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 expe...
Jun 25, 2021•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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, throu...
Jun 18, 2021•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Jun 14, 2021•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ac...
Jun 11, 2021•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 k...
Jun 04, 2021•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 wit...
May 28, 2021•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 contemp...
May 21, 2021•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
May 18, 2021•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
May 14, 2021•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 H...
May 07, 2021•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ....
Apr 30, 2021•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ....
Apr 26, 2021•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 N...
Apr 23, 2021•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ...
Apr 16, 2021•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Apr 09, 2021•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Apr 02, 2021•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ....
Mar 26, 2021•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Baruch Halpern , the Covenant Foundation Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Georgia, joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about Biblical history and Biblical archaeology. They explore how those two realms relate to one another (get it? "DIGGING" up Biblical History!), along with what these ancient texts and discoveries have to do with us today. If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound , please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Support Judaism U...
Mar 19, 2021•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dan and Lex, in celebrating 5 years since Judaism Unbound launched its podcast, reflect on some of the core ideas they've explored in that time -- and they add on some new thoughts, drawing on a framework of "low-voltage" and "high-voltage" forms 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 ....
Mar 12, 2021•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Shawn Lichaa is a Karaite. "What's that," you ask? Very valid question! Karaites are a group of Jews whose traditions, and interpretations, are built around the Bible alone -- not the Talmud or any other piece of what Rabbanites (rabbinic Jews) call "the oral Torah." Lichaa, founder of The Karaite Press and A Blue Thread: A Jewish Blog with a Thread of Karaite Throughout , joins Dan and Lex to explore Karaite Jews' relationship to the Bible, and ways in which their approaches differ from rabbini...
Mar 05, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Anna Solomon , author of The Book of V -- a contemporary novel that is crafted in relationship to the Biblical book of Esther -- joins Dan and Lex to discuss her work, along with and ways in which her contemporary novel could influence readers' experience of the holiday of Purim. 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 ....
Feb 25, 2021•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Abraham Riesman , author of True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee , joins Dan and Lex to explore two meanings of the phrase "Marvel's Torah" (this episode's title). First, "the Torah of Marvel" -- what can be learned from the Marvel comics universe when approached through a Jewish lens? And second, "Marvel is Torah" -- the idea that the structure of Marvel's universe, in and of itself, represents a kind of modern-day Bible. If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound , please help us keep things g...
Feb 19, 2021•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 four 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 ...
Feb 14, 2021•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast So there's the Torah. 5 books of Moses. But what happens right afterward? Rachel Havrelock , Associate Professor of English and Jewish Studies at the University of Illinois-Chicago, joins Dan and Lex to talk about the book that comes right after the Torah -- Joshua. Full of violent conquest, it's not a book that's easy for contemporary readers. But what can we learn when we look at it closely? If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound , please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-de...
Feb 12, 2021•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ron Hendel , the Norma and Sam Dabby Professor of Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, joins Dan and Lex to open up a mini-series of conversations (to be released in the coming weeks) on the Hebrew Bible. How old is the Bible? What "genre(s)" is it? Is it best understood as one big book or a bunch of smaller books? Why does any of this matter? These are questions asked and explored (but not necessarily answered!) in this podcast. If you're enjoying Judaism U...
Feb 05, 2021•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast The mittens. The vibe. You saw it, we saw it, everybody saw it -- everywhere, Bernie memes. Dan and Lex weave together a conversation about those memes, Jewish philanthropy, Jewish identity, and Torah (which is, as our title suggests, the genre within which "Bernie memes" is properly classified). 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, ...
Jan 29, 2021•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dan and Lex round out their mini-series of episodes on Jewish philanthropy. They ask questions about the possibility of new communal structures of philanthropic giving, explore monthly-gifts as a form of Jewish practice, and argue against the idea that Jews should allocate the majority of their giving to Jewish-specific organizations. 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!...
Jan 22, 2021•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Joanna Ware and Nadav David , Director and Steering Committee member, respectively, of Jewish Liberation Fund (JLF), join Dan and Lex for a conversation about organizing money on the Jewish left. They ask identify gaps in our Jewish philanthropic systems (especially around Jews of Color and Israel-Palestine), and they advocate for shifts to some conventional philanthropic practices that could yield a brighter, more liberated future. If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound , please help us keep things...
Jan 15, 2021•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Amy Schilit Benarroch , co-founder of Righteous Crowd , a micro-giving platform that engages the Jewish community in support of small non-profit organizations, joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about how financial giving can be a collective process, along with how it can be a weekly (not just yearly!) spiritual practice. 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 clickin...
Jan 08, 2021•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast Liz Fisher is the CEO of Amplifier , an organization devoted to "igniting, strengthening, and informing giving to transform and grow philanthropy." She joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about giving circles, and in particular what potential they have to contribute (pun intended!) to important shifts in Jewish philanthropy. 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 click...
Jan 01, 2021•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
