The Podcast of Jewish Ideas

Torah in Motion

A space for exploring the great ideas at the heart of the Jewish tradition.

  1. Jul 2

    94. Claude Montefiore and Liberal Judaism | Dr. Edward Kessler (Anglo-Judaism #2)

    J.J. and Dr. Edward Kessler progress through the history of Liberal Judaism and its promethian founder, Claude Montefiore.  This series is generously sponsored by Larry and Sarah Krauss in honour and gratitude to Larry's mother, Kato Krauss, and in loving memory of his father, Nathan "Noteh" Krauss. This episode is dedicated to the memory of Sarah’s father, Joe Casse. Yosef ben Zvi v’Koyna. Dr Edward Kessler, MBE is Founder President of the Woolf Institute and a leading thinker in interfaith relations, primarily, Jewish-Christian-Muslim Relations. He was described by The Times Higher Education Supplement as 'probably the most prolific interfaith figure in British academia' and was awarded an MBE for services to interfaith relations. He has written or edited 13 books, including An Introduction to Jewish-Christian Relations (Cambridge, 2010), Jews, Christians and Muslims in Encounter (SCM, 2013) and Jesus (The History Press, 2016). His Documentary History of Jewish-Christian Relations was published by Cambridge in 2024. In 2024 he was awarded the Seelisberg Prize for his contribution to fostering Jewish-Christian relations. Kessler regularly appears in the media commenting on religion and belief issues of the day, such as the impact of October 7th 2023 attacks on Israel and the Gaza War on the Leading Podcast, and hosted the weekly podcast Naked Reflections (2020-23). Since 2015, he has been working with local actors in Israel, Palestine and Jordan to agree measures to safeguard Jerusalem's holy places. Kessler also explores the tensions, positive as well as negative, between religion and civil society.   If you or your business are interested in sponsoring an episode or mini-series, please reach out at  podcasts@torahinmotion.org  Follow us on Bluesky @jewishideaspod.bsky.social for updates and insights! Please rate and review the the show in the podcast app of your choice. We welcome all complaints and compliments at podcasts@torahinmotion.org  For more information visit torahinmotion.org/podcasts

  2. Jun 18

    93. The English Haskalah | Dr. David Ruderman (Anglo-Judaism #1)

    J.J. and Dr. David Ruderman open our series with a discussion about the unique character and interesting characters of the Jewish Enlightenment in England.  This series is generously sponsored by Larry and Sarah Krauss in honour and gratitude to Larry's mother, Kato Krauss, and in loving memory of his father, Nathan "Noteh" Krauss. This episode is dedicated to the memory of Sarah’s father, Joe Casse. Yosef ben Zvi v’Koyna.  David B. Ruderman is the Joseph Meyerhoff Professor Emeritus of Modern Jewish History and the Ella Darivoff Director Emeritus of the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of numerous books, articles, and reviews, and the recipient of the Koret Jewish Book Award and two National Jewish Book Awards in history. He was also awarded a lifetime achievement award for his work in Jewish history from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. You can access his most recent book for free here: degruyterbrill.com/the-making-of-an-anglo-Jewish-scholar If you or your business are interested in sponsoring an episode or mini-series, please reach out at  podcasts@torahinmotion.org  Follow us on Bluesky @jewishideaspod.bsky.social for updates and insights! Please rate and review the the show in the podcast app of your choice. We welcome all complaints and compliments at podcasts@torahinmotion.org  For more information visit torahinmotion.org/podcasts

  3. May 14

    91. The Halakhic Man | Dr. Lawrence Kaplan

    J.J. and Dr. Lawrence Kaplan analyze the life and thought of Joseph B. Soloveichik through the lens of Halakha. The new edition of Halakhic Man (edited, annotated, and introduced by Dr. Kaplan) is available for purchase here: Link If you or your business are interested in sponsoring an episode or mini-series, please reach out at  podcasts@torahinmotion.org  Follow us on Bluesky @jewishideaspod.bsky.social for updates and insights! Please rate and review the the show in the podcast app of your choice. We welcome all complaints and compliments at podcasts@torahinmotion.org  For more information visit torahinmotion.org/podcasts Lawrence Kaplan is Professor of Rabbinics and Jewish Philosophy  in the Department of Jewish Studies at McGill University, and a leading scholar in both medieval and modern Jewish Thought. He is best known for his studies of Soloveitchik and for his translation from the Hebrew of Soloveitchik’s classic Ish ha-Halakhah (Halakhic Man), lauded by scholars as the gold standard for Soloveitchik translations. If you or your business are interested in sponsoring an episode or mini-series, please reach out at  podcasts@torahinmotion.org  Follow us on Bluesky @jewishideaspod.bsky.social for updates and insights! Please rate and review the the show in the podcast app of your choice. We welcome all complaints and compliments at podcasts@torahinmotion.org  For more information visit torahinmotion.org/podcasts

  4. Mar 26

    89. The Rashbam | Dr. Martin Lockshin

    J.J. and Dr. Martin Lockshin discuss the (not so) plain and simple ideas of Rabbi Samuel ben Meir of Troyes, a leading Tosafist and grandson to Rashi.  If you or your business are interested in sponsoring an episode or mini-series, please reach out at  podcasts@torahinmotion.org  Follow us on Bluesky @jewishideaspod.bsky.social for updates and insights! Please rate and review the the show in the podcast app of your choice. We welcome all complaints and compliments at podcasts@torahinmotion.org  For more information visit torahinmotion.org/podcasts Rabbi Dr. Martin Lockshin is University Professor Emeritus at York University and lives in Jerusalem. He received his Ph.D. in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University and his rabbinic ordination in Israel while studying in Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav Kook. Professor Marty Lockshin ’s primary area of scholarly expertise and writing is the history of Jewish biblical interpretation, particularly the interplay between tradition and innovation. Most of his research has been centred on those medieval biblical commentators who valued tradition intellectually, who lived traditional lives and who still innovated unabashedly in their understanding of the Bible. The largest part of his scholarship has been about Samuel ben Meir (12th century Northern France), a traditionalist Bible commentator with an uncanny knack for offering new understandings of biblical texts—his conclusions are often strikingly similar to the “discoveries” of biblical critics seven or eight hundred years later. Marty has published a 4-volume English annotated translation of Rashbam’s major work and also a 2-volume annotated Hebrew edition. His interest in biblical interpretation has led him to study Jewish-Christian relations, since Jews and Christians over the ages had both competitive and (at times) cooperative approaches to the study of their sacred Scripture. If you or your business are interested in sponsoring an episode or mini-series, please reach out at  podcasts@torahinmotion.org  Follow us on Bluesky @jewishideaspod.bsky.social for updates and insights! Please rate and review the the show in the podcast app of your choice. We welcome all complaints and compliments at podcasts@torahinmotion.org  For more information visit torahinmotion.org/podcasts

  5. Mar 20

    88. Walter Benjamin | Dr. Vivian Liska

    J.J. and Dr. Vivian Liska border on the sublime in their discussion of the life and thought of this German-Jewish thinker.  If you or your business are interested in sponsoring an episode or mini-series, please reach out at  podcasts@torahinmotion.org  Follow us on Bluesky @jewishideaspod.bsky.social for updates and insights! Please rate and review the the show in the podcast app of your choice. We welcome all complaints and compliments at podcasts@torahinmotion.org  For more information visit torahinmotion.org/podcasts Vivian Liska is a Professor of German literature and Director of the Institute of Jewish Studies at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. She has published extensively on literary theory, German modernism, and German-Jewish authors and thinkers. Liska’s recent books include Giorgio Agamben’s Empty Messianism (2008), in German, translated into Hebrew (Resling 2010), When Kafka Says We. Uncommon Communities in German-Jewish Literature (2008) and Fremde Gemeinschaft. Deutsch-jüdische Literatur der Moderne (2011). A Hebrew translation of this book is in the making with Hakibbutz Hameuchad. In 2012, she was awarded the Cross of Honor for Sciences and the Arts from the Republic of Austria. She is the (co-)editor of numerous books, among them the two-volume ICLA publication Modernism (2007), which was awarded the Prize of the Modernist Studies Association in 2008; Contemporary Jewish Writing in Europe: A Guide (2007); Theodor Herzl between Europe and Zion (2007); What does the Veil Know? (2009); The German-Jewish Experience Revisited (2015); and Kafka and the Universal (2016). She is the editor of the book series “Perspectives on Jewish Texts and Contexts” (De Gruyter, Berlin), co-editor of the Yearbook of the Society for European-Jewish Literature, and arcadia. International Journal of Literary Studies. Her most recent book German-Jewish Thought and its Afterlife (Indiana University Press) was published in 2017.  If you or your business are interested in sponsoring an episode or mini-series, please reach out at  podcasts@torahinmotion.org  Follow us on Bluesky @jewishideaspod.bsky.social for updates and insights! Please rate and review the the show in the podcast app of your choice. We welcome all complaints and compliments at podcasts@torahinmotion.org  For more information visit torahinmotion.org/podcasts

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A space for exploring the great ideas at the heart of the Jewish tradition.

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