Canaan, Palestine, Judea... What Are We Even Calling This Place?
An interview with Alex Stein
When the British Museum quietly updated some of its ancient Near East exhibit labels from "Palestine" to "Canaan," the internet exploded. But what does the history actually say?
Israel tour guide, Jewish educator, and Substack writer Alex Stein joins Jay and ChayaLeah to break it all down, from the Bronze Age Canaanites and the Hyksos to Herodotus, to Hadrian officially naming the Roman province "Palestina" in the second century CE. Along the way, we get into Jewish indigeneity, the archaeology of the Israelite conquest (spoiler: it's complicated), dual-narrative tourism, and how you'd even begin to explain any of this to a sixth grader. This is the episode for anyone who wants to actually understand the history beneath the headlines, without the yelling.
Make sure to check out Alex’s upcoming Love of the Land Tour in October!
Article mentioned in the episode:
British Museum removes term Palestine from some exhibits | The Jerusalem Post