Imagine Israel Podcast

Federation’s Imagine Israel Podcast directly connects you to a modern, relatable Israel in real-time through stories from innovative Israeli influencers leading social change in Israel, with a special focus on issues of social justice and civil society. With every episode, the show’s host, Robbie Gringras, Creative Director of Makom, facilitates thought-provoking dialogues with Israeli activists whose life, work and passions intersect in a unique way that impacts Israeli society.

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Episodes

Gitler turned his one-man mission into Israel’s largest food bank rescue network, known as Leket Israel, The National Food Bank, which provides food for over 200,000 impoverished Israelis every week.

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Patrick Levy was one of the first individuals in Israel to be diagnosed with HIV and soon after became an activist for policy change to improve the lives of those living with the virus. Patrick eventually worked his way up, serving for three years on the Israel AIDS Task Force. To this day, Patrick continues his life’s work to advocate on behalf of those whose voice is not heard in Israeli society.

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Social entrepreneur and Israeli philanthropist, Avi Naor has dedicated his philanthropic work to the survival and sustainment of Israel. Naor’s work focuses on two initiatives impacting Israel’s youth today: road safety and education.

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At age seven, alongside her parents and many of her 12 siblings, Oshra Friedman left Ethiopia and escaped to Israel via Operation Moses.* Now a proud Israeli, Oshra has devoted her adult life to bridging socioeconomic gaps and promoting social mobility for groups on the periphery, including but not limited to Ethiopian, Russian and Arab Israelis.

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Rabbi Gottfried is co-founder and director of Beit Tefilah Israeli, a fast-growing, multi-generational community that is renewing and revitalizing the landscape of Judaism in Israel. Under the radar from the official Jewish religious establishment in Israel, and for more than a decade, a grassroots movement of Israeli Judaism is emerging, gaining supporters and slowly changing the way Israelis connect to their Jewish identity. Hear how Esteban’s approach to prayer, song and celebration has introduced an alternative outlet for spiritual expression that has become an international phenomenon. Explore the balance between sustaining religious tradition and accommodating social change with Federation’s Imagine Israel Podcast host, Robbie Gringras.

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This episode of Federation’s Imagine Israel Podcast marks 50 years of a reunified Jerusalem. In keeping with the theme of uniting diverse faiths to live together in peace, we speak with a few guests who represent the unity and division of Israel’s capital city, bringing change through medicine at Jerusalem’s emergency clinics. Hear from three doctors at the forefront of the emerging field of emergency medicine in Israel.

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Kaynan Rabino is the brain behind Good Deeds Day, an annual day of service that has flourished into an international phenomenon, currently reaching over 90 countries—including the Greater Washington’s own Sara & Samuel J. Lessans Good Deeds Day. Rabino explains why the simple objective to change the world and positively impact the lives of others has garnered such a following, one good deed at a time. Read the transcript.

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Avner Stepak, former CEO of the second largest investment house in Israel, is revolutionizing Israel’s corporate world to include the previously overlooked disabled population in Israel’s workforce.

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Visionary activist Chaya Gilboa, an expert on the issue of Israeli religious reform, shares her desire for social change in Israel. In a country where politics are religious and religion is political, Chaya strives to transform Israel’s religious judicial system by challenging the Rabbinate’s legal monopoly on religious life to create a pluralistic, egalitarian alternative.

The compelling conversation addresses the conflicts and complexities that come with the current Rabbinate (Jewish governance) jurisdiction over issues of marriage, divorce and kashrut (Jewish dietary law); and Chaya’s approach to changing the system from outside of the Knesset (Israel’s Parliament).

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Host Robbie Gringras interviews co-writer and director of the LGBTQ family drama “Ima v’ Abbas” (Mother and Fathers) about the intersection of his personal family dynamic in Israel (raising a child as a gay couple with a straight, single surrogate), his work, passions and Israeli society. Click here for a transcript of episode #1.

 

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Tune in to The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington’s Imagine Israel Podcast, as part of Federation’s Imagine Israel initiative.
For more information or questions about the podcast and Imagine Israel programming, please email Imagineisrael@shalomdc.org.