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.
Episodes

After the Execution: The Rosenberg Boys (Director’s Cut)
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When Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in 1953, they left behind two young sons. This outtake from our episode on the Rosenbergs follows Michael and Robert from the Jewish institutional system to the couple who gave them a new name, Meeropol. Yael and Schw

Snakes, Synagogues, and Sand Floors (Director’s Cut)
We’re back with a Director’s Cut of Jewish History Nerds, the 2x Signal Award winner. Yael and Schwab are digging into the mystery of sand floors in some synagogues in the Caribbean. This segment, which didn't make it into the original episode, also explores how Jewish communities have picked up customs from their neighbors, adapting them with their own local flavor.
In case you missed it, her

Was Jabotinsky the Father of Likud and the Israeli Right? Revisited
Jewish History Nerds is now an award-winning podcast! We took home two Signal Awards for history: Gold and Listener’s Choice. Thank you, Nerd Nation for coming out to vote.
Speaking of elections, Israelis are gong to the polls. So we decided to revisit one of our favorite episodes, the story of Ze’ev Jabotinsky. The founder of Revisionist Zionism is widely claimed as the ideological father of Lik

The First Jews in the Americas Revisited
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. So we decided to revisit the episode submitted for consideration.
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In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. That same year, Jews who didn't convert to Catholicism were expell

"Bronx Man Leads Russian Revolution": Trotsky Revisited
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Leon Trotsky was one of the most consequential figures of the 20th century, and one of history’s most reluctant Jews. Born Lev Bronstein in Ukraine, he rejected his Jewish ide

Vote Now for Jewish History Nerds
Update: Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
If you enjoy this show, please leave a comment and review wherever you get your podcasts. We will be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Here's a link to

Before Jews Danced With the Torah: The Lost Simchat Torah Tradition
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category! If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
More than 400 years ago, Rivka Tiktiner wrote the earliest known full-length published work by a Jewish woman. She also created a Simchat Torah poem that reveals how women hel

The Jewish History Hiding in Japan and Korea
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
How did Jews escaping the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions end up in Japan? Dr. Henry Abramson joins Yael and Schwab for a special bonus episode to uncover the surprising

How America Changed the Jewish People
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Historian Dr. Henry Abramson usually works behind the scenes, but this week he joins Yael and Schwab to explore what makes the American Jewish experience unique. Together, the

Why Did Sammy Davis Jr. Become Jewish?
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Sammy Davis Jr. was already one of America's biggest entertainers when he made a choice few expected. He converted to Judaism. His journey began with a car crash that nearly k

How Jews Built Hollywood: Al Jolson and The Jazz Singer
Jewish History Nerds is a finalist for a Signal Award in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season.
Al Jolson was the biggest star in America, a Jewish immigrant who left the synagogue behind to conquer Broadway and Hollywood. Jonathan Schwab guides Yael Steiner through his journey from cantor's son to

She Spoke from the Pulpit Before Women Could. Revisiting Ray Fank
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
As we look back at Jews in the Americas for the 250th, we’re revisiting the story of Ray Frank. Long before women were ordained as rabbis, Ray Frank was already doing somethin

How a Plate of Shrimp Changed American Judaism
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
The infamous 1883 Trefa Banquet was meant to celebrate America's first ordained rabbis. But a menu of shrimp, clams, oysters, and frog's legs in cream ignited a firestorm that

Anarchism, Feminism...and Judaism? Revisiting Emma Goldman
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
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

The Statue of Liberty Was Never Meant to Welcome Immigrants
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
In part 2, Schwab and Yael explore how Emma Lazarus transformed the Statue of Liberty into a symbol of immigration. As Russian Jewish refugees arrived in New York, the privile

How One Jewish Poet Changed the Meaning of America
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Emma Lazarus gave the Statue of Liberty its most famous words, but her own life defied the immigrant story she helped define. Born into a wealthy, deeply rooted Jewish America

The First Amendment and the Birth of Jewish Equality
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
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.
America promised religious freedom,

The Forgotten Jews of the American Revolution
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
In Part 1, Yael and Schwab explore the surprising role Jews played in America’s Revolutionary War. From Chaim Solomon’s critical financial support to Gershom Mendes Seixas bri

Why The First Jews in Colonial America Nearly Vanished
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Before New York became the center of American Jewish life, a small group of Jewish refugees arrived in New Amsterdam in 1654. Fleeing Recife after the Portuguese retook Brazil

Jewish Pirates and the Caribbean
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
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 t

The First Jews in the Americas: Fleeing the Inquisition to Brazil
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
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 th

What If Rabin Wasn't a Peacenik?
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Yitzhak Rabin remains one of the most consequential and contested figures in Israeli history. In this special crossover between Jewish History Nerds and Unpacking Israeli Hist

Anne Frank and the Story We Tell Ourselves
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Anne Frank is one of the most famous Jewish voices in history, but the story behind her diary is far more complex than many realize. June 12 marks Anne Frank’s birthday, and i

Was King David a Hero or a Villain?
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Most people know King David as the shepherd who defeated Goliath. But that story is only the beginning. In this special bonus episode of Jewish History Nerds, Yael Steiner and

New Episodes, Coming Next Week
Jewish History Nerds is a Signal Awards finalist. Vote for us in Listener's Choice by Thu 15 Oct: https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting#/2026/individual-episodes/genre/history
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

Voices of the Warsaw Ghetto: A Yom HaShoah Re-Release
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
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 One

The Haggadah: The Book of the People of the Book
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
The Passover Haggadah is one of the most widely used Jewish texts, yet it isn’t a straightforward story. Built from fragments of debates, rituals, and traditions, it evolved o

Was Albert Einstein a Zionist?
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
In part 2, Schwab and Yael explore Einstein's fight with Nazism, his views on Zionism, and his complicated connection to Israel reveal a side of Einstein most people never he

Albert Einstein: Rebel. Reject. Genius.
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
In part 1, Schwab and Yael explore the lesser-known Einstein, from failure and fame to Jewish identity, assimilation, and the world that pushed him to see himself differently.

She Spoke from the Pulpit Before Women Could
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Long before women were ordained as rabbis, Ray Frank was already doing something almost unthinkable: speaking from the Jewish pulpit, drawing huge crowds, and changing the fut

He Wrote Against Gambling… Then Became Addicted
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Rabbi Leone de Modena was one of the most fascinating figures of Renaissance Jewish history: a prodigy, prolific writer, celebrity preacher in the Venetian ghetto, and a lifel

The Other Hasidim: The Lost Jewish Movement That Rejected Joy
We're a finalist for a Signal Award in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We will be back soon with a brand new season.
What happens when a Jewish community lives through mass trauma and turns inward in search of meaning? The Hasidei Ashkenaz were a radical medieval movement known for extreme piety, fasting, penance, and mystical teaching

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg: The Case That Divided American Jews
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in 1953 after being convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage, but the charge was not treason. In this episode of Jewish History Ner

The First Jewish Woman to Publish a Book
Jewish History Nerds heads to early modern Prague to meet Rivka Tiktiner, author of Meneket Rivkah, the earliest full-length published work we have by a Jewish woman. Published posthumously in 1609, it’s a Yiddish ethical guide for women packed with biblical and rabbinic sources, plus a Simchat Torah song that opens a window into women’s religious life.
If you like this show, please rate and wri

Leon Trotsky: The Reluctant Jew Behind the Russian Revolution
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
From his Jewish upbringing in the Russian Empire to Yiddish New York, socialist exile, and revolutionary power, Leon Trotsky’s life raises uncomfortable questions about ideolo

Secret Jews: Samuel Schwarz’s Discovery of Portugal’s Crypto-Jews
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
In 1925, mining engineer Samuel Schwarz stumbled onto a secret Jewish community in rural Portugal—families who preserved Jewish identity for centuries under the Portuguese Inq

The Hero Who Chose Children Over His Own Life
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Jonathan Schwab and Yael Steiner read history in children, tracing the life of Janusz Korczak—a Polish-Jewish pediatrician, writer, and educator who ran orphanages in Warsaw,

Jewish History Nerds is BACK!
Jewish History Nerds is back! Hosts Jonathan Schwab and Yael Steiner return with a new slate of smart, engaging stories from Jewish history—blending deep research with curiosity, humor, and lively conversation. Each week, they take turns exploring a fascinating figure or moment, asking big questions, learning together, and inviting listeners into the journey. This season spans famous and forgotten

Revisiting Hebrew Hammer: The True Story of Hannukah
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Ah, Chanukah. That festive time of year where we light candles, indulge in fried foods, and celebrate… a brutal civil war? Join Yael and Schwab as they complicate the story we

Listener Survey is Here
This survey has expired. Thanks for listening and see you next season.
If you like this show, please write a review wherever you get your podcasts. And be in touch. Write to us at nerds@unpacked.media.

The JNF Blue Box: How Loose Change Helped Build Israel
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Jonathan Schwab and Yael Steiner trace how a simple blue tzedakah box became a conduit for diaspora longing and real-world nation building, turning pocket change into forests,

The Judensau: The Antisemitic Carving Still on German Churches
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Jonathan Schwab and Yael Steiner confront the Judensau, a grotesque medieval motif that fuses Jews with pigs in obscene, degrading scenes carved straight into churches and cat

When Jews Thrived in India: The Cochin Copper Plates
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Jonathan Schwab and Yael Steiner follow the Cochin copper plates from royal charter to communal touchstone—three hammered sheets of metal inscribed in Tamil and Vattezhuthu th

How Rome Used Coins to Humiliate the Jews
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
What can a coin tell us about history, power, and identity? Jonathan Schwab and Yael Steiner read history in metal, tracing the Roman Judaea Capta coins—tiny discs of imperial

The Secret History of Judaism’s Oldest Symbol
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Jonathan Schwab and Yael Steiner follow the menorah from its molten birth in a single ingot of gold to its afterlife as national emblem, tracing how one luminous object migrat

How One Kid Accidentally Changed Biblical History
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Jonathan Schwab and Yael Steiner unroll the Ketef Hinnom amulets—two miniature silver scrolls uncovered when a teenager’s stray hammer strike collapsed a burial chamber on Jer

Unearthing Dura-Europos: The Synagogue Lost in Time
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Jonathan Schwab and Yael Steiner uncover a synagogue frozen in time—Dura-Europos, buried in desert sand for 1,700 years and revealed with its vivid biblical murals and multili

Buried Secrets: Jewish Magic, Demons, and the Babylonian Incantation Bowls
Jewish History Nerds is a Signal Awards finalist. Vote for us in Listener's Choice by Thu 15 Oct. You have to sign up/log in to vote. https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting#/2026/individual-episodes/genre/history
Yael and Schwab dig into one of the most fascinating artifacts of Jewish antiquity: the Babylonian incantation bowls. These 5th–6th century earthenware bowls, found primarily in mode

The First Mention of Israel: A Passover Special on the Merneptah Stele
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Yael and Schwab dive into one of the most fascinating—and oldest—archaeological artifacts ever discovered: the Merneptah Stele. We travel back to 1209 BCE to explore this 3,20

The Star of David: The Symbol That Means Everything and Nothing
Jonathan Schwab and Yael Steiner trace the six-pointed star from elegant geometry to existential symbol—an emblem worn proudly on necklaces, weaponized on yellow badges, and planted at the heart of a modern nation.
From Prague’s medieval flag to Kabbalistic speculation to its fraught reinvention in the 20th century, they unravel how a simple hexagram absorbed centuries of Jewish pride, peril, mys

Season 4, Coming Next Week
Jewish History Nerds is a Signal Awards finalist. Vote for us in Listener's Choice by Thu 15 Oct: https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting#/2026/individual-episodes/genre/history
Jewish History Nerds is back! Hosts Jonathan Schwab and Yael Steiner are here with a preview of season 4. Get ready to nerd out in a season devoted to the fascinating stories behind objects and symbols from Jewish his

The Secret Jewish Kingdom of...Yemen?
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Ever wonder about the Jewish kings beyond David and Solomon? Join Yael and Schwab as they uncover the intriguing story of a lesser-known monarch from 5th century Yemen. Delve

Bertha Pappenheim: Life Beyond a Diagnosis
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Have you ever felt the need to reinvent yourself? To break free from the constraints of expectations and redefine your own path? Join Yael and Schwab as they explore the legac

Rav Saadia Gaon: In Our Gaonic Era
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
You may have heard of some of the greats of rabbinic history. But even if you've heard of Rav Sa'adia Gaon, you probably don't know his wild story. Join Yael and Schwab as the

The Diary of Glikl: Discovering the Exceptional within the Everyday
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Forget philosophers and historians, welcome to the world of Glikl, an ordinary yet extraordinary Jewish woman from 18th-century Germany. Join Yael and Schwab to explore the di

Revisionist Zionism: Jabotinsky's Journey From Vladimir to Ze'ev
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Lately it seems all anyone can talk about is... Zionism. But what even is Zionism? Jump into the world of Revisionist Zionist leader, Vladimir Jabotinsky, exploring his unique

Mystical Hasidism: Hillel Ba'al Shem's Enchanted Journey
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Join Yael and Schwab as they delve into the world of 18th-century Jewish mysticism through the life of Hillel Ba'al Shem and his manuscript "Sefer HaCheshek." Exploring failed

Chronicles of A Talmud Girl Boss
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Embark on a captivating journey through the extraordinary life of Devorah Romm, a pioneering businesswoman in 19th-century Lithuania, who reshaped the literary landscape of Ea

The First Female Rabbi?: Maiden of Ludmir
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Welcome to Ludmir, Ukraine. The year is 1806, and the revolutionary Hannah Rachel Vermermacher, also known as the Maiden of Ludmir, is shaking up the traditional Jewish world.

Innovation or Assimilation? The Moses Mendelssohn Story
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Moses Mendelssohn faced the intricate challenges of being a Jew in an enlightened European setting. Despite impactful contributions, his legacy includes challenges faced by hi

Graetz's Balancing Act: Modernity and Judaism
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Meet Heinrich Graetz, the trailblazing historian who transformed Jewish history. Born into 19th-century Germany, Graetz challenged norms and bridged the gap between Orthodox a

Season 3, Coming Next Week
We’re back for Season 3. We’ll still be unpacking awesome stories, dialing up the nerdiness, and leaning in to Jewish history. Get ready, and brush up on past episodes.
Are you ready?

Sarah Schenirer: A Revolutionary Traditionalist
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
100 years ago, in Krakow, Poland, Sarah Schenirer changed female Jewish education forever. Explore the extraordinary life of Sarah Schenirer, the pioneering force who fearless

The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Join Yael and Schwab as we unravel the gripping story of a young Jewish boy forcibly taken from his family by the Catholic Church, sparking international outcry and shaping th

Golden Age of Spanish Jewry: A Tapestry of Coexistence
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Schwab and Yael unravel the vibrant tapestry of the Golden Age of Spanish Jewry, an era of remarkable cultural exchange and collaboration between Muslims, Jews, and Christians

Hannah Szenes: Defiance Amidst Darkness
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
In this gripping episode, join Schwab and Yael as they delve into the extraordinary life of Hannah Szenes, a talented Hungarian poet who defied the Holocaust. From her escape

Wuhsha the Broker: Excavations from the Cairo Geniza
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Discovered in the Cairo Geniza, the story of the remarkable exploits of this 11th century trader push the boundaries of what we may have thought was typical of Jewish women in

"Resurrecting" Judaism?: Donato Manduzio's Journey
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Donato Manduzio was just a simple man in an Italian village - until he read the Bible, and began his quest to bring back what he thought was a dead, ancient faith. Not only di

Johannes Eisenmenger: Deception, Faith, and Antisemitism
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Learn about the bonkers life of Johannes Eisenmenger, a man who spent 19 years under false pretenses within the Jewish community. Over those 19 years, he meticulously studied

Sarra Coppia Sullam: A 17th Century Queen Esther?
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
You might not be quite as big of a fan of epistolary romances as Yael, but you'll still love the story of Sarra Coppia Sullam. Sullam, a Jewish Venetian woman of 17th century,

Emma Goldman: Anarchism, Feminism...and Judaism?
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
This week, Schwab and Yael dive into the life and legacy of Emma Goldman, the influential Jewish anarchist activist who made waves in early 20th-century America. Learn about h

Herod the Great: Madness & Majesty
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Delve into the enigmatic life of King Herod the Great, the infamous Judean ruler whose legacy intertwines madness and monumental achievements. Explore his transformative publi

Season 2 Coming!
Jewish History Nerds is a Signal Awards finalist. Vote for us in Listener's Choice by Thu 15 Oct: https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting#/2026/individual-episodes/genre/history
We’re back!
By popular demand, Jewish History Nerds is back for another season. Wait - what? Jewish History NERDS? That's right. This new name reflects exactly who we - and all of you - are - proud Jewish History nerd

Introducing: Unpacking Israeli History, Season 4!
Jewish History Unpacked introduces another podcast from Unpacked: Unpacking Israeli History. Season 4 just launched, and we're running the first episode here, entitled Ma'alot: 30 Seconds That Devastated A Nation.
It was supposed to be a fun field trip. A little celebration in honor of Israel’s 26th birthday. Over a hundred religious high school students, exploring northern Israel and sleeping un

Babatha: The Jewish Mom of Ancient Times
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
We've talked this season about some biggggg characters. Josephus, Napoleon, Shabbetai Zvi. And this week, meet...Babatha. A wholly unremarkable woman, except for the world she

Eternal Outsider: The Uriel D'Acosta Story
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Every community has its weirdos. And in 17th century Amsterdam, the Jewish community’s resident weirdo was Uriel D’Acosta: converso, refugee, passionate Jew, and… dangerous he

Saul/Paul of Tarsus: Nice Jewish Boy?
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
How did a nice Jewish boy wind up a Christian apostle? Meet Saul/Paul of Tarsus, the man responsible for, well, Christianity.
Like Jesus, Saul was a Jew. But unlike Jesus, Sa

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Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
In December of 1950, a construction worker happened upon a cache of old milk tins buried in the Warsaw Ghetto, the contents of which upended our understanding of the Holocaust

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Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
Ah, Chanukah. That festive time of year where we light candles, indulge in fried foods, and celebrate… a brutal civil war? Join Yael and Schwab as they complicate the story we

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Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes.
No one expects the Spanish Inquisition… to have given rise to two of the most powerful Jewish women in history.
You may not have heard of Dona Gracia Mendes or Benvenida Abra
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