The College Commons Podcast

Worship and prayer are at the center of Jewish life. Cantor Sacks explores how we can continue to create meaningful and transformative worship experiences through music and song.

Cantor Sacks serves as the Senior Cantor of Temple Emanuel in Denver, Colorado. Raised in New York, Cantor Sacks was ordained as a cantor in 2007 from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR). She was a recipient of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship in Jewish communal leadership and earned several awards as a cantorial student for Traditional Hazzanut, Talmud, and Midrash. Cantor Sacks holds a B.A. in Jewish Studies and Music from Harvard University where she was active in Harvard Hillel and music community service programs. From 2007-2012, Cantor Sacks served as the Associate Cantor at Central Synagogue in New York, where she focused on worship, education and young professional engagement. Cantor Sacks was also a faculty member at Mechon Hadar, an educational institute that empowers Jews to create and sustain vibrant, practicing, egalitarian communities of Torah learning, prayer, and service.

Cantor Sacks is currently the chair of the HUC-JIR Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music Alumni Association and the vice-chair of the HUC-JIR Council of Alumni. Cantor Sacks is married to Elias Sacks, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Associate Director of the Program in Jewish Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. Cantor Sacks, Eli, and their son Charlie live in Denver.

Law professor and author, Eric Segall, investigates central myths about the Supreme Court and its judges.

Eric J. Segall is Kathy and Lawrence Ashe Professor of Law at Georgia State University College of Law. Prior to his joining the College of Law faculty, he clerked for the Honorable Charles A. Moye, Jr. (1983-1985) and the Honorable Albert J. Henderson, Jr. (1985-1987), after which he engaged first in private practice with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher (1986-1987) and subsequently in public service at the United States Department of Justice (Federal Programs Branch, Civil Division, 1987-1991).

Segall is a scholar of constitutional law. He has published "Supreme Myths: Why the Supreme Court is Not a Court and Its Justices Are Not Judges" (Praeger, 2012), over thirty articles and reviews in law reviews, and numerous editorials, essays, and blog posts on pressing issues of legal and constitutional concern.

American and Israeli Jews diverge in ways fundamental to their native soil. Join Alan Cooperman in a discussion of the light it shines on the Jewish American experience.

Alan Cooperman is director of religion research at Pew Research Center. He is an expert on religion’s role in U.S. politics and has reported on religion in Russia, the Middle East and Europe. He plays a central role in planning the project’s research agenda and writing its reports. Before joining Pew Research Center, he was a national reporter and editor at The Washington Post and a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press and U.S. News & World Report. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1982 and started in journalism at the Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, Mass. He is an author of Mormons in America, Muslim Americans, the U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey, “Nones” on the Rise and A Portrait of Jewish Americans. He also was the primary editor of Global Christianity and Global Restrictions on Religion. He has appeared on numerous media outlets, including NPR, BBC, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the NewsHour, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, MSNBC and C-SPAN.

America, Islam and American Muslims have been, and continue to be, important threads in the fabric of American life. In this podcast, Dr. Hussain examines how Muslims have shaped and transformed American identity.

Dr. Amir Hussain is Professor of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where he teaches courses on world religions. His own particular speciality is the study of Islam, focusing on contemporary Muslim societies in North America. His academic degrees (BSc, MA, PhD) are all from the University of Toronto where he received a number of awards, including the university’s highest award for alumni service. In Fall 2016, he is on a fellowship to the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at the University of Southern California. From 2011 to 2015, Amir was the editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, the premier scholarly journal for the study of religion.

What defines American Jewish identity? Join Rabbi Goor in a searching discussion on politics and the pulpit.

Rabbi Donald Goor, Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Judea Tarzana, California, currently serves as Rabbinic Liaison at ARZA World Travel in Jerusalem and as Campus Rabbi at the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem. Rabbi Goor grew up in San Diego, California, as the son of a rabbi. He graduated the University of California at Berkeley with honors and distinction. In 1987, he was ordained at the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. Rabbi Goor then joined Temple Judea where he remained for 27 years serving as Senior Rabbi.

During his time in Los Angeles, Rabbi Goor served on the faculty of Hebrew Union College where he taught second and fifth year rabbinic students, addressing topics that relate to the practical aspects of being in the clergy. Rabbi Goor continues his own studies at the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem as a fellow in the Center for Rabbinic Enrichment Program.

He co-founded the HOPE Network, the Valley Interfaith Council’s Homeless Project. He has chaired the “Jewish Federation/Valley Alliance’s Jewish Community Relations Council,” and co-chaired the Jewish Federation’s “Cults and Missionaries Commission.” After completing a course of studies he received the honor of being a Fellow at the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.

In July of 2013, Rabbi Goor and his husband, Cantor Evan Kent, fulfilled a life dream and made Aliyah. In Jerusalem he serves on the boards of Shutaf, an informal education program for kids with special needs, and the David Forman Foundation for Social Justice.

As America's first female rabbi, Sally Priesand reflects on the responsibility of being first and how it has shaped her life.

Rabbi Sally Jane Priesand is America's first female rabbi ordained by a rabbinical seminary, and the second formally ordained female rabbi in Jewish history, after Regina Jonas. Priesand was ordained in 1972 by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio. After her ordination she served first as assistant and then as associate rabbi at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York City, and later led Monmouth Reform Temple in Tinton Falls, New Jersey from 1981 until her retirement in 2006.

"It’s all about relationships,” says Dr. Wolfson. From Chabad to Disney, Dr. Wolfson explores how synagogues can build stronger ties within their communities.

Ron Wolfson, Ph.D. is the Fingerhut Professor of Education in the Graduate Center for Education. He joined the AJU faculty in 1975 as an Acting Professor. During his 40-plus year career at AJU, he has served as Director of the Education Department, founding Director of the Whizin Center for the Jewish Future, Director of the Ramah Academy, Dean of the Fingerhut School of Education, Special Assistant to the President, and Vice President of the University.

Dr. Wolfson is a frequent scholar-in-residence for synagogues and communities, speaking on a wide range of topics in Jewish life, co-founder of Synagogue 3000 with Rabbi Larry Hoffman, and a pioneer in the field of Jewish family education. He is the author of fourteen books on Jewish life, including Relational Judaism: Using the Power of Relationships to Transform the Jewish Community and The Best Boy in the United States of America: A Memoir of Blessings and Kisses (both Jewish Lights imprints from Turner Publishing).

Without Jewish law, there would be no Jewish action says Rabbi Washofsky. Join this esteemed scholar as he discusses the impact of law on Jewish life and it's place within the Reform movement.

Rabbi Mark Washofsky, Ph.D. is the Solomon B. Freehof Professor of Jewish Law and Practice at HUC-JIR in Cincinnati. Dr. Washofsky has been a member of the HUC-JIR faculty since 1985, most recently serving as Professor of Rabbinics, and specializes in the literature of the Talmud and Jewish law. He received his rabbinical ordination (1980) and Ph.D. (1987) from HUC-JIR. He succeeded his teacher and mentor, Dr. Ben Zion Wacholder, z”l, as holder of the Freehof Chair on July 1, 2006. Dr. Washofsky chairs the Responsa Committee of the Central Conference of American rabbis, which was founded in 1906 by Kaufmann Kohler and empowered by its most prolific writer, Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof. His extensive publications include Jewish Living: A Guide to Contemporary Reform Practice, Revised edition (URJ Press, 2010), Reform Responsa for the Twenty-First Century (CCAR, 2010), and essays and articles on medieval halakhic literature, the application of legal theory to the study of Jewish law, Jewish bioethics, outreach and conversion, among others. The Solomon B. Freehof Professorship of Jewish Law and Practice was established in honor of Dr. Solomon B. Freehof by The Allen H. and Selma W. Berkman Charitable Trust.

Rabbi Goldstein encourages us to stretch beyond our comfort zone to become knowledgable and observant congregants.

Rabbi Elyse Goldstein graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Brandeis University in 1978 and received her Masters in Hebrew Literature and Ordination in 1983, and her Doctor of Divinity, honoris causis, in 2008. She served for twenty years as the Director of Kolel in Toronto, an adult education institute which she founded in 1991, considered a leading institution in the field of Jewish adult education. She is currently the Rabbi at City Shul, a synagogue she founded 3 years ago together with a dedicate team of lay leaders in Toronto. In those 3 years the synagogue has grown to 225 families.

She is one of seven women featured in the Canadian National Film Board documentary, “Half the Kingdom.” She is the author of ReVisions: Seeing Torah through a Feminist Lens and editor of The Women’s Torah Commentary, The Women’s Haftarah Commentary and New Jewish Feminism: Probing the Past, Forging the Future.

Rabbi Laura Geller discusses Next Stage: Temple Emanuel’s Boomers & Beyond Initiative designed to address the needs of community members fifty and above.

Rabbi Geller was the first Reform woman rabbi to be selected as the Senior Rabbi of a major metropolitan congregation. She has been recognized with numerous awards and honors, including being named one of Newsweek’s 50 Most Influential Rabbis in America for two years in a row, and receiving the California State Legislature’s Woman of the Year Award. In 2015 she was named one of the 33 most inspiring rabbis by Forward Magazine. Featured in the PBS Documentary called Jewish Americans, she is the author of many articles in journals and books, is a frequent contributor to the Huffington Post, and served on the Editorial Board of The Torah: A Woman's Commentary, in which she has two published essays. Most recently, she has spearheaded a groundbreaking new project called Next Stage: Temple Emanuel's Boomer and Beyond Initiative and she is one of the founders of ChaiVillageLA, a joint project with Temple Isaiah that received a Cutting Age Grant from the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles to help Boomers age in place.