From WNYC Studios. I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Tuesday, March 31st.

The New Yorker has a very thoughtful article this week about the divides within Jewish congregations,

within Jewish families as Passover approaches over the way Israel is fighting its wars in Gaza and now Lebanon.

What will the conversations be like around many families' cedar tables on a holiday that celebrates freedom from oppression,

freedom of movement, and the founding of Israel,

the promised land, as a refuge for the Jewish people.

The article cites, for example, a Washington Post poll just a few months ago that found

46% of American Jews supporting the war in Gaza and 48% opposing it, basically a 50-50 split in the American

Jewish community. And the article quotes from a sermon back on the Jewish New Year, Russia

Shana last fall, by Angela Bookdahl, senior rabbi of the central synagogue in Manhattan.

Now, I found a video of it, and I'm going to play the quote to help set this up.

Play the clip.

Then we'll talk to the writer, A.L. Press, from the New Yorker, and take your calls about your families and your congregations.

This runs a minute and a half.

Again, it's Rabbi Angela

Bookdahl in her Rosh Hashanah sermon at the central synagogue. Listen to both halves of this,

as she acknowledges different worshippers within her own congregation who might fire her as their

rabbi if she says what she really thinks. I want to tell you about my unconditional love for the Israeli people and our beleaguered homeland,

still desperately struggling to bring its hostages home, still trying to eliminate Hamas,

terrorists that not only refuse to lay down their arms but intentionally

trap their own people in a combat zone.

But if I tell you these things, all of which I believe, some of you will stop listening

...