Israel Beat

Although I have never seen the film Titanic, I have been to the Straus Medical Center in Jerusalem which has been treating people since the 1920s. As we approach the 113th anniversary of the Titanic disaster, I explore the lives of Isidor and Ida Straus, who gave up their space on the lifeboat to save others, and Nathan and Lina Straus who saved countless lives through their milk pasteurization pr...

Rabbi Judah Bibas predated Theodor Herzl and the Zionist movement by decades. In recent years his teachings on Jewish autonomy and self-determination have received the attention lacking for so many years. Hear what a Scottish church minister thought when meeting him in 1839 and his influence on Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai and other forerunners to the creation of the State of Israel. Learn of the desecrat...

The Eurovision Song Contest was won by Israel four times and has been hosted in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Find out the inside story of such classic songs as Hallelujah, A-Ba-Ni-Bi, Happy Birthday, and the Hebrew singers who graced the stage. Plus, countries that attempted to boycott Israel and lost. Learn about the new inspiring performers such as Eden Golan and this year’s contestant Yuval Raphael,...

The history of the Hadassah Women's Zionist Organization and how they started hospitals, medical schools and infant care centers in Israel. Learn about Henrietta Szold, whose trip to Israel revealed the shockingly limited medical facilities. She went on to spearhead countless projects such as creating the first nursing school in Israel and youth villages for war refugees. Bertha Landsman founded T...

Hebrew University of Jerusalem was founded amid a history of Jews being banned from attending academic institutes in other lands. Learn about how Israel’s first public university was established by Chaim Weizmann, Albert Einstein and others to be a beacon of education for a persecuted people and for students of all backgrounds. Hear excerpts from Rabbi Hermann Schapira, a mathematician who first p...

In 2004 I had the opportunity to interview King Django who discusses his album Roots and Culture which include a song about his grandfather’s experiences during the Holocaust and original Yiddish compositions. He discusses his youth in Brooklyn, getting into reggae and ska, and how a trip to KlezKamp, the Klezmatics, novelist Michael Wex and more inspired his music. This interview is one of the ma...

Nobel Prize winning physicist Albert Einstein, famous for his Theory of Relativity, helped found Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was an ardent supporter of the Zionist movement. Learn how he was befriended by fellow scientist Dr. Chaim Weizmann and was tapped to be Israel’s president. Hear rare audio from Einstein on his stance on Israel, the Nazis, the Holocaust and more. Today, visitors to Je...

In 2005 I had the opportunity to interview the late, great Arnie Lawrence, teacher to countless musicians in Jerusalem. I met him at the Artel jazz club where he regularly performed, thinking this would be a simple interview about his days in Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show band, founding the New School jazz program in New York and how he ended up in Israel. It turned into a 2-hour live performance i...

Born in a small Russian shtetel, Chaim Weizmann grew up to develop important scientific breakthroughs, defended the Jewish people at the United Nations, and led the Zionist movement. Learn about the creation of the Weizmann Institute of Science and the development of acetone–butanol–ethanol fermentation (the Weizmann Process). This week marks the 76 anniversary of his inauguration as the first pre...

Award-winning architect David Kroyanker talks about his new book Jerusalem That Once Was: A Personal Perspective and discusses the historic gems that once stood in Israel’s capital city. Learn how he helped save the iconic clock tower of the Talitha Kumi orphanage which stood from 1873 until it was demolished in 1980 to build a department store. And what does this author of over 30 books on archit...

The stories of how Rabbi Yisroel Zev Gustman survived World War II and reestablished the Netzach Yisrael yeshiva in Jerusalem have inspired the new generation of Israeli rabbis. Meet Rabbi Kalman Flaks of the Simcha Center who teaches at Netzach as he shares stories of Rabbi Gutman’s miraculous and inspiring life. A licensed tour-guide and IDF reserve soldier, Rabbi Kalman (Keith) Flaks explains t...

Israel once honored the United Nations resolution of 1947 which was seen as a victory for the Zionist Movement. But in 1975, led by the Soviet Union and the Arab League, the UN voted to condemn Zionism as a form of racism. It resulted in rallies, protests and the renaming of UN Street to Zionism Street. Hear the voices of those who defended Zionism as a Jewish liberation movement including: * Jeru...

Every day Meir Eisenman would watch the reconstruction of the Hurva Synagogue which his great-great grandfather Rabbi Avraham Shlomo Zalman Zoref helped fund over 200 years ago. A licensed tour guide, Meir explains the history of the Perushim, the students of the Vilna Gaon, who left Lithuania to rebuild the Jewish community of Jerusalem. They sought to reconstruct the Hurva, or ruined courtyard,...

The story of Operation Magic Carpet / Operation Wings of Eagles which airlifted tens of thousands of Jews from Yemen to Israel during the War of Independence. Hear from journalist Ruth Gruber about the dedication of the ancient Jewish community of Yemen who faced starvation and persecution and trekked across the desert to be airlifted to the promised land. Learn about the American pilots such as W...

Interviews from the Sigd festival at the Tayelet promenade in Jerusalem on the Jewish Ethiopian community and its traditions. Featuring: * Ethiopian Chief Rabbi Yosef Hadane * Chief Kes Raphael Hadane * Shoshana Ben-Dor, Israel director of the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry * Lior, an assistant to researcher Dr. Yossi Ziv, author of Festival and Holiday in the Ethiopian Jewish Tradit...

A group of Jewish American volunteers from Park Synagogue in Cleveland, Ohio visited Israel to work on farms, cook meals, visit communities affected by the war and listen to the stories of those who survived the October 7th terrorist attacks. Hear the inspiring stories of how Israelis and American Jews supported each other during difficult times during this life-changing trip. Interviews include:...

Jewish artists in the Zionist movement sought to revive both the Jewish State and Jewish culture. Meet E. M. Lilien, who befriended Herzl and depicted the merger of ancient and modern, Boris Shatz, who metaphorically met the Bezalel of the Bible, Ze’ev Raban, who drew the now ironic Visit Palestine posters, Abel Pann, who re-envisioned the Patriarchs and Matriarchs as exotic Mediterranean figures,...

A young Robert F. Kennedy describes first-hand the tense final days of the British Mandate of Palestine, the Arab preparations for war and the tenacity of the underequipped Jewish fighters seeking an independent Israel in 1948. “Jews Make Up for Lack of Arms with Undying Spirit, Unparalleled Courage” reads a headline from the Boston Post in a series of Kennedy articles that were lost for decades u...

Ezra Yakhin, author of the book Elnakam, talks about what it’s like to tell young Israel Defense Force soldiers about his life experiences from the days of the Jewish underground to the War of Independence in 1948. What is the reaction of youth who grew up with smart phones to a 96-year-old who grew up when most didn’t even have phones at home and the British still ruled the Land of Israel? Ezra s...

Noted author Dr. Alan Unterman is interviewed about his famous uncle Chief Rabbi Isser Yehuda Unterman who stressed being kind and understanding as much as being loyal to Torah values. Hear about the controversies of the day when the State of Israel was founded and how the Zionist movement had to deal with Jewish religious issues for the first time. - What happens when a woman holds out her hand f...

The Israeli pilots who flew non-stop to Iraq to take out the Osiraq nuclear reactor felt they were doing it to prevent another Holocaust. Learn about the international condemnation Israel faced at the United Nations as well as the many who later thanked Israel for preventing Iraq from going nuclear. Hear from Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, United States Secretary of State Alexander Haig, a...

In 2016 I visited Uman, Ukraine for the holiday of Rosh Hashanah and learned a great deal about this historic Jewish community and the famous rabbi who inspired generations with his songs and tales. Hear about the battle of Uman in the 1790s and how the tomb of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov was saved from being turned into a 9-story apartment building by the Soviet Union. Plus, a personal story of how...

Hebrew writer S. Y. Agnon became Israel’s first Nobel Prize laureate in 1966. In this special interview, Rabbi Jeffrey Saks, Director of Research at the Beit Agnon heritage center in Jerusalem, talks about this historic event, and his dramatic acceptance speech steeped in Jewish tradition. Plus, Agnon’s best-seller, Days of Awe, a compendium of High Holiday wisdom. NOTES * Beit Agnon center and mu...

Aaron Zvi Propes was the first member of Betar and a loyal follower of controversial Zionist leader Zev Jabotinsky. While his comrades like Menachem Begin went on to politics, he founded music festivals, including the Israel Festival which is taking place this week. Learn about how as a teen, Propes and his Jewish Latvian high school friend coaxed Jabotinsky out of retirement and into inspiring ge...

The World Rummikub Championships took place this month and to celebrate we look at some great Israeli / Jewish board games. 1.       Rummikub – Created by Ephraim Hertzano, who left Communist Romania to create the tile game in his Israeli home. 2.      Guess Who? Created by husband and wife team Theo and Ora Coster. Theo survived the Holocaust and was a classmate of Anne Frank. Hear excerpts from...