Welcome to the Liberal Jewish Synagogue Podcast! We are a central London synagogue and an inclusive, egalitarian community for all ages. Together we explore Jewish traditions, texts and values and apply them to the realities of the 21st Century. Please visit www.ljs.org and get in touch to learn how to get involved
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What does it mean to be a spiritual leader at this critical and chaotic moment in human history? Rabbi Charlie Buckholtz conducts intimate long-form interviews with other rabbis and culture-carriers, change-agents and court-jesters. On topics ranging from spiritual resistance to disorganized religion to Israel/Palestine to creativity to the possibility of individual and collective change, their lively journeys and conversations offer insight, humor, rare perspective and at times rank absurdi ...
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"The Whole Book is Sort of a Meditation, a Prayer Designed to Protect the Person Who is Reading It": The Punk Rock Jewish Life of Author/Filmmaker Jeff Wengrofsky
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"The whole book is sort of a meditation, of a prayer designed to protect the person who is reading it." Jeff Wengrofsky, the most authentic punk-rock person I personally know, wrote a memoir, and you should buy it and read it. In some ways an unintentional pean to the Lower East Side, Jeff gets into what it was like to grow up feeling like an outsi…
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"How Do We Move People to a Different Place?": Assessing the War While Dreaming Past It with Israeli Citizen Shawn Ruby
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It was both challenging and illuminating to speak with my old friend Shawn Ruby, an Israeli citizen who is deeply rooted in his Zionist identity (having originated in Canada and raised his family and made his life in Israel, one child a high-ranking IDF officer), firmly anchored in an unwavering pursuit of moral clarity, and overall one of the most…
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"It’s Not a Time for Dialogue. It’s Just a Time for Checking Up on Each Other": The Tragedy of Victim-ism and Other Casualties of War with Coexistence Activist Rabbi Shaul Judelman
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"One of my Palestinian friends said, Everybody’s pro-Hamas right now. Cause they did something! On an internal level, hamas’ bid to take over leadership of the Palestinian struggle is very strong. On the other hand, I have another Palestinian friend saying, what do you mean — Hamas is a disaster for our people. It’s always been a disaster for our p…
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POETRY BONUS EPISODE! "Do They Sing, or Repeat a Song?": Laws vs. Miracles & the "Jewish Voices Missing from the Gospels," with Poet Atar Hadari
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Poetry, right? I don't know about you but I'm feeling like I could use some poetry right about now. To that end! Right before the High Holidays started I had a conversation with one of my favorite Jewish writers, poet and translator Atar Hadari. The episode was slated for release on Monday 10/9, and of course intervening world events made it nearly…
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"I Just Couldn't Accept That That Was Something That Was Being Said": Contemplating Humanity & Inhumanity from "A Weird Place," with Joshua Leifer
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"So now I'm in a weird place" is a sentiment many can relate to these days. Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, following the latter's barbaric 10/7 torture-rape-massacre of 1400 Israelis, and kidnapping of 240 more, has provoked some of the most acute fissures of my generation, with implications that can't be fully predicted except to say we will …
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HIGH HOLIDAY MOVIE BONUS EPISODE with Daniel Zana from the Jews on Film podcast!
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“We are all characters in our stories, and we have to look internally, and hopefully at the end of 90 minutes we’ll become a better person. But sometimes the characters don’t change, and you’re just like, ‘Oh, you were offered the opportunity to grow and learn from your experiences, and instead you’re still being the same turd you started out as.’ …
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"What is the Purpose of a Synagogue?": Championing Compassion, Curiosity & Awe with Rabbi Angela Buchdal
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Since arriving at Central Synagogue almost two decades ago, Rabbi Angela Buchdal has transformed it into a sui generis experience of communal prayer: backed by a professional band and musical director, her own professionally trained singing voice, and a crew of clerical colleagues with similarly formidable vocal skills, not only is Central’s buildi…
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"No One Has Screamed for Justice": Can We Summon the Moral Courage to Hold Epstein Abusers Accountable? with Nick Bryant
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Friends, I can't tell you enough how excited I am to share my most recent Bad Rabbi Media interview with Nick Bryant -- intrepid investigative journalist, author (The Franklin Scandal), interviewer (The Nick Bryant Podcast), and most recently, Director of epsteinjustice.com -- an organization dedicated to pursuing accountability for the scores of v…
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"Teaching From the Mud": Wandering, Witnessing, and Awakening with Melanie Landau
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Early in my conversation with return guest Melanie Landau, I told her that she is one of my favorite wanderers, and she responded that I'm one of her favorite witnesses. Of course, it's an honor to witness such high-level wandering with the intensity of introspection and the commitment to translating insight into practice that Melanie brings to her…
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“What’s the Jewish Future You Believe In?”: Systemic Strategies for Structural Change with Jordan Mann of the Jewish Liberation Fund
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I was pretty rapt listening to Jordan Mann articulate the Jewish Liberation Fund’s (JLF) vision for a progressive Jewish future – and not only because “power,” “systemic strategies,” and “structural change” are my love language. Jordan’s personal connection to the work, both the crackling passion he brings to it and the personal journey that brough…
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"We Need the Fantasy of a Destination and a Journey and a Path": Living Tangientially with Basya Schechter
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“I think this is such a great line for your podcast. It’s from my third album, Exile. ‘I am in exile in my own home. My real home is moving, it’s a wandering home. I give birth to contradictions, I give up in indecision, and worry.' ” Basya Schecter is one of my favorite wanderers. From a prolific early singer-songwriter career as the leader of Pha…
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"How Does it Feel?": Arnoff on Dylan on Empathy as Everything
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Dudes: please check out Stephen Daniel Arnoff’s podcast and book, Bob Dylan: On Man and God and Law. One of my favorite pop-culture rabbit-holes, the podcast delivers on so many levels: informative, illuminating, a ton of fun and at times breathtakingly insightful. I was super excited to talk to him about how he came to approach song lyrics as sacr…
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"If It Doesn't Hit You in the Kishkes It's Worthless": Jon Madof's Universe of Grooves
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One of the things I love most about Jon Madoff is that on any given day in the midst of of numbly scrolling on my phone to avoid contemplating any number of personal and collective inevitabilities, I can run into a video of him JAMMING TF OUT on his guitar -- alone in his basement with headphones, in a venue backing up a friends band, on an interne…
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"I'm Not Going to Be Anybody's Disciple": Sacred Nonconformity, Sahara Blues, and the Coming Cantorial Revolution with Jeremiah Lockwood
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Jeremiah Lockwood is not only the hardest working man in Jewish music, he is one of its truly great living visionaries and practitioners. In this great conversation he describes his journey growing up in a "cantorial family" with a grandfather who was a famous, record-selling star at the end of the "Golden Age" of Jewish cantorial music; to being a…
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BAD RABBI VS. BAD RABBI: The Yiddish Press and Lost Models of Jewish Identity with Eddy Portnoy
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Check out this incredibly fun and lively live podcast recording I did with historian of Yiddish popular culture Eddy Portnoy. Appropriately enough, this episode, which deals with the lost forms of Jewish identity Eddy Excavated through his research in to the Yiddish Press, was itself temporarily lost. We recorded it in May 2020; in the interim, Edd…
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...the surprising things we learn about ourselves as we get older, the vast territories of unknown self suddenly exposed — eg, the ways our families’ immigrant histories impact our live and choices and relationships, every day — and how bracing and humbling it can be to realize we’ve labored under such partial understandings — was a recurring theme…
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"There's a Difference Between Activists and People Working for Change": Rabbi Shaul Judelman on Hope, Despair, and Israel-Palestine PTSD
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Remember Israel, Palestine, etc.? For a few weeks in May it led most news cycles, between the end of Bibi's 12-year reign and installation of a new leading coalition, to the renewal of Gaza hostilities and the ultra-disturbing flashpoints of violence between Jewish and Palestinian Israelis. If this all feels a bit fuzzy and distant, to be fair it w…
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“We Will Mess Up, and That’s Okay”: Dasee Berkowitz on Becoming a Soulful Parent
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Parenting is one of those subjects where it always feels like there’s a reverse correlation between how much it’s talked about and how well it’s understood. Like, the more we talk about it, the dumber we get. This is why I was so happy to read Dasee Berkowitz’s new book, Becoming a Soulful Parent, and talk with her about it – because what she offer…
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"Oh My God, This is Very Real": Rabbi Zac Kamenetz's Book of EthneoGenesis
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"How can we blend the sense that the ecstatic, the effervescent, the beyond, is our human birthright, and we can also be modern liberal people thinking about intersectionality and social justice?" We're stuck, dudes; it's no joke. That's why I needed to keep talking about the transformative potential of psychedelics to facilitate real healing, on b…
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"Why Are We Serving Bourbon in Shul and Not Psilocybin Tea?": The Psychedelic Vision of Aaron Genuth
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Dudes. In the midst of a pandemic, deep economic crisis; shocking and mean-spirited governmental incompetence, abuse, and neglect; deep cultural malaise punctuated by eruptions of collective indignation and outrage at the systemic racial injustice embedded in U.S. society – what could possibly be worth talking about? What could possibly help? There…
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Solidarity Iftar With the Muslim Uyghur Community on 4 May 2020
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Event order: 1. Welcome by Rabbi Alexandra Wright 2. Introduction 3. Welcome words from Dolkun Isa, President of the World Uyghur Congress 4. Personal testimonies from members of the UK Uyghur Community 5. Words by Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner 6. Reading by Rabbi Michael Hilton 7. Reading by Mr Turgunjan Alawdun, Direct of the Committee for Religiou…
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“Only the Left Can Defeat Anti-Semitism”: Raffi Magarik on the Real Crisis of American Judaism and Why the Only Real Solution is Solidarity (also, what “solidarity” means)
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I really needed to talk to Raffi Magarik. Whenever the subject of anti-Semitism erupts into the news, the public discourse around it immediately and invariably become combative, contested, confusing, and confused. Are there different kinds of anti-Semitism or just one kind that shapeshifts through history, adapting to the parameters of its new host…
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"There's No Such Thing as a Mistake": Improvisational Judaism with Rabbi Aaron Potek
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‘A noxious weed’: Anti-Semitism in a disturbed political environment - Keith Kahn-Harris and Dave Rich - 12 November 2019 - Part 1
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Where has the rise of antisemitism in the 21st century come from? How do we distinguish between antisemitism and anti-Zionism? And what can our communities and faith groups do to combat the rise of racism in the current political climate? This is the first of two seminars with academics and authors who have written recently on the subject of antise…
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Sir Nichaolas Hytner - World AIDS Day Service Address - 29 November 2019
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On November 29 our community hosted The World AIDS Day Service organised by LGBT+ group and BKY. Rabbi Igor Zinkov co-led the service with Rabbi Mark Solomon and Student Rabbi Anna Posner. Sir Nicholas Hytner, theatre director, film director, and film producer, gave a frank and outspoken address during the service. In his own words, it was his firs…
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What's it like to serve a community in the role of the Rebbetzin, the Rabbi's wife? I was honored -- and at times deeply moved, at others deeply disturbed -- with the bracingly honest sharing of a women who spent forty years in this role, serving a traditional suburban Jewish community in the Midwest. There are stories of connection, and stories of…
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"One Law for You and the Resident who Lives Among You": Throwing Spikes in the Wheels of Power with Rabbi Aryeh Bernstein
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I really, really needed to speak with my old pal Aryeh Bernstein about how to participate LOCALLY in effective activism--both as a general practice, and specifically in this urgent moment organizing to oppose the concentration camps at the border and other insidious ICE actions around the country. What I loved about our conversation was that Aryeh …
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“Two Traumatized Peoples”: Yossi Klein Halevi, the Exhaustion of the Op-Ed Warrior and the Subversive Possibility of Feeling Each Other's Pain
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I was SO PSYCHED to sit down with author Yossi Klein Halevi fresh off two solid months of touring and dialoguing around his super engaging and worthwhile book Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor. Yossi describes his transformative experience, in the past year since it was published, of Inviting the voices and narratives of Palestinians into his home…
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These Things Do Happen": Seeing Familiar Conflicts Differently with Dahlia Scheindlin
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I REALLY wanted to speak with public opinion expert, political strategist, and writer Dahlia Scheindlin. The timing hardly could have been better: Dahlia has worked on 5.5 election campaigns in Israel and many more in countries across the world. Though a couple weeks before the latest wrinkle of Bibi's failure to form a coalition, triggering new el…
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"Is That It?” - Josh Frank’s Life of Lost Stories
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I caught author & pop culture archeologist Josh Frank in the midst of touring for his great new book Giraffes on Horseback Salad, a graphic novel that bills itself as the legendary unmade film collaboration between real-life friends and absurdist kindred spirits Salvador Dalí and Harpo Marx. Josh gives the fascinating background to how the project …
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So Animal, So Human, So Cosmic, So Galactic": Power and Intimacy with Melanie Landau
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Melanie Landau's story is a gripping illustration of what she now teaches as an intimacy coach, spiritual teacher, and group facilitator: how to approach "life as a constant opening and deepening to the presence of the existence of what is." From a deeply traditional, patriarchal upbringing in Australia to a life in Jerusalem embedded in the rhythm…
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Personal Resilience & Public History: Judith Rosenbaum Takes Women's Stories Stories Seriously
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Judith Rosenbaum – historian, educator, Executive Director of the Jewish Women’s Archive (JWA) – discusses the critical work of JWA in collecting and showcasing Jewish women’s stories, and her own path to becoming an activist-historian and public thinker. We get into what it means to talk about feminism as spiritual leadership, the power of knowing…
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Eric Kaplan's Comic Wanderings "If You Change Your Life, Angels Will Give You Cookies"
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Eric Kaplan's career as a TV writer (Big Bang Theory, Simpsons, Drinky Crow), book author (Does Santa Exist? A Philosophical Examination) philosopher (Ph.D, U.C. Berkeley), and religious seeker spans decades and at times seemingly lifetimes. In this episode we follow the fascinating and multiple expressions of his lifelong quest to grasp and naviga…
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How to Come Alive: Hazzanit Basya Schechter's Journey Stories
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From a childhood in ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn to a deep discography as singer-songwriter-composer Pharoah's Daughter to leading a community through the alchemy of liturgical song, Hazzanit Basya Schechter shares her many inner- and international journeys through creative loopholes, constructive ruptures, indigenous cultures, motherhood and more. She …
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Shefa Siegel - Amateur of Prayer - Shefa Siegel's Dream Mode
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Shefa Siegel spends most of the year far removed from Jewish life - teaching and writing about the history, morality, and politics of humanity's relationship with natural resources. But once a year he steps back into synagogue to do the thing he cares about most: praying for, before, and on behalf of a Jewish community. We talk about how this idios…
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“How Do Human Beings Learn, and How Do we Change?” - Ariel Burger, author of Witness: Lessons from Elie Weisel’s Classroom
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Rabbi, Artist, Musician Ariel Burger discusses his nearly lifelong relationship with Elie Weisel—as a sensitive, searching teenager navigating a life of Talmud and comic books; an undergraduate jostling between college and rabbinical studies; as his Teaching Assistant while pursuing a doctorate on an approach to conflict resolution based on Hasidic…
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“The Hard Work Of Holding Multiple Narratives” - Rabbi Shaul Judelman - Co-Founder & Co-Director of Roots-Shorashim-Judur
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Rabbi Shaul Judelman traces his journey from WTO protester in search of his own indigenous culture, to Orthodox rabbi doing local peace work with Israelis and Palestinians in the Territories and beyond as co-founder and -director of Roots/Shorashim/Judur. Shaul talks about the hard, hard work of holding the truth and legitimacy of multiple narrativ…
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