Judaism Unbound

Philip Graubart, author of Planet of the Jews and Women and God (and many other books), joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about those two books. Each of them, in different ways, provides commentary on what it is to be an American Jew, and what Judaism could look like in various alternate universes.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!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

Rachel Sharona Lewis, author of The Rabbi Who Prayed With Fire: a Rabbi Vivian Mystery, joins Dan and Lex to talk about her book, a mystery novel that doubles as a deep-dive into Jewish communal institutions, racial justice, queer representation, and more!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!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

Dan and Lex reflect on recent conversations (7 of them!) that have intertwined explorations of Judaism, through lenses of transgender experience, and explorations of gender, through lenses of Jewish experience. They consider the myriad ways in which trans Jews are (and will continue to be!) on the front lines of efforts to pioneer sacred forms of Judaism for our time and the future, and they ask what those folks have to teach us about upending binaries more generally.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!To access shownotes for this episode, click here. 

Binya Kóatz, a "queer&trans/diasporic/arab-jewish/ashkenazi/god-loving/musical/femme/multilingual/ancestral-dreaming soul making joy and art and radical community," joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about transness, diaspora, Talmud, theology, and more, along how all of those topics flow into one another.This episode is the seventh episode in a series that intertwines explorations of Judaism, through lenses of transgender experience, and explorations of gender, through lenses of Jewish experience.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!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

Ari Lev Fornari serves as senior rabbi at Kol Tzedek, a reconstructionist congregation in West Philadelphia whose name means "a voice for justice." He joins Dan and Lex for a conversation that weaves together his story of becoming a rabbi (and becoming a congregational rabbi in particular), political issues like prison abolition and white flight, and the upcoming sabbatical year ("Sh'mitah" in Hebrew).This episode is the sixth episode in a series that intertwines explorations of Judaism, through lenses of transgender experience, and explorations of gender, through lenses of Jewish experience.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!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

This bonus episode of Judaism Unbound is presented in partnership with Theatre Dybbuk. Once a month, their podcast -- called The Dybbukast -- releases a new episode, and we are proud to feature episode eight of their podcast as a bonus episode here on Judaism Unbound's channel. 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 in Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else that podcasts are found.Written in Italy in the 16th century by Jewish dramatist Leone De' Sommi Portaleone, who also wrote what is considered to be the oldest extant Hebrew-language play, the poem "In Defense of Women" touches on the role of women in drama and reveals a great deal about the cultural considerations and power dynamics of this time when women were coming to the fore on the theatrical stages of Northern Italy, Rome, and Venice in the professional world of the commedia dell’arte.Intercut with

Rachel Gross, the John & Marcia Goldman Chair in American Jewish Studies at San Francisco State University and author of Beyond the Synagogue: Jewish Nostalgia as Religious Practice, joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about delis, museums, children's literature, and other religious spaces that you didn't know were religious!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!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

Leiah Moser, author of Magical Princess Harriet and rabbi at Reconstructionist Beth Israel in New Jersey, joins Dan and Lex for a conversation that weaves together threads around transgender identity, fantasy fiction, conversion to Judaism, and more. This episode is the fifth episode in a series that intertwines explorations of Judaism, through lenses of transgender experience, and explorations of gender, through lenses of Jewish experience.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!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

Mike Moskowitz is the scholar-in-residence for Trans and Queer Jewish Studies at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York City. He joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about allyship, by cisgender Jews, toward transgender Jews. This episode is the fourth episode in a series that intertwines explorations of Judaism, through lenses of transgender experience, and explorations of gender, through lenses of Jewish experience.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!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

Koach Baruch Frazier -- a musician, activist, audiologist, and rabbinical student -- joins Dan and Lex for a conversation that upends the dichotomy of prayer, on the one hand, and action, on the other. Frazier looks back at their own journey toward the rabbinate, and in doing so considers what drumbeats, the inner ear, and silence have to teach us. As it turns out, listening to what these vessels of sound have to say can help unlock many important concepts in contemporary Judaism, and in contemporary strivings for justice.This episode is the third episode in a series that intertwines explorations of Judaism, through lenses of transgender experience, and explorations of gender, through lenses of Jewish experience.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!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

Dan and Lex were thrilled to transform from hosts into guests, in an episode of Contact Chai, "a podcast from Mishkan Chicago exploring down-to-earth Judaism in conversation," hosted by Lizzie Heydemann. Heydemann is herself a past guest on Judaism Unbound, and you can listen to her appearance on Judaism Unbound here. We encourage you to subscribe to Contact Chai on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts! Mishkan Chicago is a spiritual community in Chicago reclaiming Judaism’s inspiration and transformative essence. Not bound by a particular location, we create radically inclusive spaces for Jewish spiritual practice and community, engaging, educating, and empowering people across the spectrum of identity, background, age, and belief.

Jericho Vincent, a genderqueer and post-ultra-Orthodox writer and lecturer, is the author of the memoir Cut Me Loose and co-author of Legends of the Talmud. They join Dan and Lex for a conversation about being genderqueer, leaving ultra-orthodoxy, connecting to other religious traditions, and entering rabbinical school. This episode is the second episode in a series that intertwines explorations of Judaism, through lenses of transgender experience, and explorations of gender, through lenses of Jewish experience.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!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

Becky Silverstein and Laynie Soloman, co-founders of the Trans Halakha Project, join Dan and Lex to kick off a series of conversations that will intertwine explorations of Judaism, through lenses of transgender experience, and gender, through lenses of Jewish experience.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!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.The Trans Halakha Project, housed at SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva, aims to curate existing resources that have been developed for trans Jews and by trans Jews, identify new areas of halakha that have yet to be developed, and finally to create opportunities for developing new halakhic literature and practice guides that speak directly to these areas of need. Learn more at Svara.org/Trans-Halakha-Project.

David Hirshberg, author of My Mother's Son, Jacobo's Rainbow, and A Bronx Cheer (Upcoming), joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about the role of Jewish fiction in the Jewish present and future.  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!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

Natalie Ginsberg and Madison Margolin, two co-founders of the Jewish Psychedelic Summit, join Dan and Lex to discuss their upcoming event, taking place on May 2nd-3rd. Register for the Jewish Psychedelic Summit here!The third co-founder of the summit, Zac Kamenetz, is himself a past guest on Judaism Unbound (listen to his episode here). Learn more about the Jewish Psychedelic Summit by heading to www.JewishPsychedelicSummit.org. For full shownotes on this bonus episode, click here.

Aimee Lucido and Sofiya Pasternack, award-winning authors of novels geared toward students in middle grades, join Dan and Lex for a conversation about Jewish fiction. They explore some of the gaps in the ecosystem of Jewish literature and envision what it would look like to fill some of those gaps -- through their own work, but also through work done by other authors.Aimee Lucido is the author of Emmy In the Key of Code, a semifinalist for the UK's Carnegie Medal (comparable to the American Newberry Award), and of Recipe for Disaster, an upcoming (Fall 2021) book centering a 12-year-old girl who isn't sure if she's "Jewish enough."Sofiya Pasternack is the author of Anya and the Dragon and Anya and the Nightingale -- the latter a Finalist in 2020 for the National Jewish Book Award. These novels blend elements of Jewish tradition and history with the genre of fantasy, helping readers imagine when those two theoretically-separate realms collide.If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going

Dan and Lex close out a mini-series of conversations about Torah (and the Bible more generally) by claiming that Torah isn't just those books from a few thousand years ago. It's not even just those books, plus the oral conversations written down centuries later. We -- our experiences and our intuitions -- are also part of the term "Torah."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!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

Xava De Cordova and Michael Sokolovsky, co-hosts of Xai, How Are You? (a fellow podcast in the Jewish pod-o-sphere), join Dan and Lex for a crossover episode, airing simultaneously as an episode of Judaism Unbound and an episode of Xai, How are You! The four of them talk about what the Talmud is, who Shabbetai Zevi is, what Xai How are You is, and -- for the first time in Judaism Unbound's history -- how Dan and Lex are doing. Perhaps most importantly, they dwell on the figure of Shabbetai Zevi, and what his life may have to teach us as we build Judaisms for the future.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! You can support Xai, How are You by becoming a patron of theirs on Patreon. You can do so at this link!To access shownotes for this episode, click here. 

Tzemah Yoreh, author of Why Abraham Murdered Isaac: The First Stories of the Bible Revealed and leader of The City Congregation for Humanistic Judaism, joins Dan and Lex to talk about what Yoreh terms "the original bible." Find out how some of the stories, like the binding of Isaac, may not have always looked the way they do today, and why that matters for those who are interested in the stories of the Bible!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!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

Liana Wertman joins Dan and Lex to discuss her work as the founder of The Torah Studio, a new (and fully-digital) center for Torah study that encourages people to take ownership of traditional Jewish texts. 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!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.