Jewish Farmers Network ( JFN) Featuring: Shani Minsk, Co-Founder and Executive Director Jewish Farmer Network mobilizes Jewish agricultural wisdom to build a more just and regenerative food system for all. We connect Jewish farmers to each other and to the surprisingly relevant technologies, rhythms, and ethics of Jewish agriculture. We believe that a vibrant future for people, plants, and planet will be shaped by farmers, gardeners, and growers of all kinds. We are the AND that connects your st...
May 26, 2023•37 min•Season 4Ep. 69
JIFA: Jewish Initiative for Animals Featuring: Rabbi Jonathan Bernhard, Executive Director and Melissa Hoffman, Director of Programs The Jewish Initiative for Animals supports innovative programs to turn the Jewish value of compassion for animals into action while building ethical and sustainable Jewish American communities in the process. Jewish tradition urges us to keep a healthy skepticism about the sourcing of our goods and strive for ethical consumption. JIFA is ready to work with your com...
May 05, 2023•46 min•Season 4Ep. 68
What is Jewish Farming? Featuring: Dr. Adrienne Krone Adrienne Krone is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and past Director of Jewish Life at Allegheny College.Her research focuses on communal Jewish farms and the sustainable Jewish farming movement in the United States. Her expertise ranges from the history of religion in the U.S., to modern Judaism, to religion and food. Krone holds a Ph.D. in American Religion from Duke University, and her extensive experience in Jewish communal servic...
Apr 14, 2023•52 min•Season 4Ep. 67
Kavod v’Nichum Featuring: Sarit Wishnevski, Executive Director Their Mission: Kavod v’Nichum provides the Jewish community resources, education, and training about the end of life, from serious illness through dying, death, bereavement, and mourning. Their Vision is to transform the final life transition for every Jewish person so that it is understood, cared for, and respected. About: Kavod v’Nichum, כבוד וניחום, is Hebrew for “honor and comfort”. Founded in 2000, Kavod v’Nichum is a Jewish non...
Mar 31, 2023•24 min•Season 4Ep. 66
Haggadot.com Featuring: Eileen Levinson, Founder and Executive Director Haggadot.com is part of Custom & Craft, a nonprofit design lab using technology, art and new media to imagine new formats for engaging with ancient traditions. Founded in 2011, our online platforms Haggadot.com and Custom and Craft make home-based Jewish ritual accessible, meaningful, and diverse – giving individuals of all faith backgrounds the tools to create for themselves and to discover the other creators in their c...
Mar 17, 2023•39 min•Season 4Ep. 65
Secular Synagogue Featuring: Rabbi Denise Handlarski, Founder What is Secular Synagogue? Secular Synagogue is a digital Judaism, online community, engaged and meaningful learning and practice. Their goal is two-directional: explore how Judaism can be an enriching force in your life and, in turn, make you a more kind, just, and effective force for good in the world. Who is Secular Synagogue for? Jewish, Jew- ish , Intermarried, In-married, Unmarried, Secular, Cultural, Atheist, Agnostic, Seeker, ...
Mar 03, 2023•42 min•Season 4Ep. 64
Fat Torah Featuring: Rabbi Minna Bromberg, Founder and President Fat Torah’s Goals Smashing the idolatry of fatphobia and leading ourselves from Narrowness to Freedom 1. ending weight stigma in Jewish communal life and training Jewish professionals, lay leaders, and community members to confront fatphobia wherever they encounter it (including in themselves). 2. equipping people who already work in fat activism, Health at Every Size, eating disorders recovery, and related weight neutral and body ...
Dec 18, 2022•40 min•Season 3Ep. 63
The Yeladim Project Featuring: Sagit Sol Epstein and David Epstein Including a special interview with Yarden, Eli and Lilah Sagit Sol Epstein, an Israeli living in in the United States saw an opportunity to help bridge the culture gap between American Jew and Israelis. She with the help of her husband, David created The Yeladim Project. It’s a complete family collaboration. Sagit translates and produces, the children sing and dance and David promotes the songs and videos of popular Israeli songs...
Dec 02, 2022•21 min•Season 3Ep. 62
Project Zug, founded by Benjamin Ross and Hagit Bartuv. Benjamin and Hagit connected in 2012 in Jerusalem, and developed a shared goal of using Jewish learning to connect Jews in Israel and America. Their vision became a reality, leading to more than 2,000 participants in Project Zug! Project Zug’s mission is to empower Jews to take ownership over their learning through one-on-one havruta learning. They believe that havruta can change your life. When two Jews connect through our shared tradition...
Nov 22, 2022•26 min•Season 3Ep. 61
Strength to Strength Featuring: Sarri Singer, Founder The Bridging Connections Podcast deals in a variety of topics. There are light-hearted topics, educational topics and very serious topics. This podcast is the most serious and possibly triggering topic explored so far. This conversation caused both crying and laughter in under an hour. In a perfect world, there would be no sadness or acts of terrorism. Unfortunately, the world and the people in it are not perfect. Gratefully organizations lik...
Nov 04, 2022•46 min•Season 3Ep. 60
BaMidbar Featuring: Jory Hanselman Mayschak, Founder and CEO Through a variety of modalities, BaMidbar supports mental health and wellness and envisions a Jewish community that actively supports its members in building the resilience to thrive. BaMidbar has a 6-14 week summer residential therapeutic program that focuses on using the environment to support skill building and self exploration while bringing in Jewish tradition and storytelling to explore meaning, values and purpose. They employ a ...
Oct 21, 2022•32 min•Season 3Ep. 59
Challah Back Girls Featuring: CoFounders Sara Loffman and Marni Loffman It’s amazing what beautiful things can come out of uncertainty and isolation. The four Loffman Siblings, Elana, Hannah, Marni and Sara, found themselves all back at home together at the beginning of the pandemic. This togetherness brought them to baking challah. Although the challah was initially for family and friends it soon turned into making food and challah for the hard working health care teams in the emergency rooms. ...
Oct 07, 2022•39 min•Season 3Ep. 58
Living Tree Alliance Featuring: Co-Founders Koehenet Sephira Oshkello and Melanie Kessler Meaningful Earth-Based Living Living Tree is a modern kibbutz-inspired community designed for joyful, adventurous earth-based living in Vermont’s great outdoors. They are a cohousing curator, event producer, and education center dedicated to connecting participants to self, community, earth and spirit through homesteading, camping, celebrations, festivals and enrichment programs. They welcome residents, gue...
Sep 30, 2022•45 min•Season 3Ep. 57
Jewish Free Loan Chicago Featuring: Leah Greenblum, Founder and Executive Director In the Middle Ages Moises Maimonides (1), great philosopher, physician and rabbi, outlined eight levels of tzedakah (charitable giving). He describe the highest form of giving is to give a gift, loan, or partnership that will result in the recipient becoming self-sufficient instead of living upon others. Jewish Free Loan Chicago is embodying this level of giving in an effort to engage people to help those in need....
Sep 09, 2022•24 min•Season 3Ep. 56
Shomer Collective Featuring: Rabbi Melanie Levav, Executive Director Inspiring End-of-Life Conversations and Experiences, Guided by Jewish Values Who am I? What’s the meaning of life? What’s my legacy? What do I have left in the next portion in my life? These are all age old questions. Quite possible you have contemplated some of these in during your lifetime. These are questions that our sages have questioning for years. There is deep Jewish wisdom that we can find from the sages that will help...
Aug 26, 2022•30 min•Season 3Ep. 55
Nazun (formerly Challah for Hunger) Featuring: Rebecca Bar, Executive Director and Rabbi Lily Solochek, Director of Programs and Education Food insecurity is prevalent throughout the United States. According to the USDA over 10% of American families were food insecure in 2019 and it is estimated that this has doubled since the onset of Covid. This is also a problem on our nation’s college campuses. According to the Hope Survey from fall 2020, 38 percent of students in two-year colleges and 29 pe...
Aug 12, 2022•35 min•Season 3Ep. 54
GatherDC Featuring: Alexandra Tureau, Managing Director GatherDC’s Mission and Vision GatherDC helps Jewish 20s/30s connect to Jewish life and to each other. GatherDC is a Jewish nonprofit that serves as the one-stop-shop for everything 20s and 30s need to live their best Jewish life. Whether you’re looking for Jewish events, people, synagogues, housing, jobs, rabbis, kosher food, or anything in between – we connect you. We are here to make it easy for you to find your people and place in DC and...
Jul 29, 2022•24 min•Season 3Ep. 53
The Eden Center Featuring: Dr. Naomi Marmon Grumet, Founder & Executive Director Jewish identity is based on three foundations, according to Dr. Naomi Marmon Grumet, the Sabbath, the laws of kashrut and mikvah, ritual bath. In fact, our sages tell us that it is incumbent on a community to build a mikvah before building any other communal structure including a synagogue. They say that it is so important a community should sell a Torah scroll to acquire the funds for the construction of a mikv...
Jul 18, 2022•36 min•Season 3Ep. 52
The Gender Equity in Hiring Project Featuring: Sara Shapiro Plevan, Founder & Executive Director The Gender Equity in Hiring Project started in 2018 to have deep conversations regarding respectful, equitable workplaces. They established a growing network of female partners and thought leaders across our community to listen and collect data. With the stories they heard, they began the work of advocacy launching thief first cohorts and workshops in 2019. The goal is to create systems that supp...
Jul 08, 2022•59 min•Season 3Ep. 51
Sacred Spaces Featuring: Shira Berkovits, President & CEO The Torah charges us to be an or l’goyyim (light unto the nations). We can not fulfill this important charge without looking inward. Looking within ourselves, our communities and institutions to do what is necessary to create safe surroundings. The need and desire for safe environments is universal. Everyone wants to work in a safe environment. Everyone wants to send their children to schools, camps and synagogues where they are prote...
Jun 17, 2022•29 min•Season 3Ep. 50
Blue Dove Foundation Featuring: Gabrielle Spatt, Executive Director Blue Dove provides mental health education awareness and outreach through a Jewish lens and for the Jewish community. Mental illness often causes people to feel alone and separate. During this interview, Gabby Spatt, Executive Director of Blue Dove Foundation, vulnerably shares her story. Gabby states that this is part of her healing process. Being in a space where people share their story and hear other stories is where healing...
Jun 03, 2022•34 min•Season 3Ep. 49
Mitsui Collective : Featuring Yoshi Silverstein How often in your life do you look at things through a Jewish lens? That’s how Yoshi Silverstein has lived his life from a young age. His career path has brought him to creating Mitsui Collective. While attending the JPro Conference earlier this month, I had the opportunity to meet Yoshi Silverstein, founder of Mitsui Collective and this week’s guest in person. I attended a soulful morning minyan (prayer service) that he led in partnership with Koh...
May 20, 2022•54 min•Season 3Ep. 48
Tzedek America Featuring: Avram Mandell, Founder & Executive Director The words L'taken olam, meaning to repair the world are are found in the second paragraph of the prayer Aleynu which is included in almost all Jewish worship services. The term Tikkun Olam is perceived as a core Jewish value and a hallmark of progressive Judaism. Tikkun Olam charges us to make the world a better place by being active participants in supporting of poor ( tzedakah ), doing acts of loving kindness ( g'milut h...
May 06, 2022•33 min•Season 3Ep. 47
No Shame On U (NSOU) Featuring: Miriam Ament, Founder & Executive Director The most impactful organizations often come from one person who has lived through a traumatic experience and recognizes that they could be a catalyst for the solution. This conversation with Miriam Ament, the founder and executive director of NSOU is a great example of the power of one individual. Miriam realized that mental health conditions, which are often perceived at a “big negative”, shouldn’t be a secret. This ...
Apr 29, 2022•28 min•Season 3Ep. 46
Jewish Addiction Awareness Network (JAAN) Featuring: Marla Kaufman, Founder/Executive Director Today’s topic is much more serious than most of the other topics that we deal with on this podcast. At the same time it may be one of the most important topics. We are grateful to amplify the voice of JAAN and its founder Marla Kaufman. The important work that they are doing to call attention to the devastating endemic of addiction is certain to save lives. I am grateful that JAAN is working to elimina...
Apr 08, 2022•41 min•Season 3Ep. 45
Tlaim Patchwork Cookbook Featuring: Alana Chandler T’laim’s Mission: A project supported by Be’chol Lashon , is cookbook aims to celebrate the racial and ethnic diversity within the Jewish community. We want to celebrate the myriad unique experiences that each of us has as a product of our identities. We will pair recipes with poems, stories, essays, and photographs from submitters so that it becomes more than just a cookbook but also a mosaic of experiences from a plethora of backgrounds. T’lai...
Mar 25, 2022•39 min•Season 3Ep. 44
THE KOHENET HEBREW PRIESTESS INSTITUTE Featuring: Keshira HaLev Fife, Executive Director Mission: Kohenet Kavannah (Organizational Intention): Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute reclaims and innovates embodied, earth-based feminist Judaism. Kohenet's spiritual leadership training, ordination programs, publications and community offerings center ritual as transformative practice. They draw from ways women and other marginalized people have led across time - shrinekeepers, prophetesses and wise wo...
Mar 11, 2022•39 min•Season 3Ep. 43
The Den Collective Featuring: Rabbi Aderet Drucker, Executive Director & Community Rabbi Offering cozy, collaborative, accessible Judaism all around DC the Den is a collective of people creating a Judaism that is relevant, accessible, and deeply rooted in tradition throughout the greater DC area. We seek to build spaces of meaning that invite people to deepen their connection to Judaism, feel part of a community, and enrich their lives. the Den strives to be collaborative, experimental, tran...
Feb 25, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Season 3Ep. 42
Save a Child’s Heart Featuring: Brianna Fowler “I hope that people feel that they have Save A Child’s Heart in their back pocket as a story to tell to shed light on the good that is happening in Israel,” explains Brianna. 1 IN EVERY 100 CHILDREN IS BORN WITH A CONGENITAL HEART DEFECT. Save A Child’s Heart mend hearts regardless of race, religion, gender, nationality or financial status. SAVE A CHILD'S HEART saves the lives of critically ill children suffering from heart disease in countries wher...
Feb 11, 2022•38 min•Season 3Ep. 41
Or HaLev: Transforming Jews, Judaism, and the world through contemplative Jewish Practice Featuring: Rabbi Dr. James Jacobson-Maisels, Founder Or HaLev is a Jewish Path to a more vibrant, whole and awakened life through mindfulness and innovative Jewish practice. Or HaLev believes that Judaism is a precious resource for crafting a meaningful life, and a gateway to transformative spiritual practice. We teach contemplative, pluralistic, connective Judaism as a way of life. History Founded in 2011 ...
Jan 28, 2022•40 min•Season 3Ep. 40
