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Every Sunday at 3:00amAbout the Show
Inspired
Inspired is the nation's leading public radio show about faith, ethics and spirituality. Each week we offer you analyses of the big headlines alongside lesser-told stories – those of Orthodox Jewish artists and African-American atheists, Muslim feminists and spiritual seekers. Through these stories, a rough sketch of our country’s religious landscape begins to emerge. It’s a marketplace of beliefs and ideas too complex for sound bites, and too important to ignore.
Just How Jewish is “The Jewish State”?
In late 2014, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu introduced a controversial bill that would officially declare Israel a Jewish state. Many Israelis saw Netanyahu’s proposal as an attack on non-Jews, who make up around 20 percent of the population. But Israel has been calling itself “the Jewish state” since the very beginning–so what did Israel’s founders mean by that, and why is it so controversial? Two experts debate.
We begin with a look at Israel’s government-run system for organ donation, which brings in donors at just a quarter of the rate in the United States. Many doctors worry that the heavy influence of Orthodox Jewish thinking in the country’s legal code is hurting the survival rates of those in need. Produced by Dalia Mortada and featuring Michael Karayanni, Palestinian Israeli and professor of law at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Michael Brenner, German Jew and director of the Center for Israel Studies at American University.
Everything is Spiritual: In the Studio with David Broza
David Broza launched his career in 1977 and is now one of Israel’s best-known musicians and activists. While he doesn’t go to synagogue every week, he finds solace in the quiet stillness of prayer, a practice he first discovered as a rebellious teenager. Now nearly 60, he tells us that “the art of contemplation…has stuck with me til today.”
Israel’s Newest TV Stars: Nice Jewish Boys from a Synagogue Near You
One of the most popular TV shows in Israel right now is a reality singing contest in the spirit of American Idol and The Voice. But the contestants aren’t singing pop songs or trying to win record contracts. They’re singing liturgical music–sacred songs you would hear in religious services. So why has a show about synagogue music captured the imagination of a country where most Jews don’t even go to synagogue? Laura Kwerel has the story.
