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Jewish History Nerds: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Unpacked
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.
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- Yesterday1 min
New Episodes, Coming Next Week
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, and get in touch at nerds@unpacked.media.
- Apr 14, 202637 min
Voices of the Warsaw Ghetto: A Yom HaShoah Re-Release
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? 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. Watch Yael and Schwab on YouTube and check out our recent videos. Be in touch. We want to hear from you. 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 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
- Mar 31, 202639 min
The Haggadah: The Book of the People of the Book
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. 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. Be in touch. We want to hear from you. 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 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
- Mar 26, 202649 min
Albert Einstein: Was He a Zionist? (Part 2)
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? Check your feed next Tuesday for a special Jewish History Nerds just in time for Passover. 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 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. https://youtu.be/Qr4zrGhf0cE?si=3QI6MO6fvPRxpL3- Be in touch. We want to hear from you. 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 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
- Mar 19, 202646 min
Albert Einstein: Rebel. Reject. Genius. (Part 1)
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. Next week: 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? 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. https://youtu.be/Qr4zrGhf0cE?si=3QI6MO6fvPRxpL3- Be in touch. We want to hear from you. 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 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
- Mar 12, 202643 min
The Girl Rabbi of the Golden West: Ray Frank
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? 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. Be in touch. We want to hear from you. 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 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
- Mar 5, 202644 min
The Gambling Rabbi of Venice: Leone da Modena
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. Watch Yael and Schwab on YouTube: Sources and summary: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1InrXhFPXoVLetO1XWExJhu1h_hkiCZ_EVhHulLvtwXc/edit?usp=sharing Be in touch. We want to hear from you. 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 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
- Feb 26, 202644 min
Crusades, Martyrdom & Radical Piety: The Hasidei Ashkenaz
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, not typically associated with Judaism, and a striking example of how communities search for meaning when the world feels unstable. Sources and summary: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eNcEJ28D5CcnwsFWSti-9EIibk2q-lKJ8wsrgTmbPfM/edit?usp=sharing Watch Yael and Schwab on YouTube: Be in touch. We want to hear from you. 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 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
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About Jewish History Nerds
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.
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