WALTHER RATHENAU

Get ready for Passover with Jewish Lives. Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of Park Avenue Synagogue and Professor Daniel Matt, author of Becoming Elijah: Prophet of Transformation, explore the life and legacy of the prophet Elijah, one of the most popular figures in Jewish folklore. This episode comes from the Park Avenue Synagogue Podcast.  

Henrietta Szold (1860–1945) is renowned as the founder of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, which quickly became one of the most successful of all Zionist groups.Join us with award-winning author Francine Klagsbrun, author of the new biography Henrietta Szold: Hadassah and the Zionist Dream, as we explore the life of an extraordinary woman whose impact resonates to this day. 

On January 5, 1895, Captain Alfred Dreyfus’s cries of innocence were drowned out by a mob shouting “Death to Judas!”As global antisemitism rises, join us with Yale scholar Maurice Samuels, author of the new Jewish Lives biography Alfred Dreyfus: The Man at the Center of the Affair, as we explore a story that is more important than ever.

Baruch (Benedictus) Spinoza (1632–1677) was a radical free thinker who led a life guided by strong moral principles despite his disbelief in an all-seeing God.Join us with award-winning writer Ian Buruma, author of the new Jewish Lives biography Spinoza: Freedom’s Messiah, as we explore the life and legacy of the enlightenment thinker whose belief in freedom of thought and speech resonates in our own time.

Born in the Land of Israel around the year 50 C.E., Rabbi Akiva was the greatest rabbi of his time and one of the most important influences on Judaism as we know it today.Join us with Professor Barry W. Holtz, author of Rabbi Akiva: Sage of the Talmud, as we explore the life and teachings of one of the most beloved heroes of Jewish history.

Amos Oz (1939–2018) was one of Israel’s most prolific and prominent writers, as well as a regular contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was the author of dozens of novels, essay collections, and novellas written between 1965 and shortly before his death.Join us with celebrated scholar Robert Alter, author of the new Jewish Lives biography Amos Oz: Writer, Activist, Icon, as we explore the life and work of the legendary writer.

Born Julius Marx in 1890, the brilliant comic actor who would later be known as Groucho, was celebrated for his slapstick portrayals, ingenious wordplay, and double entendre.Join us with Lee Siegel, author of Groucho Marx: The Comedy of Existence, as we explore the life of the beloved American iconoclast through the lens of his work on stage, screen, and television.

The feminist writer and activist Betty Friedan (1921–2006), pathbreaking author of The Feminine Mystique, was powerful and polarizing.Join us with Rachel Shteir, author of the new Jewish Lives biography Betty Friedan: Magnificent Disrupter, as we explore the life of the author and activist acclaimed as the mother of second-wave feminism.

Gershom Scholem (1897–1982) was one of the most influential figures in the field of Jewish Studies.Join us with historian David Biale, author of the Jewish Lives biography Gershom Scholem: Master of the Kabbalah, as we examine the life of the thinker who pioneered the study of Jewish mysticism and profoundly influenced the Zionist movement.

Both thoroughly German and unabashedly Jewish, Walther Rathenau (1867–1922) served in the exalted position of foreign minister in the early days of the Weimar Republic.His achievement was unprecedented—no Jew in Germany had ever attained such high political rank. But Rathenau’s success was marked by tragedy: within months he was assassinated by right-wing extremists seeking to destroy the newly formed Republic.Join us with esteemed historian Shulamit Volkov as we illuminate the complex social and psychological milieu of German Jewry in the period before Hitler’s rise to power.