O pinion
overthrow the government.

And it tells the story through
audio — the very same
medium Coughlin himself
once exploited for personal
gain — using archival tapes
of his own words and music
from his own programs, as
well as new, recently unsealed
material from the Archdiocese
of Detroit that sheds more light
on Coughlin’s tactics.

The podcast also charts my
journey of correspondence
with the Shrine itself, and my
conversations with its spiri-
tual leaders who have found
very different ways to grapple
with their founder’s legacy.

Produced with Tablet Studios,
the limited series premiered
on Oct. 5.

Though there have been
biographies of Coughlin in
the past, my hope is that this
podcast will be something
different: an attempt to reckon
with his legacy through a
modern lens. The world he
created has paved the way
for right-wing talk radio and
social media disinformation,
for the rise of suspiciously
Coughlinesque figures in the
highest corridors of power
in our country and for the
continued and ever-evolving
demonization of Jews.

I began
work on
“Radioactive” in early 2017, a
time when many people were
starting to openly debate
the potential of American
demagogues to shape our
politics and distort our society,
and I believe that every step
of his story is fraught with
implications for our collective
future. I hope my exploration
of the topic can shine some
light on where figures like
Father Coughlin come from…
and how they can be stopped. l
Andrew Lapin is JTA’s managing
editor for local news. JTA was not
involved in the production of the
“Radioactive” podcast. This piece
first appeared on JTA.

www.jewishexponent.com JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Sisters Clash Over Intermarriage, Manage to
Remain Family Despite the Turmoil
BY RACHEL HARTMAN
MY SISTER AND I grew up in
a small settlement surrounded
by Arab villages in the disputed
West Bank. We have ended
up, however, in very different
places. I am pursuing a Ph.D. in
social psychology, studying the
science of moral understanding
and how it can be leveraged to
bridge divides. My sister is an
activist and full-time employee
at an Israeli organization
that strictly opposes personal
relationships, especially
romantic ones, between Jews
and non-Jews.

My research focuses on
bridging divides, but I am
somewhat at a loss for how
to traverse the widening gulf
between my sister and me.

She faces a similar dilemma
— she is becoming increas-
ingly (in)famous in Israel for
her rhetoric against intermar-
riage while her own sister is ...

marrying someone who is not
Jewish. Conflict, of one form or
another, has defined our entire
lives. Our family moved from
the United States to a settle-
ment in the West Bank when
I was 5. We used to stop by
Palestinian watermelon
stands on our way back from
Jerusalem. My brother became
friends with the Arab workers
who built our home.

At the turn of the millen-
nium, everything changed
and this sense of peaceful
coexistence was gone. Riots
broke out in Jerusalem, the
West Bank and Gaza. My father
bought bullet-proof vests for us
to wear when we had to travel
that same road to Jerusalem.

The watermelon stands were
gone. In their place, children
threw rocks at cars that drove
by. Two teenagers from our
town went for a hike and never
returned. Their bodies were
found in a cave, mutilated
beyond recognition. We
grieved, then grew angry. I was
keenly aware of the Jewish side
of the conflict: We were the
rightful occupants of the land;
they were our enemy. We were
righteous; they were evil.

team, gathering data to inform
the peace negotiations between
Israel and the Palestinian
Authority. Aspects of intel-
ligence-gathering may be
morally questionable, but it
gave me the unique opportunity
to come as close as possible to
reading another person’s mind.

We spent long hours learning
everything about the “enemy”
only to discover that they ate,
slept, fought and loved just like
we did. There was a wide gap
between my family’s beliefs
about the enemy’s thoughts
and their actual thoughts.

My experiences growing up
in the midst of an ongoing
conflict fraught with violence
and political
volatility together, she is working hard to
keep them apart. She works for
Lehava, which means “flame”
in Hebrew, but in this case is
also an acronym for the Hebrew
phrase “For the Prevention
of Assimilation in the Holy
Land.” Lehava fights to prevent
“relationships between Jewish
girls and Arabs, non-Jews,
and foreign workers.” Lehava
has been described on several
occasions as a far-right and
Jewish supremacist group,
and elected officials in Israel
have embarked on the process
of declaring it a terrorist
organization. Given my sister’s chosen
career path, telling her that
my non-Jewish partner had
Given my sister’s chosen career path, telling her that my non-Jewish
partner had proposed was ... difficult. She had previously told me (on
national television) that she would be happy if he broke up with me,
since then there would be a chance of me marrying a Jewish guy.

Needless to say, she refuses to come to the wedding.

As a child I was unschooled.

My mother was your typical
“hippie liberal all-natural
health nut” when we lived in
the United States. Over time,
however, my mother, and the
rest of my family, became less
and less liberal.

At 15, I enrolled myself
into a Jerusalem high school.

The narratives in my classes
conflicted with my political
and religious upbringing.

I began to understand there
were two sides to the story.

After high school, I worked at
a store where my closest friend
was Palestinian. We shared
lunches and gossiped about
our co-workers, and through
our interactions I realized how
prejudiced I had been.

Months later, in the
military, I led an intelligence
JEWISH EXPONENT
motivated me to work on
bringing people together.

Whether the conflict is between
Israelis and Palestinians, Black
and white people, or liberals
and conservatives, I’m looking
for ways to move beyond
dehumanization and toward
empathy and compassion.

My youngest sister, who
was born a few months before
the second intifada broke out
and has known nothing but
conflict her entire life, has
chosen a different path. Rather
than resolving to bring people
proposed was ... difficult. She
had previously told me (on
national television) that she
would be happy if he broke up
with me, since then there would
be a chance of me marrying a
Jewish guy. Needless to say, she
refuses to come to the wedding.

The only solution I have is
to try and pull her in, rather
than push her away. As painful
as it is to hear her talk about
how my actions are a threat to
the Jewish nation, I know that
See Hartman, Page 22
STATEMENT FROM THE PUBLISHER
We are a diverse community. The views expressed in the signed opinion columns and let-
ters to the editor published in the Jewish Exponent are those of the authors. They do
not necessarily reflect the views of the officers and boards of the Jewish Publishing
Group, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia or the Jewish Exponent. Send
letters to letters@jewishexponent.com or fax to 215-569-3389. Letters should be a
maximum of 200 words and may be edited for clarity and brevity. Unsigned letters will not be
published. OCTOBER 7, 2021
13