Jewish Ancestral Healing Podcast (Taya Mâ)

Matta Ghaly shares their journey of multireligious identity, speaks to Karaite Jewish traditions, sings Jewish prayer in the maqam of the heart and brings blessings of connection with queer ancestors.

Rabbi Jill Hammer shares the brilliance of ancestral wisdom in the earliest Jewish mystical text, the Sefer Yetzirah, speaks to the magic of midrash, creatively telling the stories of ancient ancestors, and invites us into the power of ancestral dreaming.

Starhawk, renowned author and ecofeminist spiritual leader, speaks of ancestrally-resourced non-violent resistance in this conversation with Rae Abileah. She shares stories about her Earth Activist training, Palestinian solidarity work, and the power of rooting in joy as a transformative practice.

In this episode, writer chef and cooking instrutor Susan Barocas speaks on the blessing of ancestral foodways.

Taya Mâ Shere welcomes us into Season 3, Shavuot Siyum.

In this episode, musician, illustrator, creative coach, kohenet/Hebrew Priestess, and Creative Director of Sins Invalid Nomy Lamm dreams the world to come, exploring trancestors, disability justice, time portals, and intimacy with the divine. They are interviewed by social change strategist Rae Abileah.

Rachel Rose Reid speaks to story-telling as a portal for ancestral memory, shares ways of tending grief-rituals across distance, and invites us to listen for the deep wells of wisdom beneath the surface of things.

Mike Moskowitz, scholar-in-residence at the world’s largest LGBTQ Synagogue, speaks on ways his ancestors have inspired him to be both deeply traditional and radically progressive. He shares of his journey from receiving Ultra-Orthodox Rabbinic ordination to becoming an advocate for trans rights and vocal ally for LGBTQ inclusivity. 

Dean Spade, renowned author and activist, shares of his work towards queer and trans liberation, Palestinian solidarity and ways we can understand the Jewish practice of tzedakah as a path for radical redistribution of resources.  In conversation with Dori Midnight, Dean explores his journey with Judaism, innovating tradition, and ancestors of blood and of choice. 

Shoshana Akua Brown shares about weaving mixed ancestral spirituality, altars as a portal for connection, justice work as ancestral tending, and our existence as an expression of ancestors’ deepest dreams.

Rachel Leah (Reya) Bello shares with us Yemenite Jewish traditions, stories of her midwife great-grandmother and how the support of her ancestors guides her in her personal journey as a healer.

Rabbi Léah Novick, an elder of the Jewish Renewal movement, shares practices of connecting with ancestors of inspiration, and her work to keep alive the teachings of 19 century Italian poet Rachel Luzzatto Morpurgo, 12th century tsadeket Dulcie of Worms, Maccabean Queen Shlom Tzion and 16th century Kurdish Rabbah Asenath Barazani. Reb Léah speaks of her journeys with these women, of reclaiming relationship with Shekhinah and reflects on ways her earlier decades of activism inform her journey today.

Ari Felix – astrologer, poet and bruje – speaks to the magic of planets as intimate ancestors. In conversation with their mother, Kohenet YA Rivera, Ari muses on inhabiting a multiplicity of identities, alchemizing at the intersection of old and new paradigms, and radically listening to the call of our cosmologies which compel us toward our purpose.

In this episode, mixed-media artist Margot s. Neuhaus and life coach and intuitive healer Eva Clara discuss art as a way to transmute intergenerational trauma.

Shoshana Jewdab speaks to the power of remembering, as the child of a Holocaust survivor, sings us into the mystery of creation and ways that animals can be a bridge for ancestral connection.

Daniela Labi, Libyan-Jewish filmmaker, speaks on making art in conversation with her ancestors, the complexities of claiming Arab-Jewish identity and ways ancestral connection supports her body activism.

In this episode white-Ashkenazi-Jewish queer/lesbian rabble-rouser for justice Penny Rosenwasser speaks on daring to be powerful, how to face fear while centering joy. She is interviewed by social change strategist Rae Abileah.

Jericho Vincent, in conversation with Rami Avraham Efal, speaks on the practice of holding ancestors in both gratitude and accountability. Jericho shares of their journey from an ultra-Orthodox rabbinic home through multiple traditions before returning to Judaism, and ways their non-binary identity impacts how they relate to gendered aspects of Jewish tradition.

Nina Pick—poet, counselor, and oral historian—speaks about her experiences as the grandchild of Auschwitz survivors and her work conducting interviews with Holocaust survivors, descendants, and others. She reflects on themes of ancestral trauma, intergenerational healing, and the importance of ecological mourning.

Noam Lerman reclaims the power and practice of tkhines ~ spontaneous Yiddish prayers ~ sharing ways tkhines have been kept alive in their family and have been a home for women and gender-marginalized Ashkenazi Jews, as well as ways we can engage this practice of prayer from the heart today.

Ya Angelique Rivera drops ancestral wisdom on collective liberation, decolonization and the power of claiming Jewish identity and remembering hidden Jewish ancestral roots.

Day Schildkret, creator of Morning Altars and author of Hello, Goodbye: 75 Rituals for Times of Loss, Celebration and Change, speaks of rituals as the rhythms and traditions that bring a sense of stability in the face of uncertainty. He reflects on the power of grief, initiation and the magic of showing up.

Binya Koatz shares the exquisite blessing of Jewish transcestors in this conversation with rabbi and reclaimer of tekhines Noam Lerman.  Binya weaves stories of love for her feminine queer ancestral line, her mix of Sephardi and Askekanzi heritages, and ways the past and future have the possibility to cocreate each other through magic. 

In this episode strategist-consultant-movement-builder Ginna Green and writer-activist-comedian Lynn Harris re-imagine the ancestral advice column, A Bintl Brief.

Annie Kohen invites us into feldmestn, the Eastern European Jewish women's tradition of cemetery-measuring, as an embodied practice of honoring our beloved dead.

Lynn Gottlieb speaks to her journey as one of the first women rabbis, tells stories of the ancient ones and the power of naming, and asks us to dream into restorative justice.

Taya Mâ Shere welcomes us into season 2, reflecting on ways ancestors shape our identity, offering insight into the complexities of longing and belonging and foreshadowing the Jewish Ancestral Healing season to come. 

Deatra Cohen & Adam Siegel, authors of the acclaimed book Ashkenazi Herbalism, bring us on a journey into Eastern European plant remedies and the world of traditional Ashkenazi Jewish healers. They offer wisdom on building relationships with ancestral plants, and share candidly about the gifts and challenges of their journey into rediscovering the herbal medicines of their people.

Koach Baruch Frazier – rabbinic student and co-founder of the Tzedek Lab  – shares stories of living at the intersection of Black, trans, queer and Jewish identities. In this conversation with organizer and educator Shoshana Akua, KB explores the griefs and joys of connecting to ancestry, offers insight into resilience through the practice of lament and speaks to the power of drumming as a spiritual tool and political act. 

Rae Abileah shares stories of how activism became her portal for ancestral connection, invites us into ways ritual can be woven for justice, and dreams a poetics of liberation.

Qes Efraim Lawi shares Beta Israel / Ethiopian Jewish traditions, offers prayersongs in his ancestral language of Ge’ez, and speaks about being the first spiritual leader of Beta Israel / Ethiopian Jewish community born in diaspora.

In this episode author, curator of anti-colonial archives, film essayist, and theorist of photography Ariella Aïsha Azoulay discusses unlearning colonization and embodying resistance.

This episode is a collaboration between Hadar's Web, The Sarah & Hajar Series, and Jewish Ancestral Healing.

Jo Kent Katz shares her map for transcending Ashkenazi trauma, speaks to how legacies of intergenerational trauma impact the body, and to the possibility of unwinding these impacts toward healing.

George Mordecai - a rabbi, cantor and composer born in Australia to Iraqi Jews from India and Singapore - shares the ancestral journeys and musical influences that led to the creation of his album, Safra, and speaks to the power of communal chanting and participatory prayer.

Dori Midnight shares the honey-dripping alchemy of working with Jewish ancestral plants including garlic, cedar and pomegranate, as well as the wisdom of her grandmothers on working and playing for collective liberation.

Riv Ranney Shapiro sings their way into ancestral memory, queering the creative process and bringing us along on their journey of ancestrally-inspired creations.

Mazal Masoud Etedgi, founder of B’samim Apothecary, shares Moroccan Jewish plant magic and sacred prayersong, and speaks into the challenges of longing and belonging in diaspora. Mazal offers insight into ancestral healing at the intersections of creativity, chronic illness and trans and non-binary identity.

Rena Branson, founder of the Queer Niggun Project, speaks on her work as a community organizer, song-weaver, and teacher of both traditional Hassidic and new liturgical melodies. In this conversation with Riv Ranney Shapiro, Rena reflects on the power of communal song to metabolize trauma and on their experience bringing Jewish spiritual gatherings and music to people incarcerated in NYC jails.

Rami Avraham Efal brings us to bear witness in Auschwitz-Birkenau, unpacking the radical act of showing up to honor the unthinkable, and inviting us to find healing and transformation in ceremonial silence.

Ariel Luckey, co-founder of Jews on Ohlone land and development director for Sogorea Te’ urban indigenous women-led land trust, reflects on ancestral harm, indigenous solidarity, and Jewish practices of tshuvah, or return. Ariel, in conversation with Leora Cockrell, also speaks to assimilation, spiritual yearning, and ways he engages these themes through hip-hop and klezmer music.

Arielle Rivera Korman, in conversation with Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife, speaks about co-founding Ammud: Jews of Color Torah Academy, their shared Filipinx Jewish identity, and on the role of song and music in her ancestral journey.

Keshira haLev Fife invites us to embody resilience, shares her experience priestessing in the wake of the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting, and speaks to intersections of her Ashkenazi and Filipinx ancestral identities and legacies.

Hadar Cohen weaves Mizrahi magic and activism through the lens of sacred arts, Jewish mysticism, and her ever-evolving relationship with longing and belonging, in relationship with exile and her ancestral homeland of Jerusalem. 

Rabbi Arthur Wasskow tells intimate stories of his ancestors as the inspiration for his lifelong justice work,  shares powerful racial, social and environmental justice movement history as it intersects with his own deepening on a Jewish spiritual path, and invites us to find God everywhere and in everything.

In this episode Yoshi Silverstien interviews social justice educator and activist Imani Chapman on weaving nourishing and liberatory community as a path of ancestral healing, answering: how do we get free?

Yoshi Silverstein shares wisdom on sacred ecology, embodied Jewish practice, and building just and resilient communities. He welcomes us with grounding practice, tells stories of his Chinese and Askenazi lineages, and speaks on ways diaspora impacts the relationship between land, culture and ancestral home.

In this episode, Godmother of Moroccan Film Izza Genini speaks on ancestral blessing through the art of film.

Daniyel Berchenko shares of his pilgrimages to ancestral homelands in Eastern Europe, invites us into the portal that can open when visiting the place of one’s people, and speaks to gathering genealogical research as a pathway for revealing connection.

Aurora Levins Morales, in conversation with Dori Midnight, dives into the transformative power of poetry, storytelling and radical genealogy. Aurora shares of her Puerto Rican and Ashkenazi roots, her experience with chronic illness, and imagines what is possible in a world of protective reciprocity.

Simcha Raphael shares how he first came to understand the existence of life beyond death, and takes us on a dynamic journey through Jewish views of the afterlife, and offers wisdom on how to show up well for those who are dying.

Galeet Dardashti takes us on a journey into Persian Jewish Prayer, shares exquisite compositions, and speaks intimately on weaving her voice with the voices of her ancestors, across place and time.

Jewish Ancestral Healing host Taya Mâ Shere welcomes us to this podcast portal, in which she interviews spiritual leaders, artists, activists and visionaries on their journeys of ancestral healing, embracing resilience, and ancestor reverence practices rooted in Jewish traditions and counter-oppressive devotion. In our first episode, Amidst the Blessing of the Ancestors, Taya Mâ sets the context and tone for this offering, and shares how she came to the path of Jewish Ancestral Healing and how she orients in the work.  Taya Mâ invites us into the possibility of rooting in positive resource in the realms of ancestral connection and offers blessing and inspiration for our journey to come.

In this episode, Jewish diversity leader, consultant, facilitator, speaker, writer, musician, and entrepreneur Jared Jackson discusses Judaism, racism and white supremacy in a conversation dedicated to liberation. He is interviewed by pioneering feminist Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb.