Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D.

S4 Ep. 9: Season of Reflection and Repentance

September 19th, 2022  |  Season 4  |  38 mins 10 secs

high holidays, jewish, judaism, rosh hashanah, yom kippur

Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D and Rabbi Sandra Lawson, discuss their respective processes of preparing for the High Holidays. This isn’t about leading services, but about how, as human beings, they undertake an accounting of the soul, leading to repentance for their own actions and forgiveness toward others.

S4 Ep. 8: Songs of Joy and Mourning

May 5th, 2022  |  Season 4  |  39 mins 52 secs

Reconstructing Judaism board member and Tikkun Olam Commission co-chair Shahanna McKinney-Baldon opens up with Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D. and Rabbi Sandra Lawson about her time fronting the ska and reggae band Highball Holiday. She talks about how she rediscovered her singing voice in middle age and shedded certain inhibitions and self-consciousness. She also describes Reconstructing Judaism's ongoing process of gaining support for a movement-wide resolution supporting reparations for slavery.

S4 Ep. 7: The Smooth River

April 8th, 2022  |  Season 4  |  46 mins 6 secs

On Sept. 3, 2019, Richard Cohen’s wife, Marcia Horowitz, was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. Horowitz lived 160 more days. In this special episode, Cohen recounts those days and discusses with Rabbi Deborah Waxman what he learned about life as Horowitz's death approached.

S4 Ep. 6: Being an Ally with Empathy, Humility and Courage

December 28th, 2021  |  Season 4  |  40 mins 25 secs

What does it mean to be an ally, both to individuals and to groups? How can one begin to do that work in a way that is meaningful? In this episode, Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D. and Rabbi Sandra Lawson – longtime friends and now colleagues – discuss these questions using examples from their own lives. They delve into the difficulty of saying and doing the right thing at the right time,

S4 Ep. 5: JewAsian

October 26th, 2021  |  Season 4  |  39 mins 53 secs

Helen K. Kim, co-author of JewAsian: Race, Religion, and Identity for America's Newest Jews, stops by to discuss macro topics such as racism in the Jewish community and the rancorous debate over communal demography. Rabbi Deborah Waxman and Rabbi Sandra Lawson also learn about how Kim found inspiration in the work of Maimonides, the medieval Jewish philosopher and Torah commentator.

S4 Ep 4: In the Same Place, As the Same Person

September 10th, 2021  |  Season 4  |  33 mins 10 secs

Amanda Mbuvi, Ph.D., is the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College’s new vice president for academic affairs. We delve into Mbuvi’s desire to deepen how people and communities think about diversity and identity, offer some thoughts on the findings of the Jews Of Color Initiative's latest study and share our hopes for the High Holidays and the coming year.

S4 Ep. 3: Creating a Jewish Community Where All Can Thrive

June 23rd, 2021  |  Season 4  |  42 mins 58 secs

Marcella White Campbell is executive director of Be'chol Lashon -- a pioneering organization that strengthens Jewish identity by affirming the racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity of the Jewish people. We discuss her multiracial Jewish family's own experiences as a window into the Jewish community's troubled record in welcoming Jews of Color. She reflects on her own growth into leadership, motivated by the rising cohort of young Jews of Color who deserve a Jewish community where they can thrive and contribute. And she reflects on the rich interplay of her Jewish and Black identities in making meaning at a time of personal loss. Join us for a rich and deeply moving conversation.

S4 Ep 2: Paradox, Complexity and Liberation: A Conversation with Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

April 13th, 2021  |  Season 4  |  41 mins 38 secs

We're joined by Professor Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, one of fewer than 100 Black American women to earn a doctorate in physics -- and a Reconstructionist! We discuss the insights she draws from her background as a Black and Ashkenazi Jew, and the richness, complexity, and fruitful challenges that diverse voices bring to the Jewish community. She and Rabbi Sandra Lawson discuss their respective experiences as trailblazers within the physics and the rabbinate. Finally, we delve into theoretical physics and Jewish theology as she explains why she included the ma'ariv prayer in her new book, The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred.

S4 Ep. 1: Judaism, Resilience, and Racial Justice - Beginning the Conversation

March 1st, 2021  |  Season 4  |  38 mins 3 secs

We begin a new season focusing on Judaism, resilience, and racial justice, and welcome a new co-host: Rabbi Sandra Lawson, director of racial diversity, equity, and inclusion for Reconstructing Judaism. We dig deeply into the complexities of engaging in racial justice work within the Jewish community, the necessity for deep listening and empathy toward Jews of color, and the need to draw on resilience practices to stay committed to the challenging but vital process of teshuvah on the path to redemption.

S3 Ep. 12: Writing Ourselves into the Book of Life — The High Holidays and Choosing Life

September 11th, 2020  |  Season 3  |  35 mins 6 secs

At this extraordinary High Holiday season, so many people are experiencing losses of many kinds. We speak with Rabbi Margot Stein about the lessons she learned about resilience while navigating profound loss -- the death of her eldest son, Aryeh. We discuss the practices that sustain her, and explore how Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur invite us to choose life, in many ways, again and again.

S3 Ep. 11: Creativity and Counterculture

August 20th, 2020  |  Season 3  |  40 mins 9 secs

Rabbi Michael Strassfeld has made a life and career at the core of Jewish counterculture. We discuss his experiences as a founder of the havurah movement, co-creator of the groundbreaking Jewish Catalog series, and rabbi of the SAJ. Toward the end of our conversation we turn to the Jewish future, reflecting on the opportunities presented by digital culture and on new paradigms for Jewish prayer.

S3 Ep. 10: Moments of Wholeness

August 3rd, 2020  |  Season 3  |  37 mins 37 secs

When our world falls apart, what sustains us? We recorded this conversation with Rabbi Shira Stutman, senior rabbi at 6th and I Historic Synagogue in Washington, D.C, in early April 2020 — shortly after coronavirus response had brought face-to-face communal gatherings, and indeed most people's social lives, to a screeching halt. Speaking at a time of profound global dislocation that affected our most personal connections, we discussed the challenges we faced, the adaptations we and our institutions were beginning to make, and the unexpected insights we'd glimpsed into what is truly essential, insights that continue to resonate months later.

S3 Ep. 9: The Power of Ritual

June 25th, 2020  |  Season 3  |  42 mins 38 secs

Is Harry Potter a sacred text? According to our guest, Casper ter Kuile, Ministry Innovation Fellow at Harvard Divinity School and the co-founder of the Sacred Design Lab, it is if you bring that approach to the series. His study of the ways in which people find meaning through text, community, and tradition has opened up vibrant conversations that break down the walls of "religious" and "secular" by illuminating the human experiences that unite them. In his new book, The Power of Ritual, he explores the ways that ritual -- even when nominally secular -- can help us build community, find meaning, and connect our past with our future. This conversation was recorded in late March of 2020.

S3 Ep. 8: Whole-Body Judaism

May 21st, 2020  |  Season 3  |  31 mins 24 secs

Yoshi Silverstein’s passions — which include Jewish outdoor and environmental education, as well as fitness and movement — each strive toward creative embodied Jewish practice. We explore how these approaches can contribute to a resilient Jewish community, and conclude by applying them to the upcoming holiday of Shavuot: how might they help us experience revelation and gratitude in the midst of an uncertain future?

S3 Ep. 7: Including Everyone

April 21st, 2020  |  Season 3  |  37 mins 54 secs

It's a fundamental Jewish belief that all human beings are created in the divine image. But society all too often treats those with disabilities as second-class citizens. In our conversation with Jay Ruderman, we discuss his family foundation's work to advocate for and advance the inclusion of people with disabilities, both within the Jewish community and in society at large. We also delve into the dangers posed by the current pandemic to those with disabilities, as well as the opportunities this moment offers to affirm our deepest values by treating every person with concern and care.

S3 Ep. 6: Spiritual Leadership in Times of Crisis

April 2nd, 2020  |  Season 3  |  37 mins 20 secs

As the coronavirus pandemic took hold, Rabbi Joshua Lesser created a Facebook group to support and connect clergy of all faiths struggling to respond to the crisis. Over five thousand people joined within the first two weeks. We discuss the exponential growth of the multifaith community he created and reflect on both the practical challenges and interior dimensions of spiritual leadership in times like these. Rabbi Lesser also explores the lessons he learned about community and vulnerability as an out gay rabbi during the height of the AIDS crisis, and how that experience informs his work now.