Unorthodox

This week on Unorthodox, we’re debuting a new look and some brand new merch!  We’ve got three great guests. First, we’re bringing you an interview we recorded live at the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly this past week in Chicago. We talked to Jewish Federations of North America President and CEO Eric Fingerhut about the most important issues facing American Jews, what he loves most about his job, and how we build a stronger Jewish community. Our Gentile of the Week is Joe Coscarelli, New York Times culture reporter and author of Rap Capital: An Atlanta Story. He explains how Atlanta rap became the most consequential musical ecosystem, tells us about #billiondollarlawyer Drew Findling, and breaks down the long and complicated relationship between Jewish music executives and hip hop artists. We’re also bringing you a conversation between Tablet executive editor Wayne Hoffman and author Roslyn Bernstein, whose new book, The Girl Who Counted Numbers, is a historical novel set in Jerusalem

Liel takes us on a tour of the horror movies of his childhood and wonders how Jews can participate in Halloween… Jewishly. Plus, what horror movies can teach us about us ourselves and Jewish identity

This week on Unorthodox, we’re getting together around the table.  Our Jewish guest is Phil Rosenthal, who returns to the show to tell us about Season 6 of his delightful travel food show, Somebody Feed Phil, which includes a tribute to his late parents, Max and Helen Rosenthal, and the accompanying cookbook, Somebody Feed Phil: The Book. He also tells us what his Yom Kippur break-fast looks like, why he scoops out his bagel, and why Jews aren’t the only cultural group who finds connection over food.  Our Gentile of the Week is the multi-talented Faith Salie, a contributor to CBS Sunday Morning, frequent panelist on NPR’s “Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me,” and author of Approval Junkie. She brings us Coca-Cola Cake and tells us about growing up Catholic in Atlanta and learning about Judaism as she raises Jewish children with her husband.  We’re heading back on the road! Find out about our upcoming events at tabletmag.com/unorthodoxlive. We love to hear from you! Send us emails and voice memos at unorthodox@table

This week on Unorthodox, we’re raising the roof. First we check in with Israeli actor Michael Aloni of Shtisel and Beauty Queen of Jerusalem, to hear about his new film Plan A, in theaters and streaming this week.  Then we hear from Mordechai Levovitz, founder of JQY, an organization that supports queer Jewish youth, about his personal journey and the ongoing legal battle between Yeshiva University and the YU Pride Alliance.   Our Gentile of the Week is Pastor Corey Brooks, founder and Senior Pastor of New Beginnings Church of Chicago and founder and CEO of Project H.O.O.D. He tells us about the great work he is doing for his Chicago community, including living on a roof to raise money for a new community center. This interview was recorded live at Congregation Beth Shalom in Northbrook, IL.  Finally, we call up our friend and former colleague Yair Rosenberg, who now writes the Deep Shtetl newsletter for The Atlantic, and who just released a beautiful album of Shabbat music called Az Yashir. We’re headin

Hey JCrew, we've got something extra we want to share with you. The Franchise is a new, eight-part series exploring how contemporary American Jewish culture imprinted itself onto sports and how sports imprinted itself onto Jewish traditions. Hosted by Meredith Shiner and produced by the team behind Unorthodox, the No. 1 Jewish podcast, The Franchise highlights the moments and the people—athletes, fans, stat geeks, journalists, and team owners—who are writing this uniquely, American Jewish story. The series begins in 1965 with Sandy Koufax, and traces the arc of American Jews and sports since then: from probing the so-called Koufax curse that befalls Jewish athletes who play on Yom Kippur to reevaluating the "Jewish Jordan" phenomenon and wondering why Jews love teams that always seem to lose, and much more. The Franchise premiers on Wednesday, Oct. 12. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This week on Unorthodox, we’re shaking the lulav and the etrog and celebrating Sukkot.   First, we’re learning all about the global history of the etrog thanks to Be Fruitful: The Etrog in Jewish Art, Culture, and History. We talk to Warren Klein, one of the collection’s editors, and Jenna Weissman Joselit, a favorite Unorthodox guest and contributor to the collection.  Next, we talk with Roger Studley, the founder of Urban Moshav, a nonprofit dedicated to creating Jewish co-housing communities, about Berkeley Moshav and the role that co-housing plays in building community.  Finally, we’re re-sharing the 2018 trip our former editor Sophia Steinert-Evoy’s took to the only commercial etrog farm in the U.S., in Exeter, CA, to meet the non-Jews running it.  We’re heading back on the road! Find out about our upcoming events at tabletmag.com/unorthodoxlive. We love to hear from you! Send us emails and voice memos at unorthodox@tabletmag.com, or leave a voicemail at our listener line: (914) 570-4869. Remember t

This week on Unorthodox, we’re sorry. It’s our eighth annual Apology episode, and we’re bringing you stories of reckoning, atonement and… goats? Stephanie Butnick visits the goats who inhabit a steep, rocky patch of Manhattan each summer to learn about the biblical scapegoat of Yom Kippur, with help from Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky and former Riverside Park Conservancy President and CEO Daniel Garodnick.  What’s repentance all about, anyway? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to explain the concept of teshuva, and what the medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides has to say about asking for forgiveness.  Professor and author Stewart Davenport, who grew up in Birmingham, AL, shares a candid reflection about arriving at Princeton as a college freshman and seeing the world differently. Plus, Liel starts a new Tzom Gedaliah tradition with a call to Rabbi Rachel Timoner. Don’t miss our previous Apology episodes: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021.  We’re heading back on the road! Find out about our upcoming ev

This week on Unorthodox, we’re not holding back.  Our Jewish guest this week is Kim Kushner, who joins us to talk about her Moroccan-influenced take on kosher cooking, her favorite Shabbat meals, and her new cookbook, The Modern Table.   We also bring you Gentile-Jewish filmmaker combo Ken Burns and Sarah Botstein, who tell us about the process of making their new PBS documentary, The U.S. and the Holocaust, which explores America’s response to World War II.  Our annual fundraiser is underway, and this year we’re upping the stakes: for every $100 you donate, you’ll be entered to win a mystery gift box curated by Stephanie, Mark, or Liel. Donate at tabletm.ag/mysterybox, and thank you for your support. We’re heading back on the road! Find out about our upcoming events at tabletmag.com/unorthodoxlive. We love to hear from you! Send us emails and voice memos at unorthodox@tabletmag.com, or leave a voicemail at our listener line: (914) 570-4869. Remember to tell us who you are and where you’re calling from. 

This week on Unorthodox, lots of lox drama at one Manhattan synagogue. Our Gentile of the Week is author and podcaster Michael Lewis, who gamely revisits his 1993 Toy Goy article in the New Republic, tells us about being on the receiving end of antisemitic taunts for attending the Isidore Newman School in New Orleans and shares what he learned researching his 2016 book, The Undoing Project, about the friendship between Israeli cognitive psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman. Our Jew of the Week is Dana Bash, CNN’s chief political correspondent and the co-anchor of CNN’s State of the Union. She joins us to tell us what she learned while reporting her recent CNN special, “Rising Hate: Antisemitism in America,” and why she decided to also make the story personal.  Our annual fundraiser is underway, and this year we’re upping the stakes: for every $100 you donate, you’ll be entered to win a mystery gift box curated by Stephanie, Mark, or Liel. Donate at tabletm.ag/mysterybox, and thank you for your su

We're excited to introduce Gatecrashers, our newest Tablet Studios podcast. This 8-part series, hosted by our own Mark Oppenheimer, tells the hidden history of Jews in the Ivy League. Each episode focuses on one of the Ivies, and the series spans the last hundred years. Today, Mark shares the trailer and offers a behind the scenes look at Gatecrashers, with the help of Tablet Studios producer Quinn Waller and director of partnerships Tanya Singer. Stick around to the end for an exclusive preview of the first episode, about Columbia University and its forgotten campus for Jews. Gatecrashers launches on September 13 with two episodes: Columbia and Princeton. Subscribe now to Gatecrashers on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find Unorthodox.

We're off this week, but our fundraiser keeps going! For every $100 you donate, you’ll be entered to win a mystery gift box curated by Stephanie, Mark, or Liel. Donate at tabletm.ag/mysterybox. We're so grateful for your support, which lets us continue to make not just Unorthodox, but also our growing slate of Tablet Studios shows. One of them is Liel's daily Talmud podcast, Take One, and today he is sharing a favorite episode from the archive. We’ll be in the Chicagoland area on September 8th for a live podcast taping at Congregation Beth Shalom in Northbrook, Illinois. Our Jewish guest is Chicago food writer John Kessler and our Gentile of the Week is Corey Brooks, founder and Senior Pastor of New Beginnings Church of Chicago and founder and CEO of Project H.O.O.D. We'll also be joined by Meredith Shiner, the host of our forthcoming podcast about Jews and sports. There will be schmoozing, giveaways, and more. Get your (free!) tickets at tabletmag.com/unorthodoxlive.

Our annual fundraiser is underway, and this year we’re upping the stakes: for every $100 you donate, you’ll be entered to win a mystery gift box curated by Stephanie, Mark, or Liel. Donate at tabletm.ag/mysterybox, and thank you for your support. Our Jew of the Week is Ilana Horwitz, who teaches the sociology of religion and education at Tulane. She joins us to talk about her new book, God, Grades, and Graduation: Religion's Surprising Impact on Academic Success.    Our gentile of the week is Australian writer Tim Winton, who chats with us about surfing, writing, and the feral camel population in Australia. We’re heading back on the road! Find out about our upcoming events at tabletmag.com/unorthodoxlive. We love to hear from you! Send us emails and voice memos at unorthodox@tabletmag.com, or leave a voicemail at our listener line: (914) 570-4869. Remember to tell us who you are and where you’re calling from.  Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. Join our Facebook grou

This week on Unorthodox, we’re kicking off our annual fundraiser and upping the stakes: for every $100 you donate, you’ll be entered to win a mystery gift box curated by Stephanie, Mark, or Liel. Donate at tabletm.ag/mysterybox. Abby Pogrebin returns to the show to tell us about the latest installment of The Minyan, her roundtable interview series for Tablet. She spoke with 10 Orthodox women about their identities and experiences and shares some of that conversation, and the insights it inspired. Check out The Minyan at tabletmag.com/minyan.  We also talk to Allison Josephs of Jew in the City about her work getting Hollywood to portray Orthodox Jews with more accuracy and depth.   We’re heading back on the road! Find out about our upcoming events at tabletmag.com/unorthodoxlive. We love to hear from you! Send us emails and voice memos at unorthodox@tabletmag.com, or leave a voicemail at our listener line: (914) 570-4869. Remember to tell us who you are and where you’re calling from.  Subscribe to our wee

This week on Unorthodox, we’re getting serious. It’s Tisha B’Av, the Jewish day of mourning that commemorates the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. (Read more about it here.) Our Jewish guest is Rebecca Soffer of Modern Loss, who returns to the show tell us about her new book, The Modern Loss Handbook: An interactive Guide to Moving Through Grief and Building Your Resilience.  Our Gentile of the Week is Walter Russell Mead, who joins us to discuss his new book, The Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People. He tells us why he wanted to dispel many preconceived notions about America’s support for Israel, and explains why so many non-Jews throughout American history have supported the creation of a Jewish state. We’re heading back on the road! Check out our tour schedule at tabletmag.com/unorthodoxlive.  Send us emails and voice memos at unorthodox@tabletmag.com, or leave a voicemail at our listener line: (914) 570-4869. Remember to tell us who you are and where y

This week on Unorthodox, we’re melting down. To beat the heat, we’re bringing you interviews with two very cool Jews.  First we talk to singer songwriter Lisa Loeb, who has been entertaining music lovers of all ages since her breakout 1994 hit “Stay.” She shares how her childhood love of summer camp inspired her “Camp Lisa” record and foundation, plus she tells us about her eyewear collection and the similarities she’s discovered between performing for toddlers and drunk adults.  Our second guest is cantor-turned-jazz-singer Yisroel Leshes, who tells us about digging into the rich archives of 1920s-1940s Yiddish theater and reinterpreting those songs for a modern audience. You can catch Yisroel performing his music and showcasing other Jewish and Israeli music at his monthly pop-up series in New York City.   Send us emails and voice memos at unorthodox@tabletmag.com, or leave a voicemail at our listener line: (914) 570-4869. Remember to tell us who you are and where you’re calling from.  Subscribe to our

This week on Unorthodox: ‘Funny Girl’ casting shakeups, letters from camp, and more.  Our Jewish guest this week is Michael Uslan, who produced the Batman films. He talks with us about comic books as literature, and what makes Batman different from other superheroes.  Our Gentile of the Week is Iranian-American comedian and “Fake the Nation” podcast host Negin Farsad. She tells us about being mistaken for a Jew and shares her upcoming projects.  We want to hear from you! Take our listener survey and be entered to win a Russ & Daughters gift card: tabletm.ag/survey2022  We’re looking for contestants on our kids game show podcast Hebrew School! Do you know a curious kid aged 7-12 who wants to be challenged with fun Jewish quizzes and games? Go to tabletm.ag/hebrewschool for more information and to apply.  Send us emails and voice memos at unorthodox@tabletmag.com, or leave a voicemail at our listener line: (914) 570-4869. Remember to tell us who you are and where you’re calling from.  Subscribe to our wee

This week on Unorthodox, we’re wishing you a hearty ‘Shalom yellow.’ Our first Jew of the Week is Mike Pesca, host of the long-running daily podcast “The Gist,” which he recently relaunched independently. He tells us what podcasts he’s listening to, why it’s important to talk to people you disagree with, and about his childhood as a self-described ‘pizza bagel’ (half Jewish, half Italian).   Our second Jew of the Week is Argentinian journalist Javier Sinay, author of the newly translated book, The Murders of Moisés Ville: The Rise and Fall of the Jerusalem of South America. He tells us about the Jewish immigrant colony in Argentina that was home to Jewish gauchos, and how he went about solving a series of mysterious 1897 murders in the thriving Jewish enclave.  We want to hear from you! Take our listener survey and be entered to win a Russ & Daughters gift card. TK here:  We’re looking for contestants on our kids game show podcast Hebrew School! Do you know a curious kid aged 7-12 who wants to be challeng

This week on Unorthodox, we’re packing our trunks and heading to summer camp.   Our Jew of the Week is Meredith Shiner, host of our forthcoming Tablet Studios podcast about Jews and sports. She joins us today to discuss the new Sandy Koufax statue at Dodger Stadium, which was unveiled during Shabbat. Stay tuned for more about Meredith’s show, which launches this fall.    Our Gentile of the Week is Swami Tyagananda, a teacher at the Vedanta Center in Boston and Hindu chaplain at MIT and Harvard, who was part of The Tent, Tablet’s interfaith project. He explains how religion and spirituality play an important role in modern life, and asks a profound question about what Judaism believes about reincarnation. For more Swami Tyagananda, you can listen to his podcast here. We love to hear from you! Send us your emails and voice memos at unorthodox@tabletmag.com, or leave a voicemail at our listener line: (914) 570-4869. Remember to tell us who you are and where you’re calling from.  Subscribe to our weekly newsl

This week on Unorthodox, bubbe or buh-bye?  Our Jew of the Week is Zachary Noah Piser, the new star of Broadway’s Dear Evan Hansen. He joins us to talk about his experience taking over the title role in the show—which ends its Broadway run this fall—and his Jewish-Asian identity.  We hear from friend of the show Abigail Pogrebin about her new Tablet project, The Minyan, a series of roundtable discussions about the state of the Jewish community in America from a variety of perspectives. She shares a bit of audio from her first installment, a discussion with LGBTQ Jews.  We also check in with former guest Jonathan Ornstein, director of the Krakow JCC, who tells us about the work they are doing to help Ukrainian refugees.  We love to hear from you! Send us your emails and voice memos at unorthodox@tabletmag.com, or leave a voicemail at our listener line: (914) 570-4869. Remember to tell us who you are and where you’re calling from.  Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. J

This week on Unorthodox, we’re digging in.  Benedetta Guetta, author of the new cookbook, Cooking alla Giudia, joins us to discuss the fascinating—and delicious—culinary history of the Jews of Italy. We learn that Jews are responsible for bringing the orecchiette pasta shape to Italy, that Jews taught Italians how to cook eggplant, and that the Jews of Italy made kosher prosciutto using goose (here’s her recipe).  Barry Levenson tells us about the National Mustard Museum in Middleton, WI, which the former Wisconsin assistant attorney general founded to celebrate the condiment. He tells us about hosting the World-Wide Mustard Competition, the connections between Jews and mustard, and shares some of his favorite mustards, all of which are available for purchase through the museum’s store..   Our Gentile of the Week is Eric Huang, the former 11 Madison Park chef behind the fried chicken pop-up Pecking House. He tells us about shifting from fine dining to pandemic pop-up fame and shares his thoughts on a few o