Episodes
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Best of College Commons... Noam Zion: Sanctified Sex - the Jewish Debate on Marital Intimacy
Best of College Commons Series This episode originally aired on February 1, 2022. Judaism's views on sex, sensuality, and intimacy within marriage. Noam is now emeritus at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem where since 1978 he has been a senior research fellow and educator. He earned a...
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Tomer Persico: “In God’s Image”
Israeli public intellectual Tomer Persico explains how “God created humanity in God’s image” changed civilization itself. Tomer Persico is a Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, and a Senior Research Scholar at the UC Berkeley Center for Middle Eastern Studies. In addition to hundreds...
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Rabbi Charles Savenor: “Religious duties consist in doing justice”
Rabbi Charles Savenor leads Civic Spirit, promoting civics education in fulfillment of Thomas Paine’s declaration. Rabbi Charles E. Savenor is the Executive Director of Civic Spirit. The mission of Civic Spirit is to educate, inspire, and empower schools across faith traditions to enhance civic...
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Yael Yechieli: Simple and But Not Easy - 50% Women in the Halls of Power in Israel
Yael Yechieli walks us through the process of tangible, effective societal change. Yael Yechieli is founder of 50/50, an initiative of the Tzedek Center, dedicated to a simple and very potent mission: To get women into half of all the decision-making positions in Israel. It even tracks the…
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John Rokosny: Coming of Age from Nazi Europe to the Nascent State of Israel
Description: Producer/Director John Rokosny tells the remarkable story of Fred Biermann in his film The Kid Officer. Biography: John Rokosny is an award-winning producer and director of film, television, and music. His previous film, They Survived Together, aired nationally on PBS and earned a NY...
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Georgette Bennett: The Voluntary Jew
Description: Though contemporary individualism means all Jews are, in some measure, Jews by choice, Gary “Pips” Phillips made that choice during the Holocaust. Biography: Dr. Georgette Bennett is at TED Speaker and an award-winning sociologist, author, popular lecturer, and former broadcast...
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Rabbi Jeffrey Marx: Stereotypes and kernels of truth
Description: Jeffrey Marx wrestles with both the truth and the antisemitic fantasy of Jewish Arson in the early 20th century. Biography: Ordained in 1983, Rabbi Marx served as the spiritual leader of The Santa Monica Synagogue from 1985- 2021. As an independent scholar, he has examined the...
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Michael Meyer: Hebrew Union College at 100 Years – 50 years ago!
Description: The historian behind the history of HUC: Michael Meyer takes us on a sesquicentennial journey of American Judaism. Biography: Michael A. Meyer received his B.A. from UCLA and his doctorate from Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. From 1964 to 1967, he taught at the Los Angeles campus...
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David Mendelsson: Looking at 56 Years of HUC in Israel
Description: Professor Emeritus David Mendelsson looks back at a half-century of momentous change for HUC in Israel. Biography: David Mendelsson recently stepped down as Director of the Year-in-Israel program at Hebrew Union College/Jerusalem where he fulfilled this role for eight years. Aside…
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Judah Cohen: Soundscape of the Soul
Soundscape of the Soul Jewish Music transplanted from Europe to American, via Hebrew Union College. Judah M. Cohen, Ph.D. is the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Provost at Hebrew Union College. Cohen previously served as the Lou & Sybil Professor of Jewish Culture in the Indiana University Borns...
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Jessica Roda: Sacred Drugs - Jews, Psychedelics, and Healing (An HUC Connect Crossover Episode)
Jessica Roda: Sacred Drugs - Jews, Psychedelics, and Healing (An HUC Connect Crossover Episode) 2026 Fritz A. Bamberger Lecture As interest in psychedelics grows once again, people from many backgrounds—biomedical researchers, religious leaders, spiritual practitioners, and healing…
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Charlie Scheidt - Hidden in the Armoire: Living History of the Shoah
Charlie Scheidt follows the forgotten trail of his family from Europe to the United States. Charlie Scheidt is the chairman emeritus of Roland Foods, the company founded by his parents in 1939. Among his leadership roles, he is active with the Leo Baeck Institute and sits on the board of the...
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David B. Oppenheimer: Great Minds, It Turns Out, Think Differently
David Oppenheimer traces the diversity principle back two centuries. Biography: David B. Oppenheimer is a Clinical Professor of Law, Co-Director of the Pro Bono Program, and the Director of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-discrimination Law at the University of California,...
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Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein: The rabbinate is changing faster than it’s shrinking (but it’s also shrinking)
Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein: The rabbinate is changing faster than it’s shrinking (but it’s also shrinking) Description: Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein breaks down a landmark study of road to the rabbinate. Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein is the Executive Director of Atra: Center for Rabbinic Innovation....
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Rabbi Michael Zedek: Sit by the Fire and Tell a Story
Sit by the Fire and Tell a Story Description: Rabbi Michael Zedek shares his stories and the values the drive them. Biography: Michael Zedek is rabbi emeritus of two wonderful synagogues: Emanuel Congregation in Chicago and Temple B’nai Yehudah in Kansas City, Missouri. After his retirement from...
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Hannah L. and Rabbi Harvey Winokur: Jewish and Twelve-Step Traditions at the Crossroads of Addiction
Jewish and Twelve-Step Traditions at the Crossroads of Addiction Description: A Jewish ethical tradition called Mussar and a uniquely Jewish approach to twelve-step recovery. Hannah L. is the author of Mussar in Recovery: A Jewish Spiritual Path to Serenity and Joy, which is the topic of today’s...
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Adam Ferziger: A Patchwork of Jews
Advancing Ellenson's Legacy Series Adam Ferziger: A Patchwork of Jews Opinions and approaches inhabit the entire spectrum of Jewish thought and practice, but how do they speak to each other? Biography: Adam S. Ferziger is an historian of religion, and he holds the Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch…
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Arnold Eisen: Dimensional and Complex Judaism
Advancing Ellenson's Legacy Series Arnold Eisen: Dimensional and Complex Judaism More than a religion, resisting extremes, but also hard to pin down, Judaism and Judaism’s God inspire Arnold Eisen’s spiritual search. Biography: Arnold M. Eisen, a foremost authority on American Judaism, is…
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Rabbi Dalia Marx: The Prayerbook as a Living Text
Advancing Ellenson's Legacy Series Rabbi Dalia Marx: The Prayerbook As a Living Text Rabbi Dalia Marx editor of the new Israeli Reform prayerbook muses on the siddur as both reflection and shaper of community. Biography: Rabbi Professor Dalia Marx is the Rabbi Aaron D. Panken Professor of Liturgy...
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Rabbi Ed Feinstein: Every Sermon Tells a Story
For Rabbi Ed Feinstein meaning-making is story-telling, and the rabbi’s business. Biography: Rabbi Ed Feinstein came to Valley Beth Shalom in 1993 at the invitation of the renowned Rabbi Harold Schulweis z"l, and succeeded Rabbi Schulweis as the congregation’s senior rabbi in 2005. He now serves…
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Aron Hirt-Manheimer: Story, Silence, and the Story of Silence
A second generation of Holocaust survivors re-examine their lives through the lens of their parents. Aron Hirt-Manheimer (he/him) is the Union for Reform Judaism's former editor-at-large, the former editor of Reform Judaism magazine (1976-2014) and founding editor of Davka magazine (1970-1976), a...
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Rabbi Rachel Timoner: God Trumps Politics
Description: Spiritual and political dynamics that motivate and shape the pulpit of Rabbi Rachel Timoner. Biography: Rabbi Rachel Timoner is grateful and proud to serve as Senior Rabbi of Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope, Brooklyn. She is honored to stand with families at the moments of...
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Jordan D. Rosenblum: You Are What You Eat
When it comes to pigs, however, maybe you are what you don’t eat… Maybe… Jordan D. Rosenblum is the Belzer Professor of Classical Judaism and Director of Religious Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His most recent book, Forbidden: A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig (New York...
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Hannah Pollin-Galay: Yiddish, Vibrant among the Ashes
Description: Hannah Pollin-Galay reveals the Yiddish of destruction, and its capacity to bring life and meaning. Biography: Hannah Pollin-Galay is a scholar of East European Jewish culture, with a focus on the Holocaust. Drawing on both historical and literary methods, her work explores themes…
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Joshua Leifer: The Jigsaw Puzzle of American Judaism and its Future
Description: Complicated contours and tortuous fissures emerge as a picture of the American Jewish experience in Tablets Shattered. Biography: Joshua Leifer is a journalist and historian. He is a columnist for Haaretz. His essays and reporting have also appeared in The New York Times, The New…
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Ayelet Tsabari: “If music be the food of love, play on”
Love of family, culture, and home, set to the music of Yemenite Jews in Songs for the Brokenhearted: A Novel. Ayelet Tsabari is the author of Songs for the Brokenhearted, winner of a National Jewish Book Award for Fiction and the Association of Jewish Libraries Fiction Award and A Globe and Mail...
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Howard Langer: A Lost World in a New World
Novelist Howard Langer transplants a fictional Hasidic Dynasty to the heart of segregated America, to discover a truly New World. Biography: Howard Langer was born in New York and brought up on the west side of Manhattan. His father served on the U.S.S. Missouri and was present at the Japanese...
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Rabbi Yitz Greenberg: Judaism’s Teaching for Repairing the Universe
Rabbi Yitz Greenberg takes us on a majestic odyssey of religious purpose and Covenant. Biography: Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg serves as the President of the J.J. Greenberg Institute for the Advancement of Jewish Life (JJGI) and as Senior Scholar in Residence at Hadar. Rabbi Greenberg was…
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Danielle Sharkan: Culture Is a Crossroads
Author Danielle Sharkan finds cultural identity in multicultural community, in her picture book Sharing Shalom. Biography: Danielle grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and has since had the privilege of living in Canada, Israel, and Argentina. As an educator and a proud mother of two...
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Rabbi Angela Buchdahl: The Pulpit Isn’t a Pedestal
Rabbi Angela Buchdahl disentangles the power of the pulpit from the stature of its holder, by sharing the vulnerability, musicality and ethical of sermons. Biography: Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl serves as the Senior Rabbi of Central Synagogue in New York City and is the first woman to lead...
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Lihi Lapid: “In the End, It’s Family That’s Important”
Author and activist Lihi Lapid follows characters who yearn for each other across space, time and even cognition. Biography: Lihi Lapid is a writer, journalist, lecturer and performer, symbolizing the voice of the contemporary Israeli woman. Her activity in various media has earned her a…
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Lee Yaron: Weaving the Threads of October 7th
Author Lee Yaron resists the simplification of politics, people, and, most of all, of October 7th — in favor of nuance and humanity. Biography: Lee Yaron is an award-winning Israeli journalist. Her new book, "10/7: 100 Human Stories," won the 2024 National Jewish Book Award Book of the Year — and...
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Rabbi Marc Katz: A Civilization’s Inflection Point
Rabbi Marc Katz uses the historical imagination to plumb the depths of Judaism’s greatest choice for survival.
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Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove: A New Era for Judaism and Israel
Rabbi Elliot asks us to approach difficult times with depth of mind and spirit.
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Rabbi Joshua Weinberg: What do We Even Mean by “Liberal Zionism”?
Rabbi Joshua Weinberg tackles both the complexity and the clarity of vision embedded in the idea of Liberal Zionism.
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Menachem Rosensaft: Burning Psalms
Poet Menachem Rosensaft transforms the Psalms into a search for God who permitted the Holocaust.
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Yariv Inbar: I, Spy
Who are we and where is home? Author Yariv Inbar investigates through the mental tightrope of espionage.
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Aryeh Ben David: The Jewish Thinker of the Millennium
Aryeh Ben David plumbs the diaries of the epochal thinker Rav Kook. He finds the imperative of love.
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Mari Lowe: Growing up is tough business
Author Mari Lowe explores adolescence through the lens of the Orthodox experience – both unique and common to all.
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Shai Held: What the World Needs Now
Shai Held puts love at the center of Judaism, and explains why it may surprise you.
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Deborah Dash Moore: On a Human Scale
Deborah Dash Moore transports us to midcentury New York and the photographer who captured its people from street level.
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Jeremy Brown, MD: Pestilence, Plague and Perseverance
Jeremy Brown’s Eleventh Plague captures Jewish responses to pandemics from across the millennia.
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Julia Watts-Belser: Around Us and In Us
Julia Watts-Belser reveals disability as an engine for human creativity and spiritual depth - for everyone.
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Richard Ho: We All Have the Same Moon
Richard Ho celebrates the Chinese and Jewish New Years – in the same family under the same lunar cycle.
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Rabbi Yonatan Neril: We’ve Got the Whole World in Our Hands
Rabbi Yonatan Neril frames the ecological crisis in spiritual terms.
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Paul Zeitz: Optimism as the Vehicle for Change
Dr. Paul Zeitz explores solutions to our greatest challenges, from our inner selves to the world around us.
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John Inazu: Transforming Disagreement: from Threat to Exercise of Democracy
John Inazu dissects disagreement to find opportunities for social trust, faith and democratic flourishing.
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Rabbi Hirshel Jaffe: The Bottom Line: Compassion
Rabbi Hirshel Jaffe invites us on his journey of healing and human solidarity.
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“My Heart Is in the East, though I Be in the Very West”
Reform Judaism’s pioneering decision to mandate study in Jerusalem.
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Centuries of Food at Your Table: A Medieval Sephardic Cookbook
Hélèn Jawhara Piñer uncovers the Jewish secrets of a 13th-century Arab-language cookbook.