History for the Curious - The Jewish History Podcast

With the advent of Napoleon and emancipation, Jews were given an offer they found hard to refuse and the Reform movement made significant inroads.
 
Across many countries a war was waged for the soul of the Jew and many voluntarily even converted to Christianity. Shuls, marriage, Shabbos and Bris Mila were all subjected to question.
 
How did the Chasam Sofer Rav Samson Refoel Hirsch and others deal with the critical issues that faced them? Why was Orthodoxy driven to the defensive? And what lesson can we take from it nowadays?
 

Timestamps:

- 0:00 — Introduction & dedication  

- 0:36 — Podcast intro; Mendelssohn recap  

- 1:36 — Reform emergence; 17th–18th c. precursors (Sabbatai Zevi, Spinoza)  

- 4:07 — Napoleon’s emancipation & identity shift  

- 6:24 — Conversions & assimilation (Heinrich Heine example)  

- 10:25 — Reform tactics: Bible over Talmud; “prophetic Judaism”  

- 18:59 — Jacobson/Westphalia reforms (state control of rabbis, synagogue changes)  

- 24:53 — Berlin vs. Hamburg differences; home services vs. public temples  

- 29:41 — Abraham Geiger’s ideology; opposition to circumcision noted  

- 34:49 — Philippson/Magdeburg — services, Sunday shift  

- 36:49 — Rabbinical conferences (1844–46) & intermarriage stance  

- 41:27 — Orthodox responses: Safer Berneis, Rav Ettlinger, haram strategy  

- 48:47 — Samson Raphael Hirsch’s Neo‑Orthodoxy response  

- 57:13 — Modern implications: erosion of minhagim; academia vs. masorah  

- 59:05 — Closing takeaway: small changes can lead to large identity shifts

Moses Mendelssohn was raised in an orthodox family, attended yeshiva for a decade of his life and was involved in Kehilla life for many years afterwards. But he is remembered for his translation of Chumash, defined as a philosopher and linked to the beginning of the German Reform movement. 
 
What did he do to create a storm of controversy? And how did the Chasam Sofer relate to his writings?
 

Timestamps:

- 0:00:00 — Opening

- 0:02:42 — Introduction to Moses Mendelssohn; early life and background  

- 0:07:03 — Education, secular learning, and early writings  

- 0:11:32 — Rise to public prominence and influence with non-Jewish intellectuals  

- 0:14:46 — Controversies: public challenges (Lavater) and the Halonas Hamas (burial) debate  

- 0:19:18 — Mendelssohn’s German Chumash translation/commentary and rabbinic opposition  

- 0:23:09 — Political engagement and Enlightenment connections; push for improved Jewish status (context of Joseph II’s reforms)  

- 0:31:03 — Arguments in Jerusalem: rationalist defense of Judaism, limits of communal coercion, and state jurisdiction over public law  

- 0:33:16 — Impact on Jewish education: introduction of secular subjects, changing communal autonomy, and long-term consequences  

- 0:39:09 — Mixed legacy: civil rights and assimilation pressures leading toward Reform; personal practice vs. societal outcomes  

- 0:47:07 — Hasidic/rabbinic responses and the disputed reference to Mendelssohn in the Hassam Sefar’s will; closing reflections

Born in 1930, she lived through many challenging events. Raised a family and was a regal figure. Yehi zichroh boruch

Rabbi Aubrey Hersh’s mother was niftar on Tuesday 27 Nissan, aged 95.

Rabbi Hersh is sitting shiva at Eagle Lodge, Golders Green Road.

Messages can be sent via WhatsApp to +44 7973 178 236, or by email to [email protected].

We wish him chayim aruchim and send our collective nechama.

For Soviet Jews, matzah represented a longing for freedom – one we take for granted. This episode tells the hidden story of those heroes who risked everything to keep Pesach alive behind the Iron Curtain, and of the global networks that brought matzah into the USSR by every means, under the watchful eyes of the NKVD.

Jewish life in the USSR was strongly policed. Starting with Stalin in 1925, Judaism was actively hunted down. But every spring, Jews in Moscow, St Petersburg and Odessa as well as in far‑flung provincial cities risked surveillance, arrest, and labour camps to fulfill this mitzva on Seder night. Clandestine matzah bakeries sprung up, with children posted as lookouts.

In 1929 the 6th Lubavitcher Rebbe succeeded in bringing 10,000s of matzos into Russia. In later years, there would be the suitcases stuffed with contraband food moving through international airports, carried by tourists, businessmen, and non-Jewish acquaintances, given to them by people in the free world who never stopped caring for their fellow Jews.

This is the story of how a fragile food became a symbol of spiritual defiance, and how a festival of freedom was observed under totalitarian rule.

_____________________________________________________

"Undaunted" by Rabbi Eliezrie is available on Amazon for purchase