This week, we present a encore broadcast of the Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast.

In this program, Rabbi Address discusses the new book, The Year of Mourning: A Jewish Journey, with its editors, Rabbi Lisa Grant, Director of the New York Rabbinical Program and Eleanor Sinsheimer Distinguished Service Professor in Jewish Education Coordinator, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and Cantor Lisa B. Segal, cantor of Kolot Chayeinu in Brooklyn, NY.

The Jewish mourning process is a voyage through pain, brokenness, comfort, resilience, acceptance, and even gratitude. The Year of Mourning: A Jewish Journey offers an expansive array of resources—stories, songs, study texts, poetry, and prayers—to lovingly and patiently guide the bereaved through the first year after their loss. Each week the mourner is encouraged to focus on a particular theme to deepen their Kaddish practice. The book also includes new rituals for shivah, sh’loshim, unveiling, and yahrzeit. The Year of Mourning helps support individuals to regain their grounding after loss and, through the richness of Jewish tradition, deepen their connections to memories of loved ones and to others in the community who are walking a similar path.

You can add the Jewish Sacred Aging TV channel to your Roku streaming subscription by visiting this page: https://channelstore.roku.com/details/600964/jewish-sacred-aging.

You can also watch this week’s show in the player below. The shows now include closed-captioning for the deaf or people with a hearing loss. Click the “CC” button on the video player to activate closed-captions.

We also maintain a complete playlist of Seekers of Meaning TV Show episodes on YouTube.

You can listen to the audio podcast version in the player below, or subscribe to the podcast in one of the popular platforms by clicking one of the buttons below the player.

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Rabbi Lisa D. Grant, Ph.D., serves as Director of the Rabbinical Program at HUC-JIR/New York. Her research and teaching interests focus on adult Jewish learning, the professional development of Jewish leaders and the place of Israel in American Jewish life. She has published widely on these topics in a range of academic journals, books, and teaching guides.

Rabbi Grant has served on the faculty of HUC-JIR since 2000. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, her Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and her Ph.D. from The Jewish Theological Seminary in New York; and her rabbinical ordination from HUC-JIR.

Cantor Lisa B. Segal is a founding member of Kolot, where she has served as co-and senior clergy for over 19 years. Cantor Segal was ordained in 2011 by the Academy for Jewish Religion (AJR) and served as their Cantorial Director for two years (2012-14). With her unique voice and energy, Lisa leads Shabbat, holiday, and High Holy Day services and observances. In addition, she teaches, creates and leads all ranges of life cycle events to enhance Kolot members’ spiritual lives. She composes music, leads community events and regularly performs in concert, on Facebook, and on bimahs around the country.

Cantor Segal collaborates regularly with local Brooklyn and New York City Cantors and musicians in Jewish communal observances and holidays. During the first six months of the Pandemic she created and hosted a twice-weekly Facebook live session of song, meditation and reflections/Torah. Her original composition, Ratzo VaShov/Ebb and Flow, was featured at the opening of the 2021 ACC Convention, and she was commissioned to write a piece for T’ruah’s 2021 Gala, entitled Na’aseh V’Nishma, along with HUC-JIR Cantorial Student Ze’evi (Berman) Levtov. Notable performances include D’var Shirah – Music Meets Text at the Red Sea at the Eldridge Street Synagogue, a benefit she created and produced for the Academy for Jewish Religion, featuring spoken word artists and Jewish musicians in improvisation (music directed by Frank London of the Klezmatics), and Zero Church; the Prayer Project where she sang with The Roches at St. Ann’s Warehouse.

Cantor Segal has appeared in many concerts she created for Kolot – “Off the Bimah!” – with a range of notable and innovative Jewish musicians including Joey Weisenberg, Marty Ehrlich, Marc Ribot, Alicia Jo Rabins, Roy Nathanson, Alicia Svigals, and others, and has performed with numerous cantors and choirs throughout the New York metropolitan area and beyond.

She is an Associate Member of the ACC (American Conference of Cantors), an active alumni of AJR and Hevraya, the Institute for Jewish Spirituality’s Mindfulness meditation clergy cohort, and a longtime member of the Women Cantors Network. Lisa and her husband, writer and maggid Arthur “Ari” Strimling, live in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

The post ENCORE BROADCAST 9/22/2023: Seekers of Meaning 8/4/2023: Rabbi Lisa Grant and Cantor Lisa B. Segal, “The Year of Mourning” appeared first on Jewish Sacred Aging.

On this week’s episode of the Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast, Rabbi Address offers a high holy days message as we approach the start of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year 5784.

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On this week’s episode of the Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast, psychologist, author and radio talk show host Dr. Dan Gottlieb continues a multi-show discussion of the introspective month of Elul, which prefaces the Jewish High Holiday season.

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Dan began his practice in 1969 after receiving undergraduate and graduate degrees at Temple University. As a young psychologist, his early career specialized in addictions where he ultimately was the director of a community based treatment program in Philadelphia. He was also a graduate of the highly respected Family Institute of Philadelphia, a program that later elected him as president.

During this time he became a respected clinician, teacher and supervisor of psychiatrists, psychologists and clinical social workers. He taught at Hahnemann University and consulted and taught with most of the universities throughout the region.

Personally, he was happily married and had loved being a father to his young daughters. However, his early successes were tragically interrupted.

In 1979 Dan was in a near fatal automobile accident which left him paralyzed from the chest down. As expected, there were years of despair and depression. He experienced loss on top of loss as his wife left the marriage and passed away several years later. And in the ensuing years he mourned the loss of his sister and his parents. And for the last three decades, he has been observing life with what he calls “a curious mind and an open heart.” In doing so, he has learned valuable lessons about what it means to be human and how adversity can teach us how to live better and love better.

Despite this adversity, he resumed his private practice which was to grow substantially over the next several decades. In addition to his practice, he has continued to lecture, train and supervise a variety of healthcare professionals.

From 1985 until last year, Daniel Gottlieb hosted “Voices in the Family,” an award-winning mental health call-in radio show aired on WHYY 90.9 FM, Philadelphia’s NPR affiliate. He stepped down from his weekly show and now does six specials a year in front of live audiences.

Because of his life achievements including Letters to Sam, which was a best seller in Taiwan, Dan was given the “Fervent Love of Life” award by the President of Taiwan, captured in the picture above.

His most recent book, The Wisdom We’re Born With: Restoring Faith In Ourselves, was released in 2015, to rave reviews from mental health professionals around the country. All of his royalties from all of his books have been donated to children’s charities locally and internationally.

In addition to his writing and radio show, he delivered over 1000 lectures all over the world on a variety of topics affecting the well-being of people, families and the larger community.

As a result of his accomplishments, he has received awards from the Pennsylvania Psychological Association, the American Psychological Association, the Center for Mental Health Services, the Philadelphia Society of Clinical Psychologists, the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Association, the Council for Relationships and many more.

The essence of his philosophy can be found on his business card. After his name there are no degrees and no fancy titles. His card simply says “Daniel Gottlieb. Human.”

Through personal and professional experience, Dan has learned that our greatest suffering is alienation and loneliness. That is these powerful emotions can produce prejudice, hatred, violence, withdrawal and depression. He has learned that all humans long for human contact, compassion and understanding. And without compassion, our spirits wither.

When asked to summarize his life’s work, he says simply: “I teach kindness.”

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On this week’s episode of the Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast, Rabbi Mark Levin, Founding Rabbi and Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Beth Torah in Overland Park, KS, kicks off a multipart discussion of the meaning of reflection in the month of Elul as we prepare for the High Holy Days. Other guests in coming weeks will also reflect on the holiest season of the Jewish calendar.

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Rabbi Mark H. Levin is a native of Baltimore, Maryland. Graduated in 1971 from Boston University, magna cum laude with distinction in religion, Rabbi Levin received his Master of Arts in Hebrew letters from Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in 1974, his Certificate in Jewish Communal Studies in 1974 (Los Angeles), and was ordained in 1976 (Cincinnati). Most recently, Rabbi Levin completed his Doctorate of Hebrew Letters through HUC-JIR in New York in May, 2001, and his honorary Doctor of Divinity in 2001 in Cincinnati. He has been the congregational Pulpit Rabbi for Congregation Beth Torah since its inception in 1988 up until his retirement from this position in June 2014. In July 2014 he accepted the position of Beth Torah’s Founding Rabbi. Rabbi Levin is the father of three children and grandfather of two grandchildren. He is married to the former Kacy Childs-Winston, the mother of Kyle and Seth Winston. Rabbi Levin serves on several local boards and writes religion columns for the Kansas City Star, and answers questions for the “Ask the Rabbi” service of the Union of Reform Judaism.

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On this week’s episode of the Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast, Rabbi Sandy Akselrad, spiritual leader of Congregation Ner Tamid, Henderson, NV, discusses his new book, Love in the Time of Corona.

In March 2020, the world as we knew it changed dramatically — literally overnight. As businesses, schools, and places of worship were forced to close their doors because of COVID-19, we were all filled with a sense of fear. How long would this last? How would we adapt? How deadly was this virus? How could we protect our loved ones?

One of Rabbi Sanford Akselrad’s board members encouraged him to write a letter to his congregation to bring them a sense of hope during this time of great uncertainty. What began with one essay, “Love in the Time of Corona,” turned into a weekly communique. Now more than one hundred of these essays, focusing on themes of hope, resiliency, and the importance of pulling together as a community, have been lovingly compiled in this book.

Stronger together, readers will empathize with the message that we need each other, not only in the Time of Corona, but always and forever.

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Here are some excerpts from the conversation between Rabbi Address and Rabbi Akselrad.

Rabbi Sandy Akselrad is the spiritual leader of our Congregation and a leader in creating a vibrant Jewish community in Southern Nevada.

Sanford Akselrad has served as the spiritual leader of Congregation Ner Tamid since he came to Las Vegas in 1988.  During this time, the Synagogue grew from approximately 60 to over 600 families, becoming the largest Reform Synagogue in the State of Nevada. In his 30 years of service to our Congregation, Rabbi Akselrad has served on a wide variety of community boards including the Humana Hospital Pastoral Advisory Board, the Jewish Nevada, Jewish Family Services and the National Conference of Community and Justice.

A firm believer in K’lal Israel and building a strong Jewish community, Rabbi Akselrad has spearheaded many community-wide Boards, Commissions and organizations that have helped shape the Jewish community we live in today. He is a founding member and current President of the Clark County Board of Rabbis. He is also a founding member and past Chair of the National Conference of Community and Justice’s Interfaith Council and of the Federation’s Community Relations Council (CRC).  Rabbi Akselrad also spearheaded the effort to bring the Interfaith Hospitality Network model of sheltering homeless families to Las Vegas. Now called Family Promise, this model uses the facilities and volunteers from local faith communities to shelter, feed and encourage homeless families to live with dignity and hope, and ultimately end their period of homelessness.

In the wake of the Great Recession of the late 2000’s, Rabbi Akselrad envisioned Project Ezra, a partnership between the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas, the Board of Rabbis, and Jewish Family Service Agency. Project Ezra helped over 600 people of all faiths secure new employment during this challenging economic climate.

Rabbi Akselrad is currently a board member of the Anti-Defamation League of Las Vegas and the Interfaith Council of Southern Nevada. Rabbi Akselrad has served on the National Commission on Jewish Living, Worship and Music for the Union of Reform Judaism (URJ) for over ten years. He has also served on the Outreach Committee (to interfaith families) of the URJ.

Rabbi Akselrad was ordained from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1984. His rabbinic thesis dealt with the moral implications of the Holocaust and how the Holocaust is taught in public and private schools.  Because of his expertise, Rabbi Akselrad helped form the Governor’s Council on Holocaust Education, and he faithfully served as a member of that Board for over twenty five years.

Upon ordination in 1984 Rabbi Akselrad served as the associate Rabbi of one of the largest Reform Congregations in the mid-west, Temple Israel of Columbus, Ohio. In 2009, Hebrew Union College-JIR awarded Rabbi Akselrad an honorary doctorate of Divinity upon his 25th year in the rabbinate. Rabbi Akselrad also served as President of the Pacific Area of Reform Rabbis, one of the largest rabbinical organizations in North America.

Through his involvement in the interfaith community, he has been a constant presence in Interfaith forums, and the co-founder of the annual Interfaith Thanksgiving service.

Rabbi Akselrad’s community contributions and leadership are the best example of Congregation Ner Tamid’s commitment to Tikkun Olam and Social Justice.

Rabbi Akselrad is married to Joni and has two children, CJ and Sam. His daughter-in-law is Ana and his granddaughter is Genevieve.

The post Seekers of Meaning 8/25/2023: Rabbi Sandy Akselrad discusses his book, “Love in the Time of Corona” appeared first on Jewish Sacred Aging.

On this week’s episode of the Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast, Rabbi Address holds a panel discussion with several participants in the recent “Re-Charging Reform” conference held at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York, sponsored by the synagogue’s senior rabbi, Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch. (Rabbi Hirsch was a guest on the Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast April 7, 2023, where he discussed the conference. You can watch that episode here.

The panelists were: Rabbi Geri Newburge, senior rabbi of Main Line Reform Temple-Beth Elohim, Wynnewood, PA; Rabbi Tracy Kaplowitz, the Marilyn G. and Joseph B. Schwartz Israel Fellow at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue; Rabbi Bennett Miller, rabbi emeritus, Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple, New Brunswick, New Jersey; and Mark S. Anshan, past president of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto, past President of ARZA Canada and past Chair of ARZENU.

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Mark is a lawyer and a former Canadian diplomat, serving on several non-profit boards. He provides legal, business, strategic and organisational advice to not-for-profits and charities.

Mark is a Canadian lawyer, called to the Ontario bar in 1984. Prior to becoming a lawyer, he served in the Canadian Foreign Service at the United Nations and the Canadian Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden. As a lawyer and executive, Mark has been involved in the management and reorganisation of several companies and not-for-profit organisations, having served as a senior executive and chair and board member. He has extensive experience in management, strategic planning, governance and organising businesses. He serves on several boards in the Canadian Jewish Community as well as boards in the general community. Mark is a past President of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto, past President of ARZA Canada and past Chair of ARZENU.  He served on the URJ Board of Trustees and as Vice-Chair.  He currently serves as a Director of the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company, Project Abraham among other organizations.  He was a founder and co-ordinator of the recently held (May 31-June 1, 2023) Re-CHARGING Reform Judaism Conference at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York City.

Rabbi Tracy J. Kaplowitz, Ph.D., is the inaugural Marilyn G. and Joseph B. Schwartz Israel Fellow at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue. She came to Stephen Wise from JWB Jewish Chaplains Council, which ensures the quality of Jewish life for Jews in the U.S. military and the Veterans Administration. An experienced spiritual leader and educator, Rabbi Kaplowitz served as a reserve chaplain in the U.S. Air Force and on the professional staff of both the Schechter School of Long Island and the Jewish Education Project. She was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and earned her doctorate in the sociology of education from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Rabbi Kaplowitz is a member of both the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Rabbinical Assembly.

Rabbi Bennett F. Miller, a native of Rochester, N.Y., is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati.  He earned a Master of Arts and Hebrew Letters from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati where he was ordained a Rabbi in 1974.  He also earned his doctorate from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1988.  In March 1999, he was awarded a Doctorate of Divinity Degree from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.  In 2008, Rabbi Miller completed a Certificate in Fund Raising at the George Heyman Center for Non-Profit Management and Fund Raising at New York University.

Rabbi Miller is rabbi emeritus of Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick, New Jersey.  He has been associated with Anshe Emeth since 1974.  Founded in 1859, Anshe Emeth is the third oldest congregation in New Jersey.  Before coming to Anshe Emeth, he was the spiritual leader of Congregation Havurah in Buffalo, N.Y. and the New Jersey State Advisory Council on the Holocaust.

Since October 2012, Rabbi Miller was elected to serve as the national Chair of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA).  ARZA is the Zionist arm of the Reform Movement of North America.  In his capacity as Chair, Rabbi Miller represents a membership of nearly 25,000 Zionists in Reform Congregations throughout the United States.  Rabbi Miller also serves on the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel.

His varied activities include being the Chair of the National Rabbinic Cabinet of the United Jewish Communities.  He has also served as a contributor to the Judaica Series of the Young Leadership Cabinet of United Jewish Appeal and to its rabbinic publication, The Orchard.

He currently serves as a member on the Board of Trustees of the Union for Reform Judaism.   Rabbi Miller has served as Co-Chairman of the Union for Reform Judaism Commission on Synagogue Management and as founding Co-Chairman of the Union for Reform Judaism Commission on Synagogue Music (formerly, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations).

In the New Brunswick community, Rabbi Miller is the founding Chairman of the Clinical Pastoral Education Committee at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and continues to serve as its Chairman.  He is the Jewish Chaplain to the New Brunswick Police Force.  He has served on the Board of Elijah’s Promise, a non-profit interfaith organization dedicated to providing meals to the homeless and needy in New Brunswick.  He served also on the New Brunswick Tercentennial Executive Committee.

At the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Rabbi Miller serves as Instructor in Pastoral Theology in the Doctor of Ministry Program.  He is also a member of the Clinical Faculty of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and he served as Instructor in Liturgy at the Jerusalem campus of the College-Institute.

Rabbi Miller is the author of Reform Jewish Identity:  Developing A Program of Ministry to Guide the New Member of A Reform Synagogue to Mature Jewish Living.  He is also the author of Siduree:   A Prayerbook for Young Children, The Songs of Anshe Emeth for Shabbat, and numerous creative worship services.  Rabbi Miller has also written the teacher’s guide to Why Pray? published by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.  He has had articles published in Compass Magazine and other periodicals and served for ten years as consultant to The Jewish Star, the newspaper of the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County.

Rabbi Miller and his wife Joan are residents of Monroe Township, New Jersey. They are the parents of two daughters, Rabbi Ellie Miller of West Orange, New Jersey and Carrie Miller Nussbaum of Short Hills, New Jersey and proud grandparents of Sam Miller Lynn, Max Miller Nussbaum, Meg and Jack Miller Lynn, Gabriel Miller Nussbaum, and Benjamin Miller Nussbaum.

Rabbi Geri Newburge was ordained as a rabbi in May 2003 from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, OH. She is a member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR). Rabbi Newburge is currently a rabbi at Main Line Reform Temple.  Previously, she served as the Associate Rabbi at Temple Emanuel in Cherry Hill from 2003 to 2013.

​As a rabbi, she is highly involved with creating connections with congregants, innovating liturgy, social action, youth, and Religious School programming.  Rabbi Newburge grew up in South Florida and graduated from the University of Miami with a B.A. in Religious Studies in 1994; then, in 1995, she moved to California to pursue a M.A. in Religion at the Claremont School of Theology, receiving her degree in May 1997.

Rabbi Newburge is married to Rabbi Eric Goldberg, Rabbi Educator at Congregation Shir Ami in Newtown, PA, and they are proud parents of their son, Jay. 

The post Seekers of Meaning 8/18/2023: Panel discussion of “Re-Charging Reform” Conference appeared first on Jewish Sacred Aging.

On this week’s episode of the Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast, Rabbi Marla Feldman discusses her new book, Biblical Women Speak: Hearing Their Voices through New and Ancient Midrash.

What were biblical women thinking and doing when the men around them received all the attention and glory? How did Leah, Rachel, and their handmaids negotiate the complicated family dynamics of four women vying for Jacob’s affections? What compelled Potiphar’s wife to risk her high station to seduce Joseph, an enslaved foreigner? How did the midwives and Pharoah’s daughter conspire to rescue baby Moses, right under Pharoah’s nose?

Biblical Women Speak employs midrash (interpretative techniques) to discover ten biblical women’s stories from a female point of view and provide insights beyond how ancient male scholars viewed them. Each chapter brings alive a different biblical woman, including non-Israelite characters and others who are neglected in classical rabbinic texts, such as Keturah (Abraham’s last wife), Bat Shuah (Judah’s wife), Shelomith (the infamous blasphemer’s mother), and Noah (one of Zelophehad’s brave daughters who demanded inheritance rights). After each featured text we hear a creative retelling of the woman’s story in her own voice, followed by traditional midrash and medieval commentaries and the author’s reflections on how these tales and interpretations are relevant for today.

Rabbi Marla J. Feldman’s book is an engaging invitation to enter biblical narratives, challenge conventional wisdom, and recalibrate the stories and lessons through the lens of our own lives.

You can add the Jewish Sacred Aging TV channel to your Roku streaming subscription by visiting this page: https://channelstore.roku.com/details/600964/jewish-sacred-aging.

You can also watch this week’s show in the player below. The shows now include closed-captioning for the deaf or people with a hearing loss. Click the “CC” button on the video player to activate closed-captions.

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Rabbi Marla J. Feldman was the Executive Director of WRJ from 2012 tp June of 2023, having previously served as the Director of Development for the URJ and Director of the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism. Feldman is a Reform rabbi (HUC-JIR, New York) and lawyer (JD, Univ. of Fla). Previously, Rabbi Feldman worked in the Jewish community relations field in Detroit and Delaware and served Reform congregations in Sarasota and Orlando, Florida. Feldman has authored Reform Movement action manuals and published modern midrash, and her articles have appeared in numerous publications and newspapers. She is the author of “Biblical Women Speak: Hearing Their Voices through New and Ancient Midrash” (JPS, 2023).

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On this week’s episode of the Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast, Rabbi Address discusses the new book, The Year of Mourning: A Jewish Journey, with its editors, Rabbi Lisa Grant, Director of the New York Rabbinical Program and Eleanor Sinsheimer Distinguished Service Professor in Jewish Education Coordinator, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and Cantor Lisa B. Segal, cantor of Kolot Chayeinu in Brooklyn, NY.

The Jewish mourning process is a voyage through pain, brokenness, comfort, resilience, acceptance, and even gratitude. The Year of Mourning: A Jewish Journey offers an expansive array of resources—stories, songs, study texts, poetry, and prayers—to lovingly and patiently guide the bereaved through the first year after their loss. Each week the mourner is encouraged to focus on a particular theme to deepen their Kaddish practice. The book also includes new rituals for shivah, sh’loshim, unveiling, and yahrzeit. The Year of Mourning helps support individuals to regain their grounding after loss and, through the richness of Jewish tradition, deepen their connections to memories of loved ones and to others in the community who are walking a similar path.

You can add the Jewish Sacred Aging TV channel to your Roku streaming subscription by visiting this page: https://channelstore.roku.com/details/600964/jewish-sacred-aging.

You can also watch this week’s show in the player below. The shows now include closed-captioning for the deaf or people with a hearing loss. Click the “CC” button on the video player to activate closed-captions.

We also maintain a complete playlist of Seekers of Meaning TV Show episodes on YouTube.

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Rabbi Lisa D. Grant, Ph.D., serves as Director of the Rabbinical Program at HUC-JIR/New York. Her research and teaching interests focus on adult Jewish learning, the professional development of Jewish leaders and the place of Israel in American Jewish life. She has published widely on these topics in a range of academic journals, books, and teaching guides.

Rabbi Grant has served on the faculty of HUC-JIR since 2000. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, her Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and her Ph.D. from The Jewish Theological Seminary in New York; and her rabbinical ordination from HUC-JIR.

Cantor Lisa B. Segal is a founding member of Kolot, where she has served as co-and senior clergy for over 19 years. Cantor Segal was ordained in 2011 by the Academy for Jewish Religion (AJR) and served as their Cantorial Director for two years (2012-14). With her unique voice and energy, Lisa leads Shabbat, holiday, and High Holy Day services and observances. In addition, she teaches, creates and leads all ranges of life cycle events to enhance Kolot members’ spiritual lives. She composes music, leads community events and regularly performs in concert, on Facebook, and on bimahs around the country.

Cantor Segal collaborates regularly with local Brooklyn and New York City Cantors and musicians in Jewish communal observances and holidays. During the first six months of the Pandemic she created and hosted a twice-weekly Facebook live session of song, meditation and reflections/Torah. Her original composition, Ratzo VaShov/Ebb and Flow, was featured at the opening of the 2021 ACC Convention, and she was commissioned to write a piece for T’ruah’s 2021 Gala, entitled Na’aseh V’Nishma, along with HUC-JIR Cantorial Student Ze’evi (Berman) Levtov. Notable performances include D’var Shirah – Music Meets Text at the Red Sea at the Eldridge Street Synagogue, a benefit she created and produced for the Academy for Jewish Religion, featuring spoken word artists and Jewish musicians in improvisation (music directed by Frank London of the Klezmatics), and Zero Church; the Prayer Project where she sang with The Roches at St. Ann’s Warehouse.

Cantor Segal has appeared in many concerts she created for Kolot – “Off the Bimah!” – with a range of notable and innovative Jewish musicians including Joey Weisenberg, Marty Ehrlich, Marc Ribot, Alicia Jo Rabins, Roy Nathanson, Alicia Svigals, and others, and has performed with numerous cantors and choirs throughout the New York metropolitan area and beyond.

She is an Associate Member of the ACC (American Conference of Cantors), an active alumni of AJR and Hevraya, the Institute for Jewish Spirituality’s Mindfulness meditation clergy cohort, and a longtime member of the Women Cantors Network. Lisa and her husband, writer and maggid Arthur “Ari” Strimling, live in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

The post Seekers of Meaning 8/4/2023: Rabbi Lisa Grant and Cantor Lisa B. Segal, “The Year of Mourning” appeared first on Jewish Sacred Aging.

On this week’s episode of the Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast, Robert Wolf and Dr. Amy Ehrlich discuss the book they recently edited, A Comprehensive Guide to Safety and Aging: Minimizing Risk, Maximizing Security

This book is a comprehensive survey on safety for older adults. It contains contributions by experts from over a dozen disciplines, including physicians, audiologists, optometrists, mental health professionals, lawyers, occupational therapists, and policy makers. This multi-disciplinary approach provides a new and expansive conceptual framework for health care professionals, students, policymakers, and others who care for older adults, and promotes an understanding of the many challenges that adults face as they age.

This book describes the complex range of issues that need to be considered when safeguarding older adults. The authors and editors hope that this book will be of benefit to anyone currently working or training to work with older adults, helping them to fully appreciate the many safety issues that can arise.

The book will be also be useful for both older adults and their caregivers, helping them to identify and address areas of concern. The goal is to mitigate injury or other harm through an increased understanding of the risks encountered by older adults. This text will also appeal to professionals and graduate students in the fields of human factors and ergonomics, occupational health, and safety.

You can add the Jewish Sacred Aging TV channel to your Roku streaming subscription by visiting this page: https://channelstore.roku.com/details/600964/jewish-sacred-aging.

You can also watch this week’s show in the player below. The shows now include closed-captioning for the deaf or people with a hearing loss. Click the “CC” button on the video player to activate closed-captions.

We also maintain a complete playlist of Seekers of Meaning TV Show episodes on YouTube.

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Dr. Amy Ehrlich is the Associate Chief of the Division of Geriatrics at Montefiore Medical Center and Professor of Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York. She is board certified in Internal Medicine, Geriatrics, and Hospice and Palliative Care. Dr. Ehrlich received her MD from Harvard Medical School, and trained in Internal Medicine at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. She is a Fellow of the American Geriatrics Society. Dr. Ehrlich has been involved in program design and development in geriatrics education for medical students, residents, and fellows at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Ehrlich’s research interests include screening for mild cognitive impairment and dementia in ethnically and racially diverse primary care settings and the prevention of burns and fires in older adults. In her role as Medical Director of Montefiore Home Care, she works with the interdisciplinary home care team to develop innovative disease- specific programs which help address challenges in transitions of care in the Montefiore network.

Bob Wolf has had a distinguished career in aging, health, law and philanthropy. He has served as a senior advisor to the SC Group, one of the largest funders of aging programs in the United States, for more than 25 years. He also consults with other leading national organizations in the field, including the New York Academy of Medicine, Rockefeller Philanthropy Associates, and the National Council on Aging. Prior to that Bob had leadership roles at AARP, UJA- Federation of NY, and Healthcare Chaplaincy. Bob was a pioneer in the field of elder law, at the Brookdale Center on Aging at Hunter College and at Strauss and Wolf, one of the nation’s first law firms devoted to eldercare. He has authored publications on aging policy, law, and the rights of caregivers. Bob has a JD degree from Brooklyn Law School, an MUP from Hunter College, and a postgraduate certificate in not- for- profit management from the Columbia School of Business.

The post Seekers of Meaning 7/28/2023: Robert Wolf and Dr. Amy Ehrlich, editors of “A Comprehensive Guide to Safety and Aging” appeared first on Jewish Sacred Aging.

On this week’s episode of the Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast, author Michael Doring Connelly, a 40-plus-year healthcare veteran and former CEO of Mercy Health, discusses his book, The Journey’s End: An Investigation into Death and Dying in Modern America.

In the conversation, Connelly details how to change the standard approach to end-of-life care and the practical benefits of facing death as a reality rather than trying to medicalize it. 

The author claims that when the system stops fighting death with invasive procedures and prescription drugs, dying becomes a shared, caring family experience rather than a cold, clinical and medical ordeal.

Emphasizing the importance of knowledge and communication, The Journey’s End aims to raise awareness of the key issues driving the dysfunction of U.S. healthcare, with attention to how the elderly bear the brunt, while encouraging people to develop “death literacy.” 

You can add the Jewish Sacred Aging TV channel to your Roku streaming subscription by visiting this page: https://channelstore.roku.com/details/600964/jewish-sacred-aging.

You can also watch this week’s show in the player below. The shows now include closed-captioning for the deaf or people with a hearing loss. Click the “CC” button on the video player to activate closed-captions.

You can listen to the audio podcast version in the player below, or subscribe to the podcast in one of the popular platforms by clicking one of the buttons below the player.

• Apple Podcasts
• YouTube
• Spotify
• Podchaser
• Amazon Music

Michael Doring Connelly served as CEO of Mercy Health, one of the nation’s largest health systems, from 1994 to 2017. He previously served as an executive with the Daughters of Charity National Health System (now the Ascension Health System) and has experience with healthcare systems in Germany, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden and Spain. He has published numerous articles in various healthcare journals and served as the chair of prominent organizations, including Catholic Charities USA. He lives on Johns Island, South Carolina.

The post Seekers of Meaning 7/21/2023: Michael Connelly, author of “The Journey’s End: An Investigation into Death and Dying in Modern America” appeared first on Jewish Sacred Aging.