Evolve
Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations
We found 10 episodes of Evolve with the tag “israel”.
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Episode 66: Roan Boucher on Anti-Trans Legislation and Christian Nationalism
April 24th, 2025 | Season 1 | 1 hr 11 mins
anti-trans, anti-trans legislation, anti-zionism, antisemitism, christian nationalism, evolve, israel, jewish, legislation, nationalism, polic, race, racism, reconstructing judaism, reconstructionist, trans issues, trans rights, transgender, zionism
Activist and organizer Roan Boucher(he/him) details the unprecedented surge in anti-trans legislation across America and its connection to Christian Nationalism.
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Episode 60: Former Rep. Andy Levin on Courage, the Election, AIPAC and Gaza
November 26th, 2024 | Season 1 | 1 hr 17 mins
2024, aipac, congress, courage, election, elections, gaza, israel, jew, jewish, judaism, palestine, politics, protest, reconstructionist judaism, redistricting, timothy snyder, two state solution, war
Former Congressman Andy Levin sits for a truly wide-ranging interview about the election, his concerns about the incoming Trump administration, Israel and so much more.
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Episode 58: A Palestinian Scientist and Reconstructionist Rabbi Are Working Together to Rebuild Gaza
October 16th, 2024 | Season 1 | 1 hr 28 secs
arava, arava institute, climate change, east jerusalem, environment, environmental science, gaza, gaza war, israel, jerusalem, jewish, judaism, middle east, palestine, peace, reconstructing judaism, reconstructionist, sukkot, war
Tareq Abu Hamed, Ph.D., and Rabbi Michael Cohen join host Bryan Schwartzman to discuss Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, which for nearly 30 years has brought together students and faculty from Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan and elsewhere to build relationships and solve pressing environmental challenges.
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Episode 57: The Anniversary of October 7 and BINA: the Jewish Movement for Social Change
September 26th, 2024 | Season 1 | 1 hr 1 min
bina, hamas, high holidays, israel, israel-hamas, israeli, jewish, judaism, october 7, palestine, rosh hashanah, social change, usa
It’s not easy to talk about and process the first anniversary of Oct. 7, 2023, when war continues to widen, hostages remain in Gaza and a ceasefire seems less and likely. This wide-ranging episode featuring Rabbi Mira Wasserman, Ph.D., interim vice president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and Elliott Glassenberg, senior educator at BINA: the Jewish Movement for Social Change aims to model such a conversation.
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Episode 55: Marc Dollinger on Black Power and Jewish Politics Before and After October 7
August 1st, 2024 | Season 1 | 1 hr 4 mins
antisemitism, black lives matter, campus, hamas, israel, jewish, judaism, october 7
In this packed interview, Professor Marc Dollinger addresses the nature of academic freedom, the importance of DEI work in Jewish communities and the lines between anti-Zionism and antisemitism.
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Episode 54: Religion Scholar Louis Newman Discusses Shattered Faith, the War in Gaza and Antisemitism on College Campuses
July 11th, 2024 | Season 1 | 1 hr 11 mins
anti-semitism, antisemitism, college campus, gaza, hamas, israel, israel-hamas, jewish, judaism, protest, reconstructing judaism, reconstructionist, war
For a certain generation of Jewish Americans, Israel and the memory of the Holocaust represented twin pillars of civil religion, argues Louis Newman, a scholar of Jewish ethics and religion. While these pillars may have shown cracks for decades, Newman says they came crashing down on Oct. 7,2023. What can we learn from our history? Where do we go from here?
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Episode 53: Rabbi Katie Mizrahi on being a Zionist and calling for a ceasefire, working for Palestinian rights and the anti-Israel upsurge on college campuses
May 30th, 2024 | Season 1 | 1 hr 17 mins
anti-zionism, ceasefire, college, college campuses, hamas, israel, palestine, protest, war, zionism
Rabbi Katie Mizrahi is a Zionist who was beyond devastated by Hamas’ mass killings, rape and kidnapping on October 7th. She explains why she is opposed to how Israel has conducted its war and why she has joined calls for a bilateral ceasefire.
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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 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 Yeshiva. 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 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.