Our tradition teaches that we should prioritize "the poor of our town" before reaching beyond our own city limits. But in a world where an Israeli rabbi living in New York can connect with trans activists in the Dominican Republic, could the meaning of "our town" be shifting? In this brief mini-episode, Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie asks: how might we redefine our sense of Jewish responsibility to reflect a 21st-century reality?

Featured Guest

Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie is the founding spiritual leader of Lab/Shul NYC and the creator of Storahtelling, Inc. An Israeli-born Jewish educator, writer, and performance artist, he received his rabbinical ordination from The Jewish Theological Seminary in 2016. Rabbi Amichai is a member of the Global Justice Fellowship of American Jewish World Service, a founding member of the Jewish Emergent Network, a consultant to the Reboot Network, a member of the URJ Faculty Team and the Advisory Council of ORAM, an LGBT focused organization for refugees, asylum and migration. He was a Jerusalem Fellow at the Mandel Leadership Institute in Israel (2008-2009) and serves on the advisory committee of Faith House Manhattan. Rabbi Amichai has been hailed as “an iconoclastic mystic” by Time Out New York, a “rock star” by the New York Times, a “Judaic Pied Piper” by the Denver Westword, a “maverick spiritual leader” by the Times of Israel and “one of the most interesting thinkers in the Jewish world” by the Jewish Week. In 2016 The Forward named him one of the thirty-two “Most Inspiring Rabbis” in America. He is the proud Abba of Alice, Ezra, and Charlotte-Hallel.

How do we prioritize global challenges at a moment in which our communities may be more internally focused or polarized? How do we conduct inclusive conversations that move our communities to global action?

Rabbi Jennie Rosenn of HIAS and Caryl Stern of US Funds for UNICEF discuss the unique challenges and opportunities of tackling global challenges in 2017 - and how we can mobilize our communities in this particular historical moment.

Featured Guests and Moderator

Rabbi Jennie Rosenn serves as Vice President for Community Engagement at HIAS. Prior to coming to HIAS, Jennie played a catalytic role in building the Jewish social justice movement and the field of Jewish service as the director of the Jewish Life and Values Program at the Nathan Cummings Foundation. She developed innovative initiatives such as the Selah Leadership Training Program and the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable. Before working at the Cummings Foundation, Jennie served as a campus rabbi at Columbia University and Barnard College Hillel. She has been a teacher for dozens of communities and organizations, including as the scholar-in-residence for American Jewish World Service’s 2013 Rabbinic Delegation to El Salvador. She also serves on the faculty of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship. A founding board member of AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps and Repair the World, Jennie also served on the boards of the Jewish Funders Network and New York Jobs with Justice. She has twice been named in the Forward 50. Jennie was ordained by Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, where she was a Wexner Graduate Fellow. She lives in New York City with her husband, Rabbi David Rosenn, and their two sons.

Caryl M. Stern is the President & CEO of UNICEF USA. Caryl previously served as the COO and Senior Associate National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, the founding Director of the ADL’s A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE® Institute and the Dean of Students at Polytechnic University. Caryl currently serves on the boards of The Container Store, the WE ARE FAMILY Foundation, the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the SEEDS Academy and the Advisory Board to the WNBA. She previously served on the boards of the UN International School, Mercy College and the Martin Luther King Memorial Foundation. Her honors and awards include the Leading Lights Award from the National Multicultural Institute and the FutureWork Institute, and the Inspiration Award from the UN Association of Young Professionals. Caryl has also been named one of Jewish Women International's 10 " Women to Watch"and the Forward 50. Caryl holds a B.A. in Studio Art from The State University of New York at Oneonta and an M.S. in College Student Personnel Administration from Western Illinois University. She completed her doctoral coursework in this same field at Loyola University in Chicago. Caryl has received a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from both Mercy College and Cedar Crest College. She is married, and has three sons and two grandchildren.

Aaron Dorfman (moderator) is a lifelong educator, problem-solver, and social justice activist. He currently serves as President of the Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah. Previously, he has worked with Encore.org to develop a campaign to mobilize older adults to help children, and with a consortium of education-reform organizations to reinvent high school as part of XQ: The Super School Challenge. Aaron spent 10 years as part of the leadership team at American Jewish World Service (AJWS), organizing and mobilizing American Jews to channel their philanthropy, volunteer time, and political power to support global human rights. Prior to joining AJWS, Aaron spent nine years designing and implementing informal education programs at Temple Isaiah, a synagogue in the San Francisco Bay Area. Aaron holds a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin and an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School and lives i...

In the immediate wake of a natural disaster - like a monsoon or an earthquake - the Jewish community often jumps into action, mobilizing resources and expertise to support relief efforts. But as many practitioners know, there are ongoing crises facing vulnerable communities that need addressing in the longer term. How can we build upon our community's commitment to disaster response - to not only respond to emergencies, but help prevent disasters by fostering resilience?

Featured Guests

Paul Anticoni serves as Chief Executive of World Jewish Relief, the British Jewish community's humanitarian aid agency. Paul trained as an agriculturist and forester, spending 5 years, initially as a volunteer, living in the Horn of Africa and further years in Bosnia and Cambodia. Caught up in conflict and complex disasters his focus switched from trees to people and he spent a further 12 years managing the British Red Cross's international disaster response capabilities, operational in many of the most challenging contexts worldwide. He joined World Jewish Relief as Chief Executive in 2006 and has grown its profile and capability significantly.

Rabbi Micha Odenheimer is the founder and director of Tevel b'Tzedek. Born in Berkeley, California Micha received his B.A. from Yale University, and holds rabbinic ordination. He immigrated to Israel and has been working in social activism in Israeli society, and has lectured and written extensively on Judaism and social justice. A prolific journalist, Micha has reported on international issues from around the world including Somalia, Ethiopia, Iraq, Burma, Haiti, Nepal, Bangladesh and Indonesia, In 1998, the Joint Distribution Committee granted Micha the “Boris Smolar Prize,” based on his work covering of Ethiopian Jewry. Micha also founded the Israeli Association for Ethiopian Jewry and in 2011 Micha received the Klegg Prize from Hebrew University.

Mandie Winston is the Global Director for JDC's work in Disaster Relief and International Development. She has been involved in high-impact development work for the past two decades including projects in Israel, the UK, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, Russia, Ethiopia, India with a focus on community development and service. Mandie launched JDC's Nepal Earthquake Relief in April 2015, Philippines Typhoon Relief in November 2013 and the Haiti Earthquake Relief ground efforts in January 2010 that to date have served almost 1.5 million people. Today, she leads the team responsible for Tikkun Olam Ventures (TOV) a development fund that deploys Israeli agtech to tackle poverty of smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. Mandie holds an MSc in International Relations, specializing in development economics.

When it comes to both study and social action, the exchange of insights and experiences between generations can be extremely valuable - and often extremely challenging. This episode of Global Torah LIVE brings you two separate approaches to one text - the Book of Ruth - and what that text has to teach us about the encounter with "the other."

Listen as Dr. Avivah Zornberg and Yarden Zornberg - mother and son, scholar and practitioner - enter a dialogue that sheds light not just on the text, but on the practice of reaching across boundaries toward a greater global good.

This episode includes an in-depth analysis of the Book of Ruth. Click here for the full Biblical text.

*Guests in this episode occasionally use Hebrew terms without translating them*, so it may be most suitable for listeners with a strong grasp of Hebrew. For more accessible conversations, check out Episodes 1, 4, and 5 and our two mini-episodes.

Featured Guests

Dr. Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg is the author of several books and articles including The Murmuring Deep: Reflections on the Biblical Unconscious, Genesis: The Beginning of Desire, and, most recently, Moses: A Human Life. She holds a BA and PhD in English Literature from Cambridge University. After teaching English literature at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, she turned to teaching Torah and has taught in Jerusalem at Matan, Yakar, Pardes and the Jerusalem College for Adults. She holds a Visiting Lectureship at the London School of Jewish Studies. She travels widely, lecturing in Jewish, academic and psychoanalytic settings.

Yarden Zornberg has been Project TEN's director since it was founded by The Jewish Agency for Israel in 2012. Since his appointment, Yarden has been responsible for the establishment and ongoing development of six Project TEN centers worldwide. Prior to his employment with The Jewish Agency, Yarden served as a National Director for “Acharai”, an Israeli NGO that empowers youth at-risk. He has worked extensively with under-served populations in Israel including Bedouin and Druze communities, and has facilitated joint activities for Palestinian and Jewish children. Yarden holds a MSW in Clinical Social Work from the University of Haifa, a BA in Psychology from Ben Gurion University, and certification in Group Facilitation. One of his main passions is exploring the world, and he has traveled to over 45 different countries. Yarden lives in Jerusalem with his wife, Yael, and two sons Amir and Nadav.

How do our conversations about text inform our pursuits as drivers of global justice? What does our tradition have to say about some of the most ethical dilemmas a global energy entrepreneur faces daily? And what spiritual sustenance do we have to gain from pursuing a better world?

Citing Jewish texts from the Lubavitcher Rebbe to Leonard Cohen, Global Torah veterans Dyonna Ginsburg and Rabbi Yedidya Julian Sinclair explore the surprising and illuminating intersections between study and action.

This episode involves in-depth analysis of multiple Jewish texts. Click here for an accompanying source sheet.

Featured Guests

Dyonna Ginsburg is the Executive Director of OLAM, a joint platform for promoting global Jewish service. Prior to OLAM, Dyonna served as Director of Education and Service Learning at The Jewish Agency; Executive Director of Bema’aglei Tzedek, an Israeli social change NGO; and co-founder of Siach, a global network of Jewish social justice and environmental professionals. She has a BA in International Relations from Columbia University and an MA in Jewish Education from Hebrew University. A frequent lecturer, she was named “one of Israel’s 50 most inspiring women” by Nashim magazine in 2015.

Rabbi Yedidya Julian Sinclair is a global solar energy entrepreneur based in Jerusalem. Before moving to Israel he worked as an economist in the UK government. In his spare time he is a writer, translator, urban tour guide and teaches Jewish texts and sources. He holds rabbinic ordination and degrees from Oxford and Harvard and lives in Jerusalem with his wife and five children.

Though there's very little most Jews agree upon, tzedaka- charitable giving - is widely accepted among Jews of all stripes to be a core Jewish value. But how we choose to give - to whom, how much - can get a bit trickier. How do we, as Jews, prioritize our giving? How can our historical experience and tradition inform these decisions?

Featured Guests

Ruth W. Messinger is president of American Jewish World Service (AJWS), the world’s leading Jewish organization working to end poverty and realize human rights in the developing world. Ruth came to AJWS in 1998, after a 20-year career in public service in New York City. As a leading activist for human rights around the globe, Ruth lectures widely and holds leadership roles in the faith-based advocacy arena. She currently sits on the State Department’s Religion and Foreign Policy Working Group and co-chairs the Sub-Working Group on Social Justice. Ruth has been honored by many national Jewish organizations and has been named on lists of the world’s most influential Jews and religious leaders by The Jewish Daily Forward, The Jerusalem Post and The Huffington Post.

Shoshana Boyd Gelfand is a senior member of the London-based Pears Foundation. She provides strategic direction for the foundation’s operating programme, JHub, as well as working closely with the Pears Foundation team on international development initiatives, interfaith projects, and Jewish identity programmes in the UK. Shoshana represents Pears Foundation as one of the founding board members of OLAM.

“We need to create a lasting movement… How can we be not just bystanders but upstanders - to make ‘never again’ more than an empty promise, but an actual commitment we can keep?” -Mark Hanis

As college students, Mark Hanis and his friends heard about the Darfur genocide - and engaged millions of their fellow Americans in working to stop it. Hear what Mark learned about being an "upstander," and the simple steps we can all take to prevent genocide today.

Featured Guest

Mark Hanis is a serial social entrepreneur. He most recently helped found the Beeck Center for Social Impact & Innovation at Georgetown University. Previously, he co-founded the Organ Alliance (now ORGANIZE) to address the unnecessary deaths due to a shortage of transplantable organs. Before that, Mark was the co-founder and President of United to End Genocide (formerly Genocide Intervention Network and Save Darfur Coalition), an organization created with the mission to empower citizens and communities with the tools to prevent and stop genocide. Mark also served as a White House Fellow, working in the Office of Vice President Biden as the National Security Affairs Special Advisor for South America, Africa, and Human Rights. Mark graduated from Swarthmore College with a degree in Political Science and a minor in Public Policy. He is the grandchild of four Holocaust survivors and was raised in Quito, Ecuador. From February - August 2003, Hanis worked for the Office of the Prosecutor at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. He was a 2006 Draper Richards Kaplan fellow, a 2006 Echoing Green fellow, a 2008 Ashoka fellow, and a 2009 Prime Mover fellow. Mark was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

 

Feeling like strangers or outsiders isn’t a new experience for the Jewish people. But when it comes to spending time in the developing world, navigating what makes us different as Jews - our religious or cultural practices, our identity and values - can bring with it unique challenges.

What are these challenges - and what are the opportunities - of living Jewishly while serving in the developing world?

Global Torah is a five-part podcast series exploring the intersections of Jewish history, values and tradition with the practice and pursuit of global citizenship, social justice and international development.

Hosted by Shani Rosenbaum.

Guest bios:

Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield, Pardes Instituted of Jewish Studies,

Zvi teaches Talmud, Halakha and Jewish Thought at Pardes. In addition, Zvi is a faculty member of the Pardes Center for Jewish Educators and has been training and mentoring Jewish Educators for over ten years in Tefilah in educational settings, critical issues in modern Jewish thought, and Israel education.

Zvi holds a B.A. in History from Columbia University and did graduate work at Harvard University in Medieval and Modern Jewish Thought. He studied at Yeshivat Har Etzion in Israel and has rabbinic ordination from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. He was the director of Judaica at the JCC of Cleveland and an instructor at the Cleveland College of Jewish Studies for many years. He also serves as a curriculum writer and is involved in staff training for the Nesiya Institute. His wife, Dina, is a faculty member of the Hebrew University School of Public Health, and they have four children.

Sarah Mulhern

Sarah Mulhern is a fourth year rabbinical student at Hebrew College, where she is also working towards a Masters in Jewish Education and is a Wexner Graduate Fellow. During rabbinical school, Sarah has worked in a variety of settings—including pulpits, social justice organizations, mikvaot, hospitals, and adult and youth education. Previously, Sarah worked for several years at American Jewish World Service, where she designed curricula, wrote divrei torah, ran On1Foot.org, trained educators and designed and led service-learning programs. Sarah is an alumna of Yeshivat Hadar, Pardes Institute, Drisha Institute, Beit Midrash Har El, and Brandeis University. She currently lives in Cambridge, MA, with her husband, Will.

What are the myriad of motives that bring us as Jews to serve global communities in need? Do our motives have to be "pure"? Are some motives more legitimate than others? Rabbi Dr. Daniel Roth of Pardes and Ilan Fluss of MASHAV shed light on how to serve with integrity against a landscape of mixed motivation.

Global Torah is a five-part podcast series exploring the intersections of Jewish history, values and tradition with the practice and pursuit of global citizenship, social justice and international development.

Hosted by Shani Rosenbaum.

Guest bios:

Ian Fluss, MASHAV

Ian is the Deputy Head of MASHAV, which is the Hebrew acronym for Israel's Agency for International Development Cooperation, a division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. MASHAV started as a modest program focused on grassroots-level human capacity building at a time when Israel itself was still very much a developing country, and has blossomed into an extensive program of cooperation throughout the developing world with the aim of ensuring social, economic and environmental sustainable development. Since its establishment, MASHAV has trained close to 270,000 course participants from approximately 132 countries in Israel and abroad and has developed dozens of demonstration projects worldwide. Its goals include poverty alleviation, provision of food security, empowerment of women and upgrading basic health and education services.

Rabbi Dr. Daniel Roth, Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies

Daniel is the director of the Pardes Center for Judaism and Conflict Resolution. He holds a Ph.D. from Bar Ilan University‘s Program for Conflict Resolution, Management and Negotiation writing on Jewish models of conflict resolution, peacemaking, and reconciliation. Daniel has been teaching advanced rabbinics, Bible, conflict resolution and other subjects at Pardes for over fifteen years. Daniel is also a lecturer at Bar Ilan’s Program for Conflict Resolution, a senior research fellow at George Mason University’s Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution and an Israeli certified court mediator. He holds a MA in Talmud from Hebrew University, a B.Ed in Jewish Philosophy and Talmud from Herzog Teachers’ College, and studied for eight years in Yeshivat Har-Etzion, during which time he received rabbinic ordination. Daniel is married with four children and lives in Jerusalem.

Where is the intersection between Jewish spiritual practice and social action? Is there a connection between serving God and serving humanity?

Global Torah is a five-part podcast series exploring the intersections of Jewish history, values and tradition with the practice and pursuit of global citizenship, social justice and international development.

Hosted by Shani Rosenbaum.

Guest bios:

Rabbi Ruth Gan Kagan, Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, Nava Tehila

Rabbi Ruth Gan Kagan was born in Jerusalem. She grew up in a Zionist Orthodox family and is a descendant of a long line of Lithuanian rabbis on her mother's side. She studied law at Hebrew University but decided not to work in the field – instead she immersed herself in Torah studies at the Hartman and Pardes Institutes in Jerusalem. Always a spiritual seeker, Ruth became involved in interfaith activities that led her to representing Judaism at various international forums as well as being amongst the first Israelis to travel and study in India and Nepal.

In the late 80s she married Dr. Michael Kagan, author of the Holistic Haggadah, and together they were part of the first wave of New Age activists in Israel. Ruth and Michael's main interest became the renewal of Judaism and together they taught classes and workshops in Israel and around the world. In 2003 Ruth received semikha (rabbinic ordination) from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi through the Aleph Rabbinical Seminary, of which she is now a member of the faculty. In 2006 she published, together with Rabbi Zalman, Jewish Renewal – Integrating Heart and World (Kirvat Elohim, Yediot Achronot), the first book in Hebrew describing the principles and practice of Jewish Renewal for Israeli readership.

Rabbi Ruth teaches classes and workshops in Jewish spirituality in Israel and around the world. She is the founder of congregation Nava Tehila in Jerusalem.

Rabbi Micha Odenheimer, Tevel b'Tzedeck

Rabbi Micha was born in Berkeley, California. He received his B.A. from Yale University, Cum Laude, in 1980. In 1984, Micha received his semikha (rabbinic ordination) and was a student and close friend of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. In 1988 Micha immigrated to Israel and ever since has been working in social activism in Israeli society, and has lectured and written extensively on Judaism and social justice. A prolific journalist, Rabbi Micha has reported on poverty, globalization and human rights from around the world, and written for the Washington Post, The Guardian, The London Times, The Jerusalem Report and Ha'aretz. In 1998, the Joint Distribution Committee granted Micha the Boris Smolar Prize, based on his work covering Ethiopian Jewry. Micha also founded the Israeli Association for Ethiopian Jewry, which was, and remains to this day, one of the most instrumental and valued organizations dealing with the absorption of Ethiopian immigration to Israel. Micha is the founder and director of Tevel B'tzedek, an Israeli NGO created in 2007 and focused on Tikun Olam ("healing the world") in communities in Burudni and Nepal through Jewish and Israeli leadership and innovation. Rabbi Micha received the 2011 Klegg Prize from Hebrew University.