Rabbi Dovid Katz has been the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Abraham Hertzberg’s in Park Heights since 1998. But in the past few years, he’s taken up a new initiative: podcasting.
Katz said that he does four or five podcast episodes per week. They range in topics, including one a week on history or a biography, one on the weekly parsha and another on the haftorah. He leaves the remaining episodes free for various ideas.
Katz said he got into podcasting around six years ago, when a friend persuaded him to try it.
“Some friends of mine asked me to do it, and I’m not a very technically-proficient person, so I never knew about the world of podcasts,” Katz said.
Katz’s podcast, “Jewish History with Dr. Dovid Katz,” which doesn’t have a specific focus on the Baltimore community, is listened to by a national and international audience. The podcast has 3,000 followers on Spotify, and Katz said he finds it to be an effective way to share topics he covers to a broader audience.
The rabbi said that all of his podcasts are sponsored by individuals. Sometimes, the sponsors have topics they’d like to see covered, but Katz said that, usually, the decision is left up to him.
Katz said he is encouraged by the audience that tunes in to the almost daily releases to hear his new episodes, and the support helps keep him going.
“It’s not so much a question [of if] I’m enjoying it, but there are a lot of people that are interested in it around the world. So, if people are writing to me and saying, ‘Please keep it up,’ that encourages me to keep it up,” Katz said.
Katz also does long-form lectures. He uploads those videos to YouTube, which hosts videos of his lectures and podcasts.
Katz has posted 225 videos of lectures and podcasts to his channel, “Jewish History with Rabbi Dr. Dovid Katz,” for over five years. The lectures are longer on average, with most being well over an hour, whereas the podcasts typically run between 20 and 50 minutes, though some are longer.
Katz said he typically gives lectures around Baltimore, speaking at Congregation Shomrei Emunah during the winter and Ner Tamid Greenspring Valley Synagogue during the summer.
Recently, Katz did a lecture on Baltimore history and Baltimore Jewry, which was recorded and added online.
Katz has a great depth of experience covering these topics, as he specializes in Jewish history, a subject that he teaches at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland. The rabbi said that this experience helps him quickly produce his episodes.
Katz continues to produce several episodes a week, focusing on topics regarding Jewish history, culture and analysis of historical events. He said that people listen to his podcast for a variety of reasons, and he’s ready to share his expertise with those interested in the topics of his choosing.
“I have people who are Jewish that listen, and I have people that are not Jewish that listen. If you’re Jewish, if you want to be an informed Jew, I think you do have to know your past, don’t you? Various people who are not Jewish are interested in the podcast for various reasons. Some of them are Christians, for example, and are interested in the Jewish background, and some of them have other reasons for listening,” Katz said.
