Evolve

“People are really still antisemitic? I thought you all were just regular white people now.” When social justice activist Carin Mrotz heard those words from a Black activist, Mrotz knew she had even more to do: Educating non-Jewish progressives about antisemitism, putting antisemitism on the progressive agenda, building alliances to tackle antisemitism, racism and all expressions of white supremac...

The first American bat mitzvah took place on March 18, 1922. As its 100th anniversary nears, we’ve got something of a departure for our podcast. We’re running an episode that we co-sponsored of Adventures in Jewish Studies, a podcast of the Association for Jewish Studies. In it, guest scholars Rabbi Carole Balin, Melissa R. Klapper, and Rabbi Deborah Waxman consider the history of the bat mitzvah...

We talk with Rabbi Rebecca Richman of Philadelphia’s Germantown Jewish Centre about environmental justice and the legacy of environmental racism, particularly focusing on her adopted hometown of Philadelpha, whose refinery – which recently made national headlines with a massive conflagration – has harmed Black and brown residents' health for decades. She addresses how the Torah can help us conceiv...

At 87, Rabbi Arthur Waskow still proudly calls himself a radical. His most revolutionary act may have taken place 52 years ago, when he wrote, published and organized the original Freedom Seder. Celebrated, debated and criticized, the Freedom Seder upended the contemporary seder by incorporating contemporary, non-Jewish liberation struggles. We talk about the origins of the Freedom Seder and what...

Natural Organic Reduction — or, more colloquially, human composting — is not only legal in Washington State, but also happening, right now. People are choosing to have their remains rapidly converted into soil. How will Jewish leaders and communities respond to a practice that, on some level, is challenging to Jewish law, to centuries of burial practices, and, maybe, to people’s sensibilities? In...

Since Ta-Nehisi Coates published his influential Atlantic essay “The Case for Reparations” in 2014, a number of thinkers have made explicitly Jewish arguments for (and against) reparations for American slavery. Discussions have addressed concerns ranging from West German reparations to Israel, to Talmudic arguments, to the Jewish obligation to pursue justice. Educator and activist Rabbi Aryeh Bern...

Endowments and donor-advised funds: They may sound like boring financial terms, but they're actually part of a fascinating history of philanthropy in the Jewish community. They reflect the ways in which individuals and organizations use financial resources to impact the Jewish community and democratic society writ large.  For ha...

Does the Talmud offer a perspective on police reform, and whether it makes sense to, as the slogan says, defund the police? Rabbi Aryeh Cohen, a Talmudic scholar and an advocate for redirecting police funding, explains what ancient Judaism does and doesn’t have to say about policing. After a quick post-election debrief, Cohen lays out the case for a new approach to policing, one in which far fewer...

How can Jewish ethics shape how people make decisions about daily life during a pandemic? Rabbi Mira Wasserman, who directs the Center for Jewish Ethics, explains how ethical considerations have shaped her own decisions — such as whether to drive her child to school or send him on the school bus — and how they should operate on a communal level. She also addresses the narrowness of questions of me...

"A dream uninterpreted is like a letter not read.” That quote, attributed to Rabbi Hisda in the Talmud, coupled with the frequency and importance of dreams in the Bible, might make you think dream interpretation plays a central role in Jewish tradition. Yet Rabbi Haviva Ner-David, an Orthodox feminist turned “post-denominational, interspiritual rabbi”, says that dreams have long been neglected in...

Making art is either for children or acclaimed artists, right? Not if Rabbi Adina Allen has anything to say about it. Allen is the co-founder of the Jewish Studio Project and daughter of a pioneering therapist. In this episode, Allen makes the case that engaging in a creative process is something that adults not only can do, but should do. Art-making, she explains, can be a tool for emotional regu...

In our conversation with Rabbi Elliot Kukla, we discuss his essay for Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations about the profound and unexpected ways in which trauma can affect a person's health and overall spiritual wellbeing. In the piece and this interview, he shares some of what he's learned about life by being chronically ill. We discuss his heightened appreciation for the interdependence...

As far back as 1988, Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb was convinced that climate change presented the greatest threat to humanity’s and the earth’s health and survival. He was determined to do everything in his power to safeguard the planet for future generations. So why go into the rabbinate? In this interview, he explains how Jewish values and community have served as the underpinning for his environ...

In many Jewish communities, Israel-Palestine is the third rail that nobody wants to step on. Yet the Jewish community of Madison, Wis., found a way to have a sustained, facilitated dialogue that brought together participants with vastly different viewpoints. In this episode, professional facilitator and mediator Harry Webne-Behrman explains how they did it, what was why dialogue is so central to a...

When he confronted demonstrators at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va.,hearing the chants of “the Jews will not replace us”, Rabbi Mordechai Liebling came face-to-face with white supremacy and antisemitism. As a child of Holocaust survivors, Liebling has thought about antisemitism his entire life, and as a veteran organizer and activists, he’s worked with a cross-section of gro...

John Backman wore a dress as a child and had never felt comfortable identifying as a man. And only in the past decade, well into middle-age, John, a writer and spiritual director, began to use the pronouns she and her (and sometimes going by the name Janelle.) Yet, she identifies as gender non-binary, rather than as a woman. What has all this meant for her relationship with her wife of decades? He...

Imagine you’re an African American Jew-by-choice and made the monumental decision to go to rabbinical school. A fellow synagogue board member says, “wow, you’re more Jewish than the Jews.” Throughout rabbinical school, the first thing you’re asked when you enter Jewish space is “how can you be Jewish?” or “when did you convert?” And then after starting your first job as a campus rabbi, a parent as...

Slavery has been described as America’s original sin. Abolished with the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865, slavery still casts a shadow over American life. Today, many Americans are seeking to better understand, and respond to, this tortured history. Can Judaism offer some guidelines for how to do that? Do Jews have to atone for the sin of slavery, even though mass Jewish migration to the Uni...

In our third episode of Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations, we speak with Rabbi Joshua Lesser of Congregation Bet Haverim in Atlanta. A noted civil rights activist and leader, Lesser shares the evolution of his thinking on race and how fighting injustice has always been a core component of his rabbinate. He breaks down the Jewish conversation on race into an internal and external conversa...

In episode 2, we speak with Rabbi Ariana Katz of Hinenu: The Baltimore Justice Shtiebl, a new congregation that harkens back to an Eastern European, hyper-local vision of Jewish community. Katz, an under-30 rabbi who once lived in an anarchist collective, describes her efforts to organize a new, intergenerational community convened around spirited prayer and social justice activism. Rather than se...

This inaugural episode features Rabbi Rachel Weiss of Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, Ill. The discussion focuses on Weiss’s Evolve essay “21st Century Judaism: Reimagining Synagogues and Communities” (You can find the link in show notes, below). In this inaugural episode, we speak with Rabbi Rachel Weiss of Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, Ill. Weiss describes...

Coming in late September, this new podcast brings Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations to life. In this preview trailer, Rabbi Jacob Staub, Ph. D., and Bryan Schwartzman, an award-winning journalist, offer a taste of what’s to come. How does Judaism continue to evolve? Be part of the conversation: Visit our home on the web, Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations : http://evolve.reconst...

All good things must come to an end. In this final all-banter episode of #TrendingJewish, Bryan and Rachael go behind the scenes of podcast production. Highlights are reviewed, kudos are given, and take-aways are taken away. And last but not least, stay subscribed to this feed for a new podcast coming in September: Evolve. Subscribe by Email This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visi...

This is the second of a two-part series in which we explore contemporary trends in the Jewish camping world. In this episode, Jeremy Fingerman, CEO of the Foundation for Jewish Camp, shares his journey from corporate executive, working for well-known brands Campbell’s Soup and Manischewitz, to building the collective brand of Jewish day and overnight camps. He discusses ways the foundation has sou...

Rabbi Isaac Saposnik, executive director of Havaya Summer Programs, discusses the latest trends in Jewish camping, from shorter sessions to the rise of specialty camps like Havaya Arts. Saposnik makes the case for the valuable role of Jewish overnight camp in developing campers’ Jewish identities and overall sense of self. The discussion focuses on ways to make camps welcoming and embracing for ch...