Rabbi Jacob Staub, Ph.D.
Co-Host of Evolve
Rabbi Jacob Staub, Ph.D. is the director of Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations. He is Professor of Jewish Philosophy and Spirituality at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote, Pa., where he directs the Program in Jewish Spiritual Direction. He co-directs_ Bekhol Derakhekha Da'ehu_ (Know God in All of Your Ways), a training program for Jewish Spiritual Directors. He served as editor of The Reconstructionist from 1983 to 1989 and co-authored with Rebecca Alpert Exploring Judaism: A Reconstructionist Approach (Reconstructionist Press 2000).
Rabbi Jacob Staub, Ph.D. has hosted 37 Episodes.
-
Episode 14: Fixing Broken Policing: What Does Judaism Say?
November 19th, 2020 | Season 1 | 48 mins 41 secs
Does the Talmud offer a perspective on police reform, and whether it makes sense to, as the slogan says, defund the police? Rabbi Aryeh Cohen, a Talmudic scholar and an advocate for redirecting police funding, explains what ancient Judaism does and doesn’t have to say about policing. After a quick post-election debrief, Cohen lays out the case for a new approach to policing, one in which far fewer officers would carry arms. He addresses questions about armed guards protecting Jewish institutions during a time of rising antisemitism and touches on how his experience as a soldier in the first Lebanon War shaped his anti-violence worldview.
-
Episode 10: Disability Justice
July 14th, 2020 | Season 1 | 49 mins 45 secs
In our conversation with Rabbi Elliot Kukla, we discuss his essay for Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations about the profound and unexpected ways in which trauma can affect a person's health and overall spiritual wellbeing. In the piece and this interview, he shares some of what he's learned about life by being chronically ill. We discuss his heightened appreciation for the interdependence of people, and what that means for the responsibilities of societies and communities to care for their members, even the most vulnerable. We also talk with Rabbi Kukla about his recent New York Times piece, "My Life Is More 'Disposable' During This Pandemic", and about the COVID-19 pandemic more generally; about the newly resurgent racial justice movement; and about the challenge parents face in maintaining hope for our children and the world they're inheriting in this deeply unsettling time.
-
Episode 4: Slavery and Its Atonement: The Jewish Obligation to Confront Slavery’s Legacy
December 24th, 2019 | Season 1 | 42 mins 28 secs
Slavery has been described as America’s original sin. Abolished with the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865, slavery still casts a shadow over American life. Today, many Americans are seeking to better understand, and respond to, this tortured history. Can Judaism offer some guidelines for how to do that? Do Jews have to atone for the sin of slavery, even though mass Jewish migration to the United States didn’t happen until decades after the Civil War? Rabbi Toba Spitzer answers yes to both questions. In this episode, the religious leader of Congregation Dorshei Tzedek, a Reconstructionist congregation outside Boston, discusses ideas she first explored in a Yom Kippur sermon. Spitzer says that the ancient priests — who may have been among the Hebrew Bible’s editors —had ideas about communal sin that may offer a path toward societal acknowledgement and atonement for the sin of slavery. Rabbi Jacob Staub, Ph.D., who directs the Evolve project, sits in for this interview.
-
Episode 1: Reimagining Synagogues and Communities
September 17th, 2019 | Season 1 | 45 mins 45 secs
In this inaugural episode, we speak with Rabbi Rachel Weiss of Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, Ill. Weiss describes her community’s effort to remain relevant at a time of great change in Jewish life and North American life more generally. From deep and respectful dialogue on divisive issues, to the transformational use of post-it notes, Rabbi Weiss shares a window into her synagogue community’s ongoing evolution.
-
Coming soon...
August 16th, 2019 | Season 1 | 2 mins 54 secs
Welcome to Evolve! Listen to this brief teaser to find out what's coming soon to a podcast player near you.