Jewish Ideas to Change the World

Valley Beit Midrash
  • 4.9 (29)
  • JUDAISM
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

Jewish Ideas to Change the World delivers thought-provoking content by leading Jewish thinkers with diverse perspectives and backgrounds. It is produced by Valley Beit Midrash. Valley Beit Midrash (VBM) is dedicated to social justice as driven by Torah ethics. VBM's mission is to improve lives through Jewish learning, direct action, and leadership development. Listen to VBM's other podcasts: • Social Justice in the Parsha (weekly divrei Torah by Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz) • Pearls of Jewish Wisdom on Living with Kindness (Rabbi Shmuly's class series) Stay Connected: • Website: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org Attended virtual programs live by becoming a member for just $18 per month: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member

  1. Holocaust Testimony Reimagined

    1D AGO

    Holocaust Testimony Reimagined

    A virtual event presentation by Martin Herskovitz About The Event: Eighty years after the Holocaust, a new narrative is taking its place alongside the heretofore trauma-based narratives: the artistic narratives of the Second and Third Generations. It is no longer just the atrocities themselves that are at the center of attention, but also how the heirs of the victims, the Second and Third Generations, are taking ownership of these stories and transforming them. The narrative of the Second and Third Generation is a story, not of devastation, but of family connection, allowing the possibility of grieving, compassion, and healing. This new testimony of postmemory transforms Holocaust remembrance from a narrative of destruction and restoration to a personal journey of healing. The listeners are invited to join Martin Herskovitz, a poet and a child of survivors, on his journey. About The Speaker: Martin Herskovitz, from Rehovot, Israel, is a child of Holocaust survivors. He is a public fellow at the Finkler Institute for Holocaust Studies at Bar Ilan University and a poet. Via his poetry and his endeavor, Creating Memory, he propounds a more personal and emotionally resonant approach to Holocaust remembrance. ★ Support this podcast ★

    45 min
  2. Mayim Bialik in Conversation with Rabbi Shmuly

    2D AGO

    Mayim Bialik in Conversation with Rabbi Shmuly

    A sit-down conversation with Mayim Bialik and Rabbi Shmuly.  Mayim Bialik is best known for her lead role as Blossom Russo in the early-1990s NBC television sitcom Blossom. She played the role of Amy Farrah Fowler on the critically acclaimed CBS comedy The Big Bang Theory, for which she received 2 Critics’ Choice Awards, 4 Emmy nominations, and a SAG Award nomination. She served as host of Jeopardy! for 2 seasons, earning her fifth Emmy nomination for her contributions to the iconic show, which won its first primetime Emmy the year she hosted. In 2021, Bialik wrote and directed the feature film As They Made Us, starring Dustin Hoffman, Candice Bergen, Dianna Agron, and Simon Helberg. She hosts a popular mental health podcast, Mayim Bialik’s Breakdown, with over 100 million downloads. Bialik holds a BS and PhD in Neuroscience from UCLA, and she has authored four books, two of which are on the New York Times Best-Sellers list (Girling Up: How to be Strong, Smart and Spectacular and Boying Up: How to be Brave, Bold and Brilliant). ★ Support this podcast ★

    16 min
  3. An Unfinished Freedom: Passover as the Birth of an Ideal

    APR 1

    An Unfinished Freedom: Passover as the Birth of an Ideal

    An event presentation by Rabbi Dr. Armin Langer and Rabbi Moishe Steigmann About The Event:  This year, we explore what freedom meant for the Israelites, who were included—and who were left out—in the Torah’s vision of liberation. We’ll reflect on how the call for freedom is both aspirational and incomplete and consider how its message resonates today. Together, we’ll imagine ways to carry forward the radical, unfinished work of freedom in our own lives and communities. This session will be co-taught by Rabbi Dr. Armin Langer of Congregation Shir Hadash and Own Your Judaism’s Moishe Steigmann, The Mindful Rabbi. *Source Sheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yxCsRJ6bzxYCemejgqN57ijfZUpN6LEI2aXu77kXvko/edit?tab=t.0 About The Speakers:  Rabbi Dr. Armin Langer serves Shir Hadash as a teacher and community builder, committed to creating a welcoming, intellectually curious, and spiritually grounded Jewish home. Born in Germany to a family of Hungarian immigrants, he brings a deep awareness of Jewish diversity, memory, and resilience to his rabbinate. Before moving to Milwaukee, he taught and led prayer in diverse Jewish communities across Europe, the United States, and Mexico. Ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, he holds a PhD in Sociology from Humboldt University of Berlin. His writing appears in academic journals and public-facing outlets, including The Forward, Evolve, and The Conversation. He believes in a big-tent Judaism that brings Jewish tradition into conversation with contemporary ethical and social challenges. Moishe Steigmann, The Mindful Rabbi, is the founder and director of Own Your Judaism and is the director of Ohel Ayalah. He seamlessly blends ancient Jewish wisdom with contemporary mindfulness practices. Through his teachings, writings, and workshops, he continues to influence and lead the conversation on mindful living within and beyond the Jewish community. He also speaks, hosts livestream conversations, and offers Jewish Life Coaching and organizational consultation. Born and raised in Milwaukee, Rabbi Steigmann is a proud father of two children, loves sports, is passionate about living gratefully, and enjoys almost all puzzles and games. ★ Support this podcast ★

    57 min
  4. Going Out with Knots: My Two Kaddish Years with Hebrew Poetry

    MAR 31

    Going Out with Knots: My Two Kaddish Years with Hebrew Poetry

    A virtual event presentation by Rabbi Dr. Wendy Zierler About The Event: This class will trace the origin of my feminist Kaddish / COVID memoir and the related Shir Hadash project, as well as the title “Going Out with Knots,” and will cover some thematically related poems. *Source Sheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tT11EayuMRuXhgqP7FBTjAePMCHQCWG1/view?usp=sharing About The Speaker: Wendy Zierler is Sigmund Falk Professor of Modern Jewish Literature and Feminist Studies at HUC-JIR in New York. She received her Ph.D. and her MA from Princeton University and her BA from Stern College of Yeshiva University and an MFA in Fiction Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. In June 2021, she received rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva Maharat. Her most recent book, Going Out with Knots: My Two Kaddish / COVID Years with Hebrew Poetry (Jewish Publication Society), was named to Zibby Owens’ list of most anticipated books of Fall 2025. She is the author, previously, of Movies and Midrash: Popular Film and Jewish Religious Conversation (SUNY Press, Finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in Modern Jewish Thoughtand Experience, 2017) and of And Rachel Stole the Idols: The Emergence of Hebrew Women’s Writing (Wayne State UP, 2004), and many articles in the fields of Jewish literature and Jewish Gender Studies.  Most recently, she served as a consultant in the writers’ room of the Fox Prime Time TV Show The Faithful, a dramatization of the lives of biblical women, set to air in March 2026. As a fiction writer, she has written two collections of linked short stories as well as a middle-grade Jewish fantasy novel entitled The Return of Gerda Wertheimer.  She is married to Daniel Feit and has three adult children. ★ Support this podcast ★

    1h 2m
  5. Religion Meets Spirituality: Rabbi Shmuly in Conversation with Alan Morinis

    MAR 30

    Religion Meets Spirituality: Rabbi Shmuly in Conversation with Alan Morinis

    Rabbi Shmuly has a sit-down interview with the founder of The Mussar Institute, Alan Morinis as they talk about the intersection of religion and spirituality in Judaism. Alan Morinis received his doctorate from Oxford University, which he attended on a Rhodes Scholarship. He is one of the leading lights in the revival of the Jewish spiritual tradition of Mussar and is the author of Climbing Jacob’s Ladder (2002), Everyday Holiness (2007), With Heart in Mind (2014), and now The Shabbat Effect (2026). He is a student of Rabbi Yechiel Yitzchok Perr, zt”l, and in 2004 founded The Mussar Institute, which has grown to become the world’s leading provider of contemporary Mussar resources and instruction, offering courses, facilitator training, curricula for congregations and organizations, special events, speakers, and retreats. ★ Support this podcast ★

    13 min
  6. Torah, Tarot, and Trickery: Judaism’s Take on Magic and Divination

    MAR 26

    Torah, Tarot, and Trickery: Judaism’s Take on Magic and Divination

    A virtual event presentation by Rabbi Steven Gotlib About The Event:  What does Judaism REALLY believe about magic and divination? Join Steven Gotlib, an experienced magician/mentalist and former Tarot-reader, to delve into this fascinating and under-appreciated topic. *Source Sheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sKlv6niYx2BOjjCQvslDf5mI22PgST3V/view?usp=sharing About The Speaker:  Steven Gotlib is the Associate Rabbi at Mekor Habracha/Center City Synagogue and Director of the Center City Beit Midrash in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.*There were technical difficulties with the video for this class, and only the audio is accessible.* ★ Support this podcast ★

    56 min
  7. The Shabbat Effect

    MAR 24

    The Shabbat Effect

    A hybrid event presentation by Alan Morinis The event was co-sponsored by BMH-BJ About The Event: The topic of this session will be the forthcoming book, The Shabbat Effect. The point of the book is to outline how observing Shabbat with the intention of developing certain inner traits germane to a Shabbat practice will prove useful all seven days of the week and is a step toward the ultimate human purpose of becoming whole and holy. About The Speaker: Alan Morinis received his doctorate from Oxford University, which he attended on a Rhodes Scholarship. He is one of the leading lights in the revival of the Jewish spiritual tradition of Mussar and is the author of Climbing Jacob’s Ladder (2002), Everyday Holiness (2007), With Heart in Mind (2014), and now The Shabbat Effect (2026). He is a student of Rabbi Yechiel Yitzchok Perr, zt”l, and in 2004 founded The Mussar Institute, which has grown to become the world’s leading provider of contemporary Mussar resources and instruction, offering courses, facilitator training, curricula for congregations and organizations, special events, speakers, and retreats. ★ Support this podcast ★

    1h 18m
  8. The Shankbone Redemption: The Inside Story of Passover

    MAR 20

    The Shankbone Redemption: The Inside Story of Passover

    A hybrid event (in-person and virtual) by Rabbi Ed Feinstein The event was co-sponsored by: The Hammerman Family & Congregation Or Tzion About The Event: Each year we recite the story, with Pharaoh and Moses, frogs here, frogs there, and the splitting sea. It is our story, the foundation of our faith and vision of history. Buried in the story, beneath the songs and symbols of the holiday, is a message about the human condition and our mission in the world. Join us as we explore the message and its significance for our generation. *Source Sheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BJhJuROhpUab2YSlWxRJmG0dpjvdYEHg/view?usp=sharing About The Speaker: Rabbi Feinstein serves the Valley Beth Shalom community as a teacher, pastor, and visionary leader. He also serves on the faculty of the Ziegler Rabbinical School of the American Jewish University, the Wexner Heritage Program, and the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, and lectures widely across the United States. He is the author of several books, including: Tough Questions Jews Ask – A Young Adult’s Guide to Building a Jewish Life, (Jewish Lights, 2003), Jews and Judaism in the Twenty-First Century: Human Responsibility, the Presence of God and the Future of the Covenant (Jewish Lights, 2007), Capturing the Moon (Behrman House, 2008) and most recently, Chutzpah Imperative! – Empowering Today’s Jews for a Life that Matters (Jewish Lights, 2014). Rabbi Feinstein was raised in the back of his parents’ bakery on the frontiers of the West San Fernando Valley. He graduated with honors from the University of California at Santa Cruz, the University of Judaism, Columbia University Teachers College, and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he was ordained a rabbi in 1981. Most recently, he received his Doctorate in Education from the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) at Park Avenue Synagogue in New York for his dissertation: Rabbi Harold Schulweis and the Reinvention of the American Rabbinate. An engaging lecturer and storyteller, Rabbi Feinstein unites the ancient Jewish love of ideas with the warmth of Jewish humor. ★ Support this podcast ★

    1h 10m
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4.9
out of 5
29 Ratings

About

Jewish Ideas to Change the World delivers thought-provoking content by leading Jewish thinkers with diverse perspectives and backgrounds. It is produced by Valley Beit Midrash. Valley Beit Midrash (VBM) is dedicated to social justice as driven by Torah ethics. VBM's mission is to improve lives through Jewish learning, direct action, and leadership development. Listen to VBM's other podcasts: • Social Justice in the Parsha (weekly divrei Torah by Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz) • Pearls of Jewish Wisdom on Living with Kindness (Rabbi Shmuly's class series) Stay Connected: • Website: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org Attended virtual programs live by becoming a member for just $18 per month: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member

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