SAPIR Conversations

Of Israel’s many achievements since October 7, none perhaps was as unforeseen as the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange reaching an all-time high two years since the start of the war. While this reflected the resilience and dynamism of the start-up nation, there are troubling signs ahead for Israel’s economy: the high cost of war; stagnant economic sectors; bureaucratic malaise; high population growth; and more. Can Israel make the adjustments and double its GDP over ten years? Can Jews in the Diaspora help it get there?Israeli venture capitalist Michael Eisenberg joined SAPIR Editor-in-Chief Bret Stephens for a conversation about what it will take for Israel to become a trillion-dollar economy.Watch this SAPIR Conversation on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S4BQEQynhM Read Michael Eisenberg’s essay: https://sapirjournal.org/money/2025/building-israels-trillion-dollar-economy/ Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/theo-gerard/monsieur-groove

In the shadow of the war in Gaza, shifting ideological fault lines and coalitions are redefining the boundaries of progressive politics nationwide. The normalization of rhetoric on the Left that questions Israel’s legitimacy has become a source of growing discomfort, if not concern, for Zionists across the political spectrum. Likewise, actions of the Israeli government – before and since the recent war – have prompted those on the Left to reevaluate their association with and support for Israel. Nowhere is this phenomenon more pressing than in New York City, home to more Jews than any city in the world. On both a local and national level, many are asking: can one be both proudly Zionist and firmly on the Left, or has the divide grown too wide to bridge?Moderated by SAPIR Editor-in-Chief Bret Stephens, this second of the SAPIR Debates featured four distinguished voices:Kathy E. Manning, board chair of the Democratic Majority for Israel and former two-term member of the U.S. House of RepresentativesYehuda Kurtzer, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute and host of the Identity/Crisis podcastJames Kirchick, contributing opinion writer to the New York Times and best-selling author of two booksBatya Ungar-Sargon, author of three books, including the forthcoming The Left and the Jews, and host of Batya! on NewsNationThe SAPIR Debates is a new series that features a spirited but civil exchange of views on the most consequential issues facing the American Jewish community.Watch this SAPIR Debate on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g-ftd9gNjwRead SAPIR essays relevant to the Debate:To Err is Human; To Disagree, Jewish - by Rabbi David Wolpe: https://sapirjournal.org/cancellation/2022/to-err-is-human-to-disagree-jewish/Zionism and Liberalism in America - by Michael Koplow: https://sapirjournal.org/resilience/2024/zionism-and-liberalism-in-america/Pro-Israel Progressives with Rep Ritchie Torres: https://sapirjournal.org/friends-and-foes/2024/pro-israel-progressives/Saving Israel for Democrats - by Ronald Radosh: https://sapirjournal.org/zionism/2022/saving-israel-for-democrats/Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/theo-gerard/monsieur-groove

What does the process of conversion — joining the Jewish people— reveal about the meaning of chosenness? In his recent essay for SAPIR, Rabbi Adam Mintz writes that “we, Jews by birth and Jews by choice, are all destined for the same story.” Similarly, Rabbi Noa Kushner writes that “it is possible that to be chosen is not only a designation at birth or conversion.” They recently joined Rabbi David Wolpe for a conversation.Watch this SAPIR Conversation on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JspDKWCYs7Q Read Adam Mintz’s essay: https://sapirjournal.org/chosenness/2025/the-paradoxes-of-conversion/ Read Noa Kushner’s essay: https://sapirjournal.org/chosenness/2025/american-sinai/ Music from #Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/theo-gerard/monsieur-groove

Today marks a new chapter as we re-launch the podcast, SAPIR Conversations, with even more discussions and double the hosting power. Moving forward, Rabbi David Wolpe - scholar-in-residence at the Maimonides Fund, Max Webb Emeritus Rabbi of Sinai Temple, prolific author, writer, and longtime SAPIR contributor - will join Bret Stephens as co-host of SAPIR Conversations. Bret will continue to host live virtual conversations with SAPIR authors. Rabbi Wolpe will bring on different voices beyond the pages of SAPIR to explore some of the most pressing issues affecting the Jewish people.In today's episode, Stephens and Wolpe tackle the issue of Chosenness. How was the concept perceived throughout Jewish history and how is it interpreted in Jewish liturgy? Is chosenness a status or a calling? Does it create burdens or standards? And how how Bret Stephens respond to non-Jewish friends when asked for his understanding of chosenness?Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/theo-gerard/monsieur-groove

In American Jewish life, few questions are as fraught — or as revealing — as this one: Is Donald Trump good for the Jews? In this launch of the SAPIR Debates, two prominent Jewish voices take opposing sides of this urgent and emotionally charged question: Jason Greenblatt, who served as Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East and worked for him for 20 years, and Rahm Emanuel, former chief of staff to President Obama, Mayor of Chicago, and US Ambassador to Japan. Moderated by SAPIR Editor-in-Chief Bret Stephens, this is a timely, unsparing exchange on identity, power, politics — and what it means to stand with the Jews in America today. Recorded May 15, 2025, at The 92nd Street Y, New York.

Since October 7, Israeli researchers and faculty have felt the chilling effects of a flourishing global boycott movement. In a shift that’s taken hold at high levels of American academia, Israeli scholars and universities have been barred from conferences, squeezed out of research grants, and cut out of collaboration with colleagues around the world. Is there a way out of this mess? On Thursday, December 5, SAPIR editor-in-chief Bret Stephens interviewed Netta Barak-Corren, the Haim H. Cohn Chair in Human Rights Law at the Hebrew University’s School of Law and Ronald R. Krebs, Distinguished McKnight University Professor and a professor of political science at the University of Minnesota to discuss the dangerous normalization of academic boycotts and which forces in the American university are fighting back.

Americans’ faith in our leaders and institutions is at an all-time low. What is the source for this loss of confidence and what are the implications for the Jewish community? Yuval Levin of the American Enterprise Institute joined SAPIR Editor-in-Chief Bret Stephens for a conversation on addressing the “trust trap” and restoring faith in our future.