Joshua Leifer and Shaindy Ort: How Progressive Activists Rediscovered Traditional Jewish Life [Teshuva IV 1/5]

09/10/24 • 115 min

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This series is sponsored by Mira and Daniel Stokar, and this episode is sponsored by dailygiving.org.
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Joshua Leifer and Shaindy Ort, married progressive activists who are reembracing traditional Jewish life.
Joshua and Shaindy grew up in Conservative and Yeshivish communities, respectively, but struggled to find a Jewish community as they joined left-wing circles, specifically those highly critical of Israel.
After October 7, Joshua resigned from the anti-Zionist magazine Jewish Currents, and in August, he published Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life, which made headlines after a Brooklyn bookstore canceled Joshua’s planned talk because it included a Zionist rabbi. In this episode we discuss:

Has October 7 changed anything for progressive Jews highly critical of Israel?
Why do left-wing circles struggle to maintain engaged Jewish life?
What differentiates the Israeli left from the American left?

Tune in to hear a conversation about return and renewal for progressive Jews seeking a life of traditional Jewishness.
Interview begins at 16:44.
Joshua Leifer is a journalist, editor, and translator. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Nation, and elsewhere, and he is the author of the new book Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life.
Shaindy Ort-Leifer is an attorney who works in the fields of strategic litigation and international law.
Joshua and Shaindy are married.
References:
Orot HaTeshuvah by Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook
Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life by Joshua Leifer
Siddur Sefard: “Upon Arising, Upon Entering Synagogue”
Jew Vs Jew: The Struggle For The Soul Of American Jewry by Samuel G. Freedman
After Virtue by Alasdair MacIntyre
Hirsch Haggadah by Samson R. Hirsch
Arukh HaShulchan by Yechiel Michel Epstein
Kitzur Shulchan Arukh by Shlomo Ganzfried
Deuteronomy
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Has October 7 changed anything for progressive Jews highly critical of Israel?
Why do left-wing circles struggle to maintain engaged Jewish life?
What differentiates the Israeli left from the American left?

Previous Episode

Pawel Maciejko: Sabbateanism and the Roots of Secular Judaism [Denominations: Bonus]

This episode is sponsored by Nishmat, the Jeanie Schottenstein Center for Advanced Torah Study for Women, whose Online Beit Midrash returns on Sept. 8. Women of all backgrounds can learn Talmud, Tanach, Halacha, and more from the comfort of home. For a full class schedule and registration, go here.
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to historian and professor Pawel Maciejko about the false messiah Sabbatai Zevi, Sabbateanism, and the roots of Jewish secularism.
Gershom Scholem, the scholar of Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism, saw a connection between the 17th-century messianic movement of Sabbateanism and the later movement of Jewish secularism. Was he right? In this episode we discuss:

What was the impact of Sabbateanism after its messianic fervor died down?
How can studying Jewish history deepen one’s connection with Judaism?
What is Frankism, and why is it a fascination of present-day antisemitic conspiracy theorists?

Tune in to hear a conversation about what the rupture from the Sabbatean movement can teach us about the wide range of Jewish identities we see today.
Interview begins at 17:05.
Pawel Maciejko is an associate professor of history and Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Chair in Classical Jewish Religion, Thought, and Culture at Johns Hopkins University. Between 2005 and 2016 he taught at the Department of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His first book, The Mixed Multitude: Jacob Frank and the Frankist Movement, 1755–1816, was awarded the Salo Baron Prize by the American Academy of Jewish Research and the Jordan Schnitzer Book Award by the Association for Jewish Studies.
References:
Not in the Heavens: The Tradition of Jewish Secular Thought by David Biale
Makers of Jewish Modernity: Thinkers, Artists, Leaders, and the World They Made edited by Jacques Picard, Jacques Revel, Michael P. Steinberg, and Idith Zertal
“The Holiness of Sin” by Gershom Scholem
Mishnah Chagigah 2
Ezekiel 1
Accounting for the Commandments in Medieval Judaism by Elliot R. Wolfson
Sabbatian Heresy: Writings on Mysticism, Messianism, and the Origins of Jewish Modernity edited by Pawel Maciejko
The Mixed Multitude: Jacob Frank and the Frankist Movement, 1755-1816 by Pawel Maciejko
“The Messianic Feminism of Shabbatai Zevi and Sarah Ashkenazi” by Jericho Vincent
On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World by Danya Ruttenberg
“A Portrait of the Kabbalist as a Young Man: Count Joseph Carl Emmanuel Waldstein and His Retinue” by Pawel Maciejko
“Gershom Scholem’s dialectic of Jewish history: the case of Sabbatianism” by Pawel Maciejko
Seforimchatter’s Sabbatai Zevi Series
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Next Episode

Yussie Zakutinsky: Connecting to a Disconnected Jewish People [Teshuva IV 2/5]

This series is sponsored by Mira and Daniel Stokar, and this episode is sponsored by dailygiving.org.
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Yussie Zakutinsky, rabbi of K’hal Mevakshei Hashem in Lawrence, New York, about his vision for a Judaism that unites the entire Jewish People—no matter how wide the gaps between us.
Since October 7, of the many schisms within the Jewish People, some have mended while others are torn anew. As a nation, we have much further to go. In this episode, we discuss:

How can we see the divinity in Jews with whom we profoundly disagree?
What do we mean when we say “the entirety of the Jewish People is an expression of God”?
How can we rescue the divinity within ourselves and within one another?

Tune in to hear a conversation about, as the Baal Shem Tov described it, vanquishing the dragon and redeeming the princess—i.e., elevating the good in all the Jewish People.
Interview begins at 20:27.
Rabbi Yussie Zakutinsky is a rabbi and spiritual leader. He is the rabbi of K’hal Mevakshei Hashem in Lawrence, New York, and is a sought-after lecturer and leader of spiritual happenings.
References:
Mesillat Yesharim by Moses Chaim Luzzatto
Derekh Hashem by Moses Chaim Luzzatto
Avodah Zarah 9a
rabbiywilk.com
Genesis 12:5
18Forty Podcast: “Rabbi YY Jacobson: How Did the Rebbe Revolutionize Judaism?”
Works of Rav Kook
Works of Rav Tzadok HaKohen
Divrei Soferim 16
Pachad Yitzchok by Rav Yitzchok Hutner
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/18forty-podcast--4344730/support.