Episode 68: The Special Needs Advocate Who Became a Jewish Storyteller with Benji Rosenzweig

"Finding Jewish joy isn't ignoring the pain—it's refusing to let pain be the only story."I wanted to share a conversation with Benji Rosenzweig that completely redefines what Jewish education can look like.Benji moved from Israel to Cleveland at age five and grew up Orthodox, the son of a rabbi. In tenth grade, during a yeshiva discussion about the Torah's perfection, he learned there are seven differences between Sephardic and Ashkenazi scrolls. When he pressed his teacher—they can't both be God's exact word if they're different—he realized he's an atheist who deeply believes in Judaism as community, culture, and peoplehood. He doesn't believe in God, but he believes Jewish culture is beautiful and worth celebrating, just like he believes Hindu or Native American cultures are worth celebrating without believing in their gods.His daughter Ellah was born with agenesis of the corpus callosum, missing the main bridge connecting her brain hemispheres. After four years of isolation, he discovered a Facebook community. During COVID, he posted videos of Ellah, who is nonverbal, singing along to Lizzo and Metallica while he played guitar. TEDx invited him to speak about using music to create language, which launched a consulting career teaching companies about nonverbal communication. For eight years he posted daily "morning mantras" with his older daughter on drives to school—affirmations that went viral and still hang as a poster in their home.He's also the founder of Storied, a live show combining storytelling with music through a Jewish lens, exploring contributions from the Beatles to grunge to reggae. At the recent reggae show featuring Matisyahu, a donor bought 100 tickets for students. They sold out 600 seats, with 95 young people learning about Jewish roots in Rastafarianism and Zion references throughout the music. Benji's teaching Jewish pride through joy—proving that education happens when stories make you proud to be part of this ancient, creative people, whether or not you believe in God.