Judaism Unbound

Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg get a bit revolutionary, introducing (and debating) 10 New Commandments for contemporary 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!

Novelist Ruby Namdar, author of the award-winning The Ruined House, which interweaves the stories of an American-Jewish professor and an ancient Judean priest, joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation that straddles the Israeli and the American, along with the ancient and contemporary. The Ruined House won the Sapir Prize, Israel's highest literary honor, the first novel by an expatriate to receive the award. 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!

Ariel Burger joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg to discuss his book Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom, winner of a 2018 National Jewish Book Award. 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.

Joy Ladin, author of The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective, joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about being transgender, being Jewish, and how the two intersect. 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 Libenson and Lex Rofeberg dig into conceptions of "Judaism,” “Jewish identity,” “Religion,” and a wide variety of other terms that should probably also be in quotation marks. 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.

Daniel Boyarin, author of Judaism: The Genealogy of a Modern Notion, joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg to ask whether Judaism exists (!!), and to explore what that question means — both for the study of Jewish history and for contemporary Jewish 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 full shownotes for this episode, click here.

We continue our conversation with Dan Judson, Dean of the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College, in the second part of a two-episode series, turning our focus to more recent history and to the future outlook for synagogues in the face of the demographic and religious changes American Judaism has been going through. Judson is the author of the recent book Pennies for Heaven: The History of American Synagogues and Money. 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 Judson, Dean of the Rabbinical School at Hebrew College, joins Judaism Unbound for the first of two episodes on the story of how synagogues have sustained themselves economically throughout American history and how they will have to adjust to the great changes in Jewish life we are experiencing today. Judson is the author of the recent book Pennies for Heaven: The History of American Synagogues and Money. 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 Libenson and Lex Rofeberg are joined by Harvard Law School professor Robert Mnookin to discuss his new book, The Jewish American Paradox: Embracing Choice in a Changing World, which explores what it means, and what it ought to mean, to be an American Jew in the 21st Century. 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. We want to hear from you! Tell us what YOU think: What are your biggest challenges in experiencing Judaism as something more meaningful in your life?

Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg are joined by Tobin Belzer, an applied sociologist, for a conversation about why it might be time to re-conceptualize the study of American Jews and their identities. 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. We want to hear from you! Tell us what YOU think: What are your biggest challenges in experiencing Judaism as something more meaningful in your life?

Continuing their exploration of the families Jews are creating in the 21st Century, Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg are joined by Samira Mehta, scholar of American religion and author of Beyond Chrismukkah: The Christian-Jewish Interfaith Family in the United States. 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! We want to hear from you! Tell us what YOU think: What are your biggest challenges in experiencing Judaism as something meaningful in your life?

Returning to our exploration of the 2013 Pew Study of Jewish Americans, Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg are joined by Avi Rubel and Mike Wise, co-founders and leaders of Honeymoon Israel, the only major national initiative that we know to have been conceived and created as a direct consequence of the findings of the Pew Research Center’s population study, called “A Portrait of Jewish Americans.” 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 Libenson and Lex Rofeberg mourn the devastating murder of 11 Jews, during Shabbat services, at the Tree of Life - Or L'Simcha Congregation in Pittsburgh. They explore the ways that this moment requires Jews to stand both with one another and in solidarity with other marginalized groups. To access full shownotes for this episode, click here.

After 11 were murdered at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Judaism Unbound pre-emptively releases a conversation that initially wasn't going to be available for a few weeks. Eli Lederhendler, the Stephen S. Wise Chair in American Jewish History at Hebrew University, joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about antisemitism, nativism, and immigration in the early 20th century. It's a conversation centered in the past, but it couldn't be more relevant to our contemporary context. This episode highlights over 130 years of life-saving work by HIAS: the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, dating all the way back to 1881. We encourage you to learn more about them at Hias.org, and support them with whatever financial contribution you can allocate at Hias.org/donate.

Danny Grossman, CEO of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, joins Judaism Unbound to look at the Bay Area as a case study for how Jewish federations address demographic and other changes in the Jewish community of the kinds revealed in the 2013 Pew Study and more recent population studies.. 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.

Len Saxe, Director of Brandeis University’s Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg, to kick off a unit of episodes reflecting on the Pew Research Center’s landmark 2013 Jewish population study, entitled “A Portrait of Jewish Americans,” on the fifth anniversary of its publication. 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 Libenson and Lex Rofeberg close out their multi-episode series on God by asking what role God might play, and might not play, in the future of American Judaism. Do you want to play a role in shaping Judaism Unbound's future? You can! Fill out this brief survey, in which you can provide feedback about our work thus far, along with your vision of what we could create moving forward. Head to bit.ly/JUFeedback now! 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.

Theologian Rachel Adler, of Hebrew Union College- Jewish Institute of Religion, explores Judaism through lenses of metaphor, liturgy, theology, and more, in a conversation with hosts Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg. Do you want to play a role in shaping Judaism Unbound's future? You can! Fill out this brief survey, in which you can provide feedback about our work thus far, along with your vision of what we could create moving forward. Head to bit.ly/JUFeedback now! 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!

Shai Held, the President, Dean, and Chair in Jewish Thought at Hadar, joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about God, love, and the ways in which the two are indelibly connected. Do you want to play a role in shaping Judaism Unbound's future? You can! Fill out this brief survey, in which you can provide feedback about our work thus far, along with your vision of what we could create moving forward. Head to bit.ly/JUFeedback now! 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!

Judith Seid, author of God-Optional Judaism: Alternatives for Cultural Jews Who Love Their History, Heritage, and Community, joins co-hosts Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about God, from the perspective of Secular Humanistic 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!