NYJM - Not Your Jewish Mother

Elianna and Tova discuss the recent New York Times piece revealing the lack of general education, abuse and trauma  in some  of the Hasidic schools in New York. They discuss their personal thoughts and feelings on educational systems. They conclude with a beautiful Poem by Nikita Gill. 

There is a great deal of change happening in the jewish world between congregations in search of rabbis, major jewish establishments selling their property and everything in between. We discuss the deconstruction and reconstruction of this Jewish institutional life and the possibilities of the moment. 

Using the beautiful song from Encanto, Surface Pressure, Tova and Elianna wonder how do we manage the demands of modernity? Society asks us to juggle so much and seek out perfection in every aspect of who we are -- what do we loose as a consequence and how do Tova and Elianna experience this tension and try to create space for more joy and less pressure.  https://www.google.com/search?q=surface+pressure+lyrics&oq=surface+pressure+l&aqs=chrome.0.35i39j69i57j0i433i512j46i512j0i512j69i60l3.4623j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 

In this episode Tova and Elianna discuss the origin story of NYJM and what this process brings up for each of them. 

This is our first special guest! Tova and Elianna interview Shira on the many journeys: her rabbinate, jewish-spiritual life, parenthood and more! Rabbi Shira Stutman is a nationally known faith-based leader and change-maker with more than twenty years of experience motivating and inspiring groups large and small, most recently as the founding rabbi of Sixth & I in Washington DC. She teaches and speaks nationally on topics including growing welcoming Jewish spiritual communities; building the connective tissues between different types of people; and the current American Jewish community zeitgeist. She also is writing a book on the blessing of interfaith couples. Next month, she and the actor Joshua Malina will launch the PRX podcast “Chutzpod,” which aims to provide Jewish answers to life’s contemporary questions and help listeners build lives of meaning. She was named one of “America’s Most Inspiring Rabbis” by The Jewish Forward, among other awards. She graduated from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, where she was a Wexner Graduate Fellow. 

Tova and Elianna discuss their connection to wellness and sports as players and spectators. 

Elianna and Tova continue the series on smashing the patriarchy and discuss their personal experiences of being female rabbis. 

Welcome back to season two of NYJM! This is a podcast with rabbis, two women and two mothers  (Elianna Yolkut Tova Leibovic-Douglas) discussing spirituality, judaism, parenthood and how it all intersects. This season you can expect some tears, laughter, disagreement and special guests. 

A surprising tidbit of trivia about Elianna revealed in our story.The beginning of what will be an ongoing conversation on equity and gender.Stunning Torah on the nameless voices of our sacred texts. Join us. 

Tova and Elianna explore their personal connection to traditional Judaism and the longstanding trend of the decline of organized religion membership throughout the world.  They explore if there is a difference between religion and spirituality and share thoughts on the current moment of deconstruction of structures that contained religion/spirituality for a long time.