The Dybbukast
Jewish Podcast | Jewish Diaspora | Jewish Arts | Jewish Literature | Jewish History
What do poems, plays, and other creative texts from throughout history tell us about the times in which they were written? And what do they reveal about the forces still at play in our contemporary societies?
Jewish communities, for a good deal of recorded time, have been spread across much of the globe, often existing as minority groups within a variety of dominant cultures. As such, the creative works generated, read, and listened to in these communities can provide glimpses into the ways in which people navigate challenging cultural waters.
Through a combination of performed readings and interviews with artists and scholars, The Dybbukast brings these creations and their historical contexts to life, all while revealing their relationships to issues still present today.
New episodes are released on the second Friday of every month.
Season 1
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S1 E1 "I-Tell-You"
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S1 E1 bonus "I-Tell-You...More"
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S1 E2 "The Book of Enoch"
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S1 E3 "The Death of My Aunt"
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S1 E3 bonus "Translation and The Death of My Aunt"
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S1 E4 "The Murdered Jewess"
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S1 E5 "The Protocols, Henry Ford, and The International Jew"
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S1 E5 bonus "A Fine Ford Vehicle"
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S1 E6 "How to Hide"
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S1 E7 "Unetaneh Tokef for Black Lives"
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S1 E8 "In Defense of Women"
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S1 E9 "The Book of Bovo"
Season 2
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S2 E1 "I Sing and I Pray"
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S2 E2 "The Book of Job"
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S2 E3 "Sing This at My Funeral"
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S2 E4 "The St. Thomas Split"
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S2 E5 "The New World"
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S2 E6 "The Temple Bombing"
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S2 E7 "Sound in the Silence"
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S2 E8 "Adapting Exagoge"
Latest Episode
"Adapting Exagoge"
Season 2, Episode 8
The Exagoge of Ezekiel the Tragedian is the earliest documented Jewish play, thought to have been written in Alexandria, Egypt in the second century BCE. From the fragments that remain, we know that it tells the biblical Exodus narrative in the style of a Greek tragedy. In 2016, theatre dybbuk combined the extant 269 lines with modern day stories of refugees, immigrants, and other voices from the American experience to form a new adaptation, titled exagoge, that relates the ancient story to contemporary issues.
This episode, presented in collaboration with the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis University, features performances from exagoge intercut with a conversation recorded at the annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis in March 2022 between theatre dybbuk's artistic director, Aaron Henne, and Dr. Miriam Heller Stern. Dr. Stern, the Vice Provost for Educational Strategy at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and founder of Beit HaYozter/the Creativity Braintrust, studied theatre dybbuk’s process alongside Dr. Tobin Belzer during the creation of the adaptation.
This episode is made possible in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
This is our final episode in Season 2. We'll be returning with a third season in the fall!
Season 2
Season 2 of The Dybbukast is generously supported by a grant from Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah.
New episodes are released on the second Friday of every month.
Season 1
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Thank you to the Covenant Foundation for its support of The Dybbukast and related educational resources.