We are joined by the brilliant Jules Pashall (they/he) for this episode! Jules is a fat, white, trans/queer Jew who holds space as a somatic, creative and spiritual practitioner. Their offerings are built on the belief that undoing violent hierarchies and how they live in our bodies is part of the path of soul retrieval and collective liberation. For 15 years, they have been exploring fat as a resource for transformation. Jules holds a master’s degree in Somatic Psychology from the California...

In this episode, we talk to Dr. Oren Kroll-Zeldin, who is the assistant director of the Swig Program in Jewish Studies and Social Justice at the University of San Francisco where he is also an assistant professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. Oren recently published his first book, “Unsettled: American Jews and the Movement for Justice in Palestine.” You can buy the book here! “Unsettled digs into the experiences of young Jewish Americans who engage with the Palestine...

Join us as we talk to Ezra Star (he/they) and Jen Deerinwater (Jen), two organizers with Disability Divest, as we talk about Disability Divest and their work, how genocide is a mass disabling event, and how Ezra combines his drag and Judaism. Ezra, also known by their drag name - Neuro Cosmos - is a queer, anti-zionist, disabled drag artist in DC and one of the organizers of Disability Divest. Jen is the Founding Executive Director of Crushing Colonialism, Crushing Colonialism is an...

Join us as we talk to ⁠Rabbi Chel Mandell (they/them). Chel is the founder and rabbi of TzimTzum Community in Santa Cruz, CA. Tzimtzum is a community of queer, trans, and gender-expansive Jews centering the Jewish diasporist experience; refocusing on Jewish tradition, ritual, and community gathering in Santa Cruz.  We talk with Rabbi Chel about molding Jewish tradition for our communities, centering their practice around the surf, and the process of building their community.  You can...

Join us as we talk to Leora Fridman (she/her). Leora is a Jewish writer whose work is concerned with issues of identity, care, ability, and embodiment. Leora is the author of upcoming book “Bound Up: On Kink, Power, and Belonging” which is “an autotheoretical journey through bondage, domination, and intimacy, [in which she] uncovers how Jewish historical trauma can be challenged and explored in embodied relations.” “Bound Up” comes out TOMORROW and you can pre-order it here! If you're based...

Join us as we talk to Chaia (she/her), a Jewish dance music artist who makes Kleztronica - electronic and techno music that uses samples from yiddish and klezmer music. Chaia’s first single is out TODAY and we are so excited to share our conversation with her where she talks all things yiddish, techno, kleztronica, and everything in between. Listen to Chaia's new single, ⁠Borough Park⁠, out as of 9/13/24. If you are in NYC, check out the ⁠Diasporic Techno Night ⁠Chaia mentions, happening...

[This conversation was recorded live on 8/18/24 as a part of the Embodied Resistance event.] Join Making Mensches for a conversation with Leilah Feinstein and Ayelet Cartolina, discussing Tu B'av, s*x workers in Judaism, and how s*x workers play a role in our fight for liberation. [The images mentioned by Ayelet can be found here!] Ticket sales from this event allowed us to raise $308 toward evacuating two families from Gaza, and we encourage you all to continue sharing and...

Welcome to part 2 of our episodes with Dr Bill! Some of you may know Dr Bill from the ⁠blog series he penned for our website⁠, describing his journey as an anti-zionist Jew in the 70s and 80s. We wanted to bring him on the podcast so you could hear from him in this way. He's very keen on questions, so please dm or email us if you have any for him. It would make him very happy to answer them :) We'll be back with another episode soon 👀 Already donated to direct funds to Gazans and want...

We're bacccckkkk! Did you miss us? We've channeled our energy over the last 10 months to organizing around the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and aim to continue focusing our attention on Gaza while bringing back the podcast as a way to amplify calls for an end to genocide and occupation. Our first episode back is with Dr Bill! Some of you may know Dr Bill from the blog series he penned for our website, describing his journey as an anti-zionist Jew in the 70s and 80s. We wanted to bring him on...

We have definitely not been conducting ~business as usual~ the last two months as we focus our time and energy on amplifying Palestinian voices and doing what we can from here to fight for a liberated Palestine. We are back in the midst of this hiatus to bring you a joint episode with The Jewish Diasporist podcast! We talk about how The Jewish Diasporist podcast started and what it means to identify as a "diasporist," a bit about the founders personal backgrounds, and how they conceive of...

It feels weird to be posting about a new podcast episode while genocide rages on, but we offer this episode on Cheshvan as a reflection on what is happening in the world and a space for Jewish ritual that feels so necessary in order to bolster us as we continue fighting against ethnic cleansing. If this resonates with you and you want this right now, feel free to listen. If it doesn’t, leave it here, and keep amplifying Palestinian voices, keep protesting, keep calling / emailing /...

This week join us as we talk about Ometz Lev - courage! We talk about the courage that it takes to be vocal about anti-zionism in Jewish spaces, the importance of language, and the necessity to break cycles of generational and historical trauma 👀 We’ll be back next week for our final session on Jewish values that support anti-zionism! Stay tuned for our INCREDIBLE August series ❤️ S/o to @naebird.wav for our podcast music - go listen to this as a podcast if you prefer! Link in bio! AND...

Join us as we talk all things Sukkot and art and agriculture and Judaism with Sol Weiss (they/them)! During this episode, we talk about the idea of sukkah’s as vision forts, what it means to be in healing relationship with the land, collective composting, and so so much more.  Some links to things that we discuss in this session are: 🌱 The COVID Grief Network (now, Reimagine) 🌱 Being with Grief workbook that Sol illustrated, which is for sale now! (Being with Grief: a Book of Doodles &...

g'mar chatima tova to all you lovely listeners! 🕊️ We hope that this episode can be a helpful guide to your Yom Kippur observance, as we break down what Yom Kippur is and talk about… ❤️‍🔥 the idea of Yom Kippur being a dress rehearsal for our death ❤️‍🔥 our feelings on fasting ❤️‍🔥 how the Unetanneh Tokef represents the power of oral tradition ❤️‍🔥 Kol Nidre honoring a history of forced conversions, and much much more. However you choose to observe, we hope it’s meaningful...

This episode we talk all about the month of Tishrei with Rebekah Erev (they/them) 🪐 Rebekah is the co-creator of the Dreaming The World To Come planner and podcast and of the Queer Mikveh Project! They bring us all of the wisdom and nourishment we could ask for leading into Tishrei. For more of their work, visit https://rebekaherevstudio.com/ We talk about… 🕯️ embracing all the tiny moments of joy and love 🕯️what it really means to dream the world to come 🕯️how time is just a spiral and...

Join us for this expansive conversation with Veronica Stewart-Frommer, lead singer of the band Melt, and anti-nuclear weapons activist ❤️‍🔥 We talk all about what it means to feel "Jewish enough" and how we can end up using our Jewish identities, or proximity to Judaism, as a shield of sorts when talking about Palestinian liberation and how we can move away from that. We talk all about Veronica's activism around nuclear disarmament and how their identities effortlessly find their way into...

Join us as we talk to Micah Bazant (they/them) a visual artist and cultural strategist who works with social justice movements to reimagine the world. We talk to Micah about some of their zines, TimTum and Miklat Miklat, the connections between abolition and Judaism, the importance of being explicitly anti-zionist, healing from generational trauma, and what dreams we all have of the world to come. For more of Micah's work, check out their website! Here is the link for the talk Micah...

On this episode, we talk with Anna Rajagopal about being Houston’s biggest fan and the significance of our geographic homes, about loving and losing - especially in relation to Queer community, and the power of art and joy as resistance.  We discuss Anna’s pieces about their friend and community member Audrey, those can be found HERE and HERE. We also talk about their poem Alona Naomi, which can be found HERE. Anna asked us to highlight the Instagram art page Art Auction for Palestine and...

Join us for a beautiful conversation with Astera (she/they) about diaspora, preservation, and the significance of language - especially Ladino ❤️‍🔥 Astera brings light to how powerful preserving language - like Ladino - and culture are, as ways to engage with art and continue creating art, and as ways to push back against zionism and other settler colonialism.  You can listen to Astera’s podcast HERE, read their poem we talk about HERE, and read their article we mentioned HERE. If you want...

Join us as we talk with Naomi Weintraub (they/them). Naomi is currently the Community Artist-in-Residence at the Jewish Museum of Maryland. Their art practice explores themes of play, queerness, anarchism, and environment. We talk with them about living on Jewish time, and queer time, the power of Jewish ritual and the power of transformation, and Jewish anarchism!  You can get in contact with Naomi on their instagram and check out their art on their website. We talk about the Olam Haba...

Join us as we talk to multi-talented artist @tahini.jpg ❤️‍🔥🕯️🍃Nick tells us all about their tattooing practice, the meaningfulness of tattooing Judaica & queer art, living off the grid, and how Judaism shows up (even unintentionally) in all the art they make. Join us next week when we talk to @na0mir0se , a multi-media artist and educator living in Baltimore 🥳 As always, s/o to Nate for our podcast music! #artistsoninstagram #JewishArtists #QueerArtists...

We go full poetry nerd mode in this episode with Parker Sera! Join us as we talk about leaving room for nuance, the importance of activism in Judaism, and unpacking the relationship between art and capitalism.  You can find Parker on instagram or check out their website. The work we talked about is here and here. Definitely check out her linktree and website for all her work. She will also be reading a play THIS SATURDAY in Philly, you can find details here. She'll also be reading some...

Join us for another installment of The Artist Series with our incredible guest Zai, ⁠@kxngzaire⁠ ❤️‍🔥 In this episode we talk with Zai about the power of visibility, the liberation that lies in simply existing, avant garde fashion for trans folks, and so much more!  Check out ⁠@beyondstudios.nyc⁠ and listen to ZAI on all music platforms, search The Purge feat Big Water if you can't find ZAI  ⁠Read the NYT article ZAI was featured in!⁠  Come back next week when we talk to ⁠@parker.sera⁠ -...

Join us as we talk with @avivalaviv about their art and Jewish lineage ✨Aviva talks about art as a connective force and holding space for the dichotomy that exists in our world 🧚‍♀️ Spotify and you can watch the FANTASY music video on youtube.The links they mention at the end of the episode are https://civilrights.justice.gov/⁠ and ⁠https://www.ada.gov/. Aviva also highlights The Generations Project and their cousins book, The Cost of Free Land by Rebecca Clarren. See you next week for...