GOLDA Girls

Jewish Father's Day with Ted Deutch

• GOLDA Media • Episode 7

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0:00 | 30:43

GOLDA founder Stephanie Butnick, journalist Gabby Deutch, and Rabbi Diana Fersko chat with a special guest for Father’s Day: Former U.S. Congressman, current American Jewish Commitee CEO, and dad-of-the-pod Ted Deutch.


This week’s Father’s Day-themed Good for the Jews picks: 

Stephanie: A (free) subscription to Sapir for Father’s Day

Gabby: Jewish servicemen and women, especially Gabby’s Pa Bernie. 

Diana: The fathers in the Torah, especially Jacob. 

Ted Deutch: Jewish summer camp.


GOLDA is a Jewish lifestyle destination built around one idea: making Jewish life bright, beautiful, and full of meaning. Subscribe to our newsletter at www.goldaguide.com and follow GOLDA on Instagram at @goldaguide.

GOLDA Mahjong Night is popping up again on Tuesday, June 23 on the Upper East Side and Wednesday, July 15 in Flatiron. These are open play events (no instruction); location will be revealed to attendees the week before the event. Sign up here.

Sign up for Diana’s print newsletter Modern Jewess here, and Gabby’s Substack here. Get Esther’s novel Sisters of Fortune here and Stephanie’s book, The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia, here.

GOLDA Girls is a production of GOLDA Media. The show is executive produced by Ariel Shapiro and edited by POLDHU. 


Sponsors:

GOLDA Girls is presented by Nu Reads, a new Jewish book subscription series curated by the Jewish Book Council that brings remarkable literature straight to your door. Use code NuGolda at checkout for 15% off your subscription. Visit NuReads.org to get started today.


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Stay GOLDA. 


Intro

SPEAKER_05

Hey Golden Gang, we have a special Father's Day episode for you today. But first, there's a new drop from New Reads, our presenting sponsor and the best Jewish book subscription series around. Their latest pick is Homebound by Portia Alon, and I'll be interviewing her on the podcast soon. Subscribe to New Reads today, and don't forget to use our special code to get 15% off your order. Head to Newreads.org. That's n-u-re-a-d-s.org, and use code NewGolda at checkout. That's n-u-g-o-l-d-a. Enjoy the show. Welcome to Golda Girls, the podcast for Jewish women with a lot to say. And as we'll see today, the many people who also enjoy our podcast will get to that. I'm Stephanie Butnik, the founder of the Jewish lifestyle newsletter Golda. I am joined by two of my three co-hosts. We're here with Rabbi Diana Fersko. So happy to be with you. And journalist Gabby Deutsch of Jewish Insider. Hello, everyone. So our fourth co-host, Esther Shahabar, is currently at a nursery school graduation. We demanded photos. She sent them. They are like hilarious, adorable, everything. So we are gonna do this episode without her. We're sending her love, we're sending her all the muzzles. We have a very special guest who we'll get to in a little bit, but I sort of wanted to open this up to the two of you. We talk a lot about the Jewish mother. We've talked about Mother's Day on the show. I feel like our culture is steeped in this Jewish mother stereotype. The Jewish father does not get spoken about a lot. What do we think?

SPEAKER_04

For me, I've seen thousands of Jewish fathers move through life. And I have so much affection for Jewish fathers as a type. I've seen Jewish fathers so dedicated to raising their children Jewish, the pickup, the drop-off, the Shabbat dinner, the Bar Mitzvah celebration, the role of provider and family member, and just commitment to everything we love. So I think we should recast Father's Day as Jewish Father's Day because they hold a special place in my heart.

SPEAKER_03

Maybe the Jewish father stereotype is the Jewish sports dad. And not the dad who plays sports necessarily, although those exist, or the Jewish father who supports his children playing sports, but the Jewish dad who loves sports, who's got the jerseys, who's got their kids doing it from the time that they're young, like that that's like the family culture. And is it Jewish? A little bit.

SPEAKER_05

I love that. And we can't talk about the Jewish sports dad without talking about those moms who are like schlepping their hockey playing kids around the country, like around the tri-state area, whatever three states are near them, they're schlepping them to do athl athletics. But the dad is there too. And I really like that. I think we have this old stereotype. There was this really old joke that didn't actually ring true to me at all, but it was about the kid coming home, getting a part in the play. It's the Jewish dad, and then mom says, go ask them for a speaking role. I don't even know if you guys have heard this. It's just like a really old timey joke. Very carry my purse kind of screen. And it's in a funny way, that actually insults the mother too. It's like a double, it's like a double whammy that makes Jewish mothers look bad. But I think we're actually really past that in a good way. And Jewish parents generally are much more involved. Maybe that's, I guess that's another stereotype. But I do feel like there's, as we now think about what it means to raise Jewish families, I feel like the role of both parents has just become so much more expanded in terms of what we're giving to our children Jewishly. And we're gonna get into that a lot with our guest, who we will get to in a second. Diana, what are you doing? How are you celebrating fathers, husbands?

SPEAKER_04

Yes, all of the above. We are going to the state of New Jersey. The other promised land. Yes. We're having some family time with my husband's family, and it should be a nice day, very traditional, typical on the nose kind of thing.

SPEAKER_05

I love that. And what I like about this year is that the Jewish Food Society has this really, really amazing event called The Great Nosh, and it's on Governor's Island, and they have all of these really fun mashups between like a Jewish restaurant and regular restaurant, and they make special things, and it's like this really fun picnic festival. And this year it's on Father's Day, it's this Sunday. And I think that's such a nice thing to be doing, to be like doing something Jewish on Father's Day. I love it.

SPEAKER_03

It's amazing. I went to the Great Nosh last year. I am devastated to not be going again this year, but I will be in Boca celebrating Father's Day with my father. So I'm excited about that. And we will probably be eating some kind of Jewish food as we do.

SPEAKER_05

I couldn't imagine a better segue

Father's Day with Ted Deutch

SPEAKER_05

to introduce our guest, who is in fact Gabby's dad. It's Ted Deutsch. What? My girlfriend. Girls delighting, what a coincidence. Ted Deutsch, welcome to Golden Girls.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you so much. It is a delight to be with you. And this is really a little bizarre for me, and it's really great at the same time. And I love being here.

SPEAKER_05

You served in Congress for over a decade. Now you run AJC, the American Jewish Committee, but much, much more importantly, in this room, you're Gabby Deutsch's dad. And so it is in that capacity. I want you to know that is why you're here.

SPEAKER_00

I understand completely, and I'm grateful for the opportunity.

SPEAKER_05

I don't think this is overstating it to say I think you're the number one fan of this podcast, but you do have some notes on our tagline, a podcast for Jewish women with a lot to say. Let's start, just get critical right away. Tell us what you really think. We can handle it.

SPEAKER_00

You're missing out on a potentially big new audience, especially on a Father's Day episode. It's the men who enjoy spending time with those Jewish women who have a lot to say, who are the ones who are often sharing in the many things that those women have to say. And I can say benefit from the conversations that happen because they listen to this podcast.

SPEAKER_01

So just a couple thoughts. Take advantage. That's my suggestion.

SPEAKER_05

We all know Gabby, she's this amazing, fearless journalist. She works in the Jewish world. She really obviously is very passionate about that. We hear a lot about going to Jewish camp and just all of these experiences she had. And I wanted to go to the source, half of the source, right? You as her father. Talk to us a little bit about raising a family with strong Jewish values. Obviously, you now work in the Jewish world. Your wife Jill is incredibly active in the Jewish world as well. Tell us about this family that you raised, this home you were creating, and just like the intentionality behind it.

SPEAKER_00

I appreciate the opportunity to talk about home, since we're always so busy talking about everything that happens outside the home. It requires intentionality and it starts, we all bring something to the table. And Jill and I both came from really small Jewish communities that had to work really hard to maintain themselves, and they were really close knit. And that kind of feeling and what it was like to really be together doing Jewish things, living Jewish lives. And that's what we tried to do from not just Shabbat dinners, which were really so important, and not just using those Shabbat dinners to have the kids tell us something good they did during the week, but what they saw all the time and conversations about Israel and conversations about values and just being proudly Jewish. And then supplementing it in all the ways we could, and starting with our synagogue, but then every summer at Camp Rama, which I know comes up on the show from time to time, and as do other Jewish camps, and every week, if I have anything to do with it. You guys know and talk about this over time. What happens is we we try to do this, and at the beginning you try to model it, and then all of a sudden you've got these really remarkable human beings who are forming opinions of their own, and the conversations become weightier and more substantive and more interesting, and they become more interesting than when they were three, and although they were great then too. And then and then suddenly the conversations about Judaism change too. And that's and I think everyone goes about it their own way, but we just tried to start with that really close-knit family that values time being together and especially in Jewish settings. Was that right, Gab? Did we create that?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, fact-check that. Fact check that, Gabby. Yes, Shabbat dinner, all the Jewish things, Saturday morning services at our synagogue, and also at Shabbat Dinner, playing Israeli music and having friends over and running around in circles until we fall over, but the soundtrack was Israeli music. So, yes, all true. Fact-check confirmed for all of it. But I just was gonna say as well, Stephanie was in DC a couple months ago, and we did an event together at the DC JCC because she does sometimes leave New York City, and we're very grateful when she does. We opened it up to questions at the end, and one of the women who was probably around the same age as my parents, and she asked us, the news is so intense. My kids basically want nothing to do with Israel and being Jewish right now. How do I convince them? What I said is when you're raising your kids, you got to do all this stuff together. So confirming everything that my father said, and I think about it, and like I love being Jewish and it's important to me, but would I have gotten there on my own? Probably not, but you're not supposed to. That's not what it is to be like in our community.

SPEAKER_00

And for a community that does really fun things, it's important to remember that too. Although sometimes the fun things aren't always so fun. There was a certain year that we took the kids to Simkatorah, and we'll just say there was maybe a little too much imbibing during and in between the hakaphot. And that scared the kids. That was a bit of a setback that we had to come back from. But being Jewish and loving Israel, it just provides not just something to feel good about, there's just so much to celebrate and there's so much joy. And sometimes I think we lose sight of that.

SPEAKER_04

So I'm very interested in what you said about the interplay between growing up in a small town and being aware that cultivating Judaism requires intention. I think one thing we're seeing in the country right now is Judaism in a lot of places has become vibes. I don't know anything about Judaism, but I feel Jewish because it basically rains bagels in New York City. My bagel Jewish. Right. But in a small town, you're very clear. I am this thing that's different from other people. And I have to, if I want to be like an active Jew, I have to go out and make that for myself. So tell us like where exactly was your small town Judaism? And tell me, as somebody who oversees a broad-based international organization, do you feel a little bit of what I'm feeling? Where there's something really precious, challenging, yes, but also precious about small-town Jewelry that like we need to continue to invest in.

SPEAKER_00

It's really important. I grew up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, marketed as Christmas City USA, you should know. Probably, probably some of the some of the people that you know in in New York, maybe not so many of the listeners of this show, but there are people who would come down to Bethlehem every Christmas season to mail their Christmas cards because of the special Christmas City postal seal. Anyway, yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Oh, I get it because Bethlehem. Uh took me a while, but I Christmas, I'm always a few steps behind on Christmas.

SPEAKER_00

Um Stephanie, on other podcasts, people get that immediately.

SPEAKER_05

Let me just say we are in a niche and we are loving it.

SPEAKER_00

It is really precious to be in a community where there were three Jewish kids in my big public high school, and our Hebrew school class uh a few days a week was the one opportunity that I had to really be together. And then on Shabbat, there were the regulars who came and our old school JCC slash synagogue slash classroom, you know, everything in one place. And you know that you're different. And when you own that and you recognize that you have the opportunity to share that with others, and you see what it's like when they take an interest and you realize, you know, it's on you in a case like that to share it with them and help them understand who you are. It is pretty special. And we should be investing in not just in smaller Jewish communities, but in creating that sense of Jewish community in even in large places where you can make people feel that they're part of something smaller and more intimate and more personal. But I'm not a rabbi, so I have no idea if that works.

SPEAKER_05

But then you raise your kids in Boca, right? I grew up in in Great Neck, the Boca of Long Island, whatever we want to call it. And when I got to college and discovered that there were non-Jews in the world, I said to my mother, I said, OMG mom, like what what happened here? Why did, like, how did I grow up in this place? And she said, I was always one of the only Jews where I grew up. And she's like, I didn't want that for you. And I wanted you to go to a, you want I want you to grow up someplace or where you never felt the way I felt and where you could go to a great public school, right? So she's like, So I found this place. And so I am curious how that experience of your own impacts how you raise your kids. And then also, you when you were in Congress, you really represented one of the most Jewish places on earth, I might say. I guess I'm curious like how that affected you while raising your family and then also in your service work.

SPEAKER_03

I have all these memories when I was a kid of my parents turning to each other, and my mom is from Canton, Ohio, which is also very small Jewish community. And my parents would turn to each other and say, like, can you believe how Jewish it is here? This is what our kids are growing up with and are used to. They moved to Florida, what, 27, 28 years ago, and still they say that to each other. I love that.

SPEAKER_00

Still can't believe it. Just quick aside, Stephanie. My college roommate was from Great Neck. When I got to college, there were exponentially more Jews in my dorm than there were in the city that I grew up in.

SPEAKER_03

And it was a at the University of Michigan, by the way, just for context.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah. Um the other promised land. It was this total sea change. For me, it's the reverse of what you what you described. I couldn't believe that there were all these opportunities to do all the things that I love to do and to do it with Jewish kids. And it was amazing. But the congressional question is such a good one, and I never really thought about it. But for so many of the of my colleagues in Congress, it was like I was still in high school. I was the guy that they came to. I was rabbi, I was in a lot of instances their rabbi for some of these members of Congress who came from places that don't have any Jews at all. And they just knew me. Is that Deutsch is the Jewish guy? I'm gonna, I'm gonna go ask him. And since I was doing that with all of these members of Congress when I was home, it just highlighted the importance of making sure that our family was also sharing with others and modeling and understanding how important it is and what it means to be Jewish.

SPEAKER_03

I'm gonna share a little political background on my father's career that relates to school Jewish conversation. So before he was in Congress, he was in the state senate in Florida, and I was 10 years old when you were running. So correct me if I'm wrong, but his district was Jewish retirement communities. It was literally old Jews. It was Grandpa Alan, Grandma Seal. Yeah, exactly. So when he's running for office for the first time, my siblings and I, who again, my twin sister and I were 10 years old, my brother must have been seven. We would go to be the cute Jewish kids for the old Jewish folks.

SPEAKER_00

What Kathy means is they were dragged to be the cute Jewish kids at the end.

SPEAKER_03

We would go to delis and hand out like flower pots. Oh, I love that. We would do door knocking. Again, what can I say to convince someone to vote for a person? But I guess just show up and be cute. But we would go in Century Village and all these places. That's a word that'll mean something to some listeners of Golden Girls. Oh, we did it. In 2005, when he was running, there was a big hurricane in South Florida called Hurricane Wilma. And it was really bad. I feel like a lot of people don't really remember because Katrina was obviously the much worse hurricane that year. But in South Florida, it was really bad. We were out of school for a while, a lot of damage, et cetera, no electricity. And eventually, my mom's best friend wrote a musical called A Hanukkah Hurricane. My siblings and our friends were drafted. We performed this for the elderly Jews who had made it through this difficult time.

SPEAKER_00

I would like to say the motivations were pure, and we just wanted to provide some entertainment for people who had struggled through the hurricane. But if I can share only with you, if you don't tell anyone else.

SPEAKER_05

Off the record, don't worry, no one's listening.

SPEAKER_00

I had just started running. I was new in politics, so I would just start showing up at places and try to have them welcome me and let me say a few words. And I was talking to the president of the synagogue at Century Village and realized the only way that I could get in there was not to do something political, but something that would be entertaining. And so I enlisted our friend to write this musical, the kids to perform. We got a good Nash to serve to all the people who came. It was literally my first, the Hanukkah Hurricane musical was my first political event. And we learned two things from there. One, when you've got cute kids, you need to use them. That's not really news for anyone. And secondly, use them, of course, in a positive way. Secondly, and this also will not be news to your listeners. You go, you get much further when you provide just a nice Nosh for people. Hopefully a little extra so they can take some home with them when they leave. And there that that was the start of the political career. Thanks to Gabby.

SPEAKER_05

I love that. A good Nosh, cute kids. I want to take us to the present. Each week on the show, we start with something we can't stop thinking about. You are running a very major Jewish organization. You are enmeshed in Jewish professional world, Jewish family life. You think about this stuff all the time. And I just wanted to throw it to you to ask you what can't you stop thinking about right now? What is keeping you up at night?

SPEAKER_00

Well, literally, I want to hearken back to what Gabby said at the top of the show. Literally, what's keeping me up at night is sports. Such a dye.

SPEAKER_03

I was talking about a particular Jewish dad.

SPEAKER_00

Right. Because there is a lot that we all deal with that is really heavy. But sports is a great outlet. And it is true that what Gabby was talking about, Jewish dads who love sports, there's a lot of talk now about the Knicks. I understand that. And I think all that's terrific. But in so many communities, depending upon the team and the year and the sports, there are just a lot of really great moments that that sports create in Jewish families. And as the dad on the show for this Father's Day, it's I think especially true, whether it's baseball games, the local team is doing great, it's even better.

SPEAKER_05

So what are your teams? I had the same question. We gotta know. Who are you rooting for?

SPEAKER_00

Who am I rooting for in the finals?

SPEAKER_05

No, just generally what are your teams?

SPEAKER_00

I grew up in in Pennsylvania, but I've lived in Florida for almost 30 years and I love the teams down here. And one year, the feeling that New York Knicks fans have being in the NBA finals for the first time for so many people in their lifetime. One year, Miami Dolphins fans will feel the same thing when the Dolphins go to the Super Bowl. And I'm just putting that mark, I'm putting that marker down now so that when it happens, 20 years or 30 years from now, you'll have me back and we can talk about how great this episode was when we saw this coming.

SPEAKER_05

So I did ask Gabby's permission to invite you on the show. I think it's funny because you sort of are both operating in similar worlds, right? Gabby covers the Jewish world, you're part of the Jewish world. So can I ask about how we deal with that? Does that come up for either of you in your work? Let's get into it.

SPEAKER_00

Gabby, it's your show.

SPEAKER_03

Sure. Yeah, it is. Yeah, and don't forget it. It's funny when I joined Jewish Insider, which was five years ago, at that time my dad was a member of Congress and I didn't cover Capitol Hill. There was a clear dividing line. And then about a year and a half later, when he went to AJC and stepped into the Jewish world, which obviously he had been active in for a long time, it did create some questions around my own work and the things that I write about. And from the very beginning, I decided and talked about it with our team, a Jewish insider. I don't ever write anything about AJC. I certainly would never write anything about my dad or use him as a source. At the same time, sometimes as a journalist, you write an article that relies on anonymous sources. You're reporting some development in politics or government or whatever, and people are nervous and they won't put their name on it. So you'll say, a official in the Jewish world or an unnamed source, you put that in an article. Someone familiar with the matter. Someone familiar with the matter. That's exactly right. People all the time reach out to me and say, that's so cool. Your dad told you that. Or did your dad is your dad the source for this? And I would never do that. I don't know. There's as a journalist, you want to have this line. At the same time, he's my dad. We go on family vacations. I know Trimble.

SPEAKER_05

I think we heard about them.

SPEAKER_03

The other dad stereotype, by the way, at least applicable to him, is the driving dad. Oh my god, the driving dad. Yes, this is the dad that took you to we dad, right? The we dad?

SPEAKER_05

The we dad salon driving dad. Oh my god, that's so true. The driving dad.

SPEAKER_03

I think it's funny at times, and people say to me all the time, are you related to Ted Deutsch? And that definitely happens more for me than for probably friends of mine in other professions or my brother and my sister. But we make it work, and I think we both care and we both call and fetch to each other sometimes, but it's also fun.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, it is fun. I was waiting for you to get to the point there, guess. Whoa! Which is no, no, no, no, no. No, we don't ever, I am never a source, was the point there. And yeah, we have lots of people. Did I not say that?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, we know.

SPEAKER_00

At this point, for me, I think it's much more the other way. I got a phone call from someone about some big Jewish story, big challenge in his community. And I thought that he was interested in having AJC get involved because it's a pretty significant issue. And I finally called him back and he said, I'm interested in whether you have any thoughts on this. But mostly this would be such a great story for Gabby to write. Then you please reach out to her. And we work really hard to do our work and not have it collide in ways that it shouldn't. I mean, Gabby's a journalist, and I respect that. And there are lots of times where things come up and I wish I had someone that I could turn to and hope that something might get written about it. Unfortunately, it's never my daughter.

SPEAKER_04

I have to say, I think you're doing a very good job at what you're both trying. To do. I myself discovered Jewish Insider just post-October 7th. And I think it was a result of feeling pushed out of many other sources of media. And so I read Gabby every day, not knowing her, not knowing who she was, but becoming very familiar with her byline and feeling like I was almost waiting for it. And then I met her for this podcast. And this was years, years, a couple of years. And then after that, I discovered you were her father. So it was, it was not at all the opposite.

SPEAKER_00

I will say, as a Jewish father, it's amazing. That's the right order. And it's amazing when people come up to me as they do all the time and say, Oh, wait, are you your Gabby's dead?

SPEAKER_05

Your Gabby's dead.

SPEAKER_00

In the grand scheme of things, I'm really proud to have been a member of Congress. And I think the work AJC is doing right now is incredibly important. And I'm I'm so proud to do that work. But being the father of Gabby, Serena, and Cole is absolutely the thing that's the most important of all. She also has been too.

SPEAKER_05

And maybe next time just bring her to Paris with you. That's all we ask for. Since you're here with us on our show, the final segment of each show is really something special. It's good for the Jews. I don't know why I'm telling you what happens on our show. You listen every single week, which we love. We're gonna do a Father's Day themed good for the Jews. And I want to let you open the floor. I want to let Gabby's dad kick us off. What's something

Good for the Jews

SPEAKER_05

that's good for the Jews this week?

SPEAKER_00

We talk about this every single year. It's Jewish summer camp, as has been discussed here and on your program from time to time, just matters so much in so many of our lives. And the only drawback is that in the south, anyway, I guess maybe less so up north, but in the south, the camps start so early that Father's Day always happens when the kids are at camp. And it's a big, it's just a big drawback. And so we started, I don't remember how many years into going to camp gap, but we started what we called fake Father's Day, probably we should have called Jewish Father's Day if we were thinking about it. We all got together, we did all the Father's Day things, which usually meant in our case going to a diner together because that's what Father wanted, and and celebrating with my father-in-law and just having a great time. And we did it before they went to camp. And it was always a really nice send-off for the kids and kickoff to the summer. And if this is the Father's Day edition and there are camps that haven't started yet, then I would encourage your listeners to institute the same holiday.

SPEAKER_05

I love that. And because your family also has Other Mother's Day.

SPEAKER_00

And so I love the, I love like the Deutsch family, the new, we are we celebrate everything, which I really sometimes forget how much, even this early in the life of Golda, the podcast, Golden Girls, how much you know about our family.

SPEAKER_03

We try and get right to the bottom of it.

SPEAKER_00

We love it.

SPEAKER_03

All right, Gabby. Yeah, I'll go next. I'll share something that is not particularly timely, but is relevant on the Father's Day theme. And as part of a bid to perhaps get my father to even cry a little bit on air. Oh crying dad. That's that's definitely a type for him.

SPEAKER_00

But while wearing a sports jersey, go ahead.

SPEAKER_03

That's right. Well, and crying at the result of a sporting event. That's definitely a thing. But what I was going to say, I was going to talk actually just to tell our listeners on Golden Girls a little bit about my dad's dad, who I never met. But we are in 4th of July America 250 season. And he fought in World War II. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge against the Nazis. I I think maybe he's crying. I don't know. We've got camera here. So listen, but good kind, good tears for the listeners. But his dad fought in World War II. He got injured fighting the Nazis and came back to Bethlehem and married my grandma and had a family of five proud Jewish children. And so I never met him, but I think he's good for the Jews. And just something that we as a family have been talking about a little bit around America 250 about Jews who have sacrificed for this country.

SPEAKER_04

I think we're all crying. Yeah, I was gonna say that's so beautiful. My grandfather also fought in World War II, and it was a defining feature of our family. So it's an incredible legacy to carry.

SPEAKER_00

What was his name? What how do you refer to him?

unknown

Me?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

How do I refer to my grandpa? Yeah. Oh, grandpa Mel. Oh, Grandpa Mel.

SPEAKER_00

Grandpa Mel and Pa Bernie, both good for the Jews.

SPEAKER_03

One one really, really quick thing about Pa Bernie to end on, which is that I am apparently named for him. My name is Gabrielle. His name is Bernard. Uh okay. I see some. I'll throw to my dad. Maybe we could get maybe we could finally get the definitive explanation of how you went from Bernard to Gabrielle.

SPEAKER_00

We're looking for a hexher here. My father's Hebrew name was Binyami. Isn't it enough to just acknowledge that connection when I look at my daughter and think of my father?

SPEAKER_04

It's more than enough.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04

Okay, so my good for the Jews is all of the Jewish fathers, or I should say, all of the fathers in the Torah, none of which are perfect, all of which are incredibly messy, none of which we wanted we would want to be like if we could, but all of which we can learn a tremendous amount from. If you're looking for a little Father's Day indulgence, I would say open the book of Bure Sheet, look at what Abraham does. If you're feeling really spicy, read the story of Jacob and you won't regret it.

SPEAKER_03

Do you have a favorite patriarch?

SPEAKER_04

Oh, yeah. What's your power rank is? I mean, of course I do. Of course I do. Be serious. My favorite is Jacob because he is the most out there and does the most incredibly wild things you could ever imagine. And then the rabbis just love him. So I love reading about him. He is fascinating, he's clever, he's intellectual, he's dishonest, he's emotional, he's loving. He it's he's just so human. These figures are just such deep representatives of the human condition. And I never get sick of thinking about it and wondering about it. So yeah, I love the patriarchs, guilty as charged.

SPEAKER_05

Father, we love it. So my good for the Jews. First of all, I have to shout out my dad, Howie Butnik, who you mentioned the driving dad. He used to pick us up from bar mitzvahs in Great Neck. He would pick all the girls up in his big suburban. I feel like every dad had that big the suburban truck, right? You had to drive it around. And then he would take us to the diner and we would all go into the diner. He would wait for us outside. We would all go in and get French toast or whatever. We would have our meal, and then he would drive us all home. And it wasn't until I was older that I realized the sweetness of that gesture, letting us do something slightly grown. It was all very, very safe, letting us feel grown up, but then also knowing that he was gonna drive all of us home after. And he's amazing. We love him so much. But I always am thinking about gifts and what to get people. I can't not. That's my love language. I was at an event this week that was celebrating the fifth anniversary, this Jewish journal called Sapir. And it's such a smart publication. It was so fun to celebrate it. It's such a fabulous publication and a great Father's Day gift. You can sign up for free, sapirjournal.org. And it's a nice gift. Put in your dad, father-in-law, brother, anyone's address in there and sign them up for it. A nice good for the Jews. We love media, we love new media, we love all things Jewish. We love our Jewish dads. Love. All right. Ted Deutsch, thank you for being a guest on Golden Girls. This is incredibly special for us.

SPEAKER_00

This is an unbelievable treat for me. Thanks for having me. I hope I inspire more men to listen to the show. How about that?

SPEAKER_05

What is it?

SPEAKER_00

What's the tagline that we're gonna change it to for certain things?

SPEAKER_05

Jewish women with a lot to say and the men who love to listen.

SPEAKER_00

Love to listen, exactly.

SPEAKER_05

We love that. And Gabby, thank you. Thank you for letting us have your dad on the show and just adding to the conversation. We love your family. We love hearing everything. We love all these stories, and I just love, I love that you guys let us do this. It's honestly magical.

SPEAKER_03

Well, what a treat. We've never done this before. You heard it here first on Golden Girls. We're so excited.

SPEAKER_05

All right, GoldenGirls is production of Golden Media. The show is hosted by me, Stephanie Butnik with Gabby Deutsch, Diana Fersco, and Esther Shahebar. Ariel Shmiro is our executive producer, and we're edited by the team at Poldu. Get more Golda and subscribe to our newsletter at Goldeguide.com. Follow us on Instagram at GoldaGuide. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify,

Credits

SPEAKER_05

and we will send you a Golda sticker. Send a screenshot of your review to high at Goldeguide.com. Happy Father's Day and stay Golda. That's a Golda podcast.

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Diana Fersko

Host
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Esther Chehebar

Host
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Gabby Deutch

Host
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Stephanie Butnick

Host
Contributor

Ted Deutch

Guest