Episodes
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Alexander Shabbos Kestenbaum is a religious American Jewish activist. Until not long ago, he was a Harvard Divinity School student and that’s evolved since October to where he’s suing Harvard University in a landmark case that alleges Harvard failed to protect Jewish students from antisemitism.
While at Harvard he founded and was President of the Harvard Divinity School Jewish Student Association and active member of both Harvard Chabad and Harvard Hillel. He didn’t just become a campus leader and a Jewish activist on October 8th.
Like many of us, Shabbos is on the frontline of the fight for Israel right now especially for Jewish students, but really all Jewish Americans, with one of the world’s most prestigious universities.
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Ella Kenan is an Israeli digital marketing professional and content creator specializing in travel. She runs a well known travel blog for Israelis, but since October 7, Ella has been actively engaged online in the information war, focusing on the Israel Gaza conflict and the broader scope of psyops against Israel, involving Iran, Russia, Qatar and other bad actors.
As Ella sees it, these misinformation and disinformation efforts pose a significant threat to life in the West as we know it. She sees Israel serving as the first domino in a much larger global picture, and she fights the good fight every day for Israel and her allies. She's amassed hundreds of millions of views, and in December 2021 Ella, alongside other figures, was given the honor of lighting a torch at Israel’s national Independence Day ceremony by the Israeli Foreign Ministry. The honorees at the ceremony came from various fields where they represented Israel in the world by excelling in their professional arena, alongside activity for Israel's image in the media and on social networks.
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Abraham Hamra is that loud and proud Syrian Jew. But you know that already, don’t you?
Born in Damascus Syria, he emigrated with his family to the US after 1992 because prior to that Jewish families were not allowed to leave Syria all together.
Abraham has a superpower. He’s fluent in English, Arabic, and Hebrew. His social media posts in Arabic are impactful and just what the doctor ordered in taking on the lies of radical Islamists and their supporters.
He’s also a shareholder and the chief growth officer of Cohen Tucker and Ades, PC, a leading national immigration firm.
Since October 7th, Abraham has taken an active role in combating the type of antisemitism we have seen take the United States by storm. When I say Abraham takes an “active” role, I mean in your face, going toe to toe with anti-Israel protesters and the haters.
He also supports victims of antisemitism and makes videos fighting misinformation about Israel and Jews.
You will find him fighting back against Jew haters on social media. He also organized rallies and protests and regularly gives speeches sharing his experience as a Syrian refugee.
Brash, unapologetic, in your face, Abraham challenges the liberal notion that all Jews are white and he celebrates the true diversity of the Jewish People just by speaking up.
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Resilience expert Deborah Gilboa, MD, aka “Dr. G” works with families, organizations, and businesses to identify the mindset and strategies to turn stress to an advantage. Renowned for her contagious humor, Dr. G works with groups across multiple generations, to rewire their attitudes and beliefs, and create resilience through personal accountability and a completely different approach to adversity. She is a leading media personality seen regularly on TODAY, Good Morning America and The Doctors. She is also featured frequently in the Washington Post, The New York Times, Authority Magazine, and countless other digital and print outlets.Dr. G is board certified attending family physician and is fluent in American Sign Language. She lives in Pittsburgh with her four sons.
Follow her here:
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Michelle Ahdoot is Director of Programming and Strategy at End Jew Hatred, a non-partisan international grassroots civil rights movement that unites ordinary people, activists, and organizations from around the world who support the cause that defines the movement: to end Jew-hatred in our lifetime. Comprised of members from all paths and walks of life, EJH’s mission is embedded in upholding the rights of Jews worldwide through strategic partnerships, mobilization and activism. Before joining EJH, Michelle served as a board member and advisor to Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces, helping to create and market the FIDF Women’s Brigade. For the past eight years she has also served as the Master of Ceremonies at FIDF’s Annual North Shore Gala. With a strong belief that parent/teacher/administrator partnerships lie at the core of a strong community’s bedrock, Michelle served as President of Great Neck Public School’s United Parent-Teacher Council and led eight joint committees which enhance student education and quality of life across the district’s ten schools. Michelle holds a B.S. in Finance and Marketing from NYU Stern School of Business.
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JopauL is a hip-hop legend, with 20 years in the game, straight outta Staten Island, NY. After making waves in the Hip Hop scene, he took his skills to JP Morgan, getting the lowdown on the corporate hustle. He's a master of reinvention, now living at the crossroads of music, business, and influence.
JopauL runs the Verified Podcast, where he shares life-changing stories from unconventional folks. His raw, no-holds-barred style keeps it real, and he's never afraid to call out the BS. Fans love him for his music, his big personality, and his knack for rolling with life's punches. These days, JoPaul is dedicating his all to defending the Jewish People on Instagram, where his relentless energy and unfiltered honesty keep everyone hooked.
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Matan Peretz is the f**king sh*t.
He’s an Israeli standup comedian and content creator, who recently gained a lot of exposure due to his Hasbara videos during his reserve service in Hebron. That’s how I first got wind of him and he blew me away with his rhetoric.
Matan is hilarious, he’s a nice guy, he’s modest, he’s the real deal. There’s a reason nearly 200,000 people follow him on Instagram.
He’s a reserve soldier in the IDF, was on the front since early in October 7th, he knows what’s going on, he speaks first hand about what’s going on in Israel and he’s in it for the right reasons. Completely unapologetic, he takes the fight to the haters and is fearless in responding to their lies and obfuscations.
He’s is a truth seeker, he’s a truth teller and he gets attention online with his approach. And he’s funny about very unfunny subjects. He’s also funny about funny subjects and talks about a lot of stuff in his sell-out shows across Israel where he’s incredibly successful.
Matan speaks great English, he’s 100% proud to be Israeli and he’s someone I want you to know about and pay attention to. Please listen to our conversation and if you haven’t already, please follow him here.
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What most people know about Yechiel Jacobs is how he makes so many people cry with laughter on Instagram about some serious Jewish subjects. He's only 23 years old, he's fearless, funny as s**t, and his comedic star is rising as he captivates audiences on and offline with his one-of-a-kind approach.
He asks the tough questions and skewers the people promoting the lies and hypocrisy about Israel and the Jewish People, and he doesn’t stand for the craziness that’s running rampant today. He doesn’t hold back and has no fear when it comes to the haters. He just uses his unforgettable voice to get straight to the heart of any issue, break it down, and give his hilarious take on what’s really happening.
One of the things I love about Yehiel is his unique ability to use comedy so powerfully to spark conversations and awareness about what's happening to the Jewish People and in Israel. That voice, his physicality, and his fearlessness all combine with intense smarts and funny to make you laugh out loud about some very unfunny subjects. Follow him on Instagram and YouTube and TikTok -
Marnie Perlstein is an Australian antisemitism advocate.
Her first career was in communications and corporate and consumer PR but she then pivoted into her next one - Jewish education. She became the Marketing Manager at Mount Scopus College in Melbourne and then worked with the Board of Jewish Education in Sydney. She is a committed and passionate member of the Sydney Jewish community and has been working to connect organizations, individuals and programs in the common goal of fighting antisemitism since 2001.
Post October 7 she started talking online, accidentally growing from 1000 personal followers to over 40K new followers.
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Since October 7, Mia Talias has been fighting against the overwhelming so-called pro-Palestinian propaganda lies and misinformation on social media, in particular TikTok and Instagram. Mia tackles those who spread lies and false “facts” with her sass and wit, and her knowledge which is always backed by a lot of research. Her delivery is smart and funny all rolled into one. She truly is unique.
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Born in São Paolo, Brazil, Sandra Hegedüs studied philosophy and cinema at the prestigious Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado (FAAP). As a militant artist of the Paulist scene, she realized several performances in the early 80’s before arriving in France in 1990, where she started an activity as a documentary film and reportage producer. Her passion for art led her to build a collection of contemporary art in 2005. Her desire to be more involved in supporting artistic creation naturally drew her to patronage.
In 2009, she created SAM Art Projects, which aims to promote the work of foreign artists in France and French artists abroad through the awarding of a prize and residencies. In order to encourage exchange and dialogue, the supported projects bring together the Parisian art scene with countries beyond the usual circuits of the art world.
A passionate woman, as spontaneous as she is determined, Sandra Hegedüs belongs to a generation of activist collectors who have made their mark on the French landscape in recent years, creating daring philanthropic projects, nurturing the talents of tomorrow, and sponsoring ambitious projects that transcend borders. Like her collection, the artistic creations she supports do not respond to a concern for the market, but to an acute attention to new visions of the world that artists bring.
With her contagious energy and her ability to surround herself with faithful partners and experts, she manages to federate important financial and human resources to carry out artists’ projects, providing them with visibility and recognition.
In 2018, her commitment was rewarded with the 27th Mont Blanc Prize for Culture Art Patronage. The philanthropist was thus recognized for her work in supporting international artistic exchanges, building bridges between Europe and non-Western countries.
In 2020, she was named an Officer of the Legion of Honor by French Minister of Culture Franck Riester.
Since November 2019, she holds the position of President of the Board of Directors of the Villa Arson, a national public institution under the authority of the Minister of Culture, combining an art center, an artist residence, an art school, and a specialized library. -
Melinda Strauss, a Jewish Content Creator on social media with over 1 million followers on TikTok and Instagram, is well known for her educational videos about Orthodox Judaism, Jewish history, discussing Antisemitism and Zionism, kosher recipes, and sharing her everyday life as a wife, mom of 2 teenagers (and a dog), and both a type 1 diabetic and the mom of a type 1 diabetic. Born and raised in Seattle WA, Melinda now lives with her family in New York.
Melinda has been blogging and sharing her recipes since 2011 and she will be debuting her first cookbook in spring 2025. melindastrauss.com.
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Shai Davidai is an assistant professor at the Columbia Business School, where he teaches negotiations and studies economic inequality and zero-sum thinking. Shai was born and raised in Israel and lives in New York City with his wife and two kids.
Shortly after October 7th, as protests at Columbia University unabashedly celebrated the slaughter of Jews, Shai made a speech on campus that has gone viral on social media. Since then, he's been outspoken in documenting the growing antisemitism around the country and demanding that universities enforce their own rules and protect the Jewish and Israeli members of their community.
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Shemtov Hollinger is a reservist with the IDF Special Forces. He's 29 years old and in civilian life is a certified nurse. He currently works at a gaming tech company in account management. He was also a pro basketball player who played for a few Division 3 teams. He studied at Tel Aviv University, enjoys scuba diving, and has just finished a forth round of in reserve duty in the current war against Hamas.
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A native New Yorker, Dana is a writer and creative director working professionally in the field of advertising. He brings 25+ years of creative communication experience.
Dana’s work has been recognized by the One Show, the Andys, the Kelly Awards, the Obies, the Clios, the Effies, New York Festivals, Communication Arts, Lurzer’s Archive, and at Cannes. He has worked extensively in the automotive category, touching brands like Volkswagen, Mercedes Benz, Ford, and Lincoln, and has stretched far beyond that into categories including healthcare, finance, fashion, entertainment, apparel, sports, spirits, travel and tourism, and casual dining.
On the personal side, Dana has self-published the Go, Go, Greta children’s book series and in February 2012, he founded and ran TastySpace gallery and exhibition space in Las Vegas. In 2015, he relocated to Houston to be closer to family and more recently pulled up stakes and landed in Kansas City, where he is heading up several pieces of business, including Red Lobster and AMC Theatres at Barkley, as SVP, Creative Director.
He is married and the father of two incredible children who inspire him everyday.
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Ronny Vance, former president of Geffen music and Interscope music has over 40 years of experience in the music industry. The artists and writers he signed in that time have cumulative sales of over 200 million records. Built upon his uncanny knack for spotting songwriting, talent and superstar artists in all music genres, each of his endeavors has enjoyed unprecedented achievement.
Over the course of this career, Vance has been responsible for the signings of Tupac Shakur, New Edition, Stephen Sondheim, Bruce Hornsby, and Gwen Stefani and No Doubt and for the placement of such notable songs as Maniac, New Attitude, and Eric Clapton's two time 1998 Grammy winning song Change The World, among so many others.
He's also the president of My Part, a company that serves creators, owners and representatives of songs as well as anyone looking for songs to cut or license through AI-powered song matching an incredible company. He lives in Jerusalem in the heart of the Old City, with his wife and son.
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Lisa Coleman is a musician and composer who plays piano and keyboards and she was a member of Prince’s band 'The Revolution' from 1980 to 1986. She is one half of the incredible musical duo Wendy and Lisa, formed with Wendy Melvoin.
She was 19 years old when she auditioned and was hired as a part of Prince’s backing group in 1980, for his Dirty Mind album and tour. Lisa played keyboards for Prince on his Controversy and 1999 albums and the three albums as a member of The Revolution, which were Purple Rain, Around The World In a Day, and Parade.
Shortly after the completion of Prince and The Revolution’s Parade project, Lisa and Wendy started their own journey and under the Wendy and Lisa musical partnership. They released five full-length albums.
Today, Lisa and Wendy continue to work together as film and television composers and have provided the musical scores for television shows including Crossing Jordan, Heroes, Nurse Jackie (which won them an Emmy for Outstanding main title theme), Prime Suspect, No Tomorrow, Witches of East End, Shades of Blue, and Touch which they were nominated for an Emmy. She is currently working on a new show called The Hospital, an adult animated sci-fi comedy from Maya Rudolph and Natasha Lyonne’s Animal Pictures.
Lisa, along with Wendy also shares the honor of winning a Grammy and Oscar for being part of The Revolution as Purple Rain won two Grammys and the Oscar for Best Original Score. She also received the inaugural ASCAP Shirley Walker award with Wendy in 2014, which honors those whose achievements have contributed to the diversity of Film and Television Music.
She recently self-released her first solo instrumental album titled Collage. And incidentally, she also created the theme music for this, the music on my podcast.
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Shirley Halperin is Executive Editor of Music at Variety, where she spearheads music coverage for the print magazine and Variety.com. Through her 20-year career, she has held staff positions at Entertainment Weekly, Teen People and Us Weekly and was also a regular contributor to Rolling Stone. Shirley joined the Hollywood Reporter (THR) as Music Editor in 2010, later adding sister magazine Billboard to her resume. Until 2017, she oversaw music news coverage for both publications. Shirley is the author of three books: 2008’s “Pot Culture: The A-Z Guide to Stoner Language and Life,” 2010’s “Reefer Movie Madness” and 2011’s “American Idol: the Official Backstage Pass.”
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Oonie Chase has been working at the intersection of strategy and design for over 20 years, leading high-impact and award-winning teams at IDEO, Wieden+Kennedy, frog design, Digitas (where we met, worked together on a bunch of stuff, and became friends), and GMMB.
As a Partner at IDEO, she works across industries and markets - from media, technology, and consumer products, to financial services, health, and the public sector.
She specializes in complex challenges that span human, physical and digital systems.
Prior to joining IDEO, Oonie was the Executive Creative Director at frog design, leading the San Francisco headquarters as well as acting as a global practice lead of product strategy and applied data.
Oonie co-founded a design and technology practice at Wieden+Kennedy, built a digital strategy team for President Barack Obama’s communication team, and is the co-founder of two start-ups.
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As the founder of the Israeli-based "yes Studios" Stern created a distribution and development content powerhouse, focused on delivering premium content for international platforms.
She has been credited with helping bring Israeli content to global audiences and is responsible for the successful launches of numerous titles including “Fauda", "Shtisel", “The Devil Next Door” and “On the Spectrum”. In addition, Stern spearheaded the adaptation of Israeli formats in multiple territories including “Your Honor" (originally ‘Kvodo”) which has become one the bestselling scripted global formats of recent years; the multiple award winning series "On the Spectrum" (as Amazon Prime Video “As We See It”), “68 Whiskey” (Paramount +) , “The Good Cop” (Netflix) etc..
Stern is an international television veteran, having managed all aspects of programming, content acquisitions, channel creation and branding in her previous role at yesTV. Stern has been selected twice as one of Variety Magazine’s “top 500 global media leaders”.
She is a journalist by trade with extensive content development and production experience as well as acute business acumen. She holds a BA in English Literature from Tel-Aviv University and a MBA from Kellogg-Recanati.
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