Can a story change history? Award-winning author and journalist Matti Friedman joins Touro University President Dr. Alan Kadish to discuss his new book Out of the Sky: Heroism and Rebirth in Nazi Europe and the power of storytelling in shaping Jewish history, Zionism, and Israel. Friedman recounts the remarkable 1944 mission of 32 young Jews who escaped Nazi Europe for British Mandate Palestine and then volunteered to parachute back behind enemy lines, including poet Hannah Senesh, who became one of Israel’s most enduring heroes. Though the mission failed militarily, Friedman argues its true success was narrative: it helped forge a new Jewish story of courage and agency that inspired the building of a state.

Touro University President Dr. Alan Kadish sat down with U.S. District Court Judge Roy Altman to discuss his new book Israel on Trial and the legal, historical, and moral arguments surrounding Israel, Zionism, antisemitism, genocide claims, apartheid accusations, and international law. Judge Altman shares his remarkable family history of survival through the Holocaust, immigration, and public service before examining the evidence behind Israel’s legitimacy as a state, the Jewish people’s indigenous connection to the land of Israel, and the misuse of legal terminology in modern political discourse. Blending history, law, personal narrative, and current events, this compelling conversation explores truth, justice, democracy, and the dangers of misinformation in today’s world.

Activist Rawan Osman shares her remarkable journey with Touro Talks guest host Sam Levine. Growing up in Lebanon, Osman was immersed in anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric. Today, she is a "recovering antisemite" and a powerful voice advocating for a Lebanon free of Hezbollah, an alternative future for the Middle East and coexistence between Arabs and Jews. Shaped by an education, media narratives and political ideology that blurred distinctions between Jews, Israelis, and Zionists, Osman explains how deeply ingrained beliefs are formed—and how one unexpected human encounter in France challenged everything she thought was true.