Episode 62: Hard times make strong Jews. Live in London with Daniel Schwammenthal.
Ask Haviv Anything
Haviv Rettig Gur
4.9 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 20 November 2025
⏱️ 109 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today's episode is a very special show which was recorded live on November 10, 2025 at the Finchley United Synagogue - Kinloss in London. Haviv had the pleasure of sharing the stage with Jewish Chronicle Editor Daniel Schwammenthal. We had a great discussion about growing antisemitism in England, the war in Gaza, the possibility of upcoming elections in Israel and the many challenges facing Israelis and Jews today.
We would like to thank Jonathan and Debra Field, who have been long-time supporters of this podcast, for bringing Haviv to London and sponsoring the event. We would also like to thank Rabbi Dr. Yoni Birnbaum, the Senior Rabbi of Finchley United Synagogue, for welcoming Haviv.
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Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, everybody. |
| 0:07.0 | Welcome to a new episode of Ask Haviv Anything. |
| 0:09.2 | This one is a special live recording of an event I was at a talk I gave, our Q&A that I gave, |
| 0:16.9 | at Finchley United Synagogue in London. |
| 0:20.0 | It was part of the community's centenary, Kinloss 100, which is going to be this coming year. |
| 0:29.2 | They are 100 years old, the Kinlaas Synagogue in 26. |
| 0:34.0 | And I had the distinct pleasure of sharing the stage with Daniel Schwammentel, a man I respect highly and have known for many, many years. |
| 0:42.8 | It was, it drew a crowd of nearly 400 people. |
| 0:46.4 | It was a lot of fun. |
| 0:48.0 | There were some serious, big questions. |
| 0:51.8 | Fast forward to the very last one, you won't be disappointed, I think. I am very proud |
| 0:56.3 | of the conversation that we had there. I want to thank Jonathan and Deborah Field, who have been |
| 1:01.5 | longtime supporters of this podcast for sponsoring the event, for bringing me to London. And of course, |
| 1:08.4 | I want to thank Rabbi Dr. Yoni Birnbaum, the senior rabbi of Finchley |
| 1:12.3 | United Synagogue, for welcoming me. We had some conversation ahead of time. Rabbi, you were |
| 1:18.3 | very tolerant, including when I uttered a curse on stage. You took it better than I did. |
| 1:26.1 | It was a warm and interesting conversation and community, and I'm really glad to have experienced it. |
| 1:33.3 | We talked about the anti-Semitism of this moment when it isn't anti-Semitism. |
| 1:37.8 | We talked about elections potentially coming up in Israel. |
| 1:41.0 | We talked about the challenges Israel faces today. |
| 1:43.7 | We talked about the war. We talked about social media. We talked about the challenges Israel faces today. We talked about the war. We talked |
| 1:46.1 | about social media. We talked about Britain and multiculturalism. We talked about, you know, |
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