This week on Unorthodox, we can’t be tamed. Our Jewish guest is Eddy Portnoy, senior researcher and director of exhibitions at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, whose new book is Bad Rabbi: And Other Strange but True Stories from the Yiddish Press. He tells us how he stumbled upon these colorful, less-remembered characters and tales—so many of which seem to involve Jews rioting—and why it’s important for a community to examine the good with the bad to truly know its history.
Our gentile of the week is Washington Post religion reporter Sarah Pulliam Bailey, who dropped by the studio in early October to tell us about growing up in a conservative Christian environment in Indiana, the intricacies of covering religion while being a person of faith herself, and the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.