The Best of 2018
The Tikvah Podcast
Tikvah
4.6 • 620 Ratings
🗓️ 28 December 2018
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
From the Pittsburgh shooting to rising anti-Semitism in Europe, from the U.S. embassy move to the Trump Administration’s exit from the Iran deal, from Michael Chabon’s controversial speech at Hebrew Union College to Israel’s new nation-state law, 2018 has been a big year for the Jewish people and the Jewish state. Through it all, the Tikvah Podcast has tried both to stay above the fray—at a remove from the news cycle—and to be engaged with the contemporary challenges facing the Jewish people throughout the world. Our hope is that by treading this unique path, we’ve helped you, our listeners, deepen your understanding of Jewish affairs, Jewish philosophy, Jewish texts, and Jewish statesmanship.
So as the year comes to a close, we bring you selections from a few of our best conversations from 2018. We hope these excerpts shed light on the past and give us some guidance, and maybe even inspiration, for the future.
Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble as well as “Shining Through the Rain” by Big Score Audio.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Tikva podcast on great Jewish essays and ideas. |
| 0:12.0 | I'm your host, Jonathan Silver. |
| 0:13.8 | This is the last episode we'll broadcast in 2018, so we thought we'd look back at the year |
| 0:18.1 | and its most consequential events and remember the |
| 0:20.8 | conversations that have made up the podcast along the way. |
| 0:24.8 | 2018 has certainly been full of significance for the Jewish people. |
| 0:28.2 | This year saw the movement of the American embassy to Jerusalem and taking leave of the Iran |
| 0:33.0 | deal. |
| 0:34.0 | 2018 was the year that Israel amended its quasi-constitutional basic law with the nation-state law, |
| 0:40.5 | a codification of Zionist principles into Israel's fundamental legal framework |
| 0:45.1 | that serves to complement the human dignity and liberty law that the Knesset had already passed in 1992. |
| 0:52.4 | In the international arena, Prime Minister Netanyahu continued to deepen Israel's |
| 0:57.2 | strategic relationships with China, Russia, the Sunni powers, India, and the African nations, |
| 1:03.8 | all eager for cooperation in defense, research and development, hydro technology, and medical |
| 1:09.1 | innovation. In the United Nations, Israel had a true friend |
| 1:12.7 | an American ambassador Nikki Haley, whose service at the UN is now coming to an end. |
| 1:17.8 | 2018 will also be remembered in the history of Jewish America for the shooting at Pittsburgh's |
| 1:22.9 | Tree of Life Synagogue, the deadliest anti-Semitic attack to ever occur in American soil. |
| 1:29.3 | Our goal at the Tikva podcast is not to cover the news, but to try and think about Jewish theology |
| 1:34.8 | and Jewish public affairs and a larger horizon, and in that way to shed new light on what is |
| 1:40.4 | happening around us. Now, it just so happens that we spoke about anti-Semitism in just this |
| 1:45.1 | way earlier this year, looking at Ruth Weiss's incisive analysis of the role that anti-Semitism |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Tikvah, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Tikvah and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.