In 1755, a massive earthquake, firestorm, and tsunami devastated Lisbon and sent shockwaves through European thought. The catastrophe shattered old religious certainties, ignited debates led by Voltaire and Kant, and reshaped the fate of Iberian Jews and “New Christians” long-bound by the Inquisition. In this episode, we trace how one morning of destruction helped usher in modern ideas of reason, justice, and identity—and how Lisbon’s rebuilding reframed the Jewish story within Europe’s emerging Enlightenment.

Links for Additional Reading

The Earthquake That Changed History – BBC REEL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVLGo_SgRfs

The Jesuit and the Jew -The Lisbon Earthquake in Modern Perspective

Revista by Kenneth Maxwell, 30 December 2007

https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/the-jesuit-and-the-jew/

Pombal and the Inquisition in Portugal

History Today by Richard Cavendish, 5 May 2001

https://www.historytoday.com/archive/months-past/pombal-and-inquisition-portugal

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At Israel’s southern tip, where desert horizons stretch without end, Eilat and the Arava tell a story shaped by distance, daring, and the frontier spirit. Here, improvised flags, pioneering kibbutzim, and an ancient date seed reborn all reveal how life at the edge becomes a laboratory for reinvention. Join us as we explore a landscape where imagination meets isolation—and where the desert becomes not an end, but hopefully also a beginning.

Links for Additional Reading

“Lost in Eilat” at Segula, the Jewish History Magazine

https://segulamag.com/en/lost-in-eilat/

“My City – Eilat” at the Digital Archive of UCLA

https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:/21198/z1k716vn

The Arava Insitute for Environmental Studies

https://arava.org/

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Across Morocco’s historic cities, three synagogues trace a story carried on shifting currents—moments when Jewish life swelled with creative possibility and moments when it retreated behind quiet walls. From the hidden doorway of Ibn Danan to the open‑sky courtyard of Slat al‑Azama to the luminous modern hall of Beth‑El, each synagogue marks a different turn of the tide. Join us at J2 adventures ‘Wandering Jews’ as these sacred spaces reveal how Jewish life in Morocco moves in continual ebb and flow, leaving behind beauty, memory, and a rhythm all its own.

Links for Additional Reading

The Ibn Danan Synagogue, Fez, Morocco

ANU, The Museum of the Jewish People

https://dbs.anumuseum.org.il/skn/en/c6/e23554768/%D7%90%D7%95%D7%93%D7%95%D7%AA/The_Ibn_Danan_Synagogue_Fez_Morocco

Israeli, Moroccan Researchers Excavate Synagogue In Atlas Mountains

I24News, 24 December 2021

https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/archeology/1640350989-israeli-moroccan-researchers-excavate-synagogue-in-sahara

Moroccan Jewry at the National Library of Israel

https://www.nli.org.il/en/discover/judaism/jewish-communities/jews-in-islamic-countries/moroccan-jews

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