When Shani Abramowitz and Ben Freed took their first jobs as rabbis in Lexington and Louisville, they got one question from their classmates and friends: There are Jews in Kentucky? The short answer is yes! The long answer is right here, in your podcast feed. Every month, you'll hear a deep dive into upcoming holidays and their meanings, and kibitz with a Jewish Kentuckian who has a great story. And each episode wraps up with a L'Chaim of the Month — a toast to a person or group making our world a better place (bourbon in a kosher dill jar optional... but strongly encouraged). Zei gezunt, y'all!
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When Shani Abramowitz and Ben Freed took their first jobs as rabbis in Lexington and Louisville, they got one question from their classmates and friends: There are Jews in Kentucky? The short answer is yes! The long answer is right here, in your podcast feed. Every month, you'll hear a deep dive into upcoming holidays and their meanings, and kibitz with a Jewish Kentuckian who has a great story. And each episode wraps up with a L'Chaim of the Month — a toast to a person or group making our world a better place (bourbon in a kosher dill jar optional... but strongly encouraged). Zei gezunt, y'all!
We talk a lot on our show about old times. Like, reeeally old times, from many thousands of years ago. But this month, Iyyar, we explore three holidays that commemorate more recent moments in Jewish history: Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day, Yom Ha’atzma’ut, Israel’s Independence Day, and Yom HaShoa, Holocaust Remembrance Day. And we kibitz with three Kentuckians who help educators teach about the Holocaust in ways that are ethical and engaging:
—Janice Fernheimer is Zantker Charitable Foundation Professor of Jewish Studies, Professor of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies, and James B. Beam Institute for Kentucky Spirits Faculty Fellow at the University of Kentucky, and co-director of the University of Kentucky Jewish Heritage Fund Holocaust Education Initiative.
—Karen Petrone is Professor of History and co-director of the UK-JHF Holocaust Initiative and a specialist in Russian and Soviet History.
—Alice Goldstein has published widely on demographic studies focusing on population mobility in reaction to modernization, and on contemporary American Jewry. Alice is the author of Ordinary People, Turbulent Times, in which she tells the story of her own family’s resilience and escape from Nazi Germany.
If you’re a middle or high school teacher in Kentucky, you can learn more about the University of Kentucky Jewish Heritage Fund Holocaust Education Initiative and sign up to participate at holocausteducation.uky.edu.
The Bluegrass Schmooze
When Shani Abramowitz and Ben Freed took their first jobs as rabbis in Lexington and Louisville, they got one question from their classmates and friends: There are Jews in Kentucky? The short answer is yes! The long answer is right here, in your podcast feed. Every month, you'll hear a deep dive into upcoming holidays and their meanings, and kibitz with a Jewish Kentuckian who has a great story. And each episode wraps up with a L'Chaim of the Month — a toast to a person or group making our world a better place (bourbon in a kosher dill jar optional... but strongly encouraged). Zei gezunt, y'all!
