Podcasts about rabbi abraham joshua heschel

The vast majority of work on Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel is academic:  summaries, clarification, footnotes and so on. In this series of classes, I'm here to show you how to live Heschel's religious philosophy, not understand it. In this first lecture, I show how one begins this process by first gathering three philosophies: 1) Schleiermacher, 2) Pragmatism, and 3) Phenomenology. With these basics, one is ready to identify what connecting to God looks like, whether you've ever done it yourself, and how it creates and informs Judaism.

Dartmouth Professor Susannah Heschel reflects on how her father, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and his friend Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would publicly navigate this crisis moment of renewed violence in Gaza.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.

Bishop Joseph Bambera marks the launch of a groundbreaking Catholic-Jewish initiative - Translate Hate: The Catholic Edition - with a wide-ranging interview with AJC's People of the Pod. At a time when recent events have challenged Catholic-Jewish relations, Bambera, the Chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee (USCCB) on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, details why the church has made combating antisemitism a priority.  Translate Hate: The Catholic Edition, a joint project of AJC and the USCCB, features Catholic commentary on various entries of AJC's renowned Translate Hate glossary of antisemitic terms, themes, and memes. It comes as Catholic and Jewish communities prepare to mark six decades of trust-building and mutual learning beginning when the Catholic Church reached out to the Jewish people and the world with Nostra Aetate, the historic Second Vatican Council document disseminated on October 28, 1965, which dramatically and publicly decried antisemitism and transformed the Church's approach to the Jewish people for the better.Resources: New Glossary Breaks Ground in Tackling Antisemitism Through a Catholic Lens Listen – AJC Podcasts: The Forgotten Exodus: with Hen Mazzig, Einat Admony, and more. People of the Pod:  Bernard-Henri Lévy and AJC CEO Ted Deutch on How to Build a Resilient Jewish Future Post-October 7 What's Next for the Abraham Accords Under President Trump? The ICC Issues Arrest Warrants: What You Need to Know Follow People of the Pod on your favorite podcast app, and learn more at AJC.org/PeopleofthePod You can reach us at: peopleofthepod@ajc.org If you've appreciated this episode, please be sure to tell your friends, and rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. __ Transcript of Conversation with Bishop Bambera: Manya Brachear Pashman:   Nearly 60 years ago, the Roman Catholic Church issued a declaration called Nostra Aetate, a groundbreaking document that, among other things, aimed to heal the Church's strained relationship with the Jewish community at large. But over the past year, since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, there have been some tense moments: a call from Pope Francis to investigate whether Israel is committing genocide, a photograph of the Pope before a Nativity scene–featuring a keffiyeh. Now AJC and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops have unveiled Translate Hate: the Catholic edition, the glossary of antisemitic terms, tropes and memes, originally published in 2019, also features Catholic commentaries to explain why the church has made combating antisemitism a priority. Here to talk about this partnership is Bishop Joseph Bambera, Chairman of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Ecumenical and interreligious affairs. Bishop, welcome. Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera:   Thank you for the honor of being with you today. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Bishop Bambera, please walk us through the Catholic edition of Translate Hate and how the Catholic Church became involved in this initiative together with the Jewish community. Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera:   I think the best way to walk us through the Translate Hate Catholic edition is to first take us back to 1965 and the Second Vatican Council and the declaration on the church's relationship with non-Christian religions, and particularly with the Jewish community. There was this really milestone declaration Nostra Aetate that I think many of us would be familiar with, and that really speaks about our relationship as it stands today. A relationship that I would say. tragically prior to the Second Vatican Council was not what it should have been. And on the heels of the Council, for almost 60 years, an anniversary that we'll celebrate next year, we have grown together in mutual respect and understanding.  That particular declaration Nostra aetate speaks very, very clearly about the fact that Catholics and Jews really share a common patrimony. We Catholics, our roots are in Judaism. Jesus was Jewish. His family was. And so many members of the early church were as well. And we recognize and affirm in that document the fact that the Jewish people were the first to hear the Word of God and are a part of a covenant relationship that certainly has not been in any way broken, but has been maintained. And something that we affirm and that we teach in that document. A very important thing, from my perspective. And as well, the document reminds all those who would be familiar with it, and certainly who should be, if they are not, of the importance of us coming to a deeper sense of mutual respect and understanding. Of decrying any sense of hatred, persecution, or antisemitic efforts on the part of individuals that really have been such a burden to the Jewish people. So that particular document really laid the groundwork, for the very simple fact that I am here today and a part of this initiative.  But to fast forward a bit, the reality of antisemitism, as you know better than I, it has hardly diminished, and sadly, has intensified in recent years. And well before October 7 of 2023. So much so that the bishops of the United States, many of them, brought to the attention of the committee that I chair, the Bishops Committee for Humanism and Interreligious Affairs, have brought to our attention the fact that we need to begin to do something in a more concrete way. To walk more intimately and closely and lovingly with our Jewish brothers and sisters and to address the reality of antisemitism in a very real and concrete manner.  And so in 2022 this committee that I just referenced, they issued a document that they shared with all of the bishops. It's called the Fruits of Dialogues: Catholics Confronting Antisemitism. And in many respects, I would say that that particular document was the impetus for this initiative that we are a part of today, the Translate Hate Catholic Edition, hopefully it's been the impetus for other efforts on the part of many bishops in their own particular dioceses and archdiocese to work with their Jewish partners, to help to eradicate this, or certainly to address it in a way that is hope filled.  So this document has been in the works now for quite a while particularly with the leadership of the Bishop's Committee and the American Jewish Committee as well. What you will find is building upon the antisemitic themes and tropes that were placed in the document when the American Jewish Committee put it together; we have provided commentary on a number of them from a Catholic perspective. So you know, if you look at the notion of deicide, the commentary that we provide there offers very clear Catholic theological teaching on the fact that that whole reality is certainly not something that we would ever intend to insinuate today is the responsibility of all of the Jewish people. In the midst of these commentaries, we offer current theological teaching. We offer teaching on human dignity, which is so much a part of our tradition and our hope and prayer for humankind, and we acknowledge, as well, in some of those commentaries, the fact that, you know, some members of the Church throughout history have been insensitive and inappropriately offered, and perhaps even negligently offered, words and actions that led to antisemitic efforts, sadly on the part of so many. Manya Brachear Pashman:   So what is the expectation? This document is going out. How are you expecting or wanting parishes and pastors to implement it? Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera:   Given the fact that it the document that the Bishops Committee came out with in 2022 was really at the initiative of many bishops in the United States, I would like to believe and think that the vast majority of our bishops will embrace this and use it in whatever way speaks to the situation within their own territory, their own region, relative to the Jewish community there. So for example, once this is officially promulgated today, later on in the day, we will be releasing from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on our bishops-only website.  We will be releasing a letter from me as the chair of this committee, and the document, and that will be followed up with a hard copy that will be sent to every bishop in the near future, following the online version that they'll receive today. We anticipate that this will be used by other committees that might have some relationship to the work that our committee does, and the hope that they would use them. We will be disseminating it to ecumenical officers who are appointed in every one of our dioceses to do the work of ecumenism and interreligious affairs folks.  Manya Brachear Pashman:   You mentioned Nostra Atate. In 1965 you were just a child then. And I should also mention AJC played a leading role in those conversations, as well with Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. You were ordained 20 years later. And I'm just curious if this major turning point in Catholic Jewish relations, did it come up in your theology training, or 20 years later, was it just accepted as the norm? Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera:   You know, I will be frank with you, the term that you used in asking the question was, did it come up? Yes, it did. It did. But given the scope of issues that would be necessary to prepare a man for ministry in the church as a priest in the seminary, it was one of many things that everything rose to the level of being absolutely vital, all right, to our preparation. So this was but it took its place in a whole line of other things that were just as vital.  So maybe the best way to answer your question was, you know, a great deal of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council was integrated into many of the theology courses that I would have taken, all right, and the same would go for something like Nostra Atate. All right. We were, I was certainly familiar with it. All right. It was certainly something that was communicated as a very significant teaching, a milestone moment in our church, a clear refocusing of our relationship with the Jewish community. Prior to that, there were no relationships officially. So it was put before us as something that was vital to consider. But I would not be honest in wanting to suggest that in some way it was a major focus. It was one of many. Manya Brachear Pashman:   I do want to fast forward and talk about today. Of course, Catholic Jewish relations are quite complicated now, especially given the Israel Hamas war, I imagine educating inspiring your flock on the moral complexities of that war, while also rallying the faithful to combat the rise of antisemitism against Israel and the Jewish Diaspora at large is very complicated, and there have been some tense moments. Recently, a letter from Pope Francis, one year after the October 7 terror attacks, included a couple kind of eerily iconic phrases from John 8:44, a verse that's long been understood as a fundamental, eternal indictment of the entire Jewish people. He was even cited by the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter. A lot of Jews are irate that the Pope has called for an investigation into whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. And most recently, some people were upset that the nativity scene at the Vatican featured a baby Jesus resting in a manger draped with a keffiyeh, Palestinian national symbol, and I know that has since been removed from that scene. But how do you talk about all of these moments with your Jewish friends, friends like the Hollanders, when they arise? Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera:   First of all, the concern that you share in that question, maybe the hurt or the confusion that some of these things have caused. It's rather palpable. I spoke about it just coming into the studio today with Rabbi Marans. I would first say that the very fact that in this exchange that we are having here today, on a day that is a real positive step. I believe in Catholic Jewish relations with the promulgation of the Translate Hate Catholic Edition, I would say it's a testimony to the relationship that we have developed. And I want to thank you for that. I want to thank you for the question, you know, they're, not easy questions to address, but they are of great concern to you and so many others. And you, on behalf of your people, have a responsibility to ask me that question, and I need to say to you that my presence here today is meant to speak a word of encouragement regarding our relationship. It is one that is deeply valued. I treasure it. I'm grateful for it. I am honored to be here today.  Now with that, let me, let me speak a little bit more directly to the question and how these types of things are addressed. I look at the work that I have done in ecumenism and interreligious affairs, and I've been privileged to be chairman of this committee for a term now, for three years. I was previously back in 2017 elected chairman of this very same committee. So I've been at the helm of it twice now, and I've learned so much, so much from Christian partners, so much from our Jewish partners. One of the things that I have learned in the midst of the work that I have done with ecumenism is that I can't create a false sense of unity and harmony. For us to journey together in a positive way, I need to hear what you have to say, and I need to receive it, and I can't say something that is contrary to where my church is.  Now, another dimension of the dialogue work that I have learned relates to listening. How do we listen to what we hear about this relationship? What are we hearing when we read something about Pope Francis? How is that speaking to our hearts? What is it saying to this relationship? I hear from you hurt. I hear from you confusion. I said that a moment ago. For me, and perhaps this is the best thing that I can say, and I would say it across all three areas or topics that you raised in your question, I would say this much. I can't speak for Pope Francis. But what I can do is reflect to you what I hear from him and what I have heard from him throughout his 11 years as Pope. I have heard from him very, very early on, and you're all familiar with this quote that he offered to a Jewish interreligious organization way back, I think, in 2013 or 14, shortly after he was elected Pope, that a true Christian cannot be an antisemite. That's something that I would affirm, and that's something that I have never heard him go back on.  I have heard him embrace better than probably I have heard prior to his election, a deep commitment to the documents of Vatican Council, Vatican Two, and particularly, a deep commitment to the tenets of Nostra Aetate. The other thing that I've heard from Pope Francis, and perhaps this speaks to some of the struggle that you raise that in the face of terrorism and war and the loss of innocent lives, of Jewish lives that were lost in 2023 and of countless other lives that are lost throughout our world in the midst of war. I hear him speak over and over again about human dignity, the value of life and the reason for why we treasure life, and that's rooted in a common scripture that we both cherish, in the first book of the Torah, Genesis, the first chapter. In the image of God man was created, in the image and likeness of God. I think that that speaks for me to this moment.  It does not take away, and I would not imagine that for a moment some of the struggle that you experience, but that's what I hear when I look at his papacy. I also look at some more personal dimensions of it. And I know that his experience as the archbishop of Buenos Aires was an experience that found him deeply connected to the Jewish community, particularly to a close friend of his, whom I've been privileged to meet, Rabbi Abraham Skorka. So I share these things with you in response to your observation. And by the same token, I would say to you that we have miles to go before we achieve the end for which we are about here today. Manya Brachear Pashman:   In this moment, Bishop, do you believe that Translate Hate, specifically this new Catholic edition has particular value in this, in this moment that we talked about, where the relationship can get complicated? Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera:   I think, in any moment in time when there is suffering because of hatred, because of an antisemitic perspective that so many people so horrifically bring to life, I think this particular initiative is vital, and I think today more than ever, we have recognized it in our church, the sufferings of our Jewish brothers and sisters. We have recognized it globally. We have recognized it in our country, and we experience it in in my community, Scranton, relatively, you know, small city of about 100,000 people, you know, we it's sadly, it's sadly everywhere. I believe this moment is a bit of a clarion call for all of us to walk a little bit more authentically and closely with our Jewish brothers and sisters. It's one thing to have issued a document 60 years ago. You can forget the intensity and the significance that document was and meant 60 years ago, 50 years ago, maybe even 40 years ago. But as time goes on and generations pass, we sometimes need to refocus our attention, don't we? And we need to recognize the fact that as our society, becomes more secularized, we can't possibly circle the wagons to just preserve what we have. Every one of our congregations, many of yours and many of mine, are diminishing in terms of numbers since the pandemic, but also before that as well. And I think sadly, what you see in many congregations is this sense of trying to preserve what one has and therefore excluding others. Not just, I certainly don't necessarily mean from being in a church or a synagogue or temple, but I mean excluding from life by one's attitudes and one's actions and one's words. And I think we are, at this moment, really at risk of losing a sense of what we learn and how we grow from dialogue.  I'm here to tell you today that I am so much richer personally because of this opportunity that I have been given to be a part of this initiative, frankly, to even prepare for today. It's just been a wonderful experience for me that has really re-energized me. This wonderful mission. But it's also reminded me of how much people who are involved in in faith traditions, in a leadership position, can be somewhat academically connected to something. It's it's got to be translated to the heart, and I hope that that's what happens here. Manya Brachear Pashman:   I mentioned that you were just a child when Nostra Aetate came about. Can you tell us a little bit about your upbringing and when you heard the calling to seek ordination and become a priest? Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera:   I grew up in a Catholic family. I didn't have a lot of Jewish friends. There weren't a lot of Jewish people living in our community, although I did develop friends as as I went off to college. Okay, when I when I got the call to be a become a priest. I was actually at the University of Pittsburgh with every intention of becoming a dentist. It was kind of the family business, okay? And and I got involved in an ecumenical Christian campus ministry program. But, you know, it was just an experience that really called me to develop a deeper sense of authenticity, I think, in my faith journey, and, and, and so that's what ultimately prompted me to go into the seminary and become a priest. Did you grow up in Pittsburgh? I grew up in Scranton, where I serve as bishop, which is very unusual. So I my mom, who, at 97 still lives nearby. We I've spent my entire ministry in the Diocese of Scranton, and 15 years ago was appointed Bishop. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Wow, wow. That that is indeed rare, and that is indeed rare. So you get to see the parish in which you you grew up. Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera:   I do. I do, yeah. And I've journeyed with this community, there's, there's pluses and minuses to something like that. You know, sometimes people say, What's the best thing about being bishop in your home diocese? I say, you know people, and they know you and and what's the most challenging thing? You know people and they know you. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Well, Bishop, thank you so much for sharing what the church's teaching now and how it's collaborating with AJC to build bridges and educate your flock. Thank you so much, and thank you for joining us. Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera:   It's been a real pleasure.

It's easy to get swept away with the mundane of existing. You get up, brush your teeth, eat breakfast, go to work, eat lunch, come home, brush your teeth, go to sleep... Sound familiar? How can any of it mean anything? There is nothing special about this. After all, this is what it means to be an adult, right? Rabbi Alex Kress works day in and day out to operate differently than the notion above. The idea that life is grey is an unrelatable idea as Rabbi Kress takes the principals of radical amazement by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and applies to literally EVERY moment of his life. Chaz Volk, host of Bad Jew, learns from Rabbi Kress how to make every second radically amazing! 00:00 Introduction 04:53 Fostering gratitude and radical amazement 08:31 Having a structured life can be detrimental 10:57 Preconceived knowledge 15:38 Be grateful for what you have 16:28 God-centered transformation 19:37 Don't take things for granted 24:21 Seeking God 26:42 Transforming chores 31:19 Reflection, contemplation, and ethical change 32:47 Practical advice About Rabbi Alex Kress: Rabbi Alex is a born and raised Philadelphian. In 2012, he graduated from Temple University with a Bachelor of Arts in Jewish Studies and immediately flew to Israel to begin his studies at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Rabbi Alex loves good coffee, shabbos ball, and reading an actual, physical newspaper.  Rabbi Alex's life was changed when his parents sent him to Camp Harlam in 2002. It was the first domino in a series that led him to the rabbinate. He became involved in NFTY PAR, traveled with NFTY in Israel and NFTY EIE, and then studied abroad at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. That semester in the spring of 2010 definitively set Rabbi Alex's course for the rabbinate.  Connect with Rabbi Alex Kress: www.AlexKress.com Connect with Bad Jew: BadJew.co https://linktr.ee/badjew BadJewPod@gmail.com Ig @BadJewPod TikTok @BadJewPod

From Marco Rubio to Elise Stefanik: who are the nominations that President-elect Trump has announced, and what does their selection say about how the administration may take shape? Julie Fishman Rayman, AJC Managing Director of Policy and Political Affairs reviews the names announced thus far, how, if confirmed, they could impact efforts to counter antisemitism, support Israel, and uphold democratic values, and how AJC is advocating to advance these critical issues.  Listen – AJC Podcasts: The Forgotten Exodus: with Hen Mazzig, Einat Admony, and more. People of the Pod:  What the Election Results Mean for Israel and the Jewish People The Jewish Vote in Pennsylvania: What You Need to Know Sinwar Eliminated: What Does This Mean for the 101 Hostages Still Held by Hamas? Go Deeper – AJC Analysis: Explainer: What to Know About President-elect Trump on Antisemitism, Israel, and Iran Policy AJC Briefing — Post-Election Analysis: What to Expect Under the New U.S. Administration | Tuesday, November 19 | 1:30 p.m. Eastern | Register Here Follow People of the Pod on your favorite podcast app, and learn more at AJC.org/PeopleofthePod You can reach us at: peopleofthepod@ajc.org If you've appreciated this episode, please be sure to tell your friends, and rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Transcript of Conversation with Julie Fishman Rayman: Manya Brachear Pashman:   President Elect Donald Trump has named and nominated eight of the 24 officials, including his chief of staff, most of whom would make up his cabinet. Returning to discuss the nominees so far and where they stand on AJC missions of fighting antisemitism, defending Israel and safeguarding democracy, is AJC Managing Director of Policy and Political Affairs, Julie Fishman Rayman. Julie, welcome back to People of the Pod. Julie Fishman Rayman:   Thanks for having me, Manya, glad to be here. Manya Brachear Pashman:   So you have worked with some of these nominees, and you know their track record on these issues. First of all, from a 30,000-40,000 foot view, what is your overall take on the slate so far? Julie Fishman Rayman:   I feel like if you had asked me that yesterday, I would have had a totally different answer. And so I imagine even by the time People of the {od airs, my answer maybe would have even changed, so I will answer, but I want everyone, including our listeners, to take it with a grain of salt that I am speaking from a very specific moment in tim while the clock is rapidly changing and the situation is rapidly changing. So I think the initial slate of potential nominees that were announced gave a lot of folks, especially in sort of the foreign policy world, a good deal of comfort, right?  So people like Representative Mike Waltz, people like Senator Marco Rubio, those types of folks. Even Governor Huckabee, are sort of these, these names of traditional conservatives who we say, Oh, they have a record. They have governed. They have a voting record. We know exactly where they stand and what they believe, and that it's not vastly dissimilar from any other previous Republican administration.  Then, of course, there was the news about the potential coming in of Matt Gaetz, representative, Matt Gaetz, a Republican from Florida and Tulsi Gabbard. And I think those names and what they represent put everyone in a bit of a tailspin. Not simply because of who they are, although they come with a lot of really interesting backstory that we can unpack, if you want to, but not just because of who they are, but because they represent a really different part of the Republican Party. A really different part of the right wing world view that had not theretofore been represented in Trump's cabinet picks, definitely less of the traditional conservative mindset and much more in line with a, dare I say, like populist kind of perspective. And so there's tension now that people are trying to sort of understand and unravel. Manya Brachear Pashman:   So let's talk about each individual. And you mentioned Marco Rubio, who is Trump's nominee for Secretary of State, the Florida Senator. He currently serves on the Foreign Relations Committee. He's the top Republican on the Intelligence Committee. And I mean, he and the President Elect seem to agree on America's approach to Iran and Ukraine, but not NATO, right? I mean, where do he and Mr. Trump agree and disagree? Julie Fishman Rayman:   You're asking a question as though we have a full sense of what incoming president, former President Trump believes, which I think is a bit of an assumption. They're certainly deeply aligned on sort of big picture principles as they relate to support for Israel, no question. A tough, tough approach to whether it's an actor like Iran or China, you know, sort of these nefarious global players that seek to disrupt our world order, they're aligned there. There is a potential disconnect on Ukraine. Right? We've heard statements from Senator Rubio recently where you almost see him trying to channel the former president, the president-elect, and say, like, what would Trump say? What would Trump do?  You can like, see the wheels spinning in his mind as he talks about how we have been funding a stalemate and how something needs to change. But I'm not sure that if you put them both in a room and ask them blindfolded, apart from each other, what to do about Ukraine, if you would get the same answer, I think there would probably be a good deal of daylight.  And I think the same could be said about the future of NATO and others. But it all remains to be seen. And then, of course, also will have to be balanced with other forces that are coming into the administration, not least of which Senator JD Vance, colleague of Marco Rubio, who definitely comes with a different sort of world view. Manya Brachear Pashman:   And next on the list, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik of New York, she has been nominated for the role of UN ambassador. We kind of know her as an outspoken supporter of Israel, given her high profile role in the congressional hearings about anti-Israel protests on college campuses after the Hamas terror attacks on October 7. Those hearings actually led to the resignation of a couple of university presidents. How do you foresee that outspoken support playing out in the UN arena, or maybe even in the Trump administration's approach to higher education? Julie Fishman Rayman:   In terms of the UN and antisemitism, there will be a lot of very vocal, very strident affirmations that antisemitism is not something that the US will abide. That same sort of force that Congresswoman Stefanik brought to the Education Committee, she will bring to the UN and she won't take any bones about it, and she's not going to sit down to anybody.  Of that we can be sure what that looks like, though, beyond pontification, beyond promulgations of support for the Jewish community across the globe, remains to be seen. Right? How will she engage in a UN that she certainly will perceive to be at least biased towards Israel and possibly antisemitic at its core. Right? We can make that assumption on her world view.  How will she seek to engage with a system that she presumably views as fundamentally flawed? We know that a Republican House and Senate are already sort of gearing up towards cutting funding of major UN institutions, if not the UN across the board. So what does that mean for her role? What does that mean for the voice that the United States will have and the ability for her very strong voice, to even be at the table, and that's sort of where some of that tension arrives is also, do you get in the room? Do you get the seat at the table? Or are you on the menu? Right? The United States is never going to be on the menu, but are we going to, by virtue of our own sort of principles, going to push our seat back in and stand in the hallway. There's a lot of calculi that she's going to have to make there. In terms of the Department of Education and Congress and how they're dealing with these really important issues that that Congresswoman Stefanik has put at the fore for so long, there's no question that the threat of pulling federal funding that we've heard from the Biden administration repeatedly will be more believed under a future Trump administration. I think there are universities all over the country that already are saying, oh, like, what do we have to do? We don't want to get caught in these crosshairs. What do we need to do to make sure that we are not either under fire with the light shining on us or on the chopping block for federal funding?  So if you're an educational institution that really believes that there is a true threat that you're to your federal funding, you're reconsidering a lot of steps. And if in fact, federal funding is leveraged or cut, I think we have to be really mindful of three things. One, we have to make sure that it doesn't look as though the Jews are behind this crushing blow, because that's scapegoating. And we have to make sure that shuttering these major academic institutions doesn't foreclose the creation, the necessary creation, of future American doctors and engineers and others. And finally, we have to make sure that we're not creating a void in funding that could really easily be filled by foreign actors that are already known to use university funding to advance a particular ideology, to advance their own interests. Manya Brachear Pashman:   I want to go back to another name you mentioned at the top, and that is the Florida congressman, Michael Waltz. He has been named as National Security Advisor to head up the National Security Council, and he has been a huge champion of the Abraham accords. So what can we expect to see from him if he indeed does take this post. Julie Fishman Rayman:   So one of the things that I think is really interesting about, you know, looking back on the last trump administration, while we sort of forecast for the next, is that the National Security Council, this body that Mike Waltz will lead, was always the brain trust for him in the previous administration. Of course, there was the State Department. It was filled, it was supported. But generally, I think he thought of the State Department as a place of a foreign policy bureaucracy, where passports got stamped, that kind of, step by step, day by day, keeping the wheels turning, but not where real change happened.  So if we're, you know, we're talking about Marco Rubio at State, we're talking about Mike Waltz as National Security Advisor, I think we really need to sort of dig into what's Waltz gonna bring. And of course, like, as you said, Manya deeply supportive of Abraham Accords, very hawkish when it comes to China, and very, very embedded in the military establishment himself, right? He's not the DoD pick, but he's a Green Beret vet. He served in Afghanistan, he served in the Middle East. He served in Africa. In addition to being on the foreign affairs committee and Congress, he was on the Armed Services Committee and the Intelligence Committee, if there are, if there's a trifecta of committees that someone could serve on to be as informed and at sort of the pinnacle of information about what's going on in this world, it's those three committees. Ukraine is the big question mark here. He's criticized aid to Ukraine, and has talked about getting Putin to the negotiating table, getting a diplomatic solution, or some sort of settlement to this war. And that I think remains this major looming question for a lot of folks about, as we're looking at these various picks whose voice is going to win here. Or, you know, if we're channeling the last Trump administration again, who's going to be the last person in his ear before he goes and makes a major announcement. Manya Brachear Pashman:   You mentioned DoD. Let's talk about President Elect Trump's DoD pick. Fox News anchor Pete hegseth, he is a retired US Army Major. He served in Iraq and Afghanistan, but a surprising pick to head the Department of Defense.  Julie Fishman Rayman:   It's interesting that you asked that question, because I think for folks who just think of him as a, you know, the guy on the Fox News couch, everyone who I've talked to who really knows Pete Hegseth and really is engaged with him for a long time, they they're not surprised, and they say, Oh, that does make sense. I don't know how much we can anticipate his fox views translating into a DoD cabinet pick. I don't really know how to manage that, right? He's talked about, like the Joint Chiefs, for example, in sort of a disparaging way.  So, he's definitely one of these picks that you know shows the future President's desire to be at the vanguard, right? He wants to shake things up. He wants to keep people on their toes.  Manya Brachear Pashman:   Okay, so now let's move on to some of the names you mentioned that are curious, curious choice. Other curious choices. Former Hawaiian Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, she has been nominated to serve as Trump's chief intelligence advisor, the Director of National Intelligence. That would mean she would be responsible for overseeing 18 spy agencies and keeping the President informed of the nation's international intelligence as anti semitism rises around the world, incidents like what we saw in Amsterdam this past weekend continue to flare up. Do you foresee her prioritizing that kind of news for the president elect? Julie Fishman Rayman:   This is a position that has to be confirmed by the Senate, and it's not, I think, a slam dunk in a lot of ways. She's not always been a Republican. She certainly hasn't always been a Trumpist Republican. She had a major leadership role in the Democratic Party for quite some time. She was the vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, and not rank and file, she resigned from that position to endorse Bernie Sanders in 2016 she supported the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the Iran deal that many Democrats broke with the administration to oppose that. AJC opposed, I think that there's a lot of baggage that she brings, and not personal baggage, but policy baggage that might make it very, very difficult for her to make the step through that confirmation process, and someone very smart said that'll be the test. Maybe I'll give him credit. Josh Kraushauer, the editor of Jewish insider, said this will be the test for how Senate leadership is going to respond to the calls from President Trump. You know, if they're able to just sort of if Senator Thune, in this new role that he has just received is able to push through the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard, then we can expect a lot of confirmations legislation Trump desires to move through the Senate. If she gets a little bit held up. If it's not as easy, then we can anticipate just a little bit more gridlock, as much gridlock as one could expect from one party control of the House, Senate and the White House. But a little bit more of a pushback. It'll be a real test. Manya Brachear Pashman:   She is nominated to be his chief intelligence advisor, and yet she has posted blatantly false propaganda on her social media channels. And people know that, people have called her out for that. Is that concerning? Julie Fishman Rayman:   I think it's deeply concerning whenever anyone puts out blatantly false propaganda, particularly that which emanates from Russia, that is problematic at any level of elected official, appointed official, period. We need to constantly, as a society and as a nation, be on fierce guard against that, because it is real and it is pervasive. I anticipate that, you know, when the confirmation hearings are up, there's going to be a lot of questions about, you know, what has she posted, where is she getting her information, and from whom does she rely on for real, authoritative information that is truthful? Manya Brachear Pashman:   So another name that you mentioned at the top of the conversation, and that is Congressman, well now former Congressman Matt Gaetz from Florida, since he resigned immediately after his nomination for attorney general. He was one of, I think, 21 republicans who voted against the Antisemitism Awareness Act in May, saying he couldn't support a definition of antisemitism that labeled claims of Jews killing Jesus as antisemitic. I think Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel might have had some choice words for him, if he is indeed, if he indeed progresses through this process toward Attorney General, what could we see from him? What can we see, period, of this whole process? Julie Fishman Rayman:   So first off, I just, I want to speak a little bit about it was sort of him in his record, because I think that it's important for our community to to be refreshed about exactly who Matt Gaetz is it there were a number of Republicans who voted against the Antisemitism Awareness Act because they did not think that it was appropriate for there to be a law that says the Jews didn't kill Jesus. This is, of course, like a sort of gross mischaracterization of what the international Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of anti semitism says and purports to do. But he wasn't alone. And it was, it was very interesting to see how this, this sort of trope that I think a lot of us thought was over about the Jews killing Jesus. You know, Nostra Aetate was in the 70s, right? So we thought that this was done and behind us. But to hear, particularly from the evangelical set, that, okay, like, maybe the Jews didn't kill Jesus, or maybe they did.  He also invited a Holocaust denier and a white supremacist to be his guest at the State of the Union later, he said, like, Oh, I didn't really know. But either he got terrible staffing or he knew, and he just didn't want to get caught. He's deeply, deeply scandal ridden, without question. And he, you know, is constantly defending Marjorie Taylor Green, who, you know, compared the COVID mask laws to, you know, the Holocaust and things like that. He called the ADL racist. He is not representative of any stream, really, within the Republican Party. He is emblematic of the most populist of the populace, the most MAGA of the MAGA. So we should remember who he is, first and foremost.  Beyond that, I cannot imagine an America that would confirm him as Attorney General. I'm a congressist by heart. I believe that Congress does the right things, if given enough time to do so, and I cannot believe that they'll let this one go through. So forgive my rant. I think it needs to be said about him. But in terms of, you know, who are we watching, and what do we think is going to happen in the long term? I don't think there's a long term there. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Let's talk about another pick, and that is his pick for Homeland Security, who I don't think is so outlandish, and that is South Dakota Governor Christie gnomes. She could play a really vital role in his immigration the proposal that he's made for the immigration system. She has been a strong ally of AJC in the past.  Julie Fishman Rayman:   Yes, she has. When she signed North South Dakota's bill, um on the international Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, working definition of antisemitism, when she signed into law, AJC was there. She's been outspoken about anti semitism, and has consistently, sort of done, she's done the right things there. That being said, South Dakota has a very small Jewish population. So it's not, the same as if she were the governor of New York or Florida or even California that has major Jewish populations that are constantly calling with various, you know, security needs or something like that. So she's been there when she's needed to be there. Manya Brachear Pashman:   And I know South Dakota is not a border state, but didn't she send army reserves to the border to help Texas Governor Greg Abbott, at one point? Julie Fishman Rayman:   She has. A lot of Republican governors sort of backed Abbott in that way. I think that her crew in the governors, in the Republican Governors Association, etc, will be much aligned with the incoming administration. And of course, you know, that's why she's picked. Manya Brachear Pashman:   We also have the choice of John Ratliff, who Trump has named as a potential CIA director. And you know, technically, CIA director is the person who's nominated as head of intelligence is the CIA director's boss, and so he was the former director or chief intelligence advisor. So in a way, it's kind of a demotion. However, what I've read is President elect Trump believes that the CIA director is actually more important. So what are we looking at here? Are we looking at a smoother confirmation process for the CIA director, perhaps, and are we looking at kind of an elevation of that job?  Julie Fishman Rayman:   I think we can probably assume it's an elevation, and in the same way that we talked about the previous Trump administration prioritizing the National Security Council almost above the State Department, I think we'll see that sort of shift in alignment, the CIA being sort of the new center of gravity, if it wasn't already within the the intelligence community. So I think that we probably will see him playing a much more dominant role. That being said, I think America has always held this deep fascination with CIA directors, FBI directors. They always, because of the really interesting and critical roles they play, they always sort of punch above their weight in terms of, you know, how much are they on TV? How much are people watching what they're saying and what they're doing? So I think that we can absolutely anticipate that. And you know, he has some skeletons in his closet, but I don't think that there's anything that will prohibit or impede his nomination for that role. Manya Brachear Pashman:   And as a religion reporter, I found the naming of former Governor Mike Huckabee as the ambassador, a potential ambassador to Israel, to be very interesting, given that he is an evangelical Christian, a Baptist pastor. Aren't too many non-Jewish ambassadors to Israel. There have been some, but not too many. And I thought that this was a really interesting selection. What can we see or expect to see from that choice? Julie Fishman Rayman:   You know, part of me kind of loves this for America. I think there's, Governor Huckabee has always been a stalwart supporter of Israel, without question, deeply, deeply supportive. There are questions about, what is he going to do with regard to like, the question of settlements or annexation and things like that. And and I think we're going to have to be watching that very, very closely.  But if we're looking sort of at the macro level, the issue of Israel and America has become so polarized and in some ways so toxic, that this reminder that it's not just the Jews that care about Israel, I think, couldn't come at a better time.  I do think that it's really interesting to now have someone going to sit at the embassy that President Trump moved to Jerusalem, who is not representing the Jewish community there, but representing the massive Evangelical community in the United States and even frankly, around the world. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Well, Julie, thank you so much for sharing your perspectives. As these names keep trickling out each day, many things are said, some important, some not so important. So I'm glad I appreciate you kind of focusing our audience on what matters to AJC, what matters to the Jewish community and for those who support Israel. So thank you so much.  Julie Fishman Rayman:   It's been my pleasure and many and if I can just say, as we conclude that the personalities take up a lot of space, they take up a lot of oxygen. But for AJC, we're always singularly focused on the policies, and we'll continue doing what we've been doing already for months, and that's reaching everyone who will have influence in this next administration, to advance our policy perspective, to share our agenda and to talk about what we think needs to form the policy priorities of the next administration.  Manya Brachear Pashman:   Thank you so much, Julie. Julie Fishman Rayman:   Thank you.  

Send us a Text Message.Facing the tempest of media bias and the elusive quest for true free speech, I, Darrell McClain, step up to the mic with a critique that cuts through the noise. Public figures like Bill Maher often stand in the spotlight, wielding influence with a possible disconnect between their words and actions. Ever wondered why certain debates, especially around hot-button issues like anti-Semitism and racism, quickly shut down dialogue? This episode peels back the layers of these complex conversations, examining the evolution of protests from the 60s to the realm of TikTok and the role that traditional news sources, such as CNN, play in shaping our perceptions.The echo chambers that form on platforms akin to Maher's are put under the microscope, as we entertain the idea of enlivening discussions by inviting diverse voices to the table. Special guests Scott Galloway and viewpoints from Don Lemon contribute to an examination of today's debates, including the contentious Israel-Palestine conflict. We scrutinize the need for intellectually honest discourse and ponder the effects a singular narrative holds over generations and mainstream discussions. This is about disrupting the status quo of public discourse and welcoming the challenging, the diverse, and the thought-provoking.In a world brimming with global tensions, the United States' foreign policy maneuvers are dissected with a critical eye, delving into the complex interplay of religion and politics. The skepticism many hold towards government narratives, from the 9/11 attacks to the moon landing, is addressed head-on. We also draw from personal experiences in the justice system and societal integration, tapping into the wisdom of icons like Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and Malcolm X. As we navigate these discussions, the aim is not only to challenge perceptions but to encourage a dialogue that is as reflective as it is robust, questioning the very fabric of truth in our society. Support the Show.

After Oklahoma voters decisively passed State Question 802 in 2020, mandating expansion of Oklahoma's Medicaid coverage to low-income citizens similar to the Affordable Care Act, Governor Kevin Stitt has worked to privatize the joint federal and state run healthcare program. As SoonerCare transitions to SoonerSelect, on April 1, 2024, the program will be operated by three private companies; Aetna Better Health of Oklahoma, Humana Healthy Horizons, and Oklahoma Complete Health. As of March 10th, the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, or OCHA, began auto-assigning members who had not selected their new plans. Shonda Little speaks with Jared Deck, State Representative for House District 44 in Norman and JeKia Harrison, President of the Young Democrats of Oklahoma, and a lifelong resident of northeast Oklahoma City to learn more about this transition and the concerns held by some about this change.In a groundbreaking achievement Traci Manuel, who both attended and taught at Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa, has etched her name into Oklahoma history books, becoming the first African American educator to claim the prestigious title of Teacher of the Year. Anthony Cherry speaks with her and Milton Dean III. Dean has been in education for 16 years with Tulsa Public Schools. He currently serves at Street School, a nonprofit, alternative, therapeutic based school. Before that he spent four years at the Juvenile Detention Center, also known as the Tulsa County Family Center for Juvenile Justice to share more about Manuel's remarkable journey, from her teaching career to her statewide advocacy for a more inclusive and effective education system. Rebecca Marks Jimerson, the Commemorative Chair and Special Projects Chair of the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Society, has a decade-long commitment to honoring Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy. Recently in Tulsa Jimerson produced a powerful partnership with the Jewish Federation of Tulsa, Circle Cinema, the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office, and the National Association of Black Journalists which shed light on the intertwined histories of Black people and Jewish people through a documentary entitled Shared Legacies: The African American-Jewish Civil Rights Alliance, directed by Jewish filmmaker, Dr. Shari Rogers of Detroit. Through her film she provides verbal accounts of how Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement were able to move forward with some of this momentum helped by support of allies of the interfaith community even coming together with Dr. King in the marches for equality. This included footage of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and other rabbis who were seen close to the front of several marches with Dr. King. This collaboration serves as a call to contemporary social justice movements to unite and continue Dr. King's vision of equality. Francia Allen attended the screening and speaks with Jimerson, Brae Riley, a board member and Chair of the Social Justice Sub-Committee of the Jewish Federation of Tulsa, and Ryan Thomas, the lead film programmer at Circle Cinema to expand on this powerful cooperation. To connect with the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Society visit mlktulsa.com, circlecinema.org for Circle Cinema, and the Jewish Federation of Tulsa at jewishtulsa.org. This story is part of a series exploring the relationship between the Black American community and the Jewish community in Tulsa. The series is sponsored by the Frank Family Foundation as a part of Tri-City Collective's Acknowledge Oklahoma or A-OK project. As the number of Holocaust survivors dwindles, the Tulsa Council for Holocaust Education is hosting the 26th Annual Yom HaShoah: An...

Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, CA 2E23 4 Easter (Year B) 8:30 a.m. & 11:00 a.m. Eucharist Sunday 21 April 2024 Good Shepherd Sunday   Acts 4:5-12 Psalm 23 1 John 3:16-24 John 10:11-18 “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want” (Psalm 23).   When I was at Harvard, on the advice of a friend who is a nun, I decided to take a leadership course at the Kennedy School of Government. My fellow classmates came from twenty-six countries and included CEO's, a judge, a District Attorney, an army general, a state senator, the founder of an investment bank, the co-founder of a Political Action Committee, an ambassador, a university dean, the head administrator for airports in Israel, etc. Our teacher Ronald Heifetz changed who I am. He spoke with uncanny and absolutely non-defensive frankness. He had an MD, practiced as a surgeon, and had previously taught at Harvard Medical School. He was a cello virtuoso who had studied under Gregor Piatagorsky and music was central to his understanding of leadership. [i]   This week I read all my class notes – everything from doodles that spelled my wife's Hawaiian name in Greek letters to quotes with three stars in the margin (such as, “in disagreements the first value we lose sight of is the ability to be curious”). [ii] The syllabus says directly that the course's goal is, “to increase one's capacity to sustain the demands of leadership.” It was perfect preparation for the rest of my life.   On the first day Heifetz said, “if you are going through a difficult time I strongly urge you not to take this course.” He was right. This was not an ordinary lecture class but a seemingly entirely improvised discussion. Heifetz would start by saying something like, “What do we want to address today?” It felt strangely dangerous. Nothing was going to come easy or be handed to us on a silver platter. We talked about the feeling in class and agreed it was tense.   At one point in the early lectures Heifetz just stopped being an authority figure for a while. In the resulting chaos we learned how much we all crave authority and guiding norms. It felt more like a Werner Erhard seminar than a Harvard lecture. Heifetz might not always say it directly but he regards leadership above all as a spiritual practice. The motivations for good leadership are spiritual. The character and the skills that we need to develop for leadership are spiritual. To be effective we have to recognize forces that were previously invisible to us and experience the world with intuition and based on a real understanding of ourselves. Leadership success requires curiosity, compassion, wisdom, honesty, courage, humility, self-knowledge and the right balance between detachment and passion.   Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. In the Fourth Gospel Jesus faces accusers who seek to kill him. He uses the metaphor of a leader as a good shepherd. This idea was already ancient in his time and mentioned in the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the Psalms. You might be thinking, “No one listens to me since I retired,” or, “I'm at the lowest level in my company, or I'm just a kid, what could leadership possibly have to do with me?”   Heifetz makes a central distinction between authority and leadership. Authority comes from one's institutional standing and involves managing people's expectations. [iii] Jesus was not the Roman governor or the high priest. He did not have this authority.   Leadership on the other hand means mobilizing resources to make progress on difficult problems. [iv] In many instances people exercise more powerful leadership without having formal authority than with it. Jesus did. And make no mistake Jesus expects each of us to act as leaders regardless of our formal or informal authority. We exist to glorify God and to help solve the problems we encounter. For homework I invite you this week to consciously exercise leadership that is inspired by Jesus.   1. Adaptive Challenges. This morning I am going to do the opposite of what my teacher did, I am going to speak directly and briefly about three of his observations concerning leadership. [v] One of Heifetz's primary ideas concerns the difference between a technical problem and an adaptive challenge. A technical problem is one that we already know how to respond to; best practices, if you will, already exist. It may be simple like setting a broken bone or incredibly complicated like putting a person on the moon, but an expert, a mechanic, surgeon or rocket scientist, already knows how to handle it. [vi]   An adaptive challenge is different. No adequate response has been developed for it. I have in mind our terrible problem of people without housing, racial prejudice, addiction, education, misinformation, poverty, war, white Christian nationalism, election denial, despair, isolation, etc. It is tempting to treat an adaptive challenge as if it were a technical problem, to look to an authority to solve that problem for us. But problems like this require cooperation among groups of people who are seeking solutions, not pretending to already know all the answers.   What was Jesus' adaptive challenge? His disciples thought it was overthrowing the Roman Empire or enthroning a king who shared their identity. But this was not it. Instead Jesus was what the theologian Paul Tillich calls “the New Being.” Jesus inaugurated a new way of being human which he called “the realm of God” in which all people would be healed, cared for and treated with dignity. It is a realm of spiritual well-being in which we experience God as a kind of loving father such as the father in the Prodigal Son story. This is what Jesus means when he says, “the Father knows me and I know the Father” (Jn. 10).   As a spiritual community Grace Cathedral shares this adaptive challenge of working for the realm of God. And in a society where Christianity is justifiably associated with misogyny, homophobia and unkindness we offer a vision of community in which anyone can belong before they believe. On the basis of our conviction that every person without exception is beloved by God we have taken on the adaptive challenge of transforming Christianity, of reimagining church with courage, joy and wonder. [vii]   2. Strategic Principles. Heifetz speaks a great deal about the practical work of leadership. He describes this as creating a kind of holding container for people working on the problem and then paying attention to one's own feelings to understand the mind of the group.   Leadership involves uncovering and articulating the adaptive challenge. A leader also needs to manage the anxiety of the group. People have to be concerned enough to want to act but not so afraid that they will give up in hopelessness. Because human beings tend to avoid hard challenges, a leader needs to keep the group focused on the problem not just on trying to relieve the stress the group is feeling. This involves giving the work back to people at a rate they can assimilate. He also points out how important it is to protect leaders who do not have authority so that they can contribute to the solution. [viii]   3. Values. Heifetz taught us that the best leaders have such a deep feeling for their mission they will, if necessary, sacrifice themselves for the higher purpose. Heifetz refers to the leaders getting (metaphorically, mostly I hope) assassinated. This happens when the stress a leader generates in order to solve a problem becomes so great that the leader gets expelled. This is how I understand Jesus' life. Jesus talks about this.   In today's gospel the Greek the word kalos which we translate as good, as in Good Shepherd, probably means something more like real or genuine. Jesus says that the hired hand is there for the transaction, for the payment, but the real shepherd has the power (ezousian often translated as authority) to lay down his life (the Greek word is psuxēn or soul) for the sake of the sheep. Many leaders at some point have to decide whether to keep pushing for uncomfortable change even when they know it might mean they will be forced to leave.   Before closing I want to briefly tell you about a leader who shaped us, our first dean, J. Wilmer Gresham. Dean Gresham moved to San Jose California for health reasons. In 1910 at the age of 39 when he was asked to become the first Dean of Grace Cathedral he hesitated wondering if the damp cold of San Francisco would kill him. Almost immediately after moving here to this block, he discerned his adaptive challenges: to build this Cathedral and to begin a ministry of healing that involved organizing groups to gather for prayer that gradually became an national movement. He helped so many people privately, financially. Trusting God he gave all of himself. [ix]   After serving almost 30 years Dean Gresham retired and a year later his wife Emily Cooke Graham died. Many evenings he would stand on the sidewalk in front of their old home weeping for her. He found so much comfort in Jesus, the Good Shepherd, that he gave a stained glass window in the South Transept in her memory. He did this so that we would know that like the sheep in the arms of Jesus we are loved by God.   At the end of our leadership course Ronald Heifetz reminded us that he had told us at the beginning that he would disappoint us. He talked about how at times the teaching staff too had felt that we were wandering in the desert, that some students might have felt hurt or misrepresented. But most of all he taught us how to say goodbye.   Heifetz promised that we could shed light in our life even when there is no light around us. He said that the God of the Greek philosopher Archimedes was called “the unmoved mover.” But Heifetz said that he believed much more in Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel's idea of God as “the most moved mover.”   My dear ones, we are all called to lay down our lives for the sake of God's realm. But we are not left without comfort. We have each other and we always have the Good Shepherd. Jesus teaches that God loves us the way that a faithful teacher loves her students or a father treasures his lost child.

Last week, we received via Facebook the sad news that Avrohom Fuchs has died at the age of 99. He was buried in Jerusalem on Jan. 15, 2024. In his memory, we're airing part of an interview recorded in Jerusalem on Jan. 2, 2015, and originally aired Jan. 21, 2015. Fuchs, who survived the Holocaust, including Auschwitz and Ebensee, was a scholar of the Jewish history of the Carpathian Mountains, as well as a travel agent and guide who led over 35 tours to the Carpathians for former residents and their descendents. He wrote a book on the city of Chust (now Khust, Ukraine) and surrounding towns, as well as a book on his hometown Shandriff (now Oleksandrivka, Ukraine) and numerous articles. ‫כּבֿוד זײַן אַנדענק!‬ From our archives: Miriam Libenson Z"L: a talk in honor of the holiday Tu Bishvat, the holiday of the trees, originally broadcast in 1994. Music: Cantor Bela Herskowitz: Szól A Kakas Már (Der Hun Kriet Shoyn) Victor Berezinsky: Tu Bishvat Ruth Levin: A Hoykher Boym (Lyrics Shike Driz, Music by Leibu Levin) Hilda Bronstein: Afn Veg Shteyt A Boym (Lyrics by Itzik Manger) Dudu Fisher: Unter Beymer (Lyrics by Alexander Olshanetsky, Music by Moishe Oysher) Pharaoh's Daughter/Basya Schechter: Mayn Lid (My Song) and Ikh un Du (Lyrics by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Music by Basya Schechter) Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an instrumental track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz Air date: January 17, 2024

As Martin Luther King Day is observed today in the US, we pay tribute to the man and his work, and rededicate ourselves to pursuing those goals of equality and civil rights. We show the straight and clear line from Exodus to fighting for justice today, from Sen. Charles McNary, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Rabb Joachim Prinz. Michael Whitman is the senior rabbi of ADATH Congregation in Hampstead, Quebec, and an adjunct professor at McGill University Faculty of Law. ADATH is a modern orthodox synagogue community in suburban Montreal, providing Judaism for the next generation. We take great pleasure in welcoming everyone with a warm smile, while sharing inspiration through prayer, study, and friendship. Rabbi Whitman shares his thoughts and inspirations through online lectures and shiurim, which are available on: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5FLcsC6xz5TmkirT1qObkA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adathmichael/ Podcast - Mining the Riches of the Parsha: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/mining-the-riches-of-the-parsha/id1479615142?fbclid=IwAR1c6YygRR6pvAKFvEmMGCcs0Y6hpmK8tXzPinbum8drqw2zLIo7c9SR-jc Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3hWYhCG5GR8zygw4ZNsSmO Please contact Rabbi Whitman (rabbi@adath.ca) with any questions or feedback, or to receive a daily email, "Study with Rabbi Whitman Today," with current and past insights for that day, video, and audio, all in one short email sent directly to your inbox.

T'was the day before Christmas, and all through the houseMany a creature was stirring, even the mouseThe jobs were all done in a hurry, but also with careIn the hope that some peace soon would be thereIn the evening, with all now safely snug in their bedsAs hopes for some joy and wonder danced in their heads. On this episode of Sunday Sanctuary, we decided to keep it simple. Petra's guest this episode is one of our favourite reverends, Spanky Moore. He very graciously shares about what his year has been like, and how in the midst of it all he has still been able to find moments of wonder, joy, and peace. Whether you hear this episode on Christmas Eve or come to it in the new year, we hope that it might inspire some ways for you to find the wonder and joy present in your life as it is. All of us on the Sunday Sanctuary team would like to say a massive kia ora to everyone who has listened this year! We put a lot of love into this show and we love to hear about what it means to you. If you'd like to tell us about what part Sunday Sanctuary has played in your life this last year and/or what parts of the show you like best, we'd be very thankful. Feel free to message us on Instagram, we're @sundaysanctuarynz. Your thoughts will come in really handy as we talk about what Sunday Sanctuary looks like in 2024. Mā te wā, Petra, Steph, Josh, and Sam Awe The moment of awe in this episode was inspired by this article from Sports History Weekly. There is also a documentary on the Lithuanian basketball team called The Other Dream Team, released in 2012.  Sacred texts: The book of John, chapter 1, verses 1 - 5 Rev. Spanky Moore referenced quotes from two rabbis:1) "Never once in my life did I ask God for success or wisdom or power or fame. I asked for wonder, and he gave it to me." - Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, from his book I Asked for Wonder: A Spiritual Anthology 2) "Some years back I hit a skid in my personal life. Though I knew objectively that I had much to be grateful for, it was hard to acknowledge a sense of gratitude. It was difficult to notice the positive that was out there beyond the slog of getting through every day. But now and then, I'd feel the impulse to take out my phone and capture a slice of beauty. These fleeting glimpses of splendor broke through my horizon of pain and lifted me up…." - Rabbi Hara Person, from a meditation written for The Center for Action and Contemplation One final thing. If you're needing a playlist of Christmas music, we've put together A Sunday Sanctuary Christmas on Spotify. Enjoy!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I thought long and hard about whether or not I wanted to weigh in on the current crisis in Israel. In the end, I couldn't not, and I found myself turning as I often do to the words of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.Shabbat Shalom.--Music Provided by Lofi Girl:      Promise Due - Kinissue & Artemis Flow     Wicked Thoughts - Kinissue & Tibeauthetraveler      Farewell - Kinissue Watch on YouTubeListen on Spotify--I'm not a rabbi, so every week, I look at our Torah portion and try to put it in conversation with the world around me. Judaism is rich in tradition, and each of us deserves the chance to find our own meaning in the text. Whether you're studying Torah daily, or taking a moment to prepare for Shabbat, I hope you'll make these ten minutes of Torah part of your week. New episodes weekly, anywhere you get Jewish podcasts.

In this podcast, we reflect on the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses as recorded in the book of Exodus chapter 20. In this story, we are given the cure for the disease of the Tiny God Syndrome.  “Sometimes we wish the world could cry and tell us about that which made it pregnant with fear-filling grandeur.” - Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

Welcome back to The AUSA Podcast! Today, Luke and Brenna sit down to chat a bit about Rest to try and help re-orient our mindsets heading into break. Luke talks through some ideas from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel's wonderful little book, "The Sabbath," like how the Sabbath is a palace in time and not only that, but a person who is with and within us (Matthew 11:28-30); how it's holistic to all that a person is and doesn't just heal or minister to the spiritual or the physical, but both; and how rest can look differently for everyone! Brenna and Luke give some examples of how they rest and what rest does for them. If you enjoyed this episode or anything we talked about peaked your interest, we'd love to start a conversation! Do us a favor and share it with your friends, and if you have thoughts or questions you can DM us on Instagram @au411. Now that we think of it, to keep up with all things AU Student Activities, visit our Instagram @au411.

Dr. Omid Safi is a teacher in the Islamic tradition of Radical Love with extensive written work on the foundational sources of Islam and Sufism. A leading Muslim public intellectual, Safi investigates the intersection of spirituality and social justice. He is also deeply committed to liberationist prophetic traditions manifested in the legacies of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Malcolm X. Dr. Safi has delivered the keynote address in annual services honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.

Pedro, a Black pastor, and Marc, a white rabbi are embarking on a creative adventure together, based on their friendship and musings on art, religion, justice and love inspired by the relationship between Rev Martin Luther King Junior and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. As they work on developing a performance piece together, they reflect on the process in 7 episodes, mirroring the 7 days of creation

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Sh'mot [Exodus 1:1–6:1] begins a new Book of the Torah, the Book of Exodus. As Eliot mentions, we move very quickly, in just a few verses, from ish [man] to bayyit [house] to shevet [tribe], to am [nation]. In the opening verses, the family story that concluded the Book of Genesis becomes the national story that will lead, eventually, to the Jewish people. Since we were recording just after the 50th yahrtzeit [anniversary of death] of the late Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel this past Wednesday [18 Tevet, this year 1/11/23], our conversation is peppered with references to Heschel's teachings. We hope some of you will share yours with us! Shabbat Shalom!!

How does the legacy of Heschel speak to us today? On the 50th yahrtzeit of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Rabbi Cosgrove calls upon us to honor his values and to do our share to redeem the world.   For more Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, follow @Elliot_Cosgrove on Instagram and Facebook.   Want to stay connected with PAS? Follow us @ParkAvenueSyn on all platforms, and check out www.pasyn.org for all our virtual and in-person offerings. 

Rabbi Dobrusin offers some thoughts in memory of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel  z"L whose 50th yahrzeit has been observed this week. 

As we approach the yahrtzeit of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Rabbi Cosgrove sits down with the founder of The Heschel School, Peter A. Geffen. Geffen shares the Rabbi's impact on his approach to education, and how this unique relationship led him to play a role in the funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr.    For more Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, follow @Elliot_Cosgrove on Instagram and Facebook.   Want to stay connected with PAS? Follow us @ParkAvenueSyn on all platforms, and check out www.pasyn.org for all our virtual and in-person offerings. 

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas' website.This lesson explores Amos 3:1-15.Introduction (vv.1-2)Redemption, then mission.With privilege comes responsibility!Hearing the roar and responding accordingly (vv.3-8)Stimulus and responseAction and reactionCause and effectThe lion has roared; we must respond!The true prophet cannot ignore the voice of Yahweh any more than a sensible person can ignore the roar of a lion.Do I feel that I must speak, that I cannot keep quiet?“If I say, ‘I will not mention him or speak any more in his name, there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot” (Jeremiah 20:9).“Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:16b).How about us?How's my evangelism?Am I willing to engage in earnest discussion with Christians who have drifted from the Lord and need a word from him?Am I having conversations at work? with family members? with neighbors?"To a person endowed with prophetic sight, everyone else appears blind; to a person whose ear perceives God's voice, everyone else appears deaf. No one is just; no knowing is strong enough, no trust complete enough. The prophet hates the approximate, he shuns the middle of the road. Man must live on the summit to avoid the abyss. There is nothing to hold to except God. Carried away by the challenge, the demand to straighten out man's ways, the prophet is strange, one-sided, an unbearable extremist." – Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, The ProphetsThe boom will fall (vv.9-15)The announcement is to be made in the hearing of Ashdod and Egypt, peoples south of Samaria, who could serve as witnesses of Yahweh's righteous punishment (as they fell to Assyria at a later time). Israel would have considered themselves morally superior to Ashdod and Egypt.SamariaThe city, which was the capital of the northern kingdom, was built by Omri and Ahab his successor, rose up 300 feet, and seemed impregnable. Its fortification walls were massive.But massive fortifications offer no protection if our lives are weakened with corruption! Samaria will fall!Two houses (like Ahab's regular house in Jezreel, and winter house in Samaria [at a higher elevation], 1 Kings 21:1,18) are excessive when many have no home of their own. Opulence is inappropriate when the poor are being dispossessed (5:11).Yahweh offended not only by exploitation but also by conspicuous consumption.Amos saw that neither reform nor even revolution could bring Israel back to God. Domestic politics had no hope. Only international intervention – the exile threatened in Deuteronomy – could succeed.The imagery of v.12 is that of a lion attack. All that remains of the materialistic, idolatrous city are fragments of fine furniture.ConclusionAs hard-hitting as these words would have been—or should have been—to their original hearers, they should hit us even harder!And the prophet isn't done yet–not by a long shot!AdvancedThe Asiatic lion was found in Palestine until about 1300 AD, and is mentioned often in scripture (Judges 14:6; 1 Samuel 17:34-36; 2 Samuel 23:20, etc). God himself is compared to a lion at least 10x in the O.T.With respect to v.8, Amos could not have deviated from his commission. Recall the anonymous prophet of Judah who was rebuked by the older northern prophet (from Bethel) for violating the revealed word of God (1 Kings 13). The young prophet was killed by a lion!Archaeological excavation of Samaria revealed great storehouses in the palace complex “store up violence” (v.10)? In one storeroom, 200 ivory plaques were uncovered (see 1 Kings 22:39: "houses of ivory").In v.12 the imagery alludes to proof of attack, as in Exodus 22:10-13. Only fragments of Israel's extravagance will remain after the attack!

In this episode of 18Forty, tech entrepreneur Antonio Garcia Martinez discusses his powerful “Why Judaism?” essay series, chronicling his conversion to Judaism and his views on the deficiencies of secular liberalism. A formerly Orthodox man who was moved to change his life after reading Martinez's essays chimes in.—What is the toll of a culture of optionality?—What is the value of unchosen commitments?—How does Martinez reconcile his deeply scientific worldview with Judaism?Interview begins at 10:21.References:Why Judaism? On abandoning secular modernity by Antonio García MartínezWhy Judaism?, part שני: On the question of God in modernity by Antonio García MartínezNineteen Letters by Rabbi Samson Raphael HirschThe Benedict Option by Rod DreherRethinking Sex by Christine EmbaSeven Types of Atheism by John GrayThe Sabbath by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

Santiago and Teresa What if a Sabbath isn't just about rest? We first encounter Sabbath when God finished the work of creating the world and rested on the seventh day (Gen 2:2). In the next verse, God blesses the seventh day and declares it hallowed (or holy). I've heard preaching about the Sabbath for years and many times the admonition is to attend a worship service and reframe from all work. I've always been a churchgoer, but as hard as I've tried, I've never been able to come close to avoiding all work and effort on a Sunday after worship. Whether it was cooking a Sunday meal or catching up on work (including homework), I have always had something on my “to-do” list that carried over into Sunday and again, I failed to “keep” the Sabbath. I'm re-thinking Sabbath in light of the third verse in Genesis 2 in which God declares the Sabbath as a “holy” day. When God blesses the day, it becomes rich with blessings. Rather than a day of aimless rest, the day provides the space for us to keep focused on God. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel says, “The Sabbath is no time for personal anxiety or care, for any activity that might dampen the spirit of joy…it is a day for praise, not a day for petitions. Fasting, mourning, demonstrations of grief are forbidden.” When I am engaging in activities which bring me joy, I am recognizing that my joy comes from God providing a richness of blessings. I have many things that bring me joy particularly a walk in the park, playing with my dogs and taking photographs. Being with friends also brings me joy. I wonder if some activities that may be “work” to me, bring joy to others. Cooking can be joyful when feeding family and friends, or it can be “work” when done only for sustenance. On my Sabbath day, I plan to concentrate on activities which recognize God as the creator and the source of all joy. It may look different every week, but in my joy I will keep the Sabbath holy and give praise to God through my worship and my energy. It even may involve quite a bit of activity! Blessings, my friend,Agatha

In today's episode, we're talking about responding to the pain in our hearts and around the world when we turn on the news and see yet another horrific tragedy, like the recent shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas. How do we keep our hearts open? How do we allow ourselves to lament, and meet our grief and rage, all while continuing to tend to the mundane tasks of our daily lives? How do we know whether we are doing enough to show up for the world in all its pain?  We bring the words and lessons of many teachers into today's episode to help guide us as we wrestle with these questions alongside you: teachers in the form of rabbis and civil rights activists, Buddhists and climate justice writers, mindful skaters and hospital chaplains. We are grateful for their guidance and contributions, and we are grateful for you.    References: Words from Martin Luther King Jr: “The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice.” “I must confess, I am tired.”; Letter from a Birmingham Jail  Jewish wisdom: "You are not obligated to finish the work of perfecting the world, but neither are you free to desist from it." On Being episode: "The Opposite of Good is Indifference," featuring Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel quote: "We must learn how to be surprised, not to adjust ourselves. I am the most maladjusted person in society." Season 4, Episode 2 of the No Place Like Home podcast, featuring Mary Anne Hitt, Anna Jane Joyner, and Mary Annaïse Heglar  The 50th Gate: Tracking Our Growth through the Counting of the Omer, by Rabbi Gavriel Goldfelder  Shelly Tygielski, @mindfulskatergirl Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown  Lama Rod Owens and his recent talk with Action for Happiness JS Park 

Rabbi Everett Gendler (August 8, 1928 - April 1, 2022) was an American rabbi, known for his involvement in progressive causes, including the civil rights movement. He has also been widely referred to as the founder of the Jewish environmental movement. About ten years ago at the Rabbinical Assembly Convention in Atlanta, he recorded a conversation with Rabbi Ed Bernstein on Jewish environmentalism. At the time Rabbi Bernstein was Spiritual Leader of Temple Torah, now Temple Torat Emet, of Boynton Beach, FL. Rabbi Bernstein was experimenting with podcasting and recorded interviews with various thought leaders that were then published on Temple Torah's podcast. That feed is no longer online. Rabbi Bernstein's interview with Rabbi Gendler from that series is presented here. A transcript of Dr. King's public dialogue at the RA Convention with Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and Rabbi Everett Gendler was published in Conservative Judaism Journal, 22:3, 1968, pp. 1-19. This was one of Dr. King's final major public appearances prior to his assassination ten days later on April 4.

"We are commanded to sustain the world."- Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin & Rabbi Avram Resiner “They shall forever inhabit this earth, the result of My planting, the work of My hands in which I glory.” (Isaiah 60:21)Shmita is a set of commandments in the Jewish and Christian Bibles (The Torah) to practice and celebrate the cyclical "release" of agricultural lands, financial debts, slaves, and ancestral lands. "Shmita Live" was a conversation on Zoom, March 1, 2022 exploring the ancient shmita commandments' many meanings today. The event brought together a number of the amazing people who contributed to AllCreation.org's "Shmita Now" collection, created by guest editor Yaira Robinson. Our fun and incisive hour celebrates these fine folks, welcomes some outstanding guests, and gives everyone a chance to share some truly breakthrough ideas on how to integrate the ancient shmita commandments into our lives now. We hope you enjoy listening. Co-hosted by: AllCreation.org, National Wildlife Federation, Shmita Project Northwest, and Hazon. Presented by BioIntegrity Partnerships. Original event page: Shmita Live.Background info:  The shmita verses: Exodus 23: 10-11, Leviticus 25:2–7, Leviticus 25:20–22, and Deuteronomy 15:1–3 "Shmita Live" PDF with panelists' names & links (for download) Shmita explanation on Wikipedia PANELISTS Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin of St. Mary's Seminary, and MDEHR  Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb of Adat Shalom, Interfaith Power & Light, and COEJL Dr. Mirele Goldsmith of Jewish Earth Alliance Simcha Scwhartz of Wilderness Torah Rabbi Laura Bellows of Dayenu Nati Passow of Dayenu, and Jewish Farm School Shmita Project Northwest's Deirdre Gabbay Hazon's Sarah Zell Young National Wildlife Federation's Naomi Edelson AllCreation.org's Chris Searles (moderator) PROGRAMI. WELCOME  0:00 Preroll 0:08 Welcome & Introductions -- by Chris Searles (moderator), AllCreation.org  3:35 "Shmita 101" by Deirdre Gabbay (co-host), Shmita Project Northwest II. PANELIST SELF-INTRODUCTIONS  6:30 Naomi Edelson, senior dir., National Wildlife Federation. references: Deuteronomy 30:19 (the life verse), and -> Sacred Grounds

As we head into MLK weekend and with the launch of the James Webb Telescope, Rabbi Joshua sat down with Dr. Bonnie Burratti, a planetary astronomer and Section Manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory here in Pasadena, to discuss space, faith, and an essay by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel called "The Moral Dilemma of the Space Race," which he wrote around the time of the first lunar launch in 1969. The discussion centers on examining the prioritizing and cost of space exploration versus the needs on Earth for the poor, homeless, and hungry humans around the world.

As MLK Day and Tu B'Shvat overlap this coming week, April and Tracie unpack the lessons we can learn from trees and their growth in our racial justice journeys. They get into the nuances and differences between treating the symptoms of oppression and injustice – often addressed through “service” – and diagnosing and healing the root causes. And, they think about what we can do to genuinely honor Dr. King's legacy. Check out our discussion/reflection questions for this episode:  https://joyousjustice.com/blog/jews-talk-racial-justice-ep-71Find April and Tracie's full bios and submit topic suggestions for the show at www.JewsTalkRacialJustice.comLearn more about Joyous Justice where April is the founding and fabulous (!) director, and Tracie is a senior partner: https://joyousjustice.com/Support the work our Jewish Black & Native woman-led vision for collective liberation here: https://joyousjustice.com/support-our-workRead more of Tracie's thoughts at her blog: https://www.bmoreincremental.com/Learn more about Racial Justice Launch Pad and join the waitlist: https://joyousjustice.com/racial-justice-launch-padLearn more about Tu B'Shvat https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/tu-bishvat-ideas-beliefs/Read Dr. King's “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” here: https://www.csuchico.edu/iege/_assets/documents/susi-letter-from-birmingham-jail.pdfLearn more about or register for the MLK event Tracie is moderating: https://jufj.org/event/mlk-22/ Learn more about Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/abraham-joshua-heschel-a-prophets-prophet/

It's our favorite time of year here on the Commonweal Podcast. On this special episode, we revisit four of our best interviews from 2021: Phil Klay elucidates the complexities of modern warfare. Rita Ferrone explains how Catholic tradition evolves. Alice McDermott tells us what made her decide to become a writer. And Susannah Heschel describes how the spiritual legacy of her father, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, can help us fight for social justice today. Listen to the full-length interviews here: ·     ‘War Without End,' with Phil Klay ·     ‘The Rite Stuff,' with Rita Ferrone ·     ‘Life Sentences,' with Alice McDermott ·     ‘Friend of God,' with Susannah Heschel

For Educational Purposes and Inspirational Materials. The Artists, Creators and Producers own their music/songs and content . Discretion is advised. May not be suitable for some audiences. Discussion of the life and times of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel with his daughter, Dr. Susannah Herschel and others.

The stories of entrepreneurial giants who have built something from nothing inspire us:  Bernard Goldhirsh of Inc. Magazine, Harry Quadracci of Quad/Graphics, Daniel Lubetsky of the snack company Kind,  and Steve Mariotti of Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship. The stories of survivors also inspire us.  Like those of psychologist Tova Friedman and Sam Solasz of Master Purveyors. Harold Klein, the founder of Teletime Video along with his wife Nan, has interviewed all of them. Now Harold and Nan are expanding the meaning of entrepreneurship and survival to include remarkable people like Vietnam veteran Bill Vandegriff, who has overcome great personal hardship because of his experience as a soldier through his own grit and resilience. In Harold's own family tree, from his grandfather for whom he's named, to his own son Joe, you can see what Dr. Rachel Yehuda of Mt. Sinai has helped to bring to light - how resilience can be literally passed on from generation to generation. That resilience often comes in the form of entrepreneurship. And it often begins with a mentor. Did you know that one of the mentors of the great Martin Luther King's was Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, a figure central to Harold's faith? Steve's conversation with Harold is a profound one, which started on the steps of the 92nd Y after the world premiere of an episode of Harold and Nan's new documentary "Trauma to Triumph...the Rise of the Entrepreneur."  Harold's introductory remarks at the premiere, as well as the film, were an epiphany for Steve in how he views Sidney Taussig, the last boy, and his roommates who created their own government, and the longest-running underground publication of the Holocaust. Most of them would not survive, but their magazine of poems and prose does, proving that the entrepreneurial spirit can transcend hate, adversity, and even death. To learn more about Harold and Nan's important film series, visit traumatotriumphfilms.com.

When Susannah Heschel was growing up, discussions about civil rights were part of her daily life. They were, in fact, unavoidable—her father, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, was one of the leading Jewish figures of the movement, who walked beside Martin Luther King Jr. on his famous Selma march. But a lot has changed since then. Heschel, now a professor of Jewish studies at Dartmouth College, understands better than most how those deep connections between Black and Jewish communities in North America have shifted over the decades. Jews today cannot take for granted the actions of their community 50 years ago. She joins to discuss these ideas, as well as her father's legacy, the role of religion in civil rights and the evolution of German-Jewish thinking. This episode was recorded live on Nov. 21, 2021, as part of Limmud Toronto. Credits Rivkush is hosted by Rivka Campbell. Michael Fraiman is the editor and prodcer. Our theme music is by Westside Gravy. We're a member of The CJN Podcast Network; find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

Today on Midday, a variety of perspectives on Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Other Identities, the 1992 play about Black-Jewish relations in America that's getting a new production at Baltimore's Center Stage. Opening night is Thursday. Tom's first guest today is the playwright who created Fires in the Mirror: the writer, actor and educator, Anna Deavere Smith. In addition to the one-woman plays she has written and performed, her acting credits include dozens of well-known television and film roles. She has been awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, and in 2012, President Barack Obama awarded her the National Humanities Medal. Anna Deavere Smith has revolutionized theater with work based on intensive interviews with people around the subjects she explores. She transforms these interviews into powerful shows that capture the nuances and complexities of the issues she takes-up.Her work has examined, among other topics, health care, the school-to-prison pipeline, and racial tension in Los Angeles following the acquittal of white police officers who beat Rodney King in 1991. In 1992, she wrote and performed Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Other Identities, which explored the violence that broke out in a New York City neighborhood after a Hasidic Jew lost control of the car he was driving and killed an African American child. The play was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and a recipient of a 1993 Drama Desk Award. Anna Deavere Smithjoins us on Zoom from New York City. Baltimore Center Stage is presenting Fires in the Mirror in a live stage production that runs through December 19. A little later in this hour, Tom speaks with Center Stage's artistic director and with the director of the new production. But first, Tom is joined by two eminent scholars who help us explore the relationship between the African American and Jewish communities in America: Dr. Susannah Heschel is the Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College.  Her father, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, was a close confidant and colleague of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. Heschel will be speaking in Baltimore a week from tonight about the current state of inter-religious dialogue in this year's Manekin-Clark Lecture, sponsored by the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies. Her talk is entitled “Recapturing the Prophetic Tradition: A Challenge for Interreligious Dialogue.” The event begins at 7:00pm at Kraushaar Auditorium at Goucher College, and will also be streamed on YouTube. To register for the talk, click here. Prof. Susannah Heschel joins us today on Zoom from Hanover, New Hampshire. Dr. Charles Chavis is the Founding Director of the John Mitchell, Jr. Program for History, Justice, and Race at George Mason University's Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution. He's also an Assistant Professor of Conflict Analysis and Resolution and History at George Mason. His new book will be published next month. It's called The Silent Shore:  The Lynching of Matthew Williams and the Politics of Racism in the Free State.Dr. Charles Chavis, Jr. joins us on Zoom from Virginia. Tom's final guests today are two artists who are bringing Anna Deavere Smith's extraordinary play, Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Other Identitiesto life at Baltimore Center Stage.Stephanie Ybarra is the Artistic Director of Baltimore Center Stage. Nicole Breweris directing the production. They join us on Zoom with their perspectives on this groundbreaking drama. The one-woman play opens on Thursday night and runs through December 19.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Parshat Noach - Join Geoffrey Stern, Rabbi Adam Mintz and Pastor Dumisani Washington of IBSI - Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel and Christians United For Israel for a live recording of a discussion on Clubhouse Friday October 8th with the Pastor regarding his book Zionism and the Black Church: Why Standing with Israel Will Be a Defining Issue for Christians of Color in the 21st Century. We follow a less traveled path down Noah's family tree. We discover the Biblical Mission of Africa and the bond between the Children of Shem and the Children of Ham. Sefaria Source Sheet: www.sefaria.org/sheets/352058  Transcript: Geoffrey Stern  00:00 [To Reverend Dumisani Washington] Thank you so much for being with us. On on our clubhouse when you come up to the platform, we say first of all that you're coming up to the bimah [the podium or platform in a synagogue from which the Torah and Prophets are read from]. And then second of all, when we make you a presenter, we give you smicha... So that means that you are ordinated. So instead of Reverend, we'll call you Reb. Is that okay? Dumisani Washington  00:20 That sounds good to me. Sounds good, no problem. Geoffrey Stern  00:23 So anyway, welcome to Madlik. Madlik is every week at four o'clock, and we do record it and post it as a podcast on Sunday. And if you listen to it, and you'd like what you hear, feel free to share it and give us a few stars. And what we do is disruptive Torah. And what we mean by disruptive Torah is we look at the ancient text of the Torah, with maybe a new lens, or to see a new angle. And today, I'm delighted to say that we're not only looking at it through a new lens, but we're looking at it through another lens, a lens of a pastor, of a man of God, who we will learn about his mission. I heard about it on clubhouse one evening, I was scrolling, and I stumbled upon you Reverend, and you're on a mission and you see Judaism and you see Zionism from a whole new perspective. So I want to thank you for coming on. And I want to say that, as I told you, in my email that I sent you that you know, every week about Saturday on Shabbat, on Sunday, I start thinking about what I'm going to pick as a subject matter for the coming Madlik session. And I purchased your book maybe two months ago, and it was sitting by the side of my bed, and for some reason, and of course, I'm sure there are no coincidences in this world. I picked it up this Shabbat. And it starts with our portion of Noah, it starts by talking about the line less traveled by us Jews of Shem's son Ham. And I should say that nothing is written for no reason in the Bible. And when it gives you a genealogy, it's because of what comes in the future. And many of us Jews will look at the genealogy in Genesis 10. And focus on Shem... with Semites. And that's where the name comes from. And we go down that path, and your book starts. And of course, I should say that your book is called "Zionism and the Black Church, Why Standing with Israel will be a Defining issue for Christians of color in the 21st Century". And it begins by traveling down this path less taken, of Ham. Welcome to Madlik.  But if you could begin by touching upon our portion of the week, no off and and and discussing what you see in it, and maybe your mission. Dumisani Washington  03:06 Absolutely. And thank you, again, Rabbi for having me on. Yes, there are six chapters in "Zionism in the Black Church". And the first chapter is entitled The African Biblical Tie to Israel. And so we as I say, in the book started the beginning, right, we start at the beginning of the Scriptures, and so as you know, between the two portions of "Bereshi"  I believe whether the towards the end is when Noah was first introduced, but of course in "Noach" there's the explanation of the nations where all the nations of the earth come from, from Noah's three sons Shem, Ham, and Jafet. And so we recognize that in the Scriptures, it is said that Ham has four sons. And there's a couple of unique things as you know, you read the book, that the scriptures that in the law of Moses deals, Psalms and some of the prophets, there's a term that's given several times in the scripture about Ham's descendants harms the sentence differently, then either Jafet or Shem.  The land of Ham is actually something that's in the scriptures. And I don't know what that Hebrew word is ... "Aretz Ham" ... I never looked at that part of it, Rabbi but it talks about that, which is really interesting because there's not, to my knowledge, and I've kind of looked at for a little while, a similar rendering like the Land of Japhet or Land of Shem. Right? We're obviously the genealogy is there, right? But there's not the same thing that deals with the land and the peoples .... interesting and we've come to know that of the four sides of Hem, which are in order Kush, which you know, is where obviously the Hebrew for later on Ethiopia I believe is a Greek word, but from that region Mitzrayim, which is Egypt. Fut or Put which is Libya, and then Canaan, which is Canaan, right? So those four sons who come from him. But interestingly in the scriptures when it says land of Ham, it almost exclusively refers to Egypt and Ethiopia, what we would call today, Africa, right? This region. And again, you're talking about an antiquity these regions were much broader in size. And they are today if you look at the map today, you see Egypt as a small state and go down to the south, west, south east, and you'll see Ethiopia then you see Yemen, you see Kenya, well, obviously all those states weren't there that happened much later in modernity is particularly after the colonial period where those nations were carved up by a few states in Europe, and they were given certain names everything right, but these were regions in the Bible. And so Kush, the land of Kush, and the land of Mitzrayim, they're actually dealt with many, many times. Right? After the words obviously "Israel" and "Jerusalem". You have the word Ethiopia, I believe one of the Ethiopian scholar says some 54 times or something like that the word Ethiopia actually comes up in the Bible, obviously not as many times as Israel or Jerusalem but more than virtually any other nation other than Egypt. Right? So Egypt obviously that we know too. Africa plays a huge role in Israel's story right? The 430 years in slavery is in Africa, right? The Torah was received at Sinai: Africa. All these things happen in Africa. At some point God tells Jeremiah during the time of the impending doom, the exile that will happen at the hand of of Nebuchadnezzar and God says to to the Israelites to the Judeans, and "don't run down into Egypt, Egypt won't be able to save you." Why does he say that? Well, because historically the Israelites would go to Egypt when it until it got safer, right? For those Christians who may be on the call, you'll know that in the New Testament, Jesus, his parents take him down into Egypt because Herod's gonna kill him. Right? So there's this ongoing relationship between Ham and Shem, that's very intertwined. Moses, his wife, or his second wife, depending on how you interpret it....  Some of the sages. She's Ethiopian, right? She's kushite. So you have this interchangeable thing all the time, throughout the scriptures, but actually starts with the genealogy. And I'll say just one last thing, rabbis ..... we're opening up. This is also unfortunately, as I mentioned, the book as you know, the misnomer of the quote unquote, "Curse of Ham", as we know in the text, Ham is never cursed for what happens with Noah it is Canaan that is cursed. And he actually says, a curse that Canaan become a servant of servants shall he be, even though it was Ham who however you interpreted.... I've heard many different interpretations of "uncovered the nakedness he saw his father, naked," but somehow, for whatever reason, Noah cursed Canaan, not Ham.  Who is Canaan...  is one of him so's, his fourth son, as we know those who are listening, you may know that it is The Curse of Ham, quote, unquote, that has been used sadly, unfortunately, among many other things as a justification of the slavery of Africans. Right? That somehow, Africans are quote, unquote, "Cursed of Ham", therefore, the transatlantic slave trade, the trans Saharan slave trade, those things are somehow...  God prescribed these things in the Bible, the curse was making him black. That's why he's like all those things that are nowhere in the text whatsoever, right? skin color is not in the text. slavery as a descendant of Ham. None of those things are in the text. What's in the text? Is that Canaan is cursed for that? And so we start there, Rabbi, and from there trying to walk out this whole Israel Africa thing. Adam Mintz  08:47 First of all WOW... thank you so much. I just want to clarify in terms of color, I think that's a very interesting thing. It's very possible that in the biblical period, everybody was dark. Dumisani Washington  09:00 Yes, sir. I mentioned that in the book as well. But yes, sir. Yes, yeah. All right. Sorry, Adam Mintz  09:04 I didn't see that in your book. But that's important, you know, because a lot of people are caught up in this color thing. Did you know that there's a distinction, we don't know it for sure but it makes sense that everybody was dark in those periods. So that the difference in color was not significant. So when, when Moses marries goes to Ethiopia, maybe is king of Ethiopia, and marries an Ethiopian. And the idea is that he marries a foreigner. The fact that she's darker may or may not have been true.   Dumisani Washington  09:39 Yes, absolutely. No, thank you Rabbi. And I do touch on that, as well. We say in the terms in this modern term, even in my book, I use the term Christians of color and I don't usually use those terms just in when I'm speaking. I did it that way in the title so that it would be presented in a way that is going to deal with some provocative things but hopefully the people that they read it they'll see what I mean by that and if you're talking about the Israelite people, the Hebrew people they are what I call an afro Asiatic people. Israel is still at that at the point of where those two continents meet right Southwest Asia northeast Africa is landlocked with Egypt I tell people God opened up the Red Sea because he wanted to right ... He's big and bad and he can do what he wants to do but you can literally; I wouldn't recommend it obviously, but you could literally walk from Egypt to Israel and you always have been able to for 1000s of years that has always been the case and so you have a people that in terms of skin tone or whatever... Yes, absolutely, they would be what we would call today quote unquote people of color right and so unfortunately particularly in our country we all know race and colorism is such a huge topic and it's often so divisive and it's used in so many different ways and we know much of that goes back to whether slavery, Jim Crow, people being assigned work obviously based on how dark or light they are all of those things but the problem as you all know is that those things aren't in the Bible right? There's no God likes this person doesn't like this person, this person's dark this person's like, that type of thing. But again, that's what men do, we are fallen creatures, we read what we want to read into the text, and then we use it unfortunately, in a way that's not helpful. Let me just say and pause here, I can tell you that as a Christian pastor, over the years of my just delving into what we often call the Jewish roots of our faith, by studying Torah with rabbis and with other Jewish scholars, my faith has been more important to me than ever in that it helps me understand even more so right, what is the Hebrew in this word here? What do the sages say about that, that's been a fascinating journey for me, over the last 30 some odd years since I've been doing this particular work. Geoffrey Stern  11:58 So I just want to jump in, you said so many things. But there is in this verse that we are reading today, the word "ashkenaz", he was one of the children of of Shem, and you quote, an Ethiopian Rabbi named Ephraim Isaac, and this is a sample of some of the humor in your book or the sense of discovery. And somebody said to him, You don't look Jewish. And he said:, "Ethiopia is mentioned the Bible over 50 times, but Poland not once." And I feel like that was, that was a great line. And what it really talks to is our preconceptions, and your book, and your vision, and your mission breaks preconceptions of what it is to be a Jew, what the mission of a Jew is, but most importantly, what the relationship is between the Jewish people and the African people. And one of the things that you touched upon was the sense of Mitzraim and Kush , and in your book, you really talk about how many times they're interchangeable, because really, it is the same area and those of us who think about Mitzrayim, or Egypt, we focus on the Exodus story, we focus on the pharaoh story. But as you mentioned, the prophets later on, we're having to talk to the Jews about not going back, because ultimately, the experience in Egypt was always favorable, it was our neighbor, and it was our place of refuge. Abraham goes down there with Sarah twice, Jacob sends his kids down there during a time of famine. The relationship and the reference to a Ham and to Mitzrayim  and to Kush is a very positive one. And yes, it does say in our week's parsha of all of the children, it says, "b'artzetam v'goyehem" , that they have a special language, and they have a family and they have a land. So the fact that we are neighbors is so important in the biblical context. So I said if we were going to walk down this wonderful path, and I would love for a second to talk about your mission about reuniting our two peoples and some of the challenges that you have. Clearly you don't speak to groups like us very much, although I think that I'm going to have an opportunity later to say that I think you should, because there's so much that we can learn. But what is your mission? How did you discover it? And what are your challenges? Dumisani Washington  14:40 Well, I'll do it concise, just because I don't want to take up too much time to firstly touch as much as we can. I am the founder and CEO of an organization called The Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel. I started it in 2013 but for about nearly seven years, I was not as active I started it. I did a lot of touring and a lot of speaking throughout the United States, churches, sometimes synagogues as well. And with this mission, it was a mission that was really placed in my heart. Actually in 2012, my first trip to Israel, I went as a guest of Christians United for Israel, I would come later on to join the staff with CUFA. But I was a guest pastor, I knew some friends who were part of the organization. And the short version of that story was my first tip ever, I'm in Israel, I'm at the Western Wall of the kotel. And I have a very intense experience in which I feel although Africa and Israel were passions of mine already, but the fusing of those two things together and a real work in which we continue to strengthen the alliance between Israel and Africa. And then obviously, in the States in the black and Jewish community. And there and finished the first edition of the book now, what you have there Rabbi is the second edition. And we started this organization for that very purpose to do both of those things continue to strengthen the black Jewish relationship, and also the Israel Africa Alliance. And so the challenges have been probably more than any other thing disinformation, right? There's a lot of false information that's there, when it comes to those things that would seek to divide and separate when you're talking about whether Africa Israel, now we're talking about the modern state of Israel, obviously, the rebirth of Israel in 1948. Israel's close ties with African nations throughout the continent, starting especially with Golda Meir, the foreign minister, all the way up into the 70s, where you have, as I mentioned in the book, Israel has more embassies throughout Africa than any other nation other than the United States, African economy, some of them are thriving, a great deal. You have a lot of synergy between the African nations and Israel. And after the Yom Kippur War in 1973, like never before Israel's enemies target that relationship between Israel and its African neighbors for different reasons. One of those is voting in the United Nations, right? And that became very much of a challenge. So one of the greatest challenges is, is information. What we share in the book and when we do our organization, we teach what we call an organization "Authentic History” is really simply telling what happened, how did something [happen]. Whether we're talking about biblically, whether we're discussing the parsha or we're talking about historically, right? We're talking about what the relationship was, and is. Why those connections there? And I'll just give one quick example if you're talking about black Jewish synergy in the United States, not just Dr. King's relationship with Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel in the civil rights community, not that it happened, right? But why, what was that synergy about? Right? So we've delve into that. We share from the documents from the Rabbinical Assembly; Dr. King's most famous words regarding Israel that were recorded 10 days before he was killed, right, why? And as a pastor, what we call a prophetic moment. Why 10 days before he's taken from us, is he telling the black community in the world to stand with Israel with all of our mind and protect its right to exist? Why is he saying these things? What's so important about it. And even the generation before? Why was it a black and Jewish man who changed the trajectory of this nation, Booker T. Washington, and Julius Rosenwald; millions of now first and second generation, slave; free slaves, right? but who had no access to education, not in a broader sense, and why that synergy saw some 5400 Rosenwald schools built throughout the segregated south. We touch on those historical points, and we delve into why that black Jewish synergy has been so powerful for so many people for so long. So that is our mission to strengthen those ties, because we believe that there's a great future ahead. Geoffrey Stern  19:05 You did such amazing research. I mean, I can tell you I never knew that Herzl said about Africa, "that once I have witnessed the redemption of Israel, my people, I wish to assist in the redemption of the Africans." And that is taking a small quote out of a full paragraph where the histories of the two people are so similar. I mean, it comes to us as a pleasant surprise, these synergies but it shouldn't because both our peoples have really traversed and continue to reverse the same pathway. And you quote Marcus Garvey and even Malcolm X and William Dubois. Malcolm X says "Pan Africanism will do for the people of African descent all over the world, the same that Zionism has done for Jews. All over the world." there was a sincere admiration for this miracle of a people returning to its land, we were talking before you came on about this whole kind of image of an ark. And it reminds you of Odesyuss... and it reminds you of all of these stories of man going on this heroic journey to find their their roots to come back, gain, experience and come back to their homeland, to their Aretz.. On the one hand, your job should be very simple. I guess, like any other fights, the closer you are, the bigger the friction can be. And there's nothing bigger than the friction between brothers. But it's such a challenge to address, as you say the misinformation. Dumisani Washington  20:51 Absolutely. And this is, again, why that's our primary goal. And then as part of what our mission is, we have launched here just recently, an initiative called The PEACE initiative. And PEACE is an acronym for Plan for Education, Advocacy, and Community Engagement, and the short version of that, again: We recruit young, black American and African young people from certain cities throughout the United States, a group of them, they go to a 16 week study course having some of the same conversations we're having now, including the modern state of Israel, ancient Israel, the United Nations, all these things that intersect when it comes to the black Jewish relations, then they will travel to Israel for about 10 days, and returned to the cities from where they've been recruited, and be the hub of black Jewish synergy in their communities. We believe with our organization that one of the reasons for the synergy that we've seen in the past, whether it was at the turn of the century with Booker T Washington, and Julius Rosenwald, or the mid part of the century with Dr. King and Rabbi Heschel, right now we are in different challenges, there are challenges that face particularly the more vulnerable black communities. And we see that that synergy could really address so many issues, whether it's education, whether it's jobs, those types of things, they can be really be addressed in a very holistic way. And really harnessing that synergy between the black and the Jewish community. And this is what we are doing. An Israel advocacy that is also rooted in these communities. And it's amazing. We see already rabbis and black pastors are working together all over the country. So that continues to happen. But we want to highlight those things even more and go even further in meeting some of the challenges what we call MC ambassadors will be leading that in different cities across the country. Geoffrey Stern  22:02 That's amazing. I want to come back to this sense of self-discovery and pride. And we always talk about it from our own perspective. So if you're African American, you want to make sure that your children believe that black is beautiful, that they come from an amazing heritage to be proud of who they are. And if you're Jewish, you want the same thing. But it seems to me, and you kind of cage the question in this way, "Why standing with Israel will be a defining issue for Christians of color", when we as Jews can see ourselves in the black community as we did during the civil rights movement that redeems us. And that empowers us. And I think what you're saying, and I don't want to put words into your mouth, but the same thing works in reverse. That in a sense, when the African community can recognize in Israel, its own story. It also can find a part of itself. Is there any truth there? Dumisani Washington  23:50 I believe so Rabbi. I believe that that's exactly as a matter of fact, what we saw was the synergy. So let me use the example and go back to the early 1900s with Booker T. Washington, Julius Rosenwald. The way that story happens, as you may know is that Booker T Washington writes his seminal book "Up From Slavery". Julius Rosenwald, who lives in Chicago at the time, is very active in his community. As a matter of fact, he was active, using his wealth; of those of you who don't know of Sears Roebuck fame, he is the one who took his company to this whole different level, economically and everything. And so with his wealth as a businessman, he's helping the Jews who are being persecuted in Russia. And one of his own testimony, I don't say this part of the book, but I kind of alluded to it, that here he is driving to work from the suburbs to where his factory is where his store is, and he's passing by throngs of black people who've left the South, right? looking for a better life, but they're living in very, very bad conditions, a lot of poverty and everything. And he says to himself, basically, if I'm going to do all of this to help Russian Jews right, way over the other side of the world, and I have this human crisis right here, where I live, I want to be able to do that and his, his Rabbi was Emile Hirsch, one of the founding members of the NAACP. Right? So his Rabbi encourages him. And we see this with our Jewish brothers and sisters all the time, see yourself, do help, do use your wealth, use your ability, right? To help. And so he reads Booker T. Washington's book he's taken with him, they begin to correspond. And Booker T. Washington says, Here's how you can help me I'm trying to build schools for my people who don't have access. And Rabbi to your point. Here is this man, this Jewish man who is very well aware of his history, he knows his People's History of persecution and struggle and triumph, right? Very much sees himself in that black story, and then he uses his ability. It's amazing even what he does; there's a Rosenwald film about Rosenwald schools, I believe his children were the ones who produced it. And they were saying that what he actually did was pretty ingenious, he put up a third of the money, the black community raised a third of the money, and then he challenged the broader white community to partner with them and bring the last third and that is how those Rosenwald Schools began.  Because what he wanted to do, he wanted to see people come together, he wanted to see them all work together. Even though Booker T. Washington passes away only three years into that, right, that venture continues on Julius Rosenwald goes and sits on the board of the Tuskegee college, Tuskegee University, right? There's this long connection that's there. So in that struggle, the black American community, and he connected with this black American leader, the one of the most prominent of the time, Booker T, Washington, and they, like I tell people, changed the world. Like, can we imagine what the United States would have been if you had those millions of now freed slaves, right? with no access, and particularly those who are living in the Jim Crow South, no access whatsoever to education, Would the Harlem Renaissance have become what it become, with the black Wall Street, whether it was in Tulsa, whether in Philadelphia, these things that explode because of the access to education to now these first and second generations of people coming out of slavery, right? So I believe that that's the case and which is why I'll say again, here today, some of those challenges are there, some of the challenges are different than they were, obviously 50, 60, 70, 80 years ago, but we believe in organization that those challenges can be met with that same amazing synergy between the black and the Jewish community. Geoffrey Stern  27:26 A lot of people would argue that the rift or the change of the relationship between the African American community and the Jewish community was when the Jews or Israel stopped being looked at as the David in the Goliath story and we won the Six Day War. And how do you ensure that the facts are told, but also as you climb out of the pit, and as you achieve your goals, you shouldn't be necessarily punished for being successful. Success is not a sin. It's an inspiration. But it seems to me that's one of the challenges that we have, especially in the Jewish community for our next generation of children, who really do see ourselves not as the minority and don't see ourselves anymore mirrored in the African American community. Dumisani Washington  28:25 But one of my favorite things about the Jewish tradition of the Seder, is that you all lean and recline in the Seder today, and you tell your children, when we had the first one, we sat with our sandals on, our staff, in our hand, our belts ....because we were slaves leaving slavery, but now we are no longer. And that whole ethos of telling children, right? There's a strong parallel in the black American community, right? The whole point of going from struggle to a place where you can live in peace or at the very least, you recognize and realize the sacrifice of the people who came before you right? And I won't step into the controversial for lots of different reasons, we'll be able to unpack it, but let me just say this, for the black American experience when you're talking I often teach this in our sermons and other things that arc .... and let me say again, no, people are monolith. Obviously we just kind of put that on the table, all the Jews arent' alike all black Americans aren't alike..... Having said that, there is an overarching story when you talk about black Americans, who, from slavery to Jim Crow, segregation, black codes, all of those types of things to the modern era. And that story cannot accurately be told without talking about God and His people. In other words, when you're talking about the spirituals "Go Down Moses". "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho" and I talked about that in the book, these songs that are rooted in the scriptures, most of the time in, in the Tanakh, our Jewish brothers and sisters' side of the Bible. I mean, sometimes in the New Testament, most of the time, these songs are being sung in hope. And that hope was realized, right? It's not an Negro spiritual song technically, but I put it in that category, part of the greatest one ever. I mean, how it culminates would be "Lift Every Voice and Sing" us a song that today has all these political things connected to it for lots of different unfortunate reasons. But when James Weldon Johnson wrote that song, wrote it as a poem? Those stanzas and anybody listening to this, I want to tell Google that Google Lift Every Voice and Sing"; just read the words. And this was a very powerful, very, very much God and God's love, and our hope and our faith and our trust, and our honoring the people who came before us; all of those things. And he talked about being free. Now, it's written in 1899. Right? You still have questions. I mean, there are no laws against lynching there going on, it's still crushing racism. However, he as a father in the black community is not only acknowledging what God has done, there's amazing things that are happening. One of the economist's that I quote, in my book, Thomas Sol said that the black community after slavery, and less than 50 years after slavery went from 0% literacy to almost 50% literacy, in that half a century, something economic historians say has never happened before. And now you're later on, you're talking about the black Wall Street, you're talking about black oil barons and landowners and factory owners, right? You're talking about this black middle class emerging. There's been no civil rights bill, right? There's been no Pell grants for school. These things don't even exist yet. We're talking about the 19 teens and the 1920s. You're talking about black people who had previously been slaves for hundreds of years. Why am I saying all that we as a people know full well; if we know our history, know full well what it is to come from all of those dire situations into a place of blessing, even though there may be struggles just like our Jewish brothers and sisters. We are convinced an organization that as we know, as a black community, particularly younger people that we are talking with, and teaching, as we know and appreciate our history, not the history that's regurgitated in terms of media and, and for political purposes. But truly our history, there is a great deal to be proud of about that. And to see, as I said in the sermon a couple of months ago, not only does it not a victim narrative, I descended from superheroes, my people went through slavery, Jim Crow, and still build on Wall Street still built the Tuskegee Institute. Still, we're soldiers who fighting for their own freedom in the Civil War. I mean, you're talking on and on and on things that they should have never been able to accomplish. When I consider what they accomplished with not very much help often. I recognize the greatness of the heritage that I come from, then that allows me to see an Israel rise like a phoenix from the ashes and not spurn that but recognize that our Jewish brothers and sisters have gone through millennia of this and Israel then to be celebrated, not denigrated. Adam Mintz  33:12 Thank you. We want to thank you. Your passion, and your insight is really brought a kind of a new insight to our discussion here. We really want to thank you, you know, we at Madlik we start on time and we end on time, Shabbat is about to begin in just a little while. Hopefully we'll be able to invite you back in the future as we continue this conversation. But I know I join Geoffrey and everybody on the call and everybody who's gonna listen to the podcast. Thank you for joining us and for really your insight and your passion. You really leave us with so much to think about as we begin the Shabbat. Dumisani Washington  33:51 Thank you. Thank you for having me. Adam Mintz  33:53 Thank you Geoffrey, Shabbat Shalom, everybody, Geoffrey Stern  33:55 Shabbat Shalom. And Reb Dumisani, you mentioned the songs. There's a whole chapter in your book about Negro spirituals. And as the rabbi said, w are approaching the Shabbat. And as you observe the Sunday we observed Saturday, but you know that the secret of living without a land or being on a difficult mission is that Sabbath, the strength of the Sabbath, and the connection between Noah and the word Menucha which is "rest" is obvious. And there was a great poet named Yehuda halevi. And he wrote a poem about the Yona; the dove that Noah sent out of the ark to see if there was dry land. And he he said that on Shabbat. Yom Shabbaton Eyn L'shkoach, "the day of Shabbat you cannot forget"  Zechru l'reach Hanichoach"  He also uses Reach Nichoach which is a pleasing scent,Yonah Matzah Bominoach, the yonah, the dove found on it rest v'shom ynuchu yegiah koach  and there in the Shabbat , in that ark of rest on that ark of Sunday or Saturday is where we all gain strength. So I wish you continued success in all that you do. And that this Shabbat and this Sunday we all gather the strength to continue our mission. But I really do hope that we get another chance to study Torah together. And I really hope that all of the listeners go out and buy your book, Zionism in the Black Church because it is an absolute thrill. And I understand you're coming out with a new book that's going to talk more about the Jewish people and the various colors and flavors that we come in. Dumisani Washington  35:55 Hopefully to put that out next year sometime. Absolutely. Geoffrey Stern  35:59 Fantastic. Well thank you so much so Shabbat Shalom and we are we are in your debt. Dumisani Washington  36:05 Thank you. Shabbat Shalom and looking forward to bye bye   Music: Lift Every Voice and Sing - Melinda Dulittle https://youtu.be/6Dtk9h1gZOI 

In this week's episode, we talk about how we often forget that Jewish leaders in the civil rights movement who are lauded today were not universally supported in their time. We often pretend their detractors did not exist, and yet, they are in fact still here in our communities pushing back against our current reckoning with racial justice. Check out our discussion/reflection questions for this episode: www.joyousjustice.com/blog/jews-talk-racial-justice-ep-51Find April and Tracie's full bios and submit topic suggestions for the show at www.JewsTalkRacialJustice.comLearn more about Joyous Justice where April is the founding and fabulous (!) director, and Tracie is a senior partner.: https://joyousjustice.com/Read more of Tracie's thoughts at her blog, bmoreincremental.comRead more about Rabbi Morris Leiberman and the Gwynn Oak Amusement Park Protest here: https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/hundreds-protest-gwynn-oak-segregation/Check out the Joyous Justice Program, Whiteness Havruta here:https://joyousjustice.com/whiteness-havrutaShare your thoughts with us here: https://joyousjustice.com/jews-talk-racial-justice-questionsLearn more about Rabbi Heschel's legacy and popularity here: https://momentmag.com/susannah-heschel-on-the-legacy-of-her-father-rabbi-abraham-joshua-heschel-and-the-civil-rights-movement/Revisit Colin Kaepernick's journey here: https://apnews.com/article/colin-kaepernick-american-protests-police-san-francisco-49ers-sports-general-f9bbe38b748072531b07713736409181

Rabbi Paul J. Citrin has served various congregations as a rabbi for over 40 years. He is retired from the pulpit, but continues to teach in synagogues and community centers. He is the author of several books including Gates of Repentance for Young People (Paul Abrams, Judith) (CCAR Press 2009), Ten Sheaves: A Collection of Sermons and Articles (2014), Lights In The Forest: Rabbis Respond To 12 Essential Jewish Questions (editor) (CCAR Press 2016) and I Am My Prayer: A Memoir and Guide for Jews and Seekers (Resource Publications 2021)Interview Date: 5/20/2021  Tags: MP3, Rabbi Paul J Citrin, prayer, Sabbath, Torah, metaphor, Avi HaRachamim, Father of Mercies, Mother Father God, metaphor as springboard, shekinah, Jewish tradition, Judaism, Hindu Kālidāsa, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Religion, Spirituality, Meditation, Community

Sponsors: The Center for Congregational Health, Baptist Seminary of Kentucky, and McAfee School of Theology's Doctor of Ministry program. Music from HookSounds.com

One of the things I love to do from time to time is take advantage of the opportunity to promote some of the great programming that we air on our sister station WGVU-TV, our areas PBS affiliate. In May of 2021 PBS stations across the country aired a remarkable documentary on the life of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, one of the most influential clergymen and academics of the 20th century. If you'd not heard of him, or know little of his story, do give this a listen. And look for showings of the documentary in your area. Our guest is Martin Doblmeier, the founder of Journey Films Inc, a film and television production company focused creating content on religion, faith and spirituality. Martin holds degrees in Religious Studies, Broadcast Journalism and honorary degrees in Fine Arts and Humane Letters. Since 1984 he has produced and directed more than 30 films focused on religion, faith and spirituality. His films include Bonhoffer (2003) The Power of Forgiveness (2007), An American Conscience: The Reinhold Niebuhr Story (2017), and Backs Against The Wall: The Howard Thurman Story (2019).

The life and thought of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) exerted a profound impact on the history of American religion and social activism. The subject of a new PBS documentary, Spiritual Audacity, Heschel offered prophetic insights into the nature of God, the meaning of justice, and the necessity of Jewish-Christian dialogue. On this episode, we discuss the rabbi's legacy with two guests: Martin Doblmeier, who directed the film, and Professor Susannah Heschel, Rabbi Heschel's daughter. For further reading: •         ‘Getting Past Supersessionism,' The Editors •         ‘The Call of Transcendence,' Mary C. Boys •         ‘Enough Bromides,' Thomas Albert Howard

Tom's next guests are featured in a new documentary about an extraordinary Jewish theologian and activist. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel was a mentor, friend and colleague of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and one of the most influential religious scholars and public intellectuals of the 20th century. The new documentary, by filmmaker Martin Doblmeier, will air on PBS May 5. Tomorrow afternoon, the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies here in Baltimore will host a virtual symposium to talk about Heschel’s influence and legacy.To talk about that legacy now, Tom welcomes back to Midday the two speakers at that symposium, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Taylor Branch and Benjamin Sax, the Jewish Scholar at the ICJS. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we hear from Martin Doblmeier, the director of Spiritual Audacity: The Abraham Joshua Heschel Story on the history of one of the most inspiring and preeminent scholars of the 20th Century. Doblmeier discusses Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel's profound impact on the civil rights movement, the relationship between Jews and the Roman Catholic Church, and the “evil of indifference.” Then, Natalia Mahmud, AJC's Associate Director of U.S. Muslim-Jewish Relations, speaks about the Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act, ahead of its reintroduction in Congress, and in honor of baseball's Opening Day, we dip into AJC's Oral History Library to hear directly from one of the greatest Jewish baseball players ever, Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg, also known as “The Hebrew Hammer.” Greenberg recounts what it was like to be a Jewish baseball player in the 1930s and 1940s and the level of antisemitism he had to endure.   _____ Episode Lineup:  (00:40) Martin Doblmeier (16:55) Natalia Mahmud (19:36) Manya Brachear Pashman (23:00) Seffi Kogen  _____ Show Notes: Episode Transcript AJC's William E. Wiener Oral History Library Learn more about the Jabara-Heyer NO Hate Act at AJC.org/TakeAction Music: Take Me Out to the Ballgame by Kevin MacLeod (Link; License)

This week on “The Learning Curve,” Gerard and Cara talk with Dr. Susannah Heschel, the Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, and the daughter of noted 20th-century Jewish theologian and Civil Rights-era leader, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. They discuss what teachers and students today should know about Rabbi Heschel's life and legacy. Born in Warsaw, Poland... Source

This week on “The Learning Curve,” Gerard and Cara talk with Dr. Susannah Heschel, the Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, and the daughter of noted 20th-century Jewish theologian and Civil Rights-era leader, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. They discuss what teachers and students today should know about Rabbi Heschel’s life […]

April and Tracie continue to flesh out some of the key obstacles from their flip the script resource with the help of a question from a listener. One of the limiting beliefs that shows up in racial justice work is the sense that you've learned a lot, but not enough to take action. April and Tracie dig into this notion and give some suggestions for ways to productively hold the both / and of having a lot to learn AND having being able to humbly and meaningfully contribute.Find April and Tracie's full bios and submit topic suggestions for the show at www.JewsTalkRacialJustice.comLearn more about Joyous Justice where April is the founding and fabulous (!) director and Tracie is a senior partner: https://joyousjustice.com/Read more of Tracie's thoughts at bmoreincremental.comResources and notes:April and Tracie's "Flip the Script" Resource is available here.Find Episode S2E3 here and some reflection questions about it here.Rabbi Sandra Lawson is the inaugural director of diversity, equity, and inclusion for Reconstructing Judaism.Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel sent a telegram to President Kennedy asking him to declare a "state of moral emergency" because of racism and its effects in the U.S.Sign up for access to our free three-video offering here. 

Part 1 - Rabbi Michael Feshbach returns to Analyze This on the eve of the St. Thomas Hebrew Congregation’s annual service honoring Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Among a multitude of interwoven topics, Rabbi Feshbach and Neville James discuss the special friendship between Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the power of watching Ossoff and Warnock campaign together and the vitality of the Black-Jewish alliance. 

We continue Moses’s fight today. We continue Martin Luther King’s fight today. We honor the legacies of Abraham Joshua Heschel and Martin Luther King- friends, who stood up in the face of injustice and cried out for unity.

Throughout this series, we’ve heard historians say that the way Americans think about race is changing, as evidenced by the unprecedented numbers of Americans marching after George Floyd’s death. And along with this surge in action are critical conversations about what it means to be an ally, and what it means to “perform” allyship.UnTextbooked producer Daniel Ardity noticed what he thought to be a lot of empty support for the Black Lives Matter movement in the summer of 2020--particularly when his Instagram feed was full of black squares one day in June. It made him wonder how he and other non-Black allies could meaningfully contribute to the movement without just adding to the noise. These questions reminded him of a lecture he’d heard about the Black-Jewish alliance during the Civil Rights Movement. Daniel is Jewish himself, and was inspired by the activism of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and his contemporaries. For many American Jews, supporting Black liberation was an expression of tikkun olam, Hebrew for “heal the world”. According to historian Cheryl Greenberg, author of Troubling the Waters: Black-Jewish Relations in the American Century, support for the Civil Rights Movement was integral to the American Jewish identity. She says this was, at least in part, because both groups are vulnerable to white supremacist violence.On this episode of UnTextbooked, Daniel interviews Cheryl Greenberg about how the Black-Jewish alliance evolved, and how it was effective even when it was not perfectly harmonious.Guest: Dr. Cheryl Lynn GreenbergBook: Troubling the Waters: Black-Jewish Relations in the American CenturyProducer: Daniel ArdityMusic: Silas Bohen and Coleman HamiltonEditors: Bethany Denton and Jeff Emtman

Rev. D. Maurice CharlesSubscribe to the podcast here! 2:33 - Dean Charles talks about his growing up in the church and how his family migrated from the Jim Crow South. How his family's stories of slavery and survival and faith make up the story of his heritage.5:12 - When and how Dean Charles was called to the ministry. His background in microbiology, psychology, and sociology. How he became a university chaplain. "Human beings are stranger than microbes."7:31 - What is a university chaplain? "Helping communities process trauma."11:05 - What it means to be the first African American chaplain at the University of Chicago. "Chicago is a challenging place to be a black male."18:18 - How Dean Charles's childhood experiences of the turbulent 1960's led to his scholarly work in religion and violence. "What is the religious response to violence? Can we reform policing?"26:00 - Protest songs and why music is important during social movements: "One cannot live on rage alone....Defiant joy keeps things moving forward."27:49 - [Music] presents an image to us of the kind of community that we're striving for. It also names community pain."28:07 - "We need poets and musicians to help us name our reality." How the arts help us process trauma.28:54 - "We need artists and musicians now more than ever because there is a certain level of pain and rupture that defies prose."29:44 - On Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel's essay, "The Vocation of the Cantor": "Music has a shattering quality; it allows the soul to have an encounter with reality that is beyond what we have simply by mere cognition."31:32 - "You can be aware of the barriers to access and to advancement while at the same time being told by the people on the other side of those barriers that they don't exist. It is absolutely crazy-making."31:47 - Death as the universal experience that allows entry into "intimate settings you wouldn't normally be welcomed into" and how death breaks down barriers.34:07 - "A bad day if you're poor is much worse than a bad day if you're wealthy."38:09 - "Oppression Olympics" and how "we act in this country like empathy is the only impetus toward moral action...you don't have to feel what some else feels to do the right thing."43:25 - "We act in this country like empathy is the only impetus toward moral action. You don't have to feel what someone else feels to do the right thing."44:43 - "Treat others not only how we want to be treated but treat others the way they want to be treated."45:19 - "Create a society that makes space for all of us."48:18 - "When things don't make sense, we still resist because to resist absurdity is to live." What Dean Charles does to counterbalance his own despair in these difficult times.59: 35 - Dean Charles's advice to his younger self: "Take your experience of the world seriously. It's valuable. It's a gift to you and to those around you."

For many people, the narrative about Black-Jewish relations goes something like this: In the 1960s, there was a strong alliance between the two groups, perfectly encapsulated by the image of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel walking arm-in-arm on the civil rights march from Selma, Alabama. Then, with the rise of black nationalism, that relationship started to break down. But what if that isn't the whole story? In this episode, host Jeremy Shere and guest scholars Marc Dollinger and Lewis R. Gordon complicate that narrative, tracing the history of Black-Jewish relations from the early 20th century to today. 

Rabbi Zoe Klein leads an online discussion about the importance of curiousity and it's place in Jewish spiritual growth. Albert Einstein said, “One cannot help but be in awe when one contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.” Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said, “Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement…To be spiritual is to be amazed.” In this discussion Rabbi Klein explores the soul-trait of Curiosity and having a Beginner’s Mind. Zoë Klein serves as the spiritual leader of Temple Isaiah in Los Angeles. After graduating from Brandeis University with a B.A. in Psychology, she pursued the rabbinate out of a passion for ancient texts, mythology, liturgy and poetry. She received ordination from Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in 1998. This discussion was conducted via Zoom on August 19, 2020 as part of the Elul+ Pre-Tishre study program presented by Temple Beth Am Los Angeles.

Ruth Messinger is Global Ambassador of American Jewish World Service, having served nearly two decades as its president. Prior to her tenure at AJWS, she had a career in New York City politics.  She served on the New York City Council, was Manhattan Borough President and was the Democratic nominee for Mayor in 1997.Ruth cites many teachers throughout her extensive career including her mother, Marjorie Wyler, who had her own distinguished career in broadcasting production and public presentation for the Jewish Theological Seminary, including the Emmy Award-winning program, The Eternal Light .For a thorough history of The Eternal Light, see: Jeffrey Shander and Elihu Katz, “Broadcasting American Judaism: The Radio and Television Department of the Jewish Theological Seminary,” Jack Wertheimer, Ed., Tradition Renewed: A History of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Volume 2: Beyond the Academy (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1997), pp. 365-401.In The Eternal Light's run of more than 40 years on radio and television, one of the most memorable programs featured the 1972 interview of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel filmed shortly before Rabbi Heschel's death. Ruth discusses Rabbi Heschel as another one of her most influential teachers.For questions and comments, email Rabbi Ed Bernstein at myteacherpodcast@gmail.com.Follow the My Teacher Podcast on social media:Twitter: @PodcastTeachFacebookInstagram

CIVIL RIGHTS! We all have civil rights. Some people hire me to enforce those rights. Other times, I seek to protect civil rights through my free speech into a microphone. Or through my penning columns as Columnist at Large for the Colorado Sun.   The passing of Rep. John Lewis has got me focused on civil rights and the sacrifices necessary to make civil rights happen. Bloody Sunday in Selma concerned the right to vote and joined in line that Sunday to try to cross that Edmund Pettus Bridge were young and brave John Lewis, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, all now of blessed memory. Three American civil rights heroes. There were others. There still are lots of others.   We commemorate Colorado Day by celebrating civil rights champions with the only child of Rabbi Heschel, Dartmouth College Professor Susannah Heschel. In Craig's Lawyers' Lounge is law professor and unfair housing expert, Professor Stefan Krieger. The veteran law school professor had his whole life changed by MLK and Rabbi Heschel. Andrew Struttman is a bright GOP political pro who put it all on the line to call out Michelle Malkin on the pages of the Denver Post. He gives a brilliant interview on this week's episode. Troubadour Dave Gunders brings us back to Earth with a special song and beautiful words.   Enjoy your civil rights and get ready to win with wisdom and a good soul on this week's episode of The Craig Silverman Show.   Susannah Heschel - 3:40   Andrew Struttmann - 49:00   Dave Gunders - 1:36:45   Stefan Kriegar - 1:55:13

A full bio of Rabbi Vernon Kurtz appears here. He was born in Toronto, Canada, received his BA from York University (1971), his MA and Rabbinic Ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary (1976), and his Doctor of Ministry degree from the Chicago Theological Seminary (1981). He also received a Doctor of Divinity degree (Honoris Causa) from the Jewish Theological Seminary (2003).From 1976 to 1988, Rabbi Kurtz served as Assistant Rabbi and Rabbi of Congregation Rodfei Zedek in the Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. Rabbi Kurtz then served 31 years as Rabbi of North Suburban Synagogue Beth El in Highland Park, IL, where he is now Rabbi Emeritus. He is an internationally recognized rabbi, scholar and Jewish communal leader. Rabbi Kurtz now lives in Jerusalem after he and his wife Bryna made aliyah (immigration) to Israel in 2019.Publications:Read blog entries by Rabbi Kurtz posted in the Times of IsraelRabbi Vernon Kurtz honored at 2010 JUF Annual MeetingEncountering Torah, Reflections on the Weekly Torah Portion, by Rabbi Vernon Kurtz – This special book was published by Rabbi Kurtz in honor of the 25th Anniversary of his rabbinate at Beth El. He has chosen two sermons on almost every Torah portion and assembled them in this book. It represents his understanding not only of the lessons of Torah, but the lessons of life. It is a beautiful example of Jewish thought and contemporary book publishing. See Rabbi Kurtz's bio at NSSBE web site for information about how to purchase book. Rabbi Ralph Simon (1906-1996) spent 44 years as Rabbi of Congregation Rodfei Zedek in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, IL. His Chicago Tribune obituary appears here. Rabbi Simon's granddaughter Susannah Hoffs of the band The Bangles paid tribute to her grandfather on Instagram in 2019 with a photo of Rabbi Simon with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on March 25, 1968 at the Rabbinical Assembly Convention at which Rabbi Simon presided as president of the RA. A transcript of Dr. King's public dialogue at the RA Convention with Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and Rabbi Everett Gendler was published in Conservative Judaism Journal, 22:3, 1968, pp. 1-19. This was one of Dr. King's final major public appearances prior to his assassination ten days later on April 4. André LaCocque is Professor Emeritus of Hebrew Bible at Chicago Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois, and the founding Director of the Center for Jewish-Christian Studies at CTS. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including Ruth: A Continental Commentary (Augsburg Fortress), Esther Regina: A Bakhtinian Reading (Northwestern University Press), and the trilogy on innocence in the Hebrew Bible, The Trial of Innocence: Adam, Eve and the Yahwist (Wipf and Stock), Onslaught Against Innocence: Cain, Abel and the Yahwist, Jesus the Central Jew and The Captivity of Innocence: Babel and the Yahwist (both from Cascade). He also coauthored Thinking Biblically:Exegetical and Hermeneutical Studies with Paul Ricoeur.Dr. LaCocque discusses his book Jesus the Central Jew in this 2015 symposium. Here is Rabbi Kurtz's review of Prof. Andre Lacocque's "Jesus, the Central Jew". For questions and comments, email Rabbi Ed Bernstein at myteacherpodcast@gmail.com.Follow the My Teacher Podcast on social media:Twitter: @PodcastTeachFacebookInstagram

Fred Rogers' 2002 Commencement Address at Dartmouth College For questions and comments, email Rabbi Ed Bernstein at myteacherpodcast@gmail.com.  Follow the My Teacher Podcast on social media: Twitter: @PodcastTeachFacebookInstagram 

In this lecture, I present one of my "Most Misunderstood Concepts in the Torah"... Revelation.  What does it mean that God speaks to Moses?  What is the revelation of Torah?  I present the philosophical frame for this debate, beginning with Descartes and Kant and then the devastating critique of them by Nietzsche, and later Wittgenstein and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.   How do we avoid the betwitchment of our language in such crucial areas as "I think means that I cause my thoughts" or "If I experience God, then God is an object of my experience?"  How can we become closer to Torah through breaking out of our silly thinking and coming to a more subtle, meaningful, and common sensical identification with revelation?   The quotes used may be viewed by clicking here.

Omid Safi offers a look at the life and teachings of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, a civil rights hero who had a passion for serving God and mankind equally.Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-72), was one of the leading Jewish theologians and Jewish philosophers of the 20th century. Internationally known as scholar, author, activist, and theologian. Learn more about Rabbi Heschel's life and teachings at Heschel.org.

There is a realm of time where the goal is not to have but to be, not to own but to give, not to control but to share, not to subdue but to be in accord. Life goes wrong when the control of space, the acquisition of things of space, becomes our sole concern.” ―Abraham Joshua HeschelSubscribe to the Signposts email list! Want to stay up to date on all Signposts and other projects I’m working on? Then click this link and come join me as we explore the wild paths together! Support the show!You can support the show via Patreon and for as little as $1 a month to get access to episodes before anyone else and the first dibs on any other content I create. Music provided by Alex Sugg, and songsforstory.comSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/ryancagle)

  What does it mean to pray with our feet? How can we spark change through conversation, one moment, one day, at a time?  What is the biblical basis for activism (Proverbs 31:8-9, Matthew 25:40 and Amos 5:24 and Isaiah 54:6-7).  All this and more on our first episode lifting up the intersection of faith and social justice / activism.  We delve into -  Sharing God's grace and love with folks who have different lived experiences than us.  Why activism must be intersectional - immigrant children in detention centers, folks caught in the web of mass incarceration, climate justice, dismantling white supremacy - all of it is connected.  The story behind the phrase "pray with our feet", a quote from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.   How we connect to God through our creativity.  Why we're so excited for you to hear our upcoming guests, some include: Rev. Amanda (founder of Raising Imagination, an online community, and co-Pastor at Middle Church), Avril Sommervile, activist and writer (Journey of a Life on Purpose) and Rev. Lyvonne Proverbs (founder of Beautiful Scars and Emmy-award winning media producer) and Dr. Marisela Gomez, author, activist and public health physician. Watch her TEDx talk.    Our podcast is generously edited by my husband Keston De Coteau, talented videographer / photographer / editor. Find him: https://www.keston.online   Get Social with Us:   Instagram: @praywithourfeet Twitter: @praywithourfeet 

MaryLee joins us for an energized conversation about breathing, Peter Pan, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, her daughter Sephy chalking the word 'feat' on her playscape and the powerful way that memories of her beloved father Salvatore help her when she's feeling lost. For more info about or to be a guest for an upcoming 5 Questions Podcast, visit www.gabriellekaplanmayer.com. Thank you for listening and please share with your friends! Please take a moment to share some stars and a review on Apple Podcasts so we'll reach more listeners~much appreciated. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/5questionspodcast/message

DrDebzz Opening ShpielIn numerology, January is a 1 month and 2019 is the World Year Number 3.  The 3 represents communication and the need to speak out.  If people are happy you will hear about it and if they are not, you will hear about that, too! The 3 Vibration encourages a sense of humor and since laughter is the best medicine this will go a long way in healing planetary strife. The 3 World Number compels creativity. If you have a burning desire to sing, write a book, or start your own company, the World Number 3 invites you to Go For It!With the 1 Vibration, January is a great time to decide who belongs in your life and who you should let go.  If someone consistently brings out the worst in you, consider parting company. If someone constantly takes from you and never gives back, trust you can do better.  Reciprocation and mutual respect is key!  Write In QuestionFrom Ashley in San Mateo: I recently found out the guy I've been dating slept with someone else during our time together. I told him we had to have a conversation about it and said I only wanted to move forward if we were both in it 100% and not sleeping with other people. He said he wasn't ready to commit in that way just yet. I decided to break it off. Should I give him a chance even though he says he needs more time before exclusivity or did I make the right move in ending it?  Weekly WOW (Words of Wisdom)"Let the good in me connect with the good in others, until all the world is transformed through thepower of love" - Rabbi Nachman of Breslow "Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy."- Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel "In order for love to be experienced, both the lover and the beloved must vanish." - Rupert Spira Confidence Boosters/Esteem BuildersI am now attracting the most loving person in my life.Love is my divine birthright and I claim it now.I express my beauty from the inside out.  I am lovable and worthy of receiving love.I release the past and let love flow into my life.I have more love than I ever thought possible. I am in the right place at the right time tomagnetize my ideal match.Featured ArtistJazz Vocalist Extraordinaire, Tom Francini in a LIVE interview, reveals the meaning of music in his life, advice for aspiring artists, what he feels is the key to finding and keeping love, plus much more. Hear Tom performing the tune, "I Just Got Back in Town."Catch Tom LIVE TOMORROW NIGHT January 24 at Vitello's, Studio City in "My First Affair," celebrating his birthday while sharing the stage with master musicians:Jamison Trotter, piano; Pat Kelley, guitar; Danny Janklow, sax; Gabe Davis, bass; Aaron Serfaty, drums.Tickets: https://tinyurl.com/TomFrancini  DrDebzz Call-in Advice Talk Show "Sleepless in Studio City" Airs Nightly Sun-Fri 9pm PT / midnight ET with new episodes Sat 9pm & midnight PT / midnight & 3am ET at AmericanHeartsRadio.com.Celebrated columnist, lauded life coach, skilled family mediator, DrDebzz offers heartfelt help, inspiration, positivity,a nurturing spirit, and transformative tools.DrDebzz has been deemed “The new relationship GURU…a West Coast Dr. Laura and East Coast Carrie Bradshaw!” Fans describe her as a “soulful gifted fun impressive” radio personality; with a “captive confident soothing melodious and simply lovely voice;” an “alluring way of telling her-story;” so"spiritually alive and giving LOVE to humanity.”Phone Life Coaching Sessions are available 24/7. Set up a Complimentary Consultation at 818-753-8898;allthatdezz.webs.com; or sleeplessinstudiocity@gmail.comListen now on iTunes!

“Words, he often wrote, are themselves sacred, God’s tool for creating the universe, and our tools for bringing holiness — or evil — into the world.  He used to remind us that the Holocaust did not begin with the building of crematoria, and Hitler did not come to power with tanks and guns; it all began with uttering evil words, with defamation, with language and propaganda. Words create worlds he used to tell me when I was a child.  They must be used very carefully. Some words, once having been uttered, gain eternity and can never be withdrawn. The Book of Proverbs reminds us, he wrote, that death and life are in the power of the tongue.” Rabbi Susannah Heschel, speaking of her father, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel 

It’s 2019, and we’re kicking off the new year by celebrating new life and examining the challenges facing Jewish millennials and young parenthood, followed by a conversation about the recent Womens March with Jewish Exponent reporter Selah Maya Zighelboim and finally we’ll share the story of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel who marched in Selma arm in arm with Martin Luther King, Jr. in pursuit of righteousness and equality. We also had the honor to sit down with Pennsylvania’s Attorney General Josh Shapiro to talk about the issue that has propelled him on to the national stage, the Pennsylvania Catholic clergy abuse scandal. We also talk about how his Jewish values guide him as Pennsylvania’s head lawyer, his future political plans and his advice for Jewish communities combatting anti-Semitism.

It’s 2019, and we’re kicking off the new year by celebrating new life and examining the challenges facing Jewish millennials and young parenthood, followed by a conversation about the recent Womens March with Jewish Exponent reporter Selah Maya Zighelboim and finally we’ll share the story of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel who marched in Selma arm in arm with Martin Luther King, Jr. in pursuit of righteousness and equality. We also had the honor to sit down with Pennsylvania’s Attorney General Josh Shapiro to talk about the issue that has propelled him on to the national stage, the Pennsylvania Catholic clergy abuse scandal. We also talk about how his Jewish values guide him as Pennsylvania’s head lawyer, his future political plans and his advice for Jewish communities combatting anti-Semitism.

[NEW EPISODE] Love, Faith and A Pair of Pants This Thursday, on The Conscious Consultant Hour, Sam welcomes film-maker and author Herb Freed. Herb Freed, author of the timeless love story,Bashert, returns to the page in Love, Faith and A Pair of Pants with a collection of short stories about the smart, witty, spiritual and, according to Ben's mother, incredibly handsome, Rabbi Ben Zelig. In five anecdotes about a rabbi's life, Zelig navigates romance, family ties, colorful congregants and the meaning of faith. From studying for the rabbinate under legendary Jewish theologian, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, to producing and directing Hollywood films and dancing with Martha Graham, Freed extracts from his own experience to weave a colorful and universal tale of life, love and spirituality. In a time where humanity is constantly put to the test, Freed takes readers from humor to pathos and back again in an uplifting examination of what it means to be human. He has directed and produced 15 feature films most of which have had psychological, spiritual and/or social themes in spite of their commercial categories. He is best known for Graduation Day andTomboy, as well as the taut thriller Haunts, and Child2Man, a story of survival during the Watts riots. Segment 1 Sam opens the show with his quote of the day from Abraham Hicks. Sam goes on to talk about the challenges he faced in his life and how they are not as bad as we think. Sam discusses that we need to look for the gift in each challenge and not be so concerned about things. Sam introduces film-maker and author Herb Freed, author of the book Love, Faith and A Pair of Pants. Herb talks about many people asking him how do you know when you found your soul mate and Herb says you don't know your heart knows. Segment 2 Sam talks about where he grew up in the Bronx and Herb talks about meeting his mentor Abraham Heschel, and his journey becoming a Rabbi. Herb discusses the close relationship he had with Abraham and what kind of person he was. Herb says Abraham was able to make people feel good and always had a smile on his face. Herb also talks about his own enjoyment of theater, directing and dancing and how he came to love film. Herb mentions his experiences with losses in his life and finding things that made him smile, helped him to heal. He states that people need to listen to people that inspire them and find things that make them happy. Segment 3 Herb discusses how he began writing and how writing made him happy. Herb talks about his latest book Love, Faith and A pair of Pants. Herb says its about a Rabbi falling in love with a women who is not Jewish. The book is also about faith, love and getting to know yourself. Sam mentions how difficult it is for people to feel acceptance in their own country and Herb talks about the similarities in culture in the Jewish and Chinese communities. Segment 4 In closing the show Sam tells his listeners to go out and purchase the new book by Herb, Love, Faith and A Pair of Pants. Herb says we are our brothers keepers,and talks about the tumultuous times we are living in. Herb says we are surrounded by anger, hate and lies but we need to hope for things to get better. Sam talks about the demonizing people who have different opinions and how divided the nation is at the moment. We need to look for things that bring us together and know we have much more in common than we do apart. Herb states we have the power to change and we can evolve. He mentions that we need to read things that inspire us and care about other people. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-conscious-consultant-hour8505/donations

Herb Freed, author of the timeless love story, Bashert, returns to the page in LOVE, FAITH AND A PAIR OF PANTS with a collection of short stories about the smart, witty, spiritual and, according to Ben’s mother, incredibly handsome, Rabbi Ben Zelig. In five anecdotes about a rabbi’s life, Zelig navigates romance, family ties, colorful congregants and the meaning of faith. From studying for the rabbinate under legendary Jewish theologian, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, to producing and directing Hollywood films and dancing with Martha Graham, Freed extracts from his own experience to weave a colorful and universal tale of life, love and spirituality. In a time where humanity is constantly put to the test, Freed takes readers from humor to pathos and back again in an uplifting examination of what it means to be human.

The Current Affairs panel opens up the phone lines, answering listener questions on postmodernism, growth, effective altruism, New Orleans and jokes. The Panel Brianna Rennix, senior editor Oren Nimni, legal editor Lyta Gold, amusements editor Nathan J. Robinson, editor-in-chief Pete Davis, host Miscellany Here's Nathan's original article on the problem of academic language. Here is the 80,000 hours blog referenced in the Effective Altruism segment. Here is Nathan and Brianna's podcast on the morality of wealth. Here is a great book by John Cort on Christian socialism and here is a piece on Martin Luther King's economic radicalism. Here's more on activist Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and here's more on Islamic socialism. Labor's Joke Book, mentioned in the footnotes, is here. Support Current Affairs by becoming a patron on our Patreon page. For the written form of Current Affairs — and to subscribe to the beautiful print magazine — visit: CurrentAffairs.org. To join the conversation, leave us a voicemail at 504-867-8851.

For this Fusatsu (Renewal of Vows ceremony) Zuisei speaks of sacred space as the ground in which atonement and vow become possible. It is, to borrow Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel's words, “A sanctuary in time”—a place and period which is both distinct from and equal to the everyday. A space full of possibility. Correction: The opening quote, attributed to Charles Chu, is actually by Margaret Gibson.

Professor Susannah Heschel, the Eli Black Professor and chair of the Jewish Studies Program at Dartmouth College (jewish.dartmouth.edu/), presented her Hammerman Lecture Series presentation "Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: The Life and Thought of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel" at Valley Beit Midrash's closing event in April 2018. This Valley Beit Midrash lecture took place before an audience at Temple Chai (www.templechai.com/) in Phoenix, AZ. ABOUT THIS LECTURE: Professor Heschel speaks about the remarkable life of her father, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. Rabbi Heschel was born in 1907 in Warsaw into a distinguished family of Hasidic rebbes. After his studies in Berlin, Rabbi Heschel escaped Europe and immigrated to the United States, becoming one of American Judaism’s most important interpreters and teachers of the twentieth century. Professor Heschel’s lecture will describe the Hasidic roots of her father’s theological writings and also of his political engagement in the Civil Rights Movement and in Christian-Jewish relations. She will discuss their family life, their close relationships with their Hasidic family, and some of the remarkable people who entered their lives, including Martin Luther King, Jr. DONATE: bit.ly/1NmpbsP TRANSLATION OF RABBI HESCHEL'S YIDDISH SPEECH: https://bit.ly/2r0D0o0 For more info, please visit: www.facebook.com/valleybeitmidrash/ www.facebook.com/temple.chai twitter.com/VBMTorah www.facebook.com/RabbiShmulyYanklowitz/ Music: "Watercolors" by John Deley and the 41 Players, a public domain track from the YouTube Audio Library.

On this 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we also recall the theological vision he shared with his dear friend Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, a vision that compelled both men to become activists in the struggle against racism and to provide impassioned religious opposition to this country’s long engagement in the Vietnam War. Heschel, born and raised in the Hasidic tradition in Poland, later emigrated to the United States and became a public intellectual and provocative leader in 1960's America on the issues of race, war, and interreligious encounter. Deeply influenced by the prophetic tradition of Judaism, both he and King drew upon that tradition to guide their moral trajectory. In this two-part series we will focus attention on the theological roots that united them in a common ethical commitment to the claims of justice. Rev. David Robb is Assistant Minister for Adult Education and Scholar-In-Residence at All Souls. He formerly taught as a member of the Theology Department at Georgetown University, and in the Religious Studies Department at Connecticut College where he also served as Chaplain for 14 years. A graduate of Union Theological Seminary and of the Blanton-Peale Graduate Institute, Mr. Robb also maintains a practice in psychotherapy and pastoral counseling in New York City.

God’s Search for the Human: The Spiritual Audacity of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel with Rev. David Robb On this 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we also recall the theological vision he shared with his dear friend Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, a vision that compelled both men to become activists in the struggle against racism and to provide impassioned religious opposition to this country’s long engagement in the Vietnam War. Heschel, born and raised in the Hasidic tradition in Poland, later emigrated to the United States and became a public intellectual and provocative leader in 1960's America on the issues of race, war, and interreligious encounter. Deeply influenced by the prophetic tradition of Judaism, both he and King drew upon that tradition to guide their moral trajectory. In this two-part series we will focus attention on the theological roots that united them in a common ethical commitment to the claims of justice. Rev. David Robb is Assistant Minister for Adult Education and Scholar-In-Residence at All Souls. He formerly taught as a member of the Theology Department at Georgetown University, and in the Religious Studies Department at Connecticut College where he also served as Chaplain for 14 years. A graduate of Union Theological Seminary and of the Blanton-Peale Graduate Institute, Mr. Robb also maintains a practice in psychotherapy and pastoral counseling in New York City.

Instead of "giving up" things for Lent, how about we think of it as "letting go"? Pastor Keith reflects on what he learned from the practice of minimalism, what Jesus was up to flipping over tables in the Temple, and how the Church is in the midst of its own epic rummage sale. With inspiration from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Phyllis Tickle, and The New Copernicans.

In Episode 3, we interview civil rights activists Rabbi Everett Gendler and his wife, Mary, on their work in the civil rights movement in the 1960s. The Gendlers share of their experiences marching in Selma with Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as well as their continued work as activists today. In honor of Martin Luther King day and Heschel @ Heschel week, we hope their words and stories empower you to pursue justice.

“In a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.” A mystic, a 20th-century religious intellectual, a social change agent, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel marched alongside Martin Luther King, Jr., famously saying afterwards that he felt his legs were praying. Heschel’s poetic theological writings are still read and widely studied today. His faith was as much about “radical amazement” as it was about certainty. And he embodied the passionate social engagement of the prophets, drawing on wisdom at once provocative and nourishing.

“In a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.” A mystic, a 20th-century religious intellectual, a social change agent, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel marched alongside Martin Luther King, Jr., famously saying afterwards that he felt his legs were praying. Heschel’s poetic theological writings are still read and widely studied today. His faith was as much about “radical amazement” as it was about certainty. And he embodied the passionate social engagement of the prophets, drawing on wisdom at once provocative and nourishing.

How does one confront a Pharaoh, a tyrant? Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel of blessed memory offers inspiration

We think of the enslavement of the Israelites in Egypt as "the enslavement," but didn't the Egyptians own slaves prior to that (albeit of a different kind)?  I look at a Rashi which places the "enslavement" (or en-serf-ment --same word in Hebrew) of the Egyptians by Joseph as the middle step in two enslavements, first Egypt's everyday slavery -- in the ancient world slavery was the inevitable consequence of unpayable debt-- and second the reactive enslavement of the Israelites as the supposed cause of Egypt's decline.  I see a parallel in American society from our initial enslavement of Africans and African-Americans to our recent reactive blaming of our decline on people of color rather than on our own national debt and lack of future planning.  I make that case while remembering the close relationship of Dr. Martin Luther King and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, as recorded by Heschel's daughter, Susannah.

Part 3b of a 3 part series, in which Rabbi Knopf explores, analyzes, and debates various approaches to understanding God in modern Jewish thought. This session: Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, Conservative and Reconstructionist theologies.

Part 3a of a 3 part series, in which Rabbi Knopf explores, analyzes, and debates various approaches to understanding God in modern Jewish thought. This session: Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, Conservative and Reconstructionist theologies.

On this episode of Nurture the Wowcast, a parenting podcast from Kveller.com, Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg talks about radical amazement. Drawing on the work of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Ruttenberg explains what parents can learn from children about finding joy in the little things. Ruttenberg's latest book is “Nurture the Wow: Finding Spirituality in the Frustration, Boredom, Tears, Poop, Desperation, Wonder, and Radical Amazement of Parenting.”

In the popular imagination, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel is remembered for his involvement in civil rights, the anti-Vietnam War movement, and the cause of Soviet Jewry. But, as Rabbi Shai Held demonstrates in his new book, Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence, Rabbi Heschel was first and foremost a theologian and philosopher of religion. What are his core ideas, and what are his main religious insights? How did he develop his views of covenant and love, his fear of the unbounded ego, and his unique interpretation of human and divine agency? How can Rabbi Heschel's thought inspire the Jewish community and challenge religious people everywhere to recapture the wonder that opens them up to God's call? Listen as Rabbi Dr. Shai Held, cofounder, dean, and chair in Jewish Thought at Mechon Hadar, discusses Heschel's legacy and situates his work within contemporary Jewish theology and the philosophy of religion. The event was recorded before a live audience on February 25, 2014 at the Tikvah Center in New York City.   

The world will not perish for lack of information; it may perish from want of appreciation, said Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. Explore playfulness, wonder, curiosity, and a story about how a blue balloon can help.

The world will not perish for lack of information; it may perish from want of appreciation, said Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. Explore playfulness, wonder, curiosity, and a story about how a blue balloon can help.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel gave the following address at his inauguration in 1965 as Fosdick Visiting Professor.

Join Rabbi Knopf as he and his students discuss Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s monumental collection of essays on Jewish prayer, “Man’s Quest for God.” This week, we discuss “The Doctrine of Religious Solipsism,” in which Heschel claims that we suffer from too much egocentricity, and that the goal of prayer is self-surrender. Can prayer save […]

Join Rabbi Knopf as he and his students discuss Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s monumental collection of essays on Jewish prayer, “Man’s Quest for God.” This week, we discuss “The Doctrine of Prayer as a Social Act,” in which Heschel argues that prayer is more than an opportunity for Jews to come together and form community, […]

Join Rabbi Knopf as he and his students discuss Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s monumental collection of essays on Jewish prayer, “Man’s Quest for God.” This week, we discuss “The Doctrine of Religious Behaviorism,” in which Heschel claims that, in the modern American synagogue, we serve tradition rather than God, emphasizing behavior rather than meaning. What […]

Join Rabbi Knopf as he and his students discuss Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s monumental collection of essays on Jewish prayer, “Man’s Quest for God.” This week, we discuss “The Doctrine of Agnosticism,” in which Heschel claims we have divorced God from prayer and banished prayer from the synagogue. As a result, the soul of the […]

Join Rabbi Knopf as he and his students discuss Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s monumental collection of essays on Jewish prayer, “Man’s Quest for God.” This week, we discuss “Spiritual Absenteeism,” in which Heschel challenges the modern American synagogue, and the worshippers therein, to bring more spirit, soulfulness, and emotion into congregational prayer. How can our […]

Join Rabbi Knopf as he and his students discuss Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s monumental collection of essays on Jewish prayer, “Man’s Quest for God.” This week, we discuss “Praying by Proxy,” and wonder: “Has the temple become the graveyard where prayer is buried?” Does synagogue prayer move you? Should it? How can our places of […]

Join Rabbi Knopf as he and his students discuss Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s monumental collection of essays on Jewish prayer, “Man’s Quest for God.” This week, we discuss the “Separation of Church and God,” and wonder whether we can or should bring God back to shul.

Join Rabbi Knopf as he and his students discuss Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s monumental collection of essays on Jewish prayer, “Man’s Quest for God.” This week, we discuss the purpose of the ancient sacrificial system, and the way in which prayer is meant to be a substitute for sacrifice.

Join Rabbi Knopf as he and his students discuss Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s monumental collection of essays on Jewish prayer, ”Man’s Quest for God.” his week, we discuss whether it matters if you understand and/or know how to recite the formal Hebrew prayers of the prayerbook. What do you think?

Join Rabbi Knopf as he and his students discuss Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s monumental collection of essays on Jewish prayer, ”Man’s Quest for God.” This week, we discuss whether prayer is supposed to be about us talking to God, or us allowing God to talk to us. What do you think?

Join Rabbi Knopf as he and his students discuss Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s monumental collection of essays on Jewish prayer, ”Man’s Quest for God.” This week, we discuss whether prayer is a dialogue with God, a monologue, or something else entirely. What do you think?

Join Rabbi Knopf as he and his students discuss Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s monumental collection of essays on Jewish prayer, “Man’s Quest for God.” This week, we discuss the preparation and training necessary for cultivating a successful prayer life: Do I really need to know Hebrew and choreography to succeed at Jewish prayer?

Join Rabbi Knopf as he and his students discuss Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s monumental collection of essays on Jewish prayer, ”Man’s Quest for God.” This week, we discuss the relationship between prayer and spirituality: What does it mean to have a spiritual life, and how can prayer help?

Join Rabbi Knopf as he and his students discuss Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s monumental collection of essays on Jewish prayer, “Man’s Quest for God.”  This week, the discussion centers on the way our approach to life impacts our approach to prayer.

Join Rabbi Knopf as he and his students discuss Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s monumental collection of essays on Jewish prayer, “Man’s Quest for God.” This week, the discussion centers on whether one should pray in a perfunctory way solely to fulfill one’s ritual obligations, or whether it is better to not pray at all.

Several years ago a fan of the multi-instrumentalist Basya Schechter approached her with a copy of a book of Yiddish poems. The verses were by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who arrived in the United States from Europe in 1940, when he was 33 years old. Heschel was born in Poland and gained renown for his theological works and for his role as a Civil Rights activist. He was far less known for his poetry, written when he was in his early 20s, about intimate relationships—both with God and with people. Schechter’s fan asked her to set Heschel’s poems to music. It took some time for Schechter, who was raised in the Orthodox Brooklyn neighborhood of Borough Park and who heads the band Pharaoh’s Daughter, to take up that... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.