In the latest edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts friend, colleague, collaborator, and author Rabbi Matthew Gewirtz, who has just published his memoir: "To Build a Brave Space: The Making of a Spiritual First Responder."
The senior rabbi at Congregation B'nai Jeshurun in New Jersey, Rabbi Gewirtz had finished a manuscript just before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the outbreak forced him to re-frame (and in truth, re-write) the entire book. He did that while guiding his synagogue through unprecedented challenges and tending to the health and wellbeing of his own family.
"I had to write the book twice, but the second time, [the publisher] wanted it framed as a memoir," Rabbi Gewirtz says. "He thought that the credibility I would gain from people learning about me as a human being would allow me to make the political commentary I make at the end of the book."
Originally, Rabbi Gewirtz rejected the subtitle, "The Making of a Spiritual First Responder."
"Who are we to be spiritual first responders after all?" he says. "EMTs and doctors and nurses and frontline workers are working with blood and life-and-death emergencies all the time."
His publisher insisted: Clergy like him were serving the soul of people in the same way, and in many instances, throughout the lives of their congregants.
Rabbi Gewirtz -- the son of a Hofstra professor, the dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker raised in Manhattan -- immediately thought of September 11, 2001, when he was a mere four years into his rabbinate. He vividly recalls how his senior rabbi Rodeph Sholom directed the clergy team to look up which congregants had offices in the Twin Towers. They divvied up the list and went from apartment building, knocking on doors and ringing doorbells. He recalls entering the apartment of one congregant who died in the attack, and then, years later, counseling that congregant's daughter through years of having to re-live such a personal loss in front of crowds at memorial ceremonies.
The two rabbis discuss middle-of-the-night calls and unexpected tragedies, but also the miracles they respond to on a daily basis, from weddings to children born to couples who had spent years trying. Both sports fans, they view their lives through the lens of a baseball player who still knows that he can still hit a home run, even after striking out four times the night before. As they delve into the Jewish perspectives on hope and renewal, they explore the roots of the morning prayer for gratitude, "Modeh Ani," the tragedy in Turkey and Syria, and the current political climate.
In the latest edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts Matan Koch, the Senior Vice president for Strategic Change at RespectAbility, a nonprofit organization fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities so people with disabilities can fully participate in all aspects of community. Born 11 weeks premature with cerebral palsy and confined to a wheelchair for his entire life, Koch graduated from Yale and took his law degree from Harvard Law School, and has been a lifelong advocate for those with disabilities. He joins Rabbi Yoshi as we celebrate Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance, and Inclusion Month (JDAIM).
Observed each February, JDAIM is a unified effort among Jewish organizations worldwide to raise awareness and foster inclusion of people with disabilities and those who love them. JDAIM was founded in 2009 by the Jewish Special Education International Consortium to raise awareness and encourage inclusion for people with disabilities and special needs. Appointed by President Obama to the National Council on Disability (where he served from 2011 to 2014), Koch is a longtime national leader in disability advocacy.
"As the child of a congregational rabbi, who was also a URJ camp faculty member, and himself a former NFTY national officer, I was born into sort of the entire apparatus of the Reform movement at a time when people like me were not a part of that apparatus," Koch says. "In many ways, I benefitted from that. While institutional Judaism wouldn't think about practical strategies for people like me until the turn of this century, it meant that the approach was much more, 'How are we going to include Matan?' and much less, 'What's our strategy for the inclusion of Jews with disabilities?'"
From his childhood summers spent at URJ camps Eisner and Kutz, he saw demonstrations of demonstrated a type of inclusion that would plant the seeds for his future advocacy, and fell in love with song leading.
He began his disability policy career lobbying for a major disability organization in Washington while an undergraduate at Yale (where he was the president of the university's student disabilities community) and was appointed to the city of New Haven disability commission at the age of 18 while a college junior.
After graduating from Harvard Law, he served as counsel for Proctor & Gamble. Working with both the product marketing teams at P&G and its disabilities inclusion network, he developed the perspectives on consumer power and talent maximizing jobs for people with disabilities at the heart of the business case for universal inclusion that he teaches today.
Considered one of the nation’s leading Jewish inclusion experts, he has developed training and materials for many Jewish organizations, including Hillel International, the Union for Reform Judaism, and Combined Jewish Philanthropies. The son of a rabbi and a Jewish educator, he has been speaking on Jewish inclusion since early childhood and has been formally and informally retained by Jewish organizations for the last 20 years.
"This to me is the zinger: So what is the traditional instruction that, you know, resulted in the building of the Mishkan and the building also, later, of the Temple? It is, 'Build Me a space that I may dwell among you,' right? That, that we're building a space for God," says Matan. "And yet, if each of us, with our varying levels of ability, is a reflection of God, then God reflects the totality of all of that, which means that to build a space—to truly build a space for God to dwell among us—it has to be a fully inclusive space, because any person, any attribute, any type, that is excluded from the space that we build, is a facet of God that we are excluding from that."
In the latest edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts Zack Bodner, CEO of the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center and author of "Why Do Jewish? A Manifesto for 21st Century Jewish Peoplehood."
The founder of the Z3 Project, which fosters renewed conversation on world Jewry and Israel relations, Bodner has spent his career serving the Jewish community. Before taking over OFJCC, he spent 14 years as the Pacific Northwest Regional Director of AIPAC. During his time heading the OFJCC, he oversaw the launch of the Taube Center for Jewish Peoplehood, and helped create the Center for Social Impact, which is committed to tikkun olam initiatives that address poverty, disaster relief, racial justice, and more.
His new book discusses what it means to live a meaningful, relevant, and joyful Jewish life. Bodner touches on the role of Jewish education in general, and Jewish preschools in particular, including Wise's Aaron Milken Center. Bodner also touches on the evolution of interfaith marriages and Judaism's relevance to our increasingly multifaceted sense of personal identity.
What, though, does it mean to "do" Jewish, instead of just "being" Jewish?
"In my mind, how you live and what you do is way more important," Bodner says. "I start the book off with this quote from David BenGurion: 'Words without deeds are nothing,' because it really is, in my mind, about the doing."
There is a lot of tikkun olam in Bodner's conception of "doing" Jewish.
In the midst of an existential crisis while working as a legislative assistant in Sacramento shortly after graduate school, Bodner came to a realization: The meaning of life was to be God's partner in creation. He touches on the kabbalist tradition of divine light: "Our purpose in life, our meaning, is to be God's partners in creation, because when God created the universe, it was imperfect, it was incomplete, so we exist to finish the work, and we do that by fixing the brokenness, by making the pain go away, by helping bring other people joy, and enjoying it ourselves. That was the notion that hit me, all at once."
WARNING: This episode of Search for Meaning with Rabbi Yoshi contains some explicit language.
In the latest edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts singer-songwriter Veronica Zweiback, who talks about her journey in music, as well as her journey of self-discovery in terms of gender identity.
Rabbi Yoshi's niece comes from a musical family. Not only are her uncle a talented guitarist, but father plays the guitar, bass, and drums. Her mother Kimberly Marshall is a world-renowned organist and a professor of music at Arizona State, so fittingly, Veronica played piano (along with the violin, cello, classical guitar) growing up.
She first began songwriting as an 8-year-old, and still remembers looking down at her handwriting as she wrote her artist name. At the time, she thought, it was just what young songwriters did—write out one's band name in cool fonts—but there may have been something deeper behind her choice.
"I had this alter-ego name, and this is so prescient and cute thinking back now," she says. "It was so telling. It was my name backwards, which was 'Noraa,' because my name at birth was Aaron ... There's always this cycle as an artist, especially for songwriters. There's this pressure to have an alter ego or a moniker, so you're often just playing with identity through your songwriting, the different parts of yourself."
At 16, Veronica's friends began calling her Ronnie, inspired by the song "ronnie ronaldo!" written by Greta Kline, whose own stage name—Frankie Cosmos—became the name of her band. Veronica and her band soon began to go by Soft Ronnie when playing shows.
"I was a little fangirl, and she was our favorite artist, and all my friends would geek out about Frankie Cosmos, her band," Veronica said. "She would start singing 'Ronnie,' and we would all go crazy, because that was my nickname. Also, the person it was about was shortening Aaron to Ronnie in the same way that I was at that time."
A music project that defies naming conventions or a traditional genre, Veronica describes Soft Ronnie as sad-guitar-rock/indie-alt/DIY/anti-folk. For the uninitiated, DIY means that Soft Ronnie not only records, but produces, releases, and promotes music. Artists like Jeffrey Lewis (a comic book artist and singer-songwriter) and Daniel Johnston got their start in much the same manner. It was in fact the DIY scene that helped Veronica overcome early insecurities when it came to music.
After some shop talk about music, Rabbi Yoshi and Veronica delve into how the search for gender identity maps onto her experience with and expression through music.
In the latest edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts Julia Mintz, the director of acclaimed Holocaust documentary "Four Winters," a story of Jewish resistance against the Nazis now playing at the Lumiere Cinema in Beverly Hills for a limited engagement. You can purchase TICKETS HERE, and watch the trailer HERE.
Awarded the "Human Rights Award" at Hamptons Doc Fest, "Best Documentary" at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival, and an official contender for "Best Documentary Feature" at the 95th Academy Awards, "Four Winters" is a particularly salient film in light of the recent rise in antisemitism. Marjorie Ingall of Tablet called it "a must-see Holocaust movie (no, really)."
The film—written, directed, and produced by Mintz—tells story of just some of the over 25,000 Jewish partisans who fought back against the Nazis and their collaborators from deep within the forests of World War II's Eastern Europe, Ukraine, and Belarus. Against extraordinary odds, they escaped Nazi slaughter, transforming from young innocents raised in closely knit families to courageous resistance fighters. Mintz and her team interviewed the last surviving partisans for the film, which reveals a stunning narrative of heroism and resilience that shatters the myth of Jewish passivity.
"I set out to make this film in search of an answer to my long-lasting childhood question: 'Why didn't the Jews fight back?'" Mintz says. "What I discovered, through the survivors' searing memories, were riveting stories of courageous and inspiring resistance – a chapter in our collective history about the Jewish partisans that needed to be told."
In the latest edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts his friend of 40 years, Rabbi Ken Chasen.
The Ordination Seminar instructor at HUC-JIR's Skirball Campus, Rabbi Chasen is also the Senior Rabbi at Leo Baeck Temple, which partners with Wise's Center for Youth Engagement and currently hosts our Aaron Milken Center Parenting Center during construction of our transformational new facility.
Before he became a rabbi, Rabbi Chasen wrote music and edited scores for film and television. His love of music—he started playing the guitar at age 10—is intimately entwined with his love of Judaism. As a scrawny 11-year-old at Goldman Union Camp Institute in Indiana, he was first exposed to the blend of Israeli and American folk-style music that would eventually come to define the Reform Movement of the 1980s and 1990s.
"I came to camp not really knowing that my guitar had any efficacy," Rabbi Chasen says.
Within his first four weeks at Goldman, he had talked his way into leading a lunchtime song session.
"The guitar was bigger than I was," Rabbi Chasen says.
The two old friends riff on a variety of topics, from their shared love of music (and their band Mah Tovu), to their midwestern roots, to their sport fandoms ("Football is a secondary religious pursuit," says the Chicago-born and Kansas City-raised Rabbi Chasen), to Rabbi Chasen's unlikely journey from Hollywood to the rabbinate.
In the latest edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts 9-year-old actress Romy Fay Rosen, who is currently playing the roles of Young Sally and Mimi in the acclaimed Broadway production of "Leopoldstadt."
The play, which follows a Viennese Jewish family from 1899 through 1955, grapples with the aftermath of the pogroms, assimilation, civil liberties, infidelity, Bolshevism, the rise of the Third Reich, and the devastation wrought by the Shoah. Together, Romy and Rabbi Yoshi—who attended college with Romy's father, officiated her parents' wedding, and attended her baby naming—explore how she got into acting, the casting process, balancing work and school, and how such a young actress (despite a lengthy resume) experiences the very personal adult themes in the show.
From singing songs from "Annie" at age 2, to starring as Elsa in a community theater children's production of Disney's "Frozen" at age 4, Romy has built an extensive body of work, performing in commercials, short films, animated projects, and television series.
Last year, she starred in the award-winning short film "Yes, Chef" (2021), and recently appeared on “Home Economics” (ABC, 2022) and “Face’s Music Party” (Nick Jr., 2022). She can be seen in the major recurring role of Luisa Dubin on the new AppleTV+ series “Best Foot Forward” (2022), and as series regular Leeli in the streaming animated series “The Wingfeather Saga” (2022-23). Soon, Romy will appear in two national commercial campaigns and she'll lend her voice to another streaming animated series. The actress-singer-songwriter plays ukulele and piano, and will also soon be releasing an album of original songs.
Romy prides herself on finding ways to relate to the characters she plays in order to make her portrayal more real, and, she says, "more like I am this character." That task takes on a new dimension in "Leopoldstadt," which is based on the real-life Holocaust experiences of playwright Tom Stoppard's family.
Romy did not initially know that the play was about the Holocaust during the audition process, or what the Holocaust even was. Then she began rehearsals for her dual roles, playing two members of the same family decades apart—one in 1899 (Sally), and the other in 1938 (Mimi).
"I didn't audition for the scary, getting-kicked-out-of-their-house part," Romy says. "I auditioned for the happy-girl-during-Christmas part at the beginning of the play."
In order to bring her 1938 character to life, she drew from her own family's story.
"When we started rehearsals, I had this book about the Holocaust, because my mom and my dad wanted me to learn about the family history," Romy says. "I was getting to that age. I was getting to 9 and 10, which is when I should learn about my family history. It's a dark, dark past. They wanted me to know what went on back then."
After reading the book and discussing it with her mother, Romy researched even further. She is currently in the middle of reading "The Diary of Anne Frank," and read a graphic novel about her life.
"My ancestors ... they experienced that, too," Romy says.
In the latest edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts Stephen Wise Temple's Center for Youth Engagement director, Rabbi Josh Knobel. From the finer points of the classic summer camp game of gaga (which may very well have a Hebrew origin) to "the Army way," to the invasion of Iraq, to the lessons Rabbi Knobel teaches to our youth and to the congregation, the two cover a wide range of topics in their hourlong discussion.
When he was a boy, Rabbi Knobel went to Jewish day school and Jewish day camp, but when his parents gave him a choice one summer of going to Jewish sleepaway camp or working on his grandfather's farm, he chose the farm. After six weeks of working on the same row of lima beans (which brought home all of $5), he swore off farming and signed up for the next summer of sleepaway camp.
Sleeping in the Pennsylvania wilds was nothing compared to Rabbi Knobel's service in the U.S. Army. Rabbi Knobel's father volunteered to serve during the Vietnam War, and his maternal grandfather had served in the Army during World War II. But, by 1997, when Rabbi Knobel secured the recommendation of a local congressman for admission to West Point, the United States had not fought a war longer than 40 days in decades. September 11, 2001, was still four years away when Rabbi Knobel made his first visit to the academy's campus, where he witnessed firsthand the compassion, camaraderie, and support cadets provided one another.
"It was unlike any college tour I'd ever been on," Rabbi Knobel says. "West Point, it wasn't about what they were going to do for you, but what you were going to do for each other ... To a certain extent, it's why I do what I do now. Jewish communal life is about what we can achieve by taking care of each other."
Rabbi Knobel graduated and earned his commission as an officer in June of 2001. Three months later, the Twin Towers fell. In 2003, Rabbi Knobel was deployed overseas. As a junior officer, he recalls the uncertainty surrounding the invasion of Iraq: The day before the invasion, neither he nor his men truly believed it would happen.
Rabbi Knobel served until 2008, having served in Kuwait and Afghanistan. He and Rabbi Yoshi talk about war protests (and the lack thereof), the rationale behind the war, the human cost of the "liberation" of Afghanistan, the aftermath of the United States' military presence in the region, and how Rabbi Knobel's experience helped prepare him for becoming a rabbi, where the lessons he's learned have helped give depth and texture to his teaching.
In the latest edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback delivers his 2022 (5783) Yom Kippur sermon, entitled, “Letting Go - To Grow.” You can view the full video here.
The full transcript follows:
Last month, Jacqueline and I dropped our youngest daughter off at college.
This was our third time so we knew the drill: the first order of business after helping shlep their luggage to their dorm rooms is the journey to Bed, Bath, and Beyond.
This wasn’t a thing when I went to school more than thirty years ago. My parents took me to Eppley Airfield in Omaha, helped me check in my duffel bags, hugged me tight, wished me luck, and sent me on my way. A few hours later I arrived at my destination and found my way to the shuttle bus which took me to campus. I dragged my heavy bags to the housing office, got my key, and—schvitzing profusely in the August heat—met my roommates for the first time.
Whatever we had forgotten to bring with us, well, the University Store had many essential items and there was a department store in town that was about a fifteen-minute walk away. Over the first few weeks of college, somehow, we managed to procure everything we needed to get ourselves set up.
That’s not how it’s done today—at least not in my experience. By and large, parents accompany their kids to school, and today it seems like it’s the parents’ job to procure those necessary items. Enter into any one of these “domestic merchandise retail stores” situated within a thirty-minute drive of a university campus from mid-August to early September, and you’ll see the same thing: parents pushing shopping carts filled with bins, cleaning products, contraband microwave ovens and mini-fridges, and whatever else is on the list that’s mostly likely been texted to them by their matriculating student. You can witness in real-time panic setting in as you see one parent snatching the last twin size mattress pad in the store.
A little more than a month ago, I made this pilgrimage for the last time.
We are now officially “empty nesters,” gradually getting used to our quieter, neater home.
Each of these college drop-offs has taught me something powerful and profound about letting go, lessons that can help us and those we love grow and mature, and especially on this Day of Atonement, lessons that can help us achieve healing and forgiveness.
While some of this wisdom relates to parenting, I want to acknowledge that not everyone in this room is a parent, will be a parent, or wishes to be a parent. But we are all somebody’s child and we all have relationships at our places of work and communities we care about where these lessons are applicable.
The first lesson is that letting go, at the right time and in the right way, is good for others, for our loved ones, our colleagues, or those we mentor. They need us to let go of them.
When our girls were little, we held them so tightly, literally and figuratively. God forbid we’d drop them! We’d check on them in the middle of the night to make sure they were still breathing.
I remember holding their little hands in mine as I helped them take their first steps, releasing them at just the right moment as they’d lurch forward and fall. And then I’d gently help them up so they could try again.
I remember the first time they rode a bike without training wheels, standing there, both proud and heartsick, as the most precious thing on earth to us slowly rolled down the street.
Years later, it was teaching them to drive, me sitting in the passenger seat, gripping the door handle for dear life as they eased the car out of the driveway.
Each of these moments came in its
In the latest edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback delivers his 2022 (5783) Rosh Hashanah sermon, entitled, "Circles of Concern." You can view the full video here.
The full transcript of Rabbi Yoshi's Rosh Hashanah sermon is below:
At the end of the movie, "Schindler’s List," Yitzhak Shtern, played by Ben Kingsley, presents Oskar Schindler with a ring. On it, he explains, are engraved words from the Talmud that say: "Whoever saves one life saves the world entire."
Schindler, played by Liam Neeson, is clearly moved. As he reaches out to shake Shtern's hand, he says, "I could have got more out … if I had just …"
"No, no, no," Shtern says: "... There are 1,100 people who are alive because of you—look at them … There will be generations because of what you did."
"I didn't do enough," Schindler says.
"You did so much," Shtern tells him.
The survivors whose lives Schindler saved really did give him a ring as a token of their appreciation. The gold was sourced from their fillings which they volunteered to the ring maker.
But the part about the inscription from the Talmud was the invention of the filmmakers and, if you know your Talmud, you might actually think that they got the quote wrong.
The original text that teaches that "whoever saves one life saves the world entire" comes from tractate Sanhedrin and the context is interesting and important.
It's part of the instructions a judge gives to witnesses in a capital case, warning them to be extra careful with their testimony since a person's life is literally at stake. To prove its point, the Talmud quotes a verse from the Bible, the one that describes the world's first murder—a fratricide—Cain killing his little brother Abel in jealousy and rage
In the story from the Torah, immediately after the murder, God says to Cain, "What have you done?!?! The blood of your brother cries out to me from the ground." (Gen. 4:10) The Rabbis notice though that the word "blood" in Hebrew is in the plural, literally, "the bloods of your brother - דְּמֵ֣י אָחִ֔יךָ." Why the plural? Because, the rabbis reason, Cain didn't just kill Abel. He killed all of Abel's potential descendants—generations that might have come to be had he lived.
And then the Talmud teaches: "Therefore the creation of all humanity began with just one individual soul—the first human—to teach you that whoever destroys one soul …, destroys an entire world. And whoever saves one soul … saves an entire world."
A person is an entire world because all humanity can descend from that one soul.
In the latest edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts writer, filmmaker, linguist, and self-described "nerdy Indiana Jones" Alan Niku, who may or may not moonlight as a vigilante superhero.
The Berkeley-educated Niku has a unique background, coming from an Iranian Jewish family. That background spurred his lifelong love of language and a deep and abiding sense of curiosity.
That curiosity led Niku—who grew up speaking Farsi—to delve into the language his Kurdish grandfather spoke. The more he learned, the more he realized that his grandfather wasn't speaking Kurdish, but a dialect of Aramaic—the language of the Talmud and parts of the Hebrew Bible.
Niku has used language as a window to history, as he has used linguistics to explore the development and nuance in the politics, culture, and faith, not to mention sociology, psychology, and human geography. Through Persian and Jewish languages, he has charted the unique blend of Jewish ritual and worship that developed in Persian Jewish communities.
You won't want to miss a minute of this fascinating look into Jewish history, including a manuscript dating from the 1700s.
In the latest edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts Wise's Chief Engagement Officer, Rabbi Sari Laufer. The wide-ranging talk between two colleagues covers Israel, summer camps, sign language, their respective Torah portions, authenticity, and the recent Supreme Court decision to restrict reproductive freedoms in Dobbs v. Jackson.
The topic of Rabbi Sari's early Jewish learning brings up the subject of gender equity and representation.
A tangent about how New Yorkers use hands to talk—Rabbi Sari just finished reading "True Biz," a novel about the deaf community, which is all about non-verbal communication—leads to a fascinating discussion about liturgical sign language interpreters.
All of these are weaved into the story of how Rabbi Sari came to find her calling, and how she came to Wise.
The only child of a Conservadox mom and a classical Reform dad (both from Long Island), Rabbi Sari's story covers growing up in Manhattan, spending her summers at camp, her first trip to Israel, and her desire to work for the State Department and help solve the Middle East peace crisis.
A lover of languages (and now an avid viewer of Apple TV+'s "Tehran"), she was set to learn Hebrew and Arabic when she got to Northwestern University. When she arrived, though, she experienced something new: As a Jew, she was a minority. Growing up in New York, "There were no shortage of Jews," she says. "That was the overriding culture in New York City. All of these things are so baked in."
She sought out Jewish community in a way that she never had, and took a class that would change her life: Introduction to Judaism. For the first time, she encountered the academic side of Judaism—theology, theodicy, and philosophy—and fell in love.
In the latest edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts Rabbi Susan Silverman, the founder of Second Nurture, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting a path from foster care to adoption.
"I grew up in a family that fostered kids, so I saw that up close," Rabbi Silverman says. "Also, I'm a rabbi, and I really believe strongly in the power of community, so I put the two together."
In 2016, after meeting hundreds of people in dozens of cities across North America while touring with her book, "Casting Lots: Creating a Family in a Beautiful, Broken World," Rabbi Silverman was convinced that many more people would foster and adopt, if only they had support and direction.
"Parenting in general is daunting," says Rabbi Silverman, who has adopted two children. "Foster parenting is extra daunting. The process itself is overwhelming."
Rabbi Yoshi, who now serves on the organization's board, was one of the first people Rabbi Silverman approached with her idea: An organization that would lower the barrier to entry for foster and adoptive parents by providing guidance, fellowship, and community to those who had the desire to foster and adopt, but lacked the expertise, experience, and wisdom such a community could provide. In 2017, she founded Second Nurture.
Fully acknowledging the disproportionate rate at which minority children are separated from families who may very well be able to care for them, Rabbi Silverman has been adamant that Second Nurture operate with racial justice in mind. Studyafter studyhas found that aging out of foster care (or merely being "in the system") carries a strong direct correlation with future incarceration. Beyond providing logistical support to families willing to foster and adopt, Second Nurture also works to address the racial disparities and injustices endemic to the foster care system.
"We are not policy people," Rabbi Silverman says. "We are not the judges who decide these cases. But, we can say, 'We want to know what the situation is.' We want to have a special kind of program where we're able to foster kids and support the bio family ... We can be a part of a solution, and to partner with people who do have the power, so that we can move this forward in a positive way."
In the latest edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts Jean-Claude Nkulikiyimfura, Shiri Sandler, and Fabrice Mpozenzei, the leadership team for the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda.
In 2005, while attending a talk about the genocide against the Tutsi, Anne Heyman (z"l) learned that Rwanda had no systemic solution to support the well-being and development of its 1.2 million orphans. Recognizing the parallels to the orphan crisis spawned by the Holocaust, Heyman looked to Israel for a solution: After the Shoah, Israel had built residential communities that ensured the orphans’ safety, security, and development. In 2008, applying Rwandan culture to the Israeli model, Heyman opened Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village with a class of 128 students, all survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
More than 1,600 children have come through Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village in the last 14 years. Though the children who come through today are no longer survivors of the genocide, they are a part of its legacy of poverty, abuse, drug addiction, and forced prostitution.
Nkulikiyimfura was born to parents forced to flee their country as teenagers. Had Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village existed then, they would have been welcomed. When he first heard about the village in 2010, he was already an adult. Invited by Heyman to visit with his wife, he was blown away.
"We did not understand the concept of a youth village," Nkulikiyimfura says. "We were like, 'OK, this must be an orphanage or a boarding school.' It was none of the above. It was a place, a home, for kids who had lost family members. It was a place where we think our kids are allowed to reclaim their adolescence. It's a place that we believe our parents would have wanted for their own kids, had they been alive."
In the latest edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts Matthew Waksman, a brand strategy partner at Ogilvy in Great Britain, one of the top marketing agencies in the world.
Having experienced antisemitism as a young man growing up in London, Waksman wrote a stirring article about anti-Zionism and antisemitism in December of 2021: "When it comes to social justice and inclusive marketing, Jews don't count."
The piece was inspired by attacks on Jewish students and Jewish symbols in central London at Hanukkah time, which was only really reported in the Jewish press, a distressing trend that speaks to a much larger and much more concerning issue: Growing antisemitism, cloaked in anti-Zionism, spreading not only across Europe, but across the United States, as well.
Currently in Israel, Waksman delves into how antisemitism and anti-Zionism has complicated international efforts to aid the Ukrainian Jewish community, particularly members of that community who are seeking refuge in Israel. The rise in anti-Zionist sentiment (fueled by growing antisemitism) in Europe and the fear of a proxy war in the Middle East is particularly vexing as the human toll of Russia's invasion continues to rise.
In response to those like Gigi Hadid, who have made comparisons between the Russia-Ukraine dynamic and the Israel-Palestine relationship, Waksman calls such efforts "incredibly dangerous and reductive," because of the level of complexity that accompanies such conflicts.
"When people are comparing one conflict to another, it's never to shine a light on a particular conflict," Waksman says. "It's in order to further an agenda or an opinion, which is not about the specific conflict to begin with. I always find it cynical and ... deeply unhelpful."
Russian President Vladimir Putin initially called his invasion a "de-Nazification" effort, despite the fact that Ukraine's Jewish president Volodymyr Zelenskyy's great-grandparents were murdered in the Holocausts. Zelenskyy's response to that—"How could you possibly accuse me of being a Nazi?"—notably omitted the (likely implied) fact that he was Jewish.
"From what I see, at least at the start of the conflict, he was not the one who led with his Jewish identity," Waksman says. "People then commented, and he did that. He's not the one who put his Jewish identity [forward], nor should he have to. I'm just making the observation."
That leads to a deeper conversation about the state of inclusivity, and how Jews, despite being the quintessential Other for millennia, still don't rank high in the hierarchy of racism. In the words of British author David Baddiel, "Jews Don't Count" in identity politics.
Note: This episode was recorded in February, 2022.
In the latest edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts cardiologist Dr. Afshine Emrani.
Just 12 years old when the Revolution swept Iran, Dr. Emrani and his family moved to England, where he had a doorstep bar mitzvah, courtesy of the local Chabad. After three years, the family moved to Los Angeles.
From humble beginnings dissecting chickens his mother would bring home for dinner, Dr. Emrani went into medicine to help improve patients' lives. That's how he landed on the field of cardiology, where he could not only improve the quality of the lives in his hands, but save them, as well. After graduating from UCLA, he earned his medical degree at U.C. San Diego. He is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology.
Despite being a natural introvert, Dr. Emrani has become a social media star on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, where he posts on politics, religion, and medicine.
"I don't enjoy talking to a lot of people ... but there is a giant voice inside me, and ideas that I would like to share," Dr. Emrani says. "When I started putting those ideas in words on social media, initially on Facebook, I noticed that people are gravitating towards them."
He speaks in this podcast about his Jewish journey, his friendship with Rabbi David Wolpe, the difficulty of communicating nuance on social media, and COVID-19. Dr. Emrani and Rabbi Yoshi also discuss Jewish philosophy, their complicated thoughts on several past United States Presidents, and their shared love of music.
In the latest edition of Search for Meaning, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts comedy writer Betsy Borns, best known for her work on hit television shows "Rosanne" and "Friends."
Author of "Comic Lives: Inside the World of Stand-Up Comedy," Borns is also the creator of the sitcom "All of Us," produced by Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith, which ran for four seasons.
From getting kicked out of Hebrew school for telling a dirty joke during as an 8-year-old in Indianapolis, to her rise as a writer and producer in Hollywood, Borns takes Rabbi Yoshi on a ride through the mind of a comedian. One keen insight: the comic sensibility is a defense mechanism, but it's also an impulse to protect other people, finding the funny side of life to prevent people from feeling sad.
"If most people look at life in three dimensions," Borns says, "comedians look at life in four dimensions, and see that there's just another side to it ... Comedians don't just see reality. They see reality, plus one."
Along with being a successful writer, producer, and author, Borns is married to Emmy and Peabody Award winner Jonathan Shapiro. Listen to his conversation with Rabbi Yoshi here.
In the latest edition of Search for Meaning, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts Ken Lindner, a super-agent and author.
In this wide-ranging discussion, Lindner—author of the recently-released book "Aspire Higher"—delves into his childhood struggle with weight and self esteem. He and Rabbi Yoshi examine how that struggle shaped not only Lindner's amateur athletic career, but his ascendance as an agent to some of the top news personalities in the United States.
Lindner details how his father's long work weeks led him to develop feelings of insecurity and un-love-ability, which in turn led to toxic emotions, binge eating and bad decisions. At the age of 4, Lindner was so frustrated with his father for his perceived lack of attention and approval that he threw a brick at him. "My aim was as bad as my judgement," says Lindner, who thankfully missed.
The two reconciled and bonded over paddle tennis, which led to Lindner's emergence as a tennis phenom in Brooklyn, where he beat the famed Bobby Riggs. As his confidence grew, he developed discipline and cultivated an even-keeled disposition. He also fell in love with learning. He mastered his emotions, and as he read more broadly, began to examine how control of one's emotions or desires relates to what Judaism says about strength and power.
"I believe every day is a Rosh Hashanah or a Yom Kippur," he tells Rabbi Yoshi. "We should assimilate information every day—what we're doing right, what we're doing wrong, and how to be better."
As Lindner's emotional intelligence and curiosity grew, he began to understand his father more: A Polish immigrant with only the barest of educations, he had lost his father at an early age and worked as he did so that his son could have the education he never did. Lindner discusses his father's role in the establishment of department store T.J. Maxx, and how that led him to a serendipitous encounter with Sam "Cookie" Weisbord, who persuaded him to work at the William Morris Agency, instead of at a law firm that had the agency as a client.
From Bjorn Borg and Vitas Gerulaitis, Air Supply, and Kate Kapshaw, to Lester Holt, Mario Lopez, Colin Cowherd, and Megyn Kelly, to local talents Christine Devine, Dallas Raines, and Pat Harvey, Lindner and his team have worked with a laundry list of stars. He has espoused his positive life choice psychology both in "Aspire Higher" and "Career Choreography," which has its roots in his own experience.
While not officially a client, he's even counseled Rabbi Yoshi. Over a lunch early in their relationship, he suggested to the then Head of School at Wise School that he should apply to be the Senior Rabbi at Stephen Wise Temple. Rabbi Yoshi will be celebrating seven years in that position this year, and he will be honored for his 10 years of service to the Wise community at the Wise Gala on May 7.
In celebration of Nowruz, the Persian New Year, Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback welcomes the first female native Farsi speaker to become a rabbi, Rabbi Tarlan Rabizadeh.
A leader, a brilliant educator, and a trailblazer as a Persian female rabbi, Rabbi Rabizadeh began both her educational and professional journey at Wise. The daughter of Iranian immigrants, she grew up at what was then Stephen S. Wise Temple Elementary School. When she matriculated across the freeway to Milken Community High School, she was unsure of what she wanted to do with her life. She was good at art, but didn't want to be an artist. Her parents wanted her to go to law school, but she didn't want to be a lawyer.
At the age of 15, though, she took a class with Rabbi Sharon Brous. Inspired by Rabbi Brous's patient, thoughtful approach to Jewish studies and Jewish education, she decided then and there that she wanted to join the rabbinate.
"I wanted to do something with my life that made my brain grow," Rabbi Rabizadeh said. "In that moment ... she made me realize there was so much more than I ever knew about Judaism. That's when I knew I wanted to become a rabbi. When I told my parents, they nearly fainted. It was just not an option."
She began by teaching religious school at Stephen Wise Temple on Sundays under Rabbi Melissa Buyer.
"She was the one who said, 'Tarlan, I see potential in you. You should do this full force, and apply to Hebrew Union College,'" Rabbi Rabizadeh said. "I told her, 'There's no way. My parents aren't on board.'"
There was, however, a full-tuition scholarship for students who wanted to become Jewish educators, Rabbi Buyer told her. It was at HUC, in 2010, that a young Tarlan Rabizadeh met Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback, and the two have remained friends ever since.
Rabbi Rabizadeh was ordained at HUC-JIR, worked as a Jewish Emergent Network Fellow at The Kitchen in San Francisco, taught at Milken, and now, serves as the Director of Student Life at UCLA Hillel.
After her soulful performance during Stephen Wise Temple's Friday-night Shabbat services, singer, songwriter, and composer Elana Arian joins Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback and Senior Cantor Emma Lutz for this edition of "Search for Meaning" to discuss her musical journey.
From cassette recordings of four-part harmonies with her musical family during her days as a "faculty brat" at the URJ Kutz Camp, Elana has morphed from a classical musician to a secular folk singer to now one of the preeminent voices in modern Jewish music. When she sits down and riffs with Emma, the two buzz with energy when talking about harmonizing and improvisation, the influence of Debbie Friedman, the excitement and beauty of the High Holy Days, and Divine inspiration.
After a thought-provoking community read at Stephen Wise Temple last week, celebrated author Dara Horn sits down with Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback to discuss her latest book, "People Love Dead Jews."
Regarding the book's popularity, Horn tells Rabbi Yoshi, “I wished people liked it a little less, because what I’ve discovered is that I was more right than I thought I was.”
Join Rabbi Yoshi for his discussion with Horn that includes some of the disturbing conversations the book has inspired, the insidiousness of Holocaust inversion, and the recent alarming rise in antisemitism.
Join Rabbi Yoshi for a conversation with Emmy and Peabody Award winning writer Jonathan Shapiro. After representing the United States as a prosecutor in the US Attorney's Office, then working in private practice and politics, Shapiro sent a script to David E. Kelly for consideration on one of his favorite shows, The Practice. Shapiro has collaborated with Kelly ever since, most recently on Goliath staring Billy Bob Thorton. Learn about Shapiro's journey and what brings him meaning in his life.
Yom Kippur Sermon, September, 2021
Not many spiritual communities boast their own artist-in-residence but Stephen Wise Temple is truly fortunate to have Mario M. Muller in that special role. In the latest Search for Meaning, Mario sits down with Rabbi Yoshi to discuss art, creativity, life, vision, and so much more. Check it out and be sure to visit MarioMuller.com to see Mario's inspiring work!
Search for Meaning with Rabbi Dr. Leon Wiener Dow and Rabbi Yoshi In a thought-provoking, inspiring, and joyful discussion with old friend and classmate Rabbi Dr. Leon Wiener Dow, Rabbi Yoshi probes the scholar and teacher on a number of subjects: Jewish philosophical takes on love and family; pluralism in Israel; personal growth and evolution during the pandemic; and much, much more. Tune in to this episode of Search for Meaning to listen in on dear friends as they share poignant moments of reflection as well as some laughs.
In the latest episode of "Search for Meaning," Rabbi Yoshi speaks with Moishe House's Chief Program Officer Tiffany Harris about building Jewish community and identity at any age, her time living and working in Israel, and about growing up Black and Jewish in America.
Listen in on a friendly, lively conversation between old pals as Rabbi Yoshi sits down with college friend Mark Feuerstein, an actor and writer known for "Royal Pains," "Power," "Prison Break," and many more. Together they reflect on what inspired them down their respective paths during their formative years; the nature of creativity in a Jewish space; and their own Jewish journeys throughout the years. It's a conversation full of great stories, laughs, and more than a few surprising insights.
Donna Dubinsky is an American business leader who played an integral role in the development of personal digital assistants (PDAs) serving as CEO of Palm, Inc. and co-founding Handspring with Jeff Hawkins in 1995. She is also a Fellow of the Yale Corporation and is a Trustee of the Computer History Museum—in short, she knows more than a little something about leadership and vision. In the latest episode of Search for Meaning, Rabbi Yoshi speaks with Ms. Dubinsky about those values, the science behind how the brain works, the power of critical thinking, and how all of these concepts are intertwined.
Gary Rudoren is an actor and writer, known for A Really Lapsed Catholic (comedy special) (2020), Comedy by the Numbers (2009) and Brainwarp: The Baby Eater (1993). In the latest episode of Search for Meaning, he chats with Rabbi Yoshi about comedy, theatre, his time in Israel, and much more.
Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner is the Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism - as such, he is the leading voice in our movement for tikkun olam, social justice, and for creating a better world. In a meaningful pre-High Holy Days discussion, Rabbi Pesner spoke with Rabbi Yoshi about Israel and the UAE, racial justice and engagement with Jews of color, voting rights in America, and so much more.
Jodi Rudoren, Editor-in-Chief of the Foward, spent 20 years with the New York Times -- some of that time as the Jerusalem bureau chief. In her discussion with Rabbi Yoshi she discusses her time there as a journalist; her transition to and the transformation of the Forward; and managing coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a fascinating, wide-ranging discussion on race in America, China and its Jewish history, and much more, Rabbi Yoshi speaks with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jonathan Kaufman, author of The Last Kings of Shanghai and Director of the Northeastern University School of Journalism.
Jeremy Ben-Ami, President of J Street, recently spoke with Rabbi Yoshi for a fascinating discussion about finding common ground among American Jewry when it comes to Israel. Together they cover the current, evolving landscape of Israeli politics and how Jews can come together no matter where they stand.
Rabbi Yoshi continues his shelter-in-place series of interviews with members of his family. This week he chats with his daughter Naomi on her first forays into politics, her musical aspirations, and her experiences with the Pad Project that led to the Oscar-winning documentary Period. End of Sentence.
Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback chats with Dr. Dan Uslan, UCLA Health's Co-Chief Infection Prevention Officer, covering many of your frequently asked questions about the current crisis and how we can support health workers in their life-saving work.
As part of an ongoing quarantine-inspired series, Rabbi Yoshi searches for meaning with members of his own family. This week's guest is his daughter Ariela Zweiback, who speaks with him about her recent time in Kenya with Beyond Fistula, a nonprofit organization that helps Kenyan women who have survived obstetric fistula rebuild their lives after surgery through counseling, vocational training, and scholarships. In a thoughtful interview, she discusses how this experience has shaped her life and future.
In the first of a series, Rabbi Yoshi searches for meaning with members of his own family. His first guest is his daughter Isa Zweiback, who shares a little bit about her recent experience becoming a bone marrow donor and takes a few trips down memory lane to her early years in Israel.
This week Bob Klein, noted advocate of stem cell therapies and cures, joins Rabbi Yoshi. Learn about Bob's work and about the new ballot initiative he's working on. Visit CA for Cures for more info on how you can support the initiative and save lives: https://caforcures.com/help-us-qualify/
In her recent memoir "The Color of Love," author Marra Gad reflects on her upbringing as a mixed-race Jewish girl in Chicago, frankly addressing the hurt and stigmas cast upon her while also depicting the joy and love she has found in her Jewish faith. In this episode of Search for Meaning, Marra speaks with Rabbi Yoshi about the challenge of overcoming our implicit biases and perceived differences; the changing nature of racism and bigotry; and their hopes for a better, more connected Jewish community that welcomes and includes Jews of all backgrounds.
Following up on her Stephen Wise Temple Center for Jewish Life appearance last fall, former Obama White House Speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz connected with Rabbi Yoshi in the latest episode of his podcast Search for Meaning. Hurwitz is the author of Here All Along, a critically-acclaimed account of her journey to deepening her connection to Judaism. In the podcast, she and Rabbi Yoshi have a fascinating discussion of the many ways that Jews in the hectic contemporary world can find meaning and spiritual value in the millennia-old Jewish tradition.
Legendary Olympic Swimmer Mark Spitz met with Rabbi Yoshi to discuss his amazing story of perseverence and hard work that led to his becoming an icon for generations of athletes (and many more). From his childhood to his swimming career and his present work in documenting Holocaust stories, Spitz discusses his heritage and its impact on everything he has accomplished.
It's hard to pinpoint what songwriter and composer Charlie Fox is best known for: his TV theme songs have been household presences for decades ("Happy Days," "Laverne and Shirley," "The Love Boat"), "Killing Me Softly" is a legendary, iconic hit for Roberta Flack, and his orchestral music has been performed all over the world. For Wise, he has composed an incredible number of pieces that will be an everlasting part of the Wise musical legacy. In this wide-ranging discussion, he and Rabbi Yoshi discuss the art of composing, the deep connection Charlie feels with his Jewish heritage, and the people in his life who have left a lasting impact on him, musically and otherwise.
Documentarian Dr. Victor Pineda spoke with Rabbi Yoshi about his incredible story traveling the world as an activist and advocate for disability rights—he has 12 bends in his body due to a yet-unnamed muscular disorder. In the film "12 Bends," and in his discussion with Rabbi Yoshi, Dr. Pineda speaks about navigating a world that was not built for him or those like him.
After the tragic loss of their son Brent in 2005, Robert and Linell Shapiro decided that they could not sit idly by: instead, they formed the Brent Shapiro Foundation for Drug Prevention to help thousands of families avoid the pain that they had suffered. In the latest episode of Search for Meaning, Rabbi Yoshi talks with Robert about the Foundation's mission and increasing success in helping kids remain drug-free into adulthood.
When Rabbi Yoshi met Amanda Maddahi and Arya Marvazy of JQ International, Los Angeles' premier LGBTQ+ Jewish organization, he knew he wanted to learn more about their stories. Listen in as they discuss their friendship, advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community in LA, and how creating an inclusive, welcoming, supportive environment can truly change the world one person at a time.
In his Yom Kippur sermon, "Transcendence Now," Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback teaches us the many ways we can respond to antisemitism; reminds us of the importance of friends and allies within our community and also outside of it; and inspires us to know that together, we can all unite to end not only antisemitism but bigotry and hatred in all of its forms.
It has been 40 years since the Iranian Revolution that changed the landscape in both Iran and the United States--even more particularly in Los Angeles. Rabbi Yoshi and UCLA Professor Saba Soomekh sit down to discuss the cultural impact of the Persian community on Los Angeles (and vice-versa) in advance of their upcoming three-part course on the topic.
Daniel Wordsworth, CEO of Alight (formerly American Refugee Committee), sits down with Rabbi Yoshi for a conversation about how an abundance of human kindness can truly reshape the world. In this inspiring discussion, Daniel recounts numerous stories of how he has witnessed individuals making a difference by helping others: and how we can tap into that same extraordinary power ourselves.
Cantor Nathan Lam had an ambitious dream: create a new machzor (High Holy Days prayer book) that would be unique and special to the Stephen Wise Temple community. Once Wise Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback and Cantor Emma Lutz became parts of the equation, the inspiring trio made great happen. Hear the story, trials, tribulations, and triumphs that led to Sha'ar HaShamayim ("Gates of Heaven") becoming a reality.
Legendary songwriter Artie Butler wrote or arranged some of your absolute favorite hits from the past six decades of rock n' roll... and lucky for us, he sat down with his close friend Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback to talk about his thrilling career and how he almost became a chazzan!
In preparation for the High Holy Days, Rabbi Yoshi speaks with noted scholar Rabbi Joseph Telushkin about spirituality and the power of ritual and making meaning in our daily lives.
Award-winning writer/producer Stacy Rukeyser, showrunner for the Emmy-nominated Lifetime series "UnREAL," sits down with Rabbi Yoshi to speak about her career, her connection to Judaism, and the importance of women's voices in the Hollywood heirarchy.
Music writers and journalists Harvey Kubernik and Hal Lifson chat with Rabbi Yoshi about Woodstock as it approaches the 50th anniversary of the festival that changed everything. Learn what set these three days apart from other similar concerts during the late 60s; what was happening in Los Angeles during that same summer; and why Dylan was a no-show.
Rabbi Yoshi recently sat down with Mayor John Mirisch of Beverly Hills for a discussion about governing with Jewish values and creating inclusive, diverse communities.
Tamar and Phil Koosed are the co-founders of Save the Syrian Children, an organization that collects and ships desperately-needed medical supplies and clothing to refugees of the violence in Syria. Rabbi Yoshi speaks with them regarding their mission and what drives them to make meaningful change in the world.
Rabbi Yoshi talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel about her personal Jewish journey and the development of her play "Indecent," on stage at the Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles in Summer 2019.