Identity/Crisis

What happens when liberal democracies stop seeing dignity as a universal right and begin treating it as something reserved for insiders? On this episode of Identity/Crisis, Yehuda Kurtzer sits down with political philosopher Seyla Benhabib to explore the moral, political, and philosophical stakes of migration, borders, and belonging in America today. Against the backdrop of rising cruelty toward immigrants, asylum seekers, and other vulnerable people, they examine what happens when states retreat from their highest ideals and redraw the boundaries of who counts. Together, they discuss the fragility of human rights, the difference between borders and belonging, and why Jews—shaped by memories of statelessness, displacement, and exclusion—must take these questions seriously. This special live episode of Identity/Crisis was recorded as part of In the Face of Cruelty: Jewish Responsibilities to Neighbors and Strangers, a virtual day of learning on March 12, 2026. You can now sponsor an episode of Identity/Crisis. Click HERE to learn more.  JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS    Here’s more from the Shalom Hartman Institute this week:   Register to hear Masua Sagiv on Get Your Phil

Matti Friedman, journalist and author known for books on Israeli history, discusses his book Out of the Sky about Zionist paratroopers. He explores how heroic myths form and obscure real lives. Conversations cover failed missions turned into legend, why Jewish heroism shaped Zionist identity, and the cost of turning people into symbols.

Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, historian of education and modern Jewish life, discusses teaching Jewish history in a polarized moment. She explores the historian’s public role and the importance of richer storytelling. The conversation centers on education, Jewish identity, and how deeper narratives can shape public understanding.

In the Megillah, Jewish safety depends on proximity to power — passing, hiding, and selectively revealing, and all the fraught calculations that come with minority life. On this episode of Identity/Crisis, Yehuda Kurtzer is joined by Barbara Spectre, founding director of Paideia: The European Institute for Jewish Studies, to explore the story of Purim  through a lens of existential uncertainty and cultural endurance. Drawing on Barbara’s decades of work with emerging European Jewish communities, they examine the pressures to fit in, the costs of standing out, and the tightrope between assimilation and sustaining culture that minorities have walked throughout history. The conversation offers a diasporic lens on power, vulnerability, and the possibility of choosing meaning even, and especially, when certainty is impossible.   You can now sponsor an episode of Identity/Crisis. Click HERE to learn more.  JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS  Here’s more from the Shalom Hartman Institute this week: Watch Donniel Hartman and Abby Pogrebin’s conversation on the war with Iran. Apply or refer a teen you know to the Hartman Teen Fellowship. Register for our virtual day of learning, In the Face of Cruelty: Jewish Responsibilities to Neighbors and Strangers on March 12.

Annie Beyer Chafets, Hartman Institute colleague who attended the rally and shared personal reflections. Tessa Zitter, producer who reported from the Jews Against ICE rally and narrated on-the-ground interviews. They describe why they showed up, the rally’s liturgy and symbols, tensions between nuance and public protest, coalition strategy, and how presence reassures and signals solidarity.

Yehoshua Pfeffer, a rabbi and head of the Iyun Institute focused on Haredi integration, discusses the volatile surge in the Haredi draft debate since October 7. He explores why the IDF is seen as a crucible of Israeli identity. Short, sharp conversations cover fears driving resistance, public anger and moral urgency, models of belonging versus equality, and the limits of coercion in politics.

Hope isn’t optimism—it’s the stubborn decision to keep building even when you can’t see the outcome. On this episode of Identity/Crisis, Yehuda Kurtzer sits down with alumni of Hartman’s Hazon leadership program Ayala Dahan and Yonathan Machlis to talk about the civic work of showing up and how young Israeli activists can draw on hope in the face of political, religious, and communal divides. They explore how a generation builds trust and solidarity and what it means to organize not just against what’s broken, but toward a better society. To learn more about Pathways to Hope, click HERE. To learn more about the Hazon Leadership Initiative, click HERE. You can now sponsor an episode of Identity/Crisis. Click HERE to learn more.  JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS    Here’s more from the Shalom Hartman Institute this week: Register for this summer’s Community Leadership Program or Rabbinic Torah Seminar. Educators, apply now to the Wellspring Summit for Educators!

A probing look at how American attitudes toward immigrants have shifted from welcome to normalized cruelty. Conversations link historical symbols of refuge to modern policy and political silence. The discussion compares democratic responsibilities in the U.S. and Israel and urges a moral boundary between cruelty and compassion.

Shaul Kelner, professor of Jewish Studies and Sociology at Vanderbilt and scholar of transnational Jewish solidarity, discusses how antizionism functions as a movement culture shaping who belongs on the American left. He examines campus practices, activist framing, slogans, Jewish participation, and the need for clearer responses without collapsing every critique of Israel.

Did Yiddish ever really die? On this episode of Identity/Crisis, Yehuda Kurtzer sits down with Rukhl Schaechter, editor of the Yiddish Forverts, to explore the surprising renaissance of the Yiddish language—from new dictionaries and online media to Duolingo learners and Hasidic vernacular. Together they discuss what is drawing people back to the language, how Yiddish carries culture across generations, and why so many Jews are using it to seek connections to their roots in a moment of renewed searching. You can now sponsor an episode of Identity/Crisis. Click HERE to learn more.  JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS