What Matters Now

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with The Times of Israel's senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur.
On Sunday, former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid announced a joint run for this year's Israeli elections.
Immediately, polling showed that the combined electoral slate, dubbed “Together,” would win a total of 26 seats if elections were held Monday, placing them ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud as the Knesset’s largest party, according to Channel 12.
Later in the week, Opposition Leader Lapid told Bennett that he was willing to take third place, rather than second, on their joint electoral slate if it would help secure a broader merger with Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot.
On this week's episode, in the spirit of the newly completed NFL draft, we play fantasy football and weigh the merits of the current parties and politicians vyying for the Knesset in this year's election.
And so this week, we ask Haviv Rettig Gur what matters now.
What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Ari Schlacht.
IMAGE: Haviv Rettig Gur (courtesy) / Green Bay Packers quarterback Taylor Elgersma (19) throws during the first half of a preseason NFL football game against the Indianapolis Colts, August 16, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
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Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Jessica Steinberg speaking with author Rachel Goldberg-Polin.
Rachel Goldberg-Polin began writing her new book, "When We See You Again," as a way of finding some relief from her pain after she buried her son, 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was executed by his Hamas captors in August 2024, after being held captive for 330 days in a Gaza tunnel.
Goldberg-Polin speaks about the process of writing the book, urged by her husband, Jon Polin, and how the book became a kind of answer to people asking her how she was.
The bulk of the book takes place after the Goldberg-Polins buried Hersh on August 31, 2024, and is an accounting of their lives in what Goldberg-Polin terms the Before and After.
What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Ari Schlacht.
IMAGE: Author Rachel Goldberg-Polin joins host Jessica Steinberg for an episode of What Matters Now
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Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with journalist and debut author Aron Heller.
Some 1.5 million Jewish soldiers fought for the Allies in World War II, and 250,000 of them died in battle. One of those who fought and returned was Heller's grandfather, Mickey Heller.
In his new book, "Zaidy’s Band," Heller attempts to trace his grandfather's military service, but is met with resistance by his patriarch whenever the subject is broached.
However, before we learn about Heller's grandfather and his friends, we delve into the longtime journalist's vast experience covering Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day and hear how the concepts of "hero" and "survivor" have shifted over the years.
And so this week, we ask Aron Heller: What matters now?
What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Ari Schlacht.
IMAGE: Author Aron Heller (courtesy) / Background: Mickey Heller (far left), Ralph Oren (second from right), and friends in front of a bomber plane. (Courtesy of the Heller family)
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Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Jessica Steinberg speaking with comic Shahar Cohen.
Comedian Shahar Cohen, raised in Jerusalem and living in Tel Aviv, spoofs Israeli life and society.
He dons wigs and plays a cast of mostly female characters who represent the range of Israeli society.
In a wide-ranging interview, Cohen discusses how each character represents part of him as well as what Israelis are feeling, particularly over the last two and a half years of war, first with Hamas, and now during the war with Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Cohen thinks of himself as the comic who is expected to walk Israelis through war and trauma, offering a form of therapy. He talks about the need for escapism and relief following the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, 2023, when more than 1,200 Israelis were killed and 251 people taken hostage.
With an upcoming tour in the US, and one million views and counting on his most recent videos about his Nofar character as a soldier in the IDF Home Front Command, Cohen joked, "I actually manage the war now."
What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Ari Schlacht.
IMAGE: Comic Shahar Cohen from 'That Girl in the Alert Room,' March 2026 (Courtesy)
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Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Jessica Steinberg speaking with Rabbi Angela Buchdahl.
Buchdahl speaks about being a rabbinic figure and representative of the mainstream American Jewry, particularly while on book tour for her recently published memoir, "Heart of a Stranger, An Unlikely Rabbi's Story of Faith, Identity and Belonging."
Buchdahl weighs in on the current rise in antisemitism entering the workplace and discourse, and how it has made Jewish identity rise to the fore as a kind of primary identity.
Speaking to the Times of Israel right before Passover, Buchdahl discusses the master narrative of Passover and the need to have faith in Jewish continuity and to hold on to resilience and grit in the face of oppression.
Buchdahl speaks about New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the conversations she's held with people deeply connected to the mayor about her concerns.
The Central Synagogue rabbi talks about her congregation's Zionism, their reactions after the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, 2023, and their deep connections to hostage families over the course of the two years of the war in Gaza.
She also speaks about her own connection to Israel as a second home, even when she takes issue with some of its policies and actions of the government.
What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Ari Schlacht.
IMAGE: The sanctuary of Central Synagogue in Manhattan, New York, photographed in 2010, and where Rabbi Angela Buchdahl is senior rabbi (Courtesy)
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