Judaism Unbound

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 going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

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 anywhere else that podcasts are found.Episode four, presented in collaboration with The Contemporary Jewish Museum, explores two murder pamphlets, "The Murdered Jewess Sara Alexander: Life, Trial and Conviction of Rubenstein the Polish Jew" and "Rubenstein, or The Murdered Jewess: Being a Full and Reliable History of This Terrible Mystery of Blood.” Published in 1876, both pamphlets tell the tale of Pesach Rubenstein, a Jewish immigrant who was convicted of killing his cousin Sara Alexander and disposing of her body in a

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-deductible donation. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

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 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 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, click here.

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!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

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 going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

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 clicking here!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

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 clicking here!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

Danielle Durchslag is an artist and filmmaker whose work frequently looks at questions of Jewish identity and wealth. A great-granddaughter of Nathan Cummings (founder of the Nathan Cummings Foundation), she joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about "the Jewish 1%" -- but also about what they together come to term "the Jewish 25%."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.

Jay Ruderman and Shira Ruderman, the president and executive director, respectively, of the Ruderman Family Foundation, join Dan and Lex for a conversation about Jewish philanthropy, inclusion of people with disabilities, and the work they've done combining the two.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.

Aaron Dorfman, President of Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, joins Dan and Lex for a conversation exploring what Jewish philanthropy has been, is, and could 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 shownotes for this episode, click here.

Mara Benjamin, Chair of Jewish Studies at Mount Holyoke College, joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about her book The Obligated Self: Maternal Subjectivity and Jewish Thought. They look through a Jewish lens at questions of obligation, choice, and (wait for it...) BOUNDedness -- along with how those questions intersect with the topic of motherhood.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.

Jake Marmer is the author of a new poetry collection, entitled Cosmic Diaspora,  and its corresponding album, entitled "Purple Tentacles of Thought and Desire." He joins Dan and Lex for a conversation exploring the intersection of art and Judaism (the conversation also includes excerpts of Marmer's poems and music!).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.

Rachel Mikva, the Rabbi Herman E. Schaalman Chair of Jewish Studies, and Senior Faculty Fellow of the InterReligious Institute, at Chicago Theological Seminary, joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation that dives into her book Dangerous Religious Ideas: The Deep Roots of Self-Critical Faith in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, recently published by Beacon Press.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.

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 this first episode of their podcast as a bonus episode here on Judaism Unbound's channel. In each episode, they bring novels, mythological narratives, poems, plays, and lyrics from throughout history to life, all while revealing their relationships to issues still present today.  Subscribe to The Dybbukast in Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else that podcasts are found.This first episode, presented in collaboration with Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), features selections from a children's play found in I-Tell-You, a 1926 religious school journal from Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia. The episode also includes essays from the publication written by both students and clergy.Scholar Miriam Heller Stern, PhD, National Director, School of Education and Associate Professor of HUC-JIR, hel

There was a pretty big election recently! Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg ask what this presidential election can help to illuminate about Judaism, America, and how today's American Jews might relate to the two.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.

Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg open up what might be a strange question -- but we promise it's an interesting one! What happens if we understand Judaism as a medium of art, like paint, such that it can be deployed (painted with) in all sorts of creative ways? How would this differ from an image of Judaism (get it??) where we conceive of it as an already-completed painting, which we wouldn't be able to change, now that it's completed?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.

Keshira HaLev Fife, the Oreget Kehillah (Weaver of Community/Executive Director) for Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation reflecting on the word "priestess" as both a noun and as a verb. They ask who priestesses are, what priestessing is, and why even priestesses themselves benefit from being priestessed. With respect to all of these questions, they explore how they tie to the Jewish past, present, and future.This episode is the seventh in a series of episodes exploring the history and contemporary leadership of America's Jewish women.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.

Yael Kanarek, an Israeli-American artist, has spent the past few years rewriting the entire Torah -- in Hebrew and English -- by changing the genders of all characters (and animals, and more). In this episode she speaks with Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg about her project, called Toratah (Her Torah), and what it might mean for the future of Jewish text and Jewish practice. This episode is the sixth in a series of episodes exploring the history, and contemporary leadership, of America's Jewish women.You can learn more about Kanarek's Regendered Bible at BeitToratah.org.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.