Judaism Unbound

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 Jewish life and in secular contexts -- in the era directly preceding the emergence of Bat Mitzvah as a life-cycle ritual (hence "prequel!"). The sense in which this conversation is also a sequel is that it is focused on adolescents, largely between the ages of 13 and 20, which is the stage of life directly after many B Mitzvahs occur, at 12-13 years of age!Access full shownotes for this episode via this link.Learn more about Judaism Unbound's UnYeshiva -- a digital center for Jewish learning and unlearning -- by heading to www.judaismunbound.com/unyeshiva. 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!  

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 amplifying the voices of young people as we study history.Purchase The Jews of Summer via this link! Access full shownotes for this episode via this link.Learn more about Judaism Unbound's UnYeshiva -- a digital center for Jewish learning and unlearing -- by heading to www.judaismunbound.com/unyeshiva. 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!

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 believe B Mitzvah could be in the future, and how it could work in tandem with an expanded notion of Jewish rites of passage, across a wider variety of life-stages. This episode is the 7th in an ongoing mini-series of Judaism Unbound episodes, honoring Bat Mitzvah's 100th anniversary, and exploring the present and future of B Mitzvah.Access full shownotes for this episode via this link.Learn more about Judaism Unbound's UnYeshiva -- a digital center for Jewish learning and unlearing -- by heading to www.judaismunbound.com/unyeshiva. 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!

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, honoring Bat Mitzvah's 100th anniversary, and exploring the present and future of B Mitzvah ("B Mitzvah" is a term for Jewish coming-of-age ceremonies, across the gender spectrum). Access full shownotes for this episode via this link.Learn more about Judaism Unbound's UnYeshiva -- a digital center for Jewish learning and unlearing -- by heading to www.judaismunbound.com/unyeshiva. 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!

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 students a unique way to approach this milestone moment through community, nature, and experiential learning. Meg Adler, Camp Tawonga's Associate Director of Bay Area Programs and facilitator of this B Mitzvah program, joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg to explore what their program looks like, and what it might be able to teach other communities.This episode is the 5th in an ongoing mini-series of Judaism Unbound episodes, honoring Bat Mitzvah's 100th anniversary, and exploring the present and future of B Mitzvah ("B Mitzvah" is a term for Jewish coming-of-age ceremonies, across the gender spectrum). Access full shownotes for this episode via this link.Register for ShavuotLIVE: a 24-Hour Extravaganza of Jewish Learning (Friday May 26-Saturday May 27), by heading to bit.ly/shavuot23!

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 Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else that podcasts are found.---------------------------------------------In this fourth of our five-episode series in partnership with the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University, we explore The Book of Tahkemoni, a collection of tales written in Hebrew in the early 13th century. Authored by Yehuda Alharizi who was born in Toledo, Spain in the middle of the 12th century, the book uses the structure of the Arabic literary form known as maqama.Dr. Jonathan Decter, the Edmond J. Safra Professor of Sephardic Studies, discusses the history of Jews in the region of The Book's creation and shares about the cultural influences and experiences present in Alharizi’s work.This episode is made possible in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.Read the transcription for "The Book of Tahkemoni."

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 and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation. They explore together what it looks like when B Mitzvah (or, in their nomenclature, "Be Mitzvah!") is a process that is customized to align with each student's interests and passions -- empowering them to shape Judaism for themselves in the process.This episode is the 4th in an ongoing mini-series of Judaism Unbound episodes, honoring Bat Mitzvah's 100th anniversary, and exploring the present and future of B Mitzvah ("B Mitzvah" is a term for Jewish coming-of-age ceremonies, across the gender spectrum). Access full shownotes for this episode via this link.Register for ShavuotLIVE: a 24-Hour Extravaganza of Jewish Learning (Friday May 26-Saturday May 27), by heading to bit.ly/shavuot23!

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, and on Twitter and Facebook @TheBagelReport.----------------------------------Episode Notes:Esther D. Kustanowitz and Erin Ben-Moche finally dive into The Mandalorian's Jewish themes with the help of two guests who love Jewish identity, Star Wars and popular culture: J. Editor David A.M. Wilensky and Rabbi Howard Tilman.What is a Mandalorian and does it matter? Why is this show resonating with Jewish viewers? And is a homeland a place or state of mind? Even if you're like Erin, who is new to the fandom, there is something for everyone in this episode, like MCU Easter Eggs, Fiddler on the Roof nods and Harry Potter pivots.Connect with us on socials!Twitter: @estherk, @ebenmoche and @TheBagelReportInstagram: @estherkustanowitz, @ebenmoche and @tbrthepodEmail us at: thebagelreport@gmail.comLINKS:The Mandalorian on Disney+Judaism Corner on House of R Harry Rubenstein on ReelsThe story about Rabbi Akiva and the foxes overrunning a destroyed Jerusalem 

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 Rofeberg for a conversation about The Witch of Woodland, her ongoing effort to overcome "Jewish Imposter-Syndrome," and the ways in which works of fiction can shape our Jewish world. This episode is the 3rd in an ongoing mini-series of Judaism Unbound episodes, honoring Bat Mitzvah's 100th anniversary, and exploring the present and future of B Mitzvah ("B Mitzvah" is a term for Jewish coming-of-age ceremonies, across the gender spectrum).Access full shownotes for this episode via this link.Learn more about Judaism Unbound's UnYeshiva -- a digital center for Jewish learning and unlearing -- by heading to www.judaismunbound.com/unyeshiva. 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!

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 today. Register for ShavuotLIVE 2023 via this link! Access full shownotes for this episode via this link. Register for our 3-week mini-courses in the UnYeshiva -- a digital center for Jewish learning and unlearing -- by heading to www.judaismunbound.com/classes! The next block of mini-courses begins in just a few days (the second week of May).