IKAR Podcasts

“It is not a tragedy to me that I'm living in a wheelchair. Disability only becomes a tragedy when society fails to provide the things we need to lead our lives, such as job opportunities or barrier-free buildings…”  - Judy Heumann, of blessed memory. 

Weekly Parsha Study with Rabbi David KasherFull unedited class: https://youtu.be/tQGKQYEjVKASource sheet: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/563716?lang=bi

Holiness is recognizing that what looks like the whole story is always, necessarily, only part of the story.  It's the stretch that moves us beyond what we know and what we’ve seen and into what we can imagine and dream.

Weekly Parsha Study with Rabbi David Kasher from 5.2.2024.Full unedited class: https://youtu.be/O-gaUHURJBASource sheet: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/562111?lang=bi

With Auschwitz Survivor Ella Mandel and Amit, Zeve, and Oren Zilberstein, Jason Neidleman, and Alexia Gyorody, the second, third, and fourth generation of family members who both survived and perished in the Shoah. As living survivor numbers dwindle, we will explore together how we can understand and hold their experiences in ways that co-create a more just, humane and dignified future for one another and our world. Co-produced by Peanut Productions.Videos by The Righteous Conversations Project:- To Life: The Ella Mandel Story created in collaboration with Sinai Akiba- Dreams of Yisrael: The Story of Yisrael Zilberstein created in collaboration with IKAR Limudim

We must have zero tolerance for violent and racist rhetoric in our Jewish community. We must support the birth of a new mixed multitude: those who reject extremism, who reject the violent, reductive idea that Palestinians and Jews must be eternal enemies. That one’s victory necessitates another’s victimhood, or even worse: elimination. This mixed multitude is made of people who know that we do not undermine our own sorrow or betray our own people when we see one another, those who understand that our fates are all tied up in one another.

Rabbi Sharon Brous discusses the dangers of antisemitism within the protest movement and the need for a movement fueled by empathy and moral imagination. She emphasizes the importance of dialogue, unity, and collective responsibility in advocating for a just future for all.

Source sheet: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/558262?lang=bi

The free person, awake and humble, can acknowledge thetruth that emerges from various even contradictory perspectives. This is not asign of weakness, but of spiritual liberation. Perhaps that the very essence offreedom is growing in spaciousness.

How can we ensure that the Passover Seder is not performative, but transformative? When we open our doors to those who are hungry, something in our hearts opens too. This is how we begin to write a new liberation story.Since October 7, The New Israel Fund has been funding emergency support and resettlement for Israelis forced from their homes, and they have been supporting Israelis and Palestinians working together for a just future. They have now launched a campaign to feed the people of Gaza living at the brink of famine through the World Central Kitchen and The International Rescue Committee. The humanitarian crisis there is a moral catastrophe, and it is a Jewish moral obligation to feed those who are hungry. I hope you’ll join me in support of this campaign.