The Jewish Story

Jan 14 2025 27 ep. 30 mins 2
The Jewish Story Podcast artwork

The Jewish Story is a Jewish History podcast for the 21st Century. In it, we use the latest in archaeology, linguistics, and historical methods to sculpt a history of the Jewish people, from the exodus out of Egypt until the present! Theme tune courtesy of Crowander via the Free Music Archive

  Education  History
RSS feed Share
Copy RSS


Subscribe on Podcast Addict


Episode 5: East and West (1500 - 1665 CE)

Jan 14 2025 29 mins  
In this episode, we return to India to meet two new groups of Jews who would become prominent populations in Indian society; we travel to China, where we see how Chinese Jews attempted to blend Jewish tradition with Chinese neo-Confuscian culture and philosophy; and we survey the Jews of East and West Africa, and briefly discuss the evidence of Afro-Jewish origin.

Episode 4: The Jews at Court (1555 - 1600 CE)

Jan 05 2025 37 mins  
In this episode, we see a new Pope elected, and a new wave of Jewish expulsions sweep across Europe. We follow Gracia and Joseph Nasi to Constantinople, and watch them ascend to great heights within the Ottoman Empire. We see a new Jewish city established in northern Palestine, and learn of the golden age of Kaballah. And we meet the Jewish serving women who became close advisors o

Episode 3: A Dangerous Escape (1500 - 1555 CE)

Dec 29 2024 32 mins  
In this episode, we meet the Mendes family, and watch as they orchestrate the daring and dangerous escape of thousands of conversos from Portugal.

Episode 2: New Frontiers (the Americas, Eastern Europe and the Middle East; 1492 - 1530 CE)

Dec 22 2024 41 mins  
In this episode, we will meet the first conversos to set foot on the American continent, see an Ashkenazi population boom in Poland and Lithuania, and witness the rise to dominance of the Mamluk and Ottoman Empires.

Episode 1: The Messiah Reborn? (Portugal and Italy; 1492 - 1530 CE)

Dec 15 2024 38 mins  
In this episode, we will see what became of the conversos who fled to Portugal in the wake of the Spanish Inquisition, tour the first formal Jewish ghetto in history, and meet two mysterious Jewish figures who would go on to brush shoulders with popes and kings.

Episode 0: Season 3 Recap

Nov 12 2024 12 mins  
In this episode, we will review the history covered in Season 3, spanning from the Great Schism of the church in 1054 CE until the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492.

Episode 5: Inquisition (1400 - 1492 CE)

Apr 28 2024 30 mins  
In this episode, the rising tide of anti-Jewish hatred we've seen throughout the season will culminate in the Spanish Inquisition - a mass extermination of Jews from Spain.

Episode 4: Consumed by Fire (1300 - 1410 CE)

Apr 21 2024 30 mins  
In this episode, the Talmud itself stands trial in France and Spain, an epidemic rocks medieval Europe, a wave of Jewish pogroms sweeps Christian Spain, and we are introduced to Nahmanides and the Jews of India,

Episode 3: Of Marriage, Money, and Murder (1200 - 1300 CE)

Apr 14 2024 28 mins  
In this episode, we will explore 13th century Ashkenazi and Sephardic communities, meet some famous medieval Jewish money-lenders, learn of the Fourth Lateran Council, and witness the emergence of some of the most damaging antisemitic tropes in history.

Episode 2: A Gentleman and a Scholar (1100 - 1200 CE)

Apr 07 2024 25 mins  
In this episode, we witness a wave of anti-Jewish bigotry and violence sweep across Christian Europe, watch Saladin and his Ayyubid caliphate re-take the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and meet Maimonides, one of the most influential Jewish leaders of the Medieval period.