In this episode, Sarah Bunin Benor interviews Galeet Dardashti, an anthropologist, musician, composer, and a trailblazing and award-winning performer and scholar of Middle Eastern Jewish culture. Galeet also co-created the award-winning podcast “The Nightingale of Iran,” about her family's Persian musical legacy.

Heritage Words - conversations about the words we inherit and the meaning they bring to our lives - is produced by the HUC Jewish Language Project and HUC Connect.

Host and executive producer: Sarah Bunin Benor

Producers and editors: Kyle Fingerhut, Avishay Artsy

Video editor: Annabel Noar

Editorial consultants: Annabel Noar, Hannah Pressman

Special thanks to Galeet Dardashti for permission to use tracks from her album Monajat.

Theme music: Maurice El Medioni’s French and Algerian Judeo-Arabic album “Cafe Oran,” featuring the Klezmatics’ David Krakauer and Frank London, courtesy of Piranha Records.