Lilith Magazine Editor Susan Weidman Schneider shares a groundbreaking Jewish feminist short story collection spanning 40 Years.

Susan Weidman Schneider, one of Lilith’s founding mothers, has been editor in chief since the magazine launched. Her writing about Jewish women’s philanthropy, the Jewish stake in abortion rights, the persistence of gender stereotyping and more have been credited with moving the needle on feminist change in the Jewish world. She’s the author of Jewish and Female and Intermarriage, and co-author of Head and Heart, a book about money in the lives of women.

Frankly Feminist: Short Stories by Jewish Women

Author Jai Chakrabarti explores unexpected avenues to discovering family and identity in his new short story collection.

Jai Chakrabarti is the author of the novel A Play for the End of the World (Knopf), which won the National Jewish Book Award for debut fiction, was the Association of Jewish Libraries Honor Book, and was long-listed for the PEN/Faulkner Award. He is also the author of the story collection A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness (Knopf, Feb 2023). His short fiction has appeared in One Story, Electric Literature, A Public Space, Conjunctions, Gulf Coast, Michigan Quarterly Review, and elsewhere and has been anthologized in The O. Henry Prize Stories, The Best American Short Stories, and awarded a Pushcart Prize and also performed on Selected Shorts by Symphony Space. His nonfiction has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Writer’s Digest, Berfrois, and LitHub. He was an Emerging Writer Fellow with A Public Space and received an MFA in Creative Writing from Brooklyn College and is a trained computer scientist. Born in Kolkata, India, he now lives in New York with his family.

Finding your family (and yourself)

Congressional observer Ira Shapiro revisits his past critiques of Congress.

Ira Shapiro’s forty-five-year Washington career has focused on American politics and international trade. Shapiro served twelve years in senior staff positions in the U.S. Senate, working for a series of distinguished senators: Jacob Javits, Gaylord Nelson, Abraham Ribicoff, Thomas Eagleton, Robert Byrd, and Jay Rockefeller. He served in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative during the Clinton administration, first as general counsel and then chief negotiator with Japan and Canada, with the rank of ambassador. In his most recent book on the U.S. Senate, The Betrayal: How Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans Abandoned America (Rowman & Littlefield; May 17, 2022), Shapiro turns his gaze to how the Senate responded to the challenges posed by the Trump administration and its prospects under President Biden.

A New View of a Newly Productive Congress

Author Oren Schneider was raised by his grandfather, Alex, who survived Buchenwald and built a life in Israel, against all the odds.

Oren Schneider was born in Israel, a third generation to holocaust survivors and seventh generation to farmers from the Galilee.  He is an entrepreneur and business owner who enjoys music, cooking, travel, people and especially the combination of all four. He lives with his family in Brooklyn.

From Buchenwald to Brooklyn: A Story of Sabotage and Survival

Roslyn Bernstein’s novel follows a young woman’s voyage of discovery in 1961 Israel.

Roslyn Bernstein is the author of several books, including Boardwalk Stories, a collection of 14 fictional tales set from 1950 to 1970, and Engaging Art: Essays and Interviews from Around the Globe, a collection of 60 of her online avant-garde art pieces. She is also the co-author of Illegal Living: 80 Wooster Street and the Evolution of SoHo, written jointly with the architect Shael Shapiro. Her most recent novel is The Girl Who Counted Numbers. Since the 1980s, she has been reporting from around the globe for such print and online publications as the New York Times, Newsday, the Village Voice, New York Magazine, Medium, Huffington Post, and Guernica, focusing primarily on cultural reporting, contemporary art, and in-depth interviews with artists and curators.

Currently, Professor Emerita in the Department of Journalism and the Writing Professions at Baruch College of the City University of New York (CUNY), she taught journalism and creative writing classes from 1974-2016. A devoted teacher, she served as an advisor to Ticker, the college newspaper and established Dollars and $ense, the Baruch College business magazine. During her time at Baruch, she served as the director of the Journalism Program and was the Founding Director of the Sidney Harman Writer-in-Residence Program, a residency that has brought over 30 distinguished poets, playwrights, critics, and journalists to campus to teach intensive classes for gifted students. Prof. Bernstein is a recipient of the College’s Distinguished Awards for Teaching and Service.

Before coming to Baruch, she worked at Esquire and attended graduate school. She holds a Masters and Ph.D in English Literature from New York University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Discovering Israel in the Shadow of the Eichmann Trial

Author Ashley Goldberg imagines the human and communal cost of sexual abuse in the Jewish community.

Abomination, Winner of the 2022 National Jewish Book Award for Debut Fiction

Ashley Goldberg is a writer from Melbourne, Australia. His stories have appeared in New Australian Fiction 2021, Meanjin, Chiron Review and Award Winning Australian Writing among others. His work has been longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and the Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize. He holds an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University and has been the recipient of the KYD/Varuna Copyright Agency Fellowship and the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre Fellowship. His debut novel, Abomination, was published by Penguin Random House Australia in May 2022 and won the Debut Fiction Prize at the National Jewish Book Awards.

Ashley Goldberg: Airing Our Dirty Laundry in Public

Tracing medieval women’s Biblical culture and how it differed from… the Bible.

Bib­li­cal Women and Jew­ish Dai­ly Life in the Mid­dle Ages, winner of the 2022 JBC Award for Women’s Studies.

Prof. Elisheva Baumgarten holds the Prof. Yitzhak Becker Chair for Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She teaches in the Department of Jewish History and the Department of History. She is a social historian who specializes in the history of the Jews in medieval Germany and Northern France. Baumgarten has published three monographs, a dozen edited volumes, and many articles. She has held fellowships from the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as EHESS in Paris. She is an awardee of the Michael Bruno Memorial Award (2016) for outstanding Israeli researchers and of a European Research Council’s Consolidator’s Grant (2016-2022).

Elisheva Baumgarten: Mind the Gap

Host Joshua Holo speaks with HUC-JIR educator, Rabbi Talia Avnon-Benveniste about her experiences on the ground in Jerusalem during the Israel-Hamas War.

Rabbi Avnon-Benveniste is Director of the Israel Rabbinical Program at HUC-JIR’s Taube Family Campus in Jerusalem. She was ordained after completing the Israel Rabbinical Program in 2009, and returned to HUC-JIR following her time as Director of the International School for Peoplehood Studies at Beit-Hatefutsoth, the Museum of the Jewish People, where she instilled an active connection to the Jewish people among Jews throughout the world and led public discourse on Jewish Peoplehood and identity in the 21st-century. She led a series of programs that supported Beit-Hatefutsoth’s cultural, community, and educational activities in Israel and around the world. 

Prior to her work with Beit-Hatefutsoth, Rabbi Avnon-Benveniste served as Head of the Education Department of Beit Daniel, the Center for Progressive Judaism in Tel Aviv, where she worked to promote a national, social, liberal, Jewish agenda, among state schools and in educational, cultural, and community frameworks, alongside fellow rabbis. Rabbi Avnon-Benveniste speaks in a variety of forums and events and is an expert on major issues in the new Jewish world.

HUC Connect: Inside Israel with Rabbi Talia Avnon-Benveniste

Couple Haim and Claire Rechnitzer compose and recompose Hebrew poetry in English.

Rabbi Dr. Haim O. Rechnitzer is a Professor of Jewish Thought at HUC-JIR in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a poet. He earned his doctorate from the Department of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and his rabbinical ordination from HUC-JIR (Jerusalem) in 2003. Rabbi Dr. Rechnitzer’s research is dedicated to themes of political theology, theological trends in Hebrew poetry, Israeli theology, and Jewish education. Recent books include: Pictures / Reproductions (Jerusalem: Carme & Yediot Aharonot, 2022) and Ars-Prophetica: Theology in the Poetry of Twentieth-Century Israeli Poets Avraham Ḥalfi, Shin Shalom, Amir Gilboa, and T. Carmi (Cincinnati, HUC Press, 2023). He has published articles on the subject of political theology, philosophy of education, theology of Piyyut (religious hymns), and Hebrew poetry. Prior to joining the faculty of the College-Institute, Rabbi Dr. Rechnitzer taught in Israel and was on the faculty of the Franklin and Marshall College, Department of Religious Studies.

Claire Rechnitzer is a freelance content writer, part-time library services associate and a passionate Alexander Technique teacher. She is thrilled to be helping her husband Haim introduce his poetry to an English reading audience.

The Poetry of Poetry in Translation

Host Joshua Holo speaks with HUC-JIR educator, Michael Marmur about his experiences on the ground in Jerusalem during the Israel-Hamas War.

Michael Marmur is Associate Professor of Jewish Theology at HUC-JIR/Jerusalem. Until July 2018 he served as the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Provost at HUC-JIR, having previously been Dean of the Jerusalem campus. After some 20 years in administrative capacities, he now concentrates his energies on teaching and writing. 

Born and raised in England, Rabbi Marmur completed a B.A. Degree in Modern History at the University of Oxford before moving to Israel in 1984. While studying for an M.A. in Ancient Jewish History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he completed his studies in the Israel Rabbinic Program of HUC-JIR in Jerusalem, and was ordained in 1992. For six years following his ordination, he worked as rabbi and teacher at the Leo Baeck Education Center in Haifa. He has been an employee of HUC-JIR since 1997. 

Michael Marmur served for three years as Chair of the Board of Rabbis for Human Rights, and is still a member of its Board. He has lectured and taught courses in several countries around the world.

HUC Connect: Inside Israel with Michael Marmur

Host Joshua Holo speaks with HUC-JIR educator, Jeremy Leigh about his experiences on the ground in Jerusalem during the Israel-Hamas War.

Jeremy Leigh teaches Israel Studies and Modern Jewish History at HUC-JIR’s Taube Family Campus in Jerusalem. He is the coordinator of the Richard J. Scheuer Israel Seminar for the Year-In-Israel Program, as well as director of the HUC-JIR-JDC Fellowship for Global Jewish Responsibility. He leads the Year-In-Israel Program’s program in Lithuania and coordinates the annual professional development program in the Former Soviet Union. 

Prior to coming to HUC-JIR, Leigh taught Ethnography of Israeli Society through Cinema at the Rothberg International School of the Hebrew University. In addition to teaching at various academic institutions in Jerusalem, he is the director of Jewish Journeys, a long standing initiative to develop and advance the field of global Jewish travel.

Leigh studied at University College of London and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He has written extensively about the field of Jewish educational travel, including his last book, Jewish Journeys: Reflections on Jewish Travel (Haus, London 2006).

Leigh was born in London, England and moved to Israel in 1992.

HUC Connect: Inside Israel with Jeremy Leigh

Writer Sivan Slapak visits with "The Shmooze" to talk about her debut collection, "Here Is Still Here." The stories provide a layered exploration of human connection and the complexities of identity. In conversation, Sivan shares how these stories—which take readers from Montreal to Jerusalem and back again as the main character navigates checkpoints and borders, home and exile, milestones and disappointment, and love and loss—are threaded together.

Episode 370
May 13, 2024
Amherst, MA

The Shmooze, The Yiddish Book Center's Podcast

Episode 0370: Sivan Slapak’s Here Is Still Here

Lauren London is the General Counsel for Eastern Michigan University, and has been working at EMU for over a decade now. In this interview, London explains her decision to become a lawyer, how she became EMU’s General Counsel, and the challenges of being a Jewish person in the modern political climate. London describes her connection to Jewish Family Services, falling into the role as the project manager for the Afghan resettlement process, and the legality and logistics of opening up on-campus housing to the 12 Afghan families in 2022. London discusses future projects EMU hopes to work on relating to refugees, her gratitude to work at an institution that genuinely cares about people, and the things she does to practice self-care.

Lauren London, Oral History Interview, 2024

Kick off the first episode of Diaspora Dialogs with the host, Noga, as we dive into Israel’s journey—its history, challenges, and everything in between. With two special guests, we chat about what it’s like to stay connected to Israel from afar, sharing stories of pride, struggles, and identity along the way.

Diaspora Dialogs - Ep 1: How It Started vs. How It’s Going

How did Israel education in the Jewish Diaspora fail as abysmally as it did? Can it still be corrected?

In a special double episode, Yehuda HaKohen is joined by Joe Schwartz to discuss the state of Israel education for Diaspora Jews and his work in the field through the Makom organization.

In the course of their rich conversation, the two also reminisce about life in late 20th Century New York City and discuss Jewish identity, the pros and cons of liberal ideology, how to relate to Diaspora-based Jewish religious denominations, and the tribal socio-political tensions currently dividing Israeli society.

TNS 130: Rethinking Israel Education for Diaspora Jews (with Joe Schwartz)

Edwin "Ed" Pear is an attorney with a long distinguished career in real estate, business, and estate planning. Pear attended the Roosevelt school from K-12, and was apart of the graduating class of 1959. In this interview, Ed recounts memories of growing up in a Jewish family in Ypsilanti, his fathers clothing store, and other local businesses that existed at the time. He also reminisces about his time as a student at Roosevelt, sharing his experiences in athletics, extracurriculars, and lamenting about the sadness of the schools closure. 

Edwin Pear, Oral History Interview, 2023

First, Yishai sits down with Michoel Weichbrod of the Homeward Bound podcast to tackle tough Zionist questions like IDF morality and Aliyah due to antisemitism. Then, nationalist intellectual Moshe Feiglin joins Yishai discuss how Israel's hold on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is key to winning the Gaza conflict. Finally, Ben Bresky on the "seashell lottery" and foundations of Tel Aviv

Yishai Fleisher Show: Temple Mount is KEY to Gaza Victory

The Land of Israel network broadcasts the truth and beauty of the land of Israel and the Jewish people. Our show hosts include Ari Abramowitz, Jeremy Gimpel, Eve Harow, Josh Hasten, Rav Mike Feuer, Yishai Fleisher and more. Learn more at http://www.TheLandofIsrael.com

The College Commons Podcast, passionate perspectives from Judaism's leading thinkers, is produced by Hebrew Union College, America's first Jewish institution of higher learning.

Podcasts developed by the students at AUR (The American University of Rome) for their class COM211 - Intro to Podcast and Vidcast. This is a weekly show with a rotating cast, so each week the students will take part in all the aspects of creating a full studio podcast episode. The students will also be creating a personal Podcast and Vidcast for their Midterm and Final Exams. Stay tuned to the future of AUR and Podcast creation.

The Yiddish Book Center's podcast includes conversations with Jewish culture makers, plus news and stories related to Yiddish literature, language, and culture.

New tracks tagged #Jewish Identity