Jewish History Nerds

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

June 16, 2026 62 mins
Jewish History Nerds welcomes its first-ever guest, Noam Weissman, host of Unpacking Israeli History. Yael, Schwab and Noam explore the life and legacy of Yitzhak Rabin through the lens of Itamar Rabinovich's Yitzhak Rabin: Soldier, Leader, Statesman from the Jewish Lives series. Rabin's life is the story of Israel itself. But who was the real Rabin? Known as a peacenik, he was in fact "Mr. Security" — a soldier-statesman who...
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June 12th marks Anne Frank’s birthday, and it was on her 13th birthday that she received the diary that would later become one of the most widely read books in the world. Anne Frank remains one of the most recognizable voices in Jewish history, and one of the most misunderstood. In this bonus episode sponsored by the Jewish Lives series from Yale University Press, Schwab walks Yael through Ruth Franklin's The Many Lives of ...
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June 9, 2026 52 mins
Few figures in all of Jewish history are as celebrated, as contradicted, and as human as King David. But how well do we really know him? We're kicking off new bonus episodes in partnership with the Jewish Lives series from Yale University Press by going back to the Hebrew Bible. Drawing from Rabbi David Wolpe's David: The Divided Heart, Yael and Schwab unpack the shepherd-turned-king who wrote our prayers, betrayed his allies, and...
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June 4, 2026 1 min
Yael and Schwab are back — and this season, they're diving into the history of Jews in the Americas, just in time for the US's 250th birthday. But first: special episodes sponsored by The Jewish Lives Series. Catch up on past episodes, subscribe wherever you listen, and get in touch at nerds@unpacked.media.
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Yael and Schwab revisit the remarkable story of the Oneg Shabbos archive from the Warsaw Ghetto in honor of Yom HaShoah. The tins held the second of three caches of the Oneg Shabbos archives: a collection by ordinary people turned archivists who risked their lives to preserve the darkest moment of Jewish history. Among the photographs and diary entries, concert tickets and poems, lay the collected sermons of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalm...
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The Haggadah is the most widely read Jewish book in the world, and yet it was never supposed to be a book at all. Yael takes Schwab through its surprising history: how an oral commandment became rabbinic debate, evolved into illuminated medieval manuscripts, and ended up as 60 million free copies tucked inside a can of Maxwell House coffee. Pictures of the Sarajevo Haggadah: https://anumuseum.org.il/blog/sarajevo-haggadah/ Th...
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Jonathan Schwab and Yael Steiner tackle one of Jewish history's most debated questions: was Albert Einstein a Zionist? From Nazi Germany naming him public enemy number one to eventually being offered the presidency of Israel, Schwab traces Einstein's complicated, lifelong relationship with Zionism. And they explore a question the Nazis first raised as an attack: was Einstein's science somehow Jewish? Check your feed next Tuesday...
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Before Albert Einstein became the wild-haired icon who changed how we understand the universe, he was a struggling patent clerk with a rejected dissertation, no job prospects, and a messy personal life. But he had time to spare and a mind that wouldn't stop. In this first episode of a two-part series, Jonathan Schwab takes Yael Steiner through the Einstein you don't know: a contrarian Jewish outsider whose ideas would reshape our u...
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Ray Frank was a gifted Jewish teacher, journalist, and speaker who became a sensation in the American West in the 1890s. Crowds packed opera houses to hear her preach, newspapers called her the “Girl Rabbi of the Golden West,” and communities begged her to lead them. But Ray Frank refused the title of rabbi. So who was she—and why did she open a door she would not walk through herself? Here is a photo of Ray Fr...
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What happens when a rabbi becomes a compulsive gambler? Yael and Schwab explore the life of Rabbi Leone de Modena, a remarkable Renaissance thinker from the Venetian ghetto. A prodigy, prolific writer, and the author of the first full-length Hebrew autobiography, Modena was also a famous preacher whose sermons drew both Jews and Christians. He defended bringing choral music into synagogue services and is claimed by a broad range o...
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What happens when trauma reshapes religious life, and suffering itself becomes sacred? This week, Jonathan Schwab introduces Yael Steiner to the Hasidei Ashkenaz, a small but intense medieval movement that emerged in 12th–13th century Germany after the Crusades of 1096. Living in the shadow of violence, they turned to radical piety, marathon prayer, frequent fasting, rigorous penance, and even martyrdom (kiddush Hashem), to ...
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In 1953, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were sent to the electric chair. They were condemned by a Jewish judge, and executed on a Friday night. The charge: espionage. The backdrop: Cold War hysteria. This week, Yael Steiner and Jonathan Schwab reframe the story. Yael explores the Jewish response to the Rosenberg trial and the tensions it revealed within the American Jewish community. Sources and summary: https://docs.google.com/docume...
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In 1609, Rivka Tiktiner did something no Jewish woman had ever done before: she published a book. Meneket Rivka, printed in Prague, is the earliest surviving full-length work by a Jewish woman—written in Yiddish yet steeped in serious Torah scholarship. This week on Jewish History Nerds, Jonathan Schwab introduces Yael Steiner to this little-known trailblazer as they explore her legacy—and wrestle with the challenge of ...
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Leon Trotsky’s name gets thrown around a lot—but the story behind it is darker and stranger than most realize. This week, Yael Steiner walks Schwab through Trotsky’s rise from an assimilated Jewish childhood in Ukraine to revolution, Lenin’s inner circle, and the founding of the Red Army. From a revealing stint in New York to the brutal realities of Soviet power, Trotsky embraces total revolution—only ...
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This week, Jewish History Nerds explores the extraordinary story of Portugal’s secret Jews—families forced into hiding who preserved Judaism for centuries after the Inquisition. Through Samuel Schwarz’s accidental 1925 discovery, Jonathan Schwab and Yael Steiner reveal whispered prayers, hidden rituals, and a Jewish life sustained entirely underground—and reflect on what it takes to carry Jewish identity for...
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Yael Steiner and Jonathan Schwab are back for a new season of Jewish History Nerds, starting with the remarkable story of Janusz Korczak—the Jewish-Polish pediatrician and educator who insisted children are full human beings, not “human becomings.” Korczak pioneered radical ideas about children’s rights, dignity, and autonomy, building orphanages where children governed themselves and were treated as moral ...
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Jewish History Nerds is back for Season 6! 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 Jews across era...
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Help us take Unpacked podcasts further by supporting our crowdfunding campaign: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://unpacked.bio/podgift2025⁠⁠ Season 5 is coming soon. In the meantime, to celebrate Hanukkah, we’re revisiting one of our favorite episodes from our very first season. 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 complica...
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June 12, 2025 48 secs
This survey has expired. Thanks for listening and see you next season.
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In this season finale, Yael Steiner and Jonathan Schwab explore the powerful and surprising story of the Jewish National Fund's iconic blue tzedakah box—also known as the JNF "Blue Box." What began as a nostalgic household object for many Jewish families turns out to be one of the most influential and controversial symbols in modern Zionist history. Discover how this simple tin box, known as a "pushka" in Yiddish, became a g...
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