Welcome to the 1840 podcast, where each month we explore a different topic balancing modern sensibilities with traditional sensitivities to give you new approaches to timeless Jewish ideas.

I'm your host, David Bischoffkin, and this month we're talking about Jewish

peoplehood. This podcast is part of a larger exploration of those big Jewish

questions, so be sure to check out 1840.org where you can find videos, articles,

and recommended readings. When I was in my early 20s, I studied in a yeshiva in

Baltimore called Nairius Rowel.

And my Chavrusa, my study partner at the time was somebody named Levy Oaken.

We studied together for about two years.

He is a doctor now, I think in Philadelphia, a dear, dear friend.

He's one of the friends who, you know, we went through, I think I only have a handful of friends like this,

who we went through elementary school, high school, gapier in Israel, and then Yeshiva near Israel,

and then we reunited again in Yeshiva University.

So we spent a great deal of time together, kind of in the same institutional universe.

And I remember he was engrossed in this book that had this really interesting cover and

looked kind of intriguing.

And the book was called Jew v. Jew, the struggle for the soul of American Jew.

And I guess at the time when you're in your early 20s, there's like a little bit of hesitation or concern about like zooming out and seeing the big Jewish story and where your individual story, in my case, it was, you know, a kid who grew up in the five towns in Lawrence, New York, and went on to, you know, a regular Yashiva Elementary

School and Yashiva High School. And I was kind of not immune, but like kind of uninterested,

maybe ignorant of kind of the larger questions and issues that American jury would grapple with.

I think even the word American jury

would kind of like get under my skin. I didn't consider myself like an American Jew. I consider

myself a Jew. And I was kind of divorced from some of the larger struggles and pulls that were

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