The Tikvah Podcast

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Jewish ideas under political pressure.

The gist

The Tikvah Podcast treats current events as arguments with long histories behind them. Its conversations move from scripture and Jewish memory to Israel’s wars, American religious freedom, and the moral fractures of modern politics.

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About The Tikvah Podcast

The Tikvah Podcast is a formal, interview-driven ideas program about Judaism, Israel, America, and the political conditions under which Jewish life can flourish. Its center of gravity is Jewish thought, but its subject matter regularly extends into war, diplomacy, constitutional order, and the failures of modern political imagination. The show likes a long runway. Episodes often open by reconstructing the relevant history before the guest enters the argument. That habit gives even topical conversations a sturdier shape. A discussion of the Exodus becomes an inquiry into how the Torah turns Egyptian symbols of royal power against Egypt itself. A conversation about Hussain Abdul-Hussain’s book becomes a way to examine Arab opposition to Israel, Palestinian political identity, and the possibility of a different regional argument. Strategic episodes take a similarly layered approach. The show has treated Mossad operations inside Iran through human intelligence, supply-chain infiltration, the nuclear archive theft, and targeted killings. It has also broadcast a live discussion about an American-Israeli war against Iran, asking what the campaign means for American power and the American right. Not every episode is about the battlefield. The podcast also follows the shifting relationship between India and Israel, the civic meaning of religious freedom in America, and the strains inside Haredi society after the Bnei Brak draft riot. Its conversations about antisemitism on the American right are direct but analytic, interested in causes, institutions, and moral responsibility rather than outrage alone. The tone is composed. The questions are often long because the framing matters as much as the answer. Guests are treated as interpreters of a tradition, a crisis, or a strategic problem, not as personalities to be sampled quickly. The Tikvah Podcast is best understood as a public square for serious Jewish argument, where biblical memory, Zionist statecraft, and Western political thought are asked to illuminate one another.

Made for: For listeners drawn to serious Jewish argument, Zionist history, American civic thought, and the strategic realities facing Israel. It suits people who want context before conclusions and can sit with long-form conversations.

What sets it apart: The show’s distinction is its fusion of theology, history, and statecraft. It treats a Passover text, an Israeli intelligence operation, and a constitutional debate as related questions about memory, power, and moral order.

In their own words

The Tikvah Fund is a philanthropic foundation and ideas institution committed to supporting the intellectual, religious, and political leaders of the Jewish people and the Jewish State. Tikvah runs and invests in a wide range of initiatives in Israel, the United States, and around the world, including educational programs, publications, and fellowships. Our animating mission and guiding spirit is to advance Jewish excellence and Jewish flourishing in the modern age. Tikvah is politically Zionist, economically free-market oriented, culturally traditional, and theologically open-minded. Yet in all issues and subjects, we welcome vigorous debate and big arguments. Our institutes, programs, and…

As heard by us

Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026

Jewish thought meets public life through Jonathan Silver's carefully framed interviews on faith, Israel, history, and communal responsibility.

Jonathan Silver begins with a sharply framed public question, then gives his guests room to build an answer from history, religious tradition, and firsthand experience.

Read our full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

A kosher table in 1788 is where Jonathan Silver makes you reconsider American religious freedom.

Press play if you want

a headline about Israel followed by the strategic question everyone else skipped
Jewish moral arguments that can move from ancient teachings to a modern draft riot

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Jewish thought and theologyIsrael and ZionismIran and regional securityAmerican religious freedomantisemitism on the rightHaredi society and conscriptionIndia-Israel relationsbiblical interpretation

Talks about

Religion & Spirituality Judaism

Best episodes of The Tikvah Podcast

Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.

Yehoshua Pfeffer on the Causes of the Bnei Brak Draft RiotFeb 20, 2026

A Bnei Brak riot opens into a Haredi debate over Torah study, work, and military service.

The Bnei Brak draft riot gives the episode a sharp entry point into a larger Haredi anxiety: the fear that military service can threaten a whole way of life.

Meir Soloveichik and Carlos Campo on Strengthening Religious Freedom in AmericaFeb 13, 2026

A 1788 Philadelphia parade turns religious freedom into a lived civic practice.

American religious freedom comes through as a civic covenant with real consequences in public life. Rabbi Meir Soloveitchik, Carlos Campo, and Eric Cohen approach that idea through a 1788 Philadelphia parade marking Pennsylvania's ratification of the Constitution, where the…

Rod Dreher on the American Right's Anti-Semitism ProblemFeb 5, 2026

Rod Dreher examines how Tucker Carlson's Nick Fuentes interview sharpened questions about anti-Semitism on the American right.

Rod Dreher's discussion of anti-Semitism among young conservatives gives The Tikvah Podcast a hard subject and a clear point of entry: Tucker Carlson's late-October interview with Nick Fuentes, which Dreher frames as a Rubicon crossing.

Matthew Levitt on Israel's War with Hizballah

A focused account of Israel's gains against Hezbollah and the strategic lessons of 2006.

Israel's retaliatory strikes on military targets in Iran set the frame, but the episode is most engaged by Lebanon: how Hezbollah keeps functioning after heavy damage to its arsenal, leadership, command structure, communications, decision-making, and finances.

Avi Weiss on the AMIA Bombing 30 Years Later (Rebroadcast)

Rabbi Avi Weiss links the AMIA bombing's political failures to survivors who carried on through family and Jewish life.

The Tikvah Podcast returns to the 1994 AMIA bombing through Rabbi Avi Weiss's account of Argentina's long struggle to reckon with the attack. Jonathan Silver frames the conversation against later developments: a 2024 Argentine court ruling that said Iran directed the bombing and…

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About The Tikvah Podcast

In their own words

As heard by us

Why you'd press play

Talks about

Best episodes of The Tikvah Podcast

Podcasts like The Tikvah Podcast

Episodes

Yuval Levin on American Renewal

Hussain Abdul-Hussain on the Arab Case for Israel

Yonah Jeremy Bob on the Mossad's Secret War on Iran

Mike Pompeo and Michael Doran on the Iran War

Bill Drexel on Narendra Modi's Visit to Israel

Yehoshua Pfeffer on the Causes of the Bnei Brak Draft Riot

Meir Soloveichik and Carlos Campo on Strengthening Religious Freedom in America

Rod Dreher on the American Right's Anti-Semitism Problem

Russ Roberts on the Return of Ran Gvili

Johnnie Moore and Meir Soloveichik on Jews, Evangelicals, and Israel

Hussein Aboubakr Mansour on Why Saudi Arabia Is Moving Away from Israel

Aaron Rothstein on the Medical Aid in Dying Act

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Asael Abelman on the History of "Hatikvah"

Shlomo Brody on Jewish Ethics in War

Ruth Wisse on the Explosion of Anti-Israel Protests on Campus

Meir Soloveichik on the Politics of the Haggadah

Yechiel Leiter on Losing a Child to War

Yehoshua Pfeffer on Haredi Service in the Israeli Military

Joseph Lieberman on American Jews and the Zionist Dream (Rebroadcast)

Seth Kaplan on How to Fix America's Fragile Neighborhood

Joshua Berman on How the Exodus Story Turns Egyptian Imagery on Its Head

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