Teller From Jerusalem

TFJ: Series 1 Episode 29: The Birth of Israel 

Prime Minister David Lloyd George said that had the Jews taken advantage of the opportunity they had in 1917 with the issuance of the Balfour Declaration and become a majority in Palestine, then it would have become a Jewish commonwealth. What are we to learn when an individual and a nation err? A Jewish legion was formed in the British Army in WW I commanded by Joseph Trumpeldor. 

Edited and Produced by Alex Drucker 

Learn more at TellerFromJerusalem.com 

Don't forget to subscribe, like and share! Let all your friends know they too can have a new favorite podcast. 

© 2021 Media Education Trust llc

TFJ: Series 1 Episode 28: Character Workshop 

Teller From Jerusalem is very pleased to invite famous lecturer and New York Times best-selling author, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin on to the podcast to discuss his forthcoming book about Moral Imagination. As Rabbi Telushkin clarifies, over the past hundred years mankind has made incredible advances in science, medicine, and technology, but ways of helping our fellow man have not kept pace.

The breakthroughs in science, technology and medicine were a consequence of groups getting together and applying their imagination to solve problems. There is ample room to marshal the very same ingenuity to benefit others, but we are so focused on just solving the immediate problem that we do not consider the underlying issues that needs to be rectified.

In his inimitably inspiring style, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin provides some beneficial and memorable examples of how to utilize our God-given imagination to benefit our family, and neighbors – indeed anyone we encounter.

Edited and Produced by Alex Drucker 

Learn more at TellerFromJerusalem.com 

Don't forget to subscribe, like and share! Let all your friends know they too can have a new favorite podcast. 

© 2021 Media Education Trust llc

TFJ:  Series 1: Episode 27: The Birth of Israel

Herbert Samuel, who was sympathetic to the Zionists, and had advocated for the Balfour the Declaration, appointed Hajj Amin al-Husseini as Mufti of Jerusalem, affording power to a man who would use every ability at his disposal to murder Jews. 

Edited and Produced by Alex Drucker 

Learn more at TellerFromJerusalem.com 

Don't forget to subscribe, like and share! Let all your friends know they too can have a new favorite podcast. 

© 2021 Media Education Trust llc

TFJ: Series 1 Episode 25: The Birth of Israel

During the 1995-96 academic year, Yale University altered its housing policy to require freshmen and sophomores to live in coed dormitories without gender-specific bathrooms. Four (originally five) Orthodox Jewish freshmen appealed to the administration to absolve them from this requirement as it violated Jewish norms of modesty. Although Yale granted exemptions to others, it would not budge for the Yale Five who ended up suing the college for violating their constitutionally protected freedom of religion. Here is another poignant example of people expressing opinions despite their ignorance. 

Edited and Produced by Alex Drucker 

Learn more at TellerFromJerusalem.com 

Don't forget to subscribe, like and share! Let all your friends know they too can have a new favorite podcast. 

© 2021 Media Education Trust llc

TFJ: Series 1 Episode 24: Special Episode: The Birth of Israel  

After the French Revolution there was a sense that the quest for liberty, egalitarianism and brotherhood were attainable, just like after the American revolution there was a sense that the pursuit of happiness was an attainable goal. Borders were changing, maybe even human nature was changing. Maybe, maybe there was even hope that a Jewish state could be restored. 

To enlarge his empire and further secure his personal record in history, Napoleon traveled with his army to Egypt. And even though he was routed by the British in the Battle of the Nile, this did not dampen his visions of grandeur and he decided to invade Palestine. After some initial successful battles, basing himself on a sense of overconfidence and being undefeatable, he granted the Jews freedom to their own land and signed his proclamation from his headquarters in Jerusalem that he had not yet captured and never would. 

He gave the Jews hope for their homeland, and then dashed it when it turned out to be a promise that he could never deliver. His second blow was even more devastating: in 1791 France declared all men to be equal, even Jews. 

Napoleon and the French people, then had second thoughts. They had given the Jews equal rights too cheaply. For the Jews to be awarded the status of equality they would have to swear that they were Frenchman with loyalties exclusively to fellow Frenchmen, not fellow Jews, with no national aspirations for the Land of Israel. This affirmation was to be sanctioned by the Sanhedrin which had been defunct for 13 centuries. 

Any observer viewing matters in 1807 would have concluded that the idea of Jews returning to the Land of Israel was over for good. History had the last laugh. 

This episode is dedicated in memory of Yocheved Orbach by her family.   

Edited and Produced by Alex Drucker 

Learn more at TellerFromJerusalem.com 

Don't forget to subscribe, like and share! Let all your friends know they too can have a new favorite podcast. 

© 2021 Media Education Trust llc

TFJ: Series 1 Episode 23: Character Workshop

With Special Guest Dr. David Pelcovitz 

Dr Pelcovitz is a universally renowned psychologist, famed for his uncanny ability to offer advice that is always useful, unimpeachable and heavily supported by statistics. No matter what the problem, Dr. Pelcovitz, holder of the Straus Chair of psychology at Yeshiva University, is the go to. TFJ could not be more blessed than to bring our listeners some trenchant pearls from the expert who knows best how to embrace a life of character and convey this message and direction to youngsters. 

Edited and Produced by Alex Drucker 

Learn more at TellerFromJerusalem.com 

Don't forget to subscribe, like and share! Let all your friends know they too can have a new favorite podcast. 

© 2021 Media Education Trust llc

TFJ: Series 1 Episode 22: The Birth of Israel

Follow me on a journey from Elihu Yale and the school that bears his name to co-ed bathrooms and dormitories and right the way back to the British Mandate in Palestine.

We will meet underdogs and authorities and question the truth of in the adage that “everyone has the right to their own opinion”.

Edited and Produced by Alex Drucker 

Learn more at TellerFromJerusalem.com 

Don't forget to subscribe, like and share! Let all your friends know they too can have a new favorite podcast. 

© 2021 Media Education Trust llc

TFJ: Series 1 Episode 21: The Birth of Israel

At the beginning of the 1900s new settlers arrived in Israel who were very different from the earlier, pious settlers living in Israel. In garb, outlook and conduct the differences were vast, and it was Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, better known as Rav Kook who attempted to bridge the gap by not veering from tradition, but also not writing off the new immigrants. Rav Kook was exiled from Israel during WWI and spent the duration in London at the time of the Balfour Declaration. Jewish parliamentarians, afraid that they might be accused of dual loyalty for supporting the creation of a Jewish state in Israel, shamelessly asserted that Judaism does not require a Jewish homeland. This commenced a discussion that will last through three episodes regarding man’s ability, and sometimes even predilection, to render an opinion whether or not they are qualified to do so.

Edited and Produced by Alex Drucker 

Learn more at TellerFromJerusalem.com 

Don't forget to subscribe, like and share! Let all your friends know they too can have a new favorite podcast. 

© 2021 Media Education Trust llc

TFJ: The Birth of Israel: Episode 21 

The issuance of the Balfour Declaration required a number of factors, several key players and significant Divine Intervention. The declaration electrified Jews the world over.

Edited and Produced by Alex Drucker 

Learn more at TellerFromJerusalem.com 

Don't forget to subscribe, like and share! Let all your friends know they too can have a new favorite podcast. 

© 2021 Media Education Trust llc

Teller From Jerusalem: The Birth of Israel Series Episode 19

For those concerned for the future Jewish state, it became apparent that the first priority was to wrest the land from the brutish Ottoman regime. This would entail the Aaronsohn spy ring supplying information to Allenby’s Egyptian Expeditionary Force, Dr. Chaim Weizmann developing a method to create acetone by fermenting chestnuts, and British determination that poor Jews fleeing persecution in Russia should not settle on their shores.  

Edited and Produced by Alex Drucker 

Learn more at TellerFromJerusalem.com 

Don't forget to subscribe, like and share! Let all your friends know they too can have a new favorite podcast. 

© 2021 Media Education Trust llc