can't explain to you, as someone who's never eaten in a mall, except in Israel, but in America, I've never eaten in a mall before. Mm. It looks so... Imagine I sit there with my bags next to me, my Macy's bag and my other bags, and then you sit down with a huge plate. I mean, the portion sizes are- Yeah... there's no wonder everyone is fat, okay? Because the portion sizes are out of control. And then there's, like, a Panda Express next door. Ugh. Everyone looks so happy. They look so relaxed. You know what the best thing about eating at the mall is?

24:14You go with your friends, and then, like, one person stays to- Yeah... watch the stuff, and then you all come back 10 minutes later with different food. Yeah, I know- You know? And like, what did you get? You think I didn't notice? What did you get? You think I didn't notice? [laughs] I mean, I notice every... Tell me a food court, I'll tell you all about it. [laughs] It looks so nice. It's just so fun. The way- I mean, I go, "Can I have a Diet Coke?" They don't even have Diet Pepsi. I have to get a Diet Coke usually. You know what I mean? I have an important question. Yeah. Do you...

24:40Are there kosher hibachi restaurants? Actually, funny you should mention that. My son just went to one. My son Benny- Really?... just went to one in Flatbush, in Brooklyn. Oh, okay. And I really- Oh, fun... wanna go when I'm in New York, because I've never gone to a hibachi restaurant before. Do they do the thing for co- Like, so hibachi restaurant, if people have never been or have never watched the Christmas episode of The Office, which is one of the greatest Christmas episodes.

25:03[laughs] Um, it's like you sit with, like, strangers. Like, usually there's- Yeah... like, eight of you around a, a chef. It, it sounds very high-end, but it's not. Uh, and the chef just makes everything in front of you, but it's kind of like a show. They set things on fire, and then they always, like, take a- Yeah... shrimp and throw it into people's mouths. Or, like- Yeah... they'll, they'll squirt sake into people's mouth. Yes. Um, in a kosher re- restaurant, I assume they ask, like, a Talmudic question, and if you get the answer right- [laughs]...

25:28you'll get, like, a- I don't know, but they were-... a what? My son sent videos of them shooting sake into his mouth, and he- Yeah. Oh, yeah... was eating it. Yeah. It's really fun. It's cute. I'm, I'm definitely- You have to go- I wanna go... you have to go when you come... definitely wanna go. Yeah. There's a few cuisines that I have not yet tried that I'm, like, anxious- Thai?... to try. No, Thai we have in LA. We have kosher Thai. Okay. Delicious. There's a- I've never had Indian. I've never... Oh, except the food I've... I've made Indian food, but I've never had Indian out.

25:52Wait, there's so many kosher Indian food- I've never had Indian... because a lot of them are vegan, so they get... There's one on the Upper West Side. They get a- Oh, my god... kosher certification. Oh, really? I'd love to try that. Yeah. And then, I don't know why I know this. I do know, actually, but I'll tell you later. Uh, [laughs] there is a... It's not... I don't think it's kosher, but there is a Thai Singaporean restaurant at the farmer's market at The Grove- Oh... where the owners are Jewish from- Really?... Singapore. Yeah. Oh, really? That's cool. Yeah.

26:21So there are Jews in those places. There are Jews in Singapore. In fact, one Friday night... Were you here when we had a couple... Why do I feel like you were here? I... Yes. Remember we had this random couple who got married? Yeah. And we made them a Friday night, like, party for their wedding. Yeah, and she was from Singapore. They were from Singapore. I'd never seen them in my life, but somehow they ended up in my house, and we had a wedding for them Friday night, remember? We were dancing. Yeah. You were here, right? It was fun, yeah. It was fun.

26:47But, um- I wonder if they're still together. I... [laughs] I hope so. I hope so, too. They were very nice. They were cute. Um. Yeah. Yeah, okay, so you haven't had Indian food. I don't think I've ever had Indian. Indian food is very... It doesn't really taste like anything else. Really? People are, like, very specific, 'cause, like, they like northern Indian or southern Indian. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I haven't- I don't know enough about that... I don't know any of the differences. Um. No, you don't, no? Yeah. I mean, sushi, kosher sushi is getting pretty good. Yeah. I think you could easily get a good- Me too...

27:14kosher sushi meal. Yeah. Um- There's a new restaurant in LA that is, like, high-end. They're trying to get a Michelin star. The fish was out of this world. It's like- Ooh... what you would see in fine dining. Mm-hmm. I don't know what it tastes like in non-kosher fine dining, but this is, like, at that level. Um, it was really, really, really, really good. Yeah. No, there's a lot of good k- there's a lot of good, good kosher places. I wanna... Sorry to switch topics, um, but we were... We had Freya India on. Yes. And it was an interesting- And then I saw her twice- Oh, that's so funny... randomly. Yeah. It was a very- She's lovely...

27:46interesting conversation. Is she as soft-spoken and beautiful in real life? Yeah. Uh- Yeah, and she also has great skin in real life- Oh, yeah... as we discussed on our show. Yeah, like, the sun just makes her shi- I don't know. Yeah. Like, I see dark spots, she looks amazing. I saw her indoors, and she was still shining. Okay. Well, we talked a lot about different interesting things related to social media and girls and this, and I started watching this show, this new show on Amazon that came out.

28:10My students were talking about it, so I'm like, "Oh, I'll try it out." I, I, I'm horrified. I'm literally horrified at what I saw. Not Euphoria, I hope. No. It's called some- It's about ice skating. No, not about ice skating. It's about hockey. It's a romance. Wait. It's about- Are you watching Heated Rivalry? No, not Heated Rivalry. Okay. This is on Amazon Prime. God, why can't I remember the name of it? But it's about a hockey player and this girl who fall in love.

28:36They're in college, and she has a troubled past, and he has a trou- They're, he's, like, from an abusive family, and she was raped, and it's a whole mess, and it's all about their romance. But the way they, they show intimacy and nudit- I mean, the nudity, I, I, I couldn't believe my eyes. I mean, I didn't know what I was looking at. I had no idea. Wow, Amazon. Who knew? I know. On Amazon. Like, anyone could watch that. Mm-hmm. I- it's cr- They have frontal nudity. Male frontal nudity. Oh, we were just talking at lunch today about male frontal nudity.

29:09I couldn't bel- Because- I was really, I- Have you ever heard of the show Oz on HBO? Yeah. They have- If you wanna see Christopher Meloni naked in the shower. No. I, I actually don't. I, I'd rather not. It's a very, very good show. Really? Yeah. Well, anyway, I just- It also has one of my... Yeah. It's, it's great. But I was thinking about it- Despite or because of the male frontal nudity... I know. But I was thinking about it, and hear me out for a second.

29:30Like, we've pushed every envelope so far that, like, in order to get anyone to talk about your show now, you have to just be as crazy and as out there and as, uh, shocking as anything, and it real- I was th- l- watching the show from the lens after r- of reading Freya's book, Girls, and thinking about what young women feel about themselves, think about themselves, and then watching the show, and I just realized, like, it is way worse than we even can imagine. Really? Like, it's much, much worse.

30:00If you're a young girl and these are the shows... What were we watching when we were younger? I mean, those shows- Everybody Hates 90210... yeah, those- Everybody was getting pregnant and getting AIDS. [laughs] It's true. We were- No, that was one of your two options in the '90s. Yeah. Either get pregnant or get AIDS- It's true... on TV. And it was... That was probably not great either. But what they're dealing with now is just, it's roofies- But isn't it more-... and rapes and this and- Oh, I haven't watched that show, but I feel like the body... Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like the body image...

30:29images now on TV are a little more realistic than what we only saw, like- Yeah... super, super hot chicks in bikinis. Yeah, yeah. And I feel like too- Like a Lena Dunham... there's like, you can watch Lena Dunham- Yeah... have sex in every single position- Yeah, no thanks... and feel better about yourself. Like, no thanks. That didn't help me, and it didn't help anyone in the world. No one needed to see that. This is a pro-Lena Dunham- It was tiring... podcast. Um- If she comes on, I'll, I'll be pro-Lena Dunham [laughs] I'll apologize.

30:56Um, wait, but okay, so are you recommending that show or not recommending the show? No, no, no. No, no. I'm not recommending that show. Okay. So I'll recommend a show I don't even think you and I talked about. This is the only time you and I talk, actually. Yeah. So, um, otherwise, we only talk through our lawyers. [laughs] But, [laughs] have you watched, um, the show, that I just forgot what it's called, with Steve Carell, where he's a college professor? Oh. Rooster. The Rooster. Yeah. How is that? It is- I haven't... delightful. Really? It is really cute.

31:29There's a lot of good actors. He's adorable. Okay. Um, and it is, and I say this as a good thing, not as a bad thing, it is a show that you can watch with your phone- Okay... and still enjoy it, and it's funny. It's witty. It's light. It's not too... I, I'm a really big fan of shows that aren't trying to teach me anything. Yeah, yeah. Not preachy. You know? It's just like- Yeah... it's, it gets a little preachy 'cause, you know, you can see like where the, the studio people- Yeah... in charge of the preachiness like kind of redline the script.

32:00But it is, it's just cute and funny and light, and you'll forget about it in two months. Highly recommend it. Yeah. I'm still, I, I'm still obsessed with Love on the Spectrum. Mm-mm. I cannot watch enough of it. I've watched at all. It's so cute. I, it's like- 90 Day Fiance, 90 Day Fiance- No... you can watch from now until the day you die, and you will not run out of episodes. [laughs] I've never seen it. Is it good? I wish if, if there are listeners who watch this, I know Gabby's mom watches it- [laughs]... please email me so I have somebody to talk to about this. Um- Oh, my God... I, you know, it's, it's wonderful.

32:33It's just- All right... terrible and wonderful at the same time. I've never seen an episode. What is the premise? Really? People getting engaged for 90 days? Oh. That's everyone I know. No. That's almost God. [laughs] It's... [laughs] I mean- That's exactly what I did. [laughs] I mean- No, you- You can show about my life... in their case, from the moment they meet for the first time to the moment they get married is 90 days. How, how long do you think it was between- No... from when I met Barak till we got married? Yeah. Otherwise, he would've run for his life, but he didn't have time.

32:57[laughs] Uh, you know- We met on, like, April 1st and got married July 3rd. How long is that? That's crazy. April, May, June. Yeah. That's three months. Yeah. Wow. I could've been on that show. That was a long engagement too. Well, it was pretty quick- Uh-... 'cause we wanted to get married before the summer. W- wait, but okay, but 90 Day Fiance, the premise is it's a show about immigration really. Oh. So there's a visa called the K-1 visa. Yes. Ask your brother, the immigration lawyer, about it. Yes. There's a- My brother, Yankee Perlmutter- No, don't say his name unless he sponsors us. He's sponsoring.

33:27What's his- Okay... thing called? Midwest Law. He's an immigration lawyer. Please call him. Yes. Okay. Um, he'll get all the Israelis now calling him. "I want to come to America." Yeah, it's fine. He's really good. Um, so it's a show about there's a visa called a K-1 visa, where you get engaged to somebody. K. They have 90 days to come to America, and then you have to get married in, within those 90 days. Otherwise, they get, they have to go back. Okay. Um, and so- So they don't know each other? No. Some... It, it's all these couples who met either, some of them met when they were traveling abroad. Oh, I see.

33:59Some of them, I think even season one, it was very, very, many, many years ago, was a woman who met a guy on Birthright in Israel. Oh, that's cute. Um, yeah. And so they come to America for ni- and then it's about, like, their adjustment to life. Right. And it's so bizarre. Like, there's a whole segment of, um, men who are, like, in their 50s or 40s, whatever, who are not very attractive, not super successful, and they go to, uh, Thailand or Eastern Europe- Mm-hmm...

34:30or the Philippines, and they meet these, like, gorgeous womans who li- who live in, like, a tree. Like, I'm not exaggerating. [laughs] These women, like, the, the guy comes, and they bring them shoes. [laughs] Oh, my God. Um, and then there's another subcategory of Midwestern women with like three kids from three different fathers- Yeah... who are very overweight, and they meet a 23-year-old, like, Algerian- [laughs]... or somebody from Africa who's, like, an aspiring rapper. [laughs] But it's all- That's amazing...

35:00first of all, it's beautiful because it's about love. [laughs] But also it's about people wanting to come to America. That's really amazing. And there are 9,000 seasons and 14 spinoff shows. Okay, I'm gonna watch it. Okay. We should pick a season and watch together- Yeah, that'd be cute... so that we can... And we won't bother our listeners with this, I promise. We didn't get to, we didn't talk about the serious stuff that people tune into the show for, like the hard-hitting news and re- We don't know what they tune in for because we haven't, they haven't finished- That's true...

35:26the survey. That's a good point. But we think they tune- We can talk about whatever we want... what they, what I wish they would tune in for, which is the hard-hitting reactions we have to the news of the day and what's going on- Yeah... in the Jewish world. Let's... Do you wanna talk about- Where do you wanna go? ... ra- raping dogs- Oh, God. I hate... or Mayor Mamdani's Shavuot celebration and J Street- Oh, boy... or, and/or, um, the Israeli ambassador, who I actually really like, uh, calling J Street a, a cancer in Jewish American society? Go, pick one. Uh, let's start there. Okay. That's, um, yeah. W- what...

36:05This is such a complicated issue, um, this whole Mamdani's Shavuot party, which led, I think, to that comment by the ambassador, correct? Yeah. Okay. So the mayor is hosting, uh, or hosted- Hosted... he hosted- Yeah... an event at Gracie Mansion, um, in honor of Shavuot, and he invited, you know, all the leadership of the Jewish community and other big people. And there was a huge backlash from-... many Jews who said, "How can anyone go to Mamdani's event?" Like, how could we? In a moment where he's, like, just he's so anti-Israel, and I, I dare say, not a lover of the Jewish people. [laughs] Not a fan.

36:48I mean, I'm gonna just, I'm not, I'm just gonna say that, right? Not a fan. And it just feels gross for Jews to, like, go and, you know, kiss his ass, right? In Yiddish- Yeah... we have a, a phrase, tuchas lechers, like a ass licker. [laughs] I think you don't need to understand Yiddish to know what that means. Yeah. It, it's just the grossness of, like, going there, and I get all the arguments that he's the mayor and we have to, like, play ball with him, and we have to deal with him, and, you know, it helps the community in, in the long run.

37:17I get, I get all that. You don't need to send me your comments if that's what you wanna tell me, 'cause I know. No. I get it. Not gonna happen. I'm an Orthodox Jew. We are very pragmatic. But this feels different to me. This is not a mayor who, like, we have moral questions about, right? Or that we don't like his personality, or he, we don't even like his policy in some cases. Mamdani is just different. He, the way he approaches- He is obsessed-... is, he's obsessed with it... with Israel. Obsessed.

37:44I mean, what he wrote on, on, on the other day about the Nakba, I mean, all of this stuff, like, this is what he did his wh- whole... This is- Yeah, and he says it... who he is was built on this. He says it. And- Correct ... I, uh, and it's important to note that the Jewish Federation of New York, which is not an organization known for their strong political stance, in fact, it's probably one of the organizations that we might criticize for being, trying to be too both sides of every issue, they actually put out a statement that they're not going, and I have a lot of respect for them.

38:15Yeah, yeah. Because I don't think this man should be normalized. Right. I get that he's the mayor. Right. If he, you know- And if we do business with him, we have to do business... if somebody comes to arrest me or tells me- Right... to put out my recycling, I won't say no because- Right... I don't support the mayor. Right. But I don't think we need to normalize him trying to... It, it's Jew washing, basically. Yeah, exactly. And, and I wanna read to you, because, you know, s- the organizations that did go is, of course, Jewish Voices for Peace, which is an organization that- That hates Israel.

38:46Let's just say it... proudly, I don't care they hate Israel. They proudly support terrorists. Yes, exactly. And it's, just go to their Instagram and say. Here's their tweet. Okay. Ready? "We are proud to have sponsored last night's Jewish Heritage Month." That in itself, by the way, is a reason to boycott. Yeah. Because Jewish Voices for Peace- Yeah... which is neither Jewish nor for peace- It's sick... and maybe has a voice. Sick. Um, they sponsored the event, and then they're saying... This is a tweet, so you only have 240 characters, right? It's very short, 280.

39:16"We're especially proud of NYC Mayor for uplifting the voices of Pal- Palestinians this past Nakba Day with an incredibly moving video of a Nakba survivor." Wow. How fucking stupid- I know... do you have to be- I know... that this is what you're tweeting about, on a tweet about a celebration of the Jewish people? The Jews. Yeah. I, I... exactly. That says it all. That sums the whole thing up. I mean, it, it's- How could we agree to that? It's wickedness. How could we walk in there and sit with these people? It's wickedness. I mean, these are not... I know. And this is not about... And, and that takes me to J Street, because I have very...

39:51J Street, if people don't know, it's kind of the, it wa- it was founded as an alternative to APAC, and it's, they, they call themselves a left-wing Zionist organization. Yeah. Now, in theory, much respect, okay? No problem, be left wing, criticize the government, as long as... You and I have talked about this so many times. As long as you're doing it from a place of love of Israel. And, and they say, you know, Jeremy Ben-Ami, the, the, the director or founder, he will constantly say, "I love Israel. That's why I'm doing this." Mm-hmm. But again, it, the company you keep and the priorities are very, like... You know, wake up, Jeremy. Right, right. Like, wake up.

40:35I looked at, 'cause I wanted to be informed before I talk about this, 'cause I don't like when people pile on. Sometimes people, we ha- we had a discussion in one of our chats, and people piled on a reform female rabbi, who I will not name, and I was like, "Enough." I- if she is a, a Zionist and she supports Israel, I don't care that she is, has pronouns in her bio or things that we might not like. But when are you crossing that line into being a fig leaf for our enemies?

41:06And when I say enemies- Mm... I say people who would like us dead. Yeah. Okay? So- Of course, the poor people who would kill us in a second. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so I, I don't, no, not, that's not saying political enemies. So I went to J Street Substack and I, 'cause I Googled, you know, what have they said about Mamdani. Right. So first of all, I went to their Twitter. I did a search, Mamdani. There were, like, four posts this whole time about Mamdani, and they're all about Islamophobia. Mm-hmm. All right? Yeah. And then I went to- Rats...

41:35Jeremy Ben-Ami's Substack and he wrote out a, this was the day after the election, I think. He wrote out a, a thoughtful Substack. And he said, and I will respect him for this, he said, "Look, I don't agree with him about BDS. I don't agree with him about Intifada." But Islamophobia, Islamophobia, Islamophobia. Why can you not be left wing, but also know when to draw the line? Yeah. It will... A- a- somebody who is sort of left leaning in some of my politics, it would make my life a whole lot easier, and it would lend you so much more credibility. Mm-hmm. You can be against the war in Gaza in its current form without advocating to end all military aid to Israel. Yeah. Okay?

42:24Or if you do advocate for ending all military aid to Israel, and, and again, I'll say in J Street's defense, they, they're not advocating against all military aid. They're advocating against weapons. They're not advocating, they say, "We don't advocate against Iron Dome." Oh, that's so sweet of them Yeah. Thank you. How sweet. Um, you can, [laughs] you can get protected, but you can't fight back. Yeah, that's so sweet. But I'm looking, I swear, I want... I would love to be wrong about this.

42:50I would love for a progressive Jewish organization that is, you know, anti-Netanyahu and thinks that the war has too many casualties and doesn't like the Iran war, all things that I might disagree with, I would love to have them have a serious seat at the table, but they always go into the dark side of not speaking up against, they haven't said anything about Hassan Piker, they don't speak out against their own side. They- Do they criticize Hezbollah for launching missiles in Northern Israel at civilians all day? Do they criticize... I mean, they don't. I think so. I think so. No, they don't. But it's not a priority. They don't.

43:29It's not. When asked. Yeah, I promise you. When asked. I promise you. Mm-hmm. If they were using their social media and their Substacks and they were defending Jews and defending Israelis and they were, you know, cr- calling out the terrorist organizations and calling out our enemies, and then also calling out BB and calling out all this- Yeah... and calling out that, fine, legit, I don't care. Yeah. But they don't, so shut up. Not interested in you. Yeah, they, they don't. Not interested in you people. It's not why they were founded. It's not their priority.

43:56No, not interested in these people. And it's, all they're doing is, is Jew washing. Yeah, it's nonsense. That's all they're doing at the end of the day. So people can point to them and say, "See? Even they're against military aid to Israel." Nonsense. Even they support Mamdani. Nope. And look, and look what happened to them. Uh, a college campus, Bowdoin maybe? I don't know, one of the college campuses, uh, voted to not allow a J Street chapter. Oh, great. And I'm like, you can never be... If you think the conversation about Israel is between people who like Israel and people who are okay with Israel but don't like the war, you are living in 1997, my friends. No, of course. We have moved way beyond that.

44:42We are currently having a conversation, I don't know if call a conversation, with people who do not think we have the right to exist. That's right. And they say so loudly, and they say so proudly, and their elected mayor of New York. Yeah. So- Yep... get with the times. And they erase Jewish history, and they lie about history, and they lie about facts. It's, it's very simple. I, I say that as somebody who was... A- and this is difficult for me, because I was in that position. Mm-hmm.

45:04I also thought that we were having a different conversation, but the conversation changed. And these people are not your friends. No. They're not. They are not your friends. Jewish Voices for Peace are not your friends. Mamdani is not your friend. Hassan Piker is not your friend. No, he's not not your friend, he's your enemy. Yes. Hassan Piker is your enemy. Yes. Okay? You could ignore someone who's not your friend. I don't care, you know? And he's not even hot. Rosie O'Donnell- I don't know why people keep saying he's hot. He looks like an oaf. Ugh. Rosie O'Donnell is not my friend. I could ignore her till the day I die.

45:36I do not care. Okay? Hassan Piker is my enemy, and I'm gonna say that. He is an enemy of myself, my children, and my community. I have n- there is nothing... When you put him on the cover of a magazine, or you put him in the newspaper, or you bring him on your podcast, you are platforming someone who hates me. Okay? They are my enemy. And says so. And says so. And says so. He's not, like, secret about it. So don't... I'm sick of this nonsense. I'm sick of dancing around this business. Mamdani too. Mamdani, d- d- what? Because he's a good politician, he has a nice smile, and he laughs?

46:09Okay, he laughs, ha-ha, he's so cute? I do not care. He does not like me. He hates me. He hates my brothers and sisters. He hates my people. I, I'm, I'm sorry. And if you want to sit here and say, "No, you're putting words in his mouth," you know what? Grow up. Grow up. We were not born yesterday. The Jewish people were not born yesterday. We weren't even born on October 7th. We have a very long history, thousands of years, where we have dealt with the same kind of people. Don't give me a story, "Oh, you're putting words in his mouth. That's not what he meant." Shut up. Okay? Shut up.

46:41He meant it exactly the way he said it on the day after October 7th, when he was standing outside of Columbia, ranting and raving about Israel. Yeah. He meant it then. You know how I know? Outside of Chu- Because he meant it... arrested outside of Chuck Schumer's house. Exactly. Who's now buddy-buddy with him. Exactly. You know how I know? Shame on Chuck Schumer. Because he meant it. He meant it then, and he means it now. Now he's a fake politician. And all these Jews running around. You know what? I want to call out my Haredi brothers and sisters. Okay? All of them running there.

47:07I know what they're about. I know why they're going there. I'm ashamed of it. They're deal makers. I'm ashamed of it. They're going there 'cause they want money. They know what they need for their community. Of course. And I understand. They're playing a game. They get it. They need to make deals with the politicians. They need the, they need programs. They need all the things that they need in their community. So they make a deal with the devil, and that is what they're doing there. But it makes me nauseous. And someone posted- Who is the rabbi...

47:29[laughs] Someone posted on social media, a few people I saw post this, and it really, oh, did it, it hit me hard. This hit me very hard. Someone said this reminds them of the Purim feast, when, in the s- beginning of the Book of Esther, when the Jews were living in Persia, Ahasuerus made a big feast for the, the- Wait, I thought we liked Ahasuerus. Not... Listen to the story. Okay. In the beginning, Ahasuerus, who was the king over 127 provinces, he invites everybody to a big feast in his palace in Shushan, and the Jews go, even though Mordecai told them not to go. Right?

48:02They were not supposed to be there. You're Mordecai in this story? Yes. I am Mordecai. Okay. Does that make me Esther? No. In your dreams. Okay. Can I be Vashti? She was pretty cool. No. Ew, no. Okay. Okay. I know now she's getting a whole feminist rebrand, but no. [laughs] She was not a good person. Um, y- you could be Esther, fine. No, this was as if Haman had a party, okay? That's... No, but, no, but this is the same thing as the J- no, 'cause Aha- this actually works perfectly. Because it was at that feast, right, that all the things started to unravel for the Jews, right?

48:31That's when Ahasuerus wanted his wife to come dance, and then she said no. And then he kills her, and then he needs a new wife. And Ha- Haman sees her, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I mean, the whole thing starts from that feast, and the Jews should never have gone. And it felt, when I was watching and seeing the pictures of the Jews sitting in Mamdani's room, uh, pl- ha- ha- smiling and laughing with him, it makes me nauseous. It reminds me of the story of Purim. What are we doing?

48:52Why can't we stand up for ourselves? I want- Why can't we stand up for ourselves? I don't understand it. I want the people-... who kn- who went there to know one thing. I know they don't listen to us, but maybe there are people in their community that do. The, the Haredi ones specifically, because they're the visibly Jewish ones. I want you to know one thing. Your photo is now being spread across social media by antisemites- But of course... to justify every single hateful thing this man has said. Yeah. So, congratulations. And by the way, I wanna make one thing clear.

49:23Mamdani is now a polished politician. He's gonna go around, he's gonna smile, he's gonna put out tweets about antisemitism, and happy Rosh Hashanah, and happy Yom Kippur, and happy Hanukkah, and, "Oh, he's such a nice guy." All you have to do is look at the people who he surrounds himself with, okay? Look at his wife. Who... Look at his wife, look at his advisors, look at the people he puts into positions. This is not our friend. Enough. Our friend- He's our, he's not our friend... our, our friend, I'd like to call her a friend, our, uh, former guest, Olivia Rheingold, has been putting out- Yeah...

49:55uh, from the Free Press, has been putting out a lot of stuff recently about, um, his wife's Spotify playlists, and her Instagram likes, and really vile, hateful stuff. And I see the comments on the posts, and they're comments from lefties being like, "Oh, big deal, blah, blah, blah." Mind you, these are the same people who told us that if you like a tweet by JK Rowling in 2020- Yeah... you are an enemy of the people. Yeah. But her liking tweets celebrating October 7th, like, where do you draw the line?

50:29Chaya, would you go to Shabbat dinner, or any dinner at somebody's house, if you knew, even if it was the loveliest guy in the world, let's say he's your boss's boss, okay? Yeah. And you're like, "Oh, his wife, by the way, big fan of October 7th. Huge fan." Would you go to dinner? I wouldn't, I wouldn't go on the 405 freeway in the direction that the guy lives in. [laughs] I wouldn't go even on the exit that the guy lives in. No, of course not. You know why? Because I have dignity. I have dignity. And you know what? I'm proud to be a Jew.

50:58I don't feel ashamed, I don't feel bad about anything, I don't feel guilty about anything, I feel proud of who we are. Yes, there are people who do bad things that are Jewish. There are things that, do I love everything the government does? Of course not. But I am so proud- You love Jeffrey Epstein. You don't... I am so proud to be a Jew, and I am not ashamed, and I don't feel guilty about anything. So I don't feel the need to have to act like this. Uh, people who act like this have something inside of them that's sick.

51:25They feel, uh, a- and I'm, I'm excluding the Haredim, 'cause they are, it's a very, the or- That's a very different problem. I, I wanna exclude that. I'm talking about liberal progressives who are trying to build bridges. And by the way, I would say the same thing if Mamdani was a far right person who would love Tucker Carlson, and who was sitting with Candace Owens, and was inviting, uh, January 6th people or whatever. I, whatever. You know? And the Auschwitz guy, with the T-shirt from Auschwitz. Okay, if those were his friends- Whatever happened to him? Right?

51:52No, if a may- if the mayor of New York retweeted the Camp Auschwitz T-shirt and said, "Oh, I love that T-shirt, where could I buy?" I would say the same thing. I would never walk into that place. I would never deal with him, unless I had to with business. I would not go to a Shavuot party put on by Tucker Carlson. Where's our dignity? Which, by the way- Where is our dignity? W- the Shavuot party is, that is meant to show how much he loves Jews. Yeah, how much he loves us. I wish Jewish- I wish Tucker Carlson would make one... uh, Jewish Voices for Peace are a cancer in our society. They are.

52:19I've seen- They are... you wanna do something really sad? Don't do this. Go on Instagram, go to Jewish Voices for Peace, and see how many people you know follow them- Yeah... that aren't Jewish. I know. It's disgusting. It's not great. Because, uh, call you yourself what you are. It's not great. You're not Jewish, and you're not for peace. It's not great. You celebrate terrorism, you walk hand-in-hand, link arms, with people like Mahmoud Khalil, who would like you dead, and just- Oh, Mahmoud Khalil, his life is so hard now. Please... have, you know what?

52:48According to The New Yorker. These people should have some dignity too. Yeah. Because if that's what you believe in, at least be proud of it. Don't, don't try to tell us- Yeah... "Oh, but we're Jewish, and we wanna, we're here for economic justice, and we want... Look here, we're, we're celebrating Passover, look at our Seder plate." No, just be who you are. Yeah. Be like, "You know what? We're Jewish, but we also believe that every single person in Israel should be dead." Okay. At least I know who I'm talking to. Or that Israel shouldn't exist to begin with. That's the same thing.

53:17I just, I'm so sick of it. I'm so sick of it. You wanna talk more about Eurovision? No. [laughs] I listened to a whole podcast about something that I don't know anything about, okay? It was some showrunner for a show. I don't know how it came, it just like started on my Apple playlist, whatever. And you know why I didn't turn it off? 'Cause it wasn't about politics, it wasn't about Israel, it wasn't about Jews, it wasn't about the... It was just like something totally, I didn't listen really, 'cause I had no patience. Yeah. Actually, Russ Roberts, who I love, from EconTalk- Oh, I love Russ Roberts...

53:48he had an episode this week that was titled Tom Cruise's, uh- I saw that... Tom Cruise's, uh- Also a former guest on the pod. Yes... Russ Roberts, not Tom Cruise. And I love him. But I, I was like, "Oh, thank God, I just wanna talk about Tom Cruise. I can't even..." But then you start talking about Tom Cruise, and this is what happens to me. Is he a Scientologist? What's Scientology? Why are there Scientologists? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I just, everything is too much. I love Tom Cruise. He's the best. I know. That's why you need to watch 90 Day Fiance, it will take your mind off things.

54:13Like- Tom Cruise is pretty good-looking still. He's amazing. But he's probably a wacko. Yeah, who isn't? I'm guessing he's a... You know? Did you see the Jackson movie? Would you see it, or the Michael Jackson- No, I would see it. Um, it, here's another, here's another interesting thing about, maybe I'll write a column about this. The Michael Jackson movie, um, has broken all records. Really? Despite the fact that everybody you and I know, not everybody, but says that they will never watch it. Why? Because we live in a fricking bubble. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

54:45MJ The Musical, on Broadway, which is fantastic, highly recommend it, um, is one of the few, one of three if I'm not mistaken, post, I was about to say post-October 7th. Yeah. Post-COVID... m- uh, Broadway shows that actually made money. Yeah. People love Michael Jackson. Yeah. Black people love Michael Jackson. Mm-hmm. And that's a lot of people. And white people love Michael Jackson [laughs]. What? And white people- Yeah... love Michael Jackson. No, I, I say Black people because, uh, when I, when I've seen the show, and I've seen it three times, um, it, the audience was... it's very visibly- Yeah...

55:20a Black audience. Well, I went to see the Michael Jackson Cirque du Soleil in Vegas la- a few months ago. Yeah. And I loved it. I'm sure that'd be fantastic. So people love Michael Jackson. You can think whatever you want about... You can say mor- listen, if you morally don't wanna go watch it, n- no shade from me. Yeah. I, I completely get that, even though I don't really know. I was talking about this with- But I believe all the allegations, but- I was talking about this with someone, and I was trying to analyze why I don't feel as angry about him. I don't know.

55:47I, I feel like he was really not a well person. Mentally and emotionally, he was really stunted and weird. Oh, I think I know why. And I also... I have a... I watched all the documentaries about him, and, like, the ones, like, where the kids came forward and talked about the, whatever their relationships were. And I had such an anger at the parents of those kids because those parents, I hate to say it, they sold their kids for that. Like, they knew what was going on.

56:15Michael Jackson was calling their houses every night and talking to their teenage son for hours on end. Like, I- I'm a mother of boys. Like, I'd be like, "Uh, we're gonna have to stop this." But what if it was Tom Brady calling, like, Shmuly? I would want to believe that even I would be like, there's no reason Tom Brady is calling Shmuly Safran or any of my kids [laughs] every night. What if Tom Brady says, "I really want you and Shmuly to come to my, my house." [laughs] I mean, if he wants to come- For, for the night... me, if I'm there... Yeah, I'll even make a kosher meal for you. [laughs] No.

56:50Um- I mean, again, like, what, what is going on here? No, but I think I have an easier explanation. I wouldn't leave Shmuly alone. I wouldn't leave Shmuly alone. I think, I think I have an easier explanation for why you like him- Oh... and I like him, and the sa- for the same reason I like Roald Dahl. I think because we grew up on it. I think I liked him, and Roald Dahl- Yeah... as well, and I developed my feelings towards them and their work- Yeah... before I knew about any of this stuff. Yeah, I can tell. And it's kind of hard to go backwards, you know? Yeah. Yeah, I think you're right.

57:18See, I don't care about Roald Dahl. I couldn't care less about him. About the good stuff or the bad stuff? No, the good. Like, I don't c- I wouldn't buy his books. I wouldn't give it to my kids. Like, I wouldn't- Oh, I love his books so much. I know, but I, now I wouldn't. Like, to my fu- But-... grandchildren, I don't wanna have, I don't want his books in my house... the Broadway show that I went to watch, Giant, with John Lithgow, who's- Yeah, how is it?... lovely. Everybody was raving about it.

57:42Um, a- and I waited till the right people raved about it because I'm a bit of a snowflake, and I didn't want to be triggered. The whole show is about, like, is anti-Semitism anti-Zionism, and it's, it's about- Oh... the '80s. And they're talking about killing chil- like, he's like, "They kill the children," you know. It's very- Oh, wow. Mm-hmm. Let me tell you- Mm... it, it, it's like this podcast but not funny. If you wanna go- [laughs]... you know, pay $250 to, to watch- Oh, no... this podcast but not funny, uh, then you can do that. You know how I know that everything is insane, and that, like, it just...

58:19[foreign language] everything is nothing, you know. It's just- Yeah... nothingness. When I see Hunter Biden on Candace Owens' podcast talking, today, talking about whatever nonsense he's talking about, even I, I saw a clip that he's saying something about Israel. Like, just, great. Keep going. Keep doing it, Candace. Yeah. You keep inviting people like Hunter Biden, okay? Tucker, you keep inviting the biggest freaks on planet Earth to talk. Like, just go. I, I love it. But it's just not winning us.

58:49I, no, me too. I, I like it too. It's all evil. I like when they... Uh, you know, Candace Owens showing her true colors. Tucker Carlson- Oh my God... showing their true colors. At least they do that. I'd take them over Jewish Voices for Peace any day. You know why? Because none of my friends follow Tucker Carlson. Like, no, no, he's just- Yeah... a really normal guy. The, even the- Right... people who like him, they know he's batshit crazy. Yeah, you're right. And that's a choice they made. You're right. You know? You're right.

59:11It's gonna be interesting to see what happens with the elections and who, you know, which, this Graham Platner guy in Maine, and how far left- Oh, I thought you were talking about the elections in Israel. No, well, that's also gonna be interesting, but, like, the elections here, too. How far left and right are we gonna go in this country? Mm. And how- Yep... how... I, I, I'm just, it's, it's really some- it's scary. I mean, it's, it's- It's scary, and, and- I'm hopeful, but it's scary... and I have yet to find... Just something, do a little mental exercise for yourself. Show me one, like, aggressively anti-Israel candidate who also hasn't sen- said or done something that is anti-Semitic. Yeah, exactly. Show me one. Right. Show me one. Right.

59:55You know, Rahm Emanuel, he spoke out against the military aid to Israel. It, that's the closest, but I don't, I don't think... Obviously, he's not anti-Semitic. He's a Zionist, and he's a really big friend of Israel. I believe that. But you'll never find that kind of, like, you know what? I really support Israel. I support their... Everyone's like, "I support Israel's right to exist." Gee, thank you. I mean, that's a demo- Uh, but also I'll take photos with Hasan Piker, and I'll, you know, talk about the Nakba, and I'll share lies about, like, r- rape, dog raping. I'm gonna say something. I'm never ever gonna forget or forgive these places and people who ha- who, who normalized people like Hasan Piker- Yeah... or this story about dog raping or any of these things. I'm never gonna get over it.

1:00:45People tell me, "Oh, the New York Times, it's so complicated," and I get it. I understand that for certain people, and I have very, very, very good friends, and by the way, I read The New York Times when I- And I still play Wordle. I play Wordle every day. Pe- yeah, the games are good. No, but I get people, right? If you, if this is the world that you live in- I don't know why, why Wordle word today was Nakba, but... Yeah. [laughs] No, I understand.

1:01:03If this is the world you live in, and The New York Times is, for some people, this is their Bible, I understand. But- I'll never forget it. There is nothing that I will ever read in The New York Times from this moment, I mean, from when this happened, I mean, it happened a long time ago for me, but that I will trust again. I will not trust it. I will not take it seriously, and I will not trust it. They are dead to me, The New York Times. I, I will say one thing. They, they do not cover things fairly, and I, I'm not interested in them. That's it.

1:01:28I will, I will say one thing, and this is not a defense of The New York Times. This is, this is gonna make them sound worse, but also potentially cheer people up. They've always been this fucking stupid. Yeah, exactly. And bef- in the '60s, if you look at, like, you know, terrorist organizations around the world and supporting, you know, uh, the Viet Cong or whatnot, uh, they've always been like this, except now it's about us, and we're much smaller, and people are actively trying to kill us, so please stop. That's right. Look, people ask me, "What should we do? What should we do?"

1:02:02You know what you can do? I, I just thought of this. Fill out our survey, first of all. [laughs] Fill out our survey. [laughs] That will help the Jewish people tremendously. I mean, it will help two Jewish people, yeah. Yeah. Um, fill out our survey, but really start reading books, honestly. Find books on history, on Zionism, on the establishment of the State of Israel, on Jewish history. Find books and read them. Read summaries of them if you can't read a whole book. Find different things. Listen to Rutger Gore. Listen- Just, just-... to Dan Senor... get yourself knowledgeable. Figure things out yourself.

1:02:33Understand the history and the story. Oren Kessler wrote a great book, The Palestine 1936. Read that book. How have we not had Oren on yet? I don't know. We had him on education. Oh, okay. You could listen to that episode if you don't wanna read a book. Um, just try your best to educate yourself and learn the history. It's the same thing. You know what? I re- I listened to four episodes, I think I mentioned it before, so I'm sorry, but I listened to a four-part series from The Rest is History on the KKK. Mm.

1:02:59You know, I had all these opinions about racism and the KKK, and until I listened to that four-part series and really got the whole kind of narrative of what happened and what was going on in the United States and a, and a thorough really telling of the story, now, now I can talk about it much more- Now you're pro-KKK. [laughs] No, God forbid, [laughs] no. But now I really understand, by the way, a lot more about what the Black community went through and why we have s- the big issues that we have even till today about racism.

1:03:25I mean, you just get... You just educate yourself. Yeah. Do yourself a favor and read books, honestly. You know, my- It makes a big difference. This is a weird thing to kinda drop in right as we need to go, because I need to go to a- Oh, yeah... a free press event with Neil Ferguson that- That's nice... I paid so much money for that I better be sitting in his lap. Invite him on the pod. Yeah. Um, I once, when I lived, when I went to Harvard- Yes... he once worked out next to me at the gym. He did? Oh.

1:03:52Uh, that's my n- that's my Neil Ferguson story. [laughs] Um, no, but we can pick this up at a different time, but I, I also, uh, my opinion about racism and post-George Floyd has changed a bit since October 7th because I think, in a lot of ways, I was more dismissive of it. Mm-hmm. And now that it's happening to me in a way, I can- Mm. Uh, I, I think it, it just, I don't know how to put this- Interesting... in words exactly, but I think I just have a better understanding of people's sensitivities and, you know, people's insecurities about how they present themselves to the world.

1:04:32Oh, that's a very interesting point. Yeah. Anyway, it's fun having podcasts. Thank you. Um, the, [laughs] on, on education we just did an- Like and subscribe... we just did an episode on books. Jay, like, is a nerd and likes to read a lot, so he talked all about books. Nerd. Of course, I'm like, "Read The Bronze Horseman, the best romance story ever." Mm. Love story. It's a b- my favorite book. Anyway, but one of the things I said, and just, I'm just ending with a little quick anecdote about podcasting, I don't realize that people actually listen to this, right? Like, I have these conversations- [laughs]...

1:05:02you, I have these conversations with Jay and my father, right? [laughs] And I just think they go somewhere and, you know, they're just like a phone call. Yeah. But I mentioned on that last episode [laughs] that I don't understand Shakespeare. Like, you can give me a book, if you put a gun to my head right now and gave me King Lear and asked me to explain it to you, I couldn't. I don't understand Shakespeare. Oh, yeah, no, of course not. It's like... Right? Yeah.

1:05:21So a listener, which is very sweet, and I really appreciate it, I know he listens to this, uh, podcast also, he [laughs] wrote to me and he said, "Maybe you should start with the sonnets." And [laughs] I'm like, "Oh my God," I'm like, "I'm, like, disabled." Like, I can't... He's suggesting that I start with these small paragraphs. [laughs] Why not? Uh, first of all, Shakespeare is really hard. He invented, I think I read once- It's so hard... that he invented, like, every 10th word. No. So imagine reading Shakespeare back in the day, you're like, "What is a bedroom?" Yeah. Like, he invented that word.

1:05:51[laughs] You know? But I- Oh, boy... I did wanna say, and that's why I was looking at my phone, because our, some listeners recommended this, and I really forget where. Mm-hmm. So I apologize, but some people recommended this book, and they were like, "Oh my God, it's amazing. You won't wanna put it down." And it didn't sound that interesting, and I'm, like, 10 pages in- Oh... and I'm like, "Can't wait to get back to bed and read it." What book? It's called Dead in the Water: A True Story of Hijacking, Murder, and Global Maritime Conspiracy. Wow. And it's about shipping.

1:06:20It was based on our, on our- Oh... wonderful episode with Sal, uh- Yeah... which you should listen to if you haven't. Oh, yeah. But whoever recommended that, thank you. It's really good. I'm enjoying it. Okay. Well- Okay, I'm gonna go sit in Neil Ferguson's lap. Thank you, everyone. There better be food at this thing, Barry Weiss, or I'm coming for you. No, you should f- Uber Eats food if they don't have, to the event. Yeah, exactly. Bye. All right, bye.

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