Flames of Freedom

Flames of Freedom Trailer

Flames of Freedom is a podcast that tells the incredible story of a Jewish family's journey to Savannah, Georgia, to escape oppression in Europe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode One: Narrow Places

The story opens in 1790 as Zipporah Jacobs, the daughter of Samuel Nunes, feels called to share with her grandson, Benjamin Phillips, the tale of her ancestors as they traversed a world hellbent on eradicating Jews from Spain and Portugal, the forced conversions of her ancestors in 1497 in Lisbon, and her parents’ torture by the Inquisition for the crime of Judaizing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

REVEALED: Dr. Eliezer Papo - Part I

In today’s episode, we start with part 1 of a 3-part conversation with Dr. Eliezer Papo, senior lecturer of Hebrew Literature at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Be’er Sheva, Israel. He serves as Chairman of the Moshe David Gaon Center for Ladino Culture and is the chief editor of El Prezente – Journal for Sephardic Studies. In this first episode, Dr. Papo unravels the story of the Jews in the period leading up to the expulsion of the Jews in Spain in 1492 and the advent of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions, which attempted to suppress Jewish practices even after Jews residing in these countries had been forcibly converted to Catholicism. We hope you find Dr. Papo’s extensive knowledge of the world of Sephardic Jewish culture and Conversos enriching and illuminating. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode Two: Exile

Beginning with the ruination of Diogo Nunes’s reputation after losing all of his possessions when he and his wife were arrested by the Portuguese Inquisition and tortured in 1703 for Judaizing, we trace the slow rehabilitation of his career culminating in his appointment as the physician to the new Inquisitor General as well as Portugal’s king, a position that Diogo uses to his advantage to assist other Conversos to escape the grip of the Portuguese Inquisition. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

REVEALED: Dr. Eliezer Papo, Part II

Our guest today is Dr. Eliezer Papo, who is senior lecturer of Hebrew Literature at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Be’er Sheva, Israel. He serves as Chairman of the Moshe David Gaon Center for Ladino Culture and is the chief editor of El Prezente – Journal for Sephardic Studies. In the previous segment of our interview with Dr. Papo, we explored several issues related to the world of the Jews of Sefarad, and the many who converted and remained living in Spain and Portugal as Conversos, or as they were referred to at that time, New Christians. We concluded with an exploration of identity and how the Jews of Spain had actually resided there long before Christianity came to the Peninsula, yet the Jews never claimed Spain as their own. In this second part of a three-part interview, Dr. Papo continues to explore the world of Sephardic Jewish culture and Conversos, how Jewish, Spanish, and Portuguese cultures impacted each other, and how Judaism, as practiced by Conversos in secret, was deeply affected by generations of living outwardly as Catholics. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.