Don't Know Much About with Naya Lekht

On this episode of Don’t Know Much About, Dr. Naya Lekht leads a critical conversation on how public condemnation of antisemitism often functions as cover for antizionism, the latest mutation of Jew-hatred.Drawing on her framework of the three eras of anti-Jewish movements, anti-Judaism, antisemitism, and antizionism, Naya argues that antizionism must be understood not as a break from the past, but as its continuation. Each era, she explains, developed its own language, tropes, and libels to construct Jews as villains standing in opposition to what society defined as moral. In this way, antizionism carries forward the same civilizational project: transforming the Jew, now refracted through Israel, into a demon opposed to redemption itself.But this episode goes beyond diagnosing the latest mutation. More urgently, it exposes how politicians and public figures strategically condemn antisemitism in order to legitimize and traffic in today’s dominant form of Jew-hatred: antizionism. This cover is further amplified by the rhetorical pairing of antisemitism and Islamophobia in a single breath, a move that appears morally balanced while quietly granting antizionist rhetoric free passage. Because these statements condemn Islamophobia, they often function as a permission slip for antizionism to go unnamed, unchallenged, and unchecked, even as its most active producers today are Islamist movements themselves.Clarifying the complex. Step into my classroom. 

At the crossroads of expanding teachers’ unions, the infiltration of anti-American curricula, and the silencing of dissenting scientists and doctors lies a story that now feels distant but urgent: the closure of schools during COVID. On this episode of Don’t Know Much About, Naya Lekht is joined by filmmaker Natalya Murakhver, whose recent film, 15 DAYS: The Real Story of the Pandemic School Closures, was viewed more than one million times during an exclusive month-long run on X and is now screening across the country.The film has galvanized parents to reclaim agency over their children’s education and health. Driven to expose how governments used the pandemic to consolidate power, Natalya sits down with Naya to discuss not only the making of the film, but a deeper and more urgent question: why parents must never outsource their children’s emotional and academic safety to the state.Although schools have reopened, Naya and Natalya argue that the story of pandemic school closures is far from over. At its core, it is a cautionary tale about state control, the erosion of individual rights, and what happens when families surrender authority over their children to institutions that do not bear the consequences.About our guest: Natalya Murakhver is a co-founder of Restore Childhood, a national nonprofit dedicated to empowering parents to guide their children's upbringing, education, and health. A longtime advocate for children's welfare, she spearheaded efforts against pandemic-era school closures, co-organizing #KeepNYCSchoolsOpen in 2020 and filing a lawsuit to reopen New York City schools for in-person learning. She launched the #MaskLikeAKid campaign in 2021 and collaborated with global experts in 2022 to establish the Urgency of Normal, advocating for a return to pre-COVID childhood norms. Her directorial debut, "15 DAYS: The Real Story of the Pandemic School Closures," has been viewed more than 1 million times in an exclusive month-long run on X and is now screening around the country, galvanizing parents to reclaim their agency in their children's education and health. Parents can host their own screenings and learn more at 15daysfilm.com.Clarifying the complex. Step into my classroom. 

As anti-Jewish violence continues to rise, Jews are increasingly forced to confront a troubling question: how effective are existing laws at protecting them when the community seeks protection and finds few willing to provide it? Against this backdrop, Dr. Naya Lekht is joined by Sarah Ettedgui, a senior corporate mergers and acquisitions lawyer based in Montréal, Québec. Their conversation took place just one day after the terrorist attack targeting Jews at a Chanukah celebration in Sydney, thus lending this episode unmistakable urgency. Drawing on her expertise at the intersection of law and hate speech, Sarah explains how Canada’s anti-hate speech laws are designed to function, and why they are increasingly failing to be enforced amid growing civil antizionist unrest. From there, Naya and Sarah turn to the United States, where the First Amendment sharply constrains the criminalization of hate speech, exposing a legal and moral fault line between the ideals of free expression and the real-world vulnerability of targeted communities.Clarifying the complex. Step into my classroom. 

In this episode, I sit down with Eylon Levy, former spokesman for the State of Israel, to ask, what is the role of a government spokesman, and does every country have one? We begin by examining the function of state advocacy, public diplomacy, and crisis communication, separating myth from reality in how nations speak for themselves on the world stage.From there, the conversation widens to the deeper challenge facing Israel today. We argue that advocacy cannot remain reactive or limited to fact-checking and image repair. Instead, it must pivot toward confronting the ideological forces that fuel anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hostility, particularly the belief systems that distort moral language, weaponize grievance, and normalize demonization. I conclude with a reflective note: Who are our heroes today? Eylon names Abba Eban, who spoke ten languages fluently! Eylon recounts the legend that when Eban expressed interest in becoming Israel’s prime minister, Golda Meir quipped, “Of which country?”—a remark that captured Eban’s legendary diplomacy and global stature. His mastery of moral clarity, eloquence, and restraint offers a model of leadership and courage that feels both historic and urgently relevant today, laying bare that Israel was and continues to be the solution, not the problem, facing our world. About the guest: Eylon Levy is a former Spokesman for the State of Israel, who became one of the most globally recognized voices for Israel in the October 7 War. During the war, he gave over 600 interviews to international media outlets, earning him praise from President Trump for his “words of wisdom.” His press conferences from the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office were broadcast live globally. He now heads the Spokesoffice, a civil society initiative that advocates for Israel and the Jewish People in international media. He is a regular panelist on Israeli primetime news, and continues to use his major social media presence to advocate for Israel.Clarifying the complex. Step into my classroom. 

On this episode of Don’t Know Much About, Dr. Naya Lekht is joined by Samuel J. Hyde, a fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) and a columnist for The Jerusalem Post. Born in South Africa, Sam recounts his firsthand encounters with what he calls institutional antizionism. It may sound unbelievable, but in South Africa, Hamas maintains official representation: an actual brick-and-mortar office in Cape Town.Sam explains how Hamas, along with other Third World “liberation” terrorist groups, became embedded within the ANC, South Africa’s dominant political party. As Naya and Sam peel back the layers of how South Africa adopted pro-terrorist and anti-Western attitudes, they trace a significant part of the story to the Soviet Union, which exported anti-Western ideology throughout Africa and the Global South.One of the episode’s most striking insights comes when Sam identifies who is truly driving today’s anti-Western, pro-terrorist movements. “These anti-Western movements,” he tells Naya, “were born in the West!” But why? Tune in as Sam shares his research and original analysis on the ideological takeover of Western institutions and whether they can still be saved. Clarifying the complex. Step into my classroom. 

Top-down history often fails to capture the lived experience of individuals, and Naya has long been committed to telling history through personal stories. On this episode of Don’t Know Much About, Dr. Naya Lekht sits down with Leyb Ejdelman, who shares his powerful story of growing up in post-Holocaust Poland. Leyb’s life offers a rare window into how two eras of Jew-hatred—antisemitism and antizionism—intersect within a single individual’s experience. Jews who remained in Poland after the Holocaust made up a tiny minority, yet continued to participate fully in Polish political life. Reflecting on the antisemitism he encountered as a child and the antizionism he experienced in college, Leyb recounts a seldom-told chapter of history: in 1967, Poland’s communist leadership gave Jews just fifteen days to gather their belongings and leave the country, even as antisemitism was officially illegal under Polish law. This is a story you don’t want to miss.Clarifying the complex. Step into my classroom. 

On this episode of Don’t Know Much About, award-winning journalist and storyteller Monica Osborne joins Naya to discuss the difficult decision she’s had to make: leaving Italy amid the alarming rise of antizionism. This conversation was inspired by Monica’s recent piece in the Times of Israel, "Italy's Jews are in Danger," in which she chronicles how quickly Italy has changed and how the normalization of antizionism has placed its Jewish community at risk.On this episode, Monica recounts what she’s seen firsthand: the sweeping spread of antizionist ideology across Italy and, more distressingly, its impact on Jewish children in schools. Drawing parallels to developments in the United States, Monica and Naya explore how the Jewish community can respond, not by retreating, but by exposing antizionism for what it truly is.History leaves no ambiguity: wherever antizionism takes root, Jewish life deteriorates. From the mass exodus of Jews from the Soviet Union and MENA countries to the growing unease among Jews in Western democracies today, the pattern is tragically familiar and urgently demands our attention.Read Monica's piece here. Clarifying the complex. Step into my classroom. 

On this episode of Don’t Know Much About, Naya speaks with Israeli-American writer and award-winning journalist Benjamin Kerstein about his new book, Self Defense: A Jewish Manifesto. The thesis of the book can be summed up in a single declaration: “This far, no further.” It is a call for Jews to stop accepting abuse, to draw firm boundaries, and to look evil directly in the eye, without shame in naming it.This message is especially urgent because, for decades, Jews have been forced into the position of explaining themselves. And it’s no surprise because we are not merely a religious community, nor simply an ethnicity. The world struggles to categorize us. But those who wish to vilify Jews? They are not confused at all. Abusers always know exactly what they are doing.Meanwhile, Jews continue to assume good intentions and show up to the accusation armed with facts and reason. Alfred Dreyfus arrived at his trial with proof of his innocence; yet the verdict was predetermined. The trial was never about truth.Kerstein’s book confronts this dynamic head-on. By diagnosing the American Jewish community’s historically lackadaisical response to Jew-hatred, he gives voice to a shift already unfolding: a refusal to remain passive, a rejection of the old instinct to explain, apologize, or justify. Clarifying the complex. Step into my classroom. 

On this episode of Don’t Know Much About, Dr. Naya Lekht sits down with philosopher, professor, and author Andrew Pessin, one of the earliest Jewish academics to warn about the rise of antizionism within higher education. Pessin reflects on his own “Herzl moment,” the point at which he recognized that antizionism is not a political critique but a modern guise of Jew-hatred. Drawing from personal experience, including being targeted by students and colleagues for his Zionist identity, he reveals what it means to be a Jewish professor navigating academia’s moral inversions.Dr. Lekht brings her own history to the discussion, recalling her early encounters with campus antizionism and her shock at how many Jewish academics refused to name it for what it was. The conversation unfolds as both a diagnosis and a reckoning: how did higher education, once a bastion of free inquiry, become a breeding ground for ideological intolerance? And what hope remains for reclaiming intellectual honesty in the wake of October 7?tcClarifying the complex. Step into my classroom. 

On this episode of Don’t Know Much About, Dr. Naya Lekht asks, Why have so many Jewish and pro-Israel advocacy groups failed to counter the antizionist narrative? While antizionism evolved into a sophisticated campaign of disinformation, Jewish advocacy often treated it as mere misinformation, a problem of mistaken facts rather than deliberate deception.Naya breaks down how this misunderstanding gave rise to “inward advocacy,”  three self-defeating modes of response: “looking at the self” (“This is what a Zionist looks like”), “innovation nation” (branding Israel through progress or diversity), and “setting the record straight” (countering libels with data). Each keeps Jews trapped in a cycle of self-defense, playing right into the abuser’s hands.Instead, Naya calls for “outward advocacy,” a strategy that names and exposes the structure of hate itself. Through historical parallels from the Doctor’s Plot libel to today’s genocide and apartheid libels, Naya shows how antizionism revives ancient tropes in modern form.This episode challenges listeners to rethink what it means to “advocate,” to recognize libels for what they are, and to stop debating a movement whose end goal is not peace, but the erasure of Israel itself.Clarifying the complex. Step into my classroom.