The College Commons Podcast

Description: Though contemporary individualism means all Jews are, in some measure, Jews by choice, Gary “Pips” Phillips made that choice during the Holocaust. Biography: Dr. Georgette Bennett is at TED Speaker and an award-winning sociologist, author, popular lecturer, and former broadcast journalist. Bennett has founded no less than three interreligious nonprofit organizations, and she served in...

Description: Jeffrey Marx wrestles with both the truth and the antisemitic fantasy of Jewish Arson in the early 20 th century. Biography: Ordained in 1983, Rabbi Marx served as the spiritual leader of The Santa Monica Synagogue from 1985- 2021.  As an independent scholar, he has examined the out-of-the-way chapters of American Jewish history, from his article titled “Eating Up: The Origins of...

Description: The historian behind the history of HUC: Michael Meyer takes us on a sesquicentennial journey of American Judaism. Biography: Michael A. Meyer received his B.A. from UCLA and his doctorate from Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. From 1964 to 1967, he taught at the Los Angeles campus of HUC. Since 1967 he has been on the faculty of HUC’s Cincinnati campus, where he is currently the Ad...

Description: Professor Emeritus David Mendelsson looks back at a half-century of momentous change for HUC in Israel. Biography: David Mendelsson recently stepped down as Director of the Year-in-Israel program at Hebrew Union College/Jerusalem where he fulfilled this role for eight years. Aside from lecturing at Hebrew Union College in the field of Israel Studies and Modern Jewish History, David al...

Soundscape of the Soul Jewish Music transplanted from Europe to American, via Hebrew Union College. Judah M. Cohen, Ph. D. is the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Provost at Hebrew Union College. Cohen previously served as the Lou & Sybil Professor of Jewish Culture in the Indiana University Borns Jewish Studies Program and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, Research and Creative Activity at th...

Jessica Roda: Sacred Drugs - Jews, Psychedelics, and Healing (An HUC Connect Crossover Episode) 2026 Fritz A. Bamberger Lecture As interest in psychedelics grows once again, people from many backgrounds—biomedical researchers, religious leaders, spiritual practitioners, and healing communities—are exploring their potential in new ways. Unlike the early psychedelic movements that emerged before the...

Charlie Scheidt follows the forgotten trail of his family from Europe to the United States. Charlie Scheidt is the chairman emeritus of Roland Foods, the company founded by his parents in 1939. Among his leadership roles, he is active with the Leo Baeck Institute and sits on the board of the Auschwitz Institute for the prevention of genocide and mass atrocities. On her deathbed, Charlie’s mother,...

David Oppenheimer traces the diversity principle back two centuries. Biography: David B. Oppenheimer is a Clinical Professor of Law, Co-Director of the Pro Bono Program, and the Director of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-discrimination Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He has taught at a number of universities, including the Sorbonne and University of...

Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein: The rabbinate is changing faster than it’s shrinking (but it’s also shrinking) Description: Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein breaks down a landmark study of road to the rabbinate. Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein is the Executive Director of Atra: Center for Rabbinic Innovation. Previously, Rabbi Epstein served as Executive Director of the 14th Street Y in Manhattan,...

Sit by the Fire and Tell a Story Description: Rabbi Michael Zedek shares his stories and the values the drive them. Biography: Michael Zedek is rabbi emeritus of two wonderful synagogues: Emanuel Congregation in Chicago and Temple B’nai Yehudah in Kansas City, Missouri. After his retirement from Emanuel, he served as senior advisor to the CCAR and now serves as rabbi-in-residence at the St. Paul S...

Jewish and Twelve-Step Traditions at the Crossroads of Addiction Description: A Jewish ethical tradition called Mussar and a uniquely Jewish approach to twelve-step recovery. Hannah L. is the author of Mussar in Recovery: A Jewish Spiritual Path to Serenity and Joy , which is the topic of today’s conversation. Mussar in Recovery offers an approach to recovery from addiction based in a complementar...

Advancing Ellenson's Legacy Series Adam Ferziger: A Patchwork of Jews Opinions and approaches inhabit the entire spectrum of Jewish thought and practice, but how do they speak to each other? Biography: Adam S. Ferziger is an historian of religion, and he holds the Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch Chair in the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at Bar-Ilan Un...

Advancing Ellenson's Legacy Series Arnold Eisen: Dimensional and Complex Judaism More than a religion, resisting extremes, but also hard to pin down, Judaism and Judaism’s God inspire Arnold Eisen’s spiritual search. Biography: Arnold M. Eisen, a foremost authority on American Judaism, is professor of Jewish Thought and chancellor emeritus of the Jewish Theological Seminary. He previously served o...

Advancing Ellenson's Legacy Series Rabbi Dalia Marx: The Prayerbook As a Living Text Rabbi Dalia Marx editor of the new Israeli Reform prayerbook muses on the siddur as both reflection and shaper of community. Biography: Rabbi Professor Dalia Marx is the Rabbi Aaron D. Panken Professor of Liturgy and Midrash at the Hebrew Union College, and the author of numerous books, including, most recently Fr...

For Rabbi Ed Feinstein meaning-making is story-telling, and the rabbi’s business. Biography: Rabbi Ed Feinstein came to Valley Beth Shalom in 1993 at the invitation of the renowned Rabbi Harold Schulweis z"l , and succeeded Rabbi Schulweis as the congre gation’s senior rabbi in 2005. He now serves on the faculty of the Ziegler Rabbinical School of the American Jewish University, the Wexn...

A second generation of Holocaust survivors re-examine their lives through the lens of their parents. Aron Hirt-Manheimer (he/him) is the  Union for Reform Judaism 's former editor-at-large, the former editor of  Reform Judaism  magazine (1976-2014) and founding editor of  Davka  magazine (1970-1976), a West Coast Jewish quarterly. His books include  Jagendorf’s F...

Description: Spiritual and political dynamics that motivate and shape the pulpit of Rabbi Rachel Timoner. Biography: Rabbi Rachel Timoner is grateful and proud to serve as Senior Rabbi of Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope, Brooklyn. She is honored to stand with families at the moments of greatest joy and deepest sorrow in their lives, and she is delighted to be part of a flowering of creativi...

When it comes to pigs, however, maybe you are what you don’t eat… Maybe… Jordan D. Rosenblum is the Belzer Professor of Classical Judaism and Director of Religious Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His most recent book,  Forbidden: A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig   (New York University Press, 2024), won a 2024 National Jewish Book Award. According to  The Wall...

Description: Hannah Pollin-Galay reveals the Yiddish of destruction, and its capacity to bring life and meaning. Biography: Hannah Pollin-Galay is a scholar of East European Jewish culture, with a focus on the Holocaust. Drawing on both historical and literary methods, her work explores themes such as cultural production under catastrophic conditions, space, gender, interethnic relations...

Description: Complicated contours and tortuous fissures emerge as a picture of the American Jewish experience in Tablets Shattered. Biography: Joshua Leifer is a journalist and historian. He is a columnist for Haaretz . His essays and reporting have also appeared in The New York Times , The New York Review of Books , The Guardian , and elsewhere. His first book, Tablets Shattered: The End of an Am...

Love of family, culture, and home, set to the music of Yemenite Jews in Songs for the Brokenhearted: A Novel . Ayelet Tsabari is the author of  Songs for the Brokenhearted , winner of a National Jewish Book Award for Fiction and the Association of Jewish Libraries Fiction Award and  A Globe and Mail  Best Book of 2024. Her memoir in essays  The Art of Leaving , was a finalist f...

Novelist Howard Langer transplants a fictional Hasidic Dynasty to the heart of segregated America, to discover a truly New World. Biography: Howard Langer was born in New York and brought up on the west side of Manhattan. His father served on the U.S.S. Missouri and was present at the Japanese surrender in 1945. His mother taught reading in Spanish Harlem for over thirty years. Howard attended the...

Rabbi Yitz Greenberg takes us on a majestic odyssey of religious purpose and Covenant. Biography: Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg serves as the President of the J.J. Greenberg Institute for the Advancement of Jewish Life (JJGI) and as Senior Scholar in Residence at Hadar. Rabbi Greenberg was ordained by Beth Joseph Rabbinical Seminary of Brooklyn, New York and has a PhD in history from Harvard Unive...

Author Danielle Sharkan finds cultural identity in multicultural community, in her picture book Sharing Shalom . Biography: Danielle grew up in the sub­urbs of Chica­go and has since had the priv­i­lege of liv­ing in Cana­da, Israel, and Argenti­na. As an edu­ca­tor and a proud moth­er of two won­der­ful chil­dren, she is deeply com­mit­ted to both per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al growth. Danie...

Rabbi Angela Buchdahl disentangles the power of the pulpit from the stature of its holder, by sharing the vulnerability, musicality and ethical of sermons. Biography: Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl serves as the Senior Rabbi of Central Synagogue in New York City and is the first woman to lead Central’s Reform congregation in its 180-year history. Rabbi Buchdahl first joined Central Synagogue as Sen...