Hello, listeners. Yesterday's podcast conversation contained  some editing errors, including the DEADLINE FOR THE ART/LAB FELLOWSHIP.  The deadline is AUGUST 30TH. This has been correected in this version of the conversation.

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In the 21st century it feels that the seams of our world have come undone.

American citizenry is profoundly fractured. Old political allignments have broken apart; norms of decency and public trust are in pieces. The same thing seems to be happening within Israel.  The American Jewish community is more fragmented now than I’ve ever seen it. The divisions are not just ideological but social. We have an increasing number of micro-communities, but less Jewish unity. 

That question — how we create those kinds of connections, and what they make possible — was one I wanted to explore with my guest today, Rabbi April Villareal. Rabbi Vlilareal is an educator and teacher who brings real insight into this topic. She's the Senior Coach and Program Associate with Hadar’s Pedagogy of Partnership.

In our conversation, we talk about:

• Why shared texts experiences can make space for intimacy that pure dialogue sometimes can’t.
  
  

• How to hold people accountable to a tradition while making room for their unique voice.
  
  

• What it takes to build relationships across deep differences, without erasing them.

• How art and creativity can be relational tools in community and classroom.

Links: 

Art/Lab - artlabpdx.org

Rabbi April Villarreal – Hadar.org

PoemHunter – Fancies (Emma Lazrus)

Sefaria