The Chanukah Episode

Chess chat, doughnut debate and remembering Chanukah

For Hayden Cohen’s final episode in season two of the Bagel Podcast he’s getting into the spirit of the Festival of Lights. Susan Polgar, the first female chess grandmaster and real-life Beth Harmon of Netflix's latest hit The Queen's Gambit, chats about overcoming sexism in the chess world as well as her Jewish Hungarian heritage. Gilad Halpern returns to talk through the recent news of the Morocco-Israel peace deal and the split in Israel’s right-wing political party Likud. Rabbi Margaret Jacobi of Birmingham Progressive Synagogue shares Chanukah themed Talmud, renowned Jewish chef Denise Phillips takes us through her tips for latkes and oil, and Bagel Broigus is redubbed the Doughnut Debate as Lindsey Taylor Guthartz, Samuel Lebens and Clive Lawton discuss whether Chanukah should be remembered or celebrated.

Bagel bite: Rabbi Jeremy Gordon

“A good dose of discomfort is almost certainly necessary”

Abbey Road may be synonymous with The Beatles, but it’s also the home of New London Synagogue (NLS). Hayden Cohen caught up with their rabbi, Jeremy Gordon, for the penultimate episode of the Bagel Podcast's run on JR. The pair discuss marriage under Masorti Judaism (Conservative in America) and how it contrasts with the British default that is Orthodox weddings; Ted Chiang stories; and of course NLS’s founder – and one of the most dominant figures of 20th-century British Jewry – Rabbi Louis Jacobs. Note: this interview was conducted in January 2020.

Discover more: newlondon.org.uk and louisjacobs.org.

Bagel Bite: Rabbi Jonathan Romain

“I wanted my children to sit next to a Christian, play football with a Hindu, get detention with a Muslim, walk home with an atheist…”

Dipping in for another bite of the Bagel, Hayden Cohen is joined in this episode by Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain MBE, minister of Maidenhead Reform Synagogue in Berkshire. He is also a writer, broadcaster and founder of the Accord Coalition, a collective of religious groups, humanists, teachers and more working towards inclusive education. The pair met at Limmud 2019 for a robust discussion on the divergent topics of faith schools and assisted dying.