In this episode, Sarah Bunin Benor interviews Genevieve Okada Goldstone, who has a rich multiracial heritage, including Portuguese, Japanese, and Chamorro. Genevieve shares her long, personal journey of converting to Judaism and discusses her efforts to imbue her children with a strong Jewish identity. She explains how she has prioritized Hebrew heritage words, while still infusing elements of her diverse cultural background.

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 producer: Sarah Bunin Benor

Assistant producer: Kyle Elbaz Fingerhut

Editor: Avishay Artsy

Video editor: Talia Ehrenberg

Editorial consultant: 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, Sarah Bunin Benor hosts a roundtable discussion with staff members of the Jewish Language Project. Together, they explore heritage words from a range of languages, including Judeo-Arabic, Yiddish, Ladino, and two varieties of Jewish Neo-Aramaic. Participants explain how these words carry cultural meaning and share their personal connections to their heritage languages. The group also discusses the role heritage words can play in language revitalization efforts, offering insights into how even a single word can spark connection and continuity across generations.

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 Elbaz 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, Sarah Bunin Benor hands over hosting duties to a guest host, Jack Lieberman, who interviews his mother, Michele, about her ancestral language, Yiddish. From family memories to funny Yiddish anecdotes, their chat is a heartfelt tribute to preserving cultural language, food, and music as living links to a vibrant past.

Jack was a student in Sarah’s class "Jewish Language in the 21st Century" at the University of Southern California in fall 2024. Sarah found the experience of interviewing people about their heritage words so interesting and enriching that she decided to share that experience with her students. For one of their assignments, each student interviewed someone who has an ancestral connection to a language about the heritage words that have been passed down the generations to them.

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 Elbaz 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.