Jewish History Moment

19/03/2025

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, a survivor of the October 7th massacres.

Dana International - דנה אינטרנשיונל, Netta Barzilai נטע ברזילי, Gali Atari - גלי עטרי, Izhar Cohen, Ehud Manor, Eddie Butler, Eden, טיפקס Teapacks and more are discussed in this special podcast, including the much asked question as to why non-European nations such as Israel, Turkey and Australia are included in Eurovision.

Israel won the popular Eurovision Song Contest four times and hosted three times.

12/03/2025

On Purim in New York in 1912, a group of Jewish women founded Hadassah which would go on to revolutionize medical care in Israel.

This is 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 Tipat Halav, which began delivering milk on donkeys and today serves new parents and babies throughout the country.

Alice Seligsberg was a pioneering social worker who served as Hadassah’s president, helped orphans and was the inspiration for Hadassah’s vocational schools.

Hear rare audio of Henrietta Szold and the story behind the women who dedicated their lives improving health.

On Purim in New York in 1912, a group of Jewish women founded Hadassah which would go on to revolutionize medical care in Israel.

05/03/2025

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 proposed a “Jewish university” at the World Zionist Congress and excerpts from Martin Buber’s Eine Jüdische Hochschule. From the cornerstone laying ceremony in 1918 on what was then called the Gray Hill Estate on Mount Scopus, to the dramatic grand opening in 1925 attended by Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook, Lord Balfour, General Allenby, Judah Magnes and others who celebrated the establishment of what was to become a leading institute with Nobel Prize winning professors.

Plus learn about the founding of the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, the Wissotzky tea company, Harvard University’s numerus clausus and other fun facts along the path to higher education in the State of Israel.

Israel’s first public university had an uphill battle to become a beacon of education for discriminated Jewish students.

26/02/2025

PODCAST: Nobel Prize winning physicist Albert Einstein, famous for his Theory of Relativity, helped found The 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 N***s, the Holocaust and more.

Today, visitors to Jerusalem can see the official Albert Einstein Archive and in the Technion in Haifa, a tree still stands planted by Einstein in 1923.

Famous scientist Albert Einstein helped found Hebrew University of Jerusalem and continued to support Israel and Zionism.

19/02/2025

PODCAST: 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 president of the State of Israel.

Hear Dr. Weizmann in his own words with rare audio and recordings and learn about his wife physician Dr. Vera Weizmann.

Weizmann House - בית ויצמן

Hear Israel's first president in his own words with rare sound clips and interviews.

12/02/2025

PODCAST: History of Tu Bishvat, including audio from the first Knesset, and more. https://benbresky.substack.com/p/history-of-tu-bishvat

06/02/2025

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 architecture think of modern Jerusalem? The new high-rise towers? The light-rail construction? The Zionist pioneers who built the suburbs? Did David Ben-Gurion really want the Old City walls torn down after the Six Day War? Find out as this 86-year-old Jerusalem native talks about the city he loves.

Interview with renowned David Kroyanker on his new book celebrating Jerusalem’s architecture and lost historic gems.

29/01/2025

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 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 the history of the Ramailes Yeshiva in the once thriving Jewish community of Vilna. Rabbi Gustman was the last great rabbi of Vilna before the Holocaust. He was helped Jews escape the N***s, was severely injured, and became a partisan fighter. He then made aliyah to Jerusalem’s Rehavia neighborhood and reestablished the Ramailes Yeshiva in the historic Frumkin-Havatzelet House in Rehavia.

Today Rabbi Kalman Flaks teaches at the yeshiva and hosts tours and Shabbat events.

Interview with Rabbi Kalman Flaks on the incredible life of Rabbi Yisroel Zev Gustman, head of the Netzach Yisrael yeshiva in Jerusalem.

22/01/2025

PODCAST: 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:
* Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek, who renamed Rehov HaUm as Rehov HaZionut.
* Israeli Ambassador to the UN Chaim Herzog, who tore up a copy of the resolution in a dramatic speech.
* US Ambassador to the UN Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who defended Israel as a country in which any Jewish person of any ethnic background, including converts can become citizens.
* US President George Bush, who initiated rescinding the resolution in 1991.
* News reels from the 1947 UN Palestine Partition Plan.

Israel’s reaction to the United Nations “Zionism is Racism” resolution in 1975 included protests and changing street names.

15/01/2025

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, where once stood the grand synagogue of Judah HeHasid which was destroyed in 1720.
In 1864 it was rebuilt to be an iconic community center for the Jews of Jerusalem. It was destroyed in the War of Independence in 1948 and rebuilt in 2010.
Find out the inside story from a personal perspective. Israel By Meir

Interview with tour guide Meir Eisenman about the yeshiva students who left Lithuania to rebuild Jerusalem.

08/01/2025

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 Warren Metzger and Elgen Long who flew non-stop over enemy territory to rescue the refugees who had never before seen an airplane. Find out how they modified the aircraft to carry hundreds of starving refugees to a new life in Israel.

Yemenite Jews who came with nothing but Torah scrolls and the clothes on their back were airlifted from persecution to the Jewish homeland in a daring operation.

25/12/2024

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 Tradition of Beta Israel
• Dr. Avraham Neguise of the South Wing to Zion organization
• Aviv Melese, musician and author of Circles of Life – From Ethiopia to Israel
• Yehiel Yisrael of the American Association for Ethiopian Jews on his experiences in Sudan in the 1980s rescuing refugees
These interviews were conducted years ago and I am happy to re-upload them as a historic record.

Every year Ethiopian Jews gather in Jerusalem to fast and pray on Sigd.

05/12/2024

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, Moshe Castel whose Hebron roots inspired him, Yudel Pen, the father of the Jewish Renaissance, and Marc Chagall, whose imagined new interpretations of the prophets.

Plus, non-Jewish artists whose works could be described as “Jewish” such as James Tissot, Rembrandt, and Börries von Münchhausen who turned from Zionist to N**i.

What is Jewish art? What did Abraham look like? And do Jewish artists draw him “Jewish” enough? Find out in this journey through the early years of the Israeli art revival.

Join me as I try to find the most authentic artistic depictions of Biblical figures.

20/11/2024

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 until being uploaded online in 1998. Hear about his close-calls in the days leading up to Israel’s War of Independence.

Plus, the tragic assassination of Senator Kennedy by an Arab nationalist in 1968.

In 1948 a young RFK reported on the “proud and determined” Jews building a new nation, the British and the Arabs.

13/11/2024

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 says today’s youth are modern Maccabees, the brightest and most dedicated he has seen with motivated, inspired volunteers being the norm. He says spirit and love of the land is just as important as weapons and training.

At 96, Ezra Yakhin is the oldest reserve soldier in the IDF. He talks about his youth in the Lechi – Fighters of the Freedom of Israel, and the inspiration he gets from today’s soldiers.

07/11/2024

Noted author Dr. Alan Unterman talks about his famous uncle Chief Rabbi Isser Yehuda Unterman who stressed being kind and understanding to people as much as being loyal to Torah values. Hear about the controversies of the day when the State of Israel was founded and the Zionist movement had to deal with Jewish religious issues for the first time.

What happens when a woman holds out her hand for the rabbi to shake?

How does one deal with losing an election for Chief Rabbi?

Does a rabbi hold a grudge when publicly embarrassed?

Why does the Chief Rabbi wear a top hat?

Dr. Unterman gives us a first-hand glimpse about the man who bridged the gap between the old-school European Litvish yeshiva world and the new modern Zionist State of Israel.

The duties of an Israeli Chief Rabbi. The Life and Times of Rabbi Isser Yehuda Unterman as told by his nephew.

30/10/2024

Israel was roundly condemned for bombing the Osiraq nuclear reactor in 1981 but thanked ten years later when Saddam Hussein started the Gulf War.

Israel was roundly condemned for bombing the Osiraq nuclear reactor in 1981 but thanked ten years later when Saddam Hussein started the Gulf War.

10/10/2024

In 2016 I visited Uman 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 Rabbi Nachman’s grave was saved from being turned into a 9-story apartment building by the Soviet Union. Plus, a personal story of how I found my own name and almost got arrested for it. https://benbresky.substack.com/p/how-i-almost-got-arrested-in-uman
Breslov Torah The Breslov Research Institute ברסלב Breslov Learning Center

My visit to Uman on Rosh Hashanah, the life of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov and how his grave was almost demolished and a personal story about my run-in with the Ukrainian police.