Podcast Episodes

The Jews in Poland-Lithuania and Russia: 1350 to the Present Day

For centuries, Poland and Russia formed the heartland of the Jewish world. Until World War II, this area was home to over forty percent of world Jewr…

2 months, 2 weeks ago

The Vilna Gaon and the Making of Modern Judaism

The beginnings of contemporary Jewry are often associated with Jewish figures in Western Europe such as Moses Mendelssohn. But in his book, The Geniu…

2 months, 2 weeks ago

Craig Perry, "Slavery and the Jews of Medieval Egypt: A History" (Princeton UP, 2026)

What did slavery actually look like in the everyday lives of Jews in the medieval Middle East? In this episode, Rabbi Marc Katz sits down with histor…

2 months, 2 weeks ago

Marc Chagall: Reflections of a Granddaughter

Marc Chagall is widely recognized as the preeminent Jewish artist of the 20th century, but little is known of his work to preserve Jewish culture. I…

2 months, 2 weeks ago

Zainab Saleh, "Political Undesirables: Citizenship, Denaturalization, and Reclamation in Iraq" (Stanford UP, 2025)

Political Undesirables: Citizenship, Denaturalization, and Reclamation in Iraq (Stanford UP, 2025) considers the legal making and unmaking of citiz…

2 months, 3 weeks ago

Jewface: “Yiddish” Dialect Songs of Tin Pan Alley

With his fake beard, putty nose, and thick Yiddish accent, the “stage Jew” was once a common character in vaudeville, part of a genre that mocked im…

2 months, 3 weeks ago

Michael Kimmel, "Playmakers: The Jewish Entrepreneurs Who Created the Toy Industry in America" (W. W. Norton & Co, 2026)

The untold story of the first-generation Jewish American toymakers who literally manufactured “the century of the child.”

In 1902, Morris and Rose Mi…

2 months, 3 weeks ago

An Evening with Philip Roth: A Conversation with Bernard Avishai, Igor Webb, and Steven Zipperstein

The YIVO Institute was pleased to present a special evening with acclaimed novelist Philip Roth. Roth read excerpts from his new novel, Nemesis (2010…

2 months, 3 weeks ago

Joshua Berman, "Echoes of Egypt: A Haggada" (Koren, 2026)

“In every generation a person must see himself as if he himself came out of Egypt.” Mishna Pesachim 10:5

Now, Rabbi Dr. Joshua Berman’s new work, The…

2 months, 4 weeks ago

The Tourist’s Guide to Lost Yiddish New York City with Henry Sapoznik

The Tourist’s Guide to Lost Yiddish New York City (SUNY Press, 2025) offers a new look at over a century of Yiddish culture in New York City. Author …

2 months, 4 weeks ago