Whoever said history was boring clearly never heard these stories…Welcome to Jewish History Nerds! Join hosts Yael and Schwab each week as they take a dive into some deep cuts of Jewish history. From the Jewish Da Vinci Code to mass suicide pacts, explore true stories that feel larger than life. Be in touch: nerds@unpacked.media
As we continue our series exploring Jews in American history, we're revisiting our episode on Emma Goldman, the revolutionary Jewish anarchist who helped shape feminism, free speech, and the American left. Schwab and Yael dive into the life and legacy of Emma Goldman, and ask what role did Red Emma's Judaism play in shaping her worldview? If you like this show, please rate and write a review wherever you get your podcasts. And be in touch. Write to us at nerds@unpacked.media. This podcast was brought to you by Unpacked, a brand of OpenDor Media. Follow @unpackedmedia on Instagram and check out our videos on youtube and Spotify. Visit jewishlives.org to explore and buy books from the Jewish Lives book series. Use the discount code JLIFE to get a discount. For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out: Soulful Jewish Living Stars of David with Elon Gold Unpacking Israeli History Wondering Jews
She wasn't an immigrant, but Emma Lazarus gave the Statue of Liberty its voice. In Part 2, Schwab and Yael explore how a wealthy poet became a champion for refugees, an early advocate for Jewish nationalism, and the author of the poem that redefined America's most iconic symbol: The New Colossus. The New Colossus By Emma Lazarus Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,With conquering limbs astride from land to land;Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall standA mighty woman with a torch, whose flameIs the imprisoned lightning, and her nameMother of Exiles. From her beacon-handGlows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes commandThe air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries sheWith silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Poems by Emma Lazarus Emma Lazarus by Esther Schor If you like this show, please rate and write a review wherever you get your podcasts. And be in touch. Write to us at nerds@unpacked.media. And if you missed the first episode in the series, please check out The First Jews in the Americas: Fleeing the Inquisition. Emma Lazarus' family was part of the first wave of Jews to the Americas. This podcast was brought to you by Unpacked, a brand of OpenDor Media. Follow @unpackedmedia on Instagram and check out our videos on youtube and Spotify. Visit jewishlives.org to explore and buy books from the Jewish Lives book series. Use the discount code JLIFE to get a discount. For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out: Soulful Jewish Living Stars of David with Elon Gold Unpacking Israeli History Wondering Jews
Emma Lazarus wrote The New Colossus, the poem on the base of the Statue of Liberty. But she was nothing like the huddled masses she described. In part 1 of a two part series, Schwab walks Yael through her short, incredible life: born in 1849 to a wealthy Sephardic family that had been in New York since before the Revolution, a literary prodigy published at seventeen, hobnobbing with Ralph Waldo Emerson and demanding her place in the American canon. Then a wave of antisemitism begins to awaken something new in her. Poems by Emma Lazarus Emma Lazarus by Esther Schor If you like this show, please rate and write a review wherever you get your podcasts. And be in touch. Write to us at nerds@unpacked.media. And if you missed the first episode in the series, please check out The First Jews in the Americas: Fleeing the Inquisition. Emma Lazarus' family was part of the first wave of Jews to the Americas. This podcast was brought to you by Unpacked, a brand of OpenDor Media. Follow @unpackedmedia on Instagram and check out our videos on youtube and Spotify. For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out: Soulful Jewish Living Stars of David with Elon Gold Unpacking Israeli History Wondering Jews
In Part 2, Yael guides Schwab through what happened after the Revolution, as America's 2,500 Jews became citizens of a brand new nation. Together they explore how the Constitution and the Bill of Rights transformed religious liberty from a privilege into a constitutional right, redefining what it meant to be Jewish in the United States. Note: All states ratified the Constitution in 1790, the amendments were ratified in 1791. This episode refers to the important Jewish figures discussed in part 1. If you missed that episode, please check it out here or in your podcast feed. If you like this show, please rate and write a review wherever you get your podcasts. And be in touch. Write to us at nerds@unpacked.media. A Promised Land: Jewish Patriots, the American Revolution, and the Birth of Religious Freedom by Adam Jortner Summary and Additional Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XMLFbbR0J0wOFTMqIZnPPF-XHQ_DM6XCB66vvO-2JUI/edit?usp=sharing This podcast was brought to you by Unpacked, a brand of OpenDor Media. Follow @unpackedmedia on Instagram and check out our videos on youtube and Spotify. For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out: Soulful Jewish Living Stars of David with Elon Gold Unpacking Israeli History Wondering Jews
A broker who bankrolled the Continental Army and died penniless. An officer who refused pork in a British prison. A bill sent to George Washington for a missing fork. In Part 1 of Jews and the American Revolution, Yael and Schwab explore how the colonies' 2,500 Jews helped shape the founding era, and how the new nation’s promise of religious freedom and citizenship was tested from the very beginning. If you like this show, please rate and write a review wherever you get your podcasts. And be in touch. Write to us at nerds@unpacked.media. Summary and Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15pU3SbYQ8gHrUNBropQ54zj2GUwvLBkH9OGr1TGugbY/edit?usp=sharing This podcast was brought to you by Unpacked, a brand of OpenDor Media. Follow @unpackedmedia on Instagram and check out our videos on youtube and Spotify. For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out: Soulful Jewish Living Stars of David with Elon Gold Unpacking Israeli History Wondering Jews
Well over a century before the Declaration of Independence, a boatload of Jewish refugees landed in New Amsterdam with no money, no synagogue, and a governor who desperately wanted them gone. What followed was a century of scrappy survival — building communities in port cities from Newport to Charleston, pioneering mutual aid societies, suing for the right to do guard duty, and trying very hard not to disappear into the American melting pot. Spoiler: a lot of them did. If you like this show, please rate and write a review wherever you get your podcasts. And be in touch. Write to us at nerds@unpacked.media. Summary and Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mX-mTHjm4iKuF1LWaqJeTHJ0CMh4O-OVo4Jq0-zsvXM/edit?usp=sharing This podcast was brought to you by Unpacked, a brand of OpenDor Media. Follow @unpackedmedia on Instagram and check out our videos on youtube and Spotify. For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out: Soulful Jewish Living Stars of David with Elon Gold Unpacking Israeli History Wondering Jews
Were there really Jewish pirates in the Caribbean? The answer is far more complicated (and fascinating) than the legend. From Samuel Pallache, the so-called Pirate Rabbi, to the thriving Jewish communities of Curaçao and beyond. Schwab walks Yael through the story of Jews navigating empire, trade, exile, and opportunity in the Americas. This is the second episode in a mini series on Jews in the Americas. If you like this show, please rate and write a review wherever you get your podcasts. And be in touch. Write to us at nerds@unpacked.media. We really want to hear from you. Summary and Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LnWiM6uDCHMSpQpW8TKtntiqyNmeFO00whCz6kJDRH4/edit?usp=sharing This podcast was brought to you by Unpacked, a brand of OpenDor Media. Follow @unpackedmedia on Instagram and check out our videos on youtube and Spotify. For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out: Soulful Jewish Living Stars of David with Elon Gold Unpacking Israeli History Wondering Jews
Please fill out this short survey. Go to: unpacked.bio/podsurvey. We want to hear from you! Fleeing the Inquisition, Crypto-Jews who had been forced to hide their faith for generations found refuge in Recife, Brazil — and for the first time, rebuilt Jewish life in the open. When Recife fell, twenty-three Jewish refugees set sail for New Amsterdam, launching the birth of Jewish America. Schwab and Yael tell the remarkable story in the first episode of a new series on Jews in the Americas. If you like this show, please rate and write a review wherever you get your podcasts. And be in touch. Write to us at nerds@unpacked.media. We really want to hear from you. Summary and Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ETNBOm2XE9LHs4HqGflJVmEHVKopKe8tY3wxmdGl4OY/edit?usp=sharing Follow @unpackedmedia on Instagram and check out our videos on youtube and Spotify. --------------- For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out: Soulful Jewish Living Stars of David with Elon Gold Unpacking Israeli History Wondering Jews
Please fill out this short survey. Go to: unpacked.bio/podsurvey. We want to hear from you! Jewish History Nerds welcomes its first-ever guest, Noam Weissman, host of Unpacking Israeli History. Yael, Schwab and Noam explore the life and legacy of Yitzhak Rabin through the lens of Itamar Rabinovich's Yitzhak Rabin: Soldier, Leader, Statesman from the Jewish Lives series. Rabin's life is the story of Israel itself. But who was the real Rabin? Known as a peacenik, he was in fact "Mr. Security" — a soldier-statesman whose life and death still echo through Jewish history. Two Unpacked shows, three hosts, one conversation you don't want to miss. If you like this show, please rate and write a review wherever you get your podcasts. And be in touch. Write to us at nerds@unpacked.media. We really want to hear from you. This episode is sponsored by Jewish Lives, a prize-winning series of biographies from Yale University Press. To learn more about Yitzhak Rabin's life, identity, and legacy, check out Yitzhak Rabin, Soldier Leader Statesman by Itamar Rabinovich at www.jewishlives.org. Use promo code RabinPod for 30 % off. That's R-A-B-I-N-P-O-D. Visit jewishlives.org to explore and buy books from the Jewish Lives book series. Use the discount code JLIFE to get a discount. You can listen to Unpacking Israeli History here: https://unpacked.media/podcast-series/unpacking-israeli-history/ ------------------ For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out: Soulful Jewish Living Stars of David with Elon Gold Unpacking Israeli History Wondering Jews
June 12th marks Anne Frank’s birthday, and it was on her 13th birthday that she received the diary that would later become one of the most widely read books in the world. Anne Frank remains one of the most recognizable voices in Jewish history, and one of the most misunderstood. In this bonus episode sponsored by the Jewish Lives series from Yale University Press, Schwab walks Yael through Ruth Franklin's The Many Lives of Anne Frank. They trace the full arc of her life, the multiple versions of the diary, and the choices her father Otto made in assembling the text the world came to know. In this powerful episode, Schwab and Yael wrestle with the bigger questions her legacy raises about how we remember the Holocaust. If you like this show, please rate and write a review wherever you get your podcasts. And write to us at nerds@unpacked.media. We really want to hear from you. This episode is sponsored by Jewish Lives, a prize-winning series of biographies from Yale University Press. To learn more about Anne Frank’s life, identity, and legacy, you should check out The Many Lives of Anne Frank by Ruth Franklin at www.jewishlives.org and you can use the special promo code FRANKPOD to get 30% off. Watch Jonathan Schwab interview his grandfather, Holocaust survivor, Ernest Rubinstein, born in Nitra in Slovakia, recorded on Yom Hashoah at Yeshiva University. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq2V0C90xMc&feature=youtu.be Here are some of sources discussed in the episode. The Diary of Anne Frank: The Revised Critical Edition by Anne Frank The Book of Tales from the Secret Annex by Anne Frank (her short stories written in hiding) People Love Dead Jews by Dara Horn What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank by Nathan Englander A Small Light This podcast was brought to you by Unpacked, a brand of OpenDor Media. Follow @unpackedmedia on Instagram and check out Unpacked on youtube. Visit jewishlives.org to explore and buy books from the Jewish Lives book series. Use the discount code JLIFE to get a discount. ------------------ For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out: Soulful Jewish Living Stars of David with Elon Gold Unpacking Israeli History Wondering Jews
Please fill out this short survey. Go to: unpacked.bio/podsurvey. We want to hear from you! Few figures in all of Jewish history are as celebrated, as contradicted, and as human as King David. But how well do we really know him? We're kicking off new bonus episodes in partnership with the Jewish Lives series from Yale University Press by going back to the Hebrew Bible. Drawing from Rabbi David Wolpe's David: The Divided Heart, Yael and Schwab unpack the shepherd-turned-king who wrote our prayers, betrayed his allies, and cast a shadow on Jewish history that endures to this day. If you like this show, please rate and write a review wherever you get your podcasts. And be in touch. Write to us at nerds@unpacked.media. We really want to hear from you. This episode is sponsored by Jewish Lives, a prize-winning series of biographies from Yale University Press. To learn more about King David's life, identity, and legacy, you should check out David: The Divided Heart by David Wolpe at www.jewishlives.org and you can use the special promo code DAVIDPOD to get 30% off. Note: Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah places Bathsheba on the roof. But in the Book of Samuel, King David is on the roof when he spots her bathing below. Please write a review wherever you get your podcasts. And write to us at nerds@unpacked.media. We really want to hear from you. This podcast was brought to you by Unpacked, a brand of OpenDor Media. Follow @unpackedmedia on Instagram and check out Unpacked on youtube. ------------------- Visit jewishlives.org to explore and buy books from the Jewish Lives book series. Use the discount code JLIFE to get a discount. ------------------ For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out: Soulful Jewish Living Stars of David with Elon Gold Unpacking Israeli History Wondering Jews
Please fill out this short survey. Go to: unpacked.bio/podsurvey. We want to hear from you! Yael and Schwab are back — and this season, they're diving into the history of Jews in the Americas, just in time for the US's 250th birthday. But first: special episodes sponsored by The Jewish Lives Series. Catch up on past episodes, subscribe wherever you listen. If you like this show, please rate and write a review. Write to us at nerds@unpacked.media. We really want to hear from you.
Please fill out this short survey. Go to: unpacked.bio/podsurvey. We want to hear from you! Yael and Schwab revisit the remarkable story of the Oneg Shabbos archive from the Warsaw Ghetto in honor of Yom HaShoah. The tins held the second of three caches of the Oneg Shabbos archives: a collection by ordinary people turned archivists who risked their lives to preserve the darkest moment of Jewish history. Among the photographs and diary entries, concert tickets and poems, lay the collected sermons of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, also known as the Piaseczno Rebbe. In this episode, Yael and Schwab ask, what can we learn from Rabbi Shapira's works? And what debt do we owe to the brave Oneg Shabbos archivists? If you like this show, please rate and write a review wherever you get your podcasts. And be in touch. Write to us at nerds@unpacked.media. We really want to hear from you. For more on the Aish Kodesh and this episode: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UPT1ADfGLblgPOaViGeyquYRE6l8V0Rvutxlk3CTgE8/edit?usp=sharing Visit jewishlives.org to explore and buy books from the Jewish Lives book series. Use the discount code JLIFE to get a discount. This podcast was brought to you by Unpacked, a brand of OpenDor Media. Follow @unpackedmedia on Instagram and check out Unpacked on youtube. ------------------- Visit jewishlives.org to explore and buy books from the Jewish Lives book series. Use the discount code JLIFE to get a discount. ------------------ For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out: Soulful Jewish Living Stars of David with Elon Gold Unpacking Israeli History Wondering Jews
Please fill out this short survey. Go to: unpacked.bio/podsurvey. We want to hear from you! The Haggadah is the most widely read Jewish book in the world, and yet it was never supposed to be a book at all. Yael takes Schwab through its surprising history: how an oral commandment became rabbinic debate, evolved into illuminated medieval manuscripts, and ended up as 60 million free copies tucked inside a can of Maxwell House coffee. If you like this show, please rate and write a review wherever you get your podcasts. And be in touch. Write to us at nerds@unpacked.media. We really want to hear from you. Pictures of the Sarajevo Haggadah: https://anumuseum.org.il/blog/sarajevo-haggadah/ The Maxwell House Haggadah: https://www.josephjacobsadvertising.com/maxwell-house-haggadah Visit jewishlives.org to explore and buy books from the Jewish Lives book series. Use the discount code JLIFE to get a discount. Watch Yael and Schwab on YouTube and check out the video of this episode. This podcast was brought to you by Unpacked, a brand of OpenDor Media. Follow @unpackedmedia on Instagram and check out Unpacked on youtube. ------------------ For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out: Soulful Jewish Living Stars of David with Elon Gold Unpacking Israeli History Wondering Jews
Please fill out this short survey. Go to: unpacked.bio/podsurvey. We want to hear from you! Jonathan Schwab and Yael Steiner tackle one of Jewish history's most debated questions: was Albert Einstein a Zionist? From Nazi Germany naming him public enemy number one to eventually being offered the presidency of Israel, Schwab traces Einstein's complicated, lifelong relationship with Zionism. And they explore a question the Nazis first raised as an attack: was Einstein's science somehow Jewish? If you like. this show, please rate and write a review wherever you get your podcasts. And be in touch. Write to us at nerds@unpacked.media. We really want to hear from you. Sources on Einstein and Zionism: Einstein, His Space and Times, by Steven Gimbel Einstein on Israel and Zionism by Fred Jerome Einstein Before Israel: Zionist Icon or Iconoclast? By Ze’ev Rosenkranz Link to learn more about the history of Einstein and Yeshiva University Here is a summary: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fjLz8yoDfeIwoJ3Ce09Bxq2jJlwBx-5aXjItaCJtPdc/edit?usp=sharing Watch Yael and Schwab on YouTube and check out the video of this episode. This podcast was brought to you by Unpacked, a brand of OpenDor Media. Follow @unpackedmedia on Instagram and check out Unpacked on youtube. Visit jewishlives.org to explore and buy books from the Jewish Lives book series. Use the discount code JLIFE to get a discount. ------------------ For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out: Soulful Jewish Living Stars of David with Elon Gold Unpacking Israeli History Wondering Jews
Please fill out this short survey. Go to: unpacked.bio/podsurvey. We want to hear from you! Before Albert Einstein became the wild-haired icon who changed how we understand the universe, he was a struggling patent clerk with a rejected dissertation, no job prospects, and a messy personal life. But he had time to spare and a mind that wouldn't stop. In this first episode of a two-part series, Jonathan Schwab takes Yael Steiner through the Einstein you don't know: a contrarian Jewish outsider whose ideas would reshape our understanding of time, space, and reality itself. The series continues with Part 2 — Einstein's Jewish identity, his complicated relationship with Zionism, and the question the Nazis asked loudly: was his science Jewish? If you like this show, please rate and write a review wherever you get your podcasts. And be in touch. Write to us at nerds@unpacked.media. We really want to hear from you. Sources and Summary: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1glzkac4zuorw5VTvs_ewMnj77A7xayJVZlmf61rEkM0/edit?usp=sharing Watch Yael and Schwab on YouTube and check out the video of this episode. Visit jewishlives.org to explore and buy books from the Jewish Lives book series. Use the discount code JLIFE to get a discount. This podcast was brought to you by Unpacked, a brand of OpenDor Media. Follow @unpackedmedia on Instagram and check out Unpacked on youtube. ------------------- For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out: Soulful Jewish Living Stars of David with Elon Gold Unpacking Israeli History Wondering Jews
Please fill out this short survey. Go to: unpacked.bio/podsurvey. We want to hear from you! Ray Frank was a gifted Jewish teacher, journalist, and speaker who became a sensation in the American West in the 1890s. Crowds packed opera houses to hear her preach, newspapers called her the “Girl Rabbi of the Golden West,” and communities begged her to lead them. But Ray Frank refused the title of rabbi. So who was she—and why did she open a door she would not walk through herself? If you like this show, please rate and write a review wherever you get your podcasts. Write to us at nerds@unpacked.media. We really want to hear from you. Here is a photo of Ray Frank from 1890: https://jwa.org/media/ray-frank Sources and summary: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v2WzLQvSagiMdKQMP_mqNoz4HqCDHWktsVD80sDPRQE/edit?usp=sharing Watch Yael and Schwab on YouTube. Visit jewishlives.org to explore and buy books from the Jewish Lives book series. Use the discount code JLIFE to get a discount. This podcast was brought to you by Unpacked, a brand of OpenDor Media. Follow @unpackedmedia on Instagram and check out Unpacked on youtube. ------------------ For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out: Soulful Jewish Living Stars of David with Elon Gold Unpacking Israeli History Wondering Jews
Please fill out this short survey. Go to: unpacked.bio/podsurvey. We want to hear from you! What happens when a rabbi becomes a compulsive gambler? Yael and Schwab explore the life of Rabbi Leone de Modena, a remarkable Renaissance thinker from the Venetian ghetto. A prodigy, prolific writer, and the author of the first full-length Hebrew autobiography, Modena was also a famous preacher whose sermons drew both Jews and Christians. He defended bringing choral music into synagogue services and is claimed by a broad range of Jewish traditions. His story offers a glimpse into life in early modern Venice, where Jews and non Jews mingled and shared ideas despite the ghetto walls, while revealing the genius and very human struggles of one of the era’s most fascinating rabbis. If you like this show, please rate and write a review wherever you get your podcasts. And be in touch. Write to us at nerds@unpacked.media. Watch Yael and Schwab on YouTube: Sources and summary: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1InrXhFPXoVLetO1XWExJhu1h_hkiCZ_EVhHulLvtwXc/edit?usp=sharing Visit jewishlives.org to explore and buy books from the Jewish Lives book series. Use the discount code JLIFE to get a discount. This podcast was brought to you by Unpacked, a brand of OpenDor Media. Follow @unpackedmedia on Instagram and check out Unpacked on youtube. ------------------ For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out: Soulful Jewish Living Stars of David with Elon Gold Unpacking Israeli History Wondering Jews
Please fill out this short survey. Go to: unpacked.bio/podsurvey. We want to hear from you! What happens when trauma reshapes religious life, and suffering itself becomes sacred? This week, Jonathan Schwab introduces Yael Steiner to the Hasidei Ashkenaz, a small but intense medieval movement that emerged in 12th–13th century Germany after the Crusades of 1096. Living in the shadow of violence, they turned to radical piety, marathon prayer, frequent fasting, rigorous penance, and even martyrdom (kiddush Hashem), to make sense of trauma. It’s a bizarre chapter in Jewish history. If you like this show, please rate and write a review wherever you get your podcasts. And be in touch. Write to us at nerds@unpacked.media. Sources and summary: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eNcEJ28D5CcnwsFWSti-9EIibk2q-lKJ8wsrgTmbPfM/edit?usp=sharing Watch Yael and Schwab on YouTube. This podcast was brought to you by Unpacked, a brand of OpenDor Media. Follow @unpackedmedia on Instagram and check out Unpacked on youtube. ------------------- Visit jewishlives.org to explore and buy books from the Jewish Lives book series. Use the discount code JLIFE to get a discount. ------------------ For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out: Soulful Jewish Living Stars of David with Elon Gold Unpacking Israeli History Wondering Jews
Please fill out this short survey. Go to: unpacked.bio/podsurvey. We want to hear from you! In 1953, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were sent to the electric chair. They were condemned by a Jewish judge, and executed on a Friday night. The charge: espionage. The backdrop: Cold War hysteria. This week, Yael Steiner and Jonathan Schwab reframe the story. Yael explores the Jewish response to the Rosenberg trial and the tensions it revealed within the American Jewish community. If you like this show, please rate and write a review wherever you get your podcasts. And be in touch. Write to us at nerds@unpacked.media. Sources and summary: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ryhznJ81I9DdIzLmqnvE8NzyAGJlsFfPXYfVUVCAoQo/edit?usp=sharing Watch Yael and Schwab on YouTube: This podcast was brought to you by Unpacked, a brand of OpenDor Media. Follow @unpackedmedia on Instagram and check out Unpacked on youtube. ------------------- For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out: Soulful Jewish Living Stars of David with Elon Gold Unpacking Israeli History Wondering Jews
