Podcasts about audacious hospitality

The Hebrew Bible is filled with characters practicing audacious hospitality: the act of going above and beyond what is required or expected in order to make people feel welcome. Are these stories merely illustrative of a time and place that no longer exists, or can we still practice what the Bible preaches?

The rabbis are back after the High Holy Days with Yolanda Savage-Narva from the Union for Reform Judaism to talk about racial equity and inclusion. As society continues to stand up against racism in the shade of the murder of George Floyd in 2020, this week's episode asks us to be really honest with our personal approach to being anti-racist, what we mean by Audacious Hospitality, and how we can promote compassion-culture in our spaces. Reference Material and Links from the episode: Audacious Hospitality Homepage Resources for Audacious Hospitality from the URJ Ibram X. Kendi defines what it means to be an antiracist Racial Inclusivity in the Jewish Community Board of Deputies of British Jews Report on Racial Inclusivity

Today we discuss the state of Jewish of Jewish identity with April Baskin. April Baskin has been committed to opening doors and embracing diversity in the Jewish community throughout her career. Raised in Sacramento, CA, by a white Jewish mother and a black Jewish father, Baskin was immersed in Reform Jewish life from an early age, and relished opportunities in her synagogue, camp, and youth group to engage in Jewish learning and participate in social action. “I was that rare kid who not only liked, but loved Hebrew school,” she has said. As an adult, she drew on her experience as a young, multiracial Jew who had felt both inside and outside mainstream Jewish life, to consult with Jewish organizations across the country on diversity initiatives. Baskin attended Tufts University, graduating with a degree in Sociology in 2007. She served as president of the Jewish Multiracial Network from 2010 to 2013, and worked at InterfaithFamily as their Director of Resources and Training. In 2015, she joined the Union of Reform Judaism (URJ) as Vice President of Audacious Hospitality, a title that reflects the URJ’s commitment to welcoming groups of Jews who have traditionally been marginalized from institutional Jewish settings. This inaugural position, which she still held until the end of 2018, was a natural outgrowth of Baskin’s dedication to social justice, activism, and outreach and enabled her to shape programs and policies that she says “incorporate the diversity that is the reality and future of Jewish life.” April is a member of Bend the Arc’s Selah Leadership Network and has served on the leadership team of the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable since 2017.

Download Episode April Baskin,  a Jewish woman of color joined me for an Every Day Conversation on Race to share her perspectives on Judaism, race, the women’s march and social justice.   Her African-American, Native-American and White Ashkenazie Jewish background made her the person she is today, a social activist who has been instrumental in bringing people together across differences. She has had many every day conversations on race, ethnicity, religion, and economic class.   April has a very strong Jewish identity and has held several leadership positions in mainstream Jewish organizations.. Even though she was the VP of Audacious Hospitality at the Union for  Reform Judaism, she has experienced racism within the Jewish community. The false myth that all Jews are white, has sometimes led white Jews to question her Judaism, telling her she is not Jewish enough or interrogating her by asking, “How are you Jewish.” This is a question that white Jewish people are not asked, nor are they told they are not Jewish enough.   There is another false belief amongst some  more right wing  white Jewish people that there is a “special issue” of Black antisemitism. There is some antisemitism and racism in every group particularly when people don’t know each other.  Instead of getting to know individuals in any group, some people take the “easy and lazy” way out and rely on the media, one negative experience or Facebook and Twitter rumors to generalize a group. It’s a cognitive dissonance that when someone in  a group we are part of (racial, cultural, etc.) we see them as on individual but when it’s an individual from another group they represent everyone.   We also discussed her thinking that some of the claims of anti-Semitism are coming from trolls and people who don’t support equality and want to use Jewish people as scapegoats to separate us from Muslims and people of color who have also been targeted and attacked. Their strategy is to make Jewish people feel like they are being attacked by people on the progressive  side and no longer align with them.   This has been particularly problematic in the recent Women’s March, of which April is on the steering committee. In our conversation on race, April spoke about the misconception that the whole leadership of the women’s march was anti Semitic based on the relationship one of the leaders has with Minister Farrakhan who had consistently made anti-Semitic statements.     April made the compared that by saying that if a Jewish person in a synagogue makes a racist statement that doesn’t mean all Jewish people are responsible, and it would be wrong to assume that and condemn all Judaism.   It’s important for April and other Jewish women to be part of the women’s march and educate people who may not know about Judaism and what is considered offensive no matter who they are.  At the same time, it’s important for white women involved in the Women’s March to learn about racism. We need each other and the only way we can be successful and eliminate inequality is by education, experience and working together.   This is why April feels that open, honest and sometimes difficult conversations on race are crucial to stop hate and fear of people who are different.

Rabbi Leora Kaye is the Director of Programs at URJ, Union for Reform Judaism, and she joins Mallory in the MILK Studio. They discuss Anti-Semitism, parenting while Jewish, and how we can be more inclusive as Jews and as humans. As a Rabbi, Leora seeks ways to expand people's understanding of Judaism, encouraging them to approach their spiritual lives on their own terms. Leora's work experience spans the Jewish world and includes education, programming, and filmmaking. She first combined her interests in media and ethics by working on the Sundance award-winning documentary Blue Vinyl. She went on to work as the rabbinic consultant for Shalom Sesame, and has been an adviser on many other media projects. As Director of Community Engagement at Congregation Rodeph Sholom, Leora spearheaded innovative initiatives including the synagogue's groundbreaking conversion program. She also served as the Youth Director of Temple Israel in Boston and as Associate Director of Programming for Synagogue 2000. In her current position at the URJ, Leora is responsible for creative advancement of the core priorities of the Reform Movement: Tikkun Olam, Strengthening Congregations, Audacious Hospitality, and Youth. Leora graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Madison and received rabbinical ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. She lives in Brooklyn with her family, and is on twitter @LeoraKaye.

Ep. 149: April N. Baskin is the Union for Reform Judaism's Vice President of Audacious Hospitality. Before coming aboard in August 2015, she served as the national Director of Resources and Training at InterfaithFamily. Dedicated to building a stronger, more inclusive Jewish community committed to social justice, April has spent 10 years advocating for Jewish diversity inclusion locally and nationally in a variety of ways, including facilitating LGBT educational trainings as a Keshet facilitator and writing a thesis about the experiences and identities of Jewish young adults of color in American Judaism. A graduate of Tufts University, April is a member of the Selah Leadership Network and an alumna of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Foundation's Insight Fellowship and JUFJ's Jeremiah Fellowship in Washington, DC. Fueled by kale ginger smoothies, April is the immediate past President of the Jewish Multiracial Network. She conducted research on the efficacy of the Earned Income Tax Credit at the Kennedy School of Government and was an Americorps fellow for the Black Ministerial Alliance of Greater Boston. April was recently honored to be acknowledged as one of the New York Jewish Week’s 36 Under 36, received Combined Jewish Philanthropy’s Chai in the Hub award in 2015, and was named as one of 12 Faith Leaders to Watch in 2017 by the Centers for American Progress. Listen as April tells Alex about her family, her experience as a Multiracial Jewish person, and her effort to diversify and enrich Jewish life and the Jewish Community. For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: www.alexbarnettcomic.com or visit him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/alexbarnettcomic) or on Twitter at @barnettcomic To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: MULTIRACIAL FAMILY MAN PODCAST Intro and Outro Music is Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/  

April Baskin is the VP of Audacious Hospitality at the Union for Reform Judaism. As a strong activist for groups on the margin, April has been positively impacting the dialogue across communities, and she shares her own reflections on how being an interracial Jew has affected her personal and professional trajectory.

April Baskin, Vice President of Audacious Hospitality for the Union for Reform Judaism, joins Dan and Lex for an in-depth look at ideas of welcoming, empowerment, inclusion, and hospitality in contemporary Judaism. 1 We discuss how the Reform movement is working to create communities that better reflect the full diversity of the Jewish people, and the ways in which historically marginalized Jews, in particular, have so much to add Judaism, now and in the future. If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here. To access full shownotes for this episode, click here!

In this episode of On The Other Hand, Rabbi Jacobs is joined by April Baskin, URJ Vice President of Audacious Hospitality, to discuss the provocative text in Parashat B’haalot’cha when Miriam and Aaron talk behind Moses’s back about Moses marrying Tziporah, a Kushite woman.  Listen to Rabbi Jacobs and April Baskin discuss this text, whether Judaism is colorblind, and where the North American Jewish community can do better by Jews of Color.