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This week, we hear the live recording of Rabbi Deena's drash from Friday, June 4th. Tune in for her reflection on Torah in relation to grief, healing, illness and the way we support our friends and family.

Tune into our full service from Friday, June 4th, click here. Check out upcoming Shabbat services and programs here.

Learn more about Mishkan Chicago. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook.

Be sure to like and subscribe to our podcast for updates on new episodes! And please leave a review. We want to hear from you.

Produced by Mishkan Chicago. Music composed, written by Kalman Strauss.

This week, we hear the live recording of Joel Brounold's dvar Torah  from Friday, May 14th. Joel is the  Managing Director of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace. Tune in for his reflection on events happening in Israel and Palestine.

Tune into our full service from Friday, May 14th, click here. Check out upcoming Shabbat services and programs here.

Learn more about Mishkan Chicago. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook.

Be sure to like and subscribe to our podcast for updates on new episodes! And please leave a review. We want to hear from you.

Produced by Mishkan Chicago. Music composed, written by Kalman Strauss.

We are in the 7th, and final week of our Omer series featuring spiritual entrepreneurs, people who are bringing the wisdom of their own lived experience into their professional lives and carving new paths, making unique and much needed impact in the world. This week we dive into Malchut, Kingdom, Kingship.

In this extended episode, Rabbi Lizzi speaks with Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg, the hosts of Judaism Unbound, a renowned and wildly popular podcast in the Jewish podcast universe that analyzes the most pressing and fascinating issues for 21st century American Jews and Judaism. 

About Dan Libenson
Dan is the founder and president of the Institute for the Next Jewish Future. He’s been the Executive Director of the University of Chicago Hillel and the Director of New Initiatives at Harvard Hillel. He is a 2009 AVI CHAI Fellow (sort of the Jewish McArthur Fellowship) and has also received the Richard M. Joel Exemplar of Excellence award, Hillel International's highest professional honor. In 2010, he was named a Jewish Chicagoan of the Year by Chicago Jewish News- may its memory be a blessing. He is a Harvard alum, a lawyer, a writer, and a translator of The Orchard, a book by renowned Israeli novelist Yochi Brandes and the translation editor of The Secret Book of Kings by the same author.

About Lex Rofeberg
Lex serves as Strategic Initiatives Coordinator of the Institute for the Next Jewish Future. He is a graduate of Brown University and a writer featured in in JTA, MyJewishLearning, Jewish Currents, Sh'ma Journal, New Voices, among others. He completed a two-year Education Fellowship at the Institute of Southern Jewish Life and joined the Judaism Unbound team in 2015. He has a certificate in Interfaith Family Jewish Engagement from Hebrew College and is ordained as a rabbi by Alliance for Jewish Renewal. Lex is an educator and an activist in Jewish movements for justice, which have included IfNotNow and Never Again Action. 

Be sure to subscribe, rate the show and leave a review. As always, we want to hear from you.

And to stay connected, follow Mishkan Chicago on Facebook and Instagram. Learn more about us here!

About Mishkan Chicago
Mishkan is a spiritual community in Chicago reclaiming Judaism’s inspiration and transformative essence. Not bound by a particular location, we create radically inclusive spaces for Jewish spiritual practice and community, engaging, educating, and empowering people across the spectrum of identity, background, age, and belief.

This week, we hear the live recording of Rabbi Lizzi's drash from Friday, May 7th. Tune in for her reflection on Torah in relation to our new pace of life, the coming shmita year, the power in slowing down and taking only what we need.

Tune into our full service from Friday, May 7th, click here. Check out upcoming Shabbat services and programs here.

Learn more about Mishkan Chicago. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook.

Be sure to like and subscribe to our podcast for updates on new episodes! And please leave a review. We want to hear from you.

Produced by Mishkan Chicago. Music composed, written by Kalman Strauss.

We continue a period on the Jewish calendar called the Omer — the 49 days between Passover and Shavuot that our tradition observes through a practice of counting, day by day, week by week. We imbue these days with meaning by assigning a different theme to each week that encourages self-reflection and self-improvement for the betterment of the whole community. In that spirit, we’re doing a series of interviews featuring people who have made their life’s work an extension of their lives’ purpose.

This week, we dive into the sixth theme of the Omer, yesod, or foundation, with Sandra Lawson.

Rabbi Sandra Lawson is a spiritual leader whose work spans multi-media platforms, state lines, and denominations. Known as The TiKTok Rabbi (formerly the Snapchat Rabbi), R'Sandra has spent years building a following through social and digital media like Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook and Youtube. She’s been featured on various podcasts including Judaism Unbound and Tablet Magazine’s Unorthodox, as well as being a host for her own show Minutes of Torah. Rabbi Sandra’s writing has been featured in Times of Israel, Jewish Journal, The Forward, CNN, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, and many other. She is Reconstructing Judaism’s Director of Racial Diversity Equity and Inclusion, and the recent founder of Kol HaPanim, an inclusive Jewish community that is relevant, accessible, rooted in Jewish tradition and centers the leadership of Jews of Color.

Make donation to Kol HaPanim here!

Be sure to subscribe, rate the show and leave a review. As always, we want to hear from you.

And to stay connected, follow Mishkan Chicago on Facebook and Instagram. Learn more about us here!

About Mishkan Chicago
Mishkan is a spiritual community in Chicago reclaiming Judaism’s inspiration and transformative essence. Not bound by a particular location, we create radically inclusive spaces for Jewish spiritual practice and community, engaging, educating, and empowering people across the spectrum of identity, background, age, and belief.

This week, we hear the live recording of Rabbi Lizzi's drash from Friday, April 30th. Tune in for her reflection on Torah in relation to Lag B'Omer, news from Jerusalem, France, and beyond.
 
Tune into our full service from Friday, April 30th, click here. Check out upcoming Shabbat services and programs here.

Learn more about Mishkan Chicago. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook.

Be sure to like and subscribe to our podcast for updates on new episodes! And please leave a review. We want to hear from you.

Produced by Mishkan Chicago. Music composed, written by Kalman Strauss.

We continue a period on the Jewish calendar called the Omer — the 49 days between Passover and Shavuot that our tradition observes through a practice of counting, day by day, week by week. We imbue these days with meaning by assigning a different theme to each week that encourages self-reflection and self-improvement for the betterment of the whole community. In that spirit, we’re doing a series of interviews featuring people who have made their life’s work an extension of their lives’ purpose.

This week, we dive into the fifth theme of the Omer, hod, or humility, with Alexandra Corwin and Tani Prell — co-founders of Continued Learning Group.

In this episode, Alexandra and Tani join Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann to talk about culturally sustaining pedagogy, identity, and the hard work of unpacking and unlearning white supremacy and racism. Alexandra and Tani bring personal experience as Jews of color, as well as academic and professional expertise to their work and their lives. Tune in for a conversation about humility the power of envisioning a better future for all.

Books referenced in this episode:

All About Love by Bell Hooks
Me & White Supremacy By Layla Saad
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

Be sure to subscribe, rate the show and leave a review. As always, we want to hear from you.

And to stay connected, follow Mishkan Chicago on Facebook and Instagram. Learn more about us here!

About Our Guests

Alexandra Corwin (she/her) is a graduate of DePaul University with a Bachelor's in Women's and Gender Studies and African Black Diaspora Studies. She has her Master's in Education from Harvard University, and has vast experience in Jewish children’s education. She is an adjunct instructor in education at The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and serves as a board member of Chicago YIVO Society, an organization that centers Yiddish learning for Chicagoans. She is also a Board Member at Mishkan. 

Tani Prell (she/her) is the Chicago Director for 18Doors, formerly Interfaith Family, an organization empowering people in interfaith relationships — individuals, couples, families and their children—to engage in Jewish life and make Jewish choices, and encourages Jewish communities to welcome them. Tani is a former high school arts educator, synagogue education director, and fundraiser at the Art Institute of Chicago. She serves on the board of trustees for the Union for Reform Judaism, aiding in their commitments to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and in 2018 she was named one of the Jewish Federation of Chicago’s “36 Under 36.”

About Mishkan Chicago
Mishkan is a spiritual community in Chicago reclaiming Judaism’s inspiration and transformative essence. Not bound by a particular location, we create radically inclusive spaces for Jewish spiritual practice and community, engaging, educating, and empowering people across the spectrum of identity, background, age, and belief.

This week, we hear the live recording of (future Rabbi) Julie Fishbach giving a drash Parashat Achrei Mot-Kedoshim,  her decision to go to rabbinical school and a meditation on community.

Tune into our full service from Friday, April 23rd, click here. Check out upcoming Shabbat services and programs here.

Learn more about Mishkan Chicago. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook.

Be sure to like and subscribe to our podcast for updates on new episodes! And please leave a review. We want to hear from you.

Produced by Mishkan Chicago. Music composed, written by Kalman Strauss.

We continue a period on the Jewish calendar called the Omer — the 49 days between Passover and Shavuot that our tradition observes through a practice of counting, day by day, week by week. We imbue these days with meaning by assigning a different theme to each week that encourages self-reflection and self-improvement for the betterment of the whole community. In that spirit, we’re doing a series of interviews featuring people who have made their life’s work an extension of their lives’ purpose.

This week, we dive into the fourth theme of the Omer, netzach, or endurance, with Ilana Gleicher-Bloom.

Ilana is the Vision Director of Mensch Academy at Mishkan. In this episode she joins Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann to talk about her passion for Jewish education, and her desire to do it a little differently at Mishkan. She speaks on the hidden curriculum that informs her work at Mensch Academy and speaks to the power of making children feel heard as they study Torah. 

If you have an interest in early childhood education, parenting, radical inclusivity, implicit and explicit learning, then this episode is for you. Get to know the Omer, Ilana, and Mensch Academy in this 30-minute conversation!

Be sure to subscribe, rate the show and leave a review. As always, we want to hear from you.

And to stay connected, follow Mishkan Chicago on Facebook and Instagram. Learn more about us here!

About Our Guest: Ilana Gleicher-Bloom
Ilana Ilana is a graduate of Brandeis University, a Pardes Fellow, and was a member of the inaugural cohort of the Melamdim Teacher Education MA Program at the Shalom Hartman Institute and Tel Aviv University. Before launching Mensch Academy, Ilana taught Talmud and Tanakh at Rochelle Zell Jewish High School in Deerfield, IL, and before that at the Heschel High School in Manhattan. Ilana also taught Judaic Studies at the Alexander Muss High School in Israel, Tichon Ramah Yerushalayim, and the Beit Midrash Program at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin. She is currently pursuing a doctorate in Jewish Education at JTS and received the 2018 Pomegranate Prize from the Covenant Foundation for her work. Ilana is a true visionary who has had an enduring love for Judaism and education.

About Mishkan Chicago
Mishkan is a spiritual community in Chicago reclaiming Judaism’s inspiration and transformative essence. Not bound by a particular location, we create radically inclusive spaces for Jewish spiritual practice and community, engaging, educating, and empowering people across the spectrum of identity, background, age, and belief.

This week, we hear the live recording of Rabbi Deena Cowans' drash about policing in America and what the midrash has to say about police accountability, public safety, and the duty of civil servants.

Tune into our full service from Friday, April 16th, click here. Check out upcoming Shabbat services and programs here.

Learn more about Mishkan Chicago. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook.

Be sure to like and subscribe to our podcast for updates on new episodes! And please leave a review. We want to hear from you.

Produced by Mishkan Chicago. Music composed, written by Kalman Strauss.