Judaism Unbound

Binya Kóatz , a "queer&trans/diasporic/arab-jewish/ashkenazi/god-loving/musical/femme/multilingual/ancestral-dreaming soul making joy and art and radical community," joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about transness, diaspora, Talmud, theology, and more, along how all of those topics flow into one another. This episode is the seventh episode in a series that intertwines explorations of Judaism,...

Ari Lev Fornari serves as senior rabbi at Kol Tzedek , a reconstructionist congregation in West Philadelphia whose name means "a voice for justice." He joins Dan and Lex for a conversation that weaves together his story of becoming a rabbi (and becoming a congregational rabbi in particular), political issues like prison abolition and white flight, and the upcoming sabbatical year ("Sh'mitah" in He...

This bonus episode of Judaism Unbound is presented in partnership with Theatre Dybbuk . Once a month, their podcast -- called The Dybbukast -- releases a new episode, and we are proud to feature episode eight of their podcast as a bonus episode here on Judaism Unbound's channel. In each episode, they bring poems, plays, and other creative texts from throughout history to life, all while revealing...

Rachel Gross , the John & Marcia Goldman Chair in American Jewish Studies at San Francisco State University and author of Beyond the Synagogue: Jewish Nostalgia as Religious Practice , joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about delis, museums, children's literature, and other religious spaces that you didn't know were religious! If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound , please help us keep things going...

Leiah Moser , author of Magical Princess Harriet and rabbi at Reconstructionist Beth Israel in New Jersey, joins Dan and Lex for a conversation that weaves together threads around transgender identity, fantasy fiction, conversion to Judaism, and more.  This episode is the fifth episode in a series that intertwines explorations of Judaism, through lenses of transgender experience, and explorations...

Mike Moskowitz is the scholar-in-residence for Trans and Queer Jewish Studies at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York City. He joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about allyship, by cisgender Jews, toward transgender Jews.  This episode is the fourth episode in a series that intertwines explorations of Judaism, through lenses of transgender experience, and explorations of gender, through l...

Koach Baruch Frazier -- a musician, activist, audiologist, and rabbinical student -- joins Dan and Lex for a conversation that upends the dichotomy of prayer, on the one hand, and action, on the other. Frazier looks back at their own journey toward the rabbinate, and in doing so considers what drumbeats, the inner ear, and silence have to teach us. As it turns out, listening to what these vessels...

Dan and Lex were thrilled to transform from hosts into guests, in an episode of Contact Chai , "a podcast from Mishkan Chicago exploring down-to-earth Judaism in conversation," hosted by Lizzie Heydemann.  Heydemann is herself a past guest on Judaism Unbound, and you can listen to her appearance on Judaism Unbound here . We encourage you to subscribe to Contact Chai on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , o...

Jericho Vincent , a genderqueer and post-ultra-Orthodox writer and lecturer, is the author of the memoir Cut Me Loose  and co-author of  Legends of the Talmud . They join Dan and Lex for a conversation about being genderqueer, leaving ultra-orthodoxy, connecting to other religious traditions, and entering rabbinical school.  This episode is the second episode in a series that intertwines explorati...

Becky Silverstein and Laynie Soloman , co-founders of the Trans Halakha Project , join Dan and Lex to kick off a series of conversations that will intertwine explorations of Judaism, through lenses of transgender experience, and gender, through lenses of Jewish experience. If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound , please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Supp...

David Hirshberg , author of My Mother's Son , Jacobo's Rainbow , and A Bronx Cheer (Upcoming), joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about the role of Jewish fiction in the Jewish present and future.   If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound , please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here! To access shownotes for this episod...

Natalie Ginsberg and Madison Margolin , two co-founders of the Jewish Psychedelic Summit, join Dan and Lex to discuss their upcoming event, taking place on May 2nd-3rd. Register for the Jewish Psychedelic Summit here! The third co-founder of the summit, Zac Kamenetz , is himself a past guest on Judaism Unbound ( listen to his episode here ). Learn more about the Jewish Psychedelic Summit by headin...

Aimee Lucido and Sofiya Pasternack , award-winning authors of novels geared toward students in middle grades, join Dan and Lex for a conversation about Jewish fiction. They explore some of the gaps in the ecosystem of Jewish literature and envision what it would look like to fill some of those gaps -- through their own work, but also through work done by other authors. Aimee Lucido is the author o...

Dan and Lex close out a mini-series of conversations about Torah (and the Bible more generally) by claiming that Torah isn't just those books from a few thousand years ago. It's not even just those books, plus the oral conversations written down centuries later. We -- our experiences and our intuitions -- are also part of the term "Torah." If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound , please help us keep t...

Xava De Cordova and Michael Sokolovsky , co-hosts of Xai, How Are You? (a fellow podcast in the Jewish pod-o-sphere), join Dan and Lex for a crossover episode, airing simultaneously as an episode of Judaism Unbound and an episode of Xai, How are You! The four of them talk about what the Talmud is, who Shabbetai Zevi is, what Xai How are You is, and -- for the first time in Judaism Unbound's histor...

Tzemah Yoreh , author of Why Abraham Murdered Isaac: The First Stories of the Bible Revealed and leader of The City Congregation for Humanistic Judaism , joins Dan and Lex to talk about what Yoreh terms "the original bible." Find out how some of the stories, like the binding of Isaac, may not have always looked the way they do today, and why that matters for those who are interested in the stories...

Liana Wertman joins Dan and Lex to discuss her work as the founder of The Torah Studio , a new (and fully-digital) center for Torah study that encourages people to take ownership of traditional Jewish texts.  If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound , please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here! To access shownotes for thi...

Baruch Halpern , the Covenant Foundation Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Georgia, joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about Biblical history and Biblical archaeology. They explore how those two realms relate to one another (get it? "DIGGING" up Biblical History!), along with what these ancient texts and discoveries have to do with us today. If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound , pl...

Dan and Lex, in celebrating 5 years since Judaism Unbound launched its podcast, reflect on some of the core ideas they've explored in that time -- and they add on some new thoughts, drawing on a framework of "low-voltage" and "high-voltage" forms of Jewish experience. If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound , please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Support J...

Shawn Lichaa is a Karaite. "What's that," you ask? Very valid question! Karaites are a group of Jews whose traditions, and interpretations, are built around the Bible alone -- not the Talmud or any other piece of what Rabbanites (rabbinic Jews) call "the oral Torah." Lichaa, founder of The Karaite Press and A Blue Thread: A Jewish Blog with a Thread of Karaite Throughout , joins Dan and Lex to exp...

Anna Solomon , author of The Book of V -- a contemporary novel that is crafted in relationship to the Biblical book of Esther -- joins Dan and Lex to discuss her work, along with and ways in which her contemporary novel could influence readers' experience of the holiday of Purim. If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound , please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donatio...

Josie Riesman , author of True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee , joins Dan and Lex to explore two meanings of the phrase "Marvel's Torah" (this episode's title).  First, "the Torah of Marvel" -- what can be learned from the Marvel comics universe when approached through a Jewish lens? And second, "Marvel is Torah" -- the idea that the structure of Marvel's universe, in and of itself, repre...

This bonus episode of Judaism Unbound is presented in partnership with Theatre Dybbuk . Once a month, their podcast -- called The Dybbukast -- releases a new episode, and we are proud to feature episode four of their podcast as a bonus episode here on Judaism Unbound's channel. In each episode, they bring poems, plays, and other creative texts from throughout history to life, all while revealing t...

So there's the Torah. 5 books of Moses. But what happens right afterward? Rachel Havrelock , Associate Professor of English and Jewish Studies at the University of Illinois-Chicago, joins Dan and Lex to talk about the book that comes right after the Torah -- Joshua. Full of violent conquest, it's not a book that's easy for contemporary readers. But what can we learn when we look at it closely? If...

Ron Hendel , the Norma and Sam Dabby Professor of Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, joins Dan and Lex to open up a mini-series of conversations (to be released in the coming weeks) on the Hebrew Bible.  How old is the Bible? What "genre(s)" is it? Is it best understood as one big book or a bunch of smaller books? Why does any of this matter? These are quest...