Photo: Niva Ashkenazi
Israel Story

‘Achi’

A wild journey led two Orthodox brothers from the Bronx to a new life, a new homeland, a new lord, and—above all—each other

December 6, 2019
Photo: Niva Ashkenazi


Brothers can be brothers in more ways than one.

In the prologue, Mishy Harman tries to understand whether Israelis are all just one large brotherhood of man, and why—if an alien landed in Israel today—it would probably think that the word achi is a form of Hebrew punctuation.

Act I: In “The Berger Bros.,” Joel Shupack brings us the story of Benjamin and Reuven Berger, sons of European Jews who escaped the Nazis. Growing up, Benjamin and Reuven never imagined they’d be roommates well into their 70s. Nor did they imagine their lives would unfold as brothers in faith. But from their majestic home in the serene village of Ein Kerem, they reflect on an unusual, almost biblical, path that led them from an Orthodox home in the Bronx all the way to Jerusalem’s small community of Messianic Jews.

Ari Jacob composed and performed the original music in “The Berger Bros.” Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions. Thanks to Dina Kraft for editorial help. Adam Milliner mixed the episode. The end song, “November,” is by Shaanan Streett, and features Selva de Mar. It was written in memory of Shaanan’s sister, Tova.

Listen to the full episode here, or download it from iTunes. You can hear all of Israel Story’s episodes in English here and in Hebrew here.

Israel Story, the English-language version of the popular Israeli radio program Sipur Israeli, is distributed by PRX and produced in partnership with Tablet.

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