Primary Source

How did a casual, late-night comedy sketch about Jewish celebrity come to top the Billboard charts and find its way into the December music catalogue? For our first episode, we explore what Adam Sandler’s “The Chanukah Song” might reveal (or not!) about the festival of lights, Chanukah practices in America, and the changing role of public expressions of Jewishness.

Credits

Thank you to our guests:

Jenna Weissman Joselit: Charles E. Smith Professor of Judaic Studies & Professor of History at George Washington University

Samira Mehta: Assistant Professor of Women & Gender Studies and Jewish Studies, University of Colorado Boulder

Jody Rosen: Journalist and contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine

Jeremy Dauber: Atran Professor of Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture in the Department of Germanic Languages at Columbia University

Julian Horowitz: Music Director, The Maccabeats

and, of course

Adam Sandler: Actor, comedian, filmmaker, musician

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Lily Sloane: Audio producer, composer, sound designer

Josh Tapper: Host and PhD candidate in History at Stanford University,

Ari Y. Kelman: Jim Joseph Chair in Education and Jewish Studies, Stanford University

Dan Shevchuk: Junior, majoring in Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University

Shoshana Olidort: PhD candidate in Comparative Literature at Stanford University and web editor for the Poetry Foundation

Shaina Hammerman: Associate Director of Jewish Studies at The Taube Center for Jewish Studies at Stanford University

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“The Chanukah Song” in concert

“The Chanukah Song” on SNL

“Candlelight,” The Maccabeats

“I’m a Little Latke”

“How Much is that Pickle in the Window?” Mickey Katz

“Duvid Crockett,” Mickey Katz

“Pan Fry,” The Maccabeats

Visit primarysourcepodcast.com for more info.

Introducing the Primary Source podcast from Stanford University's Taube Center for Jewish Studies.

Episode 1 coming soon!

What does the storming of the Capitol building, a Hungarian billionaire, mass shootings, and 4Chan have to do with a forged Russian text that’s more than 100 years old? In this episode, we discover how the Protocols of the Elders of Zion became a tome for antisemitism and influences world politics to this day.

---- For more information about our guests and a full episode transcript visit http://primarysourcepodcast.com.

In 1961, the political philosopher Hannah Arendt traveled to Jerusalem to report on the trial of Adolf Eichmann, an architect of the Nazi's Final Solution. Eichmann in Jerusalem, published two years later, changed the way the world understood the Holocaust, and in the decades since has guided our understanding of totalitarian society, the nature of evil, and the difficult choices we face between complicity and action. As Amir Eshel, the Edward Clark Crossett Professor of Humanistic Studies at Stanford University, explains, "Eichmann is not just about Eichmann. Eichmann is about an option many of us in modernity have."

---- For more information about our guests and a full episode transcript visit http://primarysourcepodcast.com.