Judaism Unbound

Kristin Eriko Posner joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about creating multicultural Jewish ritual. Posner is the founder of Nourish Co., a lifestyle brand that help people to come together, heal, connect to their lineage, and remember their rituals.At the top of the episode, Dan and Lex take a moment to check in with listeners about the moment we are inhabiting, which necessitates increased social distancing for the sake of public health. They mention their new initiative, jewishLIVE, which is seeking to meet some important needs of communal gathering at this time. jewishLIVE is curating the virtual Jewish content you want and need, all in one place. Visit jewishLIVE.org to learn more, and join the jewishLIVE facebook group by clicking here.This episode is the sixth in an ongoing series exploring new, old, and new-old approaches to the holiday of Passover. If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Support Judai

Brian Field and Caryn Aviv, two professional leaders of Judaism Your Way (a Denver-based organization focused on engaging Jews and their loved ones), join Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about Passover. In particular, they take a look at ways in which it can serve as an opportunity for interfaith bridge-building and as a chance to manifest what they term the “Torah of Inclusion.”This episode is the third in an ongoing series exploring new, old, and new-old approaches to the holiday of Passover.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 full shownotes for this episode, click here.

Eileen Levinson, founder of Haggadot.com, joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about crowd-sourced haggadot (guide-books to the Passover seder), and about re-imagining Passover more generally. We hope to use this series as a case study of concrete practices for finding deeper meaning in contemporary Jewish practice.This episode is the fourth in an ongoing series exploring new, old, and new-old approaches to the holiday of Passover. 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 full shownotes for this episode, click here.

Vanessa Ochs, author of The Passover Haggadah: A Biography, joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about the origins, evolutions, and revolutions of the Passover Haggadah — the text that is used as a ritual guide to the Passover Seder.This episode is the third in an ongoing series exploring new, old, and new-old approaches to the holiday of Passover.Pre-order The Passover Haggadah: A Biography 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!To access full shownotes for this episode, click here.

Dan Horwitz, Founding Director of The Well, joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about outside-the-box approaches to Passover.If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help to support our kickstarter campaign, currently underway to fund our book project, Judaism Unbound: Bound. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!To access full shownotes for this episode, click here.

Barry Dolinger and Naomi Baine, co-founders of Mitzvah Matzos, join Dan and Lex for a conversation in which they explain that — despite what you’ve heard — matzah isn’t always hard like a cracker! More than that, they’re offering a new avenue for you, in eating it, to directly contribute to the betterment of our world.If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help to support our kickstarter campaign, currently underway to fund our book project, Judaism Unbound: Bound. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!To access full shownotes for this episode, click here.

Dan and Lex have one word for you, listeners……Nu? Just kidding, they have many thousands of words to offer in this episode, which concludes a unit of conversations about Yiddish language and culture in America. This episode is the sixth and final episode in a series produced in collaboration with the Yiddish Book Center, as part of its Decade of Discovery initiative, in honor of 40 years since the Yiddish Book Center’s founding.If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help to support our kickstarter campaign, currently underway to fund our book project, Judaism Unbound: Bound. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!To access full shownotes for this episode, click here.

In this special episode, 2019 Judaism Unbound and New Voices Fellow Rena Yehuda Newman (they/them) explores a new concept called “Pluralism of Necessity,” when communities are formed not because their members have much in common, but because they need each other.Click here to check out the shownotes for this bonus episode, including a bio of Rena Yehuda Newman and some questions about the episode for you to explore.

Tony Michels, the George L. Mosse professor of American Jewish History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about the evolving role of Yiddish in America, from the late-19th century through the present. This episode is the fifth in a series of episodes produced in collaboration with the Yiddish Book Center, as part of its Decade of Discovery initiative, in honor of 40 years since the Yiddish Book Center’s founding.If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help to support our kickstarter campaign, currently underway to fund our book project, Judaism Unbound: Bound. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!To access full shownotes for this episode, click here.

Sandy Fox, American Jewish historian and host of Vaybertaytsh, a “feminist podcast for the Yiddish-speaking and the Yiddish-curious,” joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation that weaves together the topics of Yiddish, podcasting, summer camp, gender, and much more. (Fox is also known among Yiddish-speakers as סאָסיע־פֿריידל).This episode is the fourth in a series of episodes produced in collaboration with the Yiddish Book Center, as part of its Decade of Discovery initiative, in honor of 40 years since the Yiddish Book Center’s founding. 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 full shownotes for this episode, click here.

Asya Vaisman Schulman and Sebastian Schulman join Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg to talk about each of their individual relationships to Yiddish language and culture, along with their collective relationship to Yiddish that is embodied through their nuclear family. This episode is the third in a series of episodes produced in collaboration with the Yiddish Book Center, as part of its Decade of Discovery initiative, in honor of 40 years since the Yiddish Book Center’s founding.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 full shownotes for this episode, click here.

Naomi Seidman, the Chancellor Jackman Professor of the Arts at the University of Toronto’s Department for the Study of Religion, joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation looking at Yiddish’s intersections with politics, translation, gender, and shame. This episode is the second in a series of episodes produced in collaboration with the Yiddish Book Center, as part of its Decade of Discovery initiative, in honor of 40 years since the Yiddish Book Center’s founding.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 full shownotes for this episode, click here.

Dan Libenson shifts from his usual role as co-host to one of guest! He appears on the Yiddish Book Center's podcast, entitled "The Shmooze," where he engages in conversation with host Lisa Newman about Judaism Unbound, some initial takeaways from our current series about Yiddish in America, 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!

Aaron Lansky, founder of the Yiddish Book Center and winner of a MacArthur Fellowship (also known as the MacArthur “Genius Grant”), joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about the beginnings of the Yiddish Book Center, along with the role that Yiddish continues to play in American life today. This episode is the first in a series of episodes produced in collaboration with the Yiddish Book Center, as part of its Decade of Discovery initiative, in honor of 40 years since the Yiddish Book Center’s founding.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 full shownotes for this episode, click here.

Ruth Calderon, a former member of Israel’s parliament and the founder of two organizations (Elul and Alma: Home for Hebrew Culture) blending traditional Jewish study with contemporary Jewish culture, joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about how to blend traditional Jewish sources with a radical spirit of contemporary creativity.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 full shownotes for this episode, click here.

Aaron Katler, CEO of UpStart, joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation that looks at ideas of Jewish change, creativity, and urgency through the metaphor of “marathons” and “sprints.”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 full shownotes for this episode, click here.

Benay Lappe, founder of SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva, joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg as a co-host for this conversation, as the three of them look forward toward the future of Jewish education and reflect back on 200 episodes of the Judaism Unbound podcast.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 full shownotes for this episode, click here.

Abby Eisenberg, an independent Jewish educator and life cycle officiant, joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg in a conversation that asks what it would mean to conceptualize our Jewish practices as “Learning Judaism,” through which the continual engagement with Jewish texts would be centered above any particular relationship to Jewish law or belief.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 full shownotes for this episode, click here.

Darren Kleinberg, the Head of School at Kehillah Jewish High School in Palo Alto, California, wants to remind you that Jews are human beings. He also wants you to remember that Judaism is not about Judaism. He joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg to explain what those two sentences mean, and why both are of the utmost importance.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 full shownotes for this episode, click here.

Jay Michaelson, who works as a columnist for The Daily Beast and as an editor for Ten Percent Happier, joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg about spirituality, heresy, and the prefix “un,” all through the lens of his new book, Enlightenment by Trial and Error.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 full shownotes for this episode, click here.