Elul is the 12th and final month of the Jewish calendar year. Elul Unbound is a Judaism Unbound initiative all about making Elul meaningful, through creative digital modalities. In this second bonus episode of Elul Unbound 2023 , Lex Rofeberg and Wendie Bernstein Lash explore the power of the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet -- Bet! This Elul bonus episode is the second of four that will be released as part of Elul Unbound 2023 (our 18th-21st Elul episodes overall). For a 3-session Elul mini...
Aug 28, 2023•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Israel has played a central role in American-Jewish life for quite some time. Eric Axelman and Sam Eilertsen, co-directors of a new documentary film entitled Israelism , join Dan and Lex for a conversation about their film, which explores a movement of young American Jews fighting to redefine Judaism’s relationship to Israel-Palestine. Learn more about Israelism by heading to IsraelismFilm.com. The film debuted at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, won Best Documentary at the Arizona Interna...
Aug 25, 2023•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Elul is the 12th and final month of the Jewish calendar year. Elul Unbound is a Judaism Unbound initiative all about making Elul meaningful, through creative digital modalities. In this first bonus episode of Elul Unbound 2023 , Lex Rofeberg, Wendie Bernstein Lash, and Micah Sandman launch their month-long exploration of the power of twos/seconds! This Elul bonus episode is the first of four that will be released as part of Elul Unbound 2023 (our 18th-21st Elul episodes overall). For a 3-session...
Aug 21, 2023•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Lisa Rappaport is the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Israel, in Chico, California , and in just a few months (January 2024) she will be ordained as a rabbi! She joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for the 6th episode in an ongoing mini-series exploring conversion to Judaism. Access full shownotes for this episode via this link . And a reminder: Elul Unbound is back! Our annual exploration of the final month of the Jewish year, which serves as an on-ramp into Rosh Hashanah, is here. Regist...
Aug 18, 2023•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Chris Bartlett , the Executive Director at the William Way LGBT Community Center in Philadelphia, isn't Jewish. But...he's attended Queer Talmud camp, hosts Shabbat gatherings at his organization's building, attends many Jewish holiday gatherings, and has Jewish friends of all ages! He joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about notions of "Jewish-adjacent" and "Ger Toshav" -- two terms in different languages that refer to folks who are not Jewish, but/and are absolutely part of the Jewish commun...
Aug 11, 2023•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Marques Hollie (he/they) is a theatre artist, storyteller, classically trained musician, and ritualist. They join Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about how Madonna, along with the book Judaism for Dummies , combined forces to catalyze a journey from "regular at a Nebraskan Pentecostal church" to "studying to become a rabbi." This episode is the fourth in an ongoing Judaism Unbound mini-series, exploring conversion to Judaism. Access full shownotes for this episode via this link ...
Aug 04, 2023•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Laura Yares is the author of a brand-new book, entitled Jewish Sunday Schools: Teaching Religion in Nineteenth-Century America . She joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about her book -- in some ways about Sunday Schools, to be sure, but in other ways a chance to explore the broader question, "What even is religion?" , through the history of Sunday Schools in the 19th century. They also ask what the book can help us learn, today, about our 21st century Jewish landscape. Access...
Jul 28, 2023•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast If you say to David A.M. Wilensky that he "converted" to Judaism, he'll provide a gentle correction: "I underwent a conversion," he'll say. This may not seem like much of a distinction, but in this episode of Judaism Unbound, we explore a group of people who -- from some frames of reference -- converted to Judaism, but from other frames of reference, were Jewish from the second they were born. In short, Wilensky was born as a patrilineal Jew (his father was Jewish, and his mother at the time was...
Jul 21, 2023•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Juan Mejia , a conservative rabbi who serves as Jewish educator for Emanuel Synagogue in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, joins Dan and Lex for a conversation exploring how Judaism must -- in order to have its maximum positive impact on the world -- embrace converts as fully and authentically Jewish. This episode is the second in an ongoing Judaism Unbound mini-series, exploring conversion to Judaism. Access full shownotes for this episode via this link . Learn more about taking courses in Judaism Unbou...
Jul 14, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Katie Kaestner-Frenchman is Judaism Unbound’s amazing Marketing, Communications, and Creative Maven! They join their colleagues Dan and Lex for the first conversation in an ongoing Judaism Unbound mini-series, exploring conversion to Judaism. What superpowers do converts often bring to Jewish life? What barriers do they continue to face in Jewish spaces? What on *earth* do we do with the fact that everyone on Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was so unbelievably mean to Astrid — the one character on the sho...
Jul 07, 2023•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast David Raphael and Ilene Vogelstein are leaders of the Jewish Grandparents Network , a national organization that educates, connects, and supports grandparents as essential partners in enriching Jewish life. They join Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about how, perhaps counter-intuitively, the voices of many Jewish grandparents have been sidelined in Jewish institutional life -- along with sharing some ideas about how to shift that reality moving forward. Access full shownotes for...
Jun 30, 2023•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast Melissa Klapper , author of Jewish Girls Coming of Age in America, 1860-1920 , joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation serving as a "prequel" of sorts to our recent unit on the past, present, and future of Bat Mitzvah (and B Mitzvah in general). But it's also...kind-of a sequel? Klapper talks through the ways in which Jewish girls marked their entry into adulthood -- both within Jewish life and in secular contexts -- in the era directly preceding the emergence of Bat Mitzvah as a ...
Jun 23, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sandra Fox , the Goldstein-Goren visiting assistant professor of American Jewish History at New York University, is the author of The Jews of Summer: Summer Camp and Jewish Culture in Postwar America . She joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about the history of Jewish summer camp, the ways in which it has influenced American Jewish life, and what it can teach us about amplifying the voices of young people as we study history. Purchase The Jews of Summer via this link! Access ...
Jun 16, 2023•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast B Mitzvah (a gender-neutral term for Jewish coming-of-age rituals, often but not exclusively associated with the age of 12-to-13) is an incredibly popular Jewish observance. Even in a landscape where many Jews do not spend much time in Jewish institutional contexts, they often carve out space for their family members to experience B Mitzvah. In this conversation, Dan and Lex explore what they believe B Mitzvah could be in the future, and how it could work in tandem with an expanded notion of Jew...
Jun 09, 2023•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Amichai Lau-Lavie is the co-founder and spiritual leader of Lab/Shul : an "artist-driven, everybody-friendly, god-optional, pop up, experimental community for sacred Jewish gatherings." He joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about B Mitzvah as a rite of passage -- not only for 12/13-year-olds, but for all ages! This episode is the 6th in an ongoing mini-series of Judaism Unbound episodes, honoring Bat Mitzvah's 100th anniversary, and exploring the present and future of B Mitzvah ("B Mitzvah" is...
Jun 02, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast What if B Mitzvahs weren't so thoroughly associated with synagogues, but were understood to take place in a rich diversity of other spaces in the world? Camp Tawonga , a summer camp located just outside of Yosemite National Park and based in the San Francisco Bay Area, offers a two-year B Mitzvah program that brings the magic of camp to the Bay Area (during the rest of the year), and gives students a unique way to approach this milestone moment through community, nature, and experiential learnin...
May 26, 2023•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast This bonus episode of Judaism Unbound is presented in partnership with Theatre Dybbuk . We are proud to feature their third season's fourth episode as a bonus episode here on Judaism Unbound's feed. 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 on Apple Podcasts , or anywhere else that podcasts are found. -----------------------------------------...
May 23, 2023•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Open Tent Be Mitzvah is a two-year experience, offered by the organization Judaism Your Way , that is focused on a student’s coming-of-age journey within a Jewish context. It culminates in a distinctive, meaningful "Be Mitzvah" ceremony that helps a student find their unique Jewish leadership voice. Amy Atkins and Amanda Schwartz , two of Open Tent Be Mitzvah's lead educators, join Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation. They explore together what it looks like when B Mitzvah (or, in t...
May 19, 2023•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Bagel Report: The Bagel Report is a pop-culture entertainment podcast featuring award-winning culture and entertainment writers Esther D. Kustanowitz and Erin Ben-Moche. Each episode, these entertainment junkies discuss all things Jewish in the arts & entertainment world while exploring how Jewish identity is portrayed on the big and small screen. Follow them on social @estherk and @ebenmoche , and on Twitter and Facebook @TheBagelReport . ---------------------------------- Episode Notes: Es...
May 16, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Transcript available on Metacast Her name is Zipporah Chava McConnell, but everyone calls her Zippy. See, the thing is...that she's a witch — and this year she's having her Bat Mitzvah! ------------------------------------ This is the premise of The Witch of Woodland , the latest novel from Laurel Snyder . Snyder is a Sidney Taylor Award-winning author who has written over a dozen works of fiction. She joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about The Witch of Woodland , her ongoing effort to overcome "Jewish Imp...
May 12, 2023•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast ShavuotLIVE , the biggest and best(est) event on the Judaism Unbound calendar, is approaching in just a few weeks (May 26th/27th)! It's a 24-hours-straight festival of digital Jewish learning, and it's entering its fourth year. Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg check in about what Shavuot is (and could be) in 2023, and they also explore what ShavuotLIVE helps to show about the state of digital Judaism today. Register for ShavuotLIVE 2023 via this link! Access full shownotes for this episode via this...
May 05, 2023•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Lauren Grabelle Herrmann , rabbi at SAJ: Judaism that Stands for All -- the synagogue where the first-ever Bat Mitzvah took place in 1922 -- joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about re-visioning B Mitzvah for the next 100 years. This episode is the 2nd in an ongoing mini-series of Judaism Unbound episodes, honoring Bat Mitzvah's 100th anniversary, and exploring the present and future of B Mitzvah ("B Mitzvah" is a term for Jewish coming-of-age ceremonies, across the gender sp...
Apr 28, 2023•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast In March of 1922, the Bat Mitzvah -- now a widely-recognized ritual across Jewish denominations -- made its first appearance on American soil! Judith Kaplan , at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism in New York City, was the pioneer, and in the coming decades, many women would follow suit. Carole Balin and Judith Rosenbaum , who each played a key role in the Jewish Women's Archive's Bat Mitzvah at 100 initiative, join Dan and Lex to talk through the history of Bat Mitzvah, its contemporary...
Apr 21, 2023•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dan Libenson , one of Judaism Unbound's two co-hosts, and Miriam Terlinchamp , spiritual leader of Temple Sholom in Cincinnati, are co-teaching a course called Judaism In-Bound: An Introduction to Judaism for Everyone in the UnYeshiva. With an initial three classes on consecutive weeks, followed by once-per-month class-meetings for the following 9 months, this course is designed to help people learn about Judaism -- through our unbound Jewish lens. Terlinchamp joins Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for...
Apr 14, 2023•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Passover is here! The traditional seder night(s) passed by (or over?), but there are still a whole bunch of days left in the holiday as this episode is released. Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg explore how we might think a bit more creatively about our seders in future years, along with how the "non-seder days" could be activated towards more meaning-making. They also explore the UnYeshiva's new certificate program in Unbound Judaism -- learn how to apply by heading to www.JudaismUnbound.com/certi...
Apr 07, 2023•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast Elijah the Prophet is a popular guy! To our knowledge, he is the only person invited to every Passover Seder in the world -- and even encouraged to drink wine at each one of those Seders (drink responsibly, Elijah). But uhhh....who exactly is he? If you've opened the door for this fella every year, but never known exactly what his story is, this is the conversation for you! Daniel Matt , scholar of Jewish mysticism and author of the book Becoming Elijah: Prophet of Transformation , joins Dan Lib...
Mar 31, 2023•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Catherine Horowitz , the 2022-23 New Voices Magazine / Judaism Unbound fellow, joins Lex Rofeberg for a conversation on how TV, and the way we watch it, creates ritual. They also discuss how we can use TV to further shape our religious practices and communities. Access full shownotes for this episode via this link . Register for our 3-week mini-courses in the UnYeshiva -- a digital center for Jewish learning and unlearing -- by heading to www.judaismunbound.com/classes ! The next block of mini-c...
Mar 28, 2023•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast This bonus episode of Judaism Unbound is presented in partnership with Theatre Dybbuk . We are proud to feature their third season's fourth episode as a bonus episode here on Judaism Unbound's feed. 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 on Apple Podcasts , or anywhere else that podcasts are found. --------------------------------------- I...
Mar 26, 2023•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Jewish Youth Climate Movement (JYCM) is a Gen Z-led movement dedicated to combating climate change and environmental injustice from a Jewish lens. Two of its activists, Isaac Ostrow and Sophie Raskin, join Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about JYCM's recent trip to COP-27 (the United Nations' Climate Change Conference). Access full shownotes for this episode via this link . Register for our 3-week mini-courses in the UnYeshiva -- a digital center for Jewish learning and unle...
Mar 24, 2023•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg offer their perspectives on spirituality, in the final episode of a 12-episode mini-series focused on Jewish spirituality, featuring a wide variety of thinkers, practitioners, writers, performers, and more. They also announce some exciting news , for Judaism Unbound and for the Jewish collective as a whole! Access full shownotes for this episode via this link . Learn more about Judaism Unbound's UnYeshiva -- a digital center for Jewish learning and unlearing -- by h...
Mar 17, 2023•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
