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Who Jew Think You Are

Who Jew Think You Are

Written by: Eylan Ezekiel
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Exploring a more inclusive Jewniverse, with Eylan Ezekiel.

Meeting fascinating guests, on a mission to understand the diverse histories and identities of Jewish people.

For more, join our community here https://linktr.ee/eylanezekielwhojew

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Eylan Ezekiel Judaism Social Sciences Spirituality World
Episodes
  • Baghdad to the Andes: Live! With Jordan Salama and Samantha Ellis

    Baghdad to the Andes: Live! With Jordan Salama and Samantha Ellis
    May 22 2026
    Recorded live at Jewish Book Week in March 2026, this conversation brings together two writers whose books map Jewish histories that rarely make it onto the festival circuit. With a sold-out crowd at Kings Place in London, Samantha Ellis and Jordan Salama talk about language, loss, food, family archives, and what it means to carry more than one Jewish story at once.Our GuestsSamantha Ellis is a playwright, journalist and author, the daughter of Iraqi Jewish refugees. Her books include How to Be a Heroine and Take Courage: Anne Brontë and the Art of Life. Her latest, Chopping Onions on My Heart (published in the US as Always Carry Salt), explores Judeo-Iraqi Arabic, a language on the verge of extinction, and what we can and cannot pass on to our children. She also worked on the first two Paddington films.Jordan Salama is an award-winning writer whose journalism at The New Yorker covers migration, culture and the environment across the Americas. His second book, Stranger in the Desert, follows his great-grandfather's trail as a Syrian Jewish travelling salesman in the Argentine Andes in the 1920s, beginning with a binder of family history discovered in his grandfather's basement. Jewish Book Week is London’s longest running literary festival, hosted by the Jewish Literary Foundation. It attracts award-winning authors and thinkers every year for an exciting programme of debates, talks, and performances at Kings Place, London and online. Find out more here. Key TopicsArab Jews: why the term matters, why it's contested, and what it opens upJewish futures: a generational shift in who is telling these stories and why nowYour GuideJudeo-Iraqi Arabic: the Jewish dialect of Arabic spoken by Iraqi Jews, now critically endangeredKubba shwandar: Iraqi Jewish dumplings of lamb and rice, cooked in a sweet and sour beetroot sauceTurcos: the name given to Arabic-speaking Ottoman immigrants in Latin America, Jewish and Christian alikeWant to learn more?Samantha Ellis appeared previously in Season 2: S2E5 Endangered, Not Erased Explore related conversations on Iraqi/Sephardi identity:S3 E2 Plural and Partial with Linda Dangoor S2 E9 Echoes of Aden at the Table with Claudia Mendoza S1 E6 Other Within the Other with Carol IsaacsSupport the podcast!To help keep this project going:You can make a one-off donation of as little as £5 at Buy Me a Coffee, Or subscribe on Substack Find us elsewhere, here!Show creditsHost / Producer: Eylan EzekielPost-production: Communicating for ImpactArtwork: Emily TheodoreMusic: Aleksafor utransndr KarabanovSound effects: Serge Quadrado Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    1 hr
  • Plural and Partial - Linda Dangoor

    Plural and Partial - Linda Dangoor
    May 1 2026
    Our GuestLinda Dangoor is a designer, painter and ceramicist, and the author of two cookbooks. Flavours of Babylon (first published 2011) celebrates the recipes of her Baghdadi Jewish heritage. Her second book, From the Tigris to the Thames (Green Bean Books, 2025), is part memoir, part cookbook, tracing her journey from Baghdad through Beirut, London, Ibiza and Paris. Praised by Yotam Ottolenghi, Claudia Roden, Giles Coren and Nigella Lawson - and Eylan (!). Linda studied painting and graphic design at the Central School in London and is a member of the Society of Designer Craftsmen.Website: lindadangoor.com | Recipes: lindadangoorcooks.com | Instagram: @lindadangoorcreativeliving Key Topics• Food as identity: Why Linda argues food belongs to the place it comes from, not just the community that cooks it, and why she resists the label 'Jewish food'• Fear and concealment: What it meant to be Jewish in mid-century Baghdad, the word Israel banned at Passover, and the cost of decades of keeping Jewish identity quiet• Nostalgia versus memory: The distinction Linda draws between looking back with longing and simply saying how it was Your GuideShort definitions and terms referenced in this episode: • Babylonian Jews: A Jewish community from Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) who trace their origins to the exile of Judahite captives to Babylon in the sixth century BCE. Distinct from Sephardi and Ashkenazi communities, though often grouped under the broader Mizrahi label• T'beet: A traditional Iraqi Jewish Shabbat overnight dish. Recipe here• 'Our identity is at once plural and partial': A phrase from Salman Rushdie's 1982 essay Imaginary Homelands, published in the London Review of Books. Want to learn more?Explore past episodes that also reflect on displacement, Baghdadi Jewish heritage, and food as identity:• S2E5: Endangered, Not Erased with Samantha Ellis: Iraqi Jewish refugee heritage and the author of Chopping Onions on My Heart• S2E9: I Tick a Lot of Boxes with Shelley Silas: Baghdadi Jewish and Indian identity, playwright• S1E6: Other Within the Other with Carol Isaacs: Iraqi Jewish heritage and The Wolf of Baghdad References and Resources• From the Tigris to the Thames by Linda Dangoor (Green Bean Books, 2025)• Flavours of Babylon by Linda Dangoor (Green Bean Books)• Linda Dangoor's recipes at lindadangoorcooks.com• Imaginary Homelands by Salman Rushdie, London Review of Books, 7 October 1982• Nigella Lawson's Cookbook Corner review of From the Tigris to the ThamesFind us elsewhere, here!Show creditsHost / Producer: Eylan EzekielPost-production: Communicating for ImpactArtwork: Emily TheodoreMusic: Aleksafor utransndr KarabanovSound effects: Serge Quadrado Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    43 mins
  • "You've got to Think for Yourselves!"

    "You've got to Think for Yourselves!"
    Apr 3 2026
    About This EpisodeDaniel Jonas (guest from S2) got in touch having listened to every episode of "Who Jew Think You Are?"He had questions - 4 of them - just in time for Passover. Questions about the assumptions and biases Eylan has, and what he’s learned from two seasons of conversations.This is the result: an episode where the host becomes the guest, and is held to account for views on faith, Zionism and liberal values; testing blindspots, and exploring together the evolving sense of what a broader Jewish identity can mean.About Daniel JonasDaniel Jonas has Iraqi-Indian Sephardi heritage and brings a background in corporate innovation and interfaith dialogue to his engagement with Jewish tradition. He thinks seriously about Judaism as a legal and ethical framework, and about what honest inquiry requires. He appeared in Season 2 (S2E3: ‘Everything needs to change’).Key TopicsThe assumptions baked into the podcast Jewish essentialism: if everything can be Jewish, is anything Jewish?Zionism: what the word still means, and where Eylan actually standsDoes this podcast matter?Referenced in the episodeThe Guide for the Perplexed Maimonides. Daniel cites it as the origin of honest inquiry within JudaismRabbi Louis Jacobs ‘Judaism does not have a systematic theology’The Lindy EffectMonty Python’s Life of Brian ‘the most Jewish film ever made’Past episodes referencedS2E4 Unity Through Diversity (Dr Isaac Amon)S2E6 Dream and Still Rise (Michael Lomotey)S2E2 A Persian Perspective on Nationalism and Identity (Professor Yaacov Yadgar)S1E9 British Black Jews (Kenneth Awele Okafor)Find us elsewhere, here!Show creditsHost / Producer: Eylan EzekielPost-production: Communicating for ImpactArtwork: Emily TheodoreMusic: Aleksafor utransndr KarabanovSound effects: Serge Quadrado Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    58 mins
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