Sam Wachs

Episode 33: Whitewashing Biblical Characters

September 14th, 2022  |  Season 1  |  54 mins 34 secs

high holidays, kyrie, kyrie irving, nba, rosh hashanah, whitewashing, yom kippur

From the time she was a young girl, Rev. Wil Gafney noticed that every major biblical figure, in both art and popular culture, was represented as white. Now a scholar and Episcopal priest, Gafney paints a more accurate picture of our Afro-Asiatic forebearers, making a case that engaging with the racist history of biblical criticism and western art is key to forging a more just future.

Episode 32: Rethinking the Circumcision Part 2, with Rabbi Kevin Bernstein

August 17th, 2022  |  Season 1  |  56 mins 34 secs

Rabbi Kevin Bernstein is a mohel who has performed hundreds of circumcisions. In this episode, the veterinarian turned Reconstructionist rabbi offers a Reconstructionist take on this most ancient of Jewish conventual ceremonies, the brit millah. He responds to critics who question its continued relevance, attempts to demystify the process and explain what actually happens at a brit millah.

Episode 31: Rethinking the Circumcision Part 1, with Gary Shteyngart and Max Buckler

July 27th, 2022  |  Season 1  |  1 hr 9 mins

circumcision, evolve, jewish, shteyngart

In the first of a two-part series examining circumcision, we talk with two critics of the practice: best-selling novelist and memoirist Gary Shteyngart and Max Buckler, author of the Evolve essay, “Be Honest About the Bris.” We discuss circumcision from the perspective of morality, Jewish tradition, medicine gender norms and the rights of parents and children.

Episode 30: Warm and Welcoming?

May 19th, 2022  |  Season 1  |  57 mins 11 secs

Have you ever heard a Jewish organization refer to itself as “warm and welcoming” but, on some level, fail to live up? Then listen to Bryan's conversation with Miriam Steinberg-Egeth and Warren Hoffman, Ph.D., about their book “Warm and Welcoming: How the Jewish Community Can Become Truly Diverse and Inclusive in the 21st Century.” The authors argue that “warm and welcoming” is not a state to achieve but a constant process.

Episode 29: Special Live Episode: Addressing Global Climate Disruption Through Torah

April 14th, 2022  |  Season 1  |  51 mins 2 secs

What if the central purpose of the Torah is to ensure was to ensure that people live in harmony with the environment and other living things? That is exactly what Rabbi David Seidenberg teaches, and he believes that Jews have strayed from the Torah’s message for thousands of years. Seidenberg argues that Jews must return to the Torah’s teaching and play a key role in combating climate change – before it is too late.

Episode 28: Ben & Jerry’s, Amnesty International, and the Debate Over Boycotting Israel

February 15th, 2022  |  Season 1  |  1 hr 11 mins

When Ben & Jerry’s announced last year that it would cease selling its products in the Occupied Territories, it touched off a brouhaha that lasted months. Rabbi Maurice Harris, Reconstructing Judaism’s lead staff member on Israel affairs, explains why this story garnered such attention and what he thinks it all means. He also delves into a recent Amnesty International report accusing Israel of Apartheid and narrates Reconstructing Judaism's response, both in terms of process and substance.

Episode 27: Beyond Antisemitism

January 31st, 2022  |  Season 1  |  55 mins 39 secs

antisemitism, judaism, progressive judaism

Just days before a horrifying hostage standoff at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, we recorded an episode about antisemitism. Rabbi Jacob Staub, Ph.D., the show’s executive producer, joins Bryan Schwartzman as a guest host as they welcome Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D, for a wide-ranging conversation about her recent Evolve essay, "Beyond Antisemitism." Rather than give in to fear, Deborah argues we should lean into Jewish identity, community and coalition-building.

Episode 26: The Reconstructionist

December 29th, 2021  |  Season 1  |  1 hr 3 mins

In this special episode celebrating the career of our podcast's executive producer, Rabbi Jacob Staub, Ph.D., guest host Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D., president and CEO of Reconstructing Judaism, traces how Jacob went from being a secular college student, intent on pursuing a literary life, to one of the most influential Reconstructionist thinkers, writers and teachers of the past 50 years.

Episode 25: 'Adoption Isn’t a Bad Thing, It’s a Tricky Thing'

November 29th, 2021  |  Season 1  |  40 mins 58 secs

adoption, evolve, jewish

The process of adoption is often thought of as children in need of a loving home being matched with couples who get to fulfill deferred dreams of becoming parents. It’s a win-win, right? Minna Scherlinder Morse, a writer and editor as well as an adoptive parent, says the reality and the history is far more nuanced.

Episode 24: Liberation from Opioids: One Rabbi’s Journey

October 12th, 2021  |  Season 1  |  1 hr 4 mins

opioid, recovery, sobriety, vicodin

Rabbi Michael Perice recently made a startling revelation to his congregation: For four years, he’d been addicted to opioids. Now, celebrating 10 years of liberation, Perice decided it was time to share his story with his community and the wider world.

Episode 23: Hidden Jews in the 21st Century

August 17th, 2021  |  Season 1  |  1 hr 2 mins

conversation, conversion, interview, jewish, judiasm

In the past few decades, descendants of Jews who had been forced to flee, convert, or hide Jewish practices during the Inquisition have been seeking to reconnect with Jewish communities. At times, they have been embraced, other times shunned, and, too often, encountered Jewish experiences that didn’t authentically reflect their Sephardic roots.

Episode 22: Hope as an Ethical Imperative

July 22nd, 2021  |  Season 1  |  52 mins 48 secs

breitman, evolve, hope, jewish, judaism, spiritual direction, staub, therapy

In Barbara Breitman’s telling, hope isn't "some fluffy thing." It's an essential Jewish practice. Hope enables leaders to imagine a different world and work to bring it out about no matter what obstacles stand in the way. Breitman, a spiritual director, therapist and scholar of religion, cites Moses, Noah and Mordechai as Biblical characters who embody this kind of hope. How can ordinary people emulate these examples?

Episode 5: Racism in the Jewish Community

January 30th, 2020  |  Season 1  |  54 mins 51 secs

Imagine you’re an African American Jew-by-choice and made the monumental decision to go to rabbinical school. A fellow synagogue board member says, “wow, you’re more Jewish than the Jews.” Throughout rabbinical school, the first thing you’re asked when you enter Jewish space is “how can you be Jewish?” or “when did you convert?” And then after starting your first job as a campus rabbi, a parent asks if you’re really ordained. In this episode, Rabbi Sandra Lawson shares her personal experiences like these. She seeks to push white Jews to face their assumptions and confront racism within themselves, racism that may not be malicious in intent but is inherited from the world around. Her hopes are for the Jewish people to live up to our highest ideals.