Not in Heaven

On Oct. 27, Israeli voters cast their ballots in the highest-turnout election in decades and gave their judgment on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu government. On the ballot was how Netanyahu has handled some of the most tumultuous years in the country’s history, from attempts to overhaul the Israeli judicial system to the largest mass-casualty event in the country’s history on Oct. 7, 2023, as well as the ensuing hostage crisis and wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. While much is still unknown about the messy electoral results, one thing is clear: a plurality of Israeli voters gave a stamp of approval to Prime Minister Netanyahu and his Likud party’s vision for the future. But what that means for Israel’s advocates in the Diaspora, and indeed Jews around the world, remains an open question. Earlier this month, the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS)—an Israeli national security think tank affiliated with Tel Aviv University—published No Longer on the Sidelines: How the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Impacts Diaspora Jews. Drawn from conversations with 20 senior leaders from 15 major Jewish communal organizations in the United States, Canada, Britain, France and South America, the report argues that Israeli policies are taking a mounting toll on Jewish life abroad: dividing communities, accelerating antisemitism and increasingly isolating Israel and its advocates on the world stage. It seems that while Israelis can accept Netanyahu’s status quo, Jews in the Diaspora are living in a different reality. Just days before the election, Ronald Lauder, the chief of the World Jewish Congress and longtime confidant of Netanyahu, broke years of silence to urge Israelis not to re-elect the prime minister, saying that the country risks losing U.S. and Diaspora support. “If Bibi is elected, Israel stands to lose badly,” he said. This week on Not in Heaven, our rabbinic podcasters discuss whether different Israeli leadership would affect Jewish life around the world, or whether the convulsions in Jewish Diaspora life would remain largely the same regardless. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

“Jewish joy” is having a moment. It shows up in grant guidelines, new organizational mission statements and frothy headlines like “This Hanukkah Episode of NPR’s Tiny Desk Is Full of Jewish Joy,” “How to Connect to Your Jewish Joy,” “What Brings Cookbook Author Leah Koenig Jewish Joy” and “Simchat Torah: A road map for Jewish joy.” In spring 2027, Jewish Joy LLC—an umbrella organization that includes The Jewish Joy Book Club, The Jewish Joy Box, Jewish Joy Publishing and Jewish Joy Media—is hosting Jewish Joy Con: three funtastic days of Jewish pop culture, merch vendors and book lectures at a sprawling convention centre in Fort Lauderdale. (Jewish Joy Con was previously scheduled for March 2026, but organizers had to joyfully postpone.) In a post-Oct. 7 world, rediscovering Jewish joy became an important corrective to the idea that Jewish life should be defined primarily by crisis—and that victimization and grief could provide a sustainable foundation for Jewish identity. But now, some critics wonder whether binging on all that traditional, syrupy Jewish joy might result in an equally traditional Jewish tummy ache. Today on Not in Heaven, our rabbinic podcasters ask what the movement for Jewish joy gets right—and what it misses. What is Judaism’s relationship to joy? Is joy a means or an end in itself? Can joy coexist with substance? Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

You know the scene. Darkness falls. A hush settles over the gathered crowd. The rabbi intones: “The hour is nigh! Yom Kippur is upon us! Atone, turn your hearts toward righteousness, for today our fates are sealed. Who will live and who will die, who by fire, who by water, who by wild beasts?” A pregnant pause. Your future hangs in the balance. Is there any way to tip the scales? “Now, I’d like to tell you all about our capital campaign. There are pledge cards in the seat pockets in front of you…” The High Holidays, when synagogues are at their fullest, offer a natural opportunity for annual fundraising appeals. It’s also the time of year when many Jews engage in cheshbon hanefesh, literally “soul-accounting,” meditating on what they’ve invested over the past year—in time, energy and resources—and how they want that to change in the year to come. On this week’s episode of Not in Heaven, our rabbinic podcasters talk philanthropy. Is tzedakah purely monetary? What makes an effective High Holiday appeal? And while it might be more efficient to fundraise one $20,000 donation than 20 $1,000 donations, what does that mean for cultivating a culture of widespread giving? As it says in Pirke Avot: “Without flour, there is no Torah. Without Torah, there is no flour.” So, how do we raise the dough? Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

For Jews in the pews, the wail of the shofar is the signal sound of the Jewish New Year. But for congregational rabbis, it’s like the crack of a starting pistol, setting them off on a six-week sprint of preparation and facilitation. The role of the pulpit rabbi can be emotionally draining, with unrealistic expectations and a lack of boundaries for their personal lives. Logistics, administration, governing boards and committees take over, leading some to search for a new path. Enter the freelance rabbi. Not in Heaven host Avi Finegold covered the rise of the freelance rabbi in the most recent issue of Scribe Quarterly. As membership numbers at synagogues continue to fall, demand is increasing for spiritual leaders who can fit into their lifestyles. These freelance rabbis are unaffiliated with any synagogue, and they're available for officiating lifecycle events like weddings, funerals, baby namings, or b'nai mitzvah. This week, our rabbinic podcasters—including our very own Matthew Libel, longtime freelance rabbi in Winnipeg—look at what's behind the trend and where it's going. What does a community lose when participation becomes an à la carte experience? And how does shifting to the gig-work world ultimately affect the rabbi's mental health? Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) https://pnc.st/s/not-in-heaven

Eight months after the Conservative movement issued a public apology to interfaith families for historically treating them as a threat to Jewish survival, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards (CJLS), the rabbinic arm of the denomination, released a new set of Jewish legal rulings delineating both the possibilities and limits for including interfaith families in Jewish religious and ritual life, entitled “Gateways Into Jewish Living: Guiding the Conservative/Masorti Rabbi in Supporting Families with Non-Jewish Loved Ones”. Two findings make this story of particular interest to Canadian Jews. First, as of 2019, Conservatives comprised the largest denominational affiliation among Canadian Jews, totalling 33 per cent of the population. Second, more than 35 per cent of married Jewish Canadians under the age of 40 have a non-Jewish spouse. While the rulings did provide concrete ways for rabbis and congregations to welcome interfaith couples and families, critics are frustrated that the CJLS said that rabbinic officiation of interfaith marriages remains beyond the pale of permissibility under Jewish law. Defenders say that the rulings deal with how interfaith families can build a Jewish home, raise Jewish children and celebrate life-cycle events—the things that make up Jewish life every day outside of the wedding. The publication solidified a number of practices into Jewish law for the first time. For instance, non-Jewish parents “may and should” be included in English blessings on the bimah during their child’s bar or bat mitzvah. They may not receive an aliyah to the Torah—recite the official blessing before a Torah reading—but may accompany a partner to do so. A Jew may not sell their hametz, leavened bread products, to their non-Jewish spouse. A non-Jewish spouse may perform “labour” that is typically religiously prohibited for Jews to do on Shabbat, as long as it’s not directly asked for by the Jewish partner, though a young Jewish child may ask them to do so. Our rabbinic podcasters react to this set of rulings and wonder if the movement is trying to be “half-pregnant,” or deftly trying to walk the tightrope between tradition and modernity. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)