H&S/TD: Ladino

this morning (friday 23rd), 4.32-5.00am (repeated 11.32am and 11.32pm), on bbc world service radio 

ladino: saving greece’s ancient jewish language (in the heart and soul and the documentary series) (presented by sophia smith galer) 

“For centuries, the Judaeo-Spanish language of Ladino was spoken in the vibrant streets of Thessaloniki.

But today, it is a language on the verge of fading away, its echoes becoming fainter with each passing generation.

The remnants of a once-thriving community are juxtaposed with the weight of the Holocaust, which decimated Thessaloniki’s Jewish population.”

including interviews with …

• david saltiel, president, jewish community, thessaloniki

• hannah, in the choir

• jacky benmayor, native ladino speaker, thessaloniki

• mariangela chatzistamatiou, jewish museum, thessaloniki

H&S: Sarajevo Haggadah

yesterday morning (friday 8th), 4.32-5.00am (repeated 11.32am and 11.32pm), on bbc world service radio 

the sarajevo haggadah (presented by farrah jarral) (in the heart and soul series) 

includes contributions from …

• chazan igor kozemjakin

• historian aleksandra buncic

• ana maric, deputy director, national museum of bosnia and herzegovina

• isolde minovic

“Sarajevo’s most famous artefact, a 700-year-old Jewish prayer book called the Haggadah, captures the story the city wants to tell about itself. But is it accurate?

H&S: Gaza 17/11/2023

this morning (friday 17th), 4.32-5.00am (repeated 11.32am and 11.32pm), on bbc world service radio  

israel-gaza: can interfaith work prevail? (presented by caroline wyatt) (in the heart and soul series) (also in the the documentary podcast) includes contributions from …

• mohammad darawshe, givat haviva centre for a shared society

• peta jones pellach, women wage peace

• daniel munayer, musalaha (reconciliation)

“The recent violence between Israel and Hamas threatens the survival of the hundreds of small-scale projects which aim to bring Jews and Palestinians together to work for peace, or at least share understanding.

Now the flare up in violence threatens their future. To discuss the way forward and question the future of such projects, Caroline Wyatt brings together people from different faith backgrounds who’ve been working for years to build bridges in this volatile area of the Middle East.”

H&S: Rachel Freier

yesterday morning (friday 27th), 4.32-5.00am (repeated 11.32am and 11.32pm), on bbc world service radio 

the supreme court’s first female hasidic judge (presented by colm flynn) (in the heart and soul series) 

H&S: German, soldier, Jew

this morning (friday 18th), 4.32-5.00am (repeated 11.32am 11.32pm and 4.32am), on bbc world service radio  

german, soldier, jew (presented by shelly kupferberg) (in the heart and soul series) includes contributions from …

• michael fuerst (fürst) 

• maja enrein 

• aircraft technician johannes baranski 

• bundeswehr chief rabbi zsolt balla 

“After the horrific role played by the German military in the Holocaust, arguably the last place you would expect to find a Jew would be in the German Armed Forces. And yet it is estimated that today there are around 300 practising Jewish military personnel, and since 2021 they have had their own chaplain, the first chief rabbi – and the first non-Christian – in nearly 90 years.

H&S: Two rabbis

this morning (friday 3rd), 4.32-5.00am (repeated 10.32am and 7.32pm sunday, and 12.32am monday), on bbc world service radio (partly repeated 7.14-7.20am sunday on sunday on bbc radio 4)

two rabbis, worlds apart in israel (presented by yolande knell) (in the heart and soul series) includes contributions from …

• rabbi yehoshua pfeffer 

• rabbi naamah kelman, hebrew union college 

H&S: Polish and Jewish

tomorrow morning (sunday 11th), 10.32-11.00am (repeated 12.32am, and repeated from 4.32am friday), on bbc world service radio

poland’s jews: caught between, never home (presented by john beauchamp) (in the heart and soul series) …

“For centuries, Poland was home to millions of Jews in the heart of Europe.

Decades after the horrors of the Holocaust, questions of lost identity have arisen. What is it like to be a third-generation Jew in present-day Poland?

We meet Małgorzata, who was born into a Jewish family in the late 1980s.

She says being a Jew in Poland today means people think you are neither truly Jewish, nor Polish. She is just one of millions of third-generation Jewish people across Central Europe attempting to make sense of an identity that cannot be changed, reversed or erased.”

H&S: Orthodox LGBTQ

this morning (sunday 12th), 10.35-10.39am, 10.48-10.49am, and 10.53-10.57am (repeated 12.35am, and repeated from 4.35am friday), on bbc world service radio

LGBTQ+: religion and me (in the heart and soul series) includes …

“Abby Stein left her strict Hasidic Jewish community and transitioned but she is still very much Jewish. Abby talks to Claire who is a 73-year-old trans woman from the UK.”

H&S: Mosul Jews

this morning (friday 27th), 4.32-5.00am (repeated 10.32am sunday and 12.32am monday), on bbc world service radio

after isis: reviving the jewish history of mosul (presented by michael goldfarb) (in the heart and soul series) …

“ISIS nearly destroyed it, now Omar Mohammad (Mosul Eye) is recovering the lost Jewish history of Mosul.

Michael Goldfarb spends time with him as Omar collects oral histories from the remaining Jews who were born and grew up in the city.

Most Jews left the city in the early 1950’s in the upheaval following the establishment of Israel. They settled in Haifa. Today they hold regular sessions via zoom with the historian talking about their lives in the city and their culture.

Goldfarb also speaks with • Rabbi Carlos Huerta, retired US Army Chaplain, who spent the first year after the US overthrew Saddam Hussein in Mosul with the 101st Airborne. He had no idea about the rich Jewish history of the place, and spent much of his time investigating it. Asked how the city made him feel he says, I felt like I had come home.

H&S: Emancipation & identity

tomorrow morning (sunday 24th), 10.32-11.00am (repeated 12.32am, and repeated from 4.32am friday), on bbc world service radio

emancipation, assimilation, and jewish identity (presented by michael goldfarb) (in the heart and soul series) includes contributions from …

• rabbi herschel gluck 

• conductor leon botstein 

• diana pinto, author, a new jewish identity for post-1989 europe 

“For 500 years the Jews of Europe were kept apart, legally segregated in ghettos. Then, at the dawn of the 19th Century, Jews were emancipated, and overnight what it meant to be a Jew in the world changed.