SERIES PREMIERE! 30 Minute Mensches: Michal Cotler-Wunsh, Israel’s Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism

Being Jewish with Jonah Platt

Jonah Platt

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4.9 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 15 July 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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In the premiere of our new series 30 Minute Mensches, Jonah Platt sits down with Michal Cotler-Wunsh — former Knesset member and Israel’s Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism — for a long-overdue conversation about the eighth front of war: the battle for public opinion. Jonah and Michal discuss how antisemitism has manifested itself today, particularly through using anti-Zionist rhetoric, and how Israelis may feel a disconnect from that. Michal gives her perspective on how institutions such as the UN, Amnesty International, and elite universities have not only tolerated but enabled and normalized antisemitic double standards under the guise of progressive activism. Jonah challenges Michal to help make sense of the widespread moral confusion and media failures that culminate to chants such as “Death to the IDF,” and asks how we can bridge the gap with well-meaning people who have been misled by catchy headlines and ill-informed outrage. This episode answers the question of why antisemitism is not just a Jewish problem, but a global one, and what we can do to fight it.

This episode tackles:

🧠 Why Michal’s role as Israel’s antisemitism envoy is so crucial today, especially in combating widespread misinformation and harmful rhetoric.
🎓 How university presidents and U.S. officials have failed to take a stand in the face of rising Jew-hatred
🕍 Why most Israelis don’t understand global antisemitism — and why they need to
📖 The 3 R’s: Remember, Reclaim, Renew — a framework for Jewish pride
👤How human rights advocacy has been hijacked and weaponized by anti-Zionists.

—

🎙️ 30 Minute Mensches is a new short-form edition of Being Jewish with Jonah Platt — spotlighting diverse voices doing meaningful work across Jewish and allied communities.

MENTIONED IN EPISODE

Host & Production Team

Host: Jonah Platt; Produced by Rainbow Creative (Executive Producer: Matthew Jones; Story Producer: Sasha Nelson; Content Director: Alexandra Fugère; Associate Producer: Emma Webb, Nathan Wheatley, Valerie Patterson); Consulting Producer: Bethany Mandel; Executive Assistant: Josie Rothschild; Graphic Designer: Noah Bell

Transcript

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0:00.0	Shalom, Kavarim, Banot, and welcome to another very special episode of the world's number one Jewish podcast.
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0:55.9	in which case you're a butt head. Welcome, welcome, welcome to the first episode of our new
1:05.7	summer edition of being Jewish that I'm calling 30-minute menses. Same vibe, same tribe, shorter episodes.
1:13.5	Because it's summer and I want to hang out with my kids.
1:16.2	But also because I want to use the opportunity
1:18.7	of this more concentrated format
1:20.7	to bring you some really unique and diverse humans
1:23.8	doing fascinating and important work
1:26.0	that you don't always get to hear about. This season,
1:28.4	we've got Jewish animators, energy healers, rappers, black Jews, crypto Jews, trans Jews, Orthodox Jews,
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1:42.3	heavyweight with me for today's premiere. Born in
	...

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