Welcome to What Matters Now, a new weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now.

Wednesday night on primetime news, Israeli President Isaac Herzog presented his long-awaited "People’s Framework," a platform meant to be the basis for working toward a compromise on the judicial overhaul.

A few hours later, the platform was rejected by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and judicial overhaul legislation continues apace.

This week on What Matters Now, we learn how the new legislation could affect issues of religion and state. We hear from attorney and Reform Rabbi Uri Regev, the head of Hiddush: For Religious Freedom and Democracy, which describes itself as "a non-denominational, non-partisan Israel-Diaspora partnership uniting people across political and religious spectrums."

Before founding Hiddush 12 years ago, Regev served as president of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, a global umbrella organization of the Progressive, Reform, Liberal and Reconstructionist movements, and was the founding chair and executive director and legal counsel of the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC).

Prophetically, back in 2015, Regev told The Times of Israel -- after facing off and winning a Supreme Court case against the future MK Simcha Rothman, the author of much of the judicial overhaul --  “it starts and ends with people fighting for the Declaration of Independence.”

This week, we hear What Matters Now to religious rights activist Uri Regev.

What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on iTunes, TuneIn, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, PlayerFM or wherever you get your podcasts.

Image: Attorney and Reform Rabbi Uri Regev (far right), head of Hiddush: For Religious Freedom and Equality, in the Israeli Supreme Court. (Courtesy)