Piece image

What Comes Next?: Jews & The Afterlife

From: Rebecca Sheir
Series: The End As Beginning: An Audio Exploration of the Jewish View of Death
Length: 18:04

Embed_button
When it comes to life after death, you get 5 Jews... you get 50 opinions. Read the full description.

Afterlife_small Little material exists on "the world to come," or Olam Ha-Ba, as it's known in Hebrew, in the Torah. In this sound-rich third part of "The End as Beginning: An MFA Thesis on the Jewish View of Death" (completed for the University of Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program in May 2006), personal essay meets radio documentary meets audio experimentation, as we explore how various Jewish traditions examine, explain, and argue about life and life everlasting...

More from Rebecca Sheir

Piece image

Talk About It: The Jewish Mourning Process (18:03)
From: Rebecca Sheir

Grieving for the deceased... and comforting the living.
Piece image

Honoring the Body: Taharah (15:45)
From: Rebecca Sheir

Leaving the world as we entered it... but with a twist.
Caption: Cliff Brody looks at an old photo of his deceased friend/sergeant, Joe Blakely, who changed Cliff’s life during the Vietnam War., Credit: Rebecca Sheir

Veteran Repays Near-Half-Century Debt (05:40)
From: Rebecca Sheir

How do you thank someone who saves you from tragedy? This Vietnam veteran knows.
Piece image

"Marathon Man" of Jazz Celebrates a Lifetime of Making Music (07:00)
From: Rebecca Sheir

Andrew White may very well be the most famous jazz legend... you've never heard of.
Caption: The boundary stones are the oldest federal monuments in D.C. (and Virginia)., Credit: Stephen Powers

Racing to Save D.C.'s Oldest Federal Monuments (04:10)
From: Rebecca Sheir

Washington's oldest monuments have nearly been forgotten. But a group of engineers, preservationists and history buffs is racing to change that.
Caption: The Packard Campus is roughly 500,000 square feet, built into the side of a mountain in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains., Credit: Library of Congress/Matt Raymond

Library Of Congress Preserves A Treasure Trove... Underground (short version) (03:28)
From: Rebecca Sheir

What do you get when you take a former Cold War bunker and fill it with the world’s largest collection of films, TV shows, radio broadcasts and sound recordings?
Caption: The Packard Campus is roughly 500,000 square feet, built into the side of a mountain in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains., Credit: Library of Congress Photo/ Matt Raymond

Library Of Congress Preserves A Treasure Trove... Underground (06:38)
From: Rebecca Sheir

What do you get when you take a former Cold War bunker and fill it with the world’s largest collection of films, TV shows, radio broadcasts and sound recordings?
Caption: The original Virginia Is For Lovers slogan/logo, created by Martin & Woltz (now The Martin Agency) in 1968., Credit: The Martin Agency

Is Virginia Really For Lovers? (05:50)
From: Rebecca Sheir

The real story behind one of the most famous tourism slogans of all time.
Caption: This rough sketch for a children's book drew one D.C. native into a mystery regarding “Colored Only” signs in D.C. in the 1930s. , Credit: Rebecca Sheir

Remembering the Subtle Signs of Segregation (07:41)
From: Rebecca Sheir

A well-meaning illustration in a children's book sparks controversy over segregation in the nation's capital in the 1930s.
Caption: Scientists working on the Webb Telescope say it's so revolutionary, it’s like “our generation’s Apollo.”

An Extra-Chilly Successor To Hubble (06:22)
From: Rebecca Sheir

Come winter, your neck of the woods may be cold. But guess how frigid the James Webb Space Telescope will be when it launches in 2018? 400 degrees Fahrenheit below zero. For real.

Piece Description

Little material exists on "the world to come," or Olam Ha-Ba, as it's known in Hebrew, in the Torah. In this sound-rich third part of "The End as Beginning: An MFA Thesis on the Jewish View of Death" (completed for the University of Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program in May 2006), personal essay meets radio documentary meets audio experimentation, as we explore how various Jewish traditions examine, explain, and argue about life and life everlasting...

Broadcast History

This was Part Three of the MFA thesis, "The End As Beginning."

Musical Works

Title Artist Album Label Year Length
Contact producer for music information 00:00