18Forty Podcast

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt - journalist - about her relationship with writing. Having appeared in publications like the New York Times and Haaretz, Avital is an accomplished author. Writing since her childhood, she has found inspiration in a variety of arenas, like reporting, Judaism, and advocacy. - What inspired Avital to start writing, and how...

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Dani Ritholtz - rabbi and author - about the loss of his father to further explore Tisha B’Av’s relationship to loss. Dani Ritholtz lost his father to Pancreatic cancer in 2014. As part of his grieving process, he wrote a book exploring the development of his relationship to his loss throughout the ordeal. Here Dani talks about the book and its su...

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Rabbi Josh Grajower - rabbi and educator - about the loss of his wife, as well as the loss that Tisha B’Av represents for the Jewish People. The Jewish people mourn every year on Tisha B’Av, but it can still be hard to connect with the feelings of the day. Mourning is felt most strongly with those closest to us, and while the things we mourn on Ti...

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, our host, David Bashevkin, reflects on 18Forty’s Jewish peoplehood episodes. David reassesses 18Forty’s Jewish peoplehood topic from September 2020, which featured Rav Aaron Lopiansky, Laura Adkins, Bethany Mandel, and Samuel Freedman. Using highlight clips from those episodes, David explores what brings together a group of people to form a peoplehood, the w...

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we sit down with our host, David Bashevkin, to reflect on 18Forty’s comedy episodes. David revisits 18Forty’s comedy exploration from July of 2020, featuring comedians Gary Gulman and Leah Forster and Rabbi Daniel Feldman. David once again explores the connections between comedy and life, and how comedy can help cope with tragedy. He also explores some of th...

In this anniversary episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we sit down with our host, David Bashevkin, to reflect on the last year of episodes. 18Forty has explored many important and interesting topics and has helped build a community of people interested in exploring these ideas. But it has been a big undertaking involving many unforeseen factors and complications. - How has 18Forty decided what topics...

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Rabbi Jacob J. Schacter - rabbi, professor, and historian - about censorship as it relates to Jewish history. Though censorship exists in many areas, it is particularly interesting to analyze it from the lens of Jewish history. It can be tempting to idealize the lives of gedolim when writing about them, or to whitewash parts of history that don’t...

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Jonathan Rosenblum - journalist and author of multiple ArtScroll biographies - about censorship and specifically how it applies to biographies. One of the many areas in which censorship can be exercised is biography writing. Certain biographies of gedolim have been criticized for censoring their life stories to mask their imperfections, distorting...

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Altie Karper, editorial director of Schocken Books, about censorship and cancel culture. Every community has boundaries, and every community needs a way to enforce those boundaries. As Altie’s experience publishing a book that received religious pushback tells us, it can be hard to gauge if something will be deemed appropriate. If a public figure...

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to an anonymous divorced man who gives us his perspective on the divorce process and the need to protect oneself from his own darkest inclinations. While one would never assume themselves capable of get (divorce document) refusal, the emotions of uncoupling run high and it's possible to find yourself considering using the get as a bargaining chip. We...

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Bari Mitzmann - Instagram content creator and host of the Women of Valor podcast - about social media advocacy, particularly in regard to the agunah crisis. With an Instagram audience of 30,000 followers, Bari is often asked to promote causes. One such cause was the recent #FreeChava campaign where Bari's promotion helped spark recent support for...

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Keshet Starr - CEO of ORA - about what it’s like to work on the front lines of agunah activism. As the CEO of ORA - the Organization for the Resolution of Agunot - Keshet is directly involved with many cases of get-refusal, working with both parties to ensure a satisfactory resolution. She is also involved in agunah advocacy - both for specific ag...

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Rabbi Shlomo Weissman - head of Beth Din of America, YU Professor, and former lawyer - about the halakhic complexities of, and attempted solutions for, the agunah crisis. A halakhic divorce contract, called a “get,” must be given from the husband to wife, and the parties must give/receive the get willingly. When one or the other party doesn’t will...

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Andrew Solomon - a Pulitzer Prize finalist - about intergenerational divergence, as well as his book, Far from the Tree, which was in some ways the very inspiration for this topic. Andrew’s experience with intergenerational divergence began as a child, when his gay identity imbued him with a sense of outsiderness that is evident in his work. His b...

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Rabbi Menachem Penner—dean of RIETS at Yeshiva University—and his son Gedalia—a musician, cantor-in-training, and member of the LGBTQ community—about their experience in reconciling their family’s religious tradition with Gedalia’s sexual orientation. When Gedalia realized he was gay as a young teenager, his parents weren’t sure how best to deal w...

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we sit down with Rabbi Daniel Grama—rabbi of Westside Shul and Valley Torah High School—and his daughter Aliza—a former Bais Yaakov student and recovered addict—about navigating their religious and other differences. Daniel is a rabbi in Los Angeles, and has, to some extent, dedicated his life to teaching others about Orthodox Judaism. Aliza experienced a re...

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we sit down with Rabbanit Rachelle Fraenkel—speaker, educator, and yoetzet halacha— about the effects of tragedy on emunah. In 2014, Rabbanit Rachelle Fraenkel’s son Naftali was kidnapped and murdered in a tragic terror attack. The week before the world learned of his fate was sad but hopeful, leaving many feeling crushed by the outcome. Despite this impossi...

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we sit down with Dr. Aaron Segal, philosophy professor and student of both Rav Aharon Lichtenstein and Alvin Plantinga, to discuss God from the perspective of analytic philosophy. Analytic philosophy is mathematical, breaking claims into small pieces to rigorously analyze the language and concepts. The cost of this approach is its unwieldiness and high stand...

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we sit down with Rabbi David Aaron, author, thinker, and educator, to discuss what God is and isn’t. People often think of God as a powerful, heavenly figure giving commandments, but to Rabbi Aaron, God is more of an experience of awe or good that morally inspires. This experience is impacted by our past experiences, often most prominently by those involving...

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we sit down for a special session with our host, David Bashevkin, to discuss one of the podcast’s first topics: going off the derech. There are many preconceptions that come with leaving one’s religious life. People often claim to know the precise psychological reasons that caused someone to leave and what kind of life they’re currently living. There are alw...

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we sit down for a special podcast with our host, David Bashevkin, to review the first topic that 18Forty covered: Talmud. Though Judaism has many facets to its practice, Talmud study has long been one of its hallmarks. It is a sprawling text with many commentaries, and so can be analyzed from any number of perspectives. This episode highlight three: those of...

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we sit down for a special podcast with our host, David Bashevkin, to discuss the podcast’s namesake, the year 1840. Though humanity’s history is long and rich, it’s only recently that the world has begun to look like we’re used to. From the renaissance to the scientific and industrial revolutions, technology and information seem to be progressing at an expon...

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we sit down with Eli Rubin – writer and researcher at chabad.org – to think about the stereotypes associated with social justice and vision, and how those seeming boundaries have been transcended. Social reform requires that one embrace at least some change, leading some to think that it is antithetical to conservative worldviews. While the compatibility of...

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we sit down with Dr. Rivka Press Schwartz – Shalom Hartman Institute Fellow, SAR Associate Principal, and Princeton PhD – to think about ways in which social justice can be incorporated into Orthodox education systems. History has seen many hierarchical class systems that benefit some to the detriment of others. The Jewish people have not often been the bene...

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we sit down with Rabbi Jeremy Wieder – rosh yeshiva, PhD, Bible professor, and passionate Orthodox moral voice – to discuss what the Torah has to say about social justice. The Torah serves as a moral guidebook for many, with some citing the avos as exemplifying generosity, even towards those they didn’t know. One might therefore expect that those most engros...