2000 years of Jewish history in cutting-edge videos: portrait of Jeremy Shuback
- Caroline Haïat
- 5 hours ago
- 4 min read
An engaging and unconventional figure, Jeremy Shuback is an American motion designer, filmmaker, and illustrator who makes history compelling through playful, highly accessible videos that captivate even the most reluctant audiences. Based in California, Jeremy brings more than fifteen years of experience in video production, with particular expertise in motion graphic design and sound editing. A true editing virtuoso, he led an ambitious project aimed at covering 2,000 years of Jewish history in just twenty videos and has collaborated with numerous artists, including Elijah Aaron.
Jeremy has a rare talent for capturing his audience’s attention through sharp, concise, and impactful content. With remarkable ease, he transforms complex historical subjects into clear, engaging, and educational videos that have already amassed hundreds of thousands of views. Carefully crafted scripts and immersive sound design immediately draw viewers in. Both ambitious and highly talented, Jeremy seeks to revolutionize education by demonstrating that history can be taught differently; teachers have already reached out to tell him how much his videos help students better understand the material.
Clear, dynamic, historically rigorous, and visually polished, Jeremy’s videos have been met with resounding success. Among his most notable works are “100 CE – Jews and the Roman Empire,” “1100 CE – Crusades, Ashkenaz, and Sepharad,” and “300 CE – Christianity, Rabbinic Judaism, and a Changing World.”
“I started making videos on YouTube in 2012. At the time, I was living in Los Angeles, trying to build a career in the Hollywood industry, particularly in visual effects and title design, but it was extremely difficult to stand out. I was then recruited by the company Bim Bam in the San Francisco area to produce short animated films, mainly educational content. I stayed there for six and a half years, during which I produced hundreds of videos, including an animated series for early childhood. When the company shut down, I went freelance. At the same time, I began developing my own videos,” Jeremy tells Itonnews.
Things quickly accelerated for Jeremy. He began receiving numerous requests to produce videos, and his career was officially launched. Although he grew up in a traditional Jewish environment, he soon realized that there was a vast period of Jewish history he did not know well—from the destruction of the Second Temple to the modern era, just before the Shoah.
“I then set myself a challenge: create one video per hundred-year period, each telling a fascinating story from that era. I made twelve for one company, then six for another. Over time, one subject in particular began to obsess me: Sabbatai Tsevi. I wanted to understand this messianic movement in depth. That’s how I ended up making several videos on the topic, and eventually covering entire centuries of history,” Jeremy explains.
Sabbatai Tsevi (1626–1676) is a major and controversial figure in Jewish history—a false messiah whose movement profoundly shook the Jewish world in the seventeenth century.
When choosing his topics, Jeremy says he first asks himself a simple question: What subject would I personally like to understand better?
“For example, there’s a legend about a ‘lost Jewish empire’—I haven’t covered it, but ideas like that intrigue me. Other topics, such as the origin of the term ‘Judaism,’ sometimes just inspire a great title. If I find both a compelling angle and a genuine historical question, then I fully commit to research. My goal is to start from a small story—an event, a character, an intrigue—and use it to draw the viewer into a much broader world, such as Jewish Spain in the fourteenth century or the Ottoman Empire,” he says.
The Role of Animated Content in Transmitting Memory
According to Jeremy, animated content reaches audiences who would never spontaneously pick up an academic book or sit through an hour-long lecture. His videos, which average around eight minutes, serve as an introduction—a gateway to a subject—encouraging viewers to explore further through reading and research.
“I want to offer an entry point, a taste of the subject,” he explains.
He strives to be as accurate as possible, though the task is far from easy. Religious history is often shaped by biased narratives: some seek to portray Jews as flawless, others as monstrous. Jeremy rejects both approaches and embraces the responsibility that comes with telling these stories—one he takes great pride in.
“What concerns me is how far certain narratives can go, and whether my videos could unintentionally be used to support conspiratorial thinking. But I continue, because nuance is essential. These stories need to be told, even if they don’t reinforce a simplistic or comforting worldview,” he says.
Jeremy is currently working on a new project aimed at mapping Jewish false messiahs throughout history. He has met with a specialist in several ancient Jewish languages—most of them now extinct—who has devoted significant time to studying messianic figures in Jewish history. This researcher serves as his starting point.
“It’s a somewhat absurd idea, because one could endlessly debate what ‘the messiah’ actually means. That’s precisely how the video will begin. Then I’ll tell the stories of a few individuals who claimed to be messiahs, or whom others believed to be so,” Jeremy explains.
Beyond his technical mastery and narrative creativity, Jeremy Shuback now stands out as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary visual pedagogy. His videos, which reconnect even the most disengaged audiences with history, reflect a deep commitment to transmitting knowledge differently—faithfully, thoughtfully, and with intellectual honesty.
At a time when education is searching for new ways to reach an image-saturated generation, his work demonstrates the relevance of a more vivid, embodied, and curiosity-driven approach to learning.
Jeremy’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/thebulfrog
Caroline Haïat