A Different Story

This multifaceted program emphasizes the biographies of those who risked their lives for others. A Different Story includes lectures, lesson plans, and a series of podcasts about extraordinary figures in Israel and global history who put others first. The series is produced by the Excerpts of History podcast team. The program is now available for educational institutions, youth groups, IDF courses, seminars for teachers, and on the internet for anyone interested in learning about daily heroes.

Sally Becker – The angel from mustar

Sally Becker watched T.V and saw difficult footage from the civil war in Yugoslavia. As a Jew she felt an obligation to help other Jews that were in the war zone and she traveled to broken Yugoslavia. With her arrival, she discovered that a lot of children need her help and with an old ambulance, she became the only aid worker that was aloud in and out of Mustar. Soon enough she earned the title- The “Angel from Mustar”.

This is her emotional and inspiring story.

Visit Sally’s website and help others as well. These days, Sally needs a large amount of donations as she is rescues wounded children from combat zones controlled by Isis – www.roadtopeace.org.uk/

The jars of Irena Sandler

In 1999, four girls from Kansas, USA, read an article regarding “The Other Shindlers”, non-jewish people who rescued jews during the holocaust while risking their lives. The article mentioned a small, thin woman the rescued over 2500 children during the holocaust. These four girls believed that there was a mistake in the article and the real number was 250 children. It didn’t make sense to them that one woman saved the lives of so many children. The girls started researching the case without ever knowing it would become such a legend.

Pleasant listening.

In thier lives and death- Rabbais Orenshtien

Rabbai Itzhak Avigdor Orenshtien and his wife Mushka Liba were remarkable characters in Jerusalem. The love that they laished upon their guests, especially in the Hard days of the Independence War, while Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter was in blockade, was never forgotten even seventy years later. 

This is a story of love towards humans, a city, a country and a state. A story of people whom loved people and thier tragic end. 

Eli Elazari the “world fixer”

Chances are you never heard his name. Eli Eliazri was a modest man who lived in the shadows for most of his life, but the things he did were quite remarkable.

In the early nineties he helped the jews of Ethiopia to immigrate to Israel.

During the war in Yugoslavia, he managed against all odds to obtain a cease-fire, and in that time helped evacuating thousands of Jewish and non- Jewish residents from Besieged Sarajevo.

He was active in Kosovo, in the southern Balkans and helped rehabilitate a lot of communities. After the Tzunami in south-eastern Asia he aided children and many Thai civilians, mostly muslim, to get their life back on track. He provided psychologists, doctors, and teachers to train and assist the locals. He helped rehabilitate ruined villages and made sure that orphan children will acquire a proffesion for life.

During his activity, with the service of “The Joint” organization, Eli Elazari rescues thousands from death and starvation.

This is a story of a Jewish Israeli  man who became a world fixer.

This is the story of Eli Elazari.

Emline Fankharst the Justice Fighter

In the early 19th century a group of women who demanded the right to vote was organized in Britain. The british government and many civilians opposed this notion as they considered it harming the social order.

Fast enough, many women espoused the slogan- “do, dont talk”. They begin to arrange marches, heated demonstrations ans demanded equal rights as men. Many of the protesters were arrested and sent to jail, there they were kept in horrifying conditions. Some of them began a hunger strike and thier health deteriorated. The authorities fed them by strength using steel appliances that were put in thier mouths and kept them open while food was shoved down thier throats.

One of the women that led their struggle was Emline Fankharst, that turned the demand for women to vote to her life goal.

This is the the exceptional story of Emline and hundred of thousands of women, the Suffraguete, that went out to the streets and demanded equal rights.

The jew rescuer from Tunisia

At the end of 1942, during WWII, the germans conqered Tunisia, there stayed over a hundred thousand Jews. All of a sudden, the lives of the tunisian jews were at great risk. 
A tunisian Muslem that wittnesed the danger, couldnt sit still and decided to act. 
His name was Haled Abed Al Wahab. 
This is the fifth chapter in ‘A Different Story’. The illustrationf for this chapter was made by Tal Shtrnliv. Tal is a young artist who lives in Netanya and chose to draw the piece of ‘Take me Uner Your Wing’ out of great connection to the story and even greater love to art and drawing.

Take out life vests

During world war II, served over a dozen million soldiers in the US army, half a million of them were Jews. 

Among many soldiers served Rabbais and Pastors that were called Religion Priests. Many of them stayed at the front alongside the soldiers who were fighting and at times were at real risk. Four of those  religion priests, three pastors and one rabbai, rabbai David Good, saled to Europe in 1943, without knowing that soon enough their heroic story will become a national memorial day in the Us, The four priests day. 

This is their story.

Brother! Sister! 

The story of the Cabilio and Hardaga families. 

During WWII, more than 26,000 righteous gentile were active in the effort of helping Jews. Those were people who risked thier lives to save Jews, which in many cases were complete strangers to them. 

50 years later, during the war in Ugislavia, one of the rightous gentile families were in danger. the descendants of the Jewish family that they saved in the holocaust heard about thier struggle and acted upon saving them. 

This is the marvalous story of the Cabilio and Hardaga families, Jews and Muslems, brothers in heart and soul, from Sarajevo and Jerusalem. 

Hotel Roanda

In the 90’s there was an holocaust in Roanda. In less than six months The Hutu tribe slautered the Hatutsi tribe and killed over half a million people. In those moments of terror a number of brave heroes rose amongst the people. One of them was Paul Rossvegina, a hotel manager that risked his life time after time, to save many, with no relation to where they were from. This is his story. 

“The sad truth of human nature is that it’s hard for us to feel empathy to others, hard for us to take care of someone that is not you or isn’t close to you. If the media and the International society will continue to hesistate inlight of this monstrous threat to mankind, the words ‘no more’, will continue to be battered words and one of the biggest fo lies of our times”- Paul Rossvegina. 

The girl who played with fire

Malala Yosefazai was born in the late 90’s. When she was a girl, took the Taliban, a radical islamistic organazation, the area in which she lived. The Taliban ordered the closure of all girl schools, because according to thier world view, women weren’t supposed to study. 

Malala started to publicly resist the orgnazation and it was clear that her life were in danger. In one of the days armed men got on a civillian bus and asked “Who is Malala?”. And then they shot.

The White Helmets

In this episode you will hear about people on the other side of the Israeli fence. People who live such a different reality than ours: a reality of war, death and lots of dust. This is the story of the White Helmets.
The Syrian Civil War began in 2011, and while foreign assistance is limited and often delayed, the people of Syria got together for one mission: To act as first responders and to save as many lives as possible.
The White Helmets volunteers worked for hours to rescue two families who were inside a building when it was bombed. One of the survivors, while being rescued, shouted “where is my son?” Her ten-days-old infant remained trapped inside. Chaled Omar and his friends gazed at her with compassion – there was no chance of finding someone still alive. But they will keep clearing the ruins, so that the baby will have a proper burial.
They worked into the night. Suddenly, from the ruins a voice was heard – it was a cry, a cry of a baby. A few walls collapsed and created a nook where the infant found shelter. They must be careful, otherwise a wall might collapse on the baby. Chaled pulled the baby out successfully while his friends cheered “Allah Akbar” – God is great. When the baby’s mothers held him in her arms, everyone shed a tear. Chaled Omar felt as if he was standing at the top of the world and the baby was now called “the miracle baby,” for he survived the terrible bombing.
A year later, Chaled Omar got killed while rescuing wounded people. He came as a part of the White Helmets corps when a second bombing hit the area.
The White Helmets activity struck many around the world and in 2016 the organization and its people were nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Who are these crazy fellows called the White Helmets?

Egypt’s Joan of Arc

Doria Shafik wanted equal rights for women in Egypt.
When she realized that women in Egypt couldn’t achieve their goals by words, she decided to move to actions. Doria led the Egyptian women’s struggle for equal rights and the liberation movement. She protested, began a hunger strike, and was even imprisoned for a long while. But as a direct result of her efforts, Egyptian women were granted the right to vote by the Egyptian constitution.
Her political activity throughout her life, and especially the tragic way it all ended, made her a national hero. On her 108th birthday, December 14, 2016, Google commemorated her memory with her own “Google Doodle.”
This is the story of the fighter for justice and our neighbor, Doria Shafik.

 

The Rescuers of 1929

More than any before, this episode was hard to write. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a tale with more than one truth, and a tale of many victims. “The Rescuers of 1929” tells the story of Jews and Arabs that went out of their way, beyond any expectations, to save lives.
Hebron prior to 1929 was a city populated by Jews and Arabs that lived side by side for centuries; both refusing to believe that violence would ever invade their homes. They were both wrong.

When riots began on August 24, 1929, friendship, community, and humanism were about to be tested.

 

16/12/2016 Invitation to listen

Shalom and thank you for listening. For me, Excerpts of History has been, for many years, a pleasant way to take a break from everyday worries to listen to fascinating stories and distant worlds. My love of history, and of listening to the Excerpts of History podcast...

16/12/2016 Podcasts – Our vision

Our Vision “The uneducated has no aversion to sin,” said the sage, Hillel. Thus, we want to help reduce ignorance, violence, and polarization in Israeli society. We want to relate and teach history so we will not have to relive it. We want to reach children, young adults,...