Welcome to Times Will Tell, the weekly podcast from The Times of Israel. This week we’re traveling to Europe and speaking with two impressive individuals.

First, we'll hear a short chat with 29-year-old Swedish composer Jacob Mühlrad, who, just ahead of the January 27th International Holocaust Remembrance Day, is releasing his a-cappella choir piece, “Kaddish” on the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label. Based on texts written by Elie Wiesel and recorded testimony from Mühlrad's Holocaust survivor grandfather, the piece is a spellbinding wall of sound. (Stick around until the end of the program when we’ll play the piece in full.)

Next, we speak with Brussels-based Katharina von Schnurbein, who is the first European Commission Coordinator on Combatting Anti-Semitism. We speak about the IHRA working definition of anti-Semitism, and about some of its practical — and problematic — results.

Images: Composer Jacob Mühlrad (Andre Garcia); European Commission Coordinator on Combatting Anti-Semitism Katharina von Schnurbein (courtesy)

Welcome to Times Will Tell, the weekly podcast from The Times of Israel. This week we&rsquo;re traveling to Europe and speaking with two impressive individuals.
First, we'll hear a short chat with 29-year-old Swedish composer Jacob M&uuml;hlrad, who, just ahead of the January 27th International Holocaust Remembrance Day, is releasing his a-cappella choir piece, &ldquo;Kaddish&rdquo; on the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label. Based on texts written by Elie Wiesel and recorded testimony from M&uuml;hlrad's Holocaust survivor grandfather, the piece is a spellbinding wall of sound. (Stick around until the end of the program when we&rsquo;ll play the piece in full.)
Next, we speak with Brussels-based Katharina von Schnurbein, who is the first European Commission Coordinator on Combatting Anti-Semitism. We speak about the IHRA working definition of anti-Semitism, and about some of its practical &mdash; and problematic &mdash; results.
Images: Composer Jacob M&uuml;hlrad (Andre Garcia); European Commission Coordinator on Combatting Anti-Semitism Katharina von Schnurbein (courtesy)

A weekly exploration of one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World right now.

A weekly exploration of one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World right now.

What Matters Now

HEAR a 29-year-old composer's 'Kaddish' and defining the oldest hatred with EU anti-Semitism czar

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Andrew Fox.

Fox, a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, served in the British Army from 2005 to 2021, completing three tours in Afghanistan, including one attached to the US Army Special Forces. At the transatlantic think tank, he specializes in Defense, the Middle East, and disinformation. He holds degrees in Law and Politics, Modern War Studies and Psychology.

This week, Fox and a team of researchers published a report that made international headlines titled, "Questionable Counting: Analysing the Death Toll from the Hamas-Run Ministry of Health in Gaza."

According to the report, the Palestinian death toll for the Gaza war appears to include thousands of people who died of natural causes as well as incorrect figures — partly in an effort to inflate the toll of women and children.

Worse, international media outlets are too quick to accept the figures from terror group Hamas -- usually without the scrutiny and rigor that are applied when reporting numbers supplied by Israel. The Hamas-run Health Ministry's figures, the report claims, are being manipulated for propaganda needs.

The Gaza health ministry, under Hamas, “has systematically inflated the death toll by failing to distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths, over-reporting fatalities among women and children and even including individuals who died before the conflict began,” the report said.

We discuss the report and hear Fox's assessment of how the IDF's operations in Gaza have played out, as well as the one arena Israel has neglected -- the fight for world opinion.

So this week, we ask London-based defense analyst Andrew Fox, what matters now.

What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. 

IMAGE: The IDF operates in the southern Gaza Strip's Rafah in this hand out image from December 16, 2024. (IDF)

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Andrew Fox.
Fox, a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, served in the British Army from 2005 to 2021, completing three tours in Afghanistan, including one attached to the US Army Special Forces. At the transatlantic think tank, he specializes in Defense, the Middle East, and disinformation. He holds degrees in Law and Politics, Modern War Studies and Psychology.
This week, Fox and <a href="https://fifty.global/">a team of researchers</a> published a report that made international headlines titled, "<a href="https://henryjacksonsociety.org/publications/questionable-counting/">Questionable Counting</a>: Analysing the Death Toll from the Hamas-Run Ministry of Health in Gaza."
According to the report, the Palestinian death toll for the Gaza war appears to include thousands of people who died of natural causes as well as incorrect figures &mdash; partly in an effort to inflate the toll of women and children.
Worse, international media outlets are too quick to accept the figures from terror group Hamas -- usually without the scrutiny and rigor that are applied when reporting numbers supplied by Israel. The Hamas-run Health Ministry's figures, the report claims, are being manipulated for propaganda needs.
The Gaza health ministry, under Hamas, &ldquo;has systematically inflated the death toll by failing to distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths, over-reporting fatalities among women and children and even including individuals who died before the conflict began,&rdquo; the report said.
We discuss the report and hear Fox's assessment of how the IDF's operations in Gaza have played out, as well as the one arena Israel has neglected -- the fight for world opinion.
So this week, we ask London-based defense analyst Andrew Fox, what matters now.
What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/times-will-tell/id1067953235?mt=2">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5Hqgs4Cy5VkdXB51eW2jjd">Spotify</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnR6FOcOvFdMHmmVLVJUNrE198zXKQWna">YouTube</a> or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by <a href="https://thepodwaves.com/">the Pod-Waves.</a>&nbsp;
IMAGE: The IDF operates in the southern Gaza Strip's Rafah in this hand out image from December 16, 2024. (IDF)

What Matters Now to Andrew Fox: Cynical use of inflated death figures from Gaza

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Middle East expert Ksenia Svetlova.

As the rebel factions in Syria continue to fight to wrest control -- from the fallen Assad regime as well as from each other -- one of the ways to measure how the country will emerge is to look at the factions' treatment of women: On Tuesday, for example, the Biden administration said it will recognize and support a new Syrian government that renounces terrorism, destroys chemical weapons stocks and protects the rights of minorities and women.

In 2020, Svetlova published a Hebrew-language book, "On Heels in the Middle East," depicting her travels throughout the Middle East as a female (and sometimes overtly Jewish) journalist. Born in Moscow, Svetlova immigrated to Israel at the age of 14. She is a journalist and analyst and was a member of the 20th Knesset for the Zionist Union party. Today she is the executive director of ROPES, which works to connect "forward-thinking Israeli and Palestinian emerging leaders with like-minded peers from across the Middle East and North Africa."

In our conversation, she draws on her experiences reporting from inside the region's Islamic countries to evaluate and rank their women's rights and freedoms. We discuss which country most supports women's rights -- Tunisia -- and the many countries that vie for the least free.

Later, we hear Svetlova's thoughts on future Russian influence in Syria and the region.

So this week, as all eyes are on Syria and the rebels that hope to rule it, we ask Ksenia Svetlova, what matters now.

What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. 

IMAGE: A woman holding a rifle borrowed from a Syrian opposition fighter poses for a picture, next to a government forces tank that was left on a street, at the Umayyad Square in Damascus, Syria, December 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Middle East expert <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/writers/ksenia-svetlova/">Ksenia Svetlova</a>.
As the rebel factions in Syria continue to fight to wrest control -- from the fallen Assad regime as well as from each other -- one of the ways to measure how the country will emerge is to look at the factions' treatment of women: On Tuesday, for example, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-says-will-recognize-new-syrian-regime-if-it-renounces-terror-supports-women/">the Biden administration said</a> it will recognize and support a new Syrian government that renounces terrorism, destroys chemical weapons stocks and protects the rights of minorities and women.
In 2020, Svetlova published a Hebrew-language book, "On Heels in the Middle East," depicting her travels throughout the Middle East as a female (and sometimes overtly Jewish) journalist. Born in Moscow, Svetlova immigrated to Israel at the age of 14. She is a journalist and analyst and was a member of the 20th Knesset for the Zionist Union party. Today she is the executive director of <a href="https://www.ropes.org/team">ROPES</a>, which works to connect "forward-thinking Israeli and Palestinian emerging leaders with like-minded peers from across the Middle East and North Africa."
In our conversation, she draws on her experiences reporting from inside the region's Islamic countries to evaluate and rank their women's rights and freedoms. We discuss which country most supports women's rights -- Tunisia -- and the many countries that vie for the least free.
Later, we hear Svetlova's thoughts on future Russian influence in Syria and the region.
So this week, as all eyes are on Syria and the rebels that hope to rule it, we ask Ksenia Svetlova, what matters now.
What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/times-will-tell/id1067953235?mt=2">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5Hqgs4Cy5VkdXB51eW2jjd">Spotify</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnR6FOcOvFdMHmmVLVJUNrE198zXKQWna">YouTube</a> or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by <a href="https://thepodwaves.com/">the Pod-Waves.</a>&nbsp;
IMAGE: A woman holding a rifle borrowed from a Syrian opposition fighter poses for a picture, next to a government forces tank that was left on a street, at the Umayyad Square in Damascus, Syria, December 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

What Matters Now to Ksenia Svetlova: Women are the canary in the Mideast coal mine

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with ToI senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur.

Former Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, an Iranian career diplomat who participated in the previous round of nuclear talks, is currently Iran's Vice President for Strategic Affairs since August 2024. In that role, he wrote an op-ed in the bi-monthly Foreign Affairs journal. The century-old magazine focuses on international relations and policy and can serve as a platform to float ideas and hear reasoned responses.

In Zarif's article, "How Iran Sees the Path to Peace," among the arguments raised was the idea of a "referendum" voting on the governance of the territory that largely includes the Jewish state.

"Iran can continue to play a constructive role in ending the current humanitarian nightmare in Gaza and work with the international community to pursue a lasting and democratic solution to the conflict," writes Zarif.

"Iran will agree to any solution acceptable to Palestinians, but our government believes that the best way out of this century-long ordeal would be a referendum in which everyone living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea — Muslims, Christians, and Jews — and Palestinians driven to diaspora in the twentieth century (along with their descendants) would be able to determine a viable future system of governance. This is in line with international law and would build on the success of South Africa, where an apartheid system was transformed into a viable democratic state."

To Rettig Gur, Zarif's op-ed -- filled with posturing and warnings to the Western world -- is a sign of Iran's faltering regime and he explains why.

So this week, we discuss this new era of Iranian potential weakness and how the West needs to handle it wisely, as Haviv Rettig Gur weighs in on what matters now.

What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.

IMAGE: Masoud Pezeshkian, center, flashes a victory sign after casting his vote in Iran's presidential election as he is accompanied by former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, left, at a polling station in Shahr-e-Qods near Tehran, Iran, July 5, 2024. (AP/Vahid Salemi)

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with ToI senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur.
Former Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, an Iranian career diplomat who participated in the previous round of nuclear talks, is currently Iran's Vice President for Strategic Affairs since August 2024. In that role, he wrote an op-ed in the bi-monthly Foreign Affairs journal. The century-old magazine focuses on international relations and policy and can serve as a platform to float ideas and hear reasoned responses.
In Zarif's article, <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/iran/how-iran-sees-path-peace">"How Iran Sees the Path to Peace,"</a> among the arguments raised was the idea of a "referendum" voting on the governance of the territory that largely includes the Jewish state.
"Iran can continue to play a constructive role in ending the current humanitarian nightmare in Gaza and work with the international community to pursue a lasting and democratic solution to the conflict," writes Zarif.
"Iran will agree to any solution acceptable to Palestinians, but our government believes that the best way out of this century-long ordeal would be a referendum in which everyone living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea — Muslims, Christians, and Jews — and Palestinians driven to diaspora in the twentieth century (along with their descendants) would be able to determine a viable future system of governance. This is in line with international law and would build on the success of South Africa, where an apartheid system was transformed into a viable democratic state."
To Rettig Gur, Zarif's op-ed -- filled with posturing and warnings to the Western world -- is a sign of Iran's faltering regime and he explains why.
So this week, we discuss this new era of Iranian potential weakness and how the West needs to handle it wisely, as Haviv Rettig Gur weighs in on what matters now.
What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/times-will-tell/id1067953235?mt=2">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5Hqgs4Cy5VkdXB51eW2jjd">Spotify</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnR6FOcOvFdMHmmVLVJUNrE198zXKQWna">YouTube</a> or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by <a href="https://thepodwaves.com/">the Pod-Waves.</a> 
IMAGE: Masoud Pezeshkian, center, flashes a victory sign after casting his vote in Iran's presidential election as he is accompanied by former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, left, at a polling station in Shahr-e-Qods near Tehran, Iran, July 5, 2024. (AP/Vahid Salemi)

HEAR a 29-year-old composer's 'Kaddish' and defining the oldest hatred with EU anti-Semitism czar

In 1 playlist(s)

What Matters Now

Social links

Follow podcast

Recent clips