Jew Oughta Know

Egypt ruled Canaan…until it didn’t. With empires collapsing all over the Mediterranean region, new peoples suddenly had the space to emerge. Like the Israelites. But also their arch-nemeses, the Philistines.

Noah and the Flood, the origins of Abraham and Sarah, and the laws of the Book of Exodus, are just a few examples of how deeply influenced the Israelites were by Mesopotamian culture and ideas, which came from the east centuries before the Israelites arrived on the scene.

Kicking off Season 5: The First Thousand Years Or So! This episode we’re looking at how the land of Israel was formed millions of years ago, the early humans who lived there, and why the building of a simple stone wall was so extraordinary.

Season 4 Finale. The miracle that was the creation of Israel is threatened by a recession, cultural fault lines, and a deep sense of gloom. As a terrifying war looms, Israelis are left considering whether the Israeli dream might be coming to a violent end. Could Israel rally together? Or was the dream over after only 19 years?

For three weeks, known as "hamtanah," Israelis waited as military, diplomatic, and political forces drove them towards war with the Arabs.

A short primer on Israel's relationship with American Jews and America's presidents in the 1950s and 1960s. Ben Gurion and American Jewry have a little argument, while Kennedy and Johnson develop better relations with the Jewish State.

Yasser Arafat starts Fatah, a Palestinian militia, to attack Israel. The Arab countries form the Palestinian Liberation Organization (the PLO) to counter Fatah's influence. And Israel finds itself facing a familiar conundrum: what to do about terrorism? A retaliation operation goes awry.

On August 13, 2020, Israel and the United Arab Emirates announced a peace agreement. This is only the third time an Arab country has made peace with Israel. Here's what you oughta know!

From stealing fighter jets to stealing secrets, Israel's spies are the stuff of legend. Some ended in triumph, and others tragedy. They all played a critical role in Israel's security during the 1960s.

Israel’s innovations in water use spread around the world, helping to lift millions out of poverty and famine. The National Water Carrier brought water to every corner of the country. But water was also a source of conflict with its Arab neighbors, as Syria tries to cut off Israel’s access and border tensions rise to dangerous levels.

The police shot an unarmed member of a discriminated group, riots followed, and a social change movement spread throughout the country. Not the United States in 2020, but Israel in 1959. In the ongoing miracle that was Israel, the Mizrahi — Jews from the Middle East and North Africa — were falling behind. It exposed a fault line in relations between “two Israels.”

Hebrew, the kibbutz, the military, and politics were achieving big things and undergoing big changes, as Israel entered its teenage years in the 1960s. And David Ben Gurion, the man who personified the Jewish State, made a huge decision.

Are Jews “white” here in America? The extreme right says no, the radical left yes. The American Jewish experience has been multifaceted. And there are Jews of Color.

What does Judaism "say" about the racial justice protests of 2020? And what is the history of black-Jewish relations in the United States?

Part 5 of 5. Eichmann's trial continues with his defense: I was only following orders. The judges consider a verdict and sentence. The trial had a tremendous impact and changed Israeli culture.

Part 4 of 5. After his capture by Israel in 1960, Adolf Eichmann goes on trial in Jerusalem. Holocaust survivors capture the attention of the whole nation as they testify to their harrowing experiences.

Part 3 of 5 on Eichmann's trial and capture. In Part 3, the Israeli Mossad team is holed up with Eichmann in their Buenos Aires safe house, while trying to figure out how to smuggle him out of the country.

Part 2 of 5 on Adolf Eichmann's trial and capture. In Part 2, how Israel tracked him down in Argentina, and staged the operation to grab him.

Part 1 of 5 on a deep dive into the search, capture, and trial of Nazi mastermind Adolf Eichmann. In Part 1, Eichmann is on the run from the Allies after World War Two.

Does Israel have nuclear weapons?

Israel enters the world stage in 1956 as a country to be reckoned with. Israel provokes a war with Egypt in secret cahoots with Britain and France. It was a local conflict wrapped in a regional one wrapped in the Cold War struggle for power in the Middle East.

How should Israel respond to terrorism? The government was divided in its response to attacks from Jordan and Egypt: aggressive retaliation, or restraint and diplomacy?

Prime Minister David Ben Gurion abruptly quits and heads off to Sde Boker, a desert kibbutz. Meanwhile, the Israeli government is rocked by political scandal, and Ben Gurion ends up right back where he started.

Is Israel a theocracy? Or just a Jewish democracy that doesn't separate synagogue and state? And who gets to be counted as a Jew in the Jewish State? The second part of our look at how Israel put the "Jewish" in the Jewish State, this time through religion.

How do you put the "Jewish" in the Jewish State? One way is through secular Jewish culture: the Hebrew language, archaeology, and even the Hebrew Bible itself.