The College Commons Podcast

David Oppenheimer traces the diversity principle back two centuries.Biography: David B. Oppenheimer is a Clinical Professor of Law, Co-Director of the Pro Bono Program, and the Director of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-discrimination Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He has taught at a number of universities, including the Sorbonne and University of Bologna,...

Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein: The rabbinate is changing faster than it’s shrinking (but it’s also shrinking)Description: Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein breaks down a landmark study of road to the rabbinate.Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein is the Executive Director of Atra: Center for Rabbinic Innovation.Previously, Rabbi Epstein served as Executive Director of the 14th Street Y in Manhattan, and as a member of the...

Sit by the Fire and Tell a StoryDescription: Rabbi Michael Zedek shares his stories and the values the drive them.Biography: Michael Zedek is rabbi emeritus of two wonderful synagogues: Emanuel Congregation in Chicago and Temple B’nai Yehudah in Kansas City, Missouri. After his retirement from Emanuel, he served as senior advisor to the CCAR and now serves as rabbi-in-residence at the St. Paul...

Jewish and Twelve-Step Traditions at the Crossroads of AddictionDescription: A Jewish ethical tradition called Mussar and a uniquely Jewish approach to twelve-step recovery.Hannah L. is the author of Mussar in Recovery: A Jewish Spiritual Path to Serenity and Joy, which is the topic of today’s conversation. Mussar in Recovery offers an approach to recovery from addiction based in a complementary...

Advancing Ellenson's Legacy SeriesAdam Ferziger: A Patchwork of JewsOpinions and approaches inhabit the entire spectrum of Jewish thought and practice, but how do they speak to each other?Biography: Adam S. Ferziger is an historian of religion, and he holds the Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch Chair in the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at Bar-Ilan...

Advancing Ellenson's Legacy SeriesArnold Eisen: Dimensional and Complex JudaismMore than a religion, resisting extremes, but also hard to pin down, Judaism and Judaism’s God inspire Arnold Eisen’s spiritual search.Biography: Arnold M. Eisen, a foremost authority on American Judaism, is professor of Jewish Thought and chancellor emeritus of the Jewish Theological Seminary. He previously served on...

Advancing Ellenson's Legacy SeriesRabbi Dalia Marx: The Prayerbook As a Living TextRabbi Dalia Marx editor of the new Israeli Reform prayerbook muses on the siddur as both reflection and shaper of community.Biography: Rabbi Professor Dalia Marx is the Rabbi Aaron D. Panken Professor of Liturgy and Midrash at the Hebrew Union College, and the author of numerous books, including, most recently From...

For Rabbi Ed Feinstein meaning-making is story-telling, and the rabbi’s business.Biography: Rabbi Ed Feinstein came to Valley Beth Shalom in 1993 at the invitation of the renowned Rabbi Harold Schulweis z"l, and succeeded Rabbi Schulweis as the congregation’s senior rabbi in 2005. He now serves on the faculty of the Ziegler Rabbinical School of the American Jewish University, the Wexner Heritage...

A second generation of Holocaust survivors re-examine their lives through the lens of their parents.Aron Hirt-Manheimer (he/him) is the Union for Reform Judaism's former editor-at-large, the former editor of Reform Judaism magazine (1976-2014) and founding editor of Davka magazine (1970-1976), a West Coast Jewish quarterly. His books include Jagendorf’s Foundry: A Memoir of the Romanian Holocaust...

Description: Spiritual and political dynamics that motivate and shape the pulpit of Rabbi Rachel Timoner.Biography: Rabbi Rachel Timoner is grateful and proud to serve as Senior Rabbi of Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope, Brooklyn. She is honored to stand with families at the moments of greatest joy and deepest sorrow in their lives, and she is delighted to be part of a flowering of...