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?
Using interviews with artists and scholars combined with performed readings by actors, The Dybbukast examines and gives context to creative works while exploring their relationships to issues still present today.
While we are no longer producing full seasons, we will continue to present live recordings of our illuminated lectures – which share The Dybbukast format – as they are available.
Listen here, on YouTube (captions available), or on your favorite podcast app.
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"
Season 4
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S4 E1 "The Merchant of Venice: Ghetto"
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S4 E2 "The Merchant of Venice: Shakespeare in Performance"
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S4 E3 "The Merchant of Venice: Annotated"
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S4 Guest "Primary Source: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion"
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S4 E4 "At Newport"
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S4 E5 "The Marvelous Puppet Show"
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S4 E6 "Fiction without Romance"
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S4 E7 "Lilith"
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S4 Bonus "Hymn of the Majestic"
Season 5
Season 6
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S6 E1 "La Celestina"
Season 3
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S3 E1 "Years Have Sped By"
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S3 E2 "Why I Was a Zionist and Why I Now Am Not"
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S3 Guest "The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages"
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S3 E3 "The Chronicles of the Rabbis"*
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S3 E4 "The Imagined Childhood"*
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S3 E5 "The Sayings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers"*
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S3 E6 "The Book of Tahkemoni"*
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S3 E7 "Studying Sacred Texts"*
Season 1 of The Dybbukast was started with seed funding from The Covenant Foundation.
Seasons 2, 3, and 4 are generously supported by a grant from Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah.
*Episodes 3-7 of Season 3 were co-produced as a limited series with the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University.
Latest Episode
"La Celestina"
Season 6, Episode 1
In this Illuminated Lecture, Professor Barbara Fuchs, Distinguished Professor of Spanish and English at UCLA and director of Diversifying the Classics, addresses La Celestina, a text written in Spain at the turn of the sixteenth century, soon after the expulsion of the Jews. La Celestina asks radically uncomfortable questions of its society and our own: what do we owe each other, especially across lines of class or gender? How do we make room for ourselves in a place where we may not be welcome? In a time of profound dislocation, how do we find meaning in the world?
This episode was recorded as a live presentation on April 30, 2026 at The Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles.
Season 4
Season 4 of The Dybbukast is generously supported by a grant from Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah.
Season 3
Season 3 of The Dybbukast is generously supported by a grant from Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah.
Season 2
Season 2 of The Dybbukast is generously supported by a grant from Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah.
Season 1
Thank you to The Covenant Foundation and Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah for their support of The Dybbukast and related educational resources.