Judaism Unbound

Leiah Moser, author of Magical Princess Harriet and rabbi at Reconstructionist Beth Israel in New Jersey, joins Dan and Lex for a conversation that weaves together threads around transgender identity, fantasy fiction, conversion to Judaism, and more. This episode is the fifth episode in a series that intertwines explorations of Judaism, through lenses of transgender experience, and explorations of gender, through lenses of Jewish experience.If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

Mike Moskowitz is the scholar-in-residence for Trans and Queer Jewish Studies at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York City. He joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about allyship, by cisgender Jews, toward transgender Jews. This episode is the fourth episode in a series that intertwines explorations of Judaism, through lenses of transgender experience, and explorations of gender, through lenses of Jewish experience.If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

Koach Baruch Frazier -- a musician, activist, audiologist, and rabbinical student -- joins Dan and Lex for a conversation that upends the dichotomy of prayer, on the one hand, and action, on the other. Frazier looks back at their own journey toward the rabbinate, and in doing so considers what drumbeats, the inner ear, and silence have to teach us. As it turns out, listening to what these vessels of sound have to say can help unlock many important concepts in contemporary Judaism, and in contemporary strivings for justice.This episode is the third episode in a series that intertwines explorations of Judaism, through lenses of transgender experience, and explorations of gender, through lenses of Jewish experience.If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

Dan and Lex were thrilled to transform from hosts into guests, in an episode of Contact Chai, "a podcast from Mishkan Chicago exploring down-to-earth Judaism in conversation," hosted by Lizzie Heydemann. Heydemann is herself a past guest on Judaism Unbound, and you can listen to her appearance on Judaism Unbound here. We encourage you to subscribe to Contact Chai on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts! Mishkan Chicago is a spiritual community in Chicago reclaiming Judaism’s inspiration and transformative essence. Not bound by a particular location, we create radically inclusive spaces for Jewish spiritual practice and community, engaging, educating, and empowering people across the spectrum of identity, background, age, and belief.

Jericho Vincent, a genderqueer and post-ultra-Orthodox writer and lecturer, is the author of the memoir Cut Me Loose and co-author of Legends of the Talmud. They join Dan and Lex for a conversation about being genderqueer, leaving ultra-orthodoxy, connecting to other religious traditions, and entering rabbinical school. This episode is the second episode in a series that intertwines explorations of Judaism, through lenses of transgender experience, and explorations of gender, through lenses of Jewish experience.If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

Becky Silverstein and Laynie Soloman, co-founders of the Trans Halakha Project, join Dan and Lex to kick off a series of conversations that will intertwine explorations of Judaism, through lenses of transgender experience, and gender, through lenses of Jewish experience.If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.The Trans Halakha Project, housed at SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva, aims to curate existing resources that have been developed for trans Jews and by trans Jews, identify new areas of halakha that have yet to be developed, and finally to create opportunities for developing new halakhic literature and practice guides that speak directly to these areas of need. Learn more at Svara.org/Trans-Halakha-Project.

David Hirshberg, author of My Mother's Son, Jacobo's Rainbow, and A Bronx Cheer (Upcoming), joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about the role of Jewish fiction in the Jewish present and future.  If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

Natalie Ginsberg and Madison Margolin, two co-founders of the Jewish Psychedelic Summit, join Dan and Lex to discuss their upcoming event, taking place on May 2nd-3rd. Register for the Jewish Psychedelic Summit here!The third co-founder of the summit, Zac Kamenetz, is himself a past guest on Judaism Unbound (listen to his episode here). Learn more about the Jewish Psychedelic Summit by heading to www.JewishPsychedelicSummit.org. For full shownotes on this bonus episode, click here.

Aimee Lucido and Sofiya Pasternack, award-winning authors of novels geared toward students in middle grades, join Dan and Lex for a conversation about Jewish fiction. They explore some of the gaps in the ecosystem of Jewish literature and envision what it would look like to fill some of those gaps -- through their own work, but also through work done by other authors.Aimee Lucido is the author of Emmy In the Key of Code, a semifinalist for the UK's Carnegie Medal (comparable to the American Newberry Award), and of Recipe for Disaster, an upcoming (Fall 2021) book centering a 12-year-old girl who isn't sure if she's "Jewish enough."Sofiya Pasternack is the author of Anya and the Dragon and Anya and the Nightingale -- the latter a Finalist in 2020 for the National Jewish Book Award. These novels blend elements of Jewish tradition and history with the genre of fantasy, helping readers imagine when those two theoretically-separate realms collide.If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

Dan and Lex close out a mini-series of conversations about Torah (and the Bible more generally) by claiming that Torah isn't just those books from a few thousand years ago. It's not even just those books, plus the oral conversations written down centuries later. We -- our experiences and our intuitions -- are also part of the term "Torah."If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.