Judaism Unbound

Jory Handelsman Mayschak is the founder and CEO of BaMidbar , the nation’s first Jewish wilderness therapy program. She joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about community-oriented approaches to youth mental health and wellness, all through a distinctly Jewish lens. Learn more about Shawn Harris's upcoming (un)course, called Dungeons & Dragons & Dreidels ,  by clicking here! Acc...

Expanding the Canon is an initiative from the Washington DC-based Theater J , which has commissioned seven racially and ethnically diverse Jewish writers to create new full-length plays. These plays will thematically and visually center diverse Jewish narratives in order to correct and broaden the historically limited portrayals of Jewishness on stages in the United States and around the world. Ha...

Conversion to Judaism is a process dating back to roughly the 2nd century BCE, but even with this long history, mainstream Jewish institutions often fail to wholly welcome these individuals into their communities. In this conversation, Dan and Lex discuss attitudes towards conversion and explore the future of integrating the beauty and brilliance that people who convert bring to the Jewish communi...

Tamar Kamionkowski serves as professor of Biblical Studies at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. She joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about the wide range of understandings of God in the Hebrew Bible and Jewish history, and how those understandings open up new Jewish possibilities today. Kamionkowski is also teaching an UnYeshiva course this fall called God? Gods? Godd...

What are the purposes of ritual in our lives? What are the ingredients that go into a successful ritual? Rachel Rose Reid , a ritualist and storyteller who was the first British person to be ordained by the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about crafting Jewish ritual.  Rachel Rose Reid is teaching a course in the UnYeshiva this Fall entitled Crafting Jewish...

Yoshi Silverstein is the founder and executive director of Mitsui Collective , an organization that seeks to "build resilient community, through embodied Jewish practice and somatic antiracism." Register for the course he is teaching in the UnYeshiva, beginning in early October, via this link! To access full shownotes for this episode, click here .  Learn more about current and upcoming courses in...

Danya Ruttenberg , the Scholar-in-Residence for the National Council of Jewish Women -- and also (unofficially) the "Rabbi of Twitter" according to many -- joins Dan and Lex for a special Yom Kippur episode of Judaism Unbound! Together they explore her book, On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World , considering what it has to teach us about the process of making amends, an...

Some people become Jewish at some point in life after they are born. Typically, they're referred to as either "Jews-by-choice" (in contrast to "Jews-by-birth") or as "converts" to Judaism. Amelia Dornbush , who underwent a conversion to Judaism during college, joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about why she would not describe herself as a "Jew-by-choice," and why that term may create more probl...

Elul is the 12th and final month of the Jewish calendar year. Elul Unbound is a Judaism Unbound initiative all about making Elul meaningful, through creative digital modalities. In this fourth and final bonus episode of Elul Unbound 2023 , Lex Rofeberg and Wendie Bernstein Lash explore the topic of second chances, through ancient Jewish stories and contemporary life. This Elul bonus episode is the...

Benay Lappe, the founder of SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva -- and, way back in Judaism Unbound's earliest days, the first guest on our podcast -- joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about conversion to Judaism in the Talmud. As it turns out, the process of becoming Jewish was a lot simpler for the early rabbis than it is today. But just how much simpler? To find out, listen in to this epi...

Elul is the 12th and final month of the Jewish calendar year. Elul Unbound is a Judaism Unbound initiative all about making Elul meaningful, through creative digital modalities. In this third bonus episode of Elul Unbound 2023 , Lex Rofeberg and Wendie Bernstein Lash explore ways in which spirals might connect to the month of Elul, and the holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. This Elul bonus...

Tivona Reith and Holly Smith are two of Judaism Unbound’s most dedicated and longstanding listeners. They join Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about becoming Jewish as adults, and whether we might benefit from shifting our terminology from “conversion” to “integration.” This episode is the 7th in an ongoing mini-series exploring conversion to Judaism. Access full shownotes for thi...

Elul is the 12th and final month of the Jewish calendar year. Elul Unbound is a Judaism Unbound initiative all about making Elul meaningful, through creative digital modalities. In this second bonus episode of Elul Unbound 2023 , Lex Rofeberg and Wendie Bernstein Lash explore the power of the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet -- Bet! This Elul bonus episode is the second of four that will be re...

Israel has played a central role in American-Jewish life for quite some time. Eric Axelman and Sam Eilertsen, co-directors of a new documentary film entitled Israelism , join Dan and Lex for a conversation about their film, which explores a movement of young American Jews fighting to redefine Judaism’s relationship to Israel-Palestine.  Learn more about Israelism by heading to IsraelismFilm.com. T...

Elul is the 12th and final month of the Jewish calendar year. Elul Unbound is a Judaism Unbound initiative all about making Elul meaningful, through creative digital modalities. In this first bonus episode of Elul Unbound 2023 , Lex Rofeberg, Wendie Bernstein Lash, and Micah Sandman launch their month-long exploration of the power of twos/seconds! This Elul bonus episode is the first of four that...

Lisa Rappaport is the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Israel, in Chico, California , and in just a few months (January 2024) she will be ordained as a rabbi! She joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for the 6th episode in an ongoing mini-series exploring conversion to Judaism. Access full shownotes for this episode via this link . And a reminder: Elul Unbound is back! Our annual exploration o...

Chris Bartlett , the Executive Director at the William Way LGBT Community Center in Philadelphia, isn't Jewish. But...he's attended Queer Talmud camp, hosts Shabbat gatherings at his organization's building, attends many Jewish holiday gatherings, and has Jewish friends of all ages! He joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about notions of "Jewish-adjacent" and "Ger Toshav" -- two terms in differen...

Marques Hollie (he/they) is a theatre artist, storyteller, classically trained musician, and ritualist. They join Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about how Madonna, along with the book Judaism for Dummies , combined forces to catalyze a journey from "regular at a Nebraskan Pentecostal church" to "studying to become a rabbi." This episode is the fourth in an ongoing Judaism Unbound...

Laura Yares is the author of a brand-new book, entitled Jewish Sunday Schools: Teaching Religion in Nineteenth-Century America . She joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about her book -- in some ways about Sunday Schools, to be sure, but in other ways a chance to explore the broader question, "What even is religion?" , through the history of Sunday Schools in the 19th century. T...

If you say to David A.M. Wilensky that he "converted" to Judaism, he'll provide a gentle correction: "I underwent a conversion," he'll say. This may not seem like much of a distinction, but in this episode of Judaism Unbound, we explore a group of people who -- from some frames of reference -- converted to Judaism, but from other frames of reference, were Jewish from the second they were born. In...

Juan Mejia , a conservative rabbi who serves as Jewish educator for Emanuel Synagogue in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, joins Dan and Lex for a conversation exploring how Judaism must -- in order to have its maximum positive impact on the world -- embrace converts as fully and authentically Jewish. This episode is the second in an ongoing Judaism Unbound mini-series, exploring conversion to Judaism. Acc...

Katie Kaestner-Frenchman is Judaism Unbound’s amazing Marketing, Communications, and Creative Maven! They join their colleagues Dan and Lex for the first conversation in an ongoing Judaism Unbound mini-series, exploring conversion to Judaism. What superpowers do converts often bring to Jewish life? What barriers do they continue to face in Jewish spaces? What on *earth* do we do with the fact that...

David Raphael and Ilene Vogelstein are leaders of the Jewish Grandparents Network , a national organization that educates, connects, and supports grandparents as essential partners in enriching Jewish life. They join Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about how, perhaps counter-intuitively, the voices of many Jewish grandparents have been sidelined in Jewish institutional life -- alo...

Melissa Klapper , author of Jewish Girls Coming of Age in America, 1860-1920 , joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation serving as a "prequel" of sorts to our recent unit on the past, present, and future of Bat Mitzvah (and B Mitzvah in general). But it's also...kind-of a sequel? Klapper talks through the ways in which Jewish girls marked their entry into adulthood -- both within Jew...

Sandra Fox , the Goldstein-Goren visiting assistant professor of American Jewish History at New York University, is the author of The Jews of Summer: Summer Camp and Jewish Culture in Postwar America . She joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about the history of Jewish summer camp, the ways in which it has influenced American Jewish life, and what it can teach us about amplifyin...