The Art/Lab Podcast: Conversations About Jewish Arts and Culture

Rabbi Josh's reflection: What if Judaism is not a religious tradition, but an artistic one?

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In this episode, Merridawn Duckler and Rabbi Josh explore pop culture and high art, Judaism as culture and religion, and challenge these distinctions. Duckler's background as artist and serious student of Jewish religious texts add to the rich conversation. Enjoy.

Relevant to the Conversation:

https://merridawnduckler.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Levinas

Rabbi Josh: Springsteen and Dylan on Art and Politics

Hello, listeners. Yesterday's podcast conversation contained some editing errors, including the DEADLINE FOR THE ART/LAB FELLOWSHIP. The deadline is AUGUST 30TH. This has been correected in this version of the conversation.

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In the 21st century it feels that the seams of our world have come undone.

American citizenry is profoundly fractured. Old political allignments have broken apart; norms of decency and public trust are in pieces. The same thing seems to be happening within Israel. The American Jewish community is more fragmented now than I've ever seen it. The divisions are not just ideological but social. We have an increasing number of micro-communities, but less Jewish unity.

That question — how we create those kinds of connections, and what they make possible — was one I wanted to explore with my guest today, Rabbi April Villareal. Rabbi Vlilareal is an educator and teacher who brings real insight into this topic. She's the Senior Coach and Program Associate with Hadar's Pedagogy of Partnership.

In our conversation, we talk about:

• Why shared texts experiences can make space for intimacy that pure dialogue sometimes can't.

• How to hold people accountable to a tradition while making room for their unique voice.

• What it takes to build relationships across deep differences, without erasing them.

• How art and creativity can be relational tools in community and classroom.

Links:

Art/Lab - artlabpdx.org

Rabbi April Villarreal – Hadar.org

PoemHunter – Fancies (Emma Lazrus)

Sefaria

Rabbi Josh offers a reflection about art, ideology, art for art's sake, and the current state of affairs for Jewish artists.

Referred to in this episode:

Seamus Heaney's "The Flight Path" https://fawbie.info/the-spirit-level/the-flight-path/

Shostakovich, Lament for a Dead Infant, https://music.apple.com/us/album/from-jewish-folk-poetry-op-79-i-lament-for-a-dead-infant/1452151175?i=1452152698

21st-century Jewish life has been marked by shifting boundaries—exciting for some, but challenging for those accustomed to inherited lines of demarcation. Demographic changes and evolving patterns of observance have blurred the distinctions between movements and reshaped their identities. More challenging still are the shifting boundaries around intra-communal debate, particularly on Israel and Zionism. The Jewish world is fractured along new fault lines, and in the arts—where openness, boundary-pushing, and transgression are often core values—Jewish communities are grappling with what, if anything, Jewish culture stands for collectively.

My guest this week has been navigating these challenges on a national and global stage. Seth Pinsky is the CEO of the 92nd Street Y, a 150-year-old cultural and community center in New York. It's a leading institution for Jewish and universal arts, education, and civic dialogue—offering rich intellectual and artistic programming, a religious community, and a global platform through its digital reach. Seth has guided the Y through a time of renewed growth and relevance, even amid profound communal tensions. Previously, he served as president of the NYC Economic Development Corporation under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and he brings deep experience to questions of leadership and identity. In this conversation, he challenges some of my own assumptions and offers insight into what it means to engage with Jewish culture today.

In this Episode:

https://www.92ny.org

https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2023/october/an-open-letter-on-the-situation-in-palestine

Documentary Filmmaker Michael Turner and Rabbi Josh Discuss the relationsship between the past, the present and storytelling.

This is a conversation Rabbi Josh had months ago with Zac Banik, Art/Lab alumnus and habitual Jewish learner and explorer. Enjoy.

Daniela Molnar is an award winning poet and visual artist. She and and Rabbi Josh will be together on August 25th at 7pm at Annie Blooms Books in Portland to discuss her stunning new work Protocols: An Erasure. This episode is a rebroadcast of Rabbi Josh's conversation with Molnar from Season One of this podcast. This week and next, and then periodically thereafter we'll be sharing snippets and full episodes that look back on highlights and moments that helped shape the direction of the Genesis. Thank you for being a listener, and enjoy the conversation with Daniela Molnar.

To explore how music shapes Jewish cultural meaning, this week Rabbi Josh welcomes Eric Stein — mandolinist, bassist, and artistic director of Toronto's Ashkenaz Festival, one of the world's largest celebrations of Jewish music and culture. (And yes, it might be a little confusing — last week's guest was Eric Stern, another multitalented Jewish musician.)

Eric Stein has spent more than 25 years redefining the sound of Jewish music through projects like Beyond the Pale and Tio Chorinho. In this wide-ranging conversation, he and Rabbi Josh talk about Jewish cultural identity, spiritual honesty, and the surprising affinities between klezmer music and the Grateful Dead. Eric shares his journey from secular musician to a leader in the global Jewish music revival, reflects on what it means to seek meaning in a world that often feels devoid of it, and offers a compelling defense of art as a form of cultural resistance.