112: Why the world Is obsessed with Zionism, with Alana Newhouse

Ask Haviv Anything

Haviv Rettig Gur

History

4.9 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 May 2026

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The world feels unmoored. Identity is contested, nations are uncertain, and a technology-altered future feels increasingly abstract and vaguely threatening. So much is happening, so much is at stake. So why is everyone suddenly talking about the Jews?

In this episode, Haviv sits down with writer and Tablet magazine founder Alana Newhouse to explore a striking idea: that the global obsession with Zionism isn’t really about Jews at all. It’s about something the modern West has lost -- and isn’t sure how to rebuild.

From post-nationalism to technological upheaval to political extremism, we consider Alana's thesis that Zionism is less an ideology and more a kind of “social technology” for building meaning, cohesion and a future worth striving for -- and the uncomfortable but fascinating possibility that what looks like obsessive bigotry might actually be a kind of yearning.

There are few if any publications like SAPIR, the quarterly journal of Jewish ideas edited by Bret Stephens from The New York Times. You might remember we've hosted a number of people on the podcast to talk about topics they've written about for SAPIR: Coleman Hughes, for instance, about antisemitism in the Black community, Danielle Haas about the ideological rot in the human rights industry. It's a beautiful publication not only in content but in physical appearance, and if you live in the United States you can receive it in print absolutely free. They won't even ask for your payment information. If you sign up now you'll receive the forthcoming issue on the theme of America in honor of this year's semiquincentennial (250th birthday). Lots of excellent stuff in this issue about the current political crises in both the Democratic and Republican parties, the decline of education, particularly history education, in the US, and tangible suggestions for, well, America as it turns 250. If you want to start receiving this excellent publication 100% free, go to https://sapirjournal.org/AskHavivAnything.

Thank you to SAPIR for sponsoring this episode.

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Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, everybody. Welcome to Ask Haviv Anything. Thank you for joining us.
0:09.1	My guest today is Alana Newhouse, an old friend, a brilliant thinker and writer, and maybe most importantly, one of the few people who have recently succeeded in piecing together a lot of different disparate threads of
0:22.4	my own thoughts and feelings about Zionism. Feeling and thinking about Zionism is kind of my day
0:27.9	job, so there's a lot of them. And she managed to piece them together in a way that is
0:32.6	incredibly useful and explanatory. And we're going to get into it. She is the founder and editor of the
0:39.4	excellent tablet magazine. I'm a subscriber, including in print. And we're going to delve today into
0:44.6	her new essay, Zionism for everyone that was published in both tablet and the free press,
0:50.6	which is about why Zionism might hold the answer to some of the great global crises we face,
0:56.4	the deep cultural ones, about identity and immigration and economic displacement and class
1:02.3	and all the things that are producing some unhealthy political cultures and cultural responses
1:08.5	throughout the Western world.
1:12.9	It goes way beyond Jews.
1:14.4	It goes way beyond Israelis.
1:19.1	Before we do, I just want to tell you we have a sponsor.
1:25.3	One of our favorite sponsors, there are a few, if any, publications out there like Sapir, the quarterly journal of Jewish ideas, edited by Brett
1:29.4	Stevens from the New York Times. I am myself a subscriber. You might remember that we've
1:35.2	hosted a number of people on the show to talk about topics they've written about for Sapir over
1:40.1	the years, including Coleman Hughes about anti-Semitism in the black community in the
1:44.8	United States, Danielle Haas, about the ideological capture or arguably rot in the human rights
1:51.9	industry.
1:52.9	It is a beautiful publication, not just in content, but physically, in the physical appearance.
1:58.0	I love reading it.
	...

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