It’s Yom HaZikaron again, Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terror. Since the start of the war, 1511 Israeli civilians and members of the armed forces have been killed. That's 1511 families who have joined the dreaded circle of grief and bereavement. 1511 families whose lives will never again be the same. Today, we share the story of one such family. A small family. One that was just starting off, really. Thirty-year-old Yuval Halivni was a reserve officer who was killed on October 9th. He left behind a wife, Amit Halivni Bar-Peled, who is a pastry chef and makes amazingly elaborate wedding cakes, and a little boy, Jon-Jon, who was less than two when his dad was killed.The end song is Hatishma Koli ("Hear My Voice") by Rivka Revivo. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Forty-seven-year-old Tzvika Mor is from the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba, near Hebron. His son, Eitan, was kidnapped from the Nova Festival, where he had been working as a security guard. In fact, Eitan was only kidnapped in the afternoon of October 7th, after spending nearly nine hours evacuating injured party-goers to safe locations nearby. During that whole time Eitan heroically returned to the festival grounds again and again, under fire, to save complete strangers. At around 15:30 he was himself taken by terrorists and driven into Gaza, where he’s remained ever since.  Tzvika, is an outlier among the families of the hostages. As campaigns across the country and throughout the world call upon the leaders of Israel and the Hamas to reach a deal that would release the hostages, Tzvika believes that the Israeli government should keep on fighting, and reject any offer that includes a ceasefire, even if it comes at the cost of his son’s freedom, perhaps even his life. He established a small group of like-minded relatives of hostages called Forum Tikvah, or the Hope Forum. They stress the importance of the nation and the state over the life of any individual, even if that individual happens to be your loved one. And in that, ironically, their right wing position echoes the left wing socialist and collectivist sentiments that were dominant in the early days of the state.The end song is Akedat Yitzchak ("The Binding of Isaac") by Naomi Shemer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next week, millions of Jews around the world will sit down at their Passover tables, for what will invariably be a very different kind of seder. The timeless question of how this night, or this Pesach, is different from all other nights, and all other Pesachs, has gained an entirely new - and tragic - dimension since October 7th. And few, if any, have thought about this matter more than forty-three year old Mishael Zion, a liberal Orthodox rabbi and Jewish educator from Jerusalem. In 1997, Mishael’s father - Noam Zion - together with his friend David Dishon - published a popular English-language Haggadah called “A Different Night.” Seven years later, Mishael joined forces with his dad in creating an Israeli version - HaLayla HaZeh: Haggadah Israelit. And this year, two decades after that Israeli Haggadah came out, Mishael and his father decided to update it, for the first post-October 7th seder. The end song is Chad Gadya ("One Little Goat") by Chava Alberstein.To purchase a digital copy of the Israeli Haggadah in Hebrew, click here.To download the Zion Haggadah supplement in English, Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, German and French, click here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The horrific events of October 7th reminded many people of the darkest chapter in Jewish history - the Holocaust. And indeed, for the past six months, there have been as many comparisons to the Shoah as there have been critiques of those comparisons. Of the roughly 130,000 Holocaust survivors living in Israel today, just under 10,000 reside in Jerusalem. Many of them participate in the Jerusalem Foundation’s Café Europa, which offers a physical meeting place, a wide range of social and cultural activities - concerts, lectures, memorials, workshops - and professional help in navigating the thickets of Israeli bureaucracy. We recently spent a morning at the Café Europa branch in Jerusalem’s German Colony neighborhood, where we heard all kinds of opinions about the Holocaust comparison. But the person with the strongest feelings on the matter just so happened to also be Café Europa’s oldest member - 100-year-old Walter Bingham.The end song is Tzair LaNetzach ("Forever Young") by Rami Kleinstein. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the immediate aftermath of October 7th, Shai Davidai - an Assistant Professor at Columbia University - became an unlikely public defender of Israel. And truthfully, even he was surprised by this turn of events: As a committed left-wing Israeli, he had spent years criticizing the government, and often took to the streets to demonstrate against its policies. But the atmosphere he witnessed on college campuses (and specifically on his own campus at Columbia), compelled him to speak up and speak out.The end song is Yesh Lecha Chaver ("You've Got a Friend") originally by Carol King, performed by Tzila Dagan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alon Ohel - a talented young jazz pianist - was kidnapped from the Nova party on October 7th, and has been held hostage in Gaza ever since. His family has spent the last five plus months sending him good vibes and good music. In today's episode, his mother - Idit Ohel - talks about the importance of energy, friendship and hope during these dire times.The end song is Shuvi Elay ("Return to Me") by Avishai Cohen and friends. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of very few positive outcomes of this war is that the ongoing debate surrounding the participation of female soldiers in combat has been decisively answered. Women are, as the IDF’s Chief of Staff - Herzi Halevi - has said on multiple occasions, an integral part of the military effort. They serve in tanks and in field intelligence posts, as pilots and naval officers, infantry soldiers, engineering specialists, canine handlers, medics and more. In fact, out of the 625 doctors and paramedics operating in Gaza in late December, 73 - more than ten percent - were women. In today's episode we talk to one of them, First Lieutenant Dr. Sharon Gutman Gilor. The end song is Kol Sha'ah Neshika ("Every Hour, A Kiss") by Chava Alberstein. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There has been endless talk of the “Home Front” during this war. The "Home Front," as in what goes on here in Israel, as opposed to what happens on the battlefield - in the streets and alleyways of Gaza. But, there is - of course - also a home front, or rather many different kinds of home fronts: some are stoic, others less so; some are somehow managing, others not at all. Much to her dismay, Aliza Raz-Melzer's 50-year-old husband Amiad volunteered to go fight. She gave us a glance into her home front. A home front that is conflicted - proud and supportive on the one hand, divided and even furious on the other.The end song is K'She'Ata Kan ("When You Are Here") by Ninet Tayeb. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We have some truly exciting news: For the first time in almost a decade, we're launching a new podcast. Look for Sipur Yerushalmi wherever you get your podcasts.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Some 350,000 Israelis have been called up to reserve duty since the start of the war, in what has been the largest mobilization in the country’s history. These are people who were plucked out of their homes, families and daily lives, and inserted into a totally different world, one which is in most cases - just to add to the confusion - a mere car ride away. And those transitions back and forth, between the craziness of the frontline and the veneer of normalcy at home, can be dizzying and unsettling. We’re hearing more and more about that juxtaposition now that large numbers of reservists are being released from their service, and are returning to their regular lives. One of them is Noam Tsuriely from Jerusalem. Noam’s a rapper, who recently put out his debut album and had, pre-war, a string of big time gigs all lined up. He was summoned for reserve duty on Oct. 7th, and has spent most of the last four months in Gaza. We spoke to him just as he came out of Gaza, and began his readjustment to civilian life.The end song is Kshenetse Mize ("When We Get Out of This") by Noam Tsuriely, Shachar Nahari, and Eyal Mazig. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's "Wartime Diary" takes us to a place that is, under normal circumstances, one of the most visited sites in the entire country - Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo, or as it's officially known, 'The Tisch Family Zoological Gardens.' Since the start of the war, the city of Jerusalem has welcomed more than 30,000 evacuees from both the North and the South. With such an influx of people, and especially of kids, there was a real need to create new programming and activities. The Jerusalem Foundation stepped in and launched “Double Impact,” an initiative that sent tens of thousands of evacuees (as well as the city’s school children) to various cultural and recreational institutions such as museums, theaters, the aquarium and, of course, the zoo. The result benefitted not only the kids themselves, who got a day of fun and enrichment, but also the city's struggling institutions. The end song is Noah by Matti Caspi. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The war has been going on for over three months, and many of us have settled into some sort of altered routine, a "new normal." But there are hundreds of thousands of people, possibly millions, for whom nothing is normal. Hugo (Uri) Wolaj of Kibbutz Be’eri is one of them: everything about his life - his job, his friends, his family, his parenting style, everything - changed on October 7th. Uri spent more than 20 hours that day hiding with his wife and daughters in the safe room. They were evacuated to a Dead Sea hotel in the early hours of October 8th and have been there ever since. But last week he returned to Be’eri, for a rare and eerie visit to his own home.The end song is Lo Levad ("Not Alone") by Jane Bordeaux. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today is the hundredth day of the war. And, though our Wartime Diaries series continues, we want to stop, mark this day and share 100 seconds of the many voices we’ve been hearing among - and around - us, since October 7th. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Upwards of $1 billion in donations have been sent to Israel since the start of the war. For years Charlene Seidle, the Executive Vice President of the San Diego-based Leichtag Foundation, has been at the forefront of the Jewish philanthropic world. While the Leichtag Foundation supports various causes in the States and in Israel, their main local focus is bridging social and economic gaps in Jerusalem. They’ve given life to hundreds of grassroots initiatives and have created the ‘Jerusalem Model’ - a diverse network of social entrepreneurs, activists and leaders from all sectors around town - Jews, Muslims, Christians, religious, secular, etc. Since Charlene and her team have been nurturing and cultivating these relationships for so long, they were particularly well-situated to understand the needs on the ground in the immediate aftermath of October 7th.The end song is San Diego by Elisha Banai and the Forty Thieves.Image courtesy of the Leichtag Foundation’s Jerusalem Philanthropic Initiatives. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The war has brought many new people into the limelight: For nearly three months we've been hearing countless stories of casualties, hostages, survivors and family members, many of whom have entered our hearts and never left. In some cases we feel like we’ve gotten to know these unsung heroes personally. One of the first big stories of the war, in that initial crazy week after October 7th, was that of 30-year-old Sagi Golan from Herzliya - a decorated officer in an anti-terrorism unit, who was killed in action in Be’eri in the early hours of October 8th. His story made headlines because Sagi was supposed to have married his partner, Omer Ohana, two weeks later, and his death brought to the fore - once again - the matter of the army and LGBTQ rights. Though the IDF has recognized same-sex partners of fallen soldiers as being eligible for full financial and emotional support since the mid-1990s, the matter had never been enshrined in law. So in the weeks after Sagi’s death, Omer led a successful campaign to legally secure the rights of same-sex and common law partners of fallen soldiers. The end song is Zachiti Le'ehov ("I Won The Privilege to Love") by Ivri Lider. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s a sad Christmas Eve in Jesus’ homeland. The alleyways of Jerusalem’s Old City, the streets of Nazareth, the churches of Bethlehem - all usually bustling with countless pilgrims and tourists from all over the world - are largely empty. There are no trees, no stars, no sparkling lights. Christmas has essentially been canceled, and not just as a figure of speech: Back in November, the patriarchs and heads of practically all the local Christian denominations issued a decree calling upon their flocks to forgo any public celebration of the holiday in solidarity with the victims of the war. But there is one man who simply cannot accept the idea of a Christmas-less year. And that man is Issa Kassissieh. The end song is Santa Klaus Higiya Le'Azza ("Santa Klaus has come to Gaza") by Shir Peled. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

More than 200,000 Israelis - from both the South and the North - have been forced to leave their homes since the start of the war. Some have relocated to hotels or kibbutzim, others have opted to move in with family or friends, or else even rent apartments in entirely new surroundings. In today's episode we get a glimpse of what that reality feels like. Shira Masami is one of nearly 30,000 residents who have left the southern city of Sderot - a city which suffered a horrendous attack on October 7 - and who are now dispersed around the country. The end song is Maaleh Avak ("Raising Dust") by Teapacks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stories are the strongest way to connect. To understand. To care.Under normal circumstances we’d create some sort of polished appeal, but obviously these are not normal circumstances.If what we do has been helpful, or you think it is important, please support us and share our show with friends and family.From the bottom of our hearts, thank you. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Since the start of the military operation in Gaza, countless reports by journalists embedded with the IDF troops have appeared in the Israeli media. But there was one eight-and-a-half minute-long TV broadcast that aired on Kan - the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation - that stood out. In it, Riyad Ali, a 61-year-old Druze journalist from the town of Maghar in the Galilee, accompanied soldiers from the Golani Brigade who were operating in the Zeitun neighborhood of Gaza City. He spoke to a bunch of them, including one shy officer, Yussef, who just so happened to also be Druze. It was a pretty standard interview, but at some point something unusual happened: Unsatisfied, perhaps, with the officer’s guarded answers, Riyad took the mic and launched into an on-air monologue. He spoke from the depths of his heart about the discrimination the Druze population faces and reminded viewers that the Declaration of Independence promised all Israeli citizens equal rights, irrespective of race, religion or sex. Despite the Druzes’ loyalty, he went on, and despite the fact that six Druze soldiers have been killed since the start of the war, they still feel like second class citizens. That clip went viral. Riyad’s courage to speak up surprised and touched many Israelis, who are - these days - accustomed to a more patriotic tone on the news. But when he chose, in what seemed like a spur of the moment decision, to go public with his more complex views, Riyad wasn’t only speaking as a member of the Druze minority. He was also speaking as a man who, nineteen years ago, was himself kidnapped by Hamas in Gaza.The end song is Nus Nus ("Half-Half") by Noam Tsuriely. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As has been said many times in the past, identity is like an onion: There are layers of family and country, religion and political persuasions, favorite sports teams, musical preferences and on and on. But for many, such as 23-year-old Adam Ben Shabath, it is their hometown which stands at the center of it all. And now, as a result of the war, Adam's village of Neve Shalom/Wahat as-Salam - with its unique population and delicate equilibrium - is being torn at the seams. Residents are questioning long-held truths - some have shifted their views, while others continue to hold firm or have even doubled down. Adam shares his own private take on the matter.The end song is Ahava Kazu ("Love Like This") by Amir Abu and Tzlil Shakuri. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.