On this week’s episode of the Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast, Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz discusses his work establishing YATOM: The Jewish Foster & Adoption Network.

Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast Now Available on Roku Streaming Service

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About the Guest

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz has twice been named one of America’s Top Rabbis by Newsweek and has been named by The Forward as one of the  50 most influential Jews and one of The Most Inspiring Rabbis in America.

Rabbi Yanklowitz is the author of nineteen books on Jewish ethics and his writings have appeared in outlets as diverse as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Guardian, and the Atlantic among many other secular and religious publications. He has served as speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and a Rothschild Fellow in Cambridge, UK.

Rav Shmuly received a Masters from Harvard University and his Doctorate from Columbia University. He serves as the President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash (Jewish learning center), the Founder & President of Uri L’Tzedek (the Orthodox Social Justice movement), the Founder and CEO of Shamayim (Jewish animal advocacy), and the Founder and President of YATOM, (Jewish foster and adoption network). Rabbi Shmuly, his wife Shoshana, and their four children live in Scottsdale, Arizona. They are also foster parents.

On this week’s episode of the Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast, Catherine Fischer,  the creator of Sacred Practice: Reimagining Synagogue Engagement, discusses her work for the past two decades to strengthen relationships between people and organizations and their connection to Judaism.

Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast Now Available on Roku Streaming Service

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.

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About the Guest

Catherine S. Fischer

Catherine S. Fischer is the creator of Sacred Practice: Reimagining Synagogue Engagement. 

Catherine has worked for the past two decades to strengthen relationships between people and organizations and their connection to Judaism.

In founding Sacred Practice, she aspires to bring the transformational power of Judaism into all aspects of Jewish communal work, from the seemingly most mundane task to the most extraordinary, finding the sacred and lifting it up so that Jewish organizations radiate purpose and thus thrive. 

She began her Jewish professional career in 2001 as the Pennsylvania Regional Director of Outreach and Synagogue Community for the Union for Reform Judaism. In 2004, through Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, Catherine became the Coordinator for the Center City Kehillah (community), working cross-denominationally to strengthen Jewish life in Philadelphia. She was the Director of Membership, Programming, and Philanthropy at Congregation Rodeph Shalom from 2008 to 2020.

Catherine continues to learn from and be inspired by opportunities offered through The Institute for Jewish Spirituality. She serves on the Board of Trustees at the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia and is an active member of her synagogues, Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia and Congregation M’kor Shalom in Cherry Hill.

Catherine graduated from Bard College (with honors) and received her MEd from Lesley University and Shady Hill School. Before she became a Jewish professional, Catherine spent two decades as an elementary, middle school, and college educator.

Catherine lives in Cherry Hill with my husband, Richard. She has two adult children, Sarah and David, a daughter-in-law, Rachel, and grandson, Oliver.

On this week’s episode of the Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast, Karen Hoffman, Founder/CEO Living on Purpose, discusses her company’s mission to develop workshops, activities and resources to facilitate shared connections and personal growth.

Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast Now Available on Roku Streaming Service

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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About the Guest

Karen Hoffman

Karen Hoffman has been a professional in the Jewish community since becoming a licensed nursing home administrator in the 1980’s in Los Angeles.

Through the decades, she has enjoyed working in the Jewish and multi-faith communities, bringing her passion for exploring Jewish and universal values into the lives of others. Whether it’s ensuring that octogenarians continue living lives of meaning and purpose, or helping younger people on their individual journeys, Karen finds her greatest fulfillment when holding space for others in meaningful ways.

After nearly 15 years as a synagogue professional, Karen started her own company, sharing her insights and experience with others. She is a passionate writer and also facilitates individual and group explorations around themes of universal values — words that matter — like gratitude, humility, resilience and trust. Her aim in this chapter of her life is helping people live on purpose by bringing more attention to intentional living.

Karen has fully embraced her journey of growing older:  writing, teaching, facilitating and speaking; she truly lives her own life on purpose, and is enjoying this latest chapter of her life in ways beyond her expectation.

Karen lives in Dallas, Texas with her husband of almost 40 years. Karen and Alan have three adult sons and an ever-growing family, truly the greatest joy of her life.

On this week’s episode of the Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast, Rabbi Address chats with Sarit Wishnevski, newly appointed executive director of Kavod v’Nichum (jewish-funerals.org), which provides information, education, training, and technical assistance for bereavement committees and Chevrah Kadisha groups in synagogues and communities to support their organization and development, to enable them to perform Jewish funeral, burial, and mourning mitzvot, and to protect and shield bereaved families from exploitation.

Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast Now Available on Roku Streaming Service

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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About the Guest

Sarit Wishnevski

Prior to joining Kavod v’Nichum, Sarit trained as an end of life doula through INELDA (International End Of Life Doula Association) and produced a podcast and a newsletter called The Be.Side Project which focused on where Judaism intersected with the end of life. Sarit has also had the privilege of working for  a number of incredible Jewish organizations that seek to bring connection to ancient Jewish rituals and values through modern connection and understanding including OneTable, Repair the World, PresenTense, DOROT, and Hillel. Sarit is a proud alumna of the Wagner School for Public Service at NYU (MPA-PNP, 2012) and the Ruskay Institute for Jewish Professional Leadership (2017). Sarit lives in Maplewood, NJ and is a member of the Synagogue and Chevrah Kadisha at Congregation Beth El in South Orange, NJ.

On this week’s episode, Rabbi Address chats with Rabbi Barry Block, editor of The Social Justice Torah Commentary, is this week’s guest on the Seekers of Meaning Podcast.

What does the Torah have to say about social justice? As the contributors to The Social Justice Torah Commentary demonstrate, a great deal. A diverse array of authors delve deeply into each week’s parashah, drawing lessons to inspire tikkun olam. Chapters address key contemporary issues such as racism, climate change, mass incarceration, immigration, disability, women’s rights, voting rights, and many more. The result is an indispensable resource for weekly Torah study and for anyone committed to repairing the world.

Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast Now Available on Roku Streaming Service

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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About the Guest

Rabbi Barry H. Block, DD

Rabbi Barry H. Block serves Congregation B’nai Israel in Little Rock, Arkansas. A Houston native and graduate of Amherst College, Rabbi Block was ordained by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York in 1991, and he received his DD, honoris causa, in 2016.  

A member of the CCAR Board of Trustees, currently serving as vice president of organizational relationships, Block is the editor of The Mussar Torah Commentary (CCAR Press, 2020), a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. He also contributed to several earlier CCAR anthologies, including Inscribed: Encounters with the Ten Commandments, The Sacred Exchange, The Sacred Encounter, Navigating the Journey, and A Life of Meaning: 

On this week’s episode of the Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast, Rabbi Address chats with Noam Zion, author of the new book, Sanctified Sex: The Two-Thousand-Year Jewish Debate on Marital Intimacy.Sanctified Sex draws on two thousand years of rabbinic debates addressing competing aspirations for loving intimacy, passionate sexual union, and sanctity in marriage. What can Judaism contribute to our struggles to nurture love relationships? What halakhic precedents are relevant, and how are rulings changing?The rabbis, of course, seldom agree. Underlying their arguments are perennial debates: What kind of marital sex qualifies as ideal—sacred self-control of sexual desire or the holiness found in emotional and erotic intimacy? Is intercourse degrading in its physicality or the highest act of spiritual/mystical union? And should women or men (or both) wield ultimate say about what transpires in bed?Noam Sachs Zion guides us chronologically and steadily through fraught terrain: seminal biblical texts and their Talmudic interpretations; Talmud tales of three unusual rabbis and their marital bedrooms; medieval codifiers and mystical commentators; ultra-Orthodox rabbis clashing with one another over radically divergent ideals; and, finally, contemporary rabbis of varied denominations wrestling with modern transformations in erotic lifestyles and values.

Invited into these sanctified and often sexually explicit discussions with our ancestors and contemporaries, we encounter innovative Jewish teachings on marital intimacy, ardent lovemaking techniques, and the art of couple communication vital for matrimonial success.

Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast Now Available on Roku Streaming Service

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.

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About the Guest

Noam Sachs Zion

Noam is now emeritus at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem where since 1978 he has been a senior research fellow and educator. He earned a graduate degree in general philosophy at Columbia University and the Hebrew University, while studying Bible and Rabbinics at JTSA and the Hartman Beit Midrash.

His popular publications and worldwide lecturing have promoted Homemade Judaism — empowering families to create their own pluralistic Judaism during home holidays — Pesach, Hanukkah and Shabbat. His most popular publications include: A Different Night: The Family Participation Haggadah; A Different Light: The Big Book of Hanukkah; A Day Apart: Shabbat at Home; The Israeli Haggadah: Halaila Hazeh; and A Night to...

On this week’s episode of the Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast, Rabbi Address discusses heart health with Robert Andrew Singer, M.D., F.A.C.C. Dr. Singer is the chief of cardiology and medical director of the non-invasive cardiology lab at Virtua South, Voorhees, New Jersey.

Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast Now Available on Roku Streaming Service

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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About the Guest

Guest Name

Dr. Robert Singer is the chief of cardiology and medical director of the non-invasive cardiology lab at Virtua South.

Dr. Singer received his MD in 1987 from S.U.N.Y. Health Science Center at Brooklyn. He is board-certified in Nuclear Cardiology, cardiovascular diseases, and internal medicine.

He held a fellowship in cardiology at Hahneman University Hospital in Philadelphia, and a residency and internship in internal medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Bronx Municipal Hospital Center, Bronx, NY.

He also studied at Tel Aviv University-Sackler School of Medicine. He received a BA in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Singer is a member of the American Association for Physician Leadership; and a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology.

On this week’s episode of the Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast, the guest is William Peters, a practicing grief and bereavement therapist and author of the new book, At Heaven’s Gate.

In 2000, Peters was volunteering at the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco when he had an extraordinary experience as he was reading aloud to a patient: he suddenly felt himself floating in midair, completely out of his body. The patient, who was also aloft, looked at him and smiled. The next moment, Peters felt himself return to his body…but the patient never regained consciousness and died.

Perplexed and stunned by what had happened, Peters began searching for other people who’d shared similar experiences. He would spend the next twenty years gathering and meticulously categorizing their stories to identify key patterns of what is now known as the “shared crossing” experience. The similarities, which cut across continents and cultures and include awe-inspiring visual and sensory effects, and powerful emotional after-effects, were impossible to ignore.

Long whispered about in the hospice and medical communities, these extraordinary moments of final passage are openly discussed and explained in At Heaven’s Door. The book is filled with powerful tales of spouses on departing this earth after decades together and bereaved parents who share their children’s entry into the afterlife. 

Applying rigorous research, Peters digs into the effect these shared crossing experiences impart—liberation at the sight of a loved one finding joy, a sense of reconciliation if the relationship was fraught—and explores questions like: 

-What can explain these shared death experiences? 

-How can we increase our likelihood of having one? 

-What do these experiences tell us about what lies beyond? 

-How can they help take away the sting of death and better prepare us for our own final moments? 

-How can we have both a better life and a better death?

At Heaven’s Door is a groundbreaking, authoritative exploration — rich with powerful personal stories and convincing research — of the many ways the living can and do accompany the dying on their journey into the afterlife.

Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast Now Available on Roku Streaming Service

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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On this week’s episode of the Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast, the guest is Richard Brownstein, author of Holocaust Cinema Complete: A History and Analysis of 400 Films, with a Teaching Guide, just published by McFarland Press.

Holocaust cinema is so venerated that one-third of all American Holocaust films have been nominated for at least one Oscar. Nonetheless, most Holocaust films have fallen through the cracks, while others have spawned controversy or even outrage. This book explains these trends — and many others — in a complete guide to 400+ Holocaust films and made-for-television movies.

From Anne Frank to Schindler’s List to Jojo Rabbit, Holocaust films are put into historical and artistic perspective and are discussed through many lenses: historically, chronologically, thematically, sociologically, geographically and individually. The filmmakers behind these films are also contextualized, including Charlie Chaplin, Sidney Lumet, Woody Allen, Quentin Tarantino, Steven Spielberg and Roman Polanski. This book also includes recommendations and reviews of the 50 best Holocaust films, an educational guide, and a detailed listing of each Holocaust film.

Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast Now Available on Roku Streaming Service

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. Closed-captioning is available by pressing the “CC” button on the player toolbar.

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About the Guest

Richard Brownstein

A Holocaust and Jewish film expert, Rich teaches educators worldwide.  He has lectured for Yad Vashem’s International School for Holocaust Studies since 2014 about the history of Holocaust films and their use in the classroom.

Rich Brownstein was born in Portland, Oregon in 1962. Most of his undergraduate work at Reed College was in psychology. By the time he graduated, three of his experiments were on their way to being published in the top social psychology journals in the world. Those studies are still being cited today. During college, too, Rich was a Sunday school teacher specializing in Holocaust education and also on the board of the Oregon Holocaust Resource Center (now the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education).​

A few years after college Rich moved to Los Angeles, working with Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker Productions. Rich was the associate producer on one of David Zucker’s projects, directed by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, just before they created South Park. In fact, there is a South Park character that Rich inspired.

​Rich then founded The Transcription Company, starting from an apartment in Hollywood. Initially,

On this week’s episode of the Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast, the guest is Jewish singer-songwriter Peri Smilow.

Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast Now Available on Roku Streaming Service

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. Click the “CC” button on the player for closed-captions.

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About the Guest

Peri Smilow

Peri Smilow is a nationally recognized touring artist.  As a performer, composer, educator and activist she has the unique ability to deeply move people of all ages, to forge connections and understanding and to use her extraordinary musical gifts, passion and commitment to community to create social change.Peri’s music and message of tikkun olam have been heard throughout the US, Canada, England, Singapore and Israel.  She was the Artist-in-Residence at the World Union for Progressive Judaism’s international Connections Conference in Israel (2009) and at the Limmud Conference in the UK.  She has appeared as headline performer at numerous URJ National Biennial Conventions and CAJE conferences.  In 2007 Peri was commissioned to compose a new piece of music to celebrate the release of the The Torah: A Women’s Commentary.  She has also been a visiting artist-educator at the Reform Movement’s summer camps and has served as visiting faculty at Hava Nashira National Songleader Institute.  Peri has released four recordings of original contemporary Jewish music including Songs of Peace, Ashrey, and The Freedom Music Project; the music of Passover and the Civil Rights Movement featuring an electrifying 18-voice choir of young Black and Jewish singers celebrating the freedom music of their traditions.  The Freedom Music Project was nominated Best Gospel Album of the Year by the Just Plain Folks Music Awards and has been featured on NBC and ABC TV, National Public Radio’s Weekend All Things Considered, and on Voice of America radio internationally. The Freedom Music Project is available for local programming through Peri’s exciting Concert-in-a-Box Program!  (Call for more information)Peri’s newest release, BLESSINGS, is intimate and uplifting.  It draws on Peri’s experience as a cancer survivor, wife and mother and celebrates the importance of her relationship with loved ones, friends, community and faith.  Blessings was co-produced by Grammy-award winning producer Ben Wisch (Mark Cohn Walking in Memphis).Each year Peri commits a portion of her time to work on an on-going basis within a single community to create congregational change through music.  In this capacity she has enjoyed residencies in Temple Ner Tamid (Bloomfield, NJ) and Temple Emanu-El (Edison, NJ).