Jewish History Nerds
by Unpacked
Whoever said history was boring clearly never heard these stories…Welcome to Jewish History Nerds! Join hosts Yael and Schwab each week as they take a dive into some deep cuts of Jewish history. From the Jewish Da Vinci Code to mass suicide pacts, explore true stories that feel larger than life. Be in touch: [email protected]
Episodes
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Snakes, Synagogues, and Sand Floors: The Director’s Cut
We’re back with a Director’s Cut of Jewish History Nerds, the 2x Signal Award winner. Yael and Schwab are digging into the mystery of sand floors in some synagogues in the Caribbean. This segment, which didn't make it into the original episode, also explores how Jewish communities have picked up...
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Was Jabotinsky the Father of Likud and the Israeli Right? Revisited
Jewish History Nerds is now an award-winning podcast! We took home two Signal Awards for history: Gold and Listener’s Choice. Thank you, Nerd Nation for coming out to vote. Speaking of elections, Israelis are gong to the polls. So we decided to revisit one of our favorite episodes, the story of...
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The First Jews in the Americas Revisited
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. So we decided to revisit the episode submitted for consideration. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. In 1492,...
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"Bronx Man Leads Russian Revolution": Trotsky Revisited
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. Leon Trotsky was one of the most consequential figures of the 20th…
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Vote Now for Jewish History Nerds
Update: Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. If you enjoy this show, please leave a comment and review wherever...
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Before Jews Danced With the Torah: The Lost Simchat Torah Tradition
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category! If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. More than 400 years ago, Rivka Tiktiner wrote the earliest known…
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The Jewish History Hiding in Japan and Korea
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. How did Jews escaping the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions end up in...
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How America Changed the Jewish People
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. Historian Dr. Henry Abramson usually works behind the scenes, but this…
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Why Did Sammy Davis Jr. Become Jewish?
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. Sammy Davis Jr. was already one of America's biggest entertainers when he...
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How Jews Built Hollywood: Al Jolson and The Jazz Singer
Jewish History Nerds is a finalist for a Signal Award in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season. Al Jolson was the biggest star in America, a Jewish immigrant who left the synagogue behind to conquer...
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She Spoke from the Pulpit Before Women Could. Revisiting Ray Fank
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. As we look back at Jews in the Americas for the 250th, we’re revisiting…
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How a Plate of Shrimp Changed American Judaism
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. The infamous 1883 Trefa Banquet was meant to celebrate America's first...
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Anarchism, Feminism...and Judaism? Revisiting Emma Goldman
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. As we continue our series exploring Jews in American history, we're...
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The Statue of Liberty Was Never Meant to Welcome Immigrants
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. In part 2, Schwab and Yael explore how Emma Lazarus transformed the Statue...
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How One Jewish Poet Changed the Meaning of America
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. Emma Lazarus gave the Statue of Liberty its most famous words, but her own...
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The First Amendment and the Birth of Jewish Equality
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. In Part 2, Yael guides Schwab through what happened after the Revolution…
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The Forgotten Jews of the American Revolution
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. In Part 1, Yael and Schwab explore the surprising role Jews played in...
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Why The First Jews in Colonial America Nearly Vanished
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. Before New York became the center of American Jewish life, a small group…
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Jewish Pirates and the Caribbean
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. Were there really Jewish pirates in the Caribbean? The answer is far more...
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The First Jews in the Americas: Fleeing the Inquisition to Brazil
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. Fleeing the Inquisition, Crypto-Jews who had been forced to hide their…
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What If Rabin Wasn't a Peacenik?
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. Yitzhak Rabin remains one of the most consequential and contested figures…
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Anne Frank and the Story We Tell Ourselves
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. Anne Frank is one of the most famous Jewish voices in history, but the…
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Was King David a Hero or a Villain?
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. Most people know King David as the shepherd who defeated Goliath. But that...
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New Episodes, Coming Next Week
Jewish History Nerds is a Signal Awards finalist. Vote for us in Listener's Choice by Thu 15 Oct: https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting#/2026/individual-episodes/genre/history Yael and Schwab are back — and this season, they're diving into the history of Jews in the Americas, just in time for...
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Voices of the Warsaw Ghetto: A Yom HaShoah Re-Release
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. Yael and Schwab revisit the remarkable story of the Oneg Shabbos archive...
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The Haggadah: The Book of the People of the Book
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. The Passover Haggadah is one of the most widely used Jewish texts, yet it...
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Was Albert Einstein a Zionist?
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. In part 2, Schwab and Yael explore Einstein's fight with Nazism, his views...
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Albert Einstein: Rebel. Reject. Genius.
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. In part 1, Schwab and Yael explore the lesser-known Einstein, from failure...
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She Spoke from the Pulpit Before Women Could
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. Long before women were ordained as rabbis, Ray Frank was already doing...
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He Wrote Against Gambling… Then Became Addicted
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. Rabbi Leone de Modena was one of the most fascinating figures of…
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The Other Hasidim: The Lost Jewish Movement That Rejected Joy
We're a finalist for a Signal Award in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We will be back soon with a brand new season. What happens when a Jewish community lives through mass trauma and turns inward in search of meaning? The Hasidei...
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Ethel and Julius Rosenberg: The Case That Divided American Jews
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were executed in 1953 after being convicted of...
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The First Jewish Woman to Publish a Book
Jewish History Nerds heads to early modern Prague to meet Rivka Tiktiner, author of Meneket Rivkah, the earliest full-length published work we have by a Jewish woman. Published posthumously in 1609, it’s a Yiddish ethical guide for women packed with biblical and rabbinic sources, plus a Simchat...
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Leon Trotsky: The Reluctant Jew Behind the Russian Revolution
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. From his Jewish upbringing in the Russian Empire to Yiddish New York,...
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Secret Jews: Samuel Schwarz’s Discovery of Portugal’s Crypto-Jews
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. In 1925, mining engineer Samuel Schwarz stumbled onto a secret Jewish...
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The Hero Who Chose Children Over His Own Life
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. Jonathan Schwab and Yael Steiner read history in children, tracing the…
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Jewish History Nerds is BACK!
Jewish History Nerds is back! Hosts Jonathan Schwab and Yael Steiner return with a new slate of smart, engaging stories from Jewish history—blending deep research with curiosity, humor, and lively conversation. Each week, they take turns exploring a fascinating figure or moment, asking big...
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Revisiting Hebrew Hammer: The True Story of Hannukah
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. Ah, Chanukah. That festive time of year where we light candles, indulge in...
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Listener Survey is Here
This survey has expired. Thanks for listening and see you next season. If you like this show, please write a review wherever you get your podcasts. And be in touch. Write to us at [email protected].
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The JNF Blue Box: How Loose Change Helped Build Israel
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. Jonathan Schwab and Yael Steiner trace how a simple blue tzedakah box…
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The Judensau: The Antisemitic Carving Still on German Churches
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. Jonathan Schwab and Yael Steiner confront the Judensau, a grotesque…
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When Jews Thrived in India: The Cochin Copper Plates
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. Jonathan Schwab and Yael Steiner follow the Cochin copper plates from…
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How Rome Used Coins to Humiliate the Jews
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. What can a coin tell us about history, power, and identity? Jonathan…
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The Secret History of Judaism’s Oldest Symbol
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. Jonathan Schwab and Yael Steiner follow the menorah from its molten birth…
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How One Kid Accidentally Changed Biblical History
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. Jonathan Schwab and Yael Steiner unroll the Ketef Hinnom amulets—two...
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Unearthing Dura-Europos: The Synagogue Lost in Time
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. Jonathan Schwab and Yael Steiner uncover a synagogue frozen in...
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Buried Secrets: Jewish Magic, Demons, and the Babylonian Incantation Bowls
Jewish History Nerds is a Signal Awards finalist. Vote for us in Listener's Choice by Thu 15 Oct. You have to sign up/log in to vote. https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting#/2026/individual-episodes/genre/history Yael and Schwab dig into one of the most fascinating artifacts of Jewish…
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The First Mention of Israel: A Passover Special on the Merneptah Stele
Jewish History Nerds won two Signal Awards, gold and listener's choice in the history category. If you enjoy this show, please comment wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back soon with a brand new season of episodes. Yael and Schwab dive into one of the most fascinating—and...
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The Star of David: The Symbol That Means Everything and Nothing
Jonathan Schwab and Yael Steiner trace the six-pointed star from elegant geometry to existential symbol—an emblem worn proudly on necklaces, weaponized on yellow badges, and planted at the heart of a modern nation. From Prague’s medieval flag to Kabbalistic speculation to its fraught reinvention…
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Season 4, Coming Next Week
Jewish History Nerds is a Signal Awards finalist. Vote for us in Listener's Choice by Thu 15 Oct: https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting#/2026/individual-episodes/genre/history Jewish History Nerds is back! Hosts Jonathan Schwab and Yael Steiner are here with a preview of season 4. Get ready…
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About this show
Whoever said history was boring clearly never heard these stories…Welcome to Jewish History Nerds! Join hosts Yael and Schwab each week as they take a dive into some deep cuts of Jewish history. From the Jewish Da Vinci Code to mass suicide pacts, explore true stories that feel larger than life.
Be in touch: [email protected]
Hosted by
Unpacked