This is Aiton Weinstein.

And I'm Naor Menninger, and you're listening to Two Nice Jewish Boys.

This podcast is made in collaboration with the Jewish Journal.

Check them out at Jewishjournal.com.

Also in collaboration with Arutscheva, Israel National News.com.

And last but not least, in collaboration with Australian Jewish News, check them out at

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slash donate. Most people don't hang flags above their beds.

But Ariel Karlinsky isn't most people.

Above his bed, throughout his childhood and well into his high school years,

Ariel hung the red flag of the Soviet Union, its yellow sickle and hammer watching over him every night.

Until one bright day, he decided to take it down, fold it up, and tuck it away,

along with his strong beliefs in the communist system.

Ariel Karlinsky is an economist at the Kohelet Policy Forum,

a conservative think tank dedicated to, quote,

secure Israel's future as the nation state of the Jewish people,

to strengthen representative democracy,

and to broaden individual liberty and free market principles in Israel.

Ariel joins us today to talk about how a communist became a capitalist. Thank you so much.

It's not like an exaggeration, right, to say that you were a communist in your beliefs.

No, it's not an exaggeration. First of all, thank you for having me.

Sure.

...