It's Who You Know! The Podcast · Michelle W. Malkin: Nonprofit Jewish Professional

Shining A Light On Infertility with Gila Muskin Block, Executive Director of Yesh Tikvah: A Jewish Fertility Network

·36 min·2 clips

Infertility Awareness Shabbat is timed around Pesach because the holiday centers on passing down to the next generation.

Michelle W. Malkin opens the conversation by explaining how she met Gila Block through Slingshot Fund and Upstart. She frames that connection through a larger idea about board service and effective leadership, saying that board work can make a CEO more effective. Gila is the executive director of Yesh Tikva, a Jewish fertility network. The episode is built around that role and the questions it raises. The discussion turns to fertility education. Gila talks about the information people are often never taught about their bodies, reproductive health, and care. The conversation also touches on how birth control can function as more than contraception, including its role in supporting health and reducing certain risks. Michelle keeps the exchange grounded with practical follow-up questions that stay close to lived experience. The episode does not stay only on medical facts. It widens into the emotional and communal side of infertility. Gila describes how hard it can be to sit with someone else's pain. She also names how difficult it is for people to respond with empathy when they are uncomfortable or unsure what to do. That tension becomes one of the main threads in the conversation. Michelle then asks about the organization's future. Gila says the goal is to grow as a resource for everyone, not only for those directly struggling. She emphasizes support for the people who are supporting their loved ones. That matters because infertility affects families, friends, and communities, not just the individual patient. The episode keeps coming back to education as care. Gila lays out a vision where more people have access to information and more people know how to stand beside someone in pain. Michelle's questions make room for both story and substance, and Gila's answers give the episode its depth, especially when she talks about what Yesh Tikva is trying to build. The conversation also reflects the show's broader interest in Jewish professional life. It starts from a board relationship and turns into a wider look at mission, leadership, and communal responsibility. Michelle's questions make room for the organization's backstory as well as the human stakes. That balance gives the episode its shape. Listeners hear a clear picture of an organization trying to meet a real need. They also hear how much of that work depends on education, emotional steadiness, and the ability to stay present with others. The episode treats infertility as both a personal struggle and a communal one. That mix makes the conversation feel useful, humane, and rooted in actual work. By the end, the focus is on expansion: more access, more understanding, and better support for everyone around the person in pain. The episode leaves room for the complexity of that mission. It does not pretend the work is simple. It shows why it matters.

As heard by us

A thoughtful look at fertility, board service, and the quiet work of care.

This episode frames a Jewish fertility network as a conversation about leadership, education, and what it means to show up for people in pain.

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Why you'd press play

Press play if you want a candid conversation about Jewish fertility support, board service, and what it takes to sit with people in struggle.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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