Judaism Unbound

It’s almost time… for Shavuot! Dan, Lex, and Miriam come together for a conversation about what Shavuot will look like this year at Judaism Unbound. They explore the connections between Shavuot and conversion, renewing our commitment to Judaism through ritual, and how we can meaningfully experience Shavuot in new and ancient ways.Click HERE to register for ShavuotLIVE 2024, taking place June 8th-June 9th!Access full shownotes for this episode via this link. 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!

Shai Held, one of the most influential Jewish thinkers and leaders in America, is president and dean of the Hadar Institute in New York City. Held received the prestigious Covenant Award for excellence in Jewish education, and has been named multiple times to Newsweek’s list of the most influential rabbis in America and to the Forward's list of the most prominent Jews in the world. He is the author of Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence (2013) and The Heart of Torah: Essays on the Weekly Torah Portion (2017). In this conversation, Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg welcome him to the show to explore his newest book, entitled Judaism is About Love: Recovering the Heart of Jewish Life.Sign up for ShavuotLIVE, our 24-hour festival of Jewish learning (June 8-9) by heading to bit.ly/shavuot2024! Access full shownotes for this episode via this link. 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!

Elliot Kukla (he/they) is a rabbi, author, and activist. Elliot has worked at the intersection of justice and spiritual care to those who are ill, dying and bereaved since 2007. They are currently on the faculty of SVARA, where they also direct the Collective Loss Adaptation Project (CLAP). Elliot joins Lex Rofeberg and Dan Libenson for a conversation about justice-based radical spiritual care, and what both the experience of chronic illness and the Jewish tradition offer our world as we contend with grief, loss, and the need for rest. This episode is the 6th in an ongoing series of Judaism Unbound episodes exploring Disability Torah.Sign up for ShavuotLIVE, our 24-hour festival of Jewish learning (June 8-9) by heading to bit.ly/shavuot2024! Access full shownotes for this episode via this link. 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!

This bonus episode of Judaism Unbound is presented in partnership with Theatre Dybbuk. We are proud to feature their fourth 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 episode, presented in collaboration with Hebrew College, we begin by exploring two poems from the second half of the 19th century by prominent American poets. One, "The Jewish Cemetery at Newport," by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, is generally thought to have been written during a visit to Newport in 1852 and was then published in 1854. The other, a response to that work by Emma Lazarus, called "In the Jewish Synagogue at Newport," was likely written in 1867 and then published in 1871.Rabbi Dan Judson, Provost of Hebrew College, discusses how the poem by Lazarus both builds upon and deviates from Longfellow's poem. He also shares about the artistic and ideological journey that Emma Lazarus, as a Jewish American writer, took over the course of her career, using her poem "The Banner of the Jew," published in 1882, as an entry point to understand this journey, and touches on the ways in which her evolution speaks to Jewish identity in America and the American experience overall.Support for this episode is provided in part by A More Perfect Union, a project of The Tides Center.

Jess Belasco is the founder and director of The Disability Justice Torah Circle, a space in which Jews with disabilities can build community around Torah, engage Jewish text through a disability justice lens, and nurture and amplify their voices to impact the broader Jewish community. They join Lex Rofeberg and Dan Libenson for a conversation about what disability has to say about Torah and what Torah has to say about disability.There are some amazing mini-course offerings beginning next week in the UnYeshiva. Check out these classes at www.judaismunbound.com/classes! And sign up for ShavuotLIVE, our 24-hour festival of Jewish learning (June 8-9) by heading to bit.ly/shavuot2024!Access full shownotes for this episode via this link. 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!

Chava Shapiro is the founder of the Jewish Zine Archive, an archival collection of Jewish zines and a digital Jewish cultural space. They join Lex Rofeberg and Dan Libenson for a conversation related to their upcoming UnYeshiva mini-course, Unraveling Jewish Zines: From Rashi to the Haggadah to Instagram, which will explore the intersection of Jewish identity, DIY ethos, and artistic innovation through the lens of zine culture.Learn more about (and register for) Chava Shapiro’s UnYeshiva 3-week mini-course, Unraveling Jewish Zines: From Rashi to the Haggadah to Instagram, which starts on May 22nd! Check out our other 3-week mini-courses via www.judaismunbound.com/classes -- financial aid is available for all of them, just fill out this form.Access full shownotes for this episode via this link. 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! 

Dalia Marx, an author, teacher, and activist who promotes liberal Judaism in Israel, is the Rabbi Aaron D. Panken Professor of Liturgy and Midrash at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. Her book, From Time to Time: Journeys in the Jewish Calendar, uses a progressive approach to explore each Hebrew month and its holidays alongside art and literature. She joins Lex Rofeberg and Dan Libenson for a conversation about the Jewish calendar of the past, present, and future.Our newest round of UnYeshiva mini-courses is now live, and it’s not too late to register! We’ve got everything from Phish to zines to death. Learn more and sign up at JudaismUnbound.com/Classes. Financial aid is available if needed, just fill out this form!Access full shownotes for this episode via this link. 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!

Livia Thompson serves as the Executive Director of JBI (formerly Jewish Braille Institute): an organization enabling access to Jewish life through audio, braille, and large-print texts. She joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about JBI and its powerful work. This episode is the 4th in an ongoing series of Judaism Unbound episodes exploring Disability Torah.There are some amazing mini-course offerings beginning at the end of April in the UnYeshiva. Check out these classes at www.judaismunbound.com/classes!Access full shownotes for this episode via this link. 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!

Tzemah Yoreh is a rabbi, scholar, and liturgist who recently wrote a book entitled So Compassionate It Hurts: My Life as a Rabbi On the Spectrum. He joins Judaism Unbound for the third episode in an ongoing series exploring Disability Torah.There are some amazing mini-course offerings beginning at the end of April in the UnYeshiva. Check out these classes at www.judaismunbound.com/classes!Access full shownotes for this episode via this link. 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!

Hadar Cohen is an Arab Jewish scholar, mystic and artist. She teaches spirituality and Jewish mysticism at Malchut, a mystical school teaching direct experience of God, creates art focused on shifting societal narratives, such as Prostrations and The Selichot Project, and writes about Judaism through the lens of intersectional feminism, as seen in her Feminism All Night project. She joins Lex Rofeberg for a conversation conversation about her upcoming UnYeshiva class, which delves into the cultures, traditions, and stories that make Sephardi and Mizrahi communities unique.There are some amazing mini-course offerings beginning at the end of April in the UnYeshiva. Check out these classes at www.judaismunbound.com/classes!Access full shownotes for this episode via this link. 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!