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Remember What’s Next Podcast
with Rabbi Ken Spiro and JFI Director Ellie Bass
Exploring the past to understand our future. This podcast looks are current issues through the lens of Jewish history with the author, researcher, and lecturer Rabbi Ken Spiro and JFI Director Ellie Bass. Each week we will explore a current topic in the news or the world and use history to understand its deeper implications for the Jewish world and beyond.
Listen to:
Rabbi Ken Spiro
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About Rabbi Ken Spiro
Rabbi Ken Spiro’s quick-paced, humorous style catches and keeps an audience’s interest; his ability to explain deep concepts clearly makes an impact that lasts long after the presentation.
Rabbi Spiro is a Senior Lecturer and Researcher for Aish HaTorah, Jerusalem. In addition, he is a licensed tour guide from the Israel Ministry of Tourism.
Rabbi Spiro graduated from Vassar College with a BA in Russian Language and Literature and did graduate studies at the Pushkin Institute in Moscow.
He has an MA in History from The Vermont College of Norwich University and Rabbinic Ordination from Yeshiva Aish HaTorah in Jerusalem.
He has appeared on numerous radio and television programs such as B.B.C. Radio and TV., The National Geographic Channel, The Discovery Channel, The History Channel, Channel 4 England and Arutz Sheva-Israel National Radio. He is the author of WorldPerfect – The Jewish Impact on Civilization published by HCI books, Crash Course in Jewish History published by Targum Press and Destiny – Why a tiny nation plays such a huge role in history published by Geffen Publishing House. His writings and seminars can be accessed on www.kenspiro.com and www.aish.com.
Born and raised in the U.S. Rabbi Spiro has lived in Israel since 1982. He served in a combat infantry unit in the IDF. A father of five children, he currently lives in Jerusalem .
New Book “Destiny”
Destiny compares the universal plot line of the great Hollywood epics with the major themes and events of Jewish history to show that what humanity views as the greatest drama in fiction and fantasy is – in reality -the true story, mission and destiny of the Jewish people. It is a true-life saga you won’t want to miss – this story is real, and humanity is fast approaching the dramatic climax.
Crash Course in Jewish History Book
From Abraham and the birth of monotheism to the Holocaust and the creation of modern Israel-Crash Course in Jewish History explores 3,800 years of Jewish existence. Ken Spiro takes the reader on a fascinating and informative journey through time, highlighting the key lessons of Jewish and world history and the profound relevance that the past holds for the future of both the Jewish people and humanity.
Articles - Crash Course in Jewish HistoryVIEW ALL
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History Crash Course #60: The Holocaust
While Nazi Germany systematically rounded up and executed Jews, the world closed its eyes and its doors. As we begin to discuss this most painful of subjects to the Jewish people, please keep in mind that this is a vast subject. At the moment there are some 1,200 books in print examining why it happened, […]
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History Crash Course #35: Destruction of the Temple
On the saddest day in the Jewish calendar, the 9th of Av, the Temple burns to the ground. We left off the story in the last installment with Vespasian being made Caesar and returning to Rome. His son Titus now takes over the siege of Jerusalem. Titus attacks just after Passover in the year 70 […]
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History Crash Course #59: The Face of Anti-Semitism
Even in such civilized nations as France and the United States, anti-Semitism never died out. In this installment we will briefly examine the anti-Semitism that ― with the coming of the Enlightenment in the 18th century ― hid itself under the veneer of “civil” society, only to bare its face of evil in the Holocaust. […]
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History Crash Course #23: Babylonian Exile
The Babylonians think God has abandoned the Jews and celebrate. But they have a surprise coming. The Babylonians think God has abandoned the Jews and celebrate. But they have a surprise coming. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, we also wept, when we remembered Zion. We hung our lyres on the willows […]
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History Crash Course #32: Hillel and Shammai
In a time when many things were going wrong for the Jews, the sages Hillel and Shammai defined what was going right. We have discussed the rift between the Pharisees (the mainstream Jews) and the Sadducees (the Jews who only followed the Written Torah, making up their own interpretations). We also explained how Herod’s massacres […]
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History Crash Course #65: The State of Israel
After the British turned away Holocaust survivors from Israel, the UN voted to partition the land. The British broke their promise to the Jews while they created new Arab countries out of the land of the former Ottoman Empire. In addition, because of Arab revolts and pressure, the British even barred entry to the land […]
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History Crash Course #21: Assyrian Conquest
The Assyrians conquer northern Israel and vanquish the nation with exile. At a time when the Jewish people of the northern kingdom of Israel are weakening spiritually, as well as physically and militarily, the Assyrians are growing stronger. The Assyrians at this time occupy the territory immediately north — what is today’s Syria, Iraq, and […]
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History Crash Course #8: Reunion
To remedy the family animosity, Joseph sets the stage for a great test. An interesting thing happens in the Bible right in the middle of the Joseph story. Suddenly the story stops. We leave off Joseph and return to the land of Canaan to pick up the story of Judah, the fourth oldest of the […]
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History Crash Course #43: The Jews of Babylon
The oldest and most stable of Jewish communities was spared the ravages of holy warriors. The story of the Jews of Babylon of necessity begins some 1,000 years before our current timeline ― in the 434 BCE, when the Babylonians first marched on Israel as part of their campaign to stake claim to the former […]
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History Crash Course #38: Exile
The Romans sought to extinguish Jewish presence in Jerusalem by renaming Israel to Palestine. No people had revolted more or caused the Romans greater manpower or material losses than the Jews. But they had done so at a great price to themselves as well. The Roman historian Dio Cassius writes that over half a million […]
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History Crash Course #64: The British Mandate
The British promised to create a Jewish state, but served their own Arab-linked interests as millions died in the Holocaust. World War I changed the map of the world. This huge conflict waged over four years (1914-1918) pitted the Allies (chiefly France, Britain, Russia, and later, the U.S.) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and […]
