Search for Daas – Details, episodes & analysis

Meet Ben Marchette, CEO of ImpactIsrael. Ben has dedicated his career to leading organizations that support the civic foundations of Israel. As CEO of ImpactIsrael, Ben mobilizes American supporters to support Yemin Orde Youth Village and Village Way Educational Initiatives. Yemin Orde Youth Village, established in 1953, serves as a sanctuary and educational center for at-risk and immigrant youth in Israel. Under the leadership of Dr. Chaim Peri, the village developed the "Village Way" educational methodology. This holistic approach focuses on creating a supportive community that addresses the unique needs of at-risk youth, emphasizing the importance of cultural identity, education, and personal development. Today, Yemin Orde continues to provide a nurturing environment for hundreds of young people, offering individualized therapeutic care, academic support, and a sense of community. Its enduring mission is to empower these youth to overcome their past adversities and become productive, confident members of society.

Outro music: Star Wars Theme Song - John Williams

Meet Judge Roy K. Altman, a U.S. District Court judge in the Southern District of Florida. Judge Altman was born in Caracas, Venezuela and immigrated with his family to Miami. After growing up in Miami, he graduated from Columbia University where he quarterbacked the football team and pitched on the baseball team. Following Columbia, Judge Altman went on to study at Yale Law where he served as Projects Editor for the Yale Law Journal.

After Yale, Judge Altman went on to serve as a federal prosecutor, twice receiving the Director of the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys’ Award for Superior Performance. After several years as a partner in a law firm, on April 4, 2019, Judge Altman was confirmed to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. At 36 years old, Judge Altman became the youngest federal district court judge in the country and the youngest federal judge ever appointed in the Southern District of Florida.

In my opinion, you are about to meet a generational mind. Born in 1982, Judge Altman is technically a millennial. Forget millennials, few Boomers or Gen Xers have reached the heights Judge Altman has obtained. To put it into context, in the United States, there are 1.35 million lawyers, and 30,000 of them are judges. Of that 30,000, only 870 are Article III judges. This means that after graduating law school, a lawyer has a 0.064% chance of becoming an Article III judge.

It isn’t an overstatement to say that Judge Altman is one of the most accomplished individuals in America. But this achievement isn’t what is most impressive about him. What makes Judge Altman outstanding is his moral leadership.

An example of his moral leadership is highlighted in a recent article in Bloomberg.

In my view, Judge Altman is setting the type of example Americans should follow. He is pursuing an honest and fact-based discussion about the conflict while refusing to cower to the mob of moral relativism.

When I think about Judge Altman and his actions after October 7, I recall a quote from the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks as he analyzed Esther’s plea: “How can I stand and watch disaster befall my people?” To this, Rabbi Sacks said, “To be moral is to live with and for others, sharing their responsibility, participating in their suffering, protesting their wrongs, arguing their cause.”

Thankfully, because of Judge Altman, we have one of the great legal minds of the 21st century arguing the cause of Israel, the Jewish people, and all of Western civilization.

Meet Rabbi Simon Jacobson, a rabbi with a vast reach. On YouTube he has over 15 million views and his book, Toward a Meaningful Life, has sold over 400,000 copies. Rabbi Jacobson grew up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn in a home he describes as "full of ideas." Beginning in 1979, Rabbi Jacobson headed a team of scholars that memorized and transcribed entire talks the late Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson gave during the Sabbath and holidays as writing and tape recording were not permitted. Today, Rabbi Jacobson leads the The Meaningful Life Center which the New York Times describes as a “Spiritual Starbucks.” The Center bridges the secular and the spiritual through a wide variety of content. In this episode, we cover a lot of ground including how best to approach game-changing technology, why community is so important and the preeminence of the soul. --The outro music was produced by Michael Greenberg.

Meet the professor who brought Jewish studies to Japan. For over two decades, Professor Taggar-Cohen has been educating thousands of students at Doshisha University in Kyoto on everything from the Talmud to Tel Aviv.

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The outro music was produced by Michael Greenberg.

Meet Rabbi Dr. Abadie and learn about his journey from being expelled from Lebanon to being invited by the United Arab Emirates to serve as the Senior Rabbi of the Jewish Council of the Emirates. Along the way, learn about the immense changes taking place in the Arab world as a result of the Abraham Accords.

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The outro music was produced by Michael Greenberg.

Explore the concept of Daas with Rabbi Mendy Schochet.

Meet Ran Bar-Yoshafat, the deputy director of the Kohelet Policy Forum and an IDF special forces reservist. I reached out to Ran after learning about his experience speaking at UC Berkeley. On February 26, Ran was scheduled to speak on campus about his experience fighting in Gaza and the role of international law and the rules of wartime conduct. What transpired, even before he spoke, was a riot. 200 protesters stormed the venue, breaking glass at the entrance and forcing students and Ran to evacuate through a tunnel under police protection. When asked about the rioters’ expressions of antisemitism and anti-Zionism, Ran said, “it is a much bigger problem than a Jewish or Israeli problem. It’s the collapse of Western civilization.”

Let us not forget - Israel is at war. It is fighting a terrorist regime that has the explicit goal of eliminating Israel and the Jewish people. In an interview after the attacks of October 7th, Ghazi Hamad, a top Hamas official said the Oct. 7 bloodletting is “just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth, because we have the determination, the resolve and the capabilities to fight. We will do this again and again.”

Ran is well aware of what is at stake and he is putting his life on the line to protect not only his nation but also the values and interests of the Western world. Many in the west are failing or flat out refusing to take the words of Iran and its proxies at face value. At this current moment, the words of Natan Sharansky come to mind: “Over the years, I have come to understand a critical difference between the world of fear and the world of freedom. In the former, the primary challenge is finding the strength to confront evil. In the latter, the primary challenge is finding the moral clarity to see evil.”

Natan Sharansky’s quote helps put into context our conversation with Ran. As you will soon hear, Ran has the immense task of confronting evil. Here in the west, at this moment at least, all we are being asked to do is obtain the moral clarity to see the evil embodied by Hamas?

We are meeting Ran today because few media outlets have chosen to amplify the voices of IDF soldiers. I encourage us all to listen to Ran and think deeply about his perspective and why he has chosen to fight for Israel’s right to fight.

Meet Dani Menkin, an American-Israeli film producer who lives in LA in the process of creating a documentary about the synagogue hostage crisis that took place in North Texas in 2022. Dani has won over 30 awards for his films including an Israeli Academy Award for '39 Pounds of Love' and 'Is That You? In addition, Dani created the film production company 'Hey Jude Productions' and a non-profit dedicated to producing heart-warming stories.

I asked Dani to join us for a few reasons. The first is to better understand what transpired in North Texas on January 15, 2022. Like most news stories, this hostage situation was gone from most Americans’ conscience within days. But thanks to Dani and his filmmaking skills, we will all soon be intimately familiar with this event and the Islamic extremism that shaped its circumstances and the brave souls who faced down evil and triumphed. The second reason is because film is such a powerful medium to convey messages. As you will soon hear, Dani doesn’t create films to convey specific messages, however, through his vivid storytelling, viewers gain an understanding of the thinking and emotions that drive us all. The last reason is because Dani is a proud Israeli. At this moment in our history, as the mainstream media paints Israel and Israelis as villains, it is critical we elevate and amplify the voices of those who know Israel so well.

This episode begins with the audio from the trailer for Dani’s documentary, Colleyville. After the trailer finishes, you will find my conversation with Dani. If Colleyville is a project you are interested in supporting, please reach out to me or Dani. I know Dani would appreciate your support in launching this important project.

Colleyville trailer: https://vimeo.com/858969151

Dani's production company: https://www.heyjudeproductions.com/

Meet David Bernstein, the founder and CEO of the Jewish Institute for Liberal Values (JILV). JILV helps Jewish organizations and individuals hold constructive conversations about critical social justice. David is the past President and CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and former executive director of the David Project. David is also the author of the book “Woke Antisemitism: How a Progressive Ideology Harms Jews.”

As many listeners know, since 2014 I have been concerned about progressive thought and the negative impact it is having on our sense making institutions. Pointing out flaws of this school of thought pre 10/7 was difficult. Criticism of social justice theory, diversity equity and inclusion and indigenous land recognition was oftentimes met with accusations of racism and hate. However, since 10/7 it has become easier. The reaction progressives had to the horrors Hamas unleashed on the Jewish people have awoken American liberals. As a result, many liberals are starting to understand the negative implications of progressive ideology.

As you will soon hear, David is a liberal who has been thinking about this ideology for way longer than I have...and he has the scars to prove it. I respect David for the decades he has spent attempting to educate the liberal world of the harms progressive ideology presents. When I look at David's career, I think of the quote from John Ruskin: “The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something and tell what it saw in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see. To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion, all in one.”

In this episode we cover...

• The difference between liberals and progressives
• The reasons why liberals went along with progressive thought for so long
• Why the current social justice movement isn't an extension of Martin Luther King's civil rights movement
• What is the best path forward with regards to DEI
• Why the Jewish people returning to their ancestral homeland doesn't meet the criteria of progressives who promote indigenous groups reclaiming their land.
• David's views on Israel's war against Hamas and the concept just war theory
• The difference between antisemitism on the left and right and which form David believes is the greatest threat
• And finally, how best to speak to liberals about why progressive thought is a threat to the American Jewish community

Meet David Magerman, a native of South Miami who went on to earn a B.S. from UPenn and a PhD in computer science from Stanford. David is an investor and a philanthropist. In terms of investing, he spent 22 years working at the quantitative hedge fund, Renaissance Technologies, which is one of the world’s largest hedge funds with over $100B assets under management. After leaving Renaissance, David founded a venture capital firm called Differential Ventures. Since graduating Penn, David has made it a priority to give back to the institution. He has served on boards and has given over $5M to various initiatives. This strong commitment to the institution formally ended earlier this month when David published an open letter to UPenn’s president, Liz Magill. In the letter, David makes it clear that unlike other outspoken donors, he is not calling for the current president to step-down, instead, he is simply stating he is breaking up with the university. In his interview on CNN with Jim Acosta, when asked why subsequent statements by the university didn’t satisfy him, David responded, “I felt like the reaction they had at first was authentic, it represented who they were and I didn’t think anything they said could change that. Their values aren’t my values.” In this conversation, David and I do a deep dive into the following:

• His relationship to Penn
• What went into his decision to write the letter
• Why he believes Penn is mired in moral relativism
• Why it is critical to know the values of the institutions you support
• His research into the $15-20B of undocumented gifts received by leading institutions like Penn
• The importance of Israel to the Jewish people
• Fun round of quick fire questions where I foolishly ask a kosher person for his favorite place for a Philly cheesesteak

I thank David for making the time to meet with all of us and for being a clear, intelligent and passionate voice during a time when America and the Jewish people need one.--Outro music: The Riders Of Rohan from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (The Two Towers).