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

This is the first in what will be an ongoing series of reflections about Israel and the Palestinians and the many complex feelings and thoughts that I have and I bet you do too.

This week I have the pleasure of talking with a graduate of Art/Lab's second cohort, illustrator, humorist, observer of life, and Jewish identity navigator Leanne Grabel.

Leanne Grabel is a writer, illustrator, performer and has written and produced numerous spoken-word multi-media shows. Leanne was the 2020 recipient of Soapstone's Bread and Roses Award for contributions to women's literature in the Pacific Northwest. Brontosaurus Illustrated was published in 2022 by The Opiate Books; My Husband's Eyebrows was published in 2022 by The Poetry Box; and Old with Jokes was published in 2023 by RuthieRocks Press.

We talk about her Jewish upringing, how Jewish ideas find their way into her work, her new and wonderful piece "Waiting to Hate....Maybe" about life in the Trumpian US, and a lot more. Enjoy the conversation.

Ketzia Schoneberg is a gifted painter with a unique artistic vision. Her work has been showed widely in galleries in Portland and beyond. We talk about how her work expresses her personal biography and her Jewish identity, we discuss the impact of Judaism on her life and in her work, and we also tease out some of the conncetions between artistic and religious expression. And, of course, she weighs in on the important question of what is the best Jewish food. Enjoy!

Rabbi Josh discusses the political and 'spiritual' significance of freedom as we head into the end of Passover. Is there a Jewish take on freedom and what's happening in the United States under Donal Trump? How should Jewish people think about political and spiritual freedom?

Shoshana Gugenheim Kedem is a social practice artist, a soferet (Torah scribe), activist, and she also happens to be the Director of Art/Lab, our cohort program for Jewish artists. We have been working together since the inception of Co/Lab and it's been a powerful partnership. Our conversation covers Shoshana's work, her foray into the ethics of parchment making, synagogues and Jewish creativity, to name just a few subjects.

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Enjoy!

A reflection about the message of Passover and what it means right now.

My guest this week is Marc Blattner, President and CEO of Portland's Jewish Federation. How are mainstream Jewish institutions adapting to the rapid pace of change in the Jewish world? What are the limits of adaptability and flexibility as legacy Jewish institutions engage a Jewish world with shifting attitudes towards synagogues, Jewish affiliation, and.... Israel? What does it look like when an organization that is tasked with serving the whole Jewish community stretches to serve the existing Jewish community and the newer, younger, emergent community at the same time? All of these come up in the conversation with Marc. I enjoyed the conversation and I hope you do, too.

Gadi Golan is a Jewish human living in Portland Oregon. Gadi's own Jewish bio says a lot about 21st century Jewish life, and we talk about how his traditional-ish upbringing forms the background of this very modern fella. He has a fascinating tattoo on his arm, but not as fascinating as Gadi himself. Enjoy this wide-ranging conversations, plus: learn about the very best kind of matza ball!

This week's Torah portion has quite a bit to teach us about pretending. We may think of pretending as against our instinct for Judaism's love of authenticity. But let's take a closer look and fold some Kurt Vonnegut into the thing. Rabbi Josh offers a brief refleciton.

This week Rabbi Josh and Shoshana Gugenheim Kedem - the Director of Co/Lab's Art/Lab program - have a conversation with the Jewish artists who gathered at last month's Art/Lab Multicohort Retreat. What you get is Jewish artists from a variety of backgrounds, working in a variety of media - a musician, a painter, a writer, to name a few- discussing contemporary Jewish life in the world of the arts. We discuss Jewish identity in the 21st century, antisemitism, October 7th and more.

Learn more about Art/Lab at colabpdx.org/artlab. Here you can find information about artist-led workshops open tot he public that happen every month. Also - if you are an artist who is Jewish and you live in the PNW, or you know someone who fits that description, you should know that applications for our next cohort will open sometime this summer. Go to colabpdx.org/artlab to learn more about this special program.