Judaism Unbound

Ari Saks recently completed an 11-year career as a full-time pulpit rabbi, and is currently focused on reaching out to interfaith families, primarily through his podcast called Interfaithing. He joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about co-officiating interfaith weddings, how he thinks about presiding over meaningful marriage rituals, and the importance of celebrating interfaith families.Are you pining for a trans-generational community of Jewish learning and growth, spanning multiple time-zones, featuring a rich diversity of Jewish backgrounds and experiences? Apply to be part of our Certificate Program in Unbound Judaism. Learn more at www.judaismunbound.com/certificate. The deadline to submit your application for cohort 2 of this program is July 15th, 2024.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!

Rena Yehuda Newman (They/Them) is a Jewish, transgender writer, educator, independent publisher, and illustrator living and working in Brooklyn, NY. Rena Yehuda is also the new Director of the UnYeshiva Certificate Program. They join Lex on the podcast for a conversation about the UnYeshiva Certificate Program and how creative, collaborative learning environments can help us envision emergent Jewish futures.Are you pining for a trans-generational community of Jewish learning and growth, spanning multiple time-zones, featuring a rich diversity of Jewish backgrounds and experiences? Apply to be part of our Certificate Program in Unbound Judaism. Learn more at www.judaismunbound.com/certificate. The deadline to submit your application for cohort 2 of this program is July 8th, 2024.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!

Sharon Brous is the senior and founding rabbi of IKAR. Her book, The Amen Effect: Ancient Wisdom to Heal Our Hearts and Mend Our Broken World, is a national bestseller, and her 2016 TED talk, “Reclaiming Religion,” has been viewed by more than 1.5 million people. Brous was named #1 on the Newsweek/The Daily Beast list of most influential Rabbis in America, and has been recognized by The Forward and Jerusalem Post as one of the fifty most influential Jews. She joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about loneliness, the importance of connection, and the power of showing up for one another.Interested in deepening your relationship to Judaism Unbound? Apply to be part of our Certificate Program in Unbound Judaism. Learn more at www.judaismunbound.com/certificate. The deadline to submit your application for cohort 2 of this program is July 8th, 2024.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!

Sharoni Sibony is a multi-talented Jewish educator, and the artist behind an exhibition entitled My Body’s Keeper: Provocations and Possibilities. Sibony joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about Jewish ritual technologies, art, disability Torah, and more. This episode is the 7th in an ongoing series of Judaism Unbound episodes exploring Disability Torah.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!Interested in deepening your relationship to Judaism Unbound? Apply to be part of our Certificate Program in Unbound Judaism. Learn more at www.judaismunbound.com/certificate. The deadline to submit your application for cohort 2 of this program is July 8th, 2024.

Tales of the Unbound is a new addition to the Judaism Unbound family of podcasts! This new series follows the spiritual journeys of folks who leave one way of being for another, claiming agency as they embrace revolutionary Jewish innovation. They build circles of belonging and imagine new ways to engage with their emergent communities. With every awakening, others awake alongside.Tales of the Unbound's first season follows the stories of Ari and Josh, two men pursuing Jewish conversion while incarcerated. Despite facing obstacles and judgments, they find belonging and community within Judaism. Episode 1 (Jewish Enough) explores themes of identity, conversion, and belonging, shedding light on the challenges and joys of practicing Judaism behind bars. Through their journey, listeners witness the power of faith, resilience, and the pursuit of personal transformation. Join us on this heartfelt exploration of Judaism and the human spirit.For information on how to reach out to connect with Jewish agencies who support folks who are incarcerated and their families, connect with a Jewish penpal, donate to help bring kosher meals and access to Jewish supplies, or give straight to Ari and Josh’s Jewish minyan in Monroe … connect with us at: www.judaismunbound.com/tales.

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!