In this episode, Sarah Bunin Benor interviews Asher Shasho Levy, a Syrian Jewish musician based in San Francisco, where he is the hazan and musical director at The Kitchen, a progressive Jewish community. He's also the leader of the Aram Soba ensemble, a group dedicated to the musical heritage of Syrian Jewry.

Heritage Words - conversations about the words we inherit and the meaning they bring to our lives - is produced by the HUC Jewish Language Project and HUC Connect.

Host and executive producer: Sarah Bunin Benor

Producers and editors: Kyle Fingerhut, Avishay Artsy

Video editor: Annabel Noar

Editorial consultants: Annabel Noar, Hannah Pressman

Theme music: Maurice El Medioni’s French and Algerian Judeo-Arabic album “Cafe Oran,” featuring the Klezmatics’ David Krakauer and Frank London, courtesy of Piranha Records.

In this episode, the guest is Mayim Bialik, who discusses Yiddish in American English.

Mayim Bialik is best known for her lead role as Blossom Russo in the early-1990s NBC television sitcom Blossom. She played the role of Amy Farrah Fowler on the critically acclaimed CBS comedy, The Big Bang Theory, a role for which she received 2 Critics’ Choice Award wins, 4 Emmy nominations and a SAG Award nomination. She served as host of Jeopardy! for 2 seasons, earning her fifth Emmy nomination for her contributions to the iconic show which won its first primetime Emmy the year she hosted. In 2021, Bialik wrote and directed the feature film As They Made Us, starring Dustin Hoffman, Candice Bergen, Dianna Agron and Simon Helberg. She hosts a popular mental health podcast, Mayim Bialik’s Breakdown, with over 26 million downloads. Bialik holds a BS and PhD in Neuroscience from UCLA and she has authored four books, two of which are on the New York Times Best Seller list (Girling Up: How to be Strong, Smart and Spectacular and Boying Up: How to be Brave, Bold and Brilliant). She lives in Los Angeles with her two teenage sons and three cats.

Heritage Words is produced by the HUC-JIR Jewish Language Project and HUC Connect: conversations about the words we inherit and the meaning they bring to our lives.

Host and executive producer: Sarah Bunin Benor

Producer and editor: Avishay Artsy

Video editor: Annabel Noar

Editorial consultants: Kyle Fingerhut, Annabel Noar, Hannah Pressman

Theme music: Maurice El Medioni’s French and Algerian Judeo-Arabic album “Cafe Oran,” featuring the Klezmatics’ David Krakauer and Frank London, courtesy of Piranha Records.

In this episode, the guest is Sarah Sassoon, who discusses Judeo-Baghdadi Arabic in Australian English.

Sarah Sasoon is an Australian born, Iraqi Jewish writer, poet, and educator. She is the author of the award winning picture book Shoham’s Bangle and This is Not a Cholent. Her poetry micro chapbook, This is Why We Don’t Look Back was awarded the Harbor Review Jewish Women’s Poetry prize. She is an editorial advisor for Distinctions: A Sephardi and Mizrahi Journal. She is also the joint author of The In-Between, a literary dialogue about identity and belonging. She lives in Jerusalem with her husband and four boys.

Heritage Words is produced by the HUC-JIR Jewish Language Project and HUC Connect: conversations about the words we inherit and the meaning they bring to our lives.

Host and executive producer: Sarah Bunin Benor

Producer and editor: Avishay Artsy

Video editor: Annabel Noar

Editorial consultants: Kyle Fingerhut, Annabel Noar, Hannah Pressman

Theme music: Maurice El Medioni’s French and Algerian Judeo-Arabic album “Cafe Oran,” featuring the Klezmatics’ David Krakauer and Frank London, courtesy of Piranha Records.

Thanks also to Yoni Avi Battat for allowing us to use his song “What would you say?” from the album “Fragments.”