{"podcast":{"title":"New Books in Jewish Studies","slug":"new-books-in-jewish-studies-313327","podcast_index_feed_id":313327,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/LIT1748646590","website_url":"https://newbooksnetwork.com/category/religion-faith/jewish-studies/","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/39a56132-ef86-11e8-b21b-1b19c77002c7/image/60cca3664f8db6504a688566b559fc80.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"New Books Network","episode_count":1494,"summary":"This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: ⁠newbooksnetwork.com⁠ Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: ⁠https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/⁠ Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetwork Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/jewish-studies","last_synced_at":"2026-07-13T16:20:23.309680+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-jewish-studies-313327"},"episode":{"title":"Matti Friedman, \"Out of the Sky: Heroism and Rebirth in Nazi Europe\" (Spiegel & Grau, 2026)","slug":"matti-friedman-out-of-the-sky-heroism-and-rebirth-in-nazi-europe-spiegel-grau-2026","published_at":"2026-06-09T08:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-jewish-studies-313327/matti-friedman-out-of-the-sky-heroism-and-rebirth-in-nazi-europe-spiegel-grau-2026","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-jewish-studies-313327","url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK9027592736.mp3","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK9027592736.mp3","summary":"Was it one of the war’s most memorable feats of valor or an act of desperation, even madness? In Out of the Sky: Heroism and Rebirth in Nazi Europe (Spiegel & Grau, 2026), Matti Friedman unravels one of the strangest episodes of World War II: In 1944, a team of young women and men who had escaped the Holocaust made the inconceivable choice to parachute back into Nazi-occupied Europe under the cover of a British military operation. Yet by the end of the mission, not a single Nazi was harmed and not a single Jew was saved, and many of the parachutists died in the process. Even so, some of their names would become legendary, especially that of twenty-three-year-old Hannah Senesh, the author of the beloved Hebrew song “Eli, Eli.” Their story would become one of the young state of Israel’s founding myths—but what exactly was the mission, and what had the parachutists actually accomplished? What made them heroes? Using thousands of original documents from once-secret files, manuscripts, memoirs, and unpublished letters, Matti Friedman follows four of the parachutists from the spring of 1944 to the operation’s dramatic end that winter. In Out of the Sky, he tells the gripping and surprising tale of a forgotten moment, demonstrating how storytelling itself can have a power even greater than warfare. And in exploring the line between myth and reality, heroism and futility, he creates an argument that has resonance in our own time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/jewish-studies","meta_description":"Was it one of the war’s most memorable feats of valor or an act of desperation, even madness? In Out of the Sky: Heroism and Rebirth in Nazi Europe (Spieg…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2097,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-jewish-studies-313327/episodes/matti-friedman-out-of-the-sky-heroism-and-rebirth-in-nazi-europe-spiegel-grau-2026/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-jewish-studies-313327/matti-friedman-out-of-the-sky-heroism-and-rebirth-in-nazi-europe-spiegel-grau-2026.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}