The Mighty Atom - Strongman and Scourge of the Brown Shirts

Born Joesph Greenstein the Mighty Atom is a badass jew of the highest caliber.  This 5'4'' mentsch battled Cossaks, nazis and the KKK.  Barely tall enough to ride a rollercoaster, this little man could bite nails in half, bend steel bars, and pull cars with his hair.   

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Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:11:05
Aaaron Berg
Welcome to badass Jews, everybody. a podcast about what? Badass Jews. That's right. Now, most people would think that's an oxymoron, but we're going to prove them wrong.

00:00:11:07 - 00:00:24:27
Andrew Davidsburg
Yes, absolutely. There are so many Jews that people don't know about that have been brave, that have fought in wars, that have fought off Nazis, Klu Klux Klan, you name it. We've been there fighting it. And it's time that these stories are told.

00:00:24:27 - 00:00:34:00
Aaaron Berg
Yeah, Jews have been fighting stuff since for ages. This goes back all the way to two weeks ago at Columbia University.

00:00:34:03 - 00:00:35:06
Peter Banos
Yes.

00:00:35:08 - 00:00:39:05
Aaaron Berg
It's been happening since the inception of Jews. Yeah, they've had to be.

00:00:39:05 - 00:00:46:06
Andrew Davidsburg
Badass without a doubt. From the time that David slew Goliath. Little guy versus big guy.

00:00:46:06 - 00:00:56:01
Aaaron Berg
Goliath. Not Jewish, not Jewish. David. Jewish. David. Jewish last name burn bomb. What was his name? Does anyone know David's last name?

00:00:56:06 - 00:00:58:13
Andrew Davidsburg
I don't, I think he was just David off.

00:00:58:13 - 00:01:10:18
Aaaron Berg
Those were the days when you can just have one name, like there's no, It's amazing how we got together because I'm a stand up comedian. you would call yourself a.

00:01:10:20 - 00:01:20:26
Andrew Davidsburg
Amateur historian, I guess? Yeah. super Jew, super nerd. whatever you call. It's, really deep in the study of Jews you've never heard of before.

00:01:20:26 - 00:01:39:22
Aaaron Berg
And you started a show called Badass Jews. And then I was approached by a production company. They wanted to do a show called Badass Jews. So we started to do the show, and then they said, there's another badass Jews. We got to reach out to this guy that does badass Jews. So we reached out, we talked, we collab a little bit, and me in this company had done a few other episodes there.

00:01:39:22 - 00:01:52:09
Aaaron Berg
They're out there in, in where internet land that you could find them somewhere. But now we're starting a new. We think now is the time that we need Badass Jews, the podcast to be here.

00:01:52:09 - 00:02:17:28
Andrew Davidsburg
Yeah. You know, with everything going out, going on out there with the protests, with, with what's going on in Israel, it's more important than ever that Jews are able to connect with that side of themselves. Yeah. With, with the the tough guy. we were out there. There were there are stories of protests during World War Two of Nazis being here and of Jews going out and fighting against the Nazis.

00:02:18:00 - 00:02:23:00
Andrew Davidsburg
And we need to not be afraid to be out. Be a voice for the people.

00:02:23:02 - 00:02:49:03
Aaaron Berg
Yeah. And I pride myself on kind of being allowed a truce of Jew, like, really kind of in your face. And I think sometimes, to my detriment, but sometimes to my benefit as well. And it's amazing because I was raised reform, which is, you know, Jew ish at best. And, the, the connection that you feel isn't even on a religious level necessarily.

00:02:49:03 - 00:03:08:14
Aaaron Berg
But there's a cultural level, there's an identity that's involved in Judaism. and you start to feel it in times of turmoil, like right now. And the stuff that's happening in the world, all the Jews I know are going through anxiety and not just traditional Jewish anxiety, but there's there's a real weight happening right now. So I think that our voices are more important than ever.

00:03:08:17 - 00:03:21:05
Andrew Davidsburg
Yeah, I, I couldn't agree with that more. there's a, a shirt that I love in on it. It says, I'm here to make my ancestors proud. And I think that's something that weighs on us pretty regularly as Jews.

00:03:21:06 - 00:03:28:20
Aaaron Berg
Yeah. And I'm going to say this. You have a very gruff voice. Right. and I dig it, and it's that it's so.

00:03:28:20 - 00:03:34:21
Andrew Davidsburg
Gruff, you know, you got the same thing. I was thinking maybe one of us. Our voices need to be edited to say no.

00:03:34:22 - 00:03:53:21
Aaaron Berg
I think my voice is more nasally. Hey, I'm Jewish. but we're going to. We're going to kick it off. we are sponsored by Baggio sunglasses. the, great company. They make fishing sunglasses. I met the guy. I go, those are great glasses. And he gave me a pair, and I said, I'm going to mention these glasses wherever I can.

00:03:53:21 - 00:03:59:29
Aaaron Berg
So we're going to have a promo code when we come back for the next episode. Or whenever we organize that. They're great sunglasses.

00:04:00:01 - 00:04:00:15
Andrew Davidsburg
They are.

00:04:00:17 - 00:04:18:06
Aaaron Berg
Look at these beautiful and they're polarized. So when I'm fishing, I'm like, oh, look, I see a oh man, I look so cool in these sunglasses. Yeah. Do you remember, Vin Diesel and knock around guys and he and he's got this same tat that I have right here. And he just walks up to this guy and he goes, 500.

00:04:18:12 - 00:04:19:01
Aaaron Berg
You remember that?

00:04:19:05 - 00:04:20:05
Andrew Davidsburg
No, I've never seen it.

00:04:20:07 - 00:04:39:03
Aaaron Berg
He goes, you can watch the clip on YouTube. You just Google, Vin Diesel 500 and he goes 500. And the guy goes, would you. It's 500 street fights. That's what I figured it'd be to get. And it goes in this big long monologue and the guy's just looking at him, and then he takes his jacket off. The guy goes, I ain't got no problem with you, man.

00:04:39:03 - 00:04:50:04
Aaaron Berg
And he's all jacked. And then he goes through 500 fights. You want to know? I've learned nothing more important than this. He goes bang and just headbutts him. And then the fight starts and you, like, always take the first shot.

00:04:50:05 - 00:04:51:29
Andrew Davidsburg
I always take the first shot, I like that.

00:04:52:00 - 00:04:53:24
Aaaron Berg
Tell me about the baddest you we got today.

00:04:53:24 - 00:05:13:04
Andrew Davidsburg
Yeah. You know, I was thinking, while you're telling me that story, you got those sunglasses on. They're polarized. You know, having polarized sunglasses would also help if you were out fighting Nazis. Because the glare from their patches and emblems wouldn't blind you as you're trying to punch them, which is something that this guy, the mighty Adam, did on a regular basis.

00:05:13:04 - 00:05:14:27
Aaaron Berg
Nazis loved flare.

00:05:15:04 - 00:05:16:10
Peter Banos
He was flare.

00:05:16:12 - 00:05:19:25
Aaaron Berg
Yeah, the big on flare like a TGI Fridays waiter.

00:05:19:27 - 00:05:38:24
Andrew Davidsburg
That's right. so Joseph Greenstein, this guy is one of my heroes because he fought the trifecta. I would say, like the Ashkenazi axis of evil fought the KKK. He fought Cossacks, and he fought Nazis.

00:05:38:27 - 00:05:39:16
Aaaron Berg
When was.

00:05:39:16 - 00:05:55:12
Andrew Davidsburg
This? So this. He was born. Joseph Greenstein was born, July 15th, 1893. And he's born in, like the shtetl of all shtetls. It's like as steadily, steadily as you can tell.

00:05:55:12 - 00:05:57:08
Aaaron Berg
People that don't know what a shtetl is.

00:05:57:11 - 00:06:23:09
Andrew Davidsburg
So is in Eastern Europe. Jews were forced to live in these small towns and that were incredibly poor. There wasn't really a lot of industry there. There wasn't a lot of trade outside of it, fueled almost entirely by anti-Semitism. they were isolated and forced to live in these small towns. So they were incredibly poor, and and isolated.

00:06:23:12 - 00:06:48:00
Andrew Davidsburg
Okay, so Joseph Greenstein is born in this tiny town, and he's born two months early, right? So he comes out of the womb weighing three and a half pounds. Tiny baby, tiny baby. And this is 1893. So you're not going to survive that, right? Well, Joseph Greenstein does. Right? His mother takes him, and she puts him in a shoe box lined with cotton.

00:06:48:02 - 00:06:50:13
Andrew Davidsburg
Right. She uses an eyedropper to feed him.

00:06:50:13 - 00:06:51:10
Aaaron Berg
Wow.

00:06:51:12 - 00:07:04:24
Andrew Davidsburg
In the small town of souvlaki. This is big news, right? So doctors are coming and they're showing up, and they're saying this kid's not going to live. But when he dies all by his body. Why? Why? I mean, you know, the science.

00:07:04:26 - 00:07:05:16
Aaaron Berg
Oh, okay.

00:07:05:16 - 00:07:28:03
Andrew Davidsburg
Yeah, it's obviously right. So he lives for a week. He lives for a month. He ends up surviving. Father dies at the age of five. In this small town. The small poor town, the green Steens are the poorest family right now. So it's, you know, like the old joke. We were so poor. This was them. They didn't have shoes to wear on their feet.

00:07:28:03 - 00:07:52:05
Andrew Davidsburg
They didn't have close to where they were wrapping rags around, walking around in the snow. And Joe was sick to begin with. Yeah, he was a sick kid, you know, born prematurely. So he's living. He's strive. He's not. He's striving. He's not quite thriving. Right. At the age of 14, he goes to the doctor's office and has his checkup.

00:07:52:07 - 00:08:03:21
Andrew Davidsburg
His mother leaves the room to talk to the doctor and hears the doctor say to his mom, he's not going to live to be 18. You're lucky if he lives another year, right? So he dies because he's sick.

00:08:03:24 - 00:08:04:16
Peter Banos
And the.

00:08:04:18 - 00:08:05:03
Andrew Davidsburg
Living.

00:08:05:05 - 00:08:06:22
Aaaron Berg
Rheumatoid arthritis.

00:08:06:28 - 00:08:08:21
Andrew Davidsburg
So he's got asthma.

00:08:08:22 - 00:08:13:19
Aaaron Berg
And that's a Jewish thing. Yes, yes, asthma is very Jewish. So what.

00:08:13:19 - 00:08:15:03
Andrew Davidsburg
Else? I think it's just the asthma.

00:08:15:04 - 00:08:17:11
Peter Banos
You asthma like it's.

00:08:17:13 - 00:08:21:21
Aaaron Berg
My brother's got asthma. We got him a puffer. I guess they didn't have puffers back in the 80s.

00:08:21:21 - 00:08:23:18
Andrew Davidsburg
They didn't have puffers back in 18.

00:08:23:22 - 00:08:28:13
Aaaron Berg
Asthma be tough in the 80, right? All the time.

00:08:28:13 - 00:08:30:07
Andrew Davidsburg
And he's running from anti-Semites all the time.

00:08:30:09 - 00:08:33:17
Aaaron Berg
There was anti-Semites chasing after this asthma guy.

00:08:33:18 - 00:08:35:05
Andrew Davidsburg
Of course. Of course.

00:08:35:05 - 00:08:35:29
Aaaron Berg
You had to see.

00:08:36:00 - 00:08:58:16
Andrew Davidsburg
Okay, easy target. So he's on his way back home from the doctor, and they pass this carnival right in this carnival, he sees this sign for the mighty, mighty villain. Go! Is this larger than life strongman? Yeah, right. He's on all these posters. Big beard. Like. Like a real man. Yeah. And he tries to go into the tent.

00:08:58:16 - 00:09:10:21
Andrew Davidsburg
Doesn't have any money, obviously, but wants to go in the tent to see him. Right. So he sneaks, tries to sneak underneath the tent flap to get in and gets caught by one of the corners. Okay, right. This guy drags him aside and starts beating.

00:09:10:23 - 00:09:19:11
Aaaron Berg
Yeah, carnies are not known to be good people or not. No, no. And to quote Mike Myers, this smell like cabbage.

00:09:19:14 - 00:09:22:16
Peter Banos
Right. So yeah, this is this guy.

00:09:22:19 - 00:09:24:03
Andrew Davidsburg
This guy would would fit that bill.

00:09:24:03 - 00:09:27:21
Aaaron Berg
Exactly. Okay. Starts beating on starts for for trying to sneak in for.

00:09:27:21 - 00:09:40:15
Andrew Davidsburg
Trying to sneak in again. He's a sickly kid. He's not toff. He's not fighting back. Right. Beats him to with an inch of his life. And all the time he's yelling, dirty little Jew, I'll kill you, dirty little Jew! I'll kill you! Yeah, dirty little Jew, I'll kill.

00:09:40:15 - 00:09:42:11
Aaaron Berg
How do you know he was a Jew? The asthma.

00:09:42:13 - 00:09:59:20
Andrew Davidsburg
I think he just, you know, you just just made an assumption, all right? You know, I guess, you know, went on the stereotype and decided that this guy's Jewish. Okay. Right. So, yeah, he he had a big star David tattoo on his arm, though.

00:09:59:22 - 00:10:00:27
Aaaron Berg
They were popular back.

00:10:00:27 - 00:10:02:06
Peter Banos
Yeah.

00:10:02:08 - 00:10:24:12
Andrew Davidsburg
So, anyways, he's barely conscious. Drags himself into this, into this trailer. Right. Hiding under a table and sees these big Cossack boots walk in. Right. He's hiding on the table. Cossack boots walk in. All of a sudden he looks up and he sees none other than the champion. The go. Yeah, right. He was hoping to see him on stage.

00:10:24:12 - 00:10:37:21
Andrew Davidsburg
He's now face to face with him. He's terrified. He thinks Blanco's going to continue to beat him. Yeah. Blanco looks on and says, who did this to you? Right. So he says nothing. He's still terrified. Keeps his mouth.

00:10:37:24 - 00:10:39:28
Aaaron Berg
I didn't say nothing. Right? Carney. Yeah.

00:10:40:00 - 00:11:03:01
Andrew Davidsburg
Blanco says stay here. I'll be right back. Franco leaves. Ten minutes later. He's outside yelling, hey boy, come out here. Right? So Joe comes out and there's this line of a dozen corners, right? Blanco says to him, who? Who did this to you? Right, Joe can't even say who it is because he was shielding his face when he was getting beat.

00:11:03:01 - 00:11:03:18
Andrew Davidsburg
He can't talk.

00:11:03:18 - 00:11:04:12
Aaaron Berg
Yeah.

00:11:04:15 - 00:11:20:16
Andrew Davidsburg
So Blanco says, so what? You heard who did this, right? He says, yeah, I guess so. You know, I guess I would recognize his voice. So he goes down a line, but like it goes down the line first. Carney points at him and says, say it. And he says, dirty little Jew, I'll kill you. Goes to the next one.

00:11:20:16 - 00:11:43:07
Andrew Davidsburg
So say it, dirty little Jew, I'll kill you next one. Dirty little Jew, I kill you. Goes all the way down the line till he gets the last one. The guy says, dirty little Jew, I'll kill you. And Joseph flinches. He can't even speak, but he flinches. At that moment, Blanco knows he's the guy, right? Blanco grabs him by the lapel and punches him in the face as hard as he can.

00:11:43:08 - 00:11:48:14
Andrew Davidsburg
Yeah, right. The guy goes flying. All that's left in Blanco's hand is the guy's lapel.

00:11:48:18 - 00:11:50:08
Peter Banos
Nice, right, guys?

00:11:50:08 - 00:12:10:07
Andrew Davidsburg
Unconscious on the ground. Blanca walks him back to his cab and they talk a little bit. He starts to learn Joseph story. He learns that Joseph is this sick kid, that he has this history. And Blanco says to him, listen, Joe, I was once like you, I was sick. I didn't think I would make it, but I learned to be strong.

00:12:10:07 - 00:12:16:27
Andrew Davidsburg
If you want to come with me, you can tour with us and I'll teach you. I'll teach you how to be strong. You will survive.

00:12:16:29 - 00:12:19:08
Aaaron Berg
This is like a really early Make-A-Wish.

00:12:19:08 - 00:12:20:28
Peter Banos
It's just totally.

00:12:21:02 - 00:12:24:18
Andrew Davidsburg
It's totally an early Make-A-Wish. Yeah. It's totally.

00:12:24:23 - 00:12:26:04
Aaaron Berg
How old was he at this point?

00:12:26:04 - 00:12:27:24
Andrew Davidsburg
So he was almost 14 years.

00:12:27:25 - 00:12:31:14
Aaaron Berg
This is. So this is the story. Run away with the carnival.

00:12:31:14 - 00:12:38:20
Andrew Davidsburg
Exactly. Yeah, exactly. And, you know, Velasco was trying to do things right. He said, go ask your mom if you can come.

00:12:38:20 - 00:12:42:08
Aaaron Berg
Yeah, you need permission. So this isn't Michael Jackson's reign.

00:12:42:12 - 00:12:45:16
Peter Banos
It's not Michael Jackson's rich.

00:12:45:18 - 00:12:47:01
Aaaron Berg
So he goes and tells his mom.

00:12:47:01 - 00:12:47:26
Andrew Davidsburg
He does not.

00:12:47:29 - 00:12:50:24
Peter Banos
Oh, he does not. He just.

00:12:50:26 - 00:12:53:11
Andrew Davidsburg
He goes to the town, hides out for an hour, comes back, and.

00:12:53:11 - 00:12:53:26
Aaaron Berg
My mom.

00:12:53:26 - 00:12:56:20
Peter Banos
Said, so we're good to go.

00:12:56:22 - 00:12:59:02
Aaaron Berg
Such a good George. Like right.

00:12:59:08 - 00:13:05:03
Andrew Davidsburg
That and not only that, he's worried he doesn't want his mom to worry, so he never writes her while he's gone.

00:13:05:03 - 00:13:06:13
Aaaron Berg
Oh wow.

00:13:06:16 - 00:13:08:18
Andrew Davidsburg
So he leaves with you.

00:13:08:18 - 00:13:16:10
Aaaron Berg
Picture a Jewish mother. You're 14. You go away to summer camp forever. Never write home. Your mom would lose it.

00:13:16:13 - 00:13:17:27
Andrew Davidsburg
You don't. You don't need show.

00:13:17:27 - 00:13:28:19
Aaaron Berg
Up at the camp in Haliburton, Ontario, which is where I went. You don't call your mother. Where do you go? Have been sending you chocolate bars every three weeks.

00:13:28:22 - 00:13:31:21
Andrew Davidsburg
I imagine. If she could find him, that's what.

00:13:31:25 - 00:13:33:12
Aaaron Berg
Wow. Running away from.

00:13:33:12 - 00:13:52:23
Andrew Davidsburg
Home. Yeah. And, I mean, this was an adventure for him. Yeah, the carnival laughed. It went east. They were going through India. They went through Eastern Europe. And this whole time Blanco is training him. And you know, he's training him on, breathing techniques. That's really where it started for him.

00:13:52:23 - 00:13:53:06
Aaaron Berg
Yeah.

00:13:53:08 - 00:13:58:16
Andrew Davidsburg
Blanco said that, sorry, I'm missing the.

00:13:58:21 - 00:13:59:01
Aaaron Berg
What's so.

00:13:59:02 - 00:14:03:02
Andrew Davidsburg
I lost I lost my my quote. I had a beautiful quote there. But anyways.

00:14:03:02 - 00:14:13:17
Aaaron Berg
Breathing technique is one of the most important things in fight. Like I do Krav Maga now, and it's all like it's all not focused on breathing, but it's like you're going to lose a fight if you can't breathe.

00:14:13:20 - 00:14:15:07
Andrew Davidsburg
So I know, where are you training from? My God.

00:14:15:08 - 00:14:17:06
Aaaron Berg
I can't say it on the air, but in Jersey, okay.

00:14:17:10 - 00:14:21:03
Andrew Davidsburg
In Jersey. Okay. Okay. Awesome. I did grab the guy from any crowd rules.

00:14:21:03 - 00:14:25:24
Aaaron Berg
Yeah, yeah, I'm just walking around punching people in the crowd. I'm hitting that. No. Right.

00:14:25:24 - 00:14:39:01
Andrew Davidsburg
And actually, we're going to talk about another for another week. We're going to talk about. And he looked and felt who created Krav Maga. Oh wow. Yeah. It's actually it's not Israeli. It's diaspora. It was created in in Slovakia.

00:14:39:01 - 00:14:40:18
Aaaron Berg
I've been lying to everybody. Yeah.

00:14:40:18 - 00:14:41:00
Andrew Davidsburg
No, that's.

00:14:41:00 - 00:14:41:16
Aaaron Berg
Israeli.

00:14:41:18 - 00:14:49:01
Andrew Davidsburg
That's okay. All right. That's okay. Well, we'll set that straight, but still. But still, it's make give me a lot of pride to say it's Israeli, but it is actually so.

00:14:49:01 - 00:14:49:28
Aaaron Berg
He's learning breathing.

00:14:49:28 - 00:15:13:04
Andrew Davidsburg
Techniques. So he's learning breathing techniques. He starts with, lifting empty buckets. So Blanco says you're going to go outside, you're going to lift these empty buckets. He starts lifting empty boxes of buckets to put some sand in them. He's breathing. He's staying outside in the cold. you know, one, I hear it is. He says breathing is life without air.

00:15:13:04 - 00:15:35:07
Andrew Davidsburg
The fire dies. And that comes from Blanca. Okay, so he's he's teaching him about wrestling as well. He's starting his self-defense training because Blanco is also a champion wrestler. Part of his duties, part of what he's doing is helping Blanco keep his place clean. He's like Blanco is assistant. Yeah. Cleaning up one day and he finds a sea door, right?

00:15:35:07 - 00:16:00:02
Andrew Davidsburg
A sea door is a Jewish. A Jewish book of prayer. Yeah, right. And right behind him is Blanco. Right? And Blanco says to him, that was my that was my grandfather's. It was my father's before him. And now it's mine. Right? He says that I by the time I was your age, I survived three pogroms. And this is all in Yiddish.

00:16:00:08 - 00:16:23:22
Andrew Davidsburg
He's speaking in Yiddish too, which blows Joseph's mind. He had no idea Blanco was Jewish to this point. He says to him, we live in a strange world, while many accept are while we live in a strange world, while many accept our lives and receive our talents and give our children or give our children their names, they get upset by our presence.

00:16:23:24 - 00:16:27:25
Andrew Davidsburg
By the time I was your age, I had survived three pogroms. So I ran away to be free.

00:16:27:25 - 00:16:29:25
Aaaron Berg
Tell people that don't know what a program.

00:16:29:26 - 00:16:34:01
Andrew Davidsburg
So a pogrom was essentially a violent riot against Jews.

00:16:34:01 - 00:16:37:29
Aaaron Berg
Happened all over. All over Europe? Yeah.

00:16:38:02 - 00:16:57:24
Andrew Davidsburg
so if you were a Jew living in Europe, you were going to face pogroms. They happened outside of Europe as well. They happened in certain certain communities in the Middle East as well. but the big ones were in were in Europe. he says to him, it's hard to be a Jew. It's hard to be a man.

00:16:57:24 - 00:17:22:02
Andrew Davidsburg
But try and never forget who you are. And that stayed with Joseph his entire life. The importance of his Jewish identity and the importance of who he was. He would continue with him throughout his entire life. They would they would continue to travel for about a year and a half. ultimately, Blanco would make Joseph sleep outside.

00:17:22:08 - 00:17:26:12
Andrew Davidsburg
He would sleep in the snow. He became this really robust individual.

00:17:26:12 - 00:17:28:07
Aaaron Berg
I mean, that's not very polite.

00:17:28:09 - 00:17:29:03
Peter Banos
Right?

00:17:29:05 - 00:17:37:26
Aaaron Berg
Yeah. So I hear your mentor's making you sleep in the snow. I mean, you know, it kind of be like, hey, can I not come inside, right?

00:17:37:28 - 00:17:44:22
Andrew Davidsburg
He says, hey, Joseph says, do you want me to die? Yeah. do you want me to die out here? And like I said, you want. I don't worry about it.

00:17:44:29 - 00:17:46:25
Aaaron Berg
Yes. I was like, I tough love.

00:17:46:28 - 00:17:53:13
Andrew Davidsburg
That's totally, totally tough love. Yeah. So they're torn for a year and a half. They get back to Sioux Falls.

00:17:53:20 - 00:17:55:08
Aaaron Berg
And the tour is not glamorous.

00:17:55:09 - 00:17:55:27
Andrew Davidsburg
It is not.

00:17:55:27 - 00:18:10:12
Aaaron Berg
Glamorous. You're not on a Bert Chrysler bus going across America? No, this is a tour. You're probably riding on one of those horse drawn carriages from town to town. People yelling at you. Carnies. You stink as. And when you get there, you got to entertain. There was no rides back then.

00:18:10:18 - 00:18:12:04
Andrew Davidsburg
I don't think they were particularly popular.

00:18:12:04 - 00:18:15:08
Aaaron Berg
Now you just show up. It was a freak show. A traveling freak show.

00:18:15:09 - 00:18:18:02
Andrew Davidsburg
Totally. They're like dancing dogs and stuff.

00:18:18:02 - 00:18:20:28
Aaaron Berg
Like, it's like a Lizzo concert.

00:18:21:00 - 00:18:21:21
Peter Banos
All right?

00:18:21:23 - 00:18:23:19
Aaaron Berg
I've never been to Elizabeth, nor have I.

00:18:23:25 - 00:18:24:22
Peter Banos
Okay.

00:18:24:25 - 00:18:26:07
Aaaron Berg
I this picture, I imagine.

00:18:26:07 - 00:18:42:11
Andrew Davidsburg
Okay, I imagine that's what a Lizzo concert would look like, right? So they're traveling for 18 months, they get back to Sue Volk. And, Lanco is just sort of says, okay, we're back home. See ya. There's nothing else I can teach you.

00:18:42:12 - 00:18:43:11
Aaaron Berg
Go, yeah.

00:18:43:14 - 00:19:05:03
Andrew Davidsburg
And he's done. They leave. Joseph watches them go away, and he's back home. He's walking back through his town, and he's seeing all these people that he recognizes, but they don't quite recognize him because when he left, he was like a sickly kid. He was coughing everywhere, unpleasant to be around. And now he's like this robust young man who was, like a serious athlete.

00:19:05:03 - 00:19:13:17
Andrew Davidsburg
Yeah, right. So he gets back home, he knocks on the door, his mom answers the door, and she passes out. She just immediately faint.

00:19:13:18 - 00:19:14:21
Aaaron Berg
She thought he was dead.

00:19:14:21 - 00:19:36:08
Andrew Davidsburg
She thought he was dead? Yeah. She thought that he had died in the lake, that she had drowned, but he had drowned. They. She sat Shiva, which is ten days of mourning after someone dies. He, they, had, like, a little plot for him where he would have been buried. Thought he was dead. Anyway. She's ecstatic. Everybody's ecstatic.

00:19:36:10 - 00:19:59:27
Andrew Davidsburg
Goes back to normal life. And Sioux Volk for a time round. The time he gets back, he also runs into, childhood crush Leah, who he very quickly marries. An incredibly patient woman who he would be with for the, basically the rest of his life. Sue Volk is really a difficult place to be. There's really no future for him as a Jew.

00:20:00:00 - 00:20:06:12
Andrew Davidsburg
he goes to work in a tanning, a tannery where they danced.

00:20:06:14 - 00:20:07:05
Peter Banos
Yeah. Night.

00:20:07:09 - 00:20:21:19
Aaaron Berg
That tannery is, like, for leather and stuff like that. As opposed to a tanning salon, which is, you know, they weren't around back then. And Jews are not big fans of that. Except Bob Evans had a great tan. Robert Evans, he was the head of Paramount Studios.

00:20:21:21 - 00:20:22:02
Andrew Davidsburg
okay.

00:20:22:02 - 00:20:26:05
Aaaron Berg
Great love story in The Godfather. he very tanned you.

00:20:26:07 - 00:20:26:22
Peter Banos
yes.

00:20:26:22 - 00:20:28:08
Aaaron Berg
Very good. But his tannery.

00:20:28:10 - 00:20:42:27
Andrew Davidsburg
Yeah. So he's working at a tannery. and he's sitting at a table one day at lunch, and he hears someone behind him and they say to him, I'll do my part. When the time comes, will sweep the kikes out of the room with an iron broom.

00:20:43:02 - 00:20:46:14
Aaaron Berg
For those of you that don't know, Kike is a slur for Jews.

00:20:46:14 - 00:20:49:15
Andrew Davidsburg
Yeah, it's not a not a nice word to hear at lunch table.

00:20:49:15 - 00:20:50:24
Peter Banos
Now,

00:20:50:26 - 00:20:58:02
Andrew Davidsburg
So, you know, he doesn't know this guy. This guy's probably never met a Jew before in his life, but he still hates us.

00:20:58:02 - 00:20:58:17
Aaaron Berg
Yeah.

00:20:58:19 - 00:21:20:03
Andrew Davidsburg
Right. So he's already thinking this is not the place for me, right? So a month later, he's outside. He's working on his father in law's house. He's up on a ladder and he hears a commotion coming from behind him. Turns around to see this drunk Cossack coming out of a bar. People yelling. He just killed someone! He just killed someone, right?

00:21:20:03 - 00:21:42:09
Andrew Davidsburg
Yeah. So Joseph sees and run into the woods. He runs down off his ladder, jumps behind the house and cuts the guy off in the woods. Right. The Cossack is drunk, throws up a little bit, and then Joseph says, you're mine. I'm going to get you right. The Cossack goes to swing his sword at him. Joseph blocks it, right, because he's been training with the leg.

00:21:42:13 - 00:22:06:03
Andrew Davidsburg
Yeah, right. Blocks it, kicks it in half, right? The guy drops it. He's got now on the floor. There's the hilt of the sword and the blade itself. The Cossack goes for the blade itself. Joseph goes for the hilt and he takes it, and he smashes the Cossack in the head with it. Right. Cossack stands there, blinks twice, straight up, like out of a movie, blinks twice, falls over.

00:22:06:06 - 00:22:29:03
Andrew Davidsburg
He's dead. Dead, dead. Joseph's now a wanted man. It's Volk, so hides out for a couple days. Things cool down a little bit, but he knows it's time to leave. So he makes a great escape. He goes out through the port of Bremen and ends up in America with his wife. Not yet. Okay. Was the thing he did back there.

00:22:29:03 - 00:22:32:23
Andrew Davidsburg
I don't think it's just leave. You leave and then they come later. Yeah.

00:22:32:23 - 00:22:44:03
Aaaron Berg
You can't leave. You can't just leave now. No, no, no. Right, man. Yeah. Hey, honey. I moved to Miami. Come here. Come down. In two years.

00:22:44:05 - 00:22:44:21
Peter Banos
That's it.

00:22:44:22 - 00:22:46:12
Andrew Davidsburg
That's that's this is.

00:22:46:15 - 00:22:53:23
Aaaron Berg
And also back then, they couldn't. They wouldn't know necessarily who murdered him right away because they didn't have that type of forensic equipment.

00:22:53:24 - 00:22:54:23
Andrew Davidsburg
They definitely.

00:22:54:23 - 00:23:01:25
Aaaron Berg
Did. And there was no you know, they're not putting an APB out for him. No. They you kill a guy, then, you know, I better run down the block.

00:23:01:26 - 00:23:08:12
Andrew Davidsburg
Yeah. And, you know, they were probably just going to blame the Jews anyways. Yeah. I mean, it didn't really matter who killed him. He loved. Definitely a Jew.

00:23:08:12 - 00:23:10:24
Aaaron Berg
Yeah, they love to do so. All right.

00:23:10:26 - 00:23:20:18
Andrew Davidsburg
so, you know, it was in hot water. It was time to go. Yeah. So he ends up in Texas, which I didn't know before, really digging into this that they were are.

00:23:20:18 - 00:23:23:16
Aaaron Berg
Texas in America. And America takes a boat over.

00:23:23:16 - 00:23:26:27
Andrew Davidsburg
Yeah. Wow. Yeah. He ends up in Galveston, Texas.

00:23:26:28 - 00:23:30:07
Aaaron Berg
Nice place. Right. Nice place. Me neither. But I've heard.

00:23:30:09 - 00:23:32:24
Peter Banos
Yeah, they have lizard shows there.

00:23:32:24 - 00:23:41:22
Aaaron Berg
I don't think they have Lizzo's shows, but I think that's traditional Texas. I mean, I'm sure back then everything was Texas. Very red state back then, but it was very.

00:23:41:22 - 00:23:43:27
Andrew Davidsburg
Yeah, very, very room back then. Very red.

00:23:43:27 - 00:23:46:16
Aaaron Berg
State. Not a fan of the Jews. Probably in Texas back then.

00:23:46:16 - 00:23:51:05
Andrew Davidsburg
You know, I think. Yeah. Probably not okay. Probably not at will. And we'll get with.

00:23:51:05 - 00:23:52:01
Aaaron Berg
Some exceptions.

00:23:52:01 - 00:24:13:19
Andrew Davidsburg
With some exceptions. so he ends up, he ends up in Galveston, Texas, he tries all kinds of different jobs. He gets a gig as a professional wrestler. He's doing some wrestling work. it's like a real job at that point. Yeah. He was like, catch catching catches. Ken was like the type of sport that it was. And you could get paid real matches.

00:24:13:19 - 00:24:25:18
Andrew Davidsburg
They lasted for hours. Tons of endurance that these guys were doing okay. He's a professional wrestler. went under the moniker Kid Greenstein and made an okay living of it. You know, it was a job, not a career.

00:24:25:18 - 00:24:26:14
Aaaron Berg
Right?

00:24:26:16 - 00:24:46:27
Andrew Davidsburg
Does that for for a significant amount of, for for a little bit of time, ends up becoming a stevedore. Right? He's working on the docks. He ends up on a ship that's going to Japan when he gets to Japan. He is. He has learned about judo in in his travels previously. So he shows up at a dojo.

00:24:47:00 - 00:25:03:12
Andrew Davidsburg
Yeah. And says, I want to learn judo. So they set up a bunk for him, and he spends two months totally immersed in judo, living in the dojo, helping out the I don't I'm not sure what a dojo mass.

00:25:03:14 - 00:25:04:21
Aaaron Berg
Just a master.

00:25:04:24 - 00:25:30:19
Andrew Davidsburg
Master dojo guy, working with him and spends two months learning judo. Goes back to Galveston and Leah finally makes it. They're happy there for a while. Not a lot of money to be made. All this is going on. He ends up owning a, filling station called your filling station. and this is where trouble starts to find him again.

00:25:30:21 - 00:26:03:27
Andrew Davidsburg
So here he starts to encounter the KKK. Okay, so in 1926, he is naturalized as a U.S. citizen. Right. And this gives him tremendous pride in being an American. And the KKK was very large at this point. I think there's estimates of I think about maybe 4 million members. Wow. In America, I believe it was 4 million. It may have been 400,000 either way, a lot, a lot big difference.

00:26:04:04 - 00:26:05:07
Aaaron Berg
Three 400. There's a lot.

00:26:05:07 - 00:26:07:08
Andrew Davidsburg
Of KKK guys. All right.

00:26:07:10 - 00:26:08:11
Aaaron Berg
Let's research that.

00:26:08:11 - 00:26:09:23
Andrew Davidsburg
Yes, yes. Yeah.

00:26:09:24 - 00:26:20:02
Aaaron Berg
Put it up right here. Yeah. That's the real number. Yes. It. Yes. For something I don't know how many zeros. What. Wait what year was 19.

00:26:20:02 - 00:26:21:29
Andrew Davidsburg
This was 1926.

00:26:22:01 - 00:26:23:07
Aaaron Berg
Yeah. We can we can Google.

00:26:23:07 - 00:26:23:29
Andrew Davidsburg
Check the numbers.

00:26:23:29 - 00:26:30:16
Aaaron Berg
How many KKK members were in the United States of America in 1926?

00:26:30:18 - 00:26:34:24
Andrew Davidsburg
That was the over under on this.

00:26:34:26 - 00:26:36:04
Aaaron Berg
I'm going to go with 400 though.

00:26:36:05 - 00:26:40:09
Andrew Davidsburg
Okay.

00:26:40:12 - 00:26:56:24
Aaaron Berg
Pete's Google's going to say no such thing. This is fake news. They got to it. Soros got to it.

00:26:56:27 - 00:26:59:06
Andrew Davidsburg
Oh, shit. What I skipped like the best part.

00:26:59:09 - 00:27:01:27
Aaaron Berg
All right, let's get this KKK number.

00:27:01:27 - 00:27:04:29
Andrew Davidsburg
We're getting the KKK number, and then we're going to just jump back a tiny bit, okay?

00:27:04:29 - 00:27:08:22
Peter Banos
I skipped the, 200,000.

00:27:08:24 - 00:27:11:06
Aaaron Berg
There we go. Okay, 400,000.

00:27:11:06 - 00:27:14:13
Andrew Davidsburg
Oh, here we go. 8 million.

00:27:14:15 - 00:27:20:04
Aaaron Berg
2.54 million. I see a lot of Klan members.

00:27:20:06 - 00:27:21:02
Andrew Davidsburg
Lot of Klansmen.

00:27:21:02 - 00:27:29:05
Aaaron Berg
White robes were on fire. Wow. Okay, there we go. Right there was. All right. Wow. Interesting.

00:27:29:07 - 00:27:46:20
Andrew Davidsburg
Okay, I got to tell you this story about him in Galveston, because this is one of these amazing feats that that just make him stand out as a person, right? So there was this young man in town that was obsessed with his, with his wife, with Leah. Right. He would follow her around. Who would tell Joseph that I'm going to steal her from you?

00:27:46:21 - 00:28:00:22
Andrew Davidsburg
Oh, boy. Right. So one day, Joseph walks into a, the drugstore, right? And he hears, hey, Joe. He turns around and there's this kid, Sam, who's obsessed with Joseph's wife with a 38 revolver.

00:28:00:27 - 00:28:01:20
Aaaron Berg
Yeah.

00:28:01:23 - 00:28:07:25
Andrew Davidsburg
Shoots him in the forehead. Right. Joseph gets shot right in between the eyes. The bullet literally.

00:28:07:25 - 00:28:09:00
Peter Banos
Stops.

00:28:09:02 - 00:28:29:21
Andrew Davidsburg
On his forehead. It breaks the skin and stops at Joseph's skull, flattened to the size of an eagle. Right. It knocks him over. He gets up. He goes to the pharmacist and says, going to have a band aid. Come on, I'm telling you, I'm telling you there's newspaper articles. Yeah, there are newspaper articles that document. All right, right.

00:28:29:21 - 00:28:30:21
Aaaron Berg
Gets the band aid.

00:28:30:21 - 00:28:36:10
Andrew Davidsburg
So gets the band aid, goes to the hospital. He's there for an hour. Nothing's wrong with him. They let him go.

00:28:36:12 - 00:28:38:21
Aaaron Berg
Shot right in between the eyes.

00:28:38:21 - 00:28:40:07
Andrew Davidsburg
Yes. There we go.

00:28:40:09 - 00:28:46:25
Aaaron Berg
Bullet flattened out against his forehead. Except for shock and slight loss of blood. Joseph Greenstein was injured.

00:28:46:25 - 00:28:51:09
Andrew Davidsburg
Right. The pharmacist said, are you even alive? And he said, I'm talking.

00:28:51:09 - 00:28:53:28
Aaaron Berg
Says shot accidentally by a friend.

00:28:53:29 - 00:29:11:18
Andrew Davidsburg
So? So this is the thing. This is the thing. Joe was a close friend with this kid's father. Yeah, right. And his father went to and said, listen, Joe, you know, my my son is a good kid. He's a little bit troubled. I'm going to move him away and get him some help. And Joseph says, okay, I will.

00:29:11:18 - 00:29:20:24
Andrew Davidsburg
I'll vouch for him as long as you promise to do the right thing by him. So Joseph tells the press when they go to court, says it was an accident he didn't mean to do.

00:29:20:25 - 00:29:22:27
Aaaron Berg
Boy, Greenstein doesn't snitch,

00:29:23:04 - 00:29:37:11
Andrew Davidsburg
And he was. He was a match. He was just like a good dude. Yeah, their filling station, they would. It was. It became known for for hobos. I don't know if all is hobo. An okay word. Hobo. You know, for hobos coming on trains, they knew that they could stop their.

00:29:37:14 - 00:29:39:00
Aaaron Berg
Wandering train ride.

00:29:39:02 - 00:29:40:15
Andrew Davidsburg
Yes, yes, yes.

00:29:40:15 - 00:29:42:07
Aaaron Berg
People wandering train people.

00:29:42:07 - 00:29:43:06
Andrew Davidsburg
Wandering train.

00:29:43:14 - 00:29:45:01
Peter Banos
Hobos. Yeah.

00:29:45:03 - 00:29:46:12
Aaaron Berg
How about such a ring to it?

00:29:46:14 - 00:30:08:20
Andrew Davidsburg
Yeah, right. They they could stop there and get a hot meal. They could sleep on it. Yeah. Just like an unbelievable match. Right. And that's why it's so sad when the KKK, one of those 4 million. Yeah. KKK members get involved. Right. So Joe is a naturalized citizen now. He hates what the KKK is doing because the KKK is trying to define who is a real American and who is not a real American.

00:30:08:20 - 00:30:29:12
Andrew Davidsburg
Okay? And Joe says, you're not the gatekeeper. That right? You don't get to make that decision. He's very outspoken about how terrible the KKK are. Yeah, talks about it around town. Whoever will listen. Right. So it starts off the KKK start going after them. It starts with a little graffiti on the door that says, you know, we're watching you.

00:30:29:19 - 00:30:48:24
Andrew Davidsburg
And then the next stage they come back and he doesn't stop talking about him. They come back, he's outside working on a car, and he sees a car drive by and they chuck brick at his window. So he jumps up and runs after the car, jumps on the side bar and he's like trying to pull the door open.

00:30:48:27 - 00:31:11:24
Andrew Davidsburg
they hit him in the head with a wet pipe. Yeah. And he falls off, but catches the. Yeah. Catches the license plate. Yeah, yeah. Gets his license plate number. As it turns out, it's his neighbor from across the street. Good times. Right. then he, you know, obviously he's not cowed. He keeps making a big deal. You know, he keeps making a stink about the about the KKK, as he should.

00:31:11:27 - 00:31:28:07
Andrew Davidsburg
And the next, the next time they see him, they, black, they hit him with the black Jack, knock him out and kidnap him. They he loses consciousness. He wakes up and he's staring at a burning cross. Right? Right. He's in the middle of a KKK rally.

00:31:28:08 - 00:31:30:24
Aaaron Berg
KKK love the burning cross freak.

00:31:30:27 - 00:31:32:05
Andrew Davidsburg
That's their freaking burning cross.

00:31:32:05 - 00:31:39:05
Aaaron Berg
Yeah, that's their thing. Yeah. It's like the. That's their mascot. Okay, a burning cross. Crazy. They call them. Yeah.

00:31:39:07 - 00:31:40:25
Peter Banos
Crossing. Yeah. What do you think.

00:31:40:25 - 00:31:42:26
Andrew Davidsburg
His voice is like? How do you think he's.

00:31:42:28 - 00:31:51:10
Aaaron Berg
so warm here? All right, seventh inning stretch, everybody. This game is. Let.

00:31:51:12 - 00:31:53:18
Peter Banos
That's that's how I would have imagined.

00:31:53:18 - 00:31:55:21
Aaaron Berg
Yeah. So. Yeah.

00:31:55:24 - 00:31:56:24
Peter Banos
yeah. So.

00:31:56:26 - 00:32:18:21
Andrew Davidsburg
You know, he comes to he's staring at this burning cross and immediately starts getting beat. They tar and feather him. He wakes up the next day in this field. He's covered in, like, his skin is like. Yeah, like red and burnt. Makes it back home. Layer of course. Always by his side. Nurses him back to health. What does he do?

00:32:18:22 - 00:32:34:06
Andrew Davidsburg
He keeps talking shit on the KKK. Yeah, which you would expect him to do. So a week later, he's in a bookstore that's right by his house. He's in there purchasing. I don't know what, but, cash the the guy, walk around the cash register.

00:32:34:06 - 00:32:39:27
Aaaron Berg
If the KKK ran it, they'd call it Burns and Noble. All right, I'm sorry.

00:32:40:01 - 00:32:41:10
Peter Banos
Awesome. Thanks, dad.

00:32:41:11 - 00:32:41:28
Andrew Davidsburg
Did you just come up?

00:32:41:28 - 00:32:46:21
Aaaron Berg
What? Just came up as I didn't write it, I liked it, I liked it. He's at the bookstore. He had the.

00:32:46:21 - 00:33:14:20
Andrew Davidsburg
Bookstore. The the guy working the cash register says to him, there's two guys outside waiting for you, right? He peeks out the window. They're these two huge guys he knows to be KKK members. So he sneaks out the back, right? But instead of just like hiding, he goes in the back door of his house, pulls out a butcher's knife, runs back to the bookstore, and as he's running up to these two KKK thugs, he yells, hey rednecks, you looking for me?

00:33:14:27 - 00:33:26:14
Andrew Davidsburg
A turnaround? See him? And he's looking crazy at this point. He's got long hair. He's a mad man. Yeah, right. He goes after them with the butcher's knife. They both run away. They never bother him again.

00:33:26:19 - 00:33:27:18
Aaaron Berg
Okay?

00:33:27:20 - 00:33:54:26
Andrew Davidsburg
And that was his last encounter with the KKK. So amazing that he was able to stand up to them. Amazing that, that he wasn't destroyed. You know, that he didn't die. So, you know, this is this is around the time that Joseph really starts to hone in on his abilities. And like I say, abilities because it sounds like he's a Superman, but, you know, like the stuff he did really, really sort of was.

00:33:55:01 - 00:34:00:22
Aaaron Berg
Yeah, there's, like a persistence and a craziness that he's got. Those are abilities. Yeah. Okay.

00:34:00:29 - 00:34:29:01
Andrew Davidsburg
Right. So the interesting thing is, you know, through what he learned with the mighty ankle about breath and with his encounter of getting shot in the head, he started to research and really dig into what's known as hysterical strength. And that's, that's, you know, there are these stories of people being able to lift unbelievably heavy objects when someone they love.

00:34:29:02 - 00:34:58:20
Andrew Davidsburg
Yeah, or someone they know is in danger. So a car's fallen on somebody and they can lift them up. Yeah, Joseph said to himself. Like, why can people only do this when they're in this hysterical state? Why does it need to be this emergency in order to make this happen? And he really dug into his Judaism and in Kabbalah and found, I don't know if you would say a key, but maybe a path to harnessing, like an inhuman strength.

00:34:58:22 - 00:35:00:00
Aaaron Berg
To be hysterical.

00:35:00:01 - 00:35:24:21
Andrew Davidsburg
Be hysterical. Yeah, but call him, but go home, right? I mean, you never saw Joe. Joe never lost his cool right on stage anyways. Yeah. he he always, like, kept it together. But he was able to harness this, this strength in amazing ways. So there's, like a particular quote that he found strength in and that he likened his strength to.

00:35:24:23 - 00:35:46:22
Andrew Davidsburg
And it says, for everything was filled with that simple, boundless light and no such part as head, and no such part is tail. That is where there is neither beginning or the end. For everything was simple and smooth, balanced evenly and equally in one likeness or affinity, and that is called the endless light. And that's where Joseph found his power.

00:35:46:27 - 00:36:15:27
Andrew Davidsburg
I don't understand any of that, but he understood it, and he used what he called the endless light to do these amazing feats. So what were these feats? Right. So one of one of the feats that that he found, he really his goal was to increase his wrestling game. Okay. And in order to increase his wrestling game, he wanted to be able to beat, beat the chokehold.

00:36:16:03 - 00:36:37:29
Andrew Davidsburg
Right? Right. So, you know, you do Krav Maga that once you're in a chokehold, you have basically no time. If it's a if it's a blood choke before you're out, right? Right. If somebody has got their arm properly positioned around your neck, there's nothing you can do. You're done. Right. But Joseph didn't believe that. He thought that the tendons in his neck, he could strengthen.

00:36:38:02 - 00:36:44:23
Andrew Davidsburg
right. So he started doing these exercises, right? Exactly. You know, like Kegels for your mouth.

00:36:44:25 - 00:36:51:02
Peter Banos
Right? well, works or I fell, well.

00:36:51:04 - 00:36:54:18
Andrew Davidsburg
So that's. Yeah, keep keep up with that.

00:36:54:18 - 00:37:02:07
Peter Banos
But you. You would he he also,

00:37:02:10 - 00:37:05:00
Aaaron Berg
That's enough for today, right?

00:37:05:03 - 00:37:14:10
Andrew Davidsburg
Yeah. So he also would, he would go into the kitchen and take the kitchen table in his mouth, right on the corner in his mouth.

00:37:14:10 - 00:37:15:07
Aaaron Berg
Who hasn't done that?

00:37:15:07 - 00:37:17:19
Peter Banos
And lift it.

00:37:17:21 - 00:37:29:18
Andrew Davidsburg
Up. Yeah. Hold it. So he's holding it in his mouth with his neck. The entire table is parallel. Oh, boy. His mouth. Right. So one day he's doing that and Leo walks in.

00:37:29:18 - 00:37:34:15
Peter Banos
Yeah, it's looks like you're cheating on me with the table.

00:37:34:17 - 00:37:37:19
Andrew Davidsburg
What the hell are you doing? Yeah, and he puts it down.

00:37:37:22 - 00:37:41:20
Peter Banos
Oh. Right there. Oh, nothing. No no no.

00:37:41:20 - 00:37:43:13
Aaaron Berg
No no no no no one was.

00:37:43:13 - 00:37:48:12
Peter Banos
He caresses the table as he walks away. Yeah.

00:37:48:12 - 00:37:51:27
Andrew Davidsburg
So he puts it down and she says, you're getting teeth marks in my table.

00:37:51:27 - 00:37:52:10
Aaaron Berg
Yeah.

00:37:52:17 - 00:38:00:27
Andrew Davidsburg
Doing. Yeah. Right. So he takes some sheet of metal and hammers the metal around the corner of the table so that he can do his.

00:38:00:27 - 00:38:02:21
Aaaron Berg
Oh, you can't mess up your wife's dining.

00:38:02:24 - 00:38:03:24
Peter Banos
Exactly.

00:38:03:24 - 00:38:04:16
Aaaron Berg
Get real upset.

00:38:04:16 - 00:38:11:17
Andrew Davidsburg
Yeah, right. So he starts doing it and he realizes that he's bitten straight through that piece of steel.

00:38:11:18 - 00:38:11:29
Aaaron Berg
Yeah.

00:38:12:05 - 00:38:22:24
Andrew Davidsburg
Right. And he says, oh, shit, I can do this with my teeth. This is unbelievable. He starts biting through nails. He starts biting through bars.

00:38:22:26 - 00:38:24:09
Aaaron Berg
This works its way into the show.

00:38:24:10 - 00:38:47:01
Andrew Davidsburg
This works its way into the show later. Yeah. So one of his feats of strength is being able to just bite nails. Yeah. Unbelievable. Right. Another feat of strength is his hair. Right? He has this theory that you can strength that he could you could use this, that you can strengthen, that you can strengthen your hair. Yeah. Right.

00:38:47:02 - 00:38:54:17
Andrew Davidsburg
You can strengthen the follicles that are holding your area. Right. So he starts with these heavy combs and he starts pulling cars around with his hair.

00:38:54:18 - 00:38:56:14
Peter Banos
Okay. Right.

00:38:56:16 - 00:39:03:09
Andrew Davidsburg
He gets these giant welts. They grow huge. But he keeps doing it. And after a while he's pulling two cars that he's pulling.

00:39:03:09 - 00:39:04:15
Aaaron Berg
Six with his hair.

00:39:04:15 - 00:39:28:26
Andrew Davidsburg
With his hair, with his hair, pulling six cars. Then there's one day that lays out walking around. She's just walking the kids. Everyone is staring up at the sky, right? So she looks up to see what's going on. She sees it. She sees Joseph hanging from an airplane by his hair. He's just flying around in circles, raising, raising money for war.

00:39:28:26 - 00:39:31:03
Aaaron Berg
But guys are not. I love it.

00:39:31:06 - 00:39:40:25
Andrew Davidsburg
Absolutely right. So he starts to develop all these different feats of strength that are, let's say they're marketable.

00:39:41:01 - 00:39:42:14
Aaaron Berg
Bizarre. Bizarre. Yeah.

00:39:42:16 - 00:40:00:27
Andrew Davidsburg
Right. He also has this very unique way of changing a tire. Right. So he runs a filling station instead of using a jack to change the tire with one hand, he lifts up the car, his bare hands, he unscrews the tires, unscrews the bolts, takes the tire off, puts a new one, screws it back on and puts it back down.

00:40:01:03 - 00:40:21:25
Andrew Davidsburg
Yeah. Legend is that one day Houdini's agent came in to the filling station with a flat tire. Joseph changed his tire like that and the agent said, we gotta. We got to bring you to vaudeville. Vaudeville was like Hollywood at the time. Yeah, we got to bring you to vaudeville. So this is where Joseph life takes another change.

00:40:21:25 - 00:40:26:03
Andrew Davidsburg
He ends up leaving Texas once again, leaving Leah behind for you.

00:40:26:07 - 00:40:26:29
Peter Banos
Right?

00:40:27:01 - 00:40:30:00
Aaaron Berg
Just sitting there trying to get the tooth marks out of every table.

00:40:30:03 - 00:40:33:19
Andrew Davidsburg
And she's got like, they got like six kids for six. They got six.

00:40:33:25 - 00:40:35:15
Peter Banos
Takes of us.

00:40:35:18 - 00:40:54:00
Andrew Davidsburg
He's he's now off in New York City okay. Learning like learning the ropes for vaudeville and like cementing his act. Yeah. Right. Travels around the country brings laid in New York first. He's not just leaving it there, but trains. Brings layer to New York and travels around the country doing this.

00:40:54:07 - 00:40:56:24
Aaaron Berg
Where they live in New York. Do you know that.

00:40:56:27 - 00:41:01:05
Andrew Davidsburg
They lived on the lower? I believe they lived on the Lower East, Lower East Side at this point.

00:41:01:05 - 00:41:04:17
Aaaron Berg
They wanted to be close to Katz's $8,000 price.

00:41:04:18 - 00:41:30:06
Andrew Davidsburg
Right? Yeah. I'm a Jonah Schimmel guy myself. Oh, yeah, they're going issues. Jonah Schimmel issues are the best. Okay. They've been open, I think, since the Lower East Side. Yes. Was created. so they're living down there. He's traveling around the world. He's making thousands of dollars a week, and his act is expanded. So he's taking horseshoes and bending them so that they're straight.

00:41:30:06 - 00:41:30:18
Aaaron Berg
Okay.

00:41:30:18 - 00:41:40:28
Andrew Davidsburg
We're bending them enough times that they break in half. Yeah, it's taking a steel bar and bending it across. Is note. his neck is now very.

00:41:40:28 - 00:41:41:28
Aaaron Berg
Jewish stroke, by the.

00:41:41:28 - 00:41:45:20
Peter Banos
Way. Yes. Right. Yes.

00:41:45:22 - 00:41:47:21
Andrew Davidsburg
yes. You as well. And well-endowed and.

00:41:47:29 - 00:41:51:23
Aaaron Berg
Well-endowed in the night. You see. Yeah. He's got a very good nose.

00:41:51:23 - 00:41:52:27
Peter Banos
Yes. A very.

00:41:52:27 - 00:41:53:25
Aaaron Berg
Yeah, it's a very good.

00:41:53:25 - 00:41:56:15
Peter Banos
Note.

00:41:56:18 - 00:42:12:19
Andrew Davidsburg
his neck, his his tendon exercises work. And he was bending steel bars across his neck. Wow. he kept airplanes from taking. Yeah, there we go. He kept airplanes from taking off, with combs attached to his air.

00:42:12:20 - 00:42:13:08
Aaaron Berg
Look at this.

00:42:13:14 - 00:42:16:04
Andrew Davidsburg
Yeah, I'm telling you, this stuff's real. I'm not making this stuff.

00:42:16:04 - 00:42:18:16
Aaaron Berg
I know, I believe you use.

00:42:18:17 - 00:42:19:00
Peter Banos
What's that?

00:42:19:00 - 00:42:22:06
Andrew Davidsburg
You got a little bit. So he's got a cool with his hair.

00:42:22:08 - 00:42:23:14
Peter Banos
He's got a cool with his.

00:42:23:14 - 00:42:27:18
Andrew Davidsburg
In his hair with a chain hanging down. Yeah. Bar bending.

00:42:27:18 - 00:42:29:10
Aaaron Berg
And he was ripped for back.

00:42:29:10 - 00:42:32:21
Andrew Davidsburg
That was ripped. Yeah, but he was also five foot 435 pound.

00:42:32:21 - 00:42:34:01
Aaaron Berg
That's a good height to be.

00:42:34:02 - 00:42:36:10
Andrew Davidsburg
It is a very good height. It's a very good idea.

00:42:36:10 - 00:42:41:12
Aaaron Berg
Because I think I'm about five five and change okay okay. I was in great shape.

00:42:41:12 - 00:43:02:20
Andrew Davidsburg
Yeah. Yeah I mean he was he was built. Yeah. He was built. and you know, you can see the stuff he's doing is just, is just absurd. You see him bending steel bars and what he would do is he would get these bars increasingly shorter and shorter and shorter. Yeah. So it's not like he's taken to bar a bar that's really long that you get a lot of leverage.

00:43:02:20 - 00:43:12:17
Andrew Davidsburg
Yeah. You just tight grip and bending a six inch, a six inch, six inch bar. he would hammer nails. That's his whole fan. His whole family were strong.

00:43:12:23 - 00:43:14:24
Aaaron Berg
Yeah.

00:43:14:27 - 00:43:18:24
Andrew Davidsburg
he would take a nail and hammered into a piece of wood with his bare hands.

00:43:18:25 - 00:43:20:26
Aaaron Berg
Great.

00:43:20:29 - 00:43:57:01
Andrew Davidsburg
Anyways, just doing that stuff, traveling around until 1931. Vaudeville dries up, so there's no longer a market for strongman events. He ends up then transitioning into natural supplements. Okay. And he's like a very early adopter of, like, living a natural life, eating natural foods. He creates a brand called Pebble Ax, which is all these natural supplements. He goes down to Brooklyn, he becomes a pitchman selling on the street, he had soap that he would like, lather up his beard and then eat the soap just to show that it was natural.

00:43:57:01 - 00:44:32:21
Andrew Davidsburg
And you could, you know, and it wouldn't harm you in any way. He's doing that 30s come along and it becomes difficult once again to be a Jew here in America. the American Nazi Party, has rises, I wouldn't say rises to power, but unfortunately rises in popularity. Okay. it's really, really unbelievable. what what they did here in the United States as, as a, I guess, like a satellite of Hitler's organization.

00:44:32:23 - 00:44:47:10
Andrew Davidsburg
there were. Yeah, Madison Square Garden. there was in Madison Square Garden, there was a giant rally. there was there was actually a Nazi youth summer camp out in Long Island. it was it was no joke.

00:44:47:10 - 00:44:50:25
Aaaron Berg
They I guess the Knicks didn't go far enough into the playoffs.

00:44:50:28 - 00:44:56:10
Peter Banos
That's right, that's right.

00:44:56:12 - 00:45:00:15
Andrew Davidsburg
you know, it was really it was a difficult time to be a Jew here in America.

00:45:00:18 - 00:45:04:05
Aaaron Berg
Can never imagine that, Oh, wait. Okay.

00:45:04:07 - 00:45:06:18
Peter Banos
Yeah.

00:45:06:20 - 00:45:34:00
Andrew Davidsburg
yeah. You know, is sad. As sad as that is, this is what they were. This is what they were facing back then. And I don't know if it's to the same degree now, but you certainly see echoes of it. but, you know, Joseph Greenstein was not one that would take this lying down. So, you know, he in his in his pitch, he would do some of his, his, his, strongman acts to bring people on.

00:45:34:03 - 00:45:54:04
Andrew Davidsburg
but he would also take a nail and slam it into a board that had, a picture of a pig on it with Hitler's head, and smash the nail right through Hitler's head and talk about how terrible the Nazis were. So of course, he wasn't making a lot of friends from the Germans here, the German Bund here.

00:45:54:07 - 00:46:13:00
Andrew Davidsburg
so they started to go after him, and they would show up at his show. they would heckle him, and then he'd go down and beat the crap out of them. So there was one time that he knocked out a bunch of Nazi, knocked out two Nazis, and then, you know, was in Brooklyn. So it was near Coney Island.

00:46:13:03 - 00:46:25:26
Andrew Davidsburg
so they had like, the guess your weight booth right next door. So he knocked them both out and they carried him over to the gas. Your weight pool, and guess their weight before he put them on? Yeah, he was off by 7 pounds, but it was still quite a performance.

00:46:25:26 - 00:46:26:22
Aaaron Berg
Funny. Yeah.

00:46:26:22 - 00:46:47:26
Andrew Davidsburg
Yeah, yeah. there's a story that his son in law told about, being in being in their apartment and hearing a commotion outside, looking out the back window and seeing Joseph being surrounded by four like, big Nazi goons. And he was on his way out to help him and his mother in law, Leah said, no, no, don't go out there.

00:46:48:02 - 00:46:58:00
Andrew Davidsburg
He's got it. And Joseph ended up beating up all four of them. When the Nazis, he broke one arm and one leg and the other one he fought.

00:46:58:03 - 00:46:58:22
Peter Banos
For them and.

00:46:58:22 - 00:47:01:15
Andrew Davidsburg
Haven't put him in a trashcan.

00:47:01:17 - 00:47:11:11
Aaaron Berg
I love creative violence, right? You know, it's like you're making the man origami, right?

00:47:11:13 - 00:47:37:05
Andrew Davidsburg
So the other two, the other two ran away. and then, you know, this continued at one point, he's walking on the Upper East Side and it's Yorktown. It's called Yorktown, I think Yorkville. but it was like a big German neighborhood. There were a lot of Nazi sympathizers. He's walking down the street. He sees a sign that says, no Jews are pigs allowed, and realizes that there's a Bund meeting going on inside.

00:47:37:11 - 00:48:02:29
Andrew Davidsburg
So he walks across the street to the hardware store, and he buys a baseball bat and buys a ladder. The baseball bats, a Hank Greenberg special, big Jewish baseball player, slugger, hit almost 58 home runs. Yeah. Walks back across the street, climbs up on the ladder and smashes the sign down with the baseball bat. Yeah, right. And as he smashes the the sign down, a bunch of Nazis run out of the meeting.

00:48:02:29 - 00:48:27:24
Andrew Davidsburg
They knock them off the ladder. There's a dozen of them. He's surrounded. Right, but he pops back up and with the baseball bat, they then them all off and knocks them all out. There we go. That's the one. The hate. Greenberg. All right, so 99 bucks. That's a deal, right? I wonder if that's the one. Knocks them all out, right?

00:48:27:24 - 00:48:51:02
Andrew Davidsburg
Yeah. The police show up right? When the police show up, they arrest him. They spend the night in jail. The next day, they're in court, right? There's six Nazis sitting on one side, Joe sitting on the other. Joe is charged with aggravated assault. Right. So the, the judge looks at Joe, and he looks at the Nazis, and he looks at Joe and he says, where's everybody else?

00:48:51:04 - 00:49:02:24
Andrew Davidsburg
Assuming that Joe had to have, like, you know, 5 or 6. Yeah. What am I doing, guys? So Joe says, there's six more, but they're still in the hospital. Yeah. The judge takes one look at him and says, all right, acquitted.

00:49:02:27 - 00:49:04:09
Aaaron Berg
Really? Yeah.

00:49:04:11 - 00:49:06:09
Andrew Davidsburg
Yeah. 12 Nazis at once.

00:49:06:13 - 00:49:19:03
Aaaron Berg
I wonder this. I wonder if that baseball bat incident was the impetus for Tarantino putting the bare Jew into Inglourious Basterds, I wonder?

00:49:19:03 - 00:49:45:22
Andrew Davidsburg
I, I love Inglourious Basterds, but there are so many true stories that I would love to see. Tarantino take on. Yeah, about Nazi hunters in World War Two. Yeah, man. But yeah, it could be. It could be, so, you know, Joe spends the next 20 years things quiet down after World War Two. He wants to and he wants to enlist to go and fight.

00:49:45:22 - 00:49:54:02
Andrew Davidsburg
He's already 48 years old. It's got a bomb. I got six children. They laugh them out of the, out of the,

00:49:54:04 - 00:49:54:22
Aaaron Berg
Enlistment.

00:49:54:22 - 00:50:19:17
Andrew Davidsburg
Enlistment center. Yeah, yeah. He goes enlistment Saint Elizabeth's, and nobody's going to take him. Yeah. So next 20 years or so, he's doing the, pep acts thing. He is, you know, doing little shows here and there, giving talks and, like. And in 1974, Leia dies. It's crushed. And he's been with her for, I think, going on, going on 80 years.

00:50:19:19 - 00:50:42:15
Andrew Davidsburg
Most of us are going on seven years most of his life. Right. He's really broken, right? It is unfortunately, really the beginning of the end. He does go on to marry again. but it's really sort of the beginning of the end for him. He doesn't. One more performance in 76, in 1976. Wow. Yeah. He's 80, 83 years old.

00:50:42:15 - 00:50:43:02
Andrew Davidsburg
Yeah.

00:50:43:05 - 00:50:44:03
Aaaron Berg
80. Where was that.

00:50:44:03 - 00:50:46:19
Andrew Davidsburg
Performance? Madison Square Garden.

00:50:46:22 - 00:50:47:22
Aaaron Berg
where the Nazis.

00:50:47:25 - 00:50:48:18
Peter Banos
Right.

00:50:48:20 - 00:50:49:09
Aaaron Berg
Right.

00:50:49:09 - 00:50:50:03
Andrew Davidsburg
Yeah, right.

00:50:50:03 - 00:50:51:18
Aaaron Berg
The MSG.

00:50:51:20 - 00:51:15:22
Andrew Davidsburg
MSG. Yeah. So on stage, he's 83 years old. I have to show you. There's a picture of him at 83 years old, and he still. He still looks like a madman. he's got this long white hair. He walks out in this, in this singlet that has a big star of David in it. Yeah, it's all leather.

00:51:15:25 - 00:51:41:17
Andrew Davidsburg
and he's doing the same thing he was doing when he's 40 years old. Spike nails and have bending bars over his nose. Unbelievable. Triple standing ovations. Right? He's come all this way. He's done all these things. At 83 years of age, he still got it. Yeah. Walks off the stage. He doesn't perform again. Right? A couple years later gets cancer.

00:51:41:20 - 00:51:49:18
Andrew Davidsburg
It's a slow decline and passes away. The legend his legend is unbelievable.

00:51:49:21 - 00:51:51:19
Aaaron Berg
They called him the mighty atom.

00:51:51:19 - 00:51:52:28
Andrew Davidsburg
The mighty atom.

00:51:52:28 - 00:51:54:06
Aaaron Berg
Atom.

00:51:54:06 - 00:51:55:23
Andrew Davidsburg
That's right.

00:51:55:25 - 00:52:07:11
Aaaron Berg
The book is called The Mighty Adam the Life and Times of Joseph L Greenstein. Biography of a superhuman written by Ed Spielman. You still read books?

00:52:07:11 - 00:52:12:29
Andrew Davidsburg
I nonstop, nonstop? Oh, really? Only about Jews you've never heard of.

00:52:12:29 - 00:52:18:09
Aaaron Berg
Though there's a litany of these characters.

00:52:18:11 - 00:52:44:05
Andrew Davidsburg
I mean, there's there are Jews that you've never heard of, like the Mighty Atom. Yeah. Like, Tibor Rubin, who is the only Holocaust survivor to win the Congressional Medal of Honor. It's the Medal of Honor. there are, the first woman ever to bicycle around the world. Annie. London. Barry. And then there's Jews.

00:52:44:05 - 00:53:00:20
Andrew Davidsburg
You heard of that? You didn't know were badasses like Doctor Ruth. Doctor Ruth was a sniper in the IDF, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And the War of Independence. I can't there was a hairstylist. The famous hairstylist, the down.

00:53:00:20 - 00:53:01:07
Aaaron Berg
Sassoon.

00:53:01:07 - 00:53:01:25
Andrew Davidsburg
But Alsace.

00:53:01:27 - 00:53:03:11
Aaaron Berg
Everyone knows Vidal Sassoon.

00:53:03:11 - 00:53:06:03
Andrew Davidsburg
He was antifa, but like like like real delante.

00:53:06:09 - 00:53:08:03
Aaaron Berg
The old anti. Yeah, yeah, he's not this and.

00:53:08:04 - 00:53:11:03
Andrew Davidsburg
Not this Antifa. He was fighting fascists.

00:53:11:03 - 00:53:11:28
Aaaron Berg
Real fascists.

00:53:11:28 - 00:53:12:20
Andrew Davidsburg
Real fast.

00:53:12:21 - 00:53:14:28
Aaaron Berg
Not fascists that pretend that they're not fascist.

00:53:14:28 - 00:53:17:11
Peter Banos
No. Oh, I get,

00:53:17:13 - 00:53:32:01
Aaaron Berg
It's such an amazing world. We're gonna uncover it. We're gonna have more episodes of this. It's. It's a pleasure sitting down, talking. You know so much about this stuff. And I love that I'm along for the ride, man. So we're going to do this more often, right? I love a different Jew every week.

00:53:32:05 - 00:53:33:17
Andrew Davidsburg
Different Jew every week.

00:53:33:18 - 00:53:39:24
Aaaron Berg
All right, let's do that. Pleasure. Say thanks for having us here at.

00:53:39:27 - 00:53:41:22
Andrew Davidsburg
The Stand Studios.

00:53:41:24 - 00:53:50:03
Aaaron Berg
Thanks for having us here at the Stand Studios. We'll be back with more badass Jews.

00:53:50:05 - 00:53:51:20
Aaaron Berg
Badass Jews.