S19E4: SAPIR Conversations with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew

Jack Lew was drawn to a mission of service well before becoming the 76th U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. As a kid in Forest Hills, Queens, he stepped up as his high school’s inaugural Earth Day coordinator. Inspired by a local rabbi, he supported low-income housing in his hometown. Raised in a home committed to Jewish life and Zionism but also social justice and the community around him, Lew never wavered from an equal sense of responsibility to both worlds. In fact, it’s that very outlook that led him to a storied career in public service without ever sacrificing his Jewish faith and practice.   On January 13th, Rabbi David Wolpe sat down with Secretary Lew for an in-depth SAPIR Conversation. Together, they reflected on moments both personal and historic: the time President Clinton left Lew a voicemail on Shabbat; the pivotal conversation he had with President Obama before accepting the position of White House Chief of Staff; the experience of serving as U.S. Ambassador to Israel weeks after October 7th. They also discussed the future of U.S. military assistance to Israel, the fate of American Jewry, and – this being a SAPIR issue on Money – his understanding of the ideal form of Tzedaka, or charity.   Read the SAPIR essays referenced in this SAPIR Conversation, including:   Ilana Horwitz’s essay on Poverty and Jewish Community: https://sapirjournal.org/money/2025/poverty-and-jewish-community/   Jordan Chandler Hirsch’s essay on The Need for a Jewish Sovereign Wealth Fund: https://sapirjournal.org/money/2025/the-need-for-a-jewish-sovereign-wealth-fund/   Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): ⁠https://uppbeat.io/t/theo-gerard/monsieur-groove 

Economic vulnerability affects 1 in 4 American Jews, but it doesn’t affect all of them equally, writes Tulane University sociologist Ilana Horwitz in her recent SAPIR article, “Poverty and Jewish Community.” The difference between a life of temporary hardship and one of permanent poverty may, in some circumstances, boil down to whether a person or family is embedded deeply in Jewish life. Why is that the case? What does this finding reveal about the invisible safety net of Jewish belonging? And what are the practical interventions at our disposal to help alleviate financial strain? Horwitz joined Managing Editor Phil Getz for an in-depth discussion about poverty and the American Jewish community. Read Ilana Horwitz’s essay: https://sapirjournal.org/money/2025/poverty-and-jewish-community/ Watch the virtual discussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ueBdD9TltQ Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/theo-gerard/monsieur-groove

American Jewry has long thrived in a society built on institutions. But today, we live in an anti-establishment age, where subtlety fuels suspicion and open displays of power are seemingly valued for their authenticity. In this environment, should America’s Jews think and act like a state, as Jordan Chandler Hirsch argues in his essay “The Need for a Jewish Sovereign Wealth Fund”? Or is this proposed cure an abandonment of the features that have long defined American exceptionalism — and the Jewish experience within it, as Roger Zakheim argues in response.On December 8, SAPIR Editor-in-Chief Bret Stephens moderated a conversation on the future of the American Jewish community in an anti-institutional era with Jordan Chandler Hirsch, senior counselor to the CEO of Palantir Technologies, and Roger Zakheim, director of the Ronald Reagan Institute Roger Zakheim.Read Jordan Chandler Hirsch’s essay: https://sapirjournal.org/money/2025/the-need-for-a-jewish-sovereign-wealth-fund/Read Roger Zakheim’s rebuttal: https://sapirjournal.org/letters/against-a-jewish-sovereign-wealth-fund-renewing-americas-covenantal-promise/Watch the virtual discussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g51WmzVsNwMusic from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/theo-gerard/monsieur-groove

The assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin 30 years ago, in November 1995, marked a major turning point in the prospects for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Now, three decades later, the likelihood of a safe and secure Israel coexisting alongside an independent Palestinian state appears increasingly more remote.Despite growing international pressure, Israeli support for a two state-solution continues to drop while skepticism that peace is achievable continues to grow. In the shadow of the October 7th attacks and a two-year long war in Gaza, is lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians possible? Is There a Realistic Future for the Two-State Solution?On November 17, SAPIR hosted a debate on this question on the plenary stage of the Jewish Federations of North America's General Assembly in Washington, D.C.Speakers:Tamar Ish-Shalom, Israeli journalist & host of Jewish CrossroadsDr. Michael Koplow, Chief Policy Officer, Israel Policy ForumJohn Podhoretz, Editor, Commentary MagazineMusic from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/track/theo-gerard/monsieur-groove

Of Israel’s many achievements since October 7, none perhaps was as unforeseen as the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange reaching an all-time high two years since the start of the war. While this reflected the resilience and dynamism of the start-up nation, there are troubling signs ahead for Israel’s economy: the high cost of war; stagnant economic sectors; bureaucratic malaise; high population growth; and more. Can Israel make the adjustments and double its GDP over ten years? Can Jews in the Diaspora help it get there?Israeli venture capitalist Michael Eisenberg joined SAPIR Editor-in-Chief Bret Stephens for a conversation about what it will take for Israel to become a trillion-dollar economy.Watch this SAPIR Conversation on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S4BQEQynhM Read Michael Eisenberg’s essay: https://sapirjournal.org/money/2025/building-israels-trillion-dollar-economy/ Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/theo-gerard/monsieur-groove

Why does the stereotype about Jews and money endure? Is Judaism a contractual or covenantal religion? Is Jewish life today too expensive? Should the cost of Jewish education be offset by philanthropic giving or public funding?  Join Bret and Rabbi Wolpe for a wide-ranging SAPIR Conversation on these questions and more, which are featured in the newly released issue of the journal on Money. Dive into the issue at sapirjournal.org/issues/money.Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): ⁠https://uppbeat.io/t/theo-gerard/monsieur-groove

In the shadow of the war in Gaza, shifting ideological fault lines and coalitions are redefining the boundaries of progressive politics nationwide. The normalization of rhetoric on the Left that questions Israel’s legitimacy has become a source of growing discomfort, if not concern, for Zionists across the political spectrum. Likewise, actions of the Israeli government – before and since the recent war – have prompted those on the Left to reevaluate their association with and support for Israel. Nowhere is this phenomenon more pressing than in New York City, home to more Jews than any city in the world. On both a local and national level, many are asking: can one be both proudly Zionist and firmly on the Left, or has the divide grown too wide to bridge?Moderated by SAPIR Editor-in-Chief Bret Stephens, this second of the SAPIR Debates featured four distinguished voices:Kathy E. Manning, board chair of the Democratic Majority for Israel and former two-term member of the U.S. House of RepresentativesYehuda Kurtzer, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute and host of the Identity/Crisis podcastJames Kirchick, contributing opinion writer to the New York Times and best-selling author of two booksBatya Ungar-Sargon, author of three books, including the forthcoming The Left and the Jews, and host of Batya! on NewsNationThe SAPIR Debates is a new series that features a spirited but civil exchange of views on the most consequential issues facing the American Jewish community.Watch this SAPIR Debate on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g-ftd9gNjwRead SAPIR essays relevant to the Debate:To Err is Human; To Disagree, Jewish - by Rabbi David Wolpe: https://sapirjournal.org/cancellation/2022/to-err-is-human-to-disagree-jewish/Zionism and Liberalism in America - by Michael Koplow: https://sapirjournal.org/resilience/2024/zionism-and-liberalism-in-america/Pro-Israel Progressives with Rep Ritchie Torres: https://sapirjournal.org/friends-and-foes/2024/pro-israel-progressives/Saving Israel for Democrats - by Ronald Radosh: https://sapirjournal.org/zionism/2022/saving-israel-for-democrats/Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/theo-gerard/monsieur-groove

Amid a troubling resurgence of antisemitism, Princeton scholar Robert P. George declared in his most recent SAPIR essay that “any attempt to deny or undermine God’s unique and mysterious bond with the Jewish people … is antithetical to Christianity.” At a moment when the concept of Jewish chosenness is increasingly uncomfortable to discuss, how should we approach it with honesty and integrity — especially across lines of faith? George recently joined SAPIR Editor-in-Chief Bret Stephens for a virtual conversation.Read Robert P. George's piece, “An Unbreakable Covenant,” here: https://sapirjournal.org/chosenness/2025/an-unbreakable-covenant/Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/theo-gerard/monsieur-groove

What does the process of conversion — joining the Jewish people— reveal about the meaning of chosenness? In his recent essay for SAPIR, Rabbi Adam Mintz writes that “we, Jews by birth and Jews by choice, are all destined for the same story.” Similarly, Rabbi Noa Kushner writes that “it is possible that to be chosen is not only a designation at birth or conversion.” They recently joined Rabbi David Wolpe for a conversation.Watch this SAPIR Conversation on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JspDKWCYs7Q Read Adam Mintz’s essay: https://sapirjournal.org/chosenness/2025/the-paradoxes-of-conversion/ Read Noa Kushner’s essay: https://sapirjournal.org/chosenness/2025/american-sinai/ Music from #Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/theo-gerard/monsieur-groove

“For many of its secular pioneers,” writes former Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren in his most recent SAPIR essay, “Zionism was a revolt against chosenness. It was an attempt to become a nation like every other.” Today, especially after October 7, many Israelis are reevaluating this very notion and wondering: is the Jewish state chosen, and if so, for what purpose?Ambassador Oren joined SAPIR Editor-in-Chief Bret Stephens for a searching discussion on Israel’s identity and destiny in a post-October 7 world. This SAPIR Conversation was recorded live on Monday, September 8th. Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/theo-gerard/monsieur-groove