Homeland: Ten Stories, One Israel

Homeland introduces another podcast from Unpacked: Unpacking Israeli History. Season 4 just launched, and we're running the first episode here, entitled Ma'alot: 30 Seconds That Devastated A Nation.

It was supposed to be a fun field trip. A little celebration in honor of Israel’s 26th birthday. Over a hundred religious high school students, exploring northern Israel and sleeping under the stars. But the three Palestinian terrorists who sneaked in from Lebanon had other plans. This is the story of the Ma’alot massacre. It’s a story of horror and blood. But it’s also a story of hope and resistance. A reminder that every hour of our lives matters.

Homeland introduces another podcast from Unpacked: Jewish History Unpacked. Whoever said history was boring clearly never heard these stories Join hosts Yael and Schwab each week as they take a dive into some deep cuts of Jewish history. From the Jewish Da Vinci Code to mass suicide pacts, explore true stories that feel larger than life.

This episode tells the story of Josephus Flavius. It's maybe one of the wildest characters in Jewish history, and that's saying something. That's largely because unlike most historians, he didn't just chronicle the story; as Yael tells Schwab in this week's episode, Josephus, or Yosef ben Matityahu, wrote himself into the story - and what a story it is. This week, we learn about Josephus and the siege of Yodfat, and they ask, what does it mean for us to write yourself into the story of Jewish history?

You asked, and we answered. This week, Homeland's writer, Adi Elbaz, and producer, Rivky Stern, do a special "behind the scenes" episode, where they answer some of your questions about Homeland. Some questions include: which character did you relate to the most? Why were there no Palestinian or Israel Arab characters? Do you think immigrants are really integrated into Israeli society? And much more.

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This show was made possible by support from the Koum Family Foundation, the Crain-Maling Foundation, the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation, and the Skolnick Family Charitable Trust.

Emily Cohen isn’t shy about approaching strangers. But when it comes to telling her own story, she’s a little more skittish. In the final episode of the season, Emily grapples with what it means to be proudly Jewish and Zionist in the Diaspora.

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For more background on this episode, check out these resources:

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This show was made possible by support from the Koum Family Foundation, the Crain-Maling Foundation, the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation, and the Skolnick Family Charitable Trust.

Eden has blue hair, an obsession with manga, and a rich family history. She’s the daughter of parents who survived unimaginable hardships to live in the world’s only Jewish state. But once they made it to Israel, things didn’t exactly go as planned…

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For more on Ethiopian Jews, check out these resources:

On Ethiopian Jews in General:

On Operations Moses, Joshua, Solomon:

On Discrimination:

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This show was made possible by support from the Koum Family Foundation, the Crain-Maling Foundation, the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation, and the Skolnick Family Charitable Trust.

Ortal Levy came to Israel from France because of a story.

The stories she heard at home. At school. The story of the Jewish people.

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Resources:

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This show was made possible by support from the Koum Family Foundation, the Crain-Maling Foundation, the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation, and the Skolnick Family Charitable Trust.

Amalia Bar-Oz never met her great-grandmother. But she knows that great-grandma Hesya was a fighter. That when the pogroms ripped her life apart, she found a new hope in her ancestral homeland…

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Resources:

On Life in the Shtetl and Pogroms in the Russian Empire:

On Early/Proto-Zionist Movements:

On Kibbutzim:

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This show was made possible by support from the Koum Family Foundation, the Crain-Maling Foundation, the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation, and the Skolnick Family Charitable Trust.

Roey Pinto’s family has been in Jerusalem for generations. They’ve lived under Ottoman rule and British administration and finally under an Israeli government. But self-determination takes sacrifice. This is the story of what one family gave up for a state.

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For more information on the events of this episode, check out these resources:

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• This show was made possible by support from the Koum Family Foundation, the Crain-Maling Foundation, the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation, and the Skolnick Family Charitable Trust.

Shaya Silber is many things. Haredi. An IDF soldier. And tired of being constantly stereotyped. In this episode, he peels back the curtain on the vibrant and complex Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community in Israel.

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For more on the Haredi community, check out these resources:

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This show was made possible by support from the Koum Family Foundation, the Crain-Maling Foundation, the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation, and the Skolnick Family Charitable Trust.

As a teenager growing up in Australia, Nachi Gelman didn’t pay much attention to politics. Not even those Oslo Accords that everyone around him seemed to be talking about. But then he met Hadassah Even-Chen. And she pulled him into a life he couldn’t have imagined…

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To learn more about the topics covered in this episode, check out these resources:

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This show was made possible by support from the Koum Family Foundation, the Crain-Maling Foundation, the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation, and the Skolnick Family Charitable Trust.