"Exile" featuring Mandy Patinkin: A Podcast from the Leo Baeck Institute – New York

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Jackie Gerlich as a young boy — Episode 14: The Road from Vienna to Oz. Leo Fuks is a born performer. So when, in 1936, a vaudeville impresario shows up to recruit him, 10-year-old Leo is more than happy to join his troupe, and his parents reluctantly agree. As Leo, now known as Jackie Gerlich, travels the world and dips his toes into Hollywood, his family is left behind to grapple with the terror of rising antisemitism in Vienna. After years without contact, Leo’s mother is shocked to see her son dancing on screen in The Wizard of Oz—and she resolves to do everything she can to get her son back.

Lily portrait — Episode 13: Lily Renee's Glamorous Revenge. Exiled from her comfortable life in Vienna and left to fend for herself on the Kindertransport, Lily Renee Wilhelm has no idea what her future holds. She ends up in New York and, on a whim, applies to a comic book illustration job. She endures rampant sexism in the boys’ club atmosphere of the comics industry, but soon makes a name for herself as the illustrator of Senorita Rio, a comic series about a swashbuckling spy with a glamorous wardrobe. Decades later, she is remembered as an icon of the comic book industry.

Episode 12: Becoming Dr. Ruth. Known for her candid talk and blunt advice about sex, Dr. Ruth Westheimer is the world’s most renowned psychosexual sex therapist. But beneath her joyful demeanor is a chaotic story about her youth — a girl named Karola Ruth Siegel left orphaned and stateless. How does she harness all of this uncertainty - and the sexual awakenings of adolescence - to make it in the world?

Stefan Zweig and Joseph Roth — Episode 11: Art at the End of the World. Joseph Roth and Stefan Zweig are two of the most celebrated Austrian writers of their time. Despite their contrasting lives and demeanors, they become fast friends and develop a brotherly bond. But when Hitler comes into power, tensions loom over their friendship. In the end, both men can’t save each other from hopelessness in exile.

Eva Kollisch.jpg — Episode 10: From Refugee to Radical. When a young Eva Kollisch arrives as a refugee in New York in 1940, she finds a community among socialists who share her values and idealism. She soon discovers "the cause" isn’t as idyllic as it seems. Little does she know this is the beginning of a lifelong commitment to activism and her determination to create radical change in ways that include belonging, love, and one's full self.

Hans Lachmann-Mosse — Episode 9: The Missing Maidens. In 1933, Nazis steal the art collection of a prominent German-Jewish publishing family, the Mosses. Decades after the war, the family is still trying to do what they can to get it back. But a beloved sculpture, the Three Dancing Maidens, is still missing…and it might be hiding in plain sight.

Episode 8: Shanghai: The Last Resort. In the early days of World War II, artist Hans Jacoby and his wife, Emma, are desperate to flee Germany. Most of the world has shut its doors to European Jews, yet there’s one surprising exception: Shanghai. Along with thousands of other Jews, they arrive in Shanghai, believing they’re safe. But even this far from home, they can’t escape the horrors of the war.

Episode 7: Love in the Time of Fascism. In Nazi-occupied Austria, a young man named Kurt Kleinmann comes up with a plan to escape: write to Americans – strangers – who share his last name and ask for help to get a visa. Just as he begins to lose hope, he gets a response from New Yorker Helen Kleinman. Little does he know, Helen will save his life…and capture his heart.

Episode 6: The Life and Work of William Nussbaum. As a highly trained German-Jewish physician with an interest in heredity and physical anthropology, William Nussbaum studied under some of the leading proponents of race science and eugenics at the University of Berlin. When the Nazis rise to power, rather than quit his inquiries, he launches a bold project to use the methods of race science to disprove Nazi racial theories. The Gestapo tolerates his research – briefly – but it is a eugenics-informed immigration policy in the United States that threatens to keep him from his youngest child.

Episode 5: Art of Leaving. When controversial Berlin artist Lene Schneider-Kainer flees the safe confines of her posh marriage and life to retrace Marco Polo’s legendary voyage – with her new lover, a celebrity novelist – the adventure she seeks isn’t the one she gets. The scandalous choice turns her into a permanent exile, always seeking.

Episode 4: Theatre as a Weapon. It’s 1940. Western Europe is collapsing under Hitler’s onslaught. Famous Jewish dramaturg Kurt Hirschfeld flees to Switzerland. He forms a theatre collective that uses the stage to bravely rage against Hitler’s relentless war machine. But is it safe to be so daring, even after escaping Germany?

Einstein Sailing — Episode 3: Summer in Caputh At the height of his fame, a shirtless, barefooted Albert Einstein escapes the bustle of Berlin for a simpler life. The best thinkers of the time gather at his beloved summer house in Caputh to laze by the water, swap ideas, and gossip. There, he can escape the pressures of global fame, but his summer haven can’t keep him safe from the growing Nazi movement bubbling in Germany.

alice urbach — Episode 2: Nazis Stole her Cookbook Alice Urbach is the "Julia Child" of Austria. When Hitler takes over, she flees, leaving everything behind, including the rights to her bestselling cookbook. Then the Nazis slap a German name on it. Decades after the War and Alice’s death, her granddaughters fight to restore her long-lost culinary legacy.

Episode 1: Librarian Turned Spy A young, Jewish librarian in New York named Florence Mendheim risks her life to spy on the growing Nazi movement in America. She passes herself off as a Nazi sympathizer, documenting the movement’s nefarious activities. Everything is on the line—her family, her work and her life—to try to halt hate in its tracks. As Nazism becomes a gathering storm, will she get out of the spy game before she’s caught?

Welcome to Exile, a podcast about Jewish lives under the shadow of fascism. Narrated by award-winning screen and stage actor, Mandy Patinkin. Untold stories and firsthand accounts drawn from intimate letters, diaries and interviews found in the Leo Baeck Institute’s vast archive. Each episode, a story of beauty and danger that brings history to life. Because the past is always present.

Seasons 1 and 2 of Exile (Episodes 1–12) were released in 2022 and 2023.

Season 3 of Exile (Episodes 13–18) will be released from July 16 – August 20, 2024, with episodes appearing on all major podcast platforms on Tuesday mornings US Eastern Time.

A fourth Season (Episodes 19–24) is in production and will be released in fall of 2024.

Exile is a production of the Leo Baeck Institute and Antica Productions. Seasons 3 and 4 are made possible in part by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Finance and the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future.

Season 1 Episodes

Season 2 Episodes

Season 3 Episodes

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