Unpacking Better Israel Education with OpenDor Media’s Dr. Noam Weissman

Being Jewish with Jonah Platt

Jonah Platt

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4.9 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 9 October 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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What happens when Jewish education stops being about advocacy — and starts being about curiosity?

That’s the mission of Dr. Noam Weissman, Executive Vice President of OpenDor Media and host of the hit podcast Unpacking Israeli History. In this episode of Being Jewish with Jonah Platt: 30 Minute Mensches, Jonah and Noam dive into how we teach, talk and think about Israel — and what it takes to build a generation of Jews who are both passionate and informed.

Noam shares:

Why “Israel education” should be about questions, not just advocacy
What he calls “goosebumps with complexity” — combining emotional connection with intellectual honesty
Why teaching young Jews that Israel is perfect does more harm than good
The untold story of the Altalena ship, and how it nearly tore Israel apart
Why Jewish summer camps and schools are key to rebuilding Israel literacy — and what real Zionism looks like in the 21st century

From school classrooms to TikTok feeds, Noam Weissman is revolutionizing how people learn about Israel and Jewish identity — blending history, heart, and hard truths. Listen now to hear how one educator is transforming Jewish learning for a new generation.

Host & Production Team

Host: Jonah Platt; Produced by Rainbow Creative (Executive Producer: Matthew ‘MoJo' Jones; Story Producer: Sean Leviashvili & Sasha Nelson; Editor: Jacob Kindberg; Executive Assistant: Josie Rothschild; Graphic Designer: Noah Bell

Mentioned In Episode

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.
0:08.1	I have to ask for a small favor.
0:10.4	As an independent show, we don't have a massive marketing machine behind us.
0:14.6	Our growth is purely organic, fueled by dedicated viewers and listeners like you.
0:19.5	So if you would be so kind, please take 30 seconds,
0:24.0	head over to Apple Podcasts and Spotify, find this show, and leave me a five-star rating and a short
0:30.0	written review. I love seeing all of your thoughtful and generous feedback. Some of it has even
0:35.0	made it onto the show and may again. And as of this recording,
0:38.7	we are just eight ratings away from hitting 500 on Apple. Crossing that threshold would be a huge
0:44.3	milestone for us. It's a small mitzv on your part, but it really is the fuel that allows us to
0:50.0	keep these amazing conversations going. So thank you in advance. Unless you don't leave a rating, in which case you're a butt head. I was lied to growing up. I was painted this picture of Israel as this perfect place. And then when I found out it wasn't, I've decided to become anti-Israel. If you want young people to represent Israel, they have to know what Israel represents. We have to reckon with the truth. We have to reckon with history.
1:11.9	If that moment didn't happen, there would be no Israel.
1:16.5	Welcome back to our summer edition of Being Jewish with Jonah Platt, 30-minute mentions.
1:22.9	Same vibe, same tribe, shorter episodes.
1:25.7	My guest today is a major voice in digital Jewish education, literally.
1:30.6	He's the host of podcasts unpacking Israeli history and wandering Jews with Michal Bitone,
1:36.4	executive VP of Open Door Media, and an educator of educators.
1:40.7	He's modern Orthodox, he loves pizza, and he was principal of a school in L.A. that once expelled one of my best friends. Please welcome Noam Weissman. What an intro. What an intro. You know, we like to have fun here, Noam. It's great to have you. Thanks for coming on the show. Thanks for having me. So I want to start a little bit back in time. You wrote a doctoral dissertation,
2:03.1	and your topic was approaching Israel education. So I think it makes a lot of sense to start there,
2:08.6	given what you've been doing since. So at that time, what were the conclusions you drew about how
2:14.4	we need to begin approaching Israel education, which you've now gone and done
2:18.0	in all of the years since. Yeah, I'm kind of obsessed with this topic. And my chair at USC said to me,
	...

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