Wandering Jews: A Travel Podcast That Entertains & Informs

Jews often call a cemetery Beit HaChayim—“The House of Life”—and nowhere does that name resonate more than in Warsaw’s Gensha Street Cemetery. Along its long avenues, where trees and wild growth weave through endless rows of stones, Gensha stands as a powerful testament to the vitality and diversity of Warsaw’s Jewish world before the Shoah. Sprawling and overflowing with stories, the site holds hundreds of thousands of lives—scholars, activists, poets, merchants, and ordinary citizens who shaped a once‑thriving community. Faced with its vastness, we chose in this episode to focus on just a few individuals interred here, each offering a glimpse into that lost, vibrant world. And we leave you with a question: In this immense “Land of the Living,” whom would you choose to remember?

Links for Additional Reading

Poland: Archaeologists (Working Under Rabbinical Supervision) Make Extraordinary Discoveries At Warsaw’s Vast Okopowa St. Jewish Cemetery
Jewish Heritage Europe (14 October 2020)
https://jewish-heritage-europe.eu/2020/10/14/poland-archaeologist-okopowa/

Okopowa Street Jewish cemetery in Warsaw, Poland
The Bezalel Narkiss Index of Jewish Art and Material Culture, Hebrew Universtiy – Jerusalem
https://cja.huji.ac.il/browser.php?mode=set&id=13787

Warsaw’s Jewish Cemeteries on Folkways (9 May 2024)
https://folkways.today/warsaw-jewish-cemeteries/
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In 1755, a massive earthquake, firestorm, and tsunami devastated Lisbon and sent shockwaves through European thought. The catastrophe shattered old religious certainties, ignited debates led by Voltaire and Kant, and reshaped the fate of Iberian Jews and “New Christians” long-bound by the Inquisition. In this episode, we trace how one morning of destruction helped usher in modern ideas of reason, justice, and identity—and how Lisbon’s rebuilding reframed the Jewish story within Europe’s emerging Enlightenment.

Links for Additional Reading

The Earthquake That Changed History – BBC REEL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVLGo_SgRfs

The Jesuit and the Jew -The Lisbon Earthquake in Modern Perspective
Revista by Kenneth Maxwell, 30 December 2007
https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/the-jesuit-and-the-jew/

Pombal and the Inquisition in Portugal
History Today by Richard Cavendish, 5 May 2001
https://www.historytoday.com/archive/months-past/pombal-and-inquisition-portugal
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At Israel’s southern tip, where desert horizons stretch without end, Eilat and the Arava tell a story shaped by distance, daring, and the frontier spirit. Here, improvised flags, pioneering kibbutzim, and an ancient date seed reborn all reveal how life at the edge becomes a laboratory for reinvention. Join us as we explore a landscape where imagination meets isolation—and where the desert becomes not an end, but hopefully also a beginning.

Links for Additional Reading

“Lost in Eilat” at Segula, the Jewish History Magazine
https://segulamag.com/en/lost-in-eilat/

“My City – Eilat” at the Digital Archive of UCLA
https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:/21198/z1k716vn

The Arava Insitute for Environmental Studies
https://arava.org/
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Across Morocco’s historic cities, three synagogues trace a story carried on shifting currents—moments when Jewish life swelled with creative possibility and moments when it retreated behind quiet walls. From the hidden doorway of Ibn Danan to the open‑sky courtyard of Slat al‑Azama to the luminous modern hall of Beth‑El, each synagogue marks a different turn of the tide. Join us at J2 adventures ‘Wandering Jews’ as these sacred spaces reveal how Jewish life in Morocco moves in continual ebb and flow, leaving behind beauty, memory, and a rhythm all its own.

Links for Additional Reading

The Ibn Danan Synagogue, Fez, Morocco
ANU, The Museum of the Jewish People
https://dbs.anumuseum.org.il/skn/en/c6/e23554768/%D7%90%D7%95%D7%93%D7%95%D7%AA/The_Ibn_Danan_Synagogue_Fez_Morocco

Israeli, Moroccan Researchers Excavate Synagogue In Atlas Mountains
I24News, 24 December 2021
https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/archeology/1640350989-israeli-moroccan-researchers-excavate-synagogue-in-sahara

Moroccan Jewry at the National Library of Israel
https://www.nli.org.il/en/discover/judaism/jewish-communities/jews-in-islamic-countries/moroccan-jews
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Journey with us to Ketef Hinnom, where a restless teenager, a collapsed tomb, and two tiny silver scrolls opened a window onto the oldest biblical text ever found—and a Jerusalem far more complex than skeptics imagined. This archaeological thriller reveals how memory, mystery, and the human need for blessing converge in a burial cave that bridges ancient faith and modern identity. Join as we uncover a story that proves some words - and some blessings - can survive.

Links for Additional Readings:

“In Memoriam: Prof. Gabriel Barkay, Dean of Biblical Archaeology (1944–2026)” – Armstrong Institute
https://armstronginstitute.org/1410-in-memoriam-prof-gabriel-barkay-dean-of-biblical-archaeology-1944-ndash-2026

“The Ketef Hinnom Scrolls: Earliest Biblical Text Ever Discovered!” – Armstrong Institute
https://armstronginstitute.org/1123-the-ketef-hinnom-scrolls-earliest-biblical-text-ever-discovered

“Priestly Benediction on Amulets,” Israel Museum
https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/198069-0
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