Jew Oughta Know: Recent Episodes
Jason Harris
From ancient history to current events, take yourself on a journey through the story of the Jewish People, from someone who has led hundreds of Jewish young professionals on trips throughout Israel. From the beginning of creation to modern Israel, each short episode is geared to appeal both to someone looking for the Jewish 101, as well as to those looking to go a bit beyond the basic story they already know. Check out the website at https://jewoughtaknow.com/. Enjoy!
Israel launched Operation Lion Rising, a preemptive strike to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Ballistic missiles are raining destruction on Israel in a fight with the Jews’ most committed genocidal enemy. This is a historic, dramatic moment with the potential to upend the world.
Why didn’t Trump visit Israel during his trip to the Middle East last week? On multiple issues Trump has left Netanyahu standing on the sidelines, leaving the prime minister struggling to Make Israel Relevant Again.
Trump attacks antisemitism on the left while encouraging it on the right. Jewish hatred should have consequences. But we shouldn’t use antisemitism as a pretext to erode the rule of law in order to punish political enemies.
What happens to Israel when its most important ally turns away from democracy? When happens when a weakened United States can no longer help Israel defend itself? Where else should Israel turn when the United States allies with autocracies? Is Trump good for Israel — or its biggest long-term threat?
The hostage release “ceremonies” reveal why a solution for Gaza is so elusive. How much of the answer is dependent on the Palestinian’s developing a different national culture?
Three hostages come home. This begins the first phase of a complex cease-fire-for-hostages agreement. Should we be pessimistic or optimistic? Is this a victory for Israel or Hamas? Why did this happen now, and what happens next?
How “social justice”, “racism”, and “genocide” are re-interpreted and re-defined to demonize Israel, Zionism, and Jews.
Re-releasing Episode 29 on the historical story of Hanukah. Where does the story come from? What happened? What’s with the miracle of the eight days of oil?
After 54 years, the Assad dictatorship in Syria has fallen. Iran is humiliated; its theory of power in the Middle East is a failure. And Israel is once again the region’s preeminent power. It’s been a wild few days — here’s what happened and why.
There’s a cease-fire in Lebanon but no path forward in Gaza, and this raises the question of Israel’s strategic direction. How come Israel can end the war with Hezbollah but not with Hamas?
Where do Hezbollah and Hamas get their money? State sponsors, legitimate businesses, donations and humanitarian aid, and criminal activity all pour billions into the terrorists’ banks — which are now prime targets for Israel.
Jews are feeling uneasy about whomever they vote for — Donald Trump or Kamala Harris — because both parties are rife with antisemitism. Whether in the form of conspiracy theories or anti-Zionism, it’s evidence of an ailing society. Can Americans fix this rot in their politics?
Re-releasing an episode from the archives with a major update. Episode 63 from Season 3 Unsolved Jewish Mysteries explored the theory that Christopher Columbus was Jewish. Now there is a major new DNA finding that provides some answers.
Hezbollah attacked Israel on October 8 last year, laying siege to the north of the country that has killed civilians, burned entire towns to the ground, and driven tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes. Israel is now fighting back in an effort to push Hezbollah off the border and stop the attacks. Let’s look at what’s happening and why now.
Hamas executed six hostages. Israelis accuse Prime Minister Netanyahu of abandoning them for his own self-interest. They no longer trust the government to get the hostages back or wage this war effectively. So why isn't there a hostage deal? And how is Netanyahu managing to stay in power?
Prime Minister Benjamin addressed the United States Congress amidst a wild week of politics. We’ll examine a few takeaways regarding his own standing, Kamala Harris, the Left, and the upcoming US election.
Israel’s exceptional hostage rescue operation on June 8 — and how the upside-down world condemned it.
President Biden imposed a temporary arms embargo on Israel. He’s holding back certain types of weapons to try to prevent Israel from invading Rafah in southern Gaza. How should we think about this decision?
Hamas continues to hold 132 hostages. That’s 132 war crimes committed each and every day they are held. The best way to end this round of war is for Hamas to return them immediately. Instead they are subjected to the whims of international politics, diplomatic maneuvering, and demands on Israel to pay an ever-steeper price for their return.
It’s not just Israel and the Palestinians who have to make changes to create a Palestinian state. The U.S., Europe, and the moderate Arab countries will need to work together to run Gaza, ensure Israel’s security, and, most importantly, defend decent civilization from the existential threat of Islamic jihadism.
Israel has to make changes to get to a Palestinian state, but so do the Palestinians. Violent rejectionism, delegitimization of Israel, and the right of return all perpetuate the conflict. To achieve their own state, Palestinians have to give up trying to eliminate Israel.
If a Palestinian state is the ultimate goal, then Israel, the Palestinians, and the international community are all going to have to do things they really don’t want to do. Today we’re looking at this from Israel’s angle, with the focus on security.
Israel has fought two wars in Lebanon — is a third one coming? Today we’re taking a brief look at the history of Israel’s involvement in Lebanon.
Should Israel reoccupy Gaza eighteen years after leaving it? And if not, does the government have a better vision?
There are hopes for a huge deal in one fell swoop: end the war, return the hostages, make peace with Saudi Arabia, and get a Palestinian state. But is this realistic? What are the dilemmas involved?
The International Court of Justice issued a ruling in Israel’s trial on charges of genocide. Was it a defeat or victory for Israel — or a little bit of both? A sign of the sober application of international law, or the hypocrisy of politicized demonization of the Jewish State?
A survey of Palestinian attitudes from December makes for bleak reading: increased popularity for Hamas, more support for armed violence, widespread belief that Hamas will still be in charge in Gaza after the war, and more. Is there any way forward?
South Africa has brought charges of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands. What is this case about, and what does it all mean?
Diving into the start of 2024: the ground war in Gaza, escalating conflict with Hezbollah, the Houthis attacking cargo ships in the Red Sea, and a return to Israeli domestic politics with a major ruling from the Supreme Court.
The tragic killing of three Israeli hostages by the IDF raises questions about the military’s conduct during this war. Is Israel adhering to the laws of war?
There are conversations no longer worth having because their answers have no meaningful impact. Is anti-Zionism antisemitism? Who actually hates Jews? Are Jews indigenous to Israel? Let’s stop debating these distractions.
Why is the relationship between Israel and the United Nations so bad? Historical events, the makeup of the UN, and its relentless condemnations of Israel explain why Israel no longer considers the global body a neutral actor.
The West Bank — what many Jews call Judea and Samaria — is another sector of this war that is boiling over with tension and violence. While Israeli forces arrest thousands of Hamas terrorists, fanatical Jewish settlers attack Palestinian civilians. What is going on and how did we get here?
After seven weeks of fighting, Hamas and Israel agreed to a deal to release some of the Israeli hostages, who have started returning home to great joy and relief. How can we understand this deal in context? What should we make of the role of Qatar as mediator? What does it tell us about Hamas? What are the dilemmas facing Israel going forward?
“Never Again” evokes the promise of no more genocide, as the world has learned the lessons of history and the Holocaust. But “Never Again” has a different connotation for the Jewish People — and helps us understand the decisions Israel is making in fighting this war against Hamas.
Hamas’ massacre unleashed a worldwide wave of hatred and vilification against Israel and the Jewish People, summed up in the noxious idea of “Palestine will be free from the river to the sea” — a call for the destruction of Israel. Leftist ideology, classic antisemitism, and Israel demonization all play a role in this stunning display of moral blindness.
Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza is underway. It is difficult, dangerous, and deadly fighting that has already claimed dozens of Israeli soldiers. The goal is to eliminate Hamas. But what about afterwards? Today we’ll look at five options for post-war Gaza.
In the constant struggle to keep up with what’s happening, how can we understand what we’re seeing on the news? The media ecosystem often accepts Hamas’ claims uncritically, while Israel’s are subjected to days of scrutiny and doubt. Skepticism and patience are our best tools to navigate the complexities here.
What does Iran have to do with Israel’s war against Hamas? A lot! We’re zooming out to look at Iran and it’s proxy army, Hezbollah, the terrorist group threatening to start a war along Israel’s northern border.
Day Eleven of the war between Hamas and Israel. For years Israel has brought sick Palestinian children into Israel for lifesaving medical care. Hamas responded by sadistically massacring Israeli children. Today we’re talking about Hamas and its intersection with Gaza’s history, crucial context for understanding how we got to this moment.
Unimaginable savagery in the worst attack on the Jewish People since the Holocaust. It's a declaration of war by Hamas, the genocidal group dedicated to the complete destruction of Israel. What's going on? How did we get here? What's next?
Black September cruelly murders 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The local police are helpless to resist, the rescue operation goes wrong, the world watches on live TV, and Golda Meir sees that, once again, Jews are being killed on European soil.
A civil war in Jordan between King Hussein and the PLO threatens to bring in Israel and its neighbors. Though a victory for Jordan, it created one of the most deadly terrorist groups that Israel would face: Black September. A daring commando operation thwarts an airplane hijacking, but that would prove to be just the beginning of the group’s ambitions.
The early 1970s saw the rise of the Israeli Black Panthers — a movement of young Mizrahi Jews fed up with systematic inequality and social discrimination that left Jews from the Middle East and North Africa lagging behind the Ashkenazi Jews of Europe. The met their match in Prime Minister Golda Meir, whose disapproval only fueled their efforts to wake Israeli society up to their plight.
Israel was founded to provide a safe place for Jewish life to flourish. But by the late 1960s, millions of Jews remained trapped in the Soviet Union, refused the emigration visas necessary to leave. The plight of these “refuseniks” kicked off an international campaign to free them, and in 1969, eighteen Jews wrote to Prime Minister Golda Meir explaining why they looked to Israel for rescue.
Rabbi Moshe Levinger was all in favor of building settlements in the West Bank, but with a twist: he thought confrontation with the Israeli government, rather than cooperation, was the way to achieve a Jewish foothold in their historic land. He set his sights on establishing the first urban settlement in the heart of Hebron: one of Judaism’s oldest cities, now populated exclusively by Arabs.
Palestinians hit on a winning formula for attacking Israel and publicizing their own cause: airplane hijackings. And Prime Minister Levi Eshkol dies, replaced by Israel’s first (and so far only) female prime minister, Golda Meir. By turns empathetic and aloof, ideological and pragmatic, pioneering and traditional, Golda came into office struggling to reconcile the Israel of her dreams with the changing country before her.
The Six Day War did not mean the end of fighting, just a new phrase. At a summit in Khartoum the Arabs rejected peace, negotiation, and recognition of Israel, leaving violence as the only acceptable option. Egypt and Israel began fighting the War of Attrition, while Yasser Arafat’s PLO terrorist group challenged Israel’s patience and strength. These events and the Occupation engendered a developing new Palestinian identity.
Israel's second settlement in the Occupied Territories was Kfar Etzion, established in the West Bank on the ruins of a destroyed Jewish kibbutz. It was the first settlement of the Religious Zionism movement, merging the ideas of Zionist settlement with messianic redemption, and spawned both public support and criticism.
Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territory began just five weeks after the Six Day War, in a small community called Merom Golan on the Syrian border. This was not a right-wing nationalist endeavor but a left-wing socialist one, intended to reinvigorate the Zionist Movement with the spirit of the early pioneering generations. But wait — isn’t this illegal under international law?
Today we’re laying the conceptual foundations of the Occupation and Israel’s decisions immediately after the Six Day War. Having found itself in charge of an empire — territory three times its own size, with 1.2 million Palestinians — Israel flailed about for a coherent strategy to meet the challenges posed by the land, the people in it, and competing political agendas of Israel’s leaders.
In the days and weeks following the Six Day War, Israel made three big decisions regarding Jerusalem: to raze the Mughrabi Quarter to create a central plaza in front of the Western Wall, to bestow exclusive religious rights on the Tempe Mount to the Muslims, and to annex East Jerusalem to create a unified Israeli capital. Each of these decisions had lasting consequences.
For six days Israel fought. On the seventh day it rested. What was the impact on Israelis, and Jews around the world? How did they come to understand the greatest Jewish military victory in two thousand years? It turns out the reaction was very mixed.
On June 5, 1967, Israel destroyed the air forces of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan in a matter of hours, kicking off what would become one of the greatest victories of modern military history. Israel thought it was fighting a defensive war for survival but instead captured five Arab territories that tripled its size. It was so surprising that, 56 years later, Israel is in many ways still dealing with the consequences. This episode takes a broad look at the six days of war that kicked off a whole new era.
Season 7 begins! This is an action-packed season exploring ten crucial years in Israel, 1967-1977. We'll hear about wars and The Occupation, triumphant rescues and the tragedy of the Munich Olympics, the settlements and the rise of the right-wing. We're kicking off with the run-up to the Six Day War and an introduction to some of the ideological ideas crucial for understanding this era.
Why the sudden burst of horrific violence in the West Bank this week? Hamas is making a play to take over the West Bank, ratcheting up attacks on Israel. And Israeli settler extremists are emboldened by support from their government to ramp up their own attacks on Palestinians, including the destruction of the village of Huwara. A weak Palestinian Authority that can’t provide security…plus increased Israeli raids targeted terrorists…all makes for a highly combustible situation that many fear is now igniting.
Why are hundreds of thousands of Israelis protesting in the streets? Why are global headlines screaming about the end of Israeli democracy? The country is griped by a profound crisis over the independence of its judicial system, as its ultra right-wing government tries to pass legislation reforming the Supreme Court. Come find out how we got here and what Israeli's are so angry about.
Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan redefined Judaism as an “evolving religious civilization” in need of reconstruction for the 20th century. He emphasized Jewish peoplehood, in all its complexity and diversity, as the central pillar of Jewish life and culture, and as the means of survival for Judaism in modern society. From the Bat Mitzvah to the Jewish community center, Kaplan’s ideas have since permeated into nearly all aspects of American Jewish life.
Joy. Attachment. Intention. The Baal Shem Tov - Master of the Good Name - inspired millions of Jews in Eastern Europe by uniting ideas in mystical Judaism with daily life. He turbo-boosted Jewish identity with the notion that every individual could be closer to God and play a role in the redemption of the world. Through stories and legends his fame grew into a new movement known as Hasidism, adopted by half the Jews of Europe.
Baruch Spinoza, it is said, wrote a book "forged from Hell by the Devil himself," rejecting 1600 years of medieval philosophy in favor of pure reason. He so angered the religious authorities that his Amsterdam Jewish community excommunicated him. He advocated for free speech, expression, and worship, ushering us all into the modern age way back in the 1600s. Today we're exploring some of his radical ideas.
Isaac Luria is taking us into the realm of the visionary and mysterious. We’re looking into the role of kabbalah — mystical Judaism — in our everyday lives. How can an infinite God create our finite universe? How can we mere humans repair a broken world? How did the city of Tsfat in Israel end up as the center of mystical Judaism?
Maimonides says that you might be perplexed. Your intellect tells you that the stories in the Hebrew Bible can’t be scientifically true, but your faith tells you that they are. Maimonides is here to help! He revolutionized Judaism — from law and theology, to ideas about God and approaching Torah with a rational and universal mindset, there’s something for everyone in Jewish history’s greatest philosopher.
In 1141 CE, Judah HaLevi mysteriously disappeared on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, giving rise to legends about the scholar who became Judaism's most celebrated poet. He wrote the Kuzari, a stirring defense of the Jewish faith at a time when the Jewish golden age in Spain was under threat from Muslims and Christians vying for control of Andalusia.
Saadia Gaon single-handedly saved Judaism from splitting apart in the 10th century. He was the first great Jewish medieval philosopher and the spiritual father of Judeo-Arabic culture, defending Rabbinic Judaism against sectarianism and insisting that reason and revelation together seek the truth.
Starting off Season 6 with one of the all-time greatest Jewish thinkers: Hillel the Elder, from the 1st century BCE. The sage who summarized the entirety of the Torah while standing on one foot, Hillel's wisdom was preserved by his greatest admirers, giving us a portrait of a man wise, humble, and inspirational.
Who wrote the Hebrew Bible, when, and how? Boiling a huge topic down to the basics: a thousand-year long literary tradition built by authors across the centuries, compiling story after story to arrive at what we have today.
Amidst weeping and rejoicing, the priest-scribe Ezra reads from the Scroll of Teaching before all the people gathered in Jerusalem. The governor Nehemiah records the moment that Judaism burst onto the scene, as the glory of Jerusalem was restored in 445 BCE.
King Cyrus the Great of Persia sacks Babylon and frees the Jews from their captivity. Now what? Some exiles return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple, but find that it isn't quite so easy to reintegrate with their fellow Israelites. Who, now, is a Jew?
The exile in Babylon upended the essential pillars of Israelite religion: king, god, temple, and land. The Israelites responded with immense theological creativity, reimagining these core tenets to preserve their ethnic identity. Prophets, priests, and scribes wrote new ideas and rituals that pointed to a new theology: monotheism. What we today call Judaism.
The People of Israel began the Babylonian exile as Israelites and emerged as Jews. How? By responding to the greatest crisis in their history with an explosion of religious creativity and innovation that morphed into monotheism. Today we’re delving into how Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians, the destruction of the Temple, and the end of the House of David. It all left the Israelites wondering: now what?
While repairing the Temple in Jerusalem, King Josiah’s high priest, Hilkiah, found a (supposedly) long lost ancient scroll of teaching. This law book, called torah, legitimized Josiah’s religious reforms. But was this book really found…or did someone close to Josiah write it? Historians are pretty sure we know which book it was, and it helps us understood who wrote the Hebrew Bible, when, and why.
Where is hell? Ask King Manasseh, perhaps the single worst king in Israelite history. Thankfully he was succeeded by his grandson, Josiah, one of the absolute best.
King Hezekiah was one of the most beloved kings of Israel, despite a rocky reign that saw the Assyrians take most of Judah. Hezekiah built up Jerusalem (many of his works can still be seen today, including a tunnel under the city) and instituted a series of religious reforms to centralize the worship of Yahweh at the Temple in Jerusalem — another big step towards monotheism.
After two hundred years, the Kingdom of Israel falls to the Assyrians in 720 BCE. The prophet Amos blames it on social injustice -- the capture of wealth by the rich neglected the poor, violating the covenant with God. The Ten Lost Tribes disappear into history, while refugees make their way to Judah, bringing their stories with them.
Introducing the prophets! We start with Elijah, the prophet who appears at Passover every year but never actually died. He goes up against the evil queen Jezebel and her husband, Ahab, King of Israel.
Shortly after King Solomon's death, in 931 BCE, the United Monarchy split into two separate Israelite states: the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah. The king of Judah threatened to flog the people with scorpions, while the king of Israel built a new religious infrastructure using an image of the golden calf. The Israelite people were now fated for very different destinies.
The reign of King Solomon was the golden era of the United Monarchy. He built the most important structure in Jewish history: the Temple in Jerusalem. Despite his achievements, he also fell into disfavor with God for his idolatrous practices.
Last week saw an historic upheaval in Israeli politics as Benjamin Netanyahu was ousted from power after 12 years as Prime Minister, replaced by the most diverse government in Israeli history. What happened? Who are the big players now? What's next?
How did Jerusalem become the holy city of Judaism? In about 1000 BCE King David set up his royal palace in this small Canaanite city and turned it into the capital of the Israelite people. It was a major achievement during the United Monarchy -- the golden era marking the high point of ancient Israel.
What’s the deal with Israeli settlements? A look at how the settlements began, why they were built, and why they remain. It’s the great paradox: the Occupation is necessary for Israel’s security but detrimental for its future as a Jewish democracy.
The Israelites demand a king. Was this a sign of failure or success? The prophet Samuel warns against it, but Saul becomes the first king of Israel. He soon faces a rival in David, the greatest king in all of Israel's history.
Is this a fair fight? This week we're pushing back against the charges that because Israel holds all the power, its attacks on Gaza are unjust.
For two hundred years the Israelites relied on judges for leadership, not kings. This era offers a powerful role for women and some of the oldest stories that make it into the Hebrew Bible.
Fighting erupted on multiple fronts this week between Israelis, Palestinians, and Arab-Israelis. What's going on? Go beyond the headlines and social media hot takes for an in-depth look at why this is all happening now.
Where does the name Yahweh come from? Who got to be considered an Israelite? How can we understand the sacred bond between God and the People of Israel that forms the bedrock of Judaism today?
How did monotheism start? The Israelites worshipped a national god named Yahweh — the same god that Jews worship today. But where did Yahweh come from? How did the Israelites meet him? And was he their only god?
How did the Israelites end up in Canaan (modern day Israel)? In the Hebrew Bible the Israelites claim to have taken Canaan through military conquest. But the historical record says that’s doubtful. So what happened?
It’s the most famous event of Jewish history: the exodus from Egypt of millions of Israelite slaves, thanks to the power of their God and the prophet Moses. But did it ever really happen?
Egypt ruled Canaan…until it didn’t. With empires collapsing all over the Mediterranean region, new peoples suddenly had the space to emerge. Like the Israelites. But also their arch-nemeses, the Philistines.
Noah and the Flood, the origins of Abraham and Sarah, and the laws of the Book of Exodus, are just a few examples of how deeply influenced the Israelites were by Mesopotamian culture and ideas, which came from the east centuries before the Israelites arrived on the scene.
Kicking off Season 5: The First Thousand Years Or So! This episode we’re looking at how the land of Israel was formed millions of years ago, the early humans who lived there, and why the building of a simple stone wall was so extraordinary.
Season 4 Finale. The miracle that was the creation of Israel is threatened by a recession, cultural fault lines, and a deep sense of gloom. As a terrifying war looms, Israelis are left considering whether the Israeli dream might be coming to a violent end. Could Israel rally together? Or was the dream over after only 19 years?
For three weeks, known as "hamtanah," Israelis waited as military, diplomatic, and political forces drove them towards war with the Arabs.
A short primer on Israel's relationship with American Jews and America's presidents in the 1950s and 1960s. Ben Gurion and American Jewry have a little argument, while Kennedy and Johnson develop better relations with the Jewish State.
Yasser Arafat starts Fatah, a Palestinian militia, to attack Israel. The Arab countries form the Palestinian Liberation Organization (the PLO) to counter Fatah's influence. And Israel finds itself facing a familiar conundrum: what to do about terrorism? A retaliation operation goes awry.
On August 13, 2020, Israel and the United Arab Emirates announced a peace agreement. This is only the third time an Arab country has made peace with Israel. Here's what you oughta know!
From stealing fighter jets to stealing secrets, Israel's spies are the stuff of legend. Some ended in triumph, and others tragedy. They all played a critical role in Israel's security during the 1960s.
Israel’s innovations in water use spread around the world, helping to lift millions out of poverty and famine. The National Water Carrier brought water to every corner of the country. But water was also a source of conflict with its Arab neighbors, as Syria tries to cut off Israel’s access and border tensions rise to dangerous levels.
The police shot an unarmed member of a discriminated group, riots followed, and a social change movement spread throughout the country. Not the United States in 2020, but Israel in 1959. In the ongoing miracle that was Israel, the Mizrahi — Jews from the Middle East and North Africa — were falling behind. It exposed a fault line in relations between “two Israels.”
Hebrew, the kibbutz, the military, and politics were achieving big things and undergoing big changes, as Israel entered its teenage years in the 1960s. And David Ben Gurion, the man who personified the Jewish State, made a huge decision.
Are Jews “white” here in America? The extreme right says no, the radical left yes. The American Jewish experience has been multifaceted. And there are Jews of Color.
What does Judaism "say" about the racial justice protests of 2020? And what is the history of black-Jewish relations in the United States?
Part 5 of 5. Eichmann's trial continues with his defense: I was only following orders. The judges consider a verdict and sentence. The trial had a tremendous impact and changed Israeli culture.
Part 4 of 5. After his capture by Israel in 1960, Adolf Eichmann goes on trial in Jerusalem. Holocaust survivors capture the attention of the whole nation as they testify to their harrowing experiences.
Part 3 of 5 on Eichmann's trial and capture. In Part 3, the Israeli Mossad team is holed up with Eichmann in their Buenos Aires safe house, while trying to figure out how to smuggle him out of the country.
Part 2 of 5 on Adolf Eichmann's trial and capture. In Part 2, how Israel tracked him down in Argentina, and staged the operation to grab him.
Part 1 of 5 on a deep dive into the search, capture, and trial of Nazi mastermind Adolf Eichmann. In Part 1, Eichmann is on the run from the Allies after World War Two.
Israel enters the world stage in 1956 as a country to be reckoned with. Israel provokes a war with Egypt in secret cahoots with Britain and France. It was a local conflict wrapped in a regional one wrapped in the Cold War struggle for power in the Middle East.
How should Israel respond to terrorism? The government was divided in its response to attacks from Jordan and Egypt: aggressive retaliation, or restraint and diplomacy?
Prime Minister David Ben Gurion abruptly quits and heads off to Sde Boker, a desert kibbutz. Meanwhile, the Israeli government is rocked by political scandal, and Ben Gurion ends up right back where he started.
Is Israel a theocracy? Or just a Jewish democracy that doesn't separate synagogue and state? And who gets to be counted as a Jew in the Jewish State? The second part of our look at how Israel put the "Jewish" in the Jewish State, this time through religion.
How do you put the "Jewish" in the Jewish State? One way is through secular Jewish culture: the Hebrew language, archaeology, and even the Hebrew Bible itself.
West Germany offered to pay Israel reparations for the Holocaust, touching off a heated and violent debate over whether Israel should accept. Was it a critical windfall for a poor nation, or nothing more than blood money?
Who is a Jew, according to the State of Israel? And where do you put all the new immigrants when there isn't enough housing? And what is the impact on Mizrahi Jewish refugees and Palestinian land abandoned during the war?
The Palestinians weren't the only refugees. Nearly one million Jews were pushed out of the Middle East and North Africa in revenge for the creation of Israel. Ancient Jewish communities were uprooted as hundreds of thousands of Mizrahi (Middle Eastern Jews) poured into Israel.
For the Palestinians who left Israel -- whether by force or voluntarily -- Israel's War of Independence was a nakba (catastrophe). The war's end in 1949 left over 720,000 Palestinian refugees. Why they left, what happened to them, and how much responsibility Israel bears is the focus of today's episode.
The War of Independence left multiple narratives in its wake, from the Jews who lost 1% of their population to the war, to the Arab-Israelis who fell under martial law.
Don't know your Prime Minister from your President? Israeli politics has been big in the news in 2019 -- so here's how the government works, and why Israel voted left for the first thirty years of its existence.
When the IDF seized the town of Lydda from Arab forces during the War of Independence, Ben Gurion ordered the expulsion of tens of thousands of Palestinians. Was it justified? Was it just?
The War of Independence continues as the Egyptian army uses the Gaza Strip to make a run for Tel Aviv. They were stopped by the new Israeli Air Force, which had to source parts, planes, and pilots from all over the world.
Barely a month after declaring independence, a fight on the beach in Tel Aviv almost splits Israel in two. As the army struggles to supply the Jewish side of Jerusalem, the Israel Defense Forces and the Irgun open fire on each other over a ship called the Altalena.
Within hours of declaring independence, Israel was invaded by five Arab armies. In the middle of an existential war, the government made its first decision: to proclaim Israel open for Jewish immigration.
On May 14, 1948, just a few minutes before Shabbat, David Ben Gurion declared the new State of Israel. Reading from the Declaration of Independence, which just barely made it to the secret ceremony, he committed the new Jewish State to idealistic and historic principles, while bracing for a war he knew was imminent.
Straight out of Indiana Jones, the Ark of the Covenant just might be the single greatest missing relic of all time. A fitting finale to Season 3, it disappeared quite suddenly in the 6th century BCE and hasn't been seen since. We go looking for it all over the Middle East and Africa.
It's the end of the world as we know it. The Messiah might already be here, but who is he, what's going to happen, and when?
Sixty-four clues. A vast treasure two thousand years old. Billions of dollars in buried gold. All engraved on a copper scroll hidden away in a cave near the Dead Sea that was found in 1952.
The U.S. military found a treasure trove of Jewish artifacts in the basement of Iraq's intelligence headquarters. Who should get it: Iraq, the United States, or the Iraqi Jewish community in America?
Around 5,000 years ago someone built a massive, Stonehenge-like structure on the Golan Heights in Israel. But we have no clue who or why -- was it an ancient race of giants?
Three unsolved mysteries from the Holocaust: the fate of Raoul Wallenberg, who betrayed Anne Frank, and the wartime actions of Pope Pius XII.
We lost ten Israelite tribes 2,500 years ago, but we might have found a few still around today in some unlikely places.
Christopher Columbus might possibly have been Jewish. Either way, Jews played a central role in his 1492 Voyage of Discovery.
The original menorah that you use at Hanukah went missing around 1,600 years ago. We know the Romans had it last. Was it destroyed? Misplaced? Hidden in the Vatican? There are all kinds of rumors, feel free to pick your favorite.
Something both living and dead has been hidden up in the attic of the Old-New Synagogue in Prague for the last 500 years.
There is legal and diplomatic fighting (with celebrities!) between Chabad, Russia, and the United States over who is the rightful owner of tens of thousands of texts amassed by the leading rabbis of Chabad over the last several hundred years.
Kickoff to Season 3 on Unsolved Jewish Mysteries. Where is the tomb of King David, ancient Israel's greatest ruler?
Season finale on the History of Zionism. A look back at the full sweep of Zionism as the Jewish world waits for Ben Gurion to decide on declaring the Jewish State.
In the push to take back Jerusalem Jewish fighters commit a horrible atrocity at Deir Yassin. The Arabs follow in kind. Just a few days before independence, the future Jewish state is in doubt.
Palestine descends into civil war between Jews and Arabs immediately following the UN's vote for partition. Jewish communities come under siege while Ben Gurion orders the Jews not to retreat from a single inch of territory.
Is there a just way to partition Palestine between Arabs and Jews? The United Nations considers that question, and November 29, 1947, goes down as an historic day for the Jewish People.
Jewish resistance, not by killing people, but by rescuing them. The Haganah's difficult Aliyah Bet operation to bring Holocaust refugees to Palestine gets a huge PR boost.
Menachem Begin pushes the bounds of morality in the final blow of the Jewish resistance against the British.
The Jewish defense groups join together to resist the British, culminating in a defining terrorist attack on the King David Hotel in 1946.
The Lehi assassinates a high-ranking British official, and the Jews turn on each other in a minor Zionist civil war.
Israel's iconic heroes get their start as special operations soldiers during World War Two, and the Irgun gets a new leader.
As the threat to European Jewry rises to desperate levels, the Zionist movement launches a secret, high-risk rescue operation, and prepares for war.
From out in the Atlantic Ocean the Zionist movement suffers serious setbacks in 1939, while the Palestinian national movement plays a destructive zero-sum game.
The Great Revolt continues as Britain comes up with a novel idea: what if we partitioned Palestine to create two separate states for Arabs and Jews? Interesting idea -- but will anyone go for it?
Arab nationalism turns towards violence. The Zionists try to defend Jewish immigration. And the British try to preserve stability in the region. Then the Nazis start meddling in Palestine.
The Zionists in Palestine cut a deal with the Nazis to save Jewish lives. But it will cost Chaim Arlosoroff his.
The nature of the Arab-Jewish conflict completely changed in 1929, when the Arabs massacred Jews throughout Palestine. With the British in charge, the Arabs rioting, and the Nazis just over the horizon in Europe, the Zionist project was entering a dark and challenging era.
Einstein, Ben-Gurion, Weizmann, and Jabotinsky all bring different ideas about Zionism to the Roaring Twenties in Palestine.
Vladimir Jabotinsky, the founder of right-wing Zionism, argues with mainstream Zionism over relations with the Arabs, Jewish immigration, and Jewish territory in Palestine.
The Arab-Israeli conflict begins at Tel Hai on March 1, 1920. These first instances of violence set the precedent for the next century of Jewish-Arab relations.
Part 2 of the Balfour Declaration. It's vague and messy, but it promises a Jewish homeland. And the Jews and Arabs came so close to reaching an agreement on how to live together in Palestine.
A hundred years ago the British issued the Balfour Declaration, promising to create a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Today we're looking at why the British were interested in Palestine in the first place -- from the exigencies of World War One to Christian prophecy.
The first Jewish fighting unit in nearly two millennia takes to the battlefield of World War One, while an espionage unit back in Palestine goes up against the crumbling Ottoman Empire.
WANTED: Renewed Jewish Homeland Seeks Socialist, Revolutionary-Minded Gender Equality Activists to Perform Hard Labor, Drain Swamps, Debate Ideology, and Build Out Their Jewish Minds and Bodies on a Collective Farm. Don't Apply, Just Come.
As the century turns, two waves of Jewish immigration come to Palestine. Immortalized through poetry and the building of lasting institutions like Tel Aviv, these immigrants set the stage for the future Jewish homeland.
Today I interview Kathy Kacer and Jordana Lebowitz, who have written a book, To Look a Nazi In the Eye. It's an account of Jordana's experience attending the 2015 trial of Oskar Groening, a Nazi SS officer stationed at Auschwitz. Was he complicit in the murder of 300,000 Hungarian Jews? Is it too late for justice? And how did this experience inspire Jordana to devote herself to human rights and Holocaust education?
How to revive a language that hasn't been spoken for 18 centuries? The Jews had been working to revive Hebrew for decades, but it was the Zionists -- led by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and his family -- who succeeded in turning Hebrew into the national language.
Let's talk about the elephant in the room: the Arab natives of Palestine. Who came first -- the Jews or the Arabs? And how did the early Zionists feel about the Arabs?
It's not enough just to create a new Jewish homeland. We need a New Jew. Physically strong, spiritually renewed, and connected to the land through hard physical labor. The big picture of Zionism that is emerging is that it's a movement to create an entirely new kind of Judaism for a new phase of our history.
In contrast to Herzl, Ahad Ha'Am wants "a Jewish state, and not merely a state for Jews." As the Zionist movement takes off at the turn of the century, a new branch, the Cultural Zionists, form to bring the Jewish. But events conspire to make the Zionist project more urgent.
What is Zionism? It's a tree. And Theodore Herzl outlines his vision of what the Jewish state should look like.
The trial of Alfred Dreyfus in France rallied Western European Jews around the idea of Zionism, and gave one man in particular, Theodore Herzl, a really big dream about creating a Jewish state.
We begin the story of modern Israel with the assassination of Czar Alexander II in Russia, in 1881. How the Jewish community responded tells us a lot about the origins of Zionism.
Live recorded at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, I'm kicking off Season 2. I'll be delving into modern Israel -- the rise of Zionism, the creation of Israel, the Palestinian conflict. Look out for the first episodes in August!
The Book of Genesis comes to an end as the Israelites go back and forth between Canaan and Egypt. Joseph has to decide between revenge and reconciliation. And we close out the era of the patriarchs and matriarchs, who set the Jewish People on their course.
We know from the story of Moses and the Exodus (and our recent Passover Seders) that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. But how did they get there in the first place? It has to do with Jacob's favorite son, Joseph, his coat of many colors, his 11 jealous brothers, Pharaoh, and dreams.
On the run from both Laban and Esau, Jacob wrestles with a strange being, earning him the name "Israel". He arrives back in the Promised Land to build an altar to God, but tragedy strikes his beloved wife, Rachel.
Jacob crosses the threshold on the hero's journey, dreaming of a ladder with angels going up and down. He marries both Rachel and Leah, who then compete with each other to produce male heirs. This is what we call in Hebrew a balagan.
Esau sells his birthright -- the family inheritance -- to his younger brother, Jacob, who connives with his mother, Rebecca, to deceive his father, Isaac. But the story is also a metaphor for the historical Kingdom of Judah.
Abraham sends his servant to find Isaac (the under-appreciated patriarch) a wife. We meet Rebecca, a decisive and kind woman who seizes her destiny to become a Jewish leader.
Judaism's second holiest site is the cave where Sarah and Abraham are buried. But for someone so connected to the Promised Land, Abraham still felt like a stranger.
Abraham attempts to sacrifice Isaac but is stopped at the last second. Why did he do it?
Taking a break from the Bible to catch up on current events in Israel this past week: the evacuation of Amona, a West Bank settlement, and the Knesset's approval of a law that allows Israel to seize private Palestinian land.
Justice, divine punishment, hospitality, sexual deviancy, kindness to strangers, people getting turned into salt -- all this and more as Abraham argues with God, and opens up a new relationship between the human and the divine.
We begin the story of a great adventurer: Abram, and his wife Sarai. Starting at the age of 70, Abram will travel across the known world, sell his wife as a mistress to Pharaoh, kill some kings, circumcise himself, exhibit great generosity, try to murder his own son, and buy a crucial piece of real estate. He's also the first Jew.
So there was a major flood, Noah built an ark, and successfully landed it back on dry land. What happened next connects today's Jews with the Armenian people across a familiar historical narrative. Plus we get the first set of seven laws to govern humanity. Nice!
The human adventure begins. And almost comes to a crashing halt. From eating from the forbidden tree, to getting kicked out of the Garden of Eden, to lying to God, to murdering brothers, what are these first humans trying to tell us about the nature of humanity, freedom, and moral choice?
We begin at the beginning! With nothing, and go from there. The Book of Genesis gives us two stories of creation, but they're different. So which is the "real" story?
There are a lot of books that make up the Hebrew Bible. And everyone from Leonard Cohen to U2 quote them frequently. Get the quick info on what's in the Hebrew Bible, what the whole thing is about, and whether parts of it are true.
In the year 622 BCE, while cleaning out the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, Hilkiah found a scroll that would change the course of Western civilization. It also made the King of Judah look good. Which raises some questions.
UNESCO, an agency of the United Nations, recently voted in favor of a resolution condemned by Israel as negating the Jewish historical presence in the Old City of Jerusalem. What's the story? What is UNESCO and what is this resolution about? Why is it happening now? Go beyond the headlines to learn about the background to this issue, and some analysis of the merits of each side.
The names we call ourselves -- Hebrews, Israelites, and Jews -- says a lot about where we come from and who we believe ourselves to be as a people. Come learn about the origins of these terms and how they have changed throughout history.
For our second episode, we'll introduce the Jewish calendar -- how the days, months, and years work, why the Jewish holidays move around the secular calendar, and we got to the Jewish year 5,777.
Welcome to the first episode of a new podcast -- Jew Oughta Know! In this episode we'll cover the basics of what this podcast is about, and get your started on the great journey that is learning about all things Jewish, from history to philosophy to current events.