Yonit Levi of Israel's Channel 12 News and Jonathan Freedland of The Guardian are two of the most prominent journalists in the world today. They are also Jews. Each week, join what MSNBC's Rachel Maddow calls "two great, smart smart smart hosts" as they dissect and debate current events shaping Israel, Jewish life - and the wider world.
Their blend of nuanced discussion and sparkling conversation, featuring a dazzling range of guests, is why New Yorker editor David Remnick calls himself a “proud, avid listener," why Ira Glass says he "completely enjoys this show" and why Malcolm Gladwell calls it an "incredibly fun podcast".
For a weekly fix of globally informed talk – including nominations for the greatest act of chutzpah and outstanding mensch of the previous seven days – there’s only one destination. Make every Friday morning Unholy.
Contact us via: unholy@unholy-media.com
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September 8th was the deadline for Israeli parties to file their lists — and Netanyahu reached it less organised than he'd have liked, with a rival on the right running alone, a reserved slot for his own Channel 14 broadcaster, and barely a handful of women anywhere near the top.
Then Britain, joined by France, Canada and nine others, sanctioned settlement goods, and used the words "ethnic cleansing" about settler violence in the West Bank. The UK's chief rabbi called it a dark day for British Jews.
Yonit and Jonathan work through what sanctions actually hit when the target is a bank that gave someone a mortgage — and whether, six weeks before an election, this lands as pressure or as a gift.
Recorded in field conditions, from a Tel Aviv living room and a Washington hotel — so no Mensch and Chutzpah this week. Back next week.
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Rabbi Angela Buchdahl on forgiveness, Zionism and Mamdani
Episode 323
Tuesday, September 8, 2026 • Duration 46:50
The Jewish new year arrives with the word ‘Zionist’ deemed an insult and a technology that never forgets anything that anyone has ever said or done. Following Unholy tradition, Yonit and Jonathan usher in the season of awe and the High Holydays with Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, who leads New York’s Central Synagogue and whose congregation was rushed by an intruder during a packed Friday night service weeks before this conversation. She walks through what repentance actually demands — a real apology, a change of action as well as heart, and three attempts — and why she thinks Abraham, the first Jew, failed the test we remember on Rosh Hashanah. Plus: the sermon she is dreading, why she calls the coming Israeli election existential for Jews everywhere, and, as ever, the music.
Seven weeks out from an election that in many ways is a referendum on culpability for October 7th, Benjamin Netanyahu tells Channel 14 that if only they had woken him earlier that fateful day, everything would have been different — and his wife goes considerably further about Yair Golan, a man who drove towards the gunfire that morning and saved lives. Yonit and Jonathan take Mrs Netanyahu’s accusation apart, then turn to the week's most improbable story: Yoav Segalovich, a Jewish former police commander, joining Mansour Abbas's Islamist party - because the crime wave destroying Israel’s Arab communities needs someone with a proven ability to fix it. Plus a Channel 13 poll that should worry the anti-Netanyahu bloc; Britain's expected ban on trade in goods linked to the West Bank - and why Greece and Finland moved in the other direction.
Our Chutzpah award goes to a perennial winner with a new map, and the Mensch of the Week award is split three ways between brothers.
00:00:00 a US-Iran war nobody is calling a war
00:03:39 Netanyahu on Channel 14: if only they had woken me up
00:08:03 Yair Golan, October 7th, and a smear the hosts reject
00:14:26 Netanyahu's advisors, the pool party and the Qatar accusations
00:17:50 The Channel 13 poll and the shape of the Israeli right
00:22:54 Yoav Segalovich joins Mansour Abbas and Ra'am
00:30:27 Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, Ron Dermer and the hostage families
00:35:39 Britain, the E1 corridor, and why Greece and Finland moved
00:39:09 Chutzpah of the Week and Mensch of the Week
Gordon Brown on Nationalist Populism, Israel and Hope
Episode 321
Tuesday, September 1, 2026 • Duration 36:54
The former UK Prime Minister and Chancellor joins Yonit and Jonathan for the latest of our Unholy Conversations — on the void populist nationalists have moved into, on the difference between hope and optimism, on the father whose projector slides taught him the kings of Israel before the kings of England, and on the Middle East peace deal he watched come apart in 2009.
Chapters:
00:06 Introduction to Gordon Brown and His New Book
05:48 The Connection Between Nationalism and Community Decline
12:46 Personal Responsibility and Moral Leadership
17:23 Addressing Anti-Semitism and Global Issues
22:41 Hope vs. Optimism in Times of Crisis
30:13 Britain's Role in Global Peace Efforts
32:27 Personal Reflections and Motivations of Gordon Brown
The 60-Day Countdown, Sledgehammer Politics -- and Dolly Parton
Episode 320
Thursday, August 27, 2026 • Duration 43:01
Join as Friend of the pod: https://www.patreon.com/cw/Unholypod
With sixty days to go until the Israeli elections, the political jockeying enters into overdrive. Yonit and Jonathan break down the high-stakes coalition arithmetic facing both Benjamin Netanyahu and Gadi Eisenkot, from the crowded field of small right-wing parties—including the entrance of retired general Ofer Winter—to the battle on the center ground. Meanwhile, alarming footage of settler violence in the West Bank and provocative stunts by far-right lawmakers raise hard questions and trigger fierce international blowback from London to Washington.
Plus: an election ad pulled on grounds of chutzpah so extreme, even its own party couldn't defend it, and a Mensch of the Week whose Jewish connection nobody saw coming.
0:00 End-of-Summer Chaos 1:50 Sixty Days to Israel's Election: Eisenkot vs Netanyahu 11:56 Lieberman Scenarios and Ben Gvir's TikTok Rise 16:06 Mansour Abbas and the Two-State Question 20:58 E1 Construction and the Wave of Settler Violence 31:10 The Case for Releasing Marwan Barghouti 35:12 Chutzpah of the Week: Aryeh Deri's Shas Ad 36:36 Mensch of the Week: Dolly Parton
It's the end of summer, and Yonit and Jonathan are taking a break from the news with a nugget of pure Jewish joy. Andy Nyman — the West End actor, writer, director and magician currently starring as Max Bialystock in The Producers, and previously as an acclaimed Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof — joins the show for an Unholy Conversation. Why does Mel Brooks' nearly-60-year-old joke about Hitler still land? What makes Max Bialystock - who could have been Tevye’s grandson - so beloved, even in his desperation? And is the Broadway musical, as a form, secretly a Jewish one? Andy answers the question by giving a rare performance of a musical classic — rendered in Yiddish. You won’t want to miss it.
In this episode:
The Genius of Mel Brooks: How The Producers transforms satire into an act of healing and an uncompromising "fuck you" to history.
From Tevye to Bialystock: Exploring the thread connecting the working-class milkman of Anatevka to the scheming, desperate, yet deeply human Broadway hustler.
Art in Times of Darkness: A rare behind-the-scenes look at performing comedic Jewish art—and deciding to keep a daring scene in the show—in the wake of global tragedy.
Exclusive Live Performances: Andy delivers three bespoke, stripped-back performances directly in the studio:
"We Can Do It" (The Producers)
"If I Were a Rich Man" (Fiddler on the Roof)
A haunting, tender Yiddish translation of "Hushabye Mountain" (originally by the Sherman Brothers).
00:06 Introduction to Unholy Conversations
00:09 Introduction to Andy Nyman
01:57 The Enduring Appeal of The Producers
05:50 Mel Brooks and Jewish Healing through Humor
08:29 Defiance in Comedy: Pulling Down Pants
Bibi's Primary Battles, Gaza Deadlines, and the Plus-sign "Plot"
Visit our website to learn more about Unholy and become a friend of the pod: www.unholy-podcast.com
Sixty-eight days from the election, the hardest problems on Benjamin Netanyahu's desk are arriving from Washington. Jared Kushner is meeting Hamas directly, and the Gaza withdrawal deadlines he is carrying — thirty, sixty and ninety days — all land inside the Israeli campaign. Yonit and Jonathan read the timing as an unfriendly act rather than an accident, and ask what Donald Trump wants in return for the endorsement he keeps withholding. Also this week: the anti-Netanyahu bloc still cannot say who leads it, the IDF publishes its decisions in five Gaza cases, and the prime minister calls Britain an Islamic Republic on a podcast. Plus a Chutzpah award for an American broadcaster who has found proof of Israeli hostility to Christians in a mathematical symbol, and a Mensch of the Week who proves that sometimes even the most heartbreaking stories can have a happy ending.
00:00 Intro 04:04 68 days out: blocs, mergers and the electoral threshold 10:03 Eisenkot, Bennett and who leads the anti-Netanyahu bloc 14:32 Kushner meets Hamas and Washington's Gaza deadlines 19:59 The IDF's decisions in five Gaza cases 22:24 Huckabee on settler violence, Iran, and Trump on Oman 27:47 Coming up: Simon Sebag Montefiore on the Middle East 28:33 Netanyahu calls Britain an Islamic Republic 33:33 Central Synagogue and the cost to the diaspora 35:35 Chutzpah of the Week 38:56 Mensch of the Week
The Middle East Cauldron - with Simon Sebag Montefiore
Episode 317
Tuesday, August 18, 2026 • Duration 36:40
Acclaimed historian Simon Sebag Montefiore returns to Unholy to discuss his sweeping new book, The Cauldron: A History of the Middle East between 1900 and 2026. He tells Yonit and Jonathan that understanding the region today requires starting at the dawn of the 20th century — thanks to the long shadow still cast by the Ottoman Empire and its collapse. They talk of the often underestimated significance of Saudi Arabia, the convulsions that followed the Iranian revolution of 1979 and the extent to which Israel is - unexpectedly - a Middle Eastern state like any other.
Clash with the White House, clash on the West Bank
Episode 316
Thursday, August 13, 2026 • Duration 52:00
Benjamin Netanyahu has said no to Donald Trump's 15-point Gaza plan, and the refusal is flat rather than fudged. In the West Bank, extremist settlers have besieged two Palestinian families in the village of Qusra, apparently hoping to take their homes. The IDF went in but came away with mission very much unaccomplished. With Yonit away, Jonathan is joined by Hadley Freeman, columnist for London’s Sunday Times and author of the acclaimed memoir, House of Glass, for what is an Unholy first: two voices from the Jewish diaspora and no Israeli in the room. They talk through the week's news and reflect on what three years since October 7 has done to Jewish life outside Israel, why Israel-Palestine has become the litmus test of the American left and whether anybody speaks for the diaspora.
Plus: a Chutzpah nominee that reached a Belfast stage via Sweden, and a Mensch that arrives from Australia by way of Yiddish.
The Bashevis Singers - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G531cgjplcM
The mediaeval image of the Jew - and why it’s lasted. With Miri Rubin
Episode 315
Tuesday, August 11, 2026 • Duration 36:05
Three of the oldest myths about Jews — relating to money, blood and the way they look — were forged in medieval Christian Europe, mostly in places where there were almost no Jews to observe. Miri Rubin, professor of medieval and early modern history at Queen Mary University of London, tells Jonathan how each one of those myths was built — and explains how that medieval way of seeing Jews often remains the lens through which Israel, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, is seen. They also discuss the reckoning with Christendom’s past that followed the Holocaust - and how it has seemingly come to a halt in our own time.
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