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Episode 59: MENACHEM MENDEL SCHNEERSON
Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902–1994) was the seventh and last rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, one of the world’s best-known Hasidic groups.
Join us with Ezra Glinter, author of the new Jewish Lives biography Menachem Mendel Schneerson: Becoming the Messiah, as we explore the life and thought of one of the most influential—and controversial—rabbis in modern Judaism.
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Ayn Rand (1905–1982) was one of America’s most provocative writers of the 20th century. Her best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged have influenced three generations of Americans.
Join us with Alexandra Popoff, author of the new Jewish Lives biography Ayn Rand: Writing a Gospel of Success, as we explore Rand’s defense of
American capitalism, individualism, and creativity.
Music in this episode:
George Gershwin - "Rhapsody in Blue"
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The “German Socrates,” Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786) was the most influential Jewish thinker of the 18th and 19th centuries. A Berlin celebrity and a major figure in the Enlightenment, Mendelssohn suffered the indignities common to Jews of his time while formulating the philosophical foundations of a modern Judaism suited for a new age.
Join us with Bar Ilan scholar Shmuel Feiner, author of Moses Mendelssohn: Sage of Modernity, as we explore Mendelssohn’s tireless advocacy for his people and the importance of intellectual independence.
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Léon Blum (1872–1950), France’s prime minister three times, socialist activist, and courageous opponent of the pro-Nazi Vichy regime, profoundly altered French society.
Join us with one of France’s most eminent political sociologists Pierre Birnbaum, author of Léon Blum: Prime Minister, Socialist, Zionist, as we explore the extraordinary life and legacy of the first Jewish prime minister of France.Other historical figures mentioned in the show you can explore in Jewish Lives biographies and on the podcast:
Alfred Dreyfus
READ Alfred Dreyfus: The Man at the Center of the Affair
LISTEN TO ALFRED DREYFUS
Louis D. Brandeis
READ Louis D. Brandeis: American Prophet
LISTEN TO LOUIS D. BRANDEIS
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Herod the Great (73–4 BCE) was a phenomenally energetic ruler who took advantage of the chaos of the Roman revolution to establish himself as a major figure in a changing Roman world and transform the landscape of Judaea.
Join us with Oxford University scholar Martin Goodman, author of the new Jewish Lives biography Herod The Great: Jewish King in a Roman World, as we explore the political triumphs and domestic tragedies of the Jewish king.
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Get ready for Passover with Jewish Lives. Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of Park Avenue Synagogue and Professor Daniel Matt, author of Becoming Elijah: Prophet of Transformation, explore the life and legacy of the prophet Elijah, one of the most popular figures in Jewish folklore.
This episode comes from the Park Avenue Synagogue Podcast.
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Henrietta Szold (1860–1945) is renowned as the founder of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, which quickly became one of the most successful of all Zionist groups.
Join us with award-winning author Francine Klagsbrun, author of the new biography Henrietta Szold: Hadassah and the Zionist Dream, as we explore the life of an extraordinary woman whose impact resonates to this day.
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On January 5, 1895, Captain Alfred Dreyfus’s cries of innocence were drowned out by a mob shouting “Death to Judas!”
As global antisemitism rises, join us with Yale scholar Maurice Samuels, author of the new Jewish Lives biography Alfred Dreyfus: The Man at the Center of the Affair, as we explore a story that is more important than ever.
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Baruch (Benedictus) Spinoza (1632–1677) was a radical free thinker who led a life guided by strong moral principles despite his disbelief in an all-seeing God.
Join us with award-winning writer Ian Buruma, author of the new Jewish Lives biography Spinoza: Freedom’s Messiah, as we explore the life and legacy of the enlightenment thinker whose belief in freedom of thought and speech resonates in our own time.
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Born in the Land of Israel around the year 50 C.E., Rabbi Akiva was the greatest rabbi of his time and one of the most important influences on Judaism as we know it today.
Join us with Professor Barry W. Holtz, author of Rabbi Akiva: Sage of the Talmud, as we explore the life and teachings of one of the most beloved heroes of Jewish history.
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Amos Oz (1939–2018) was one of Israel’s most prolific and prominent writers, as well as a regular contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was the author of dozens of novels, essay collections, and novellas written between 1965 and shortly before his death.
Join us with celebrated scholar Robert Alter, author of the new Jewish Lives biography Amos Oz: Writer, Activist, Icon, as we explore the life and work of the legendary writer. -
Born Julius Marx in 1890, the brilliant comic actor who would later be known as Groucho, was celebrated for his slapstick portrayals, ingenious wordplay, and double entendre.
Join us with Lee Siegel, author of Groucho Marx: The Comedy of Existence, as we explore the life of the beloved American iconoclast through the lens of his work on stage, screen, and television.
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The feminist writer and activist Betty Friedan (1921–2006), pathbreaking author of The Feminine Mystique, was powerful and polarizing.
Join us with Rachel Shteir, author of the new Jewish Lives biography Betty Friedan: Magnificent Disrupter, as we explore the life of the author and activist acclaimed as the mother of second-wave feminism.
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Gershom Scholem (1897–1982) was one of the most influential figures in the field of Jewish Studies.
Join us with historian David Biale, author of the Jewish Lives biography Gershom Scholem: Master of the Kabbalah, as we examine the life of the thinker who pioneered the study of Jewish mysticism and profoundly influenced the Zionist movement.
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Both thoroughly German and unabashedly Jewish, Walther Rathenau (1867–1922) served in the exalted position of foreign minister in the early days of the Weimar Republic.
His achievement was unprecedented—no Jew in Germany had ever attained such high political rank. But Rathenau’s success was marked by tragedy: within months he was assassinated by right-wing extremists seeking to destroy the newly formed Republic.
Join us with esteemed historian Shulamit Volkov as we illuminate the complex social and psychological milieu of German Jewry in the period before Hitler’s rise to power.
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Tradition has it that King Solomon knew everything there was to know—the mysteries of nature, of love, of God himself—but what do we know about him?
Join us with esteemed biblical scholar Steven Weitzman as we reexamine Solomon's story and its surprising influence in shaping Western culture in Solomon: The Lure of Wisdom. We also explore what Solomon's life, wisdom, and writings have come to mean for Jews, Christians, and Muslims over the past two thousand years.
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Elie Wiesel is the author of the seminal Holocaust memoir Night and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Join us with Joseph Berger, author of the new Jewish Lives biography Elie Wiesel: Confronting the Silence, as we explore how a teenage survivor from a Hasidic family became the eloquent embodiment of Holocaust remembrance and of forceful opposition to indifference.
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Mel Brooks, born Melvin Kaminsky in Brooklyn in 1926, is one of the great comic voices of the twentieth century
Join us with Jeremy Dauber, author of the new Jewish Lives biography Mel Brooks: Disobedient Jew, as we explore how Brooks’s American Jewish humor went from being solely for niche audiences to an essential part of the American mainstream, paving the way for generations of Jewish (and other) comedians to come.
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Born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz, Jerome Robbins (1918–1998) was a master choreographer, dancer, and stage director, most famous for his stage productions of West Side Story, Peter Pan, and Fiddler on the Roof.
Join us with Wendy Lesser, author of the Jewish Lives biography Jerome Robbins: A Life in Dance, as we explore Robbins’s life through his major dances in ballet, Broadway, and film.
Music in this episode:
Claude Debussy - Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
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The Warner Brothers—Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack—arrived in America as unschooled Jewish immigrants, yet they founded a movie studio that became the smartest, toughest, and most radical in all of Hollywood.
Join us with celebrated film critic David Thomson, author of Warner Bros.: The Making of an American Movie Studio, as we explore how four immigrant brothers transformed themselves into the moguls and masters of American fantasy.
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