Identity/Crisis

Host Yehuda Kurtzer convenes a panel of guests to discuss the past and present of American Jewish religious music, from Mordechai Ben David to Nissim Black to Debbie Friedman. Featuring Dovid Bashevkin (1840 Podcast), Yardaena Osband (Talking Talmud Podcast), Miri Miller (SHI NA), and Shira Hanau (JTA). Episode playlist: https://spoti.fi/3vLFbMQ Other Songs Discussed:Im Hashem Lo Yivneh Bayis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckVYO9oI8vcLmaancha with Ben Shapiro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ-Km7RfBEs

Guest host David Zvi Kalman asks Meredith Lewis (PJ Library) about how PJ Library works, how the organization is responding to criticism, and what the future of Jewish children's literature might look like.

Felicia Herman (Natan Fund, Jewish Commmunity Response and Impact Fund), Hindy Poupko (UJA Federation of New York), and Andres Spokoiny (Jewish Funders Network) join Yehuda Kurtzer to discuss the lessons of 2008, the role of Jewish philanthropy in the pandemic, and why we haven't seen the dire institutional turbulence many predicted one year ago.

Yehuda Kurtzer gathers Rabbi Barry Dov Katz (Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel of Riverdale), Tilly Shemer (Hillel at University of Michigan), and Stephanie Ives (Beit Rabban Day School) to look back at one year of the pandemic: how COVID has impacted their institutions and changed their leadership in ways both temporary and permanent.

During the Truth, Difference, and Loyalty interfaith symposium, Ross Douthat (The New York Times) joined Yehuda Kurtzer to discuss the role of faith in presidential politics, the possibility of political but not partisan religion, and what if anything remains at the religious center of America.

Stacy Burdett joins host Yehuda Kurtzer to dig deep into the IHRA definition of antisemitism she helped craft, which is currently causing waves in the American Jewish community - what it is, what it isn't, and where it came from. 

Sarah Levin (JIMENA) and Tye Gregory (JCRC of San Francisco) join Yehuda Kurtzer to discuss the years of work that their organizations have done on the California Ethnic Studies model curriculum, and the controversy that erupted in the national Jewish press last week.

Rachel B. Gross (San Francisco State University) joins Yehuda Kurtzer to discuss her new book, Beyond the Synagogue: Jewish Nostalgia as Religious Practice, and its central argument: that foodways, children's literature, and Jewish nostalgia represent a defining feature of American Jewish religion today - and that that's not a bad thing. 

ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt joins host Yehuda Kurtzer to discuss Jewish perspectives on the emerging Biden administration, what was “good for the Jews” and what was “bad for the Jews” about the Trump administration, and most importantly, how American Jews can strengthen the precious “software” of the American government.

Journalists Isabel Kershner (The New York Times) and Ben Sales (JTA) join host Yehuda Kurtzer to discuss the successes and failures to date of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Israel, Palestine, and the global Haredi community.  Articles mentioned in this episode: I attended an Orthodox anti-vaccine rally. Here’s what I saw. by Ben Sales in the Jewish Telagraphic Agency Netanyahu's Two Israels by Yossi Klein Halevi the Times of Israel Identity/Crisis is produced by the Shalom Hartman Institute in association with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency