Judaism Unbound

It's hard to believe, but this episode marks Judaism Unbound's six-month anniversary -- 26 weeks! In honor of the occasion, Dan and Lex look back at what they've learned from the topics we've covered thus far, and offer a lens into the next six months of the podcast and beyond. 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 and Lex close out a series of episodes entitled "Emergent Judaism," which featured Rachel Barenblat and David Markus (of ALEPH: The Alliance for Jewish Renewal), Noa Kushner and Yoav Schlesinger (of The Kitchen), and Sarah Lefton (of BimBam). We discuss what it means to look at Judaism through a "modular" lens, such that various elements of Judaism are "unbundled" from the whole. 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!

What does it look like to start a Jewish organization that functions almost entirely in the digital world? Sarah Lefton, the founder and executive director of BimBam (formerly G-dcast), an organization that produces animated videos about Jewish texts, practices, and ideas, as well as apps and other new media, 1 joins Dan and Lex to give us a window into that process. She outlines her own Jewish story, the evolution of BimBam over time, some of the unique characteristics of digital forms of Judaism, 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 full shownotes for this episode, click here!

The Kitchen, an emergent Jewish spiritual community in San Francisco, made waves earlier this year when they launched their Hello Mazel initiative -- a "quarterly box of Jewish stuff" sent to people's homes, which quickly became the most-funded Jewish Kickstarter project ever and reached thousands of people across the country. Dan and Lex welcome two of its leaders -- Rabbi Noa Kushner and Yoav Schlesinger -- to explore what The Kitchen is, to understand its goals and methods, and to find out how Hello Mazel came to be. 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!

Rabbis Rachel Barenblat ("The Velveteen Rabbi") and David Markus, co-chairs of the board of ALEPH: The Alliance for Jewish Renewal, join us for the first episode of a four-episode series entitled "Emergent Innovation." Along with co-hosts Dan Libenson and Lex Rofes, they look back at the history of Jewish Renewal, look forward towards its future, and discuss its animating philosophies and their application beyond the movement itself. 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!

Might we learn something about Judaism from the cell phones that we carry in our pocket every day? In this episode, Dan and Lex explore whether Judaism's "operating system" is functioning properly. If not, they ask whether it is need of a "patch," an "upgrade," or a "new release" -- or is it even possible that Judaism could shift from an "operating system" into an "app"? 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!

Beth Finger, founder of Jewish Without Walls (JWOW) joins Judaism Unbound for the third episode in our "New Platforms in Jewish Life series." We learn from the successful strategies of her organization, and in doing so converse about issues ranging from contemporary denominational divides to the role of the internet 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 full shownotes for this episode, click here!

David Cygielman, founder and CEO of Moishe House, joins Dan and Lex for the second episode in the four-episode series entitled "New Platforms for Jewish Life." Moishe House's mission is to provide vibrant Jewish community for young adults by supporting leaders in their 20s as they create meaningful home-based Jewish experiences for themselves and their peers. 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!

Angie Thurston and Casper ter Kuile, experts on the emerging group of Americans known as the religious "nones," join Judaism Unbound for Episode 18. Thurston and ter Kuile are co-authors of two monographs, entitled How We Gather and Something More, respectively, and they serve as Ministry Innovation Fellows at Harvard Divinity School. 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 and Lex close out their three-episode series on Intermarriage: The New Normal in this episode. They explain why they don't think intermarriage is bad for American Judaism, explore questions of what it means to be a "Jewish leader," and discuss shifts away from binary, either-or ways of thinking. 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!

Paul Golin, formerly the Associate Executive Director of Big Tent Judaism, joins Dan and Lex for the second episode of our Intermarriage: The New Normal series. We examine the role that intermarriage plays in the Jewish world today, and we broaden our conversation to discuss broader trends affecting 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 full shownotes for this episode, click here!

Dr. Keren McGinity joins us for a conversation about intermarriage and gender. McGinity is the author of Still Jewish: A History of Women and Intermarriage in America and Marrying Out: Jewish Men, Intermarriage, and Fatherhood. She founded the Love & Tradition Institute and serves as Director of the Interfaith Families Jewish Engagement Program at Hebrew College. 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!

For the final episode of our "Judaism in America" series, Dan and Lex build on key ideas that emerged in the three previous conversations in the series, which featured Jonathan Sarna, Anita Diamant, and Shaul Magid, beginning to develop a set of ideas about where American Judaism will be headed in 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. To access full shownotes for this episode, click here!

Professor Shaul Magid joins Dan and Lex for the third episode in our four-episode series, entitled "Judaism in America: Evolutions, Revolutions, or Something Else?" Professor Magid's book, American Post-Judaism, serves as a springboard for a discussion about American post-ethnicity, the Holocaust, survivalism, and spiritual humanism. Next week, Dan and Lex close out the series by connecting elements of this conversation to Episode 11, featuring Jonathan Sarna, and Episode 12, featuring Anita Diamant. 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!

Anita Diamant, author of The Red Tent and founder of Mayyim Hayyim Community Mikveh, visits Judaism Unbound for a discussion about trends in contemporary American Judaism. 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 and Lex welcome pre-eminent American Jewish historian Jonathan Sarna to the podcast for the first episode of a series entitled "Judaism in America: Evolutions, Revolutions, or Something Else?" 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!

Our Judaism Unbound podcast kicked off with five sets of two episodes, each of which connected to one book of the Torah. In this episode, connecting to Deuteronomy, we reflect on our previous episodes. We also provide a sneak preview of what will be coming up as our podcast progresses forward! 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!

How do all the pieces fit together? In episode 9, we synthesize key ideas from the previous episodes' conversations and try to lay out the lens through which we will be looking in future episodes. To help us, we welcome Dr. Dan Mendelssohn Aviv. 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!

You might be familiar with these questions: How many Jews are there in the United States? How many Jewish children are they having? How can we ensure there will be more Jews in the future? In this episode, we critique the premise of those questions -- that the current and future quantity of Jews should be a top priority -- and we offer some alternative frames at looking at Jewish communal life. Click the audio link below if you'd like to hear our take. 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!

How do Jewish institutions change? How do they resist change? Those are the key questions we wrestle with this week as Professor Barak Richman of Duke University joins us in conversation. 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!