48 | JANUARY 5 • 2023 

ARTS&LIFE
PODCASTS

New Reboot podcast explores 
the stranger topics in 
Jewish history.

Jewish

ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY 
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Bizarre

Dr. Eddy 
Portnoy

A 

new podcast is 
taking listeners 
down a rabbit hole 
of bizarre Jewish history.
Released in November, 
the Jewish Bizarre Podcast, a 
new project from Reboot, a 
Jewish arts and culture non-
profit and development plat-
form, explores little-known 
pockets of Jewish history 
that are strange, mysterious 
and often downright shock-
ing.
In fact, podcast host Dr. 
Eddy Portnoy calls it a 
“Jewish Atlas Obscura of 
historical material.” 
“It’s the strange corners of 
history that most historians 
don’t deal with,” he says, 
“and that most people don’t 
even know about.”
The Jewish Bizarre 
Podcast is the inaugural 
podcast of the new Reboot 
Presents Podcast Network, 
which features top idiosyn-
cratic Jewish personalities. 
It’s produced by executive 
producers David Katznelson 
and Noam Dromi and engi-
neered by Jonathan London.
This new podcast features 
Portnoy, academic advis-
er for the Max Weinreich 
Center and exhibition 
curator at the YIVO 
Institute for Jewish 
Research, as well 
as Metro Detroit 
native, as one of three 
co-hosts who join 
ranks to discuss the 
Jewish bizarre.
Podcast hosts also 
include Dr. Tony 
Michels, professor 
of Jewish American 
History at University 
of Wisconsin-

