Hard Conversations About Israel: 4 Real-Life Case Studies with Toba Hellerstein (Part 2)

Unpacking Israeli History

Unpacked

Judaism, Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 13 January 2026

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this follow-up conversation, Noam Weissman and emotional attunement expert Toba Hellerstein move from theory to practice—using real-world case studies to explore how people are actually talking about Israel right now. Drawing on listener emails and educator questions, they tackle common scenarios like responding to social media posts about “ending the occupation,” navigating influential podcasts, addressing concerns about Gaza without triggering antisemitic labels, and supporting Jewish students under campus pressure. The focus isn’t on winning arguments, but on emotional regulation, trust, and creating space for nuance in conversations where people are really asking: am I safe, do I belong, and do I matter? Here's a link to Part 1: Facts vs. Feelings: Rethinking how we talk about Israel with Toba Hellerstein https://sapirjournal.org/authors/toba-hellerstein/ This episode is in memory of Leo Bernstein. To sponsor an episode or to be in touch, please email noam@unpacked.media. Check us out on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Youtube.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠This podcast was brought to you by Unpacked, an OpenDor Media brand. ------------------- For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jewish History Nerds⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Soulful Jewish Living⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Stars of David with Elon Gold ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Wondering Jews⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, I'm Noam Weissman and this is Unpacking Israeli History, the podcast that takes a deep dive into some of the most intense, historically fascinating, and often misunderstood events and stories linked to Israeli history.
0:12.4	This episode is sponsored in memory of Leo Bernstein.
0:15.9	To sponsor an episode of Unpacking Israeli History, or just to say, what's up?
0:20.1	Be in touch at Noam at unpacked.med.
0:23.5	Before we start, as always, check us out on Instagram, on TikTok, on YouTube, all the places.
0:27.9	Just search unpacking Israeli history and hit the follow or subscribe button, especially when I have all these amazing guests on the show.
0:35.1	Like, it's awesome.
0:35.8	So check us out, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, all the places.
0:38.8	Okay, Yala.
0:40.3	Let's do this.
0:44.2	We, the people of Israel, we, the people of Israel, are prepared and anxious to meet the representatives of our neighbors without any preconditions.
1:02.0	There are people in Israel elsewhere, say it's impossible to make peace between their ups and Israel or the Jewish people.
1:11.6	I think they're home.
1:15.6	Tobler-Stein is an emotional attunement expert.
1:19.8	That is a cool thing to be.
1:21.3	And she spends her time helping people navigate hard conversations about all different topics,
1:27.0	including Israel, not by winning
1:29.3	arguments, but by understanding what's really going on underneath them. A few months ago, we
1:34.7	dropped a really meaningful episode with Toba about the way to think about and have conversations
1:41.4	about Israel. It was the sort of episode that was provocative,
1:47.5	it was controversial. Turns out, and maybe you'll be surprised to hear this, that how to have
1:52.7	hard conversations is really hard. And how to have hard conversations about Israel is even harder.
	...

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