Dramatic Episodes
Trailer
Flames of Freedom traces the life of the family of Diogo Nunes Ribeiro and Gracia Caetana da Vega, Converso Jews known as New Christians, as they navigate the perils of the Portuguese Inquisition and their arrest in 1703, only to ascend to the heights of Portuguese society. Then, in 1726, they were once again arrested for Judaizing and assisting other Conversos to escape to England. Their journey includes their perilous escape, the disappointments of living in the prejudicial world of 18th-century England, and their fateful decision to depart for the new Georgia Colony without a guarantee that they would be allowed to settle there.
Episode 1: Narrow Places
The story opens in 1790 as Zipporah Jacobs, the daughter of Samuel Nunes, feels called to share with her grandson, Benjamin Phillips, the tale of her ancestors as they traversed a world hellbent on eradicating Jews from Spain and Portugal, the forced conversions of her ancestors in 1497 in Lisbon, and her parents’ torture by the Inquisition for the crime of Judaizing.
Episode 2: Exile
Beginning with the ruination of Diogo Nunes’s reputation after losing all of his possessions when he and his wife were arrested in 1703 for Judaizing, we trace the slow rehabilitation of his career culminating in his appointment as the physician to the new Inquisitor General as well as Portugal’s king, a position that Diogo uses to his advantage to assist other Conversos to escape the grip of the Portuguese Inquisition.
Episode 3: Exodus
With the family’s rearrest on charges of Judaizing and aiding other Conversos to escape, Diogo confronts the Inquisitor General, who is also his patient. The Inquisitor General is faced with a dilemma—he needs Diogo’s medical care and can’t afford to jail him, but his reputation is also on the line if word gets out that he is being too lenient with apostates. His solution is to place two Inquisition priests in Diogo’s home to keep an eye on his every move. Gracia implores Diogo to find a path forward for this dilemma, even if it means finding a means to escape from Portugal.
Episode 4: Lost in the Wilderness
After the family’s daring escape from Lisbon aboard a British frigate, they face a host of unknowns upon their arrival in London. They have fallen from the pinnacle of society to become indigent. Not only are they facing economic ruin, but they must now face the gap between their expectations of what it means to revert to Judaism and leave the strictures of Catholicism behind and the reality of assimilating into a faith that is foreign and filled with its own set of dogmas.
Episode 5: Wandering
As Samuel’s sons Moses and Daniel confront the ugly face of antisemitism that is rife throughout English society, Gracia, who adopts the Jewish name Rebekah, confronts the fact that Orthodox Judaism makes her feel like a second-class citizen. The men must confront another stark reality. To become fully recognized as Jews, they must be circumcised. To complicate their lives, Rebekah who is now in her fifties announces that she is pregnant, offering a moment of hope that proves to be tenuous at best.
Episode 6: Darkening Clouds
Samuel confronts the hard reality that his medical skills and reputation mean little within London’s physician community and is forced to open a practice serving mainly indigent refugees. Daniel and Moses continue to struggle to find meaningful employment, and tragedy strikes when Rebekah goes into labor prematurely, leading to a crisis in her commitment to the Jewish faith.
Episode 7: Troubled Times
Moses’s arrest for a gambling debt leads to his incarceration in Marshalsea Prison. Samuel’s quest to free him results in two significant encounters—one with Antony da Costa, one of the wealthiest Jews in England, and one with James Oglethorpe, who discovers that his best friend has died in the same prison after being thrown into a cell with forty other prisoners with smallpox. Both meetings foreshadow significant turns in the lives of all concerned.
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Episode 8: Winds of Change
James Oglethorpe sets out to win parliamentary approval to change the laws related to the incarceration of people for the mere crime of owing someone money. This move leads to his pursuit of an idealistic dream of creating a colony where the poor can have a fresh start and where slavery is prohibited. Oglethorpe’s dream becomes the perfect vehicle for the wealthy Jews of London to solve a problem of their own—ever-escalating charitable support for the growing number of refugees showing up on the doorsteps of Bevis Marks Synagogue.
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Episode 9: Promise of a New Beginning
Daniel and Moses become enamored with the idea of a clean start in America, an idea that their father, Samuel, rejects out of hand. When King George approves the new colony, the Trustees are faced with a thorny dilemma—what to do with the efforts of the richest Jews of England to send their fellow Jews to Georgia? Their debate and subsequent decision have unexpected consequences that will echo throughout the history of the fledgling colony even after Oglethorpe departs for America in November 1732 with 120 adventurous souls.
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Episode 10: Dark Night of the Soul
Samuel Nunes agrees to lead the Jewish settlers to the Georgia Colony, and they depart some weeks after Oglethorpe on a ship requisitioned and paid for by London’s wealthiest Jews. But the ship encounters turbulent weather, an omen for what will be a nearly disastrous journey across the Atlantic Ocean, foreshadowing the loss of life. While they faced horrendous trials at sea, Oglethorpe and his settlers arrived safely at Charles Town, South Carolina in January 1733.
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Episode 11: Precarious Times
Divisions begin to appear among the Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews on their journey to America, while James Oglethorpe, with the help of Colonel Bull, selects Yamacraw Bluff for the new settlement. Oglethorpe also meets Mary Musgrove, a woman of English and Indian descent who is an invaluable partner in the years ahead as Oglethorpe navigates relations with the neighboring Creek Indians. The ship carrying the Jews faces its most trying challenge yet as severe storms threaten to crash it on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
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Episode 12: Journey’s End
While they await the repairs on their ship, the Jews disembark and learn invaluable lessons about surviving in the American wilderness. While they labor away, Oglethorpe is faced with growing dissension among his settlers around issues of slavery and drinking rum and then faces an even bigger challenge as an epidemic threatens to wipe out the entire colony. When Samuel Nunes and the Jews finally arrive, Oglethorpe is faced with a major dilemma: accede to the verbal wishes of the Trustees to exclude Jews from the Colony or enlist the assistance of Dr. Nunes to fight the raging epidemic. His decision will have repercussions for decades to come.
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Bonus Episodes: Revealed
Revealed: Dr. Eliezer Papo, Part I
In this second part of a three-part interview, Dr. Papo continues to explore the world of Sephardic Jewish culture and Conversos, how Jewish, Spanish, and Portuguese cultures affected each other, and how Judaism, as practiced by Conversos in secret, was deeply affected by generations of living outwardly as Catholics.
Revealed: Dr. Eliezer Papo, Part II
In this second part of a three-part interview, Dr. Papo continues to explore the world of Sephardic Jewish culture and Conversos, how Jewish, Spanish, and Portuguese cultures affected each other, and how Judaism, as practiced by Conversos in secret, was deeply affected by generations of living outwardly as Catholics.
Revealed: Dr. Eliezer Papo, Part III
We concluded the last episode by discussing the distinctions between Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jewish traditions. Dr. Papo speaks about how Ashkenazi Jews ended up finding refuge in Sephardic synagogues. He also addresses the complex issues confronted by Conversos, who had great expectations coming to England with dreams of reverting to Judaism but confronted a reality that wasn’t nearly as welcoming as they expected.
Revealed: Dr. Ariel Hessayon, Part I
Dr. Ariel Hessayon is an early modern historian who is a faculty member at Goldsmiths, University of London. Dr. Hessayon discusses the increasing number of pogroms directed against the Jews before their expulsion from England in 1290, and traces the history of the Jews in England up to and after their expulsion and details the events that led to their absence from England for over 350 years.
Revealed: Dr. Ariel Hessayon, Part II
Dr. Hessayon explores the economic, social, and religious forces that led to Oliver Cromwell's re-admitting Jews to England in 1656 and the dynamic political forces that followed his death and King Charles II’s taking back the throne, all of which could have easily led to a second expulsion of the Jews from England.
Revealed: Dr. Jessica Roitman, Part I
Dr. Jessica Roitman is a Professor of Jewish Studies at the Vrije Universiteit Varya Univversetat: Amsterdam. She is a historian of early modern and modern Jewish History, and her research focuses on Jews and Jewish communities in the (Dutch) Caribbean. In this episode, Dr. Roitman explores the dynamics of the growing Amsterdam Jewish community in the 16th Century as New Christians, also known as Conversos, began finding refuge there and reverting to Judaism.
Revealed: Dr. Jessica Roitman, Part II
Dr. Roitman delves into the growing role of Jews in trade in Europe and the Caribbean, and explores how economic pressures on the Jewish community of Amsterdam drove many Jews to depart seeking their fortunes in the New World.
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Revealed: Dr. Diego Lucci, Part I
Dr. Diego Lucci is a professor at the American University in Bulgaria and has previously been a research fellow at the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London and the Maimonides Center for Advanced Studies at the University of Hamburg. His book on the Enlightenment debate on Jewish emancipation is an essential contribution to studying Jewish-Gentile relations in 18th Century Europe.
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Revealed: Dr. Diego Lucci, Part II
Dr. Lucci, we explore the roots of antisemitism in early Christian thought and looks at how John Toland's writings completely changed the conversation around the equality of Jews in English and European culture.
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Revealed: Michael Thurmond, Part I
Michael Thurmond, the chief executive officer of DeKalb County, Georgia, is the author of James Oglethorpe, Father of Georgia, Freedom: Georgia’s Antislavery Heritage, 1733–1865, and A Story Untold: Black Men and Women in Athens History. Thurmond explores the foundation of the Georgia Colony and Oglethorpe’s increasing resistance to the institution of slavery.
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Revealed: Michael Thurmond, Part II
Michael Thurmond continues to explore the foundation of the Georgia Colony and Oglethorpe’s increasing resistance to the institution of slavery and how he became part of the movement to abolish slavery after his departure from the Georgia Colony.
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The Show’s Backstory
As we wrap up the first season of our show, we thought it would be informative and exciting for you, our listeners, to peek behind the scenes of Flames of Freedom and hear from our creative team as they discuss their approach to this critical chapter of American and Jewish history. We’ll also hear from many of the actors from our ensemble cast. It turns out they, too, have an interesting backstory and relationship to the characters and plotlines of Flames of Freedom.