Making Mensches: Not Your Bubbe's Torah School Making Mensches

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 the connection between anti-zionism and diasporism. Stay tuned for future collaboration with them, and as usual, free Palestine, by any means necessary.



Some things of note:

-The photo for this episode is of Ben in front of his great great grandfathers home in Poland. He was able to track down the exact home with the help of Zach.

-DONATE to help Tzion Kaukira provide copies of the torah in Luganda in the 12 synagogues across Uganda. Listen to their episode with Tzion here!

-Zach, one of the founders of The Jewish Diasporist, is from Poland and is eager to help other folks with lineage there discover family history. If you want to take him up on this, feel free to reach out to him by emailing contact@jewishdiasporist.com

-Jordan talks more about the ecology of love on this episode of The Jewish Diasporist

-Zach wrote this piece for Forward about the Polish parliament Hanukkah incident, we encourage folks to give it a read if they don't know about the incident


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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 / mailing letters to your representatives demanding a ceasefire and no more aid sent to Israel, keep struggling for Palestinian liberation.



For additional information, head to our instagram

From the river to the sea 🇵🇸





Thank you to Nate for our podcast music, and Jessie for editing the pod!


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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 don’t forget to sign up for our NEWSLETTER so you get access to our sources and that amazing meditation we mentioned 🥰







#Courage #Empathy #Compassion ##JewishResistance #AntiZionism #AntiZionistJews #JewishEducation #JewishLearning #Podcast #JewishPodcast #podcasts #podcastcommunity #podcastnetwork #applepodcast #podcasters #itunespodcast #podcastlife #podcasthost #podcaster #podcastmovement #podcastseries #podcastjunkie #podcasting #podcast🎧 #podcast #podcaststudio #newpodcast


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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 & Prompts: a creative workbook for young adults (and beyond) who’ve experienced significant loss. Part coloring book, part journal, and part ritual guide, this workbook offers 67 pages of low-stakes, self-directed ways to engage with loss on your own terms. Written by Noach Cochran, Katherine Evering-Rowe and Chloe Zelkha, illustrated by Sol.)

🌱 Jewish Agricultural Calendar by the Jewish Farmer Network, illustrated by Sol, available for purchase now as well

🌱 The book Nature and the Human Soul by Bill Plotkins

🌱 Melanie Kaye Kantrowitz and radical diasporism

🌱 Linke Fligl

🌱 Tzedek Lab, where Sol is the Director of Communications & Resource Sharing

🌱 The Sacred Orchard poster and series, created with Dori Midnight (Sacred Orchard: an 18"x24" poster made in collaboration with Dori Midnight exploring seven trees in Jewish magic, myth and medicine. Part of a series that includes a smaller poster on Jewish amulet craft and protection plants, and a Jewish plant magic postcard set.)

🌱 Ushpizin(e): Sukkot edition of Ki Li Ha'aretz, Linke Fligl's zine on reparations and homecoming in Jewish diaspora. (available for download at https://linkefligl.com/zine and in hard copy at https://www.pushcartjudaica.com/shop-old/p/ushpizine-sukkot-zine-ritual-guide)



More about Sol:

“Sol has served their communities as a visual artist, ritualist and educator for over a decade, using cultural organizing to explore how land, kinship and Jewish tradition can support us in overcoming oppression, healing from colonization and building new worlds. From 2017-2021, they were Co-Director at Linke Fligl queer Jewish chicken farm, where they cultivated wild queer community, held earth-based ritual space and co-facilitated programs for anti-colonial Jewish land connection. They have been on the strategy team for the JVP Havurah Network, a co-founder and ritual leader of Nishmat Shoom, and Director of Operational Change at Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center. When they’re not in the print shop, the kitchen or the garden, Sol is working with Tzedek Lab as Director of Communications and Resource Sharing to support a growing network of visionaries and changemakers moving the Jewish world towards justice for all.”



As always, shout out to Jessie for editing the pod and Nate for our podcast music!




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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/makingmensches/support

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 🕯️



Join us next time for a Sukkot episode with Sol Weiss (they/them) 🥳





As always, shoutout to Nate for our podcast music and to Jessie for editing the pod!




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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/makingmensches/support

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 we are constantly starting over

🕯️ letting ourselves belong



Check out the Al Nes (for the miracle we enlivened) - the supplement to the Al Chet they mention in this episode. They also mention the JVP Havurah Network, and talk about the Cheshvan episode of Dreaming The World to Come with Yishaq Ofori Solomon.

*** If you’re interested in setting up a somatic coaching session with Rebekah, please email them at rebekah@rebekaherevstudio.com to set up a consult! ***

For more about Tishrei, check out our Tishrei post on instagram



Join us next time for our first episode just us in ages, as we talk about Yom Kippur 🕊️ 





#artistsoninstagram #JewishArtists #QueerArtists #AntiZionistArtists #JewishArt #QueerArt #ArtAsResistance #Art #QueerJews #Jewish #JewishResistance #Podcast #PodcastsOfInstagram #JewishPodcast #IGLive #Conversations #Pride #ArtistSeries #RoshChodesh #Tishrei #NewYear #SweetNewYear #NewMoon #Virgo #Libra #JournalPrompts #Judaism #JewishSpirituality #JewishRitual #NewMoonRitual #RoshChodeshCircle


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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/makingmensches/support