IKAR Podcasts

Dr. Shoshan Haran & Rabbi Sharon Brous in conversation.

Her life's work was met with unimaginable tragedy on Oct. 7, 2023, when she was kidnapped from Kibbutz Be'eri and held hostage in Gaza for fifty days alongside her daughter and grandchildren. Despite the murder of her husband and close family members during the attack, Dr. Shoshan Haran has emerged as a powerful global witness. In her book, Mission in Captivity: One Woman's Struggle to Survive and Save Her Family in Gaza, she shares a profound story of survival and resilience that transcends politics.

Unique among all ancient literature, the Torah rejects a world constrained by rigid cause and effect, manifest by honor, affront and appeasement, instead inviting us into a cosmos of freedom and choice, which makes possible apology, forgiveness, and repentance.

⁠Source sheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y2T1DiQxUoOGxy9u526GfyNrkRc_Z3Nx/view?usp=sharing

This is a recording of the Weekly Parashah - Rabbi David Kasher's Torah study class co-sponsored by Hadar and IKAR. Please note that the first few minutes of this week's class were not recorded due to a technical issue. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Hear from Sima Awad and Maayan Inon as they share their journeys towards reconciliation. Sima is a bereaved Palestinian sister whose brother was killed by an Israeli soldier when she was just 3 years old. Maayan is a bereaved Israeli daughter whose parents were both killed on October 7 by Hamas. Witness the transformative power of empathy in the face of devastating violence in Palestine and Israel. Their message that it's possible to hold grief, humanity, and hope at the same time feels especially important right now.

The Cornell 57 has reawakened critical conversations around violence, complicity, and the bystander effect. It also reveals the failure of the dominant stories we tell around gender, subjugation, dehumanization. This is an urgent reminder that another world is possible.