Judaism Unbound

B Mitzvah (a gender-neutral term for Jewish coming-of-age rituals, often but not exclusively associated with the age of 12-to-13) is an incredibly popular Jewish observance. Even in a landscape where many Jews do not spend much time in Jewish institutional contexts, they often carve out space for their family members to experience B Mitzvah. In this conversation, Dan and Lex explore what they beli...

Amichai Lau-Lavie is the co-founder and spiritual leader of Lab/Shul : an "artist-driven, everybody-friendly, god-optional, pop up, experimental community for sacred Jewish gatherings." He joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about B Mitzvah as a rite of passage -- not only for 12/13-year-olds, but for all ages! This episode is the 6th in an ongoing mini-series of Judaism Unbound episodes, honorin...

What if B Mitzvahs weren't so thoroughly associated with synagogues,  but were understood to take place in a rich diversity of other spaces in the world? Camp Tawonga , a summer camp located just outside of Yosemite National Park and based in the San Francisco Bay Area, offers a two-year B Mitzvah program that brings the magic of camp to the Bay Area (during the rest of the year), and gives studen...

This bonus episode of Judaism Unbound is presented in partnership with Theatre Dybbuk . We are proud to feature their third season's fourth episode as a bonus episode here on Judaism Unbound's feed. In each episode, they bring poems, plays, and other creative texts from throughout history to life, all while revealing their relationships to issues still present today. Subscribe to The Dybbukast on...

Open Tent Be Mitzvah is a two-year experience, offered by the organization Judaism Your Way , that is focused on a student’s coming-of-age journey within a Jewish context. It culminates in a distinctive, meaningful "Be Mitzvah" ceremony that helps a student find their unique Jewish leadership voice. Amy Atkins and Amanda Schwartz , two of Open Tent Be Mitzvah's lead educators, join Dan Libenson an...

The Bagel Report: The Bagel Report is a pop-culture entertainment podcast featuring award-winning culture and entertainment writers Esther D. Kustanowitz and Erin Ben-Moche. Each episode, these entertainment junkies discuss all things Jewish in the arts & entertainment world while exploring how Jewish identity is portrayed on the big and small screen. Follow them on social @estherk and @ebenmoche...

Her name is Zipporah Chava McConnell, but everyone calls her Zippy. See, the thing is...that she's a witch — and this year she's having her Bat Mitzvah! ------------------------------------ This is the premise of The Witch of Woodland , the latest novel from Laurel Snyder . Snyder is a Sidney Taylor Award-winning author who has written over a dozen works of fiction. She joins Dan Libenson and Lex...

ShavuotLIVE , the biggest and best(est) event on the Judaism Unbound calendar, is approaching in just a few weeks (May 26th/27th)! It's a 24-hours-straight festival of digital Jewish learning, and it's entering its fourth year. Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg check in about what Shavuot is (and could be) in 2023, and they also explore what ShavuotLIVE helps to show about the state of digital Judaism...

Lauren Grabelle Herrmann , rabbi at SAJ: Judaism that Stands for All -- the synagogue where the first-ever Bat Mitzvah took place in 1922 -- joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about re-visioning B Mitzvah for the next 100 years. This episode is the 2nd in an ongoing mini-series of Judaism Unbound episodes, honoring Bat Mitzvah's 100th anniversary, and exploring the present and...

In March of 1922, the Bat Mitzvah -- now a widely-recognized ritual across Jewish denominations -- made its first appearance on American soil! Judith Kaplan , at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism in New York City, was the pioneer, and in the coming decades, many women would follow suit. Carole Balin and Judith Rosenbaum , who each played a key role in the Jewish Women's Archive's Bat Mitz...

Dan Libenson , one of Judaism Unbound's two co-hosts, and Miriam Terlinchamp , spiritual leader of Temple Sholom in Cincinnati, are co-teaching a course called Judaism In-Bound: An Introduction to Judaism for Everyone in the UnYeshiva. With an initial three classes on consecutive weeks, followed by once-per-month class-meetings for the following 9 months, this course is designed to help people lea...

Passover is here! The traditional seder night(s) passed by (or over?), but there are still a whole bunch of days left in the holiday as this episode is released. Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg explore how we might think a bit more creatively about our seders in future years, along with how the "non-seder days" could be activated towards more meaning-making. They also explore the UnYeshiva's new cer...

Elijah the Prophet is a popular guy! To our knowledge, he is the only person invited to every Passover Seder in the world -- and even encouraged to drink wine at each one of those Seders (drink responsibly, Elijah). But uhhh....who exactly is he? If you've opened the door for this fella every year, but never known exactly what his story is, this is the conversation for you! Daniel Matt , scholar o...

Catherine Horowitz , the 2022-23 New Voices Magazine / Judaism Unbound fellow, joins Lex Rofeberg for a conversation on how TV, and the way we watch it, creates ritual. They also discuss how we can use TV to further shape our religious practices and communities. Access full shownotes for this episode via this link .  Register for our 3-week mini-courses in the UnYeshiva -- a digital center for Jew...

This bonus episode of Judaism Unbound is presented in partnership with Theatre Dybbuk . We are proud to feature their third season's fourth episode as a bonus episode here on Judaism Unbound's feed. In each episode, they bring poems, plays, and other creative texts from throughout history to life, all while revealing their relationships to issues still present today. Subscribe to The Dybbukast on...

The Jewish Youth Climate Movement (JYCM) is a Gen Z-led movement dedicated to combating climate change and environmental injustice from a Jewish lens. Two of its activists, Isaac Ostrow and Sophie Raskin, join Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about JYCM's recent trip to COP-27 (the United Nations' Climate Change Conference).  Access full shownotes for this episode via this link . ...

Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg offer their perspectives on spirituality, in the final episode of a 12-episode mini-series focused on Jewish spirituality, featuring a wide variety of thinkers, practitioners, writers, performers, and more. They also announce some exciting news , for Judaism Unbound and for the Jewish collective as a whole! Access full shownotes for this episode via this link .  Learn...

Ariel Mayse serves as Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University, and is the co-author of the two-volume A New Hasidism: Roots and A New Hasidism: Branches , with Arthur Green. Mayse joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation exploring the history of Jewish mysticism, from the Hebrew Bible through today. This episode is the 11th episode in an ongoing mini-series fo...

Gashmius is an online magazine dedicated to Jewish mystical thought, practice, and culture, founded on the core belief that "progressive Neo-Hasidism has the potential to uplift and heal the Jewish community and the world." Its two co-founders, Jonah Gelfand and Daniel Kraft , join Judaism Unbound for the 10th episode in an ongoing mini-series focused on Jewish spirituality. Access full shownotes...

Let My People Sing is a cultural project expanding the ancient and transformative practice of Jewish communal singing. Let My People Sing gathers in multi-racial, multicultural and genderful Jewish community, uplifting songs and leaders historically and ongoingly pushed to the margins. Three of its team-members -- Batya Levine , Anthony Russell , and Margot Seigle -- join Dan and Lex for the 9th e...

Michael Strassfeld was one of the co-authors of The Jewish Catalog , a book released in 1973 (happy 50th anniversary!) that served as a kind of "Jewish do-it-yourself kit" -- and became one of the bestselling Jewish books of all time. He joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg to speak about a new book of his being released in 2023, entitled Judaism Disrupted: A Spiritual Manifesto for the 21st Centur...

Alec Gewirtz is a community-builder and writer who co-founded The Nearness -- a community platform to nurture people in their spiritual lives. The Nearness offers 6-week journeys (the next journey begins in April 2023), where participants gather digitally, in regular small-group conversations. These conversations are built on structured conversation prompts, shared practices, and support among the...

Tzitzit Project is an invitation for everyone, and every body, to engage with the mitzvah of wearing the four-cornered ritual garment, with fringes, called a tallit katan (also referred to as tzitzit ). Its co-founders, Julie Weitz and Jill Spector , launched Tzitzit Project to open up this practice, historically held by cisgender men, to women, trans, and non-binary Jews. They join Dan and Lex fo...

Dan and Lex , in the 6th episode in an ongoing mini-series on Jewish spirituality, want to soak in some of the lessons they've taken from their previous conversations in this unit. They explore how spirituality ties to questions of self, of community, and of society, and whether a central component of spirituality might boil down to dissolving one's sense of self. They also announce some exciting...

Shefa Gold is an educator, composer, and spiritual leader whose music, teachings, and spiritual methodologies have influenced clergy, lay-leaders, and seekers around the world. She joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for the 5th episode in an ongoing series on Jewish spirituality, and together they explore the transformative potential of the Song of Songs (a biblical book whose central theme is lo...