Evolve

Have you ever struggled to explain racism to your kids? Flubbed conversations at the dinner table? Unsure how racism and antisemitism fit together, or how to process the 2020 racial reckoning and subsequent backlash? Then be sure to catch our conversation with Buffie Longmire-Avital, Ph.D., a psychology professor who identifies as a Black American Jewish woman. She shares her research about Jewish families as well as her own perspective as the mother of two biracial sons. She shares the implications of a recent incident at her son’s school, in which white and Black students split into opposing football teams, leaving her son on the sidelines. She offers advice on how parents, especially white Jewish parents, can better prepare their kids to respond to microaggressions and make Jewish communities more embracing spaces. Her research is part of a Reconstructionist Rabbinical College project called “Race, Religion and American Judaism.” At the top of the episode, Rabbi Mira Wasserman joins to explain the project and the importance of Longmire-Avital's research.

Visit our home on the web — Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations: http://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org

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Read these show notes on the web at https://evolve.fireside.fm/1

This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.

Special Guests: Buffie Longmire-Avital, Ph.D. and Rabbi Mira Beth Wasserman, Ph.D..

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Links:

• Read Buffie's Evolve essay, "It Has Always Been A Shared Story: Finding the Narratives of Diversity, Inclusion, and Racial Equity in Judaism"

It all started with a nightmare. The Midwest had been obliterated by a nuclear attack. Sallie Gratch awoke and realized it wasn’t too late and got to work in the anti-nuclear movement. Gratch is the recipient of the 2023 Keter Shem Tov, or “Crown of the Good Name” award, given at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College’s graduation. In in this interview, Gratch traces her path as an activist, detailing her first encounters with Jews in the Soviet Union. She shares the story of the organization she founded, Project Kesher and its mission to empower Jewish women in the former Soviet Union and how it has been forced to pivot in response to war in Ukraine. More than that, Gratch explores how she got the confidence to believe she could be part of change, and the role that Jewish values have played in shaping her activism.

Theme song, “Ilu Finu” by Rabbi Miriam Margles. Her album This is the Day is available for purchase at CDBaby: https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/miriammarglesandthehadarensemb

Visit our home on the web — Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations: http://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org

Subscribe by Email at http://subscribebyemail.com/evolve.fireside.fm/rss

Read these show notes on the web at https://evolve.fireside.fm/1

This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.

Special Guest: Sallie E. Gratch.

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Links:

• Read the Evolve essay, "Project Kesher: Supporting Jewish Life in Ukraine and the Former USSR"

Though Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann’s son, Mint, had faced anxiety and depression before, his cry for help was as alarming as it was unexpected. The teen was thinking about ending his life. Yet by going to his parents, Mint was able, ultimately, to get the help he needed. On Rosh Hashanah, this past year, Rabbi Herrmann shared this most personal of stories to make a larger point: there’s an ongoing stigma around mental illness. As long as the stigma pervades, people's lives are at risk. (The stigma, and concerns for her son’s privacy, were reasons she hadn’t shared much of this publicly before.) In this expansive interview, Herrmann focuses particularly on trans youth and how political attacks on transgender rights could have devastating mental health consequences. She also shares how her NYC congregation responded to her sermon, how things are starting to change there, and what she thinks needs to happen in other Jewish communities. At the episode’s outset, Rabbi Jacob Staub, the show’s executive producer, offers poignant framing about the topic of mental health.

Theme song, “Ilu Finu” by Rabbi Miriam Margles. Her album This is the Day is available for purchase at CDBaby: https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/miriammarglesandthehadarensemb

Visit our home on the web — Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations: http://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org

Subscribe by Email at http://subscribebyemail.com/evolve.fireside.fm/rss

Read these show notes on the web at https://evolve.fireside.fm/40

This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.

Special Guest: Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann.

Support Evolve

Links:

• Read the Evolve essay, "Breaking the Silence on Mental Illness"

This Passover, please support the work of Evolve and Reconstructing Judaism with a donation so we can continue to build participatory, joy-filled communities that engage Jews, seekers, and our loved ones: https://www.reconstructingjudaism.org/make-your-impact-this-passover/

Half a century ago, Rabbi Michael Strassfeld — a leader of the countercultural Havurah movement — co-edited “The First Jewish Catalog.” The book, which sold an astounding 300,000 copies, presented tangible practices for do-it-yourself Judaism. His new book, “Judaism Disrupted: A Spiritual Manifesto for the 21st Century” argues that, some 2,000 years after the birth of rabbinic Judaism, it’s time to fashion Judaism into something new. In fact — newsflash — he suggests it might be time to do away with Shabbat services, at least in current form. A few weeks before Passover, he talks about how his ideas might apply to the Passover seder, and presents four new, alternate questions.

Theme song, “Ilu Finu” by Rabbi Miriam Margles. Her album This is the Day is available for purchase at CDBaby: https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/miriammarglesandthehadarensemb

Visit our home on the web — Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations: http://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org

Subscribe by Email at http://subscribebyemail.com/evolve.fireside.fm/rss

Read these show notes on the web at https://evolve.fireside.fm/39

This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.

Special Guest: Rabbi Michael Strassfeld.

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Links:

• Read the Evolve essay, "Why is This Passover Seder Different from All Other Passover seders?"

A rafting trip got Rabbi Daniel Swartz — a longtime environmental activist — thinking about the way the human experience relates to the processes of the natural world. How do people live absent the belief that things are getting better, and could quite possibly be getting much worse? How do we muster the resilience to try to make a difference — especially on Climate Change — while simultaneously preparing for real losses, both to the natural world and human civilization? The director of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life talks about the philosophical and theological questions he’s wrestled with as he’s marshaled his energies toward activism. He demonstrates his philosophy in action, recalling a 2021 gathering of global religious leaders at the Vatican in which participants shaped an important statement on Climate Change. And he shares his impressions of meeting Pope Francis.

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Celebrate Five Years of Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations: https://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org/uncover-the-light-purim-campaign/

Theme song, “Ilu Finu” by Rabbi Miriam Margles. Her album This is the Day is available for purchase at CDBaby: https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/miriammarglesandthehadarensemb

Visit our home on the web — Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations: http://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org

Subscribe by Email at http://subscribebyemail.com/evolve.fireside.fm/rss

Read these show notes on the web at https://evolve.fireside.fm/38

This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.

Special Guest: Rabbi Daniel Swartz.

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Links:

• Sign up for Evolve's email list

This Israeli government is different, unprecedented, more religious, and righter wing than any before. At least, that’s what countless headlines and pundits are saying. According to two Israeli legal scholars and activists, Gila Stopler and Yofi Tirosh, this really is a moment of crisis for Israel. Stopler and Tirosh detail how the dramatic drop in women represented in government — two Orthodox coalition parties have no women representatives — is shaping an agenda that could dramatically curtail women’s rights. Rather than the cosmopolitan place in which women thrive and lead, they warn of a sobering future in which men and women are segregated in much of public life, looking more like other Conservative Middle Eastern nations than the nation Israel’s founders built and envisioned. Will it happen? Can the legal system — itself under assault — or popular protests prevent the worst fears from occurring? How much does this all have to do with the inability of Israeli and Palestinian leaders to make peace? We discuss all this and more.

Theme song, “Ilu Finu” by Rabbi Miriam Margles. Her album This is the Day is available for purchase at CDBaby: https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/miriammarglesandthehadarensemb

Visit our home on the web — Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations: http://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org

Subscribe by Email at http://subscribebyemail.com/evolve.fireside.fm/rss

Read these show notes on the web at https://evolve.fireside.fm/

This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.

Special Guests: Dr. Yofi Tirosh and Gila Stopler.

Support Evolve

Links:

• Read the Evolve essay, "The Israeli Government’s War on Women"

Like many progressive Jews living outside Israel, Marc Overbeck watched the most recent Israeli election returns with mounting concern regarding the future of a democratic Israel. He feared the incoming government – described as the most right-wing in Israel’s history – could turn the country into something unrecognizable.  For example, one of Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition partners, Itamar Ben Gvir, has said Arabs should be expelled from Israel. Overbeck, a Reconstructionist leader who has worked in government in two countries, sat down to write his thoughts. What came out was an impassioned defense of the longed-for ideal of Israel as a Jewish state and democracy and defender of human rights for all. He raises up two idealistic thinkers: Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, founder of Reconstructionist Judaism, and Theodor Herzl, catalyst of modern political Zionism. He also offers an impassioned defense of the idea of democratic government as a force for good. 

Theme song, “Ilu Finu” by Rabbi Miriam Margles. Her album This is the Day is available for purchase at CDBaby: https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/miriammarglesandthehadarensemb

Visit our home on the web — Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations: http://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org

Subscribe by Email at http://subscribebyemail.com/evolve.fireside.fm/rss

Read these show notes on the web at https://evolve.fireside.fm

This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.

Special Guest: Marc Overbeck.

Support Evolve

Links:

• Read the Evolve essay, "Kaplan, Herzl and the Current State of Israeli and American Politics"

This episode features polymath Jay Michaelson, a rabbi, journalist, scholar, LGTBQ activist and meditation teacher. Michaelson spent 20 years researching Jacob Frank for his new book, "The Heresy of Jacob Frank: From Jewish Messianism to Esoteric Myth". In 18th century Poland, Frank led the largest mass apostasy in Jewish history. He was the most notorious Jew in Europe and, not without good reason, history has remembered Frank as something of a scoundrel. However, Michaelson separates myth from fact and explains why Frank’s radical philosophy may have been a precursor to how many non-Orthodox Jews relate to the tradition today. We dip into modern politics, including the endurance of the cult of personality in human affairs, but also spend a lot of time talking about the 18th century, which seems no less a wild time than our own.  

Theme song, “Ilu Finu” by Rabbi Miriam Margles. Her album This is the Day is available for purchase at CDBaby: https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/miriammarglesandthehadarensemb

Visit our home on the web — Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations: http://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org

Subscribe by Email at http://subscribebyemail.com/evolve.fireside.fm/rss

Read these show notes on the web at https://evolve.fireside.fm/1

This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.

Special Guest: Jay Michaelson.

Support Evolve

Links:

• Read the Evolve essay, "The Allure of the Antinomian … or How Jacob Frank Seduced Me"

Imagine if there were a digital yeshiva where Jews of Color could gather to learn Torah and Jewish practices in a safe, supportive atmosphere in which no one’s Jewishness is questioned. Good news, Ammud: The Jews of Color Torah Academy already exists! In this episode, we speak with Ammud's executive director, Alexandra Corwin, a noted educator and organizer with Ashkenazi, Peruvian, and Quechua heritages. We delve into why Jews of Color need affinity spaces and how such spaces can benefit all Jewish communities. We discuss the nuts and bolts of the digital yeshiva: how it operates, what it teachers, who are its teachers and students. And, of course, we learn about Alexandra’s plans for Ammud, which means pillar in Hebrew, and what’s at stake. Also, Alexandra discusses her own journey toward Jewish leadership.

Theme song, “Ilu Finu” by Rabbi Miriam Margles. Her album This is the Day is available for purchase at CDBaby: https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/miriammarglesandthehadarensemb

Visit our home on the web — Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations: http://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org

Subscribe by Email at http://subscribebyemail.com/evolve.fireside.fm/rss

Read these show notes on the web at https://evolve.fireside.fm/1

This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.

Special Guest: Alexandra Corwin.

Support Evolve

Links:

• Ammud: Jews of Color Torah Academy

From the time she was a young girl, Rev. Wil Gafney knew something was wrong. Every major biblical figure, in both art and popular culture, was represented as white. Now a scholar and Episcopal priest, Gafney paints a more accurate picture of our Afro-Asiatic forebearers, making a case that engaging with the racist history of biblical criticism and western art is key to forging a more just future. Gafney also briefly discusses her love of sci-fi and Star Wars and tries to dissect the animus aimed at black actors that ventured into the Star Wars universe. She also discusses her love of Hebrew, praying in synagogues and connection with Jewish community, and some of the fraught nature of inter-religious interactions. Though the discussion isn’t High Holiday-themed per se, the content seems apt for the days of awe as it challenges all of us to question our assumption and, perhaps, to atone for harm caused intentionally or unintentionally.

Theme song, “Ilu Finu” by Rabbi Miriam Margles. Her album This is the Day is available for purchase at CDBaby: https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/miriammarglesandthehadarensemb

Visit our home on the web — Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations: http://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org

Subscribe by Email at http://subscribebyemail.com/evolve.fireside.fm/rss

Read these show notes on the web at https://evolve.fireside.fm/1

This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.

Special Guest: Rev. Wil Gafney, Ph.D..

Support Evolve

Links:

• Read Rev. Gafney's Evolve essay, "Whitewashing Biblical Characters"