The Jew Function Podcast

What's a crypto Jew and why is the very idea freaking people out? Why were Jews expelled, banished and sent out from over 800 places in the last 2000 years? Can we prevent the next big expulsion or worse? To find out, travel back in time with us to the dawn of the Spanish inquisition in the late 1400's. Indeed, in the Jewish collective consciousness, before the Holocaust the expulsion from Spain w...

“Why does he make us feel the questions if he’s not going to give us any answers?” asks Larry Gopnik in the Cohen brothers's A Serious Man.  It feels like it's the story of our people, the perfect  Schadenfreude, a bitter-sweet mystery that never lets us revel in one state alone. A life lived under the constant threat of annihilation, where every good fortune that visits us is shadowed b...

Some 2000 years ago, a gentile joined the budding Jewish nation to become the greatest teacher that ever lived. He had 24,000 students and he taught one rule: love your fellow man as you love yourself. "As yourself", meaning you love yourself more than anything else, so love this person next to you more than anything including yourself. But Akiva didn't teach a moral code, he taught a reality hack...

The bloody great revolt marked the end of the age of antiquity in the history of the Jews and the beginning of life in exile. But what actually took place inside the walls of Jerusalem in those last moments before the Romans marched in, will make your stomach turn. Unfounded hatred paved the road to the destruction of the 2nd temple with the bodies of our brothers and sisters. And the scary part i...

If Jews were not meant to be rulers, kings, and conquerors then what WERE they meant to be? Why was the victory of the Maccabees doomed from the start and, really, is there really a problem with philosophizing while hot tubbing in a gymnasium? It feels like we Jews aren’t supposed to have it good for too long but why? What is behind that recurring pattern and can we break the chain that separates...

What if the famous saying uttered during most Jewish holidays was actually " We tried to kill each other , then they tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat!"? What if Hanukkah wasn't the sweet festive week we were sold on as kids but actually a memory of a moment in our history that was anything but ? Something happened at 161BCE that is still happening today inside each and every person. It's happen...

When people blame Jews for all their misfortunes, are they subconsciously wishing for all their fortunes to come through them as well? Of all the empires that dominated the ancient world, none could boast a Woodstock joy fest, 3 times a year, complete with food, accommodations, and celebrations of brotherly (and sisterly) love like the Israeli nation. Little is known about those several hundred ye...

What is the real danger of intermingling? Is it about ethnic purity or ideological purity? Could it be that the horrors of the destruction of the temple we commemorate every year were brought on the Jews by the Jews themselves? Are we our own worst enemies? This is a hard pill to swallow but as we read through the mystery book, and delve into the story of Purim, it's apparent that much of the narr...

Jews built the pyramids! Some say aliens. Maybe we Jews are those aliens? Have we been sent by the universe to provide a universal example? If so of what? Is it possible that we are unconsciously controlling the switch that activates and deactivates Antisemitism? What's so peculiar about the hatred of the world to this group? Do we truly have something, a social technology that the world really ne...

Why is this, "blame the Jews for the plague", thing even an issue in 2020? Why do people feel compelled to include the Jews in every plight that humanity faces? Whats going on! In this podcast we will take a break from unpacking our mystery book on the root of antisemitism to mull over this real time phenomenon of implicating and blaming the Jews for the corona virus, covid19 and maybe, just maybe...

What is this hippy s#!%t mumbo jumbo? We jews are a proud rational people. We pride ourselves on Noble Prizes, books, ethical reasoning and the invention of Waze. What do you mean that a sticky human emotion can make the difference between persecution and reverence? Is it just wishful thinking couched in Biblical tales or an expression of the laws that govern the system of nature, evident througho...

Babylon, 3500 years ago. A great civilization plunges into chaos after attempting to build a really tall skyscraper. Or was nature trying to tell us something and Abraham was the only one who could hear it? Beyond the campfire tales and the shared mythology we want to trace the roots of the Jewish nation and use that to try and understand what it means for today and for humanity’s future. Hear ful...

"Street anti-semitism" is little more than bullying. But the great anti-semites of the past century, who have written extensively against the Jews chose to include surprisingly loving and tender messages to Jews hidden in plane sight inside their most inciting texts. Like the antidote that can only be extracted from the snake's venom, perhaps the solution to anti-semitism is lurking in the very wo...

The recent wave of anti-semitism in 2019 had sent people to the Brooklyn bridge in protest. The Coronavirus outbreak will offer little or no respite from the onslaught and I’m willing to bet the hate will only grow stronger. Join us as we go sleuthing through history with the help of a mystery book, network science, big data, and small personal stories to find the patterns that might point at a so...