In this special episode, Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D and Rabbi Sandra Lawson discuss their respective processes of preparing for the High Holidays. This isn’t about leading services, but about how, as human beings, they undertake an accounting of the soul, leading to repentance for their own actions and forgiveness toward others. The two friends and colleagues delve into Maimonides as interpreted by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg in her new book On Repentance and Repair. (Among his many contributions, Maimonides, a medieval Torah scholar, philosopher and physician, outlined five steps needed to make true repentance.) Rabbi Sandra describes her difficult relationship with her late mother, and the forgiveness needed to truly care for her mother during illness. The two widen the lens and examine repentance from a societal point of view: how can society account and repent for harms caused to so many groups: Blacks, indigenous Americans, Asian Americans and so on. The two agree that an American reckoning with its troubled legacy is needed. “I think about teshuvah and when it comes to racial justice work, my focus first of all, is primarily within our Jewish spaces,” Lawson says. “I have found that many Jews who benefit from white privilege tend to continue to look outward on racial justice in the larger world, which is fine. But that also needs to be with our own internal work.”

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

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Links:

• On Repentance And Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg
• Maimonides and Repentance
• "Rabbi Sandra Lawson: The Souls in My Life" for Interfaith America
• "Modeh Ani as a Means for Cultivating Resilience" by Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D.
• "Opposites Attract" by Paula Abdul
• The newly redesigned ReconstructingJudaism.org
• The newly redesigned Ritualwell.org
• Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations

Reconstructing Judaism board member and Tikkun Olam Commission co-chair Shahanna McKinney-Baldon opens up with Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D. and Rabbi Sandra Lawson about her time singing for the ska and reggae band Highball Holiday. The educator, activist and artist, who comes an African American and Ashkenazi family, talks about rediscovering her singing voice in middle age, and shedding certain inhibitions and self-consciousness. (Co-host Rabbi Sandra Lawson also recounts embracing public singing in her 40s, partly to connect with Jewish liturgy.) McKinney-Baldon frankly discusses the grieving process following the 2021 loss of her father, as well as her wrestling with the Jewish prohibition on listening to music — let alone performing — during the traditional morning period. The trio discusses a Reconstructionist, values-based approach to engaging with, but not necessarily being dictated by, Jewish tradition. She also discusses her work on the Tikkun Olam Commission and describes the ongoing process of gaining support for a movement-wide resolution supporting reparations for slavery.

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

Special Guest: Shahanna McKinney-Baldon.

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Links:

• Edot Midwest Regional Jewish Diversity Collaborative — Edot Midwest Regional Jewish Diversity Collaborative (“Edot”) is a network of partnerships and activities focused on affirming Jewish racial and ethnic diversity across communities in the Midwest region. Investing in the leadership of Jewish People of Color (JOC’s) is our driver for change.
• "I helped coin the term ‘Jews of color.’ It’s time for a history lesson" by Shahanna McKinney-Baldon
• Listen to Highball Holiday on Bandcamp
• Follow Highball Holiday on Instagram
• Milwaukee ska legends Highball Holiday preached racial unity

On Sept. 3, 2019, Richard Cohen’s wife, Marcia Horowitz, was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. Horowitz lived 160 more days. In his acclaimed 2021 book, The Smooth River: Finding Inspiration and Exquisite Beauty during Terminal Illness, Cohen, a lawyer and Reconstructionist leader, recounts those days and what the couple learned about life as Horowitz's death approached.

In this special episode, Richard Cohen discusses with Rabbi Deborah Waxman how the couple eschewed the common framing of terminal illness as a battle with the disease – something that is either one or lost. “We wanted to regain some sense of normalcy of who we were, and by doing good for other people, we felt good about ourselves. We were getting our heads above the cancer. It was not going to subsume us.”

Rabbi Waxman and Cohen also discuss how the couple’s approach mirrors resilience practices contained in many Jewish teachings. Quoting from the book of Psalms, Waxman says, “Out of a narrow place, I called to God. God responded and got me out into an expansive place. That tension between narrow and expansive, for me it has been such an incredible guiding metaphor."

Rabbi Sandra Lawson will be back as co-host in the next episode.

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

Special Guest: Richard S. Cohen.

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Links:

• Read the book: The Smooth River
• Ritualwell - death and mourning — While Judaism places great emphasis on our lives in this world, death is an inevitable end for all of us. Often Jews who have been distant from traditional Jewish practice for their whole lives seek the comfort of traditional Judaism in the face of death. For mourners, whose lives are often turned upside down by death, the traditional practices of mourning can provide structure and comfort. Here you will find resources that address each aspect of the process of navigating death and mourning—from the moment of death, to the burial of the body, the tearing of clothes, the weeklong practice of shiva, and the recitation of kaddish.
• A Mussar Practice for Grief
• Kaddish: A Podcast about Death and Dying
• Reconstructing Judaism
• Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations

There’s an increasing focus in popular discourse on allyship, particularly when it comes to people of color and other marginalized groups. What does it mean to be an ally, both to individuals and to groups? How can one begin to do that work in a way that is meaningful and is about helping others and not about assisting one’s ego or placing oneself at the center of the story? In this episode, Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D. and Rabbi Sandra Lawson – longtime friends and now colleagues – discuss these questions using examples from their own lives. Noting the importance of relationships and context, they delve into the difficulty of saying and doing the right thing at the right time, citing examples of which they were proud and where they might have done better. In the discussion, Rabbi Sandra stresses that white people who aim to be allies to people of color should, “be humble and be curious, and be open to learning, instead of thinking that [you] can't learn anything.”

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

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Links:

• NY Times: "To White People Who Want to Be ‘One of the Good Ones’" by Maeve Higgins
• Chaver Up!: 49 Rabbis Explore What it Means to be an Ally through a Jewish Lens
• Evolve essay: "Racism in the Jewish Community" by Rabbi Sandra Lawson
• Evolve essay: "A Beat to Which We Can All Move" by Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D.
• Evolve essay: "Noticing Jews of Color in Our Communities" by Carmen Amalia Corrales
• Evolve resource: Jewish Approaches to Justice Work
• The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
• Ritualwell: "Pride Shabbat Blessing from an Ally" by Sara Stock Mayo
• Ritualwell: "Quick Tips for Transgender Allies" by TransfaithOnline.org
• Ritualwell: "Modah Ani" poem by Martha Hurwitz

Helen K. Kim is Professor of Sociology at Whitman College and in 2019 assumed the position of Associate Dean for Faculty Development. She is also the co-author of JewAsian: Race, Religion, and Identity for America's Newest Jews along with her husband Noah Leavitt. In this interview, Kim discusses macro topics such as racism in the Jewish community and the rancorous debate over communal demography. She also discusses more personal matters, including her experience of her son’s recent bar mitzvah. The episode begins with Kim talking about her search for wisdom in the Jewish tradition and how she found inspiration in the works of Maimonides, the medieval Jewish philosopher and Torah commentator. Later, she expresses her frustration with Jewish organizations that long acknowledged the prevalence of racism behind closed doors but steered clear of addressing racism publicly. “Why are we choosing to run away from [these realities]? Why don't we choose to run towards them and try to do something about them to become anti-racist.”

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

Special Guest: Helen K. Kim.

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Links:

• JewAsian: Race, Religion, and Identity for America's Newest Jews — JewAsian is a qualitative examination of the intersection of race, religion, and ethnicity in the increasing number of households that are Jewish American and Asian American.
• "Funny - You Don't Look Jewish" by Helen K. Kim — Episode guest Helen K. Kim writes that, "Raising [my children] Ari and Talia with a strong and nuanced sense of identity is not so simple as having kimchi in our refrigerator and challah on Friday nights."
• What It's Like For Non-White Jews During The High Holidays — Helen K. Kim and Rabbi Sandra Lawson were both featured in this 2015 HuffPost Religion piece asking a few racially and ethnically diverse American Jewish families to offer a reflection on their relationship to Judaism.
• A Jewish-Asian Couple's Union Leads to a Scholarly Interest in Intermarriage — NY Times profile on Helen Kim and Noah S. Leavitt
• The Laws of Teshuvah in the Mishneh Torah — The Laws of Teshuvah By Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon ("Maimonides"); translated by Eliyahu Touger
• Rabbi David Basior on Teshuvah as Resilience — Rabbi David Basior speaks about how the Jewish value of teshuvah holds power in interpersonal relationships.

Amanda Mbuvi, Ph.D., is the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College’s new vice president for academic affairs. Mbuvi, a Hebrew Bible scholar and nonprofit leader, is the first Jew of Color to hold such a leadership position at an American rabbinical seminary. We delve into Mbuvi’s desire to deepen how people and communities think about diversity and identity. Mbuvi shares her enthusiasm for using the Bible in general, and Genesis and Exodus in particular to explore questions related to community and identity. Mbuvi and Lawson talk what it means to be women of color and leaders in the Jewish community, reacting to the findings of the Jews of Color Initiative's latest study, “Beyond the Count: Perspectives and Lived Experiences of Jews of Color.” (Eight in 10 respondents said they have experienced discrimination in a Jewish setting.) “So I think for a lot of people, when they say Jew of Color, they think about it like a child with divorced parents: on the weekends, you're Jewish and then during the week you're Black. It's like, you sort of go from one to the other, but not that you were both at the same time, in the same place as the same person. I think that's just something people have had a lot of difficulty getting their minds around,” Mbuvi says. The episode was recorded the week before Rosh Hashanah and Lawson, Mbuvi and Waxman share their hopes for the High Holidays and the coming year.

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

Special Guest: Amanda Mbuvi, Ph.D. .

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Links:

• Reconstructing Judaism's High Holidays Collection for 2021/5782 — featuring Mahzor resources, original music, video teachings, new liturgy, resources from congregations & rabbis and more.
• "Grief Belongs in Social Movements. Can We Embrace It?" by Malika Devich-Cyril — A Black activist reflects on intergenerational trauma, community, and coming to terms with death in movement building.
• https://forward.com/news/471478/in-a-first-jew-of-color-to-lead-major-us-rabbinical-school/ — From The Forward: Amanda Mbuvi’s appointment marks the first time a Jew of color will lead a major rabbinical school. But that’s not why officials there selected her.
• High Holidays 2021/5782: Feeling Grief and Hope Through the Shofar Blast — Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D., explores the sounds of the shofar blasts - the vibrations that give us permission to feel our losses and grief and at the same time point us toward cycles of renewal – in this High Holiday 5782 video message.
• “Beyond The Count” Study by the Jews of Color Initiatve — Beyond the Count: Perspectives and Lived Experiences of Jews of Color is an unprecedented study of the Jews of Color community that will enable the Jewish community to implement more change for racial equity and inclusion.
• Belonging in Genesis: Biblical Israel and the Politics of Identity Formation — In her 2016 book Belonging in Genesis, Amanda Mbuvi highlights the ways narrative and the act of storytelling function to define and create a community. Building on the emphasis on family in Genesis, she focuses on the way family storytelling is a means of holding together the interpretation of the text and the constitution of the reading community.
• Reconstructionist Rabbinical College — Founded in 1968 to serve the Jewish people and the wider world, RRC is dedicated to teaching Judaism as an evolving religious civilization and to engaging with the riches of Jewish tradition to create meaning, connect to the sacred and bring individuals and communities to greater love, justice and peace.

Marcella White Campbell is executive director of Be'chol Lashon -- a pioneering organization that strengthens Jewish identity by affirming the racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity of the Jewish people. We discuss her multiracial Jewish family's own experiences as a window into the Jewish community's troubled record in welcoming Jews of Color. She reflects on her own growth into leadership, motivated by the rising cohort of young Jews of Color who deserve a Jewish community where they can thrive and contribute. And she reflects on the rich interplay of her Jewish and Black identities in making meaning at a time of personal loss. Join us for a rich and deeply moving conversation.

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

Special Guest: Marcella White Campbell.

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Links:

• Meet Marcella White Campbell, Be’chol Lashon’s New Executive Director – Be'chol Lashon
• Camp Be’chol Lashon – Be'chol Lashon
• Be'chol Lashon – Celebrating Jewish Diversity
• Or Shalom Jewish Community
• Reconstructing Judaism Commitments to Racial Justice
• Reconstructing Judaism Over the Next Five Years

We're joined by Professor Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, one of fewer than 100 Black American women to earn a doctorate in physics -- and a Reconstructionist! We discuss the insights she draws from her background as a Black and Ashkenazi Jew, and the richness, complexity, and fruitful challenges that diverse voices bring to the Jewish community. She and Rabbi Sandra Lawson discuss their respective experiences as trailblazers within the physics and the rabbinate. Finally, we delve into theoretical physics and Jewish theology as she explains why she included the ma'ariv prayer in her new book, The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred.

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

Special Guest: Chanda Prescod-Weinstein.

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Links:

• Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, PhD
• The Disordered Cosmos by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein | Hachette Book Group
• Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (@IBJIYONGI) / Twitter
• Spotify Playlist for The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred - playlist by The Disordered Cosmos
• Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein's Jewish Universe - Alma — A conversation with the Black Jewish theoretical physicist on her new book, "Disordered Cosmos," and her fight to make the night sky accessible to all.

We begin a new season focusing on Judaism, resilience, and racial justice, and welcome a new co-host: Rabbi Sandra Lawson, director of racial diversity, equity, and inclusion for Reconstructing Judaism. We dig deeply into the complexities of engaging in racial justice work within the Jewish community, the necessity for deep listening and empathy toward Jews of color, and the need to draw on resilience practices to stay committed to the challenging but vital process of teshuvah on the path to redemption.

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

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Links:

• Rabbi Sandra Lawson (homepage)
• Resources on Race (Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations)
• Reconstructing Judaism Names Rabbi Sandra Lawson Inaugural Director of Racial Diversity, Equity and Inclusion | Reconstructing Judaism
• Presidential Inauguration Talk - Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D. - YouTube
• Two Concepts of Liberty (Isaiah Berlin) - Wikipedia
• Isaiah Berlin, "Two Concepts of Liberty" (PDF)
• The Song of Miriam, by Rabbi Ruth Sohn (Open Siddur Project)

At this extraordinary High Holiday season, so many people are experiencing losses of many kinds. We speak with Rabbi Margot Stein about the lessons she learned about resilience while navigating profound loss -- the death of her eldest son, Aryeh. We discuss the practices that sustain her, and explore how Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur invite us to choose life, in many ways, again and again.

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

Special Guest: Rabbi Margot Stein.

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Links:

• A Mother’s Memorial Meditation On Life And And Death - U’netaneh Tokef 5776 — This is a sermon delivered by Rabbi Margot Stein at Congregation Mishkan Shalom Philadelphia, PA on September 15, 2015, in honor and memory of her son Aryeh Stein-Azen, z”l.
• MIRAJ ~ A Capella Jewish Women's Voices for Sacred Times
• High Holiday Materials for 2020/5781 | Reconstructing Judaism — A rich collection of creative materials for High Holidays 2020, including more than 40 pieces of original music
• Council for Relationships - Philadelphia Area Therapy for Couples, Families and Individuals - Council for Relationships
• The Middleton Center — An open and welcoming place, The Middleton Center for Pastoral Care and Counseling invites people from all and no faith backgrounds to enhance the connections between body, mind and spirit. The Middleton Center combines best practices in spiritual and psychological care with a spirit of hospitality.