Jewish History Nerds
Whoever said history was boring clearly never heard these stories…Welcome to Jewish History Nerds! Join hosts Yael and Schwab each week as they take a dive into some deep cuts of Jewish history. From the Jewish Da Vinci Code to mass suicide pacts, explore true stories that feel larger than life. Be in touch: nerds@unpacked.media
Episodes
October 15, 2026 • 49 mins
We're a finalist for a Signal Award in the history category. So we decided to revisit the episode submitted for consideration. 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 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. That same year, Jews who didn't convert to Catholicism were expelled from Spain. Those two events are more connected than you think, and t...
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October 8, 2026 • 47 mins
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.
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 identity his entire life, yet it followed him everywhere. With the anniversar...
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October 6, 2026 • 2 mins
Voting has closed. Jewish History Nerds is a finalist for a Signal Award in the history category and has the. chance to win a listener's choice award.
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 the episode submitted to the Signal Awards for consideration.
The First Jews in the Americas: Fleeing the Inquis...
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October 1, 2026 • 13 mins
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.
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 helped prepare Torah scrolls for the holiday in Prague. For Simch...
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September 10, 2026 • 54 mins
Jewish History Nerds is a finalist for a Signal Award in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please leave a comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season.
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 story of Jewish life in the Far East. While Europe per...
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September 3, 2026 • 28 mins
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.
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, they reflect on 250 years of Jewish life in America, from Emma Laz...
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August 27, 2026 • 52 mins
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 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 killed him and grew through years of study, faith, an...
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August 20, 2026 • 57 mins
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 star of The Jazz Singer, the 1927 ...
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August 13, 2026 • 48 mins
Jewish History Nerds is a finalist for a Signal Award in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please leave a comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season.
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 something almost unthinkable: speaking from the Jewish pul...
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August 6, 2026 • 54 mins
Jewish History Nerds is a finalist for a Signal Award in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please leave a comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season.
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 changed American Judaism. Yael Steiner and Jonathan S...
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July 30, 2026 • 40 mins
Jewish History Nerds is a finalist for a Signal Award in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please leave a 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 speech, and the American left. Schwab and ...
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July 23, 2026 • 35 mins
Jewish History Nerds is a finalist for a Signal Award in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please leave a comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season.
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 privileged Sephardic poet left literary salons for Ward&rsquo...
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July 16, 2026 • 41 mins
Jewish History Nerds is a finalist for a Signal Award in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please leave a comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season.
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 American family, she became a literary prodigy, challenged Ra...
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July 9, 2026 • 44 mins
Jewish History Nerds is a finalist for a Signal Award in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please leave a comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season.
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, but for Jews in the early republic, that promise had t...
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July 7, 2026 • 39 mins
Jewish History Nerds is a finalist for a Signal Award in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please leave a 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 bringing his congregation into ex...
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July 2, 2026 • 49 mins
Jewish History Nerds is a finalist for a Signal Award in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please leave a comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season.
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, they faced debt, discrimination, and Peter Stuyvesan...
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June 25, 2026 • 44 mins
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.
Were there really Jewish pirates in the Caribbean? The answer is far more complicated (and fascinating) than the legend. From Samuel Pallache, the so-called Pirate Rabbi, to the thriving Jewish communities of Curaçao and beyond. Schwab w...
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June 18, 2026 • 49 mins
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.
Fleeing the Inquisition, Crypto-Jews who had been forced to hide their faith for generations found refuge in Recife, Brazil — and for the first time, rebuilt Jewish life in the open. When Recife fell, twenty-three Jewish refugees s...
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June 16, 2026 • 63 mins
Jewish History Nerds is a finalist for a Signal Award in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please leave a comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season.
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 History, Noam Weissman, Yael Steiner, and Jonathan Schwab ...
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June 11, 2026 • 65 mins
Jewish History Nerds is a finalist for a Signal Award in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please leave a comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season.
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 it was on her 13th birthday that she received the...
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