Everything Evolves: Rabbi Deborah Waxman and Rabbi Jacob Staub Look Back on Nine Years Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations

Episode 72 · October 15th, 2026 · 50 mins 32 secs

About this Episode

As Evolve winds down, Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D. talks with Rabbi Jacob Staub, Ph.D., the project's founding director, who has been part of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College for more than 50 years as a student, professor, vice president for academic affairs, and editor of The Reconstructionist. Together they trace how a surprising path from academia led Staub to a career that combined scholarship, writing and rabbinic work, and how that path eventually led to Evolve.

They revisit how Evolve began, with a survey of Reconstructionist rabbis about the issues that mattered most to them, and the essays that followed on technology, race, gender and sexual orientation, antisemitism, social justice and more. Staub and Waxman discuss what it means to build a movement around the idea that everything evolves, and how Evolve became a place where rabbis and community leaders could share what they were learning and theorize about it. They also talk about the craft of editing, Evolve's lasting legacy and what it takes to trust the future in difficult times.

Even as we say goodbye for now, every essay remains available on the Evolve site.

Essays discussed in this episode:

“Harnessing Technology” by Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D. and Rabbi Nathan Kamesar
https://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org/harnessing-technology/

“Racism in the Jewish Community” by Rabbi Sandra Lawson and Rabbi Donna Cephas
https://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org/racism-in-the-jewish-community/

“Slavery and Its Atonement” by Rabbi Toba Spitzer
https://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org/slavery-and-its-atonement/

“Preparing Our Communities for Conversations on Race” by Rabbi Joshua Lesser
https://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org/preparing-conversations-race/

“Radical Inclusion” by Aurora Levins Morales
https://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org/radical-inclusion/

“Being White is Not the Jewish Norm: How the Mishnah Can Help Us Deconstruct a White-normative Approach to Judaism” by Rabbi Amin Langer
https://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org/beingwhiteisnotthejewishnorm/

“Kumi: Addressing Antisemitism and Racism, Both Outside and Within Jewish Spaces” by Rebecca Ezersky
https://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org/kumi-addressing-antisemitism-and-racism-both-outside-and-within-jewish-spaces/

“Are Trans Women Obligated in Niddah? (Jewish Menstrual Law): Embracing Halakhah That Was Not Addressed to You” by Rabbi Xavi De Cordova
https://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org/are-trans-women-obligated-in-niddah-jewish-menstrual-law-embracing-halakhah-that-was-not-addressed-to-you/

Theme song, “Ilu Finu” by Rabbi Miriam Margles. Her album This is the Day is available for purchase at CDBaby: https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/miriammarglesandthehadarensemb

Visit our home on the web — Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations: http://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org

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Read these show notes on the web at https://evolve.fireside.fm/1

This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.

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