Human Interest
11 min read
It was the day after Yom Kippur, 2023, a gorgeous fall morning in greater Miami, when Yosh (Joshua) Markell, then 40, was driving his young daughter to school and spotted flashing lights in his rearview mirror. He pulled over, assuming it was routine stop. A broken brake light, maybe, an expired plate. He had nothing […]
History
5 min read
Long before there were synagogues across America, Jewish life here was fragile, scattered, and at serious risk of fading away. One man quietly changed that. His name was Gershom Mendes Seixas, and without him, the Jewish community we take for granted today might never have taken root. Today, few people outside of historians have heard […]
On the last Friday night they would ever spend together as a family, Ernst Bornstein's father recited the Shabbat prayers in a low, frightened voice. Two small candles barely lit the room. Ernst, 18, sat with his three siblings around the table and could not get the thought out of his mind: who knows if […]
Imagine the changes witnessed by someone born more than a hundred years ago, journeying from a 1924 childhood in the gas-lit, Yiddish-speaking textile center of Lodz, Poland, to a centennial life in modern Philadelphia. Pearl Hinda Nagel’s story is one of extraordinary survival, stretching from the age of horse drawn ice wagons and communal wells […]
Video
This episode is packed with wisdom, honesty, and a few surprises.
