Judaism Unbound

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 this first episode of their podcast as a bonus episode here on Judaism Unbound's channel. In each episode, they bring novels, mythological narratives, poems, plays, and lyrics 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.This first episode, presented in collaboration with Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), features selections from a children's play found in I-Tell-You, a 1926 religious school journal from Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia. The episode also includes essays from the publication written by both students and clergy.Scholar Miriam Heller Stern, PhD, National Director, School of Education and Associate Professor of HUC-JIR, hel

There was a pretty big election recently! Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg ask what this presidential election can help to illuminate about Judaism, America, and how today's American Jews might relate to the two.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 Libenson and Lex Rofeberg open up what might be a strange question -- but we promise it's an interesting one! What happens if we understand Judaism as a medium of art, like paint, such that it can be deployed (painted with) in all sorts of creative ways? How would this differ from an image of Judaism (get it??) where we conceive of it as an already-completed painting, which we wouldn't be able to change, now that it's completed?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.

Keshira HaLev Fife, the Oreget Kehillah (Weaver of Community/Executive Director) for Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation reflecting on the word "priestess" as both a noun and as a verb. They ask who priestesses are, what priestessing is, and why even priestesses themselves benefit from being priestessed. With respect to all of these questions, they explore how they tie to the Jewish past, present, and future.This episode is the seventh in a series of episodes exploring the history and contemporary leadership of America's Jewish women.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.

Yael Kanarek, an Israeli-American artist, has spent the past few years rewriting the entire Torah -- in Hebrew and English -- by changing the genders of all characters (and animals, and more). In this episode she speaks with Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg about her project, called Toratah (Her Torah), and what it might mean for the future of Jewish text and Jewish practice. This episode is the sixth in a series of episodes exploring the history, and contemporary leadership, of America's Jewish women.You can learn more about Kanarek's Regendered Bible at BeitToratah.org.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.

Lila Corwin Berman, director of the Feinstein Center for American Jewish History and author of the book The American Jewish Philanthropic Complex: The History of a Multibillion Dollar Institution, joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about American Jewish philanthropy's history. They also explore ways in which that history opens up expansive questions about issues ranging from the Holocaust, to Israel, to sexism, and key terms in Jewish life like "continuity" and "identity."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.

Sheila Katz and Danya Ruttenberg, CEO and Scholar-in-Residence of the National Council of Jewish Women, join Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about the history and legacy of their organization, along with the work that they're continuing to do today to build a more just, more liberated world.This episode is the fifth in a series of episodes exploring the history, and contemporary leadership, of America's Jewish women.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.

Yehuda Kurtzer and Claire Sufrin, co-authors of the book The New Jewish Canon: Ideas & Debates 1980-2015, join Dan and Lex for a conversation about what a contemporary Jewish canon even is, how they went about deciding the pieces that made it in, and how those questions connect to other Jewish textual canons, past, present, and (potentially) 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.

Sarah Waxman, founder of an organization called At The Well, joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about Rosh Chodesh (the Jewish practice of marking a new month). They explore the history of Rosh Chodesh, its relationship to women's spirituality, and At The Well's "Well Circles," which empower women to share this sacred monthly celebration in community with one another.This episode is the fourth in a series of episodes exploring the history, and contemporary leadership, of America's Jewish women.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.

Bovo-Buch: Chivalric Romance, Cultural Collision is a four-episode podcast series produced by theatre dybbuk, presented in collaboration with Judaism Unbound.Bovo-Buch is Elia Levita's 16th century Yiddish adaptation of the popular Italian chivalric romance Bovo d’Antona. The book was extremely popular among Jewish communities of the time, and is an example of the cultural convergence that occurs when a narrative is adapted into a new context. Our three episode podcast is a combination of scholarship around the book and its history – led by Erith Jaffe-Berg in conversation with Aaron Henne – and performed readings of the text by actors from theatre dybbuk.In this episode, the 4th of four, the focus is on the book’s reach and popularity, as well as the problematic nature of its relationship to its Muslim characters, and the divisions among the Jewish communities of Northern Italy.Learn more about theatre dybbuk by heading to www.theatredybbuk.org.

Bovo-Buch: Chivalric Romance, Cultural Collision is a four-episode podcast series produced by theatre dybbuk, presented in collaboration with Judaism Unbound.Bovo-Buch is Elia Levita's 16th century Yiddish adaptation of the popular Italian chivalric romance Bovo d’Antona. The book was extremely popular among Jewish communities of the time, and is an example of the cultural convergence that occurs when a narrative is adapted into a new context. Our three episode podcast is a combination of scholarship around the book and its history – led by Erith Jaffe-Berg in conversation with Aaron Henne – and performed readings of the text by actors from theatre dybbuk.In this episode, the 3rd of 4, the focus is on investigating the social roles of both the women in the story and its female readership, as well as the sexual and gender dynamics present in the text.Learn more about theatre dybbuk by heading to www.theatredybbuk.org.

Bovo-Buch: Chivalric Romance, Cultural Collision is a four-episode podcast series produced by theatre dybbuk, presented in collaboration with Judaism Unbound.Bovo-Buch is Elia Levita's 16th century Yiddish adaptation of the popular Italian chivalric romance Bovo d’Antona. The book was extremely popular among Jewish communities of the time, and is an example of the cultural convergence that occurs when a narrative is adapted into a new context. Our three episode podcast is a combination of scholarship around the book and its history – led by Erith Jaffe-Berg in conversation with Aaron Henne – and performed readings of the text by actors from theatre dybbuk.In this episode, the 2nd of four, the focus is on the content of the book itself and the context within which it was created, illuminating the cultural forces at work in both the story and the society. The remaining two episodes in this series will be released on consecutive days: September 22nd and 23rd.Learn more about theatre dybbuk by heading to www.thea

Aaron Henne and Erith Jaffe-Berg join Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg to kick-off a 4-part bonus series of Judaism Unbound, in partnership with Theatre Dybbuk, exploring and experiencing Bovo Buch, a 16th-century chivalric romance, written in Yiddish (yes, you read that right!).The remaining three episodes in this series will be released on consecutive days: September 21st, 22nd, and 23rd.Learn more about Theatre Dybbuk by heading to www.TheatreDybbuk.org. To access shownotes for this episode, click here.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!

Jill Hammer and Taya Shere, co-founders of Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, join Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about the old, the new, and the ways in which Kohenet's work blurs the line between the two.This episode is the third in a series of episodes exploring the history, and contemporary leadership, of America's Jewish women.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.

Rosh Hashanah 2020/5781, as this episode is released, is less than a week away. But Wendie Bernstein Lash, Lex Rofeberg, and Estee Solomon Gray are ready to talk about Rosh Hashanah 2021/5782 already. Why? Well, next year's Rosh Hashanah will kick off a year-long observance called Shmitah (the Sabbatical year). And they think that if a year-long observance is really going to be meaningful, you gotta prep for it! In this bonus episode, they brainstorm what this coming year could look like, as an "on-ramp" into this year-long practice.This “mini-episode” is the 4th of four that have been released as part of Elul Unbound 2020 (our 9th-12th Elul episodes overall). To listen to our first four Elul bonus episodes, released in 2018, click here. For the next four, released in 2019, click here. Participate in Elul Unbound 2020, through a piece of Elul content arriving daily in your inbox, by signing up at this link. 

Aaron Koller, author of Unbinding Isaac: The Significance of the Akedah for Jewish Thought, joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg to dive deep into the story of the binding of Isaac in historical context and as it is utilized today.Check out The Akedah Project, which features over 30 different perspectives on the Binding of Isaac (“akedah” means “binding” in Hebrew), in video form, at AkedahProject.com.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!

The month of Elul, and the holidays  of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, are most often associated with personal forms of introspection and self-improvement. But how can we immerse ourselves not only in "I" work, but also "We" work? How can Elul be a time for introspection on a communal and societal level, and not just within each individual? In this bonus podcast, Wendie Bernstein Lash, Lex Rofeberg, and Dan Libenson explore those questions.This “mini-episode” is the 3rd of four that will be released as part of Elul Unbound 2020. To listen to our first four Elul bonus episodes, released in 2018, click here. For the next four, released in 2019, click here. Participate in Elul Unbound 2020, through a piece of Elul content arriving daily in your inbox, by signing up at this link. 

Judith Rosenbaum, CEO of the Jewish Women's Archive (JWA), joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation exploring how, when you center the lives and narratives of Jewish women, the story of what Judaism has been fundamentally changes.This episode is the second in a series of episode exploring the history, and contemporary leadership, of America's Jewish women.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.

What if, this whole time, we've been carving out these realms called "sacred" and "profane," but in reality, the mundane, everyday stuff of our lives could also potentially be holy? Wendie Bernstein Lash and Lex Rofeberg talk it out, and connect the conversation to the holi-month of Elul. If you're curious why this episode is marked "EXPLICIT," well, you'll just have to listen! This “mini-episode” is the 2nd of four that will be released as part of Elul Unbound 2020. To listen to our first four Elul bonus episodes, released in 2018, click here. For the next four, released in 2019, click here. Participate in Elul Unbound 2020, through a piece of Elul content arriving daily in your inbox, by signing up at this link. NOTE: The title of this episode does not suggest, by any means, that our society is "all good" right now. It most certainly is not, and next week's Elul episode looks at that in detail. The title is meant only to suggest that we can find goodness/sacredness in everyday elements of our lives that we

Pamela Nadell, author of America's Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today, joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg to kick off a series exploring the history, and contemporary leadership, of America's Jewish women. America's Jewish Women was the recipient of 2019's Nation­al Jew­ish Book Award for Book of the Year.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.