The Times of Israel Daily Briefing

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.
US reporter Luke Tress joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode.
For the past several years, Tress has noted an uptick in hateful rhetoric and flyers that are attributing housing disputes in New York City to Israel or “Zionists.” The rhetoric appears to mark a growing new front in anti-Zionist activism in the city. We delve into a history of disputes between Jews and their neighbors, including about housing, and what makes this new iteration different.
Security spending for US Jewish communities has surpassed an estimated $1.05 billion per year, a new record, the Jewish Federations of North America said on Thursday. The 2025 average annual security expenditure for a Jewish institution was around $225,000, the federations said, adding that the total cost could be used to provide Jewish day school tuition to around 44,000 children. Tress explains what legislation Jewish leaders are now pushing US lawmakers to pass.
Tress reports on a group of non-Jewish Ukrainian university students who are studying Yiddish in a class at The Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, part of a new program between the university and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City. What brings these young adults to this wacky extracurricular?
Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates.
For further reading:
In protests and politics, ‘Zionists’ are being blamed for NYC housing woes
US Jewish community security costs surpass $1 billion per year — study
War-weary Ukrainian students learn Yiddish to reclaim a Jewish past nearly erased at home
Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Yitzchak Ledee.
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Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.
Environmental reporter Sue Surkes joins host Gabriella Jacobs for today's episode.
We open by diving into the unprecedented shutdown of five of Israel’s six desalination plants last week. Surkes reports that the closures have exposed a growing strategic vulnerability: the country’s near-total dependence on large coastal facilities for drinking water.
Surkes explains that the plants, all along the southern Mediterranean coast, were forced offline by microalgae swept north by waves from the Nile Delta. While the majority of plants are back online, reduced output continues as of publication.
We pivot to focus on the pollution clogging up the Hebron Stream. She explains how raw sewage, construction byproducts, and illegal dumping are contaminating the waterway and threatening one of the region’s important natural water sources. She also speaks about why efforts to address the issue have stalled thus far.
We close the episode with a brief survey of Israeli-led sustainable food science initiatives that have progressed over the summer, including Weizmann scientists on the path to creating food from air and Hebrew University researchers extracting milk proteins from safflower plants.
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Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.
News editor Ben Sales joins host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode.
After US Ambassador Mike Huckabee met with Palestinians on Saturday and called for severe consequences for violent settlers, Sales notes the American diplomat is trying to say two things, continuing his longtime support of the settlement enterprise in the West Bank alongside the need to deal with Jewish terrorists.
Sales then turns to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, questioning whether the upcoming election will be the first time the longtime leader will possibly lose, given that he has enemies among some of the new centrist parties who say they don't want to sit with him in any government.
Finally, Sales looks at the commonalities between Michigan's Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed and his friendship with anti-Israel podcaster Hasan Piker, and US Vice President JD Vance and his friendship with right-wing podcaster Tucker Carlson, discussing the antisemitic similarities on opposite sides of the political spectrum.
Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates.
For further reading:
Huckabee, in West Bank, urges severe consequences for settler violence: ‘Terror is terror’
One-hit wonders keep saving Netanyahu. This time, he might be played out
El-Sayed and Vance call each other ‘evil,’ while both handling antisemitism the same way
Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Ari Schlacht.
IMAGE: News editor Ben Sales appears on the Daily Briefing with podcast host Jessica Steinberg (Flash 90)
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Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan, where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use.
This month marks the 60th anniversary of the pioneering sci-fi series, Star Trek. Expert in all things Trekky, Hoffman, when he's not schmoozing with Borschel-Dan, also hosts the STARLOG podcast and co-wrote The Star Trek Book of Friendship.
So this week, the duo nerd out on all things Jewish behind the beloved franchise -- Spock's famous hand gesture is adapted from the Priestly Blessing, in one notable example. Eventually, we laser in on two episodes that illustrate the show's ethos.
From the original Star Trek television series, Hoffman chose "The City on the Edge of Forever." We hear about how, when time-traveling to 1930s New York, Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock faced a tough decision to stave off a potential global Nazi takeover.
And in Deep Space Nine's "In the Hands of the Prophets," we see how the program deals with themes of religious extremism versus science.
Let’s hear who gave this series an “oy,” “meh” or the prized “not bad” this week on The Reel Schmooze.
The Reel Schmooze is produced by Ari Schlacht and can be found wherever you get your podcasts.
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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 CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt.
As antisemitism surges worldwide by some 900% over the past decade, Greenblatt explores how the 113-year-old organization's mission to protect Jews has -- and has not -- evolved to meet the new challenge.
In light of the drastic uptick in hate, Borschel-Dan jokes that the ADL commands more money than a very small sovereign state (she erroneously names Nauru) and asks if the organization has failed in its mission.
Greenblatt assures her that a $100 million annual budget is a drop in the bucket against well-oiled hate machines funded by petrol states and says the ADL, like all other Jewish organizations, is working to regain its footing in a post-October 7 world.
We learn how the foundational anti-hate body has had to make some tough choices and how it is increasingly leaning on AI to reinforce its human staff.
And so this week, we ask Jonathan Greenblatt 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 Yitzchak Ledee.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.