Evolve
Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations
We found 10 episodes of Evolve with the tag “jewish”.
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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 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 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 34: The Need for Affinity Spaces for Jews of Color
October 26th, 2022 | Season 1 | 57 mins 16 secs
ammud, interview, jewish, jews of color, judaism, reconstructing judaism, reconstructionist, torah, yeshiva
Imagine if there were a digital yeshiva where Jews of Color could gather to learn Torah and Jewish practices in a safe, supportive atmosphere in which no one’s Jewishness is questioned. Good news, Ammud: The Jews of Color Torah Academy already exists! In this episode, we speak with Ammud's executive director, Alexandra Corwin, and delve into why Jews of Color need affinity spaces and how such spaces can benefit all Jewish communities.
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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.
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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.