Judaism Unbound

UpStart Unbound is our first-ever collaborative podcast episode, recorded in front of a live studio audience in Silicon Valley. UpStart has been the premier accelerator of Jewish innovation over the last decade, and we wanted to explore together the idea that the over 40 organizations that UpStart has helped move from idea to organization could be viewed as prototypes that are field-testing some b...

Rabbi Joshua Lesser, of Bet Haverim (House of Friends), a Gay- and Lesbian-founded synagogue in Atlanta, joins Judaism Unbound for a discussion on being Jewish and Queer, reflecting on the history of Queer Jews in American Jewish life, the positive shifts that have taken place over the past few decades, where there is still work to be done, and the significance of the Queer experience for other Je...

Sandra Lawson, described in a recent article as "an African-American lesbian who converted to Judaism, eats vegan, and is now studying to be a rabbi at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College," joins Dan and Lex in a discussion on the present and future of Judaism. She offers her take on issues ranging from race, sexuality, and intermarriage to the future of synagogues and emerging form...

Professor Helen Kim and Associate Dean of Students Noah Leavitt (both of Whitman College) join Judaism Unbound for an episode on their book, entitled JewAsian. The book provides an in-depth exploration of two important groups of people: couples made up of one Jewish partner and one Asian partner (the Asian individuals may or may not be Jewish themselves) and the children of such relationships. Kim...

How can the methodology of an artist shape or re-shape Judaism in new ways? How can we begin to understand Judaism as a material of art in and of itself? In this final episode of Judaism Unbound's series on the role of art in Judaism, Dan and Lex ask explore the relationship between contemporary Judaism and the creative impulse. If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going...

Aliza Kline, Executive Director of OneTable and former Executive Director of Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikveh, joins Judaism Unbound for the third episode in a four-episode series on Judaism's relationship to art and artists. She explores the ways in which design thinking can play a crucial role in successful Jewish institutions, along with some of the unique contributions of the two o...

How might Judaism, atheism, and art blend together into a deep exploration of the meaning of a key Jewish practice today? Celebrated comics artist and animator Nina Paley, creator of the highly regarded animated feature film Sita Sings the Blues and the animated feature film-in-progress Seder Masochism 1 , joins Dan and Lex to discuss a wide variety of issues that have arisen as she has taken on t...

What role do art and artists play in contemporary Judaism? Amichai Lau-Lavie, founder, Executive Director, and Spiritual Director of Lab/Shul, joins Dan and Lex to kick off a unit of episodes exploring that question in detail. He speaks about his own experiences leading an artist-driven community, and he takes on a variety of related questions on issues ranging from technology, to pluralism, to li...

We are proud to release our very first bonus episode of Judaism Unbound! Listen in as Garry Stevens interviews our co-host, Dan Libenson, about The Secret Book of Kings, a new novel by Yochi Brandes. This episode was initially released as an episode of Stevens's own podcast, The History in the Bible. We thank Garry for permitting us to re-release an episode of his show on our own feed, and encoura...

In an act of role reversal, Lex enters the role of solo host of Judaism Unbound and welcomes Dan onto the show as this week's featured guest! In this episode, Dan discusses a newly published book entitled The Secret Book of Kings by Yochi Brandes, which he has been working for three years to bring to English-speaking readers. Together, Dan and Lex explore why this book's publication represents an...

Professor Richard Elliott Friedman joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about modern Biblical scholarship, which his book Who Wrote the Bible? brought to lay audiences in an accessible way nearly thirty years ago (and which had a major influence on Dan and Lex). Among the most influential books on Biblical literature of the 20th Century, Who Wrote the Bible? provides a scholarly overview of the au...

It's hard to believe, but this episode marks Judaism Unbound's six-month anniversary -- 26 weeks! In honor of the occasion, Dan and Lex look back at what they've learned from the topics we've covered thus far, and offer a lens into the next six months of the podcast and beyond. If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation....

Dan and Lex close out a series of episodes entitled "Emergent Judaism," which featured Rachel Barenblat and David Markus (of ALEPH: The Alliance for Jewish Renewal), Noa Kushner and Yoav Schlesinger (of The Kitchen), and Sarah Lefton (of BimBam). We discuss what it means to look at Judaism through a "modular" lens, such that various elements of Judaism are "unbundled"...

What does it look like to start a Jewish organization that functions almost entirely in the digital world? Sarah Lefton, the founder and executive director of BimBam (formerly G-dcast), an organization that produces animated videos about Jewish texts, practices, and ideas, as well as apps and other new media, 1 joins Dan and Lex to give us a window into that process. She outlines her own Jewish st...

The Kitchen, an emergent Jewish spiritual community in San Francisco, made waves earlier this year when they launched their Hello Mazel initiative -- a "quarterly box of Jewish stuff" sent to people's homes, which quickly became the most-funded Jewish Kickstarter project ever and reached thousands of people across the country. Dan and Lex welcome two of its leaders -- Rabbi Noa Kushner a...

Rabbis Rachel Barenblat ("The Velveteen Rabbi") and David Markus, co-chairs of the board of ALEPH: The Alliance for Jewish Renewal, join us for the first episode of a four-episode series entitled "Emergent Innovation." Along with co-hosts Dan Libenson and Lex Rofes, they look back at the history of Jewish Renewal, look forward towards its future, and discuss its animating philo...

Might we learn something about Judaism from the cell phones that we carry in our pocket every day? In this episode, Dan and Lex explore whether Judaism's "operating system" is functioning properly. If not, they ask whether it is need of a "patch," an "upgrade," or a "new release" -- or is it even possible that Judaism could shift from an "operating syst...

Beth Finger, founder of Jewish Without Walls (JWOW) joins Judaism Unbound for the third episode in our "New Platforms in Jewish Life series." We learn from the successful strategies of her organization, and in doing so converse about issues ranging from contemporary denominational divides to the role of the internet in the Jewish present and future. If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, pl...

David Cygielman, founder and CEO of Moishe House, joins Dan and Lex for the second episode in the four-episode series entitled "New Platforms for Jewish Life." Moishe House's mission is to provide vibrant Jewish community for young adults by supporting leaders in their 20s as they create meaningful home-based Jewish experiences for themselves and their peers. If you're enjoying Judaism U...

Angie Thurston and Casper ter Kuile, experts on the emerging group of Americans known as the religious "nones," join Judaism Unbound for Episode 18. Thurston and ter Kuile are co-authors of two monographs, entitled How We Gather and Something More, respectively, and they serve as Ministry Innovation Fellows at Harvard Divinity School. If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us ke...

Dan and Lex close out their three-episode series on Intermarriage: The New Normal in this episode. They explain why they don't think intermarriage is bad for American Judaism, explore questions of what it means to be a "Jewish leader," and discuss shifts away from binary, either-or ways of thinking. If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or m...

Paul Golin, formerly the Associate Executive Director of Big Tent Judaism, joins Dan and Lex for the second episode of our Intermarriage: The New Normal series. We examine the role that intermarriage plays in the Jewish world today, and we broaden our conversation to discuss broader trends affecting the Jewish present and future. If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going...

Dr. Keren McGinity joins us for a conversation about intermarriage and gender. McGinity is the author of Still Jewish: A History of Women and Intermarriage in America and Marrying Out: Jewish Men, Intermarriage, and Fatherhood. She founded the Love & Tradition Institute and serves as Director of the Interfaith Families Jewish Engagement Program at Hebrew College. If you're enjoying Judaism Unb...

For the final episode of our "Judaism in America" series, Dan and Lex build on key ideas that emerged in the three previous conversations in the series, which featured Jonathan Sarna, Anita Diamant, and Shaul Magid, beginning to develop a set of ideas about where American Judaism will be headed in the future. If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one...

Professor Shaul Magid joins Dan and Lex for the third episode in our four-episode series, entitled "Judaism in America: Evolutions, Revolutions, or Something Else?" Professor Magid's book, American Post-Judaism, serves as a springboard for a discussion about American post-ethnicity, the Holocaust, survivalism, and spiritual humanism. Next week, Dan and Lex close out the series by connect...