TFJ Season 5 Episode 20 Moral Imagination with special guest Joseph Telushkin
Release Date: 12/31/2025
TFJ Season 6 Episode 10 The Period of Hamtana “Waiting”
Teller From Jerusalem
Summary: President Lyndon Johnson and the United States were bogged down in Viet Nam and could not commit itself to any other area of the globe and risk another confrontation with the Soviets. The tenor of Cairo and Damascus, leaving no confusion as to their intentions. Nasser’s threats resulted in elation throughout the Arab world, as mass demonstrations erupted in acclaim of Egypt's action to provoke war. The armed forces of Lebanon, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia were activated, as Iraqi armored columns advanced towards the Syrian and Jordanian borders to participate in a battle of honor....
info_outline
TFJ Season 6 Episode 9 The Acts of President Nasser of Egypt that Made War in 1967 an Inevitability
Teller From Jerusalem
Summary: Syria taunted Nasser that he was hiding behind UN troops; the Syrians and Palestinians were the only ones fighting against Israel. Nasser, looking to improve his image in the Arab world, and justify Soviet belief in him, carried out on May 15, 1967, six acts that collectively made war in the Middle East inevitable. Credits: Arab-Israeli War 1967 Real Time History Egypt Blockades the Straits of Tiran | Six Day War - Part 3 of 12 | Unpacked Israel's 'Operation Focus': Inside One of the Most Successful Air Campaigns in Military History CBC News Learn more at...
info_outline
TFJ Season 6 Episode 8 The Water Wars, Israel’s National Water Carrier, The Emergence of the PLO
Teller From Jerusalem
In 1964, Israel completed its National Water Carrier, leading the Arab states to worry about the economic growth this would mean for Israel. They understood that water meant agriculture, agriculture meant food security, food security meant Israel could absorb more immigrants, more immigrants meant a larger population, and a larger population meant a stronger army and a state that would be more difficult to dislodge. Syria tried to divert the waters of the Chazbani and Banias rivers away from Israel, but in successive skirmishes Israeli tank crews wreaked havoc on Syrian bulldozers earthmoving...
info_outline
TFJ Season 6 Episode 7 The Slippery Slope of Falsehood (B)
Teller From Jerusalem
Hitler’s Big Lie found fresh expression with Hamas supporters claiming the absurdity that Israel is perpetrating genocide in its right to defend itself, executed in a legal and humane way. An accusation launched by none other than an organization that has in its charter and all of its rhetoric the desire to destroy Israel and every Jew living therein. In this episode we explore how Hitler and the Nazi propaganda machine utilized the “big lie” with incredible effectiveness. Whereas the virtuous woman is extolled for being an individual that may always be trusted, we conclude with a...
info_outline
TFJ Season 6 Episode 6 A Quick Revisit of the Eichmann Trial, Israel’s Nuclear Program, and Israel’s Race for Water (A)
Teller From Jerusalem
In a PS to our coverage of the Eichmann Trial we elaborate about the testimony of Dr. Foldi’s description of the last time he saw his daughter in a red coat who was separated from him upon their arrival at Auschwitz. Ever since, “the girl in the red coat” a nameless, faceless child became a representative , a composite metaphor for the millions of children who perished in the Holocaust. She was artistically portrayed In Spielberg’s Schindler’s List. Another outcome of Holocaust awareness, but far from the eyes of the public, Ben Gurion realized how vulnerable the Jewish People...
info_outline
TFJ Season 6 Episode 5 Words of Wisdom and Experience from the World Ambassador, Rabbi Abe Cooper
Teller From Jerusalem
Rabbi Abraham Cooper is the Associate Dean of Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. For decades he has been at the forefront of fighting antisemitism globally and promoting the cause of human rights. These efforts have taken him around the world scores of times to speak with world leaders. Thus, when he speaks, he marshals expertise and experience that has no peer. Sound credits Yerachmiel Begun and the Miami Boy’s Choir “Be a Mentsch” AQ’s Blog and Grill interview with Guy Kawasaki Hayvi Bouzo Khaleej Times podcast with Secretary Mike Pompeo The National News Podcast: Pompeo...
info_outline
TFJ Season 6 Episode 4 Eichmann Trial conclusion
Teller From Jerusalem
Aside from demonstrating that Israel felt responsible for the entire Jewish People, and accordingly would bring a mass-murderer to trial for an act that had been perpetuated before the State was formed, and not on its turf, extracting him from a third country half a world away, Israel’s prime minister had an educational agenda that would be accomplished through the trial. Israel’s youth had never encountered the Holocaust and were appallingly ignorant and derisive about the subject. How could Jews be so passive about their own deaths, they wondered, and they treated survivors with scorn...
info_outline
TFJ Season 6 Episode 3 Lying is Bad for You and the World (A)
Teller From Jerusalem
The Talmud teaches that God’s seal is truth; lying displays that you care more what your fellow man thinks than what the Lord thinks of you. A half a truth is a whole lie and partial truths should not be rationalized or legitimized. One of the attributes of The Valorous Woman that Solomon extolls is "the heart of her husband trusts in her." Trust can only be earned by being a consistently honest person, whose word is constantly reliable, and admits when they make a mistake. Everyone knows that lies travel at a faster velocity than the truth; and this was even before the digital age....
info_outline
TFJ Season 6 Episode 2 Eichmann Trial Part A
Teller From Jerusalem
In a daring and bold action, Israel’s Mossad captured Adolph Eichmann, the man most responsible for the Nazi genocide of European Jewry. How the Mossad managed to locate Eichmann in the Nazi haven of Argentina and secret him out undetected is described in detail in this episode. Also described are the emotions that gnawed at the minds of all Israelis. Could even a fraction of justice ever be exacted for the millions that were lost? The enormity of Eichmann’s trial in Jerusalem to be tried by Jewish judges in Jewish state was lost on no one. Credits Schindler's list - John Williams - NL...
info_outline
TFJ Season 6 Episode 1 Aftermath of Sinai Campaign 1956
Teller From Jerusalem
Israel’s lighting campaign in the Sinai in 1956 resulted in a routing of the Egyptian forces and capture of the entire Sinai Peninsula in less than 100 hours. The threat of Egypt deploying its brand-new military hardware from the Soviet Union had been averted. But in a fluke of history, President Eisenhower, instead of siding with his natural allies, Britain, France and Israel, sided with the Soviet Union and Nasser’s Egypt and demanded immediate Israeli withdrawal in return for nothing – or else! Eventually Israel received guarantees of right of passage through the Staits of Tiran and...
info_outlineWay back in Season One (episode 28 – really worth listening to!) famous lecturer and New York Times best-selling author, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin came on the show to explain “moral imagination.” When the opportunity arose, I sat him down to get another vital installment concerning what should be a critical component of our character.
Our sagacious guest discusses a widow marrying a second husband and if this entails betrayal to her former spouse or their children? Rabbi Telushkin analyzes the dying wish of the famous Jewish ethicist Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, and how people should prepare for their own demise. We are then taken to the Jewish community of New York City in 1895, fearful of the backlash from the visit of a prominent antisemite, and how the clever police commissioner, Teddy Roosevelt came to the rescue. The episode concludes with the moving portrayal of (remarkably unknown) Holocaust hero, Roddy Edmonds, and how his story was posthumously revealed.
Learn more at TellerFromJerusalem.com
Don’t forget to subscribe, like and share! Let all your friends know that that they too can have a new favorite podcast.
© 2025 Media Education Trust llc