Jewish History Soundbites

Coming off a rich and diverse series of Jewish history tours throughout Europe, Jewish History Soundbites presents a summary of these journeys throughout our storied past across the length and breadth of Europe. Classic sort of tours included Poland & Lithuania in Eastern Europe, to Prague, Bratislava & Vienna in Central Europe. Another one was an in depth exploration of the rich Jewish history in northern Italy - Venice, Padua, Stra, Mantua, Cento, Bologna, Trieste and so much more. Presented here for the benefit and enjoyment of listeners of Jewish History Soundbites, insights and stories from each and every one of these fascinating locations and narratives from the many stops of our collective Jewish journey. 

Subscribe to Jewish History Soundbites Podcast on: PodBean: https://jsoundbites.podbean.com/ or your favorite podcast platform

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram at @Jsoundbites

For sponsorship opportunities about your favorite topics of Jewish history or feedback contact Yehuda at: yehuda@yehudageberer.com

The great Rabbis had their favored vacation spots in the Prewar era. Where were they? What went on there? An inside look at the relaxing times and locations known as the "Dachas".

Subscribe To Our Podcast on:

 

PodBean: https://jsoundbites.podbean.com/

 

Follow us on Twitter or Instagram at @Jsoundbites

You can email Yehuda at yehuda@yehudageberer.com

The Mountains, the Catskills, the Borscht Belt, upstate, the country. Monticello, Liberty, Woodridge, Swan Lake, Woodbourne, Fallsburg. A place of many names with one thing in common: a place rich in Jewish history and lore. As a summer destination, the Catskills would be home to countless bungalow colonies as city Jews organized their communities for a mountain air getaway. Generations of children attended the many summer camps that dotted Sullivan County. Camps included Mesivta, Agudah, Munk, HILI, Kol Rinah, Torah Vodaath, Ohr Shraga, Sternberg and many more including the Betar Jewish self defense camp where Vladimir Jabotinsky died in 1940. It was also famously known as the Borscht Belt, and the legendary hotels/resorts/country clubs like Grossinger's, Kutscher's and the Concord made their mark as vacation sites. Most Jewish comedians of the time commenced their careers there. In addition to the summer crowd, the Catskills were home to many year round Jewish communities over the years. These towns built shuls, mikvas, hired Rabbis and even Jewish owned farms burgeoned for a time. This included Yeshivas as well such as the Mountaindale Yeshiva of Rav Yehuda Davis and the famous Yeshiva of South Fallsburg.

Subscribe to Jewish History Soundbites Podcast on: PodBean: https://jsoundbites.podbean.com/ or your favorite podcast platform

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram at @Jsoundbites

For sponsorship opportunities about your favorite topics of Jewish history or feedback contact Yehuda at: yehuda@yehudageberer.com

Aside from the Rabbi's Sons discussed in Part 1 of this miniseries, the 1960's saw the first music groups in Ohr Chadash, Pirchei and the London School of Jewish Song. From Israel came Chaim Banet and Jo Amar, the latter a pioneer of Morroccan Jewish music. No less important than the performers, the production, composition and arrangements were handled by architects of Jewish music Suki & Ding, Sheya Mendlowitz, Yisroel Lamm and later Moshe Laufer, Mona Rosenblum and Yossi Green. The 1970's saw the new sounds of Diaspora Yeshiva Band and Dudu Fisher, bringing Jewish music to ever wider audiences. Abie Rottenberg commenced his illustrious career this decade with Dveykus and the soon to be crowned king of Jewish music Mordechai Ben David burst on to the scene as well. Capitalizing on their earlier involvement with Pirchei-JEP, Rivie Schwebel and Ali Scharf collaborated once again with a series of albums of Schwebel, Scharf & Levine.

Check out the story of Yerachmiel Begun and the Miami Boys Choir on this popular episode of Jewish History Soundbites: https://jsoundbites.podbean.com/e/great-american-jewish-cities-14-miami/

 Subscribe to Jewish History Soundbites Podcast on: PodBean: https://jsoundbites.podbean.com/ or your favorite podcast platform

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram at @Jsoundbites

For sponsorship opportunities about your favorite topics of Jewish history or feedback contact Yehuda at: yehuda@yehudageberer.com

Modern Jewish music developed from the chassidic music of old to the new sound of the Jewish music revolution led by Shlomo Carlebach in the 1960's. The music world of pre war Europe was brought over to the emerging post war world by Yankel Talmud, Yom Tov Ehrlich, the Chabad niggunim, David Werdyger and Bentzion Shenker of Modzhitz. They served as the bridge to bring classic chassidic music to the new generation.

This was followed by Shlomo Carlebach and the revolution of Jewish music in the 1960's. Baruch Chait with the Rabbi's Sons, Yigal Calek and the London School of Jewish Song, the Pirchei-JEP albums all contributed to the early flourishing of the new style Jewish music which would continue to develop in the ensuing decade.

Check out the other Jewish History Soundbites episodes on Jewish music: Shlomo Carlebach mini-series: https://jsoundbites.podbean.com/e/from-lakewood-to-lubavitch-the-early-years-of-shlomo-carlebach/

https://jsoundbites.podbean.com/e/from-all-night-learning-to-all-night-kumzitz-the-early-years-of-shlomo-carlebach-part-ii/

Chazzanus: https://jsoundbites.podbean.com/e/yossele-rosenblatt-and-the-golden-age-of-chazzanus/

Modzhitz: https://jsoundbites.podbean.com/e/chassidic-symphony-the-modzitz-dynasty/

Subscribe to Jewish History Soundbites Podcast on: PodBean: https://jsoundbites.podbean.com/ or your favorite podcast platform

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram at @Jsoundbites

For sponsorship opportunities about your favorite topics of Jewish history or feedback contact Yehuda at: yehuda@yehudageberer.com

Special Tisha Ba'av Episode with an all new introduction. 

The 1903 Kishinev Pogrom was a tragic massacre, with reverberations within the wider Jewish world remaining until this very day. Goaded on by antisemitic newspapers with cries of 'Death to the Jews', a blood libel was fabricated and a mob was unleashed on Easter Sunday, April 19, 1903. Leaving 49 killed, hundreds maimed and injured in its wake, Jewish property was destroyed and looted as well. Claims of complicity of the police and government were voiced in many quarters.

But it was primarily the after effects of this pogrom which had a long term transformative effect on Jewish society in Russia and worldwide. The great immigration to the United States was already long underway, but it significantly intensified in the years following Kishinev and the subsequent 1905 revolution. American Jewry was galvanized to assist the victims, and this cemented the relationship US Jewry was to have with their brethren back in Eastern Europe.

Within Russia, many of the Jewish youth became radicalized as a result of the massacre, joining clandestine revolutionary organizations with the goal of overthrowing the Czar.

The most profound impact was felt within the nascent Zionist movement. Chaim Nachman Bialik was dispatched by the historian Shimon Dubnow to gather testimonies from survivors. Following his five week stay in Kishinev, Bialik penned 'Be'ir Hahareiga' - In the City of Death, a poem about the pogrom. Powerfully written, it also included strongly worded accusations in regards to the perceived passivity of the victims. The poem and its message was to have an immense impact, as it was published and translated and became immensely popular. Vladimir Jabotinsky's conclusion was to organize Jewish self defense, and Theodore Herzl's conclusion was the Uganda proposal at the Sixth Zionist Congress. The shadow of the Kishinev tragedy was to hover over the many subsequent, and ever greater tragedies of the bloody 20th century.

Subscribe to Jewish History Soundbites Podcast on: PodBean: https://jsoundbites.podbean.com/ or your favorite podcast platform

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram at @Jsoundbites

For sponsorship opportunities about your favorite topics of Jewish history or feedback contact Yehuda at: yehuda@yehudageberer.com

With the United States commemorating its 250th anniversary, it’s worth reflecting on the unique place that the country holds in Jewish history. The American Jewish experience is unparalleled by any other country in the diaspora. American Jews were the only Jews in history that never needed to acheive emancipation in the modern era, as their equal rights and citizenship was already enshrined in the Constitution from the outset. The religious freedoms enjoyed by American Jewry enabled religious life to flourish on a scale unseen in any other place in the history of the diaspora. The greatest story of all is obviously immigration, as millions of Jews chose to make America their home while they were welcomed to its shores.

Subscribe to Jewish History Soundbites Podcast on: PodBean: https://jsoundbites.podbean.com/ or your favorite podcast platform

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram at @Jsoundbites

For sponsorship opportunities about your favorite topics of Jewish history or feedback contact Yehuda at: yehuda@yehudageberer.com

When Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-agression pact in late August 1939, it sent shockwaves throughout the entire world, but seemed especially ominous for the Jews of Europe. Now that these sworn enemies were friends, war seemed inevitable, and what lay in store for the future of Polish Jewry? When war did indeed break out several days later, western Poland ultimately fell under Nazi occupation, while the Soviets occupied Poland’s east. Polish Jewry was in a hopeless situation, where the Soviet Union was often viewed as the lesser of two evils. Soviet persecution led to the deportation of many to Siberia, which in a cruel irony proved to be a salvation as they were spared the Nazi Final Solution. The Molotov Von Ribbentrop pact had significant ramifications not only on world history and World War II, but also on Jewish history and the Holocaust. 

Subscribe to Jewish History Soundbites Podcast on: PodBean: https://jsoundbites.podbean.com/ or your favorite podcast platform

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram at @Jsoundbites

For sponsorship opportunities about your favorite topics of Jewish history or feedback contact Yehuda at: yehuda@yehudageberer.com

When Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-agression pact in late August 1939, it sent shockwaves throughout the entire world, but seemed especially ominous for the Jews of Europe. Now that these sworn enemies were friends, war seemed inevitable, and what lay in store for the future of Polish Jewry? When war did indeed break out several days later, western Poland ultimately fell under Nazi occupation, while the Soviets occupied Poland’s east. Polish Jewry was in a hopeless situation, where the Soviet Union was often viewed as the lesser of two evils. Soviet persecution led to the deportation of many to Siberia, which in a cruel irony proved to be a salvation as they were spared the Nazi Final Solution. The Molotov Von Ribbentrop pact had significant ramifications not only on world history and World War II, but also on Jewish history and the Holocaust. 

Subscribe to Jewish History Soundbites Podcast on: PodBean: https://jsoundbites.podbean.com/ or your favorite podcast platform

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram at @Jsoundbites

For sponsorship opportunities about your favorite topics of Jewish history or feedback contact Yehuda at: yehuda@yehudageberer.com

A large chassidic community across central Poland prior to its decimation during the Holocaust, Radoshytz was founded by Rav Yissachar Dov Ber Baron (1765-1843). Known as the Saba Kadisha of Radoshytz, he gained renown throughout the region as a holy miracle worker. The Radoshytz dynasty continued through his offspring, and was an influential chassidic dynasty until the war. All of the Radoshytz Rebbes and almost the entire community was wiped out during the Holocaust, but the Radoshytz legacy is a compelling historical narrative until this very day. 

Subscribe to Jewish History Soundbites Podcast on: PodBean: https://jsoundbites.podbean.com/ or your favorite podcast platform

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram at @Jsoundbites

For sponsorship opportunities about your favorite topics of Jewish history or feedback contact Yehuda at: yehuda@yehudageberer.com