Episode 278: The Deli is My Synagogue - Rachel B. Gross

06/11/21 • 56 min

Rachel Gross, the John & Marcia Goldman Chair in American Jewish Studies at San Francisco State University and author of Beyond the Synagogue: Jewish Nostalgia as Religious Practice, joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about delis, museums, children's literature, and other religious spaces that you didn't know were religious!

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If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!

To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

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Episode 277: Trans Jewish Fiction - Leiah Moser

Leiah Moser, author of Magical Princess Harriet and rabbi at Reconstructionist Beth Israel in New Jersey, joins Dan and Lex for a conversation that weaves together threads around transgender identity, fantasy fiction, conversion to Judaism, and more.

This episode is the fifth episode in a series that intertwines explorations of Judaism, through lenses of transgender experience, and explorations of gender, through lenses of Jewish experience.

If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!

To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

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Bonus Episode: The Dybbukast VIII - In Defense of Women

This bonus episode of Judaism Unbound is presented in partnership with Theatre Dybbuk. Once a month, their podcast -- called The Dybbukast -- releases a new episode, and we are proud to feature episode eight of their podcast as a bonus episode here on Judaism Unbound's channel. In each episode, they bring poems, plays, and other creative texts from throughout history to life, all while revealing their relationships to issues still present today. Subscribe to The Dybbukast in Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else that podcasts are found.

Written in Italy in the 16th century by Jewish dramatist Leone De' Sommi Portaleone, who also wrote what is considered to be the oldest extant Hebrew-language play, the poem "In Defense of Women" touches on the role of women in drama and reveals a great deal about the cultural considerations and power dynamics of this time when women were coming to the fore on the theatrical stages of Northern Italy, Rome, and Venice in the professional world of the commedia dell’arte.
Intercut with selections from the poem and other works of the era performed by theatre dybbuk actors, scholar Erith Jaffe-Berg, PhD unpacks the text's meaning and its relevance to both historical and contemporary issues of equity and belonging. "In Defense of Women" was originally presented as a hybrid of theatre and live podcast at San Diego Repertory's JFEST and premiered at the festival as a YouTube event on May 20, 2021. The audio from that presentation has been adapted for distribution on The Dybbukast in this episode.