Bryan Schwartzman
Co-Host of Evolve
Bryan Schwartzman is an award-winning journalist, critic and fiction writer. He has approached the question of “What does it mean to be Jewish in today’s world” as a 20-year reporting project. His search for deeper understanding has taken him from his cultural Jewish upbringing in Queens, N.Y., to the mystical northern Israeli city of Tzfat, a kibbutz chicken coop, the mountains of the southern Sinai, the Tunisian Island of Djerba, a Jewish enclave in Johannesburg, post-Katrina New Orleans, the slot canyons of south central Utah, the classrooms of the Jewish Theological Seminary, the newsroom of Philadelphia’s Jewish Exponent and, now, Reconstructing Judaism in Wyncote, Pa., where he’s a member of the communications team. In his spare time, he writes fiction that’s occasionally published and seeks inner peace in the lap pool.
He was co-creator and co-host of #TrendingJewish: The Jewish Podcast About Everything. (Archives from the show remain available on this site.) He is a blogger for The New Normal, a New York Jewish Week online publication focusing on issues of inclusion. He and his wife, Amy, live in suburban Philadelphia and are the parents of two daughters.
Bryan Schwartzman has hosted 78 Episodes.
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Episode 52: A Supersized Passover Episode: Rabbi Nathan Kamesar on the Israel-Hamas War; Rabbi Maurice Harris on his starring role in the new Netflix series Testament: The Story of Moses
April 25th, 2024 | Season 1 | 1 hr 21 mins
jewish, judaism, moses, netflix, passover, reconstructing, reconstructionist
Rabbi Nathan Kamesar opens up about what it’s like being a pulpit rabbi and spiritual leader during wartime. Later, Rabbi Maurice Harris drops by to discuss all things Moses.
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Episode 51: Rabbi Haviva Ner-David on Life and Death in War and Advocating for Peace
March 28th, 2024 | Season 1 | 54 mins 56 secs
Rabbi Haviva Ner-David, an activist and author, shares what it is like to live in Israel – and be a parent - right now, with all the heartbreak, confusion and glimmers of hope.
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Episode 50: Rabbi Elyse Wechterman on the State of the Reconstructionist Rabbinate
February 29th, 2024 | Season 1 | 58 mins 29 secs
Rabbi Elyse Wechterman, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association’s CEO for roughly the past decade, discusses the transformation of the rabbinate over the last 50 years and why it matters to everyone who cares about Jews and Judaism.
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Episode 49: Bestselling author Jay Michaelson on his new book of fiction, covering the Israel-Hamas war, campus antisemitism, and more
January 25th, 2024 | Season 1 | 1 hr 4 mins
creative writing, fiction, hamas, israel, jewish, judaism, middle east, war
Bestselling author and journalist Jay Michaelson returns to discuss his first book of fiction, "The Secret That Is Not a Secret: Ten Heretical Tales" (03:30). The linked short stories explore the nature of heresy, queerness, kabbalah, mysticism and the sometimes-thin line between erotic desire and religious yearning. We also delve into some of Michaelson's recent op-eds for the Forward and Rolling Stone, which explore the ethics of war, the charged nature of the term genocide, the debate about campus antisemitism and more (31:40).
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Episode 48: Lovingkindness in a Time of War
December 21st, 2023 | Season 1 | 1 hr 7 mins
Can individual acts of loving-kindness really make a difference with Israel and Hamas at war? Rabbi Amy Eilberg, a longtime peace activist, says yes. This is a pastoral conversation in which Rabbi Eilberg addresses feelings of pain, anger and hopelessness that many of us have experienced during wartime. It’s about how individuals might seek healing and, maybe, how Jewish communities can address trauma to become healthier.
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Episode 47: For Us, By Us: The Trans Halakhah Project
November 30th, 2023 | Season 1 | 51 mins 5 secs
israel, jewish, judaism, reconstructing judaism, reconstructionist
Halakhah is for Orthodox Jews. It means Jewish law: what you can and can’t do. Right? Not according to Laynie Soloman a passionate teacher of Jewish text and thought at SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yehshiva. Soloman says that Halakhah isn’t law, per se, since law – especially when it comes to queer and trans folks – can serve as an instrument of oppression. Rather, Soloman speaks of Halakhah as “Jewish practice and its surrounding discourse,” i.e. what Jews do.
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Episode 46: Chat GPT, Artificial Intelligence and Jewish Ethical Wisdom
October 26th, 2023 | Season 1 | 1 hr 1 min
ai, chat gpt, ethics, jewish, judaism, reconstructionist, talmud
We sit down with Mitch Marcus, a computer scientist and linguist who has been studying A.I. since the 1970s. We discuss how programs like Chat GPT work, what he thinks governments should do to regulate A.I., and what it means for A.I. to succeed. He also shares how the study of Talmud and Zohar has informed his understanding of how language works and how Jewish ethics can guide social policy surrounding A.I.
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Episode 45: Sukkot: What’s Divorce Got to Do with It?
September 28th, 2023 | Season 1 | 1 hr 11 mins
conflict resolution, divorce, ezra weinberg, jacob staub, jewish, judaism, marriage, reconstructionist judaism, relationship advice, sukkah, sukkot, tradition
Divorce may be normal, but, in too many Jewish communities, it hasn’t been normalized. This episode features Ariel Collis and Reb. Ezra Weinberg, who each have experienced divorce and been underwhelmed by the response within their Jewish communities and are advocating for change.
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Episode 44: High Holidays: Making Your Soul a Vessel for Change
August 31st, 2023 | Season 1 | 1 hr 7 mins
high holidays, jew, jewish, judaism, reconstructionist, rosh hashanah, yom kippur
In this pre-High Holidays episode, Bryan Schwartzman asks Rabbi Nathan Kamesar how he prepares to lead Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services. They discuss ways people can the most out of the holidays, whether they go to synagogue or not.
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Episode 43: Reconstructionist Jews and the Struggle Over Israel’s Future
July 20th, 2023 | Season 1 | 1 hr 5 mins
israel, jewish, judiasm, politics, protests, zion, zionism
Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D., Reconstructing Judaism's president & CEO, and Rabbi Maurice Harris, Reconstructing Judaism’s Israel affairs specialist, have each just spent extended stays in Israel, immersed in conversations about its future as well as its relationship with Diaspora Jewry. They make an impassioned, moral defense of sustained engagement with Israel, even as they take a principled opposition to the government's attempts to strip away the country’s democratic character.
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Episode 42: How to Talk with Kids About Race
June 29th, 2023 | Season 1 | 1 hr 8 mins
Have you ever struggled to explain racism to your kids? Then be sure to catch our conversation with Buffie Longmire-Avital, Ph.D, who shares her latest research as well as her own perspective as the mother of two biracial sons.
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Episode 41: An Activist's Journey: From Marching Against Nukes to Empowering Jewish Women in Ukraine
May 19th, 2023 | Season 1 | 54 mins 33 secs
Sallie Gratch is the recipient of the 2023 Keter Shem Tov, or “Crown of the Good Name” award, given at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College’s graduation. Gratch traces her path as an activist, detailing her first encounters with Jews in the Soviet Union. She shares the story of the organization she founded, Project Kesher and its mission to empower Jewish women in the former Soviet Union, and how it has been forced to pivot in response to war in Ukraine.
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Episode 40: A Cry for Help: Breaking the Stigma on Mental Illness
April 28th, 2023 | Season 1 | 1 hr 1 min
anxiety, depression, mental health, neurodivergent, stigma, suicide, suicide prevention
Though Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann’s son, Mint, had faced anxiety and depression before, his cry for help was as alarming as it was unexpected. The teen was thinking about ending his life. Yet by going to his parents, Mint was able, ultimately, to get the help he needed. In this expansive interview, Rabbi Herrmann shares this most personal of stories to make a larger point: there’s an ongoing stigma around mental illness. As long as the stigma pervades, people's lives are at risk.
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Episode 39: Passover (and Judaism) Disrupted
March 29th, 2023 | Season 1 | 1 hr 3 mins
four questions, jewish, judaism, passover, ritual, spirituality
Rabbi Michael Strassfeld's new book, “Judaism Disrupted: A Spiritual Manifesto for the 21st Century” argues that, some 2,000 years after the birth of rabbinic Judaism, it’s time to fashion Judaism into something new. A few weeks before Passover, he talks with us about how his ideas might apply to the Passover seder, and presents four new, alternate questions.
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Episode 38: The Grand Canyon, Evolution and Pope Francis
February 27th, 2023 | Season 1 | 58 mins 16 secs
Rabbi Daniel Swartz, the director of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, talks about the philosophical and theological questions he’s wrestled with as he’s marshaled his energies toward activism. He demonstrates his philosophy in action, recalling a 2021 gathering of global religious leaders at the Vatican in which participants shaped an important statement on Climate Change. And he shares his impressions of meeting Pope Francis.
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Episode 37: The Israeli Government’s War on Women
January 31st, 2023 | Season 1 | 57 mins 19 secs
coalition, israel, judaism, netanyahu, politics, ultra orthodox
According to our guests, Israeli legal scholars and activists Gila Stopler and Yofi Tirosh, this is a moment of crisis for Israel. They detail how the sudden, dramatic drop in women represented in government is shaping an agenda that could dramatically curtail women’s rights. Can the legal system — itself under assault — or popular protests prevent the worst fears from occurring?