Identity/Crisis

For many modern Jews, prayer raises more questions than answers. In this episode, Yehuda Kurtzer reflects on Hartman’s latest limited podcast series Thoughts & Prayers, and explores some of the central questions facing modern Jewish spiritual life: What does prayer do? Is it about God, or about other people? What happens when prayer becomes entangled with politics, identity, and belonging?

 

Drawing on stories and voices from across the series, this special Identity/Crisis episode offers a compelling meditation on prayer as a practice of relationship, responsibility, and Jewish peoplehood.

 

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This episode was originally released on October 13, 2025

 

At a time of unprecedented leaps in technology and ethical questions about artificial intelligence, one scholar seeks answers from an unlikely source — ancient Jewish wisdom.In this episode of Identity/Crisis, Yehuda Kurtzer talks with technology guru, Hartman scholar, and founding Identity/Crisis Producer David Zvi Kalman about the religious and ethical dilemmas AI poses for Jewish life — from sermons written by bots to the erosion of truth and authority. This thoughtful conversation is for anyone wondering whether Judaism can move fast enough to meet technology’s challenges while preserving the core Jewish value of human dignity.

 

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Can a Hollywood blockbuster be the most important piece of Passover liturgy produced in a generation?

 

On this episode of Identity/Crisis, Yehuda Kurtzer sits down with Rabbi Professor Burt Visotzky, Appelman Professor Emeritus of Midrash and Interreligious Studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary and a lead consultant to the makers of The Prince of Egypt. Together they examine the 1998 DreamWorks film as both cultural artifact and sacred text. They unpack the film's interpretive choices — from casting the voice of God to the rewriting of an Oscar-winning lyric — and ask why this movie has quietly entered the Jewish ritual calendar as essential Pesach viewing.

Learn more about our guest here.

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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.

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What do our narratives of heroism do for the Jewish people—and what do they hide?

On this episode of Identity/Crisis, Yehuda Kurtzer sits down with journalist and author Matti Friedman to discuss his new book, Out of the Sky: a story about the Zionist paratroopers sent into Europe during World War II. Together they explore the uneasy relationship between myth and history: how failed missions become national legend, why Jewish heroism became so central to Zionist self-understanding, and what gets lost when real people are turned into symbols.

 

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