Not That Kind of Rabbi The CJN Podcast Network

Rabbi Beni Wajnberg has worked in Brazil, Argentina, Singapore, New York, Tennessee, California, Montana and beyond. When it came down to settle down with his family and put down roots, he chose Hamilton, Ont., where he's now the spiritual leader at Beth Jacob Synagogue.

Throughout his travels, he's found that one thing connects all those far-flung places' Jewish communities: they're all Jews by choice. They take the time to invest in their community and actively live Jewish lifestyles. That, he says, is the difference between being a stakeholder in a synagogue, as opposed to simply paying dues and rarely going to shul. As he puts it: "Never pay dues."

Rabbi Wajnberg joins Ralph Benmergui to share his own spiritual journey, the lessons he's learned and what God means to him on the latest episode of Not That Kind of Rabbi.

Credits

Not That Kind of Rabbi is hosted by Ralph Benmergui and produced by Michael Fraiman. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To support The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt, please consider a monthly donation by clicking here.

Marsha Lederman is a catastrophizer. As the daughter of Holocaust survivors, the author and Globe and Mail columnist has gone through life worrying about everything that can go wrong, to the point that she wrote a book about things going wrong in her life. Kiss the Red Stairs, released August 2023, investigates the ramifications of intergenerational trauma as she navigates her own divorce while recalling her parents' stories of the Holocaust.

For Yom HaShoah 2024, Lederman joins Ralph Benmergui on Not That Kind of Rabbi, a podcast about personal lives and spiritual journeys, to share her story and explain why this solemn day of commemoration is actually a day she feels embraced by her community.

Credits

Not That Kind of Rabbi is hosted by Ralph Benmergui and produced by Michael Fraiman. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To support The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt, please consider a monthly donation by clicking here.

You may not think of keeping Shabbat as environmental activism—but Jonathan Schorsch does. The founder of the Green Sabbath Project is on a mission to tackle climate change by adapting the biblical Jewish practice into something universally good for our planet. After all, in the Venn diagram of environmentalism and observant Judaism, "Not driving one day a week" falls right in the middle.

For Earth Day, Schorsch joins Not That Kind of Rabbi from his base in Berlin to explain his movement and pitch anyone who cares about environmentalism, Jewish and non-Jewish, on adopting the classical idea of Shabbat by simply relaxing every Saturday without technology, consumerism or an ecological footprint. As his organization puts it, "Make one day every week an Earth Day."

Credits

Not That Kind of Rabbi is hosted by Ralph Benmergui and produced by Michael Fraiman. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To support The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt, please consider a monthly donation by clicking here.

Alan Zweig was on the road to becoming, like so many other midtown Toronto Jews, a lawyer. Instead, in his early 20s, he zigzagged off the course and wound up taking multiple lengthy trips to India, changing his perspective on life and work. He chose film school instead, propelling him into a decades-long documentary career that began all those years ago with semi-verité shorts made with his friends.

One of those friends was Ralph Benmergui. Now, ages after they first met, the pair reconnects to reflect on their shared origin story, spiritual journeys across the world, impending mortality and the next stage in both their careers: podcasting. Zweig will host a new one on the Canadaland network called The Worst, while Benmergui of course hosts his longstanding program, Not That Kind of Rabbi, here at The CJN.

Credits

Not That Kind of Rabbi is hosted by Ralph Benmergui and produced by Michael Fraiman. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To support The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt, please consider a monthly donation by clicking here.

Toby Lloyd didn't grow up religious. But the British Jewish author became fascinated with Orthodoxy—how different people, even in the same family, can interpret biblical texts as either literal or metaphorical. Wanting to tap into the meaning and effects of people's belief systems, as well as reinterpreting stories from the Torah and wrapping it in the guise of horror, Lloyd wrote his debut novel, Fervour, out March 19.

The story blends difficult family dynamics, a critique of religion and intergenerational Holocaust trauma, when a patriarchal grandfather survivor dies, sparking his adult children to suspect their own daughter of falling deep into Jewish mysticism and becoming a witch. To explain how and why he wrote the book, Lloyd joins Ralph Benmergui on Not That Kind of Rabbi for a conversation about writing and the role of religion in modern British Jewry.

Credits

Not That Kind of Rabbi is hosted by Ralph Benmergui and produced by Michael Fraiman. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To support The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt, please consider a monthly donation by clicking here.

Diane Flacks has always felt the power of Jewish guilt. But when when she decided she wanted a divorce, that guilt grew to a whole new level. She constantly questioned the process, even while she was going through it, thinking about whether it was the right move or not.

To process these thoughts and emotions, the theatre artist decided to transform this experience into her latest one-woman show, Guilt (A Love Story). Using humour and self-reflection, Flacks lays bare the story of what happened between her and her ex-wife, the impact of divorce on their kids and all the things she feels guilty about from a generational lens.

The show just finished its run at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, and is going to the Montreal's Centaur Theatre from Mar. 12-30 before heading to Winnipeg at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre from Apr. 3-20. Ahead of those tour dates, Flacks joins old friend Ralph Benmergui on Not That Kind of Rabbi, a show about personal journeys and spirituality, to describe the story behind the play and how Jews default to comedy to analyze life.

Credits

Not That Kind of Rabbi is hosted by Ralph Benmergui and produced by Michael Fraiman. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To support The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt, please consider a monthly donation by clicking here.