Jewish Ideas to Change the World

Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz sits down with author Mitch Albom to talk about faith, healing, and hope.Mitch Albom is an internationally renowned and best-selling author, journalist, screenwriter, playwright, radio and television broadcaster, and musician. His books have collectively sold 42 million copies worldwide; have been published in 51 territories and in 48 languages around the world; and have been made into Emmy award-winning and critically-acclaimed television movies. In 2006, he founded the nonprofit SAY Detroit, which provides pathways to success for Detroiters in need through major health, housing, and education initiatives. He also founded a dessert shop and a gourmet popcorn line to help fund it. Albom operates Have Faith Haiti, a home and school for impoverished children and orphans in Port-au-Prince, which he visits monthly. He lives with his wife, Janine, in Michigan. ★ Support this podcast ★

Rabbi Shmuly sits down with Rabbi Angela Buchdahl to talk about her new book Heart of a Stranger. Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl serves as the Senior Rabbi of Central Synagogue in New York City, the first woman to lead this flagship congregation in its 185-year history. Under her leadership, Central Synagogue has grown to become one of the largest synagogues in the world, including congregants attending via livestream in more than one hundred countries. Born in Korea to a Jewish American father and a Korean Buddhist mother, she is the first Asian-American to be ordained as a rabbi in North America. Rabbi Buchdahl was invited by President Barack Obama in 2014 and President Joe Biden in 2023 to share blessings for the White House Hanukkah Party. She has been featured in dozens of news outlets, including the Today Show, NPR, Wall Street Journal, PBS, and Newsweek’s Most Influential Rabbis. Rabbi Buchdahl and her husband, Jacob Buchdahl, live in New York City and have three children. ★ Support this podcast ★

A virtual event presentation by David M. Elcott, PhDAbout The Event: At a moment when liberal democracy is so deeply threatened and we search to understand how this can be occurring at this point in history, a new prize-winning analysis Faith, Nationalism, and the Future of LiberalDemocracy by David Elcott comes to offer a cogentexploration of the ways religious identity fuels illiberal nationalist and populist democracy across the globe, fromthe United States to Israel, from India to Indonesia. Elcott, a powerful analyst who has taught in Jewish communities across North America and interfaith settings around the world, allows us to better understand the revolts against a political, social, and economic order that values democracy in a global and strikingly diverse world, while encouraging people of faith to promote foundational support for the institutions and values of the democratic enterprise from within their own religious traditions and to stand against the hostility and cruelty that historically haveresulted when religious zealotry and state power combine.About The Speaker: Born to a Holocaust refugee and growing up poor in semi-rural California, David went on to receive his doctorate from Columbia University, where he now serves as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Justice, teaching in a college degree program for men incarcerated at Green Haven maximum security prison. He was the VP of CLAL, the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Interfaith Director at AJC, and the EVP of Israel Policy Forum.  He recently retired as the Tasub Professor at the NYU Wagner School of Public Service. Married to Rabbi Shira Milgrom with four married children and ten grandchildren, along with Faith, Nationalism and the Future of Liberal Democracy, he authored A Sacred Journey and co-authored the upcoming Sevenfold Path: A Traveler’s Guide to Jewish Wisdom with his wife Shira and On the Significance of Religion in Immigration Policy.  David has been a frequent radio, TV, and podcast presenter as well as a popular op-ed columnist for a wide range of written media. ★ Support this podcast ★

A virtual event presentation by Rabbi Marc Katz About The Event: Some two thousand years ago, the story goes, a rabbi named Yochanan made the epitome of pragmatic gambles—wagering the entire fate of the Jewish people. His quick thinking inspired generations of subsequent rabbis to navigate their own ethical challenges pragmatically—determining truth, upholding compromise, convincing others, keeping peace with neighbors, avoiding infighting, weighing sinning in hopes of promoting a greater good. In his talk, based on his book Yochanan’s Gamble, Rabbi Katz lays out a new Jewish path forward for resolving moral conundrums in our day and breaking the deadlock that exists in our broken political discourse. *Source Sheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HtAHxVMrmYuw-22xMStpFKrE9wjFPt5X8YQ5KeV4dUU/edit?usp=sharingAbout The Speaker: Rabbi Marc Katz is the rabbi of Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield, New Jersey. He is the author of two books: “The Heart of Loneliness: How Jewish Wisdom Can Help You Cope and Find Comfort” which was a finalist for the national book award and his most recent, “Yochanan’s Gamble: Judaism’s Pragmatic Approach to Life” which was chosen as a finalist for the PROSE award, one of chief awards in academic publishing. ★ Support this podcast ★

A virtual event presentation by Professor Jon LevisohnAbout The Event: Jewish educators worry about Jewish literacy. Jewish leaders worry about it. Jewish parents definitely worry about it. And sometimes individual Jews worry about their own Jewish literacy, too! “Jewish literacy” gets thrown around a lot, especially when people talk about American Jews being “Jewishly illiterate.” But what does that actually mean? Is there a Jewish pop quiz we all failed? In this thought-provoking session, Jon Levisohn will invite us to look beyond the anxious hand-wringing and ask deeper questions: Why does Jewish knowledge matter? What kinds of knowledge are we really talking about? And how can rethinking our assumptions reshape the way we educate the next generation? Join us for an exploration that challenges familiar narratives and opens up new possibilities for Jewish learning.About The Speaker: Jon A. Levisohn is a philosopher of education at Brandeis University, where he directs a research center that focuses on Jewish education. He has published widely on the teaching of Jewish texts, the teaching of Israel, the teaching of historical narratives, the concept of assimilation, the concept of Jewish identity, and more. Among his recent works is a book chapter titled, “Meeting the Challenges of the Moment: How to Think about the Purposes of Jewish Education after October 7.” ★ Support this podcast ★

An event presentation by Dr. Elias Sacks About The Event: Is it offensive and blasphemous to say that God loves us? Is Judaism nothing more than the laws of an ancient kingdom that have been mistaken for a religion? Does God have body parts, romantic relationships, and other human-like characteristics? We will explore ancient, medieval, and modern Jewish thinkers who have answered “yes” to these questions, as well as other Jewish thinkers who have deemed such ideas to be heretical. Throughout, we will wrestle both with diverse voices from the Jewish tradition and with this overarching question: Is there anything that Jews aren’t allowed to believe? About The Speaker: Elias Sacks is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Jewish Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he studies Jewish thought, philosophy of religion, Jewish-Christian relations, religious ethics, and religion and politics. He is the author of Moses Mendelssohn’s Living Script: Philosophy, Practice, History, Judaism (2017), as well as articles on medieval and modern thinkers, including Mendelssohn, Moses Maimonides, Baruch Spinoza, Nachman Krochmal, Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, and Jacob Taubes. Previously, Sacks served as Director of The Jewish Publication Society. ★ Support this podcast ★

A hybrid event (in-person and virtual) by Mois Navon The event is co-sponsored by: ASU Jewish Studies and Congregation Or Tzion About The Event: While hard to imagine, scientists are working on building robots (and chatbots) with human-level consciousness. Is this something to look forward to? Mois Navon's talk will make you think about life, love, and humanity. About The Speaker: Mois Navon is one of the founding engineers of Mobileye, where he designed the EyeQ family of SoC (System On a Chip) – the chip powering the autonomous vehicle revolution. Mois is also an ordained rabbi who has published numerous articles on Jewish law and lore. Working at the intersection of Torah U’Madda, he received his PhD from the department of Jewish Philosophy at Bar Ilan University wherein his dissertation applies Jewish philosophy to address the ethical questions arising in the field of artificial intelligence. In this vein, he teaches a course on “Ethics in Artificial Intelligence” at Ben Gurion University. ★ Support this podcast ★

A virtual event presentation by Professor Sylvia Barack FishmanAbout The Event: And She Arose: Jewish Women Leaders for Our Troubled Times will document and analyze important public leadership roles played by Jewish women, leading up to and in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing war. This discussion will paint detailed pictures of Jewish women courageously filling leadership lacunae during troubled and troubling times, drawing on their passionate attachments to traditional Jewish values and culture. Concluding analyses will focus on Jewish women leaders’ impact on the quality and vitality of contemporary Jewish life, based on my interviews with notable key informants.About The Speaker: Sylvia Barack Fishman, Ph.D., is the Joseph and Esther Foster Professor of Judaic Studies, Emerita, in the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Department at Brandeis University, and was the Founding Co-Director of the Hadassah Brandeis Institute. She is the author of eight books and numerous articles and book chapters on contemporary Jewish life and culture, and received the Marshall Sklare award from the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry. Prof. Fishman served on the JOFA Board for many years and continues her active involvement. ★ Support this podcast ★

Rabbi Shmuly sits down with Mois Navon, a founding engineer of Mobileye, where he designed the EyeQ family of SoC (System On a Chip) – the chip powering the autonomous vehicle revolution.Mois is also an ordained rabbi who has published numerous articles on Jewish law and lore. Working at the intersection of Torah U’Madda, he received his PhD from the department of Jewish Philosophy at Bar Ilan University, where his dissertation applies Jewish philosophy to address the ethical questions arising in the field of artificial intelligence. In this vein, he teaches a course on “Ethics in Artificial Intelligence” at Ben Gurion University. ★ Support this podcast ★

A virtual presentation by Dr. Marc BrettlerAbout The Event:The belief that the Torah is a composite book written by people over a long period of time, that the Hebrew Bible text that we use contains errors, and that the Bible was influenced by ancient Near Eastern texts, are main elements of the historical-critical analysis of the Bible. What is the variety of reactions to these developments of the last few centuries within the Jewish community?  To what extent have Jews of different types accepted these scholarly claims, and can they play a constructive role within Judaism?About The Speaker:Marc Zvi Brettler is the Bernice and Morton Lerner Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies in the Department of Religious Studies at Duke University, and the Dora Golding Professor of Biblical Literature Emeritus at Brandeis University. His books include How to Read the Jewish Bible, The Jewish Study Bible (edited with Adele Berlin), and The Bible and the Believer (with Peter Enns and Daniel Harrington).  He co-edited The Jewish Annotated New Testament and co-authored The Bible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently with Amy-Jill Levine. He is deeply committed to making the Jewish community more aware of the richness of Jewish literature from the past, including the New Testament, and to introducing academic biblical study to the broader community, as reflected in TheTorah.com, which he co-founded. ★ Support this podcast ★

Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz interviews Professor Corinna Lain.Professor Corinna Lain is the S. D. Roberts & Sandra Moore Professor of Law at the University of Richmond School of Law. Professor Lain’s scholarship focuses on two areas—Supreme Court decision-making and the death penalty—and she has published numerous articles and essays about lethal injection over the last decade. Her work has appeared in the nation’s top law journals, including the Stanford Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Duke Law Journal, UCLA Law Review, and Georgetown Law Journal, among other venues. Professor Lain is a frequent presenter at both national and international conferences, and is co-author (with Ron Bacigal) of the Virginia Practice Series on criminal law, a four-volume treatise for the bench and practicing bar with new editions each year. Professor Lain graduated summa cum laude from the College of William and Mary in 1992 and received her J.D. from the University of Virginia in 1996, where she was elected to the Order of the Coif. She clerked on the Tenth Circuit and then was a prosecutor for three years before joining the Richmond Law faculty in 2001. Professor Lain is a recipient of the University of Richmond’s Distinguished Educator Award and is a veteran of the United States Army. Her first book, "Secrets of the Killing State: the Untold Story of Lethal Injection," was released in April 2025. ★ Support this podcast ★

A virtual event presentation by Professor David ShyovitzAbout The Event: Is Judaism—and by extension, religious identity—a category applicable only to human beings? Or might non-human animals also, in some sense, have religious standing and status? This session will explore some classical Jewish perspectives on this question, surveying medieval rabbinic debates over whether animals have immortal souls and are eligible for heavenly reward; whether they can—or must—perform religious commandments; how and when humans can transform into animals, and vice versa. While these subjects may seem fanciful, they were of obsessive interest to medieval Jewish thinkers. They had important implications for both Jewish self-understanding and debates between Jews and their Christian and Muslim neighbors.About The Speaker: David Shyovitz is Associate Professor of Jewish History at Northwestern University and Director of NU’s Crown Family Center for Jewish and Israel Studies. He is the author of the award-winning A Remembrance of His Wonders: Nature and the Supernatural in Medieval Ashkenaz. ★ Support this podcast ★

About The Lecture: Hoshana Rabbah, the seventh and final day of the fall Sukkot festival, is one of the most fascinating and least appreciated dates on the Jewish calendar and was traditionally regarded as the holiday season’s final opportunity for teshuvah (repentance). Come join us for a lecture by Dr. Daniel Stein Kokin exploring the significance and unique practices of Hoshana Rabbah and a performance of “Elyon, Melits Umastin” (“God, Defender and Accuser”), vocal and instrumental music composed especially for this day in 1733 in Casale Monferrato, Italy.*Presentation Slideshow: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1CR5ESfOwMyqoqL6Zy-V8QInWH0XdHwH6/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=118303465191084699356&rtpof=true&sd=trueAbout The Speaker: Dr. Daniel Stein Kokin is an adjunct member of the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies faculty at Arizona State University. He has lectured and published widely on both Jewish and Israeli cultural history.Cosponsored with Beth El Congregation and The Center for Jewish Philanthropy of Greater Phoenix ★ Support this podcast ★

A virtual event presentation by Dr. Jonnie SchnytzerAbout The Event: Why do certain people appear in our lives? And how can certain kabbalistic contemplations deepen our relationships with our family, friends and day-to-day encounters? In this class, we learn about a beautiful secret relating to the tree of life, reincarnation and their relevance to our day-to-day lives.About The Speaker: Dr. Jonnie Schnytzer is probably the only PhD in Jewish Philosophy, focusing on medieval kabbalah, who can say that he once beat the head of Israeli Naval Commandos in a swimming race. His dissertation focused on the scientific kabbalah of Rabbi Joseph ben Shalom Ashkenazi. Jonnie’s forthcoming book is about Ashkenazi’s Kabbalah as well as a critical edition of the kabbalist’s majestic commentary on Sefer Yesira. Jonnie’s also the author of the Mossad thriller, The Way Back, which paints a picture of contemporary Israel. Jonnie also orchestrated the publishing of an English edition of ‘The Hitler Haggadah’, an important piece of Moroccan Jewish history from the Holocaust. Jonnie has also taken on several leadership roles in the Jewish world, including advisor to the CEO of Birthright and executive manager with StandWithUs. He lectures on a wide variety of topics relating to Judaism and Israel, especially about the untold stories and unspoken heroes of Jewish history. Jonnie is happily married, with four gorgeous little kids, lives in Israel, and thinks that Australian Rules Football is the greatest sport ever invented. ★ Support this podcast ★

A virtual event presentation by Rabbi Dvora Weisberg, Ph.D.About The Event:Jewish tradition teaches that through teshuvah (repentance), we can “remake” ourselves as better people. But how do we present and live as our new, improved selves when our mistakes are preserved on the internet and available for everyone to see (and dredge up)? We will tackle this challenge through rabbinic texts.*Source Sheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vU6TZeoPua8utCc2mXaMfRlOINM6ubmO/editAbout The Speaker:Rabbi Dvora Weisberg, Ph.D., is the Rabbi Aaron Panken Professor of Rabbinics on the Los Angeles campus of Hebrew Union College. Rabbi Weisberg served for eleven years as the Rabbinical Program Director in Los Angeles and then as the National Rabbinical School Director of Hebrew Union College from 2020 to 2025.Rabbi Weisberg was raised in San Francisco. She received her B.A. summa cum laude from Brandeis University, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Her undergraduate thesis, for which she was awarded highest honors in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, was entitled “Can the Demands of Jewish Feminists Be Met Within the Halakhic System?”  She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Talmud and Rabbinic Literature from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and was ordained at Hebrew Union College.Before Hebrew Union College, Rabbi Weisberg taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary, the College of William and Mary, and the University of Pittsburgh.Rabbi Weisberg is the author of Levirate Marriage and the Family in Ancient Judaism (2008), a study of the ancient rabbis’ vision of the family and its members, and Tractate Menahot: A Feminist Commentary (2020). Her book on levirate marriage and the family was a finalist for the 2009 National Jewish Book Awards in the category of Women’s Studies.Rabbi Weisberg is married to Rabbi Neal Scheindlin and is the mother of Micah (& Elana) and Noah Scheindlin, and the savta of Orli Maya and Eitan Yonah. ★ Support this podcast ★