Welcome to Recognizably Jewish, the podcast where we explore the Jewish cultural inheritance. This is Episode 4: The Star of David.
Some representative symbols, like the menorah, are uniquely Jewish. That’s not true for the Star of David, or Magen David as it’s called in Hebrew. Unlike the menorah, the Magen David is not mentioned in the Torah, or in other parts of the Hebrew bible, or in the Talmud. What’s more, the Star of David, unlike a menorah, is a simple geometric construction that has been used as a design motif by religions and cultures all over the world for thousands of years. So if the Star of David isn’t uniquely Jewish, how, when, and why did it end up as probably the best-known visual symbolic representation of Judaism today?
You can find the podcast on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen. I hope you’ll listen to some episodes and share the podcast with your friends, families, and Jewish communities. Thanks for listening to Recognizably Jewish.
Welcome to Recognizably Jewish, the podcast where we explore the Jewish cultural inheritance. This is Episode 3: David Ben-Gurion.
Today’s episode recounts the incredible story of David Ben-Gurion. How did a strident but unremarkable teenage Marxist Zionist in Poland go on to become the principal father figure of the sovereign nation of Israel? And how did he manage, from 1942 to 1952, to have one of history’s most remarkable periods of leadership?
You can find the podcast on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen. I hope you’ll listen to some episodes and share the podcast with your friends, families, and Jewish communities. Thanks for listening to Recognizably Jewish.
Welcome to Recognizably Jewish, the podcast where we explore the Jewish cultural inheritance. This is Episode 2: Jewish Surnames.
Abrams. Cohen. Diamond. Goldberg. Horowitz. Kaplan. Katz. Levy. Portnoy. Rappaport. Rosen. Roth. Schwartz. Segal. Shapiro. Stein. Weiss. Weinberg.
Everyone knows those are common Jewish surnames. But how did that happen? How did a relatively small number of last names become so recognizably Jewish?
You can find the podcast on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen. I hope you’ll listen to some episodes and share the podcast with your friends, families, and Jewish communities. Thanks for listening to Recognizably Jewish.
Hi, and welcome to Recognizably Jewish, the podcast where we explore the Jewish cultural inheritance. This is Episode 1: Shalom.
There are those of us who appreciate that Jewishness is a culture as much as it is a religion. Of course for many, including me, that culture often does include religious observance or celebration: high holiday services, Hanukkah candle lighting, Passover seders, Purim carnivals, dinners in the sukkah, etc. But the key point is that it encompasses so much more. Think about eating Jewish food or doing the hora at a wedding or bar mitzvah. Think about playing Jewish geography, attending a Jewish summer camp, or being part of a local JCC. Think about connecting in some way with Israel or the Hebrew language. Think about taking pride in the accomplishments of renowned Jews throughout history. Those are the aspects of Judaism that have always been most appealing to me. And that’s what I mean when I talk about the Jewish cultural inheritance.
You can find the podcast on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen. I hope you’ll listen to some episodes and share the podcast with your friends, families, and Jewish communities. Thanks for listening to Recognizably Jewish.