Episodios

  • Whom Does Your God Love? A Jewish Case for the Stranger. With Shai Held

    Whom Does Your God Love? A Jewish Case for the Stranger. With Shai Held
    Mar 10 2026
    What does the Torah actually say about immigrants — and what does it demand of us? Rabbi Jeff Salkin sits down with one of the Jewish world's leading theologians, Rabbi Shai Held, to explore the Bible's most repeated commandment: love the ger — the stranger, the sojourner, the immigrant. Held argues that "immigrant" is not just the most accurate translation of ger, it's the most morally urgent one. When the Torah says to love the immigrant, it's making a claim on us every single day. Together, Salkin and Held trace the Torah's radical counter-vision to Egypt — a society built not on cruelty and power, but on empathy and care for the vulnerable. They explore what it means to imitate God by loving those whom God loves, why the stories of Abraham, Sarah, and Lot are really lessons in empathy, and how the Holocaust's legacy shapes the Jewish moral imagination. And they end with the question Rabbi Held says belongs on the doorpost of every house of worship in the world: It's not whether you believe in God. It's whom your God loves. Rabbi Shai Held is President, Dean, and Chair of Jewish Thought at the Hadar Institute, which he co-founded. His most recent book is Judaism Is About Love: Recovering the Heart of Jewish Life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Más Menos
    46 m
  • Why a War With Iran Means Confronting Radical Evil

    Why a War With Iran Means Confronting Radical Evil
    Mar 2 2026
    On Purim, Jews read Esther — a story of survival in the face of annihilation. This episode connects that ancient warning to today’s confrontation with Iran. Is this war, self-defense, or tragic necessity? We explore Amalek, radical evil, human rights, and what it means to hold both the sword and the prayer book in a dangerous world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Más Menos
    12 m
  • How American Jewish immigrants invented childhood

    How American Jewish immigrants invented childhood
    Feb 27 2026
    Michael Kimmel’s Playmakers reveals how Jewish immigrants built America’s toy industry—and reshaped modern childhood. From teddy bears to superheroes, they turned outsider grit into imagination, comfort, and cultural revolution. This isn’t just toy history; it’s a story of identity, reinvention, and why play became one of America’s most powerful ideas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Más Menos
    54 m
  • Being a Rabbi in the Midst of an Earthquake + Elan Babchuck

    Being a Rabbi in the Midst of an Earthquake + Elan Babchuck
    Jan 21 2026
    As the ground shifts beneath our feet, where is our faith? For your consideration: Rabbi Elan Babchuck. He is the founding director of Glean Network, an incubator for faith-rooted innovation; the executive vice president of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership (CLAL); Fellow with the Faith & Media initiative advocating for improved representation of faith in media; and a nationally recognized commentator on religion, technology, and the evolving needs of communities today. And what ahs this to do with earthquakes? In 1837, there was a devastating earthquake in northern Israel that caused major damage to the holy city of Tiberias. Rabbi Babchuck’s great-great-great grandfather was a rabbi in Tiberias at the time, and he had to rebuild a community that had quite literally been leveled. That experience found its way into Elan’s family story, and it became his own job description. Because that is what Rabbi Babchuck does now: he teaches us how to live Jewishly in the midst of earthquakes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Más Menos
    54 m
  • Jews and Hats: A Thousand-Year-Old Love Story

    Jews and Hats: A Thousand-Year-Old Love Story
    Jan 8 2026
    When did Jews start covering their heads? Certainly not in the Bible. The practice emerged during rabbinic times, and not everywhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Más Menos
    31 m
  • Reform Judaism's Wide Open Doors + Rabbi Rick Jacobs

    Reform Judaism's Wide Open Doors + Rabbi Rick Jacobs
    Dec 29 2025
    Why Do Jewish? Love, Obligation, and the Courage to Show Up Imagine a familiar conversation in any household across the world. “Do we have to go to the school concert tonight?”There’s no law. No statute. No external requirement. And yet—you go. Why? Because love creates obligation. Not the other way around. That deceptively simple truth sits at the heart of my conversation with Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, on this episode of Martini Judaism. For generations, Jews have argued about obligation. Traditional Jews often point to halacha—Jewish law—as the source of Jewish responsibility. Reform Jews, by contrast, have insisted on autonomy, conscience, and choice. So the question remains stubborn and unavoidable: Why do Jewish at all? Rabbi Jacobs and I explore that question through the lens of relationship—an idea shared by three of the thinkers who shaped us both: Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, and Eugene Borowitz. Each, in his own way, taught that Jewish obligation does not descend from heaven like a decree. It rises from love, belonging, and covenant. Buber taught that mitzvot come alive when they are responses to encounter.Rosenzweig insisted that commandment follows love, not the other way around.Borowitz reminded Reform Jews that autonomy without commitment is hollow—and that obligation grows out of relationship with God, tradition, and the Jewish people. You don’t attend your child’s concert because you signed a contract.You go because you love your child—and because love binds. Judaism works the same way. This episode isn’t about guilt or coercion. It’s about relationship. And about the quiet, demanding truth that love creates the strongest obligation of all. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Más Menos
    50 m
  • Antisemitism Is as American as Apple Pie + Pamela Nadell

    Antisemitism Is as American as Apple Pie + Pamela Nadell
    Oct 30 2025
    Historian Pamela Nadell joins us to confront an unsettling truth: antisemitism didn’t come to America—it was born here. In her powerful new book, Antisemitism: An American Tradition, Nadell traces how hatred of Jews took root in the New World, evolved with the nation itself, and continues to shape our politics, culture, and conscience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Más Menos
    48 m
  • How do you go from hatred to hope? + Arno Michaelis

    How do you go from hatred to hope? + Arno Michaelis
    Sep 29 2025
    The Days of Awe are upon us. They always hit me with a familiar, bracing urgency: Look at your life. Consider your words, your choices. Where have you failed? Whom have you harmed? What will it take to begin again? If we’re honest, most of us spend these days trying to clean up the usual messes: the casual slight, the simmering resentment, the careless word that cut deeper than we knew. We rehearse our regrets, and we whisper our promises to do better. But once in a while, a life comes along that reminds us just how radical, how shattering, how possible teshuvah (repentance) really is. That life belongs to Arno Michaelis. Check out our podcast with him. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Más Menos
    47 m