Forgotten Foods of NYC: Learning to Like Roast Turkey and Other Memories of a Jewish Refugee Childhood
From Anne Noyes Saini | Part of the Forgotten Foods of NYC series | 03:04
Margot Karp, 86, moved with her family to Washington Heights, Manhattan, in 1939 to escape Nazi Germany. Karp has fond memories of her mother's strudel-making in her childhood home in southern Germany.
But when she arrived in New York City as a refugee at age 14, she quickly embraced American food and culture.
Margot Karp, 86, moved with her family to Washington Heights, Manhattan, in 1939 to escape Nazi Germany.
Karp fondly recalls her mother's strudel-making in her childhood home in southern Germany.
"It got rolled out in sheets and then you put it down and you pulled the dough and stretched it as far as you could," she says. "They were good at it. That was a favorite dish."
But when Karp arrived in New York City as a refugee at age 14, she embraced American food and culture.
"My drive was to be as American as could possibly be as quickly as possible," she says. "I think my parents accused me of wanting to be too much like everybody else...[but], for me, being told by my parents that I was too American was just what I wanted to be."
Ladino Hanukah Songs Shed Light on Endangered Language of Jews
From Rhonda J. Miller | Part of the Ladino: The Endangered Language of the Spanish Jews series | 04:24
As the candles of Hanukah connect Jews around the world, holiday songs in Ladino shine a light on a language UNESCO rates as “severely endangered.” An increasing number of musicians in many countries are singing in this Judeo-Spanish language, which means it is no longer just your grandmother's Ladino.
God's Sanctuary
From Eric Winick | 13:58
1943, The Pacific. Aboard a troop ship bound for New Guinea, under threat of enemy fire, a young private is tasked with an awesome responsibility.
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- God's Sanctuary
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His actions that evening will effect hundreds of his shipmates, and alter the course of Harold Lerner's life inexorably.
Though steeped in the chazzanic tradition of Eastern Europe, Lerner recognized that part of his mission was to encourage the creation of new American works that would reflect contemporary thinking and speak to the younger generations as well. In addition to his work on the pulpit, he thus inspired and produced a prodigious body of work reflecting a remarkable variety of styles, traditions, and trends. Among the most notable is a concert version of the Passover seder called “Haggadah, A Search for Freedom” which he commissioned and for which he wrote the lyrics.
In 2001 he was invited out of retirement to become the spiritual leader of Temple Beth El of Syracuse, NY during its period of transition from modern orthodoxy to a more egalitarian orientation. This ended in 2005 with the successful merger of Beth El and two other synagogues. In appreciation Lerner was elected Cantor Emeritus once again, this time at Temple Beth El.
Cantor Lerner passed away in 2015.
Chai Riders: Faith and Fuel
From Jessica Gould | 03:38
Jewish motorcycle club combines faith and fuel
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Jewish motorcycle club combines faith and fuel
Making Peace on a College Campus
From Philip Graitcer | 03:18
A Jewish President is the Muslim Students' Group Advisor
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- Making Peace on a College Campus
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Mention Muslim and Jew in the same breath and most people think Middle East religious warfare and hostility, but at Atlanta?s Oglethorpe University, students and faculty are using religion to bring people together. The 70-member Muslim Student Alliance has just asked the Jewish president of the university to become its faculty advisor, and Muslim, Jewish and Catholic students hold interfaith meetings to learn more about each others? religions.
Philip Graitcer has this report.
Roots of the Frozen Chosen
From Rebecca Sheir | 05:30
Speed-kibitzing with the second Jewish baby ever born in Fairbanks, Alaska.
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- Roots of the Frozen Chosen
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Jewish people in Alaska often joke about themselves as "The Frozen Chosen."
Well, if it weren't for a mensch named Robert Bloom, those Jewish people might not even be in Alaska at all. Bloom was the first Jew to settle Fairbanks, Alaska; in doing so, he helped form the state's first Jewish community.
More than 100 years later, Rebecca Sheir chats with Bloom's daughter, 93-year-old Meta Buttnick, about her family's story. But it's winter in Alaska, and the sun's about to set, ushering in the Jewish sabbath. Since Meta's "shomer shabbos," Rebecca's got 30 minutes to record a century of history... will her "mazel" run out before the sun goes down?
Jewish Yoga
From Andrew Hiller | 06:22
In Washington, at D.C.'s Sixth and I Synagogue, toddlers are taking their first steps, attending their first services and singing their first Jewish prayers, all while doing... yoga?
The program isn't alone. Jewish Yoga programs are popping up across the country from Washington DC to Sacramento, CA.
It's an interesting blend of Eastern Philosophy, Judaism, and exercise. Andrew Hiller examines and joins in on one routine that is designed for Jewish toddlers who are learning to stretch and pose even as they learn their first steps.
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- Jewish Yoga
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- Andrew Hiller
In Washington, at D.C.'s Sixth and I Synagogue, toddlers are taking their first steps, attending their first services and singing their first Jewish prayers, all while doing... yoga?
The program isn't alone. Jewish Yoga programs are popping up across the country from Washington DC to Sacramento, CA.
It's an interesting blend of Eastern Philosophy, Judaism, and exercise. Andrew Hiller examines and joins in on one routine that is designed for Jewish toddlers who are learning to stretch and pose even as they learn their first steps.
Rethinking Jewish Identity and Jewish Education
From Elizabeth DiNolfo | 12:20
If Jewish education is to respond to the needs of American Jews and their communities in the 21st century, we need to rethink the assumption that Jewish identity is the goal of Jewish education. This podcast captures the conversation at a recent Brandeis University conference to "rethink" Jewish identity.
The way many in the Jewish community talk about "identity" does not capture the complex ways in which people understand their Jewish commitments, engage with Jewish communities, and enact Jewish practices. If Jewish education is to respond to the needs of American Jews and their communities in the 21st century, we need to rethink the assumption that Jewish identity is the goal of Jewish education. This podcast captures the conversation at a recent Brandeis University conference to "rethink" Jewish identity. Participants considered:
- What does it mean to learn to inhabit or embody an identity or identities? What do we know about the ways that contemporary Jews do so?
- Where does the language of “Jewish identity” come from, when, and why? What work does it do for those who use it? What kind of educational efforts does it promote, and what does it inhibit?
- To the extent that the construct of “Jewish identity” no longer satisfies us, what alternatives are available – especially in conceptualizing the desirable outcomes of Jewish education?
Cotopaxi Jewish Colony
From KRCC-FM | 07:30
A look at a community of Jewish immigrants
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Shanna Lewis talks to the author of Nothing Here But Stones, a book depicting the true story of a nineteenth century colony of Jewish immigrants in Cotopaxi.
Monticello's Jewish Hero
From With Good Reason | 29:55
The story of one man who saved Jefferson's estate from ruin and one "being" that captured authors' fancies.
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- Monticello's Jewish Hero
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- With Good Reason
Commodore Uriah Phillips Levy, the first Jewish American to reach that rank, helped repeal flogging in the Navy and rescued Monticello, the Thomas Jefferson estate, from ruin. Also featured: A discussion of the "Golem", a fictional creature of Jewish legend that was the inspiration for the Sorcerer's Apprentice and Mary Shelly's Frankenstein.
Cortez, Montezuma & Abraham: Discovering Jewish Roots
From Rebecca Sheir | 03:50
At 72, a Spanish-descended Catholic discovers the real reason she's never liked eating pork.
Imelda Jacques has been researching her family tree for 40 years.
She's found Spanish forebears, Portuguese forebears, even French ones. But two years ago, she found out something else:
She's Jewish.
Imelda is descended from "conversos," Jews forced to convert to Catholicism during the Spanish Inquisition. Some converso descendants, unaware of their Jewish roots, still practice Jewish rituals -- like lighting candles on Friday nights and not mixing milk and meat -- but don't realize these customs are Jewish.
While Imelda grew up in a strict Catholic household, she's now trying to unravel the mystery of her Jewish past: When did it all begin? Why didn't anyone tell her?
...And, most of all, could this be the real reason she's never really liked eating pork?
Talk About It: The Jewish Mourning Process
From Rebecca Sheir | Part of the The End As Beginning: An Audio Exploration of the Jewish View of Death series | 18:03
Grieving for the deceased... and comforting the living.
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- Talk About It: The Jewish Mourning Process
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- Rebecca Sheir
We're never actually prepared to lose a loved one.
In the face of death, how easy is it to be overcome by sadness, anger, maybe some fear, maybe even a little guilt?
But when it comes to death, Judaism offers a structure, an ancient series and stages of mourning, all designed with two purposes in mind: to show respect for the dead, and to comfort the living, those left behind... those who will miss the deceased the most.
I'm a Jew
From Tali Singer | 06:34
Devorah Spilman tells the story of how she became an observant Jew.
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- I'm a Jew
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- Tali Singer
Devorah Spilman grew up Jewish. And she always believed in God. But her religion and spirituality did not always go together. By the time she got to college, she abandoned Judaism for the New Age movement. Then, one day, at one of her co-counseling classes, everything changed.