

Judaism Unbound
Institute for the Next Jewish Future
Listen in as Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg analyze pressing issues for 21st century American Judaism. Mixing their own analysis with interviews of leading thinkers, practitioners, and even "regular Jews," Dan and Lex look to push past the bounds of what it means to be Jewish in the 21st century.
You can support Judaism Unbound at www.JudaismUnbound.com/donate.
You can support Judaism Unbound at www.JudaismUnbound.com/donate.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Mar 1, 2024 • 46min
Episode 420: Jewtina y Co. - Analucía Lopezrevoredo
Analucía Lopezrevoredo is the founder of Latin Jewish cultural and educational organization Jewtina y Co, as well as an award-winning activist and sociologist known for her work on human migration, immigrant identity development and global Jewish communities. She joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about Latin Jewish diaspora, diversity, and emerging creative movements.Access full shownotes for this episode via this link. And 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!

Feb 23, 2024 • 57min
Episode 419: Jewish Portal-Makers - Eleyna Fugman
Eleyna Fugman is a Jewish community-builder focused on populations that have been historically marginalized. She is the co-founder of the leadership development organization, TischPDX, and the alternative grassroots Jewish community, The Alberta Shul, both based on the Eastside of Portland, Oregon. She joins Lex Rofeberg and Dan Libenson for a conversation about crafting Jewish community outside of the mainstream as a tikkun (a healing process) for organized Judaism.It’s not too late to register for our full-semester spring courses in the UnYeshiva! We’ve got Biblical animals, Jewish apocrypha, mythic approaches to climate change, and beyond! Visit JudaismUnbound.com/classes to learn more and register.Access full shownotes for this episode via this link. And 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!

Feb 16, 2024 • 1h 1min
Episode 418: Prophetic Judaism - Nate DeGroot
Nate DeGroot is a Jewish experiential educator and activist, and currently serves as the Associate Director for The Shalom Center. He joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about Judaism as a prompt for making the world a better place.It’s not too late to register for our full-semester spring courses in the UnYeshiva! We’ve got Biblical animals, Jewish apocrypha, mythic approaches to climate change, and beyond! Visit JudaismUnbound.com/classes to learn more and register.Access full shownotes for this episode via this link. And 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!

Feb 9, 2024 • 56min
Episode 417: Jewish Learning for Climate Crisis - Laura Duhan-Kaplan, Yosef Rosen
Yosef Rosen is a historian of Kabbalah and Jewish magic, a creative Jewish educator, and an immersive ritual designer. Laura Duhan-Kaplan is an award-winning author, teacher, and spiritual leader serving as Rabbi Emerita of Or Shalom Synagogue in Vancouver and Professor Emerita of Philosophy at UNC Charlotte. The two thinkers join Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about their upcoming UnYeshiva classes (sign up here!), which both use Jewish history and tradition to grapple with today’s climate crisis.Check out our upcoming full semester classes in the UnYeshiva by heading to www.judaismunbound.com/classes!Access full shownotes for this episode via this link. And 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!

Feb 2, 2024 • 57min
Episode 416: Loaves of Torah - Vanessa Harper
Vanessa Harper is the Senior Director of Adult Jewish Living at Temple Beth Elohim in Wellesley, MA and as the Reform Rabbi-in-Residence at Gann Academy in Waltham, MA. She bakes challah that interprets the Torah portion each week in what was originally an Instagram-based educational project, then a kinetic midrash class, and now a book: Loaves of Torah: Exploring the Jewish Year Through Challah. She joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about living in creative relationship to Judaism, and challah as a chevruta (study-partner).Check out our upcoming full semester classes in the UnYeshiva by heading to www.judaismunbound.com/classes!Access full shownotes for this episode via this link. And 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!

Jan 26, 2024 • 45min
Episode 415: Rebbe Nachman's Lost Princess - Jessica Tamar Deutsch
Jessica Tamar Deutsch is an artist whose work explores the connections between ancient Jewish tradition and contemporary creative culture and expression. Her newest visual story, Rebbe Nachman’s The Lost Princess, will be released in February and is available for pre-order through Ayin Press. In this episode, Deutsch joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about Hasidism, the creative process, and art’s potential to open up Jewish text. Check out our upcoming full semester classes in the UnYeshiva by heading to www.judaismunbound.com/classes!Access full shownotes for this episode via this link. And 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!

Jan 19, 2024 • 59min
Episode 414: The Torah of Dreams - Jill Hammer
Jill Hammer – award-winning author, scholar, ritualist, poet, dreamworker and midrashist – is co-founder of Beit Kohenet and of the Kohenet movement, and currently serves as the Director of Spiritual Education at the Academy for Jewish Religion. She joins Dan Liebenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about dreaming as a medium for communal connection, Jewish meaning-making, and divine revelation.Check out our upcoming full semester classes in the UnYeshiva by heading to www.judaismunbound.com/classes!Access full shownotes for this episode via this link. And 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!

Jan 16, 2024 • 33min
Bonus Episode: The Dybbukast, Season 4 Episode 1 - The Merchant of Venice: Ghetto
This bonus episode of Judaism Unbound is presented in partnership with Theatre Dybbuk. We are proud to feature their fourth season's first 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 Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else that podcasts are found.---------------------------------------------In this episode, presented in collaboration with the George Washington University Department of History, we examine the history of the word “ghetto" and look at ways that ideas contained in Shakespeare's play overlap with and deviate from that history.Dr. Daniel Schwartz, Professor of Jewish History at GW, guides us through this exploration, sharing some of the concepts contained in his book, Ghetto: The History of a Word.This is the first in a three episode series connected to concepts that intersect with theatre dybbuk's most recent theatrical work, The Merchant of Venice (Annotated), or In Sooth I Know Not Why I Am So Sad. That production combines text from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice with Elizabethan history and news from 2020 to the present. In doing so, it seeks to illuminate how, during times of upheaval, some people may place blame for their anxieties on an “other."Read the transcription for "The Merchant of Venice: Ghetto.

Jan 12, 2024 • 50min
Episode 413: Jews Across the Americas - Adriana Brodsky, Laura Leibman
Laura Leibman is an award-winning author and scholar of religion in the early Americas and currently serves as the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of English and Humanities at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Adriana Brodsky is an award-winning author and scholar of Sephardic Jews in Argentina and currently serves as Professor of History at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. The two thinkers join Lex Rofeberg and Dan Libenson for a conversation about their newly-published book, Jews Across the Americas: A Sourcebook, 1492–Present.Registration for the UnYeshiva’s new mini-courses is now open -- and it's your last chance to register because classes start in just a few days! Visit JudaismUnbound.com/classes for more information and to register.Access full shownotes for this episode via this link. And 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!

Jan 5, 2024 • 54min
Episode 412: Digital Jewish Citizenship - Miriam, Dan, and Lex
Digital Judaism is the geography in which Judaism Unbound operates! In this conversation Dan, Lex, and Miriam reflect upon the digital Jewish past, present, and future, and consider Judaism Unbound’s continued role as a leader in — and lover of — the digital Jewish landscape. This episode is the 7th and final episode in a series of Judaism Unbound episodes exploring digital Judaism.Registration for the UnYeshiva’s new mini-courses is now open! We’ve got conversion, bodies, mishnah, and more! Visit JudaismUnbound.com/classes for more information and to register.Access full shownotes for this episode via this link. And 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!


