Dig into bloody murders, rioting mothers, anarchist parties and pseudoscience – everything you never learned in Hebrew school and that your Rabbi still doesn’t want you to know! Dr. Eddy Portnoy, academic advisor for the Max Weinreich Center and exhibition curator at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Dr. Tony Michels, professor of Jewish American History at UW Madison, and Jessica Chaffin, writer, comedian and host of the popular podcast Ask Ronna join up on the Jewish Bizarre Podcast to discuss the strangest corners of Jewish history.
Find out more here and listen now to the full season of The Jewish Bizarre podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify Podcasts, YouTube or wherever else you get your podcasts.
As you listen to The Jewish Bizarre, follow along in this guide to find definitions for key terms, photographs, newspaper clippings, artwork and other visual resources and links to further reading about each subject. Then, follow Reboot on Instagram @RebootJewish to put your knowledge to the test with The Jewish Bizarre Trivia. Download the guide here.
The Jewish Bizarre Podcast is supported by a generous grant from The Covenant Foundation
Tony Michels
Professor and Reboot Faculty
Tony Michels is author of A Fire in Their Hearts: Yiddish Socialists in New York (Harvard Univ. Press, 2005), editor of Jewish Radicals: A Documentary History (New York Univ. Press, 2012), and co-editor of The Cambridge History of Judaism. Volume Eight: The Modern World, 1815-2000 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2017). He is a professor of American Jewish history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he serves as Director of the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies. Michels is currently writing a book tentatively entitled “To the East Broadway Station: The Russian Revolution in American Jewish HIstory.” His article on Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers appeared in the Sound Issue of Guilt and Pleasure.
Eddy Portnoy
Professor and Reboot Faculty
Eddy Portnoy is a historian of unusual Jewish phenomena. His 2017 book, Bad Rabbi and Other Strange but True Stories from the Yiddish Press, was described by the New York Times as “a succession of outlandish misadventures, a wild panorama populated by an astonishing array of characters.” An occasional contributor to the Forward and Tablet Magazine, his headier publications can be found in numerous academic journals. He currently serves as Academic Advisor and Director of Exhibitions at the YIVO Institute, where his exhibits, Yiddish Fight Club and Jews in Space, among others, have won plaudits from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Forward, Tablet, and Vice.
Jessica Chaffin
Actress, comedian, and writer
Jessica Chaffin is a writer/performer, Emmy-Nominated Consulting Producer on HBO’s Hacks, and host of the popular podcast ASK RONNA.
