Search for Meaning with Rabbi Yoshi (Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback)

 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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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 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.

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 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 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 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 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.

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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 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 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 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 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."

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 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."

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 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 this International Women's Day edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts Beata Poźniak, a multitalented Polish-born filmmaker and artist who helped convince the United States Congress to officially recognize International Women's Day in the United States, celebrated every March 8.

In this special episode, Poźniak discusses the immigrant experience and struggle with identity, the impact of growing up under Soviet rule during the Cold War, the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, the power of symbolism, mandatory school visits to Auschwitz, and her success as an artist in the United States. Along with starring as Marina Oswald in Oliver Stone's "J.F.K.," she is a noted director, poet, producer, painter, and award-winning narrator of audio books.

Born behind the Iron Curtain, immigrated to the United States in the late 1980s with, as she puts it, "big hopes and big dreams." Though she was exceptionally high-achieving in Europe -- earning a master's in fine arts with high honors at the age of 22 -- little did she know that she would one day star in an Academy Award-nominated film, much less lobby Congress to recognize a day that had long been celebrated by the international community.

"As a girl growing up in Poland, I really have beautiful memories of this day, because it was a day filled with celebration ... a lot of kindness, recognition, respect," she says. "I felt very special as a girl for that one day. It was very empowering ... My girlfriends would feel very empowered, and we felt that we could take power into our hands and also define ourselves, our own beauty, and how smart and educated we can be. And we learned all that in the schools."

The idea for International Women's Day dates back to 1910. In August of that year, at an International Women's Conference organized to precede the general meeting of the Socialist Second International in Copenhagen, Denmark, German Marxist and women's rights activist Clara Zetkin proposed an annual "special Women's Day." The next year, over one million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland marked the day, protesting for equal rights and suffrage for women across Europe.

When Poźniak arrived in the United States, she discovered that few Americans knew of the day.

"My English was very poor; they thought I was still talking about women's history month," she says. "I thought, 'No, no, it's a day, a day. It's a special day.'"

She decided to spearhead an education effort that eventually led to the introduction of a bill before Congress. In 1994, less than 15 years after Poźniak arrived in the United States, Joint Resolution 316 was passed.

In this edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts Ariela Cohen, founder of aliyah resource Your Soft Landing, for a discussion about Israel, from military service to current events.

Why should making aliyah be so difficult? That’s the question Cohen asked herself after moving to Israel by herself at 17. Her answer was to create Your Soft Landing, a resource for those looking to make the move to Israel, and for those who have already moved, but still need some help in an unfamiliar place.

Your Soft Landing helps with everything from packing and storage to buying a car to finding a place to live. They even help navigate Israel’s bureaucracy, making appointments and accompanying movers to government offices and ministries to translate and advocate. Need to bring your pet over, or open a bank account? How about finding a drycleaner? These small, seemingly mundane tasks can seem daunting during the course of an intercontinental move.

Coming from a Zionist American family, growing up during the emergence of the BDS movement, and seeing its manifestation on the campuses of colleges she was looking to attend, Cohen didn’t make the decision to move lightly. She was motivated by a need to actively protect Israel. So, instead of going to college, racking up debt, and looking for a job with Homeland Security, she moved to Israel, earning Hebrew in seven months, joining the IDF, and becoming a tank instructor.

As her military journey progressed, her opinion of Haredi Jews changed quickly. Unlike all other Jewish, Druze, or Circassian Israeli citizens, Haredi are exempted from compulsory military service.

“If you want to be a part of this country, you have to give back,” Cohen said. “It goes back to the kibbutz mindset: Everybody pitches in. Everybody is a part. If you don’t want to serve in the army, do two years of community service, where you’re doing national service or you’re volunteering in a soup kitchen or a kindergarten, or doing something for your country. If you’re a pacifist, push pencils. If you’re Haredi, go to a unit in the army where everything is male and everyone is men, but they’re still serving. There is a place for everyone.”

Cohen’s American upbringing, dedication to Israel, and her now-intimate knowledge of the country grant her a unique perspective of the events currently unfolding in the Israeli government and on the streets.

“I’ve heard this saying: ‘Israel is God’s house,’ — we’re kind of guests of God,” Cohen said. “So, I still have faith that, at the end of the day, it’s still God’s house, and He’s not going to let the country fall apart. That being said, we know that we have free will, so if we don’t use our free will, and we don’t get off our butts, then it doesn’t really matter. Things can still fall apart. The fact that I believe that we are still in God’s house, and I look out my window and I see 100,000 people protest, that gives me hope.”

In this edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts Rabbi Josh Weinberg for a discussion about the current situation in Israel.

Rabbi Weinberg serves as the Vice President for Israel and Reform Zionism for the Union for Reform Judaism. On Wednesday, March 29, Rabbi Weinberg gave a Zoom briefing (co-sponsored by Wise) on the state of Israeli democracy. Rabbi Yoshi and Rabbi Weinberg met at the URJ headquarters in Manhattan this week to speak about the evolving crisis gripping the country.

In recent weeks, thousands of Israelis have turned out in protest as their government's current ruling coalition—the most right-wing in Israel's history—pushed forward on its agenda of judicial reform. The proposed reforms would significantly curtail the Israeli Supreme Court's power of judicial review, effectively removing checks and balances vital to a functioning democracy and endangering the rights of women, LGBTQIA+ individuals, Arabs, non-Ultra Orthodox Jews, and others.

Though the proposed reforms were tabled, they will likely re-emerge after the Knesset's Passover recess, re-igniting tensions both in Israel and among Diaspora Jewry.

"Here, I think people are genuinely, genuinely afraid, and deeply concerned that Israel will no longer be a democracy," Rabbi Weinberg says.

Having gone through the Israeli rabbinic program, coming from a family of rabbis, and having lived in Israel, Rabbi Weinberg brings a unique perspective as the two discuss American Jewish identity, secularism, pluralism, levels of observance, social justice, the history of Israeli Judaism, tensions between the Reform Movement and Orthodox Jews, and how all of those factor into the current state of affairs in Israel.

The fascinating discussion winds its way through the parallels between the Reform Movement and the Zionist movement, comparisons between the protests in Israel and the Arab Spring, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's own legal troubles, and political science.

In this edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts Carol Mabeya, gynecologist Dr. Debbie Matityahu, and Ariela Zweiback of Beyond Fistula. 

During his sabbatical, Rabbi Yoshi spent two weeks in Eldoret, Kenya working with Beyond Fistula, a non-profit charity that aids women and girls in Africa who have recently undergone surgical repair for fistulas, helping them rebuild their lives through education and vocational skills training. It was a transformative experience for Rabbi Yoshi and his family, including Ariela.

Beyond Fistula got its start during Dr. Matityahu's 10-month family trip around the world with her husband and two children in 2010. The Matityahus spent one of those months in Kenya, where they met and worked with Carol's husband, Dr. Hillary Mabeya, the founder and primary surgeon at Gynocare Women's and Fistula Hospital. At that hospital, Dr. Matityahu and her 12-year-old daughter Arielle found a cause.

Obstetric fistulas are holes that occur when a woman undergoes a long and obstructed labor during childbirth. Though largely eradicated in the developed world, obstetric fistulas are still a devastating scourge for women in the world's poorest countries. 

Women laboring in huts in remote villages may push for days—rather than hours—on end with no anesthesia or medical support. The baby's head pinches and necroses the tissue between the vagina and the bladder, and sometimes the vagina and the rectum, destroying that tissue. The tissue erodes off, creating the fistula, which can lead to uncontrolled leakage of urine and feces. Many of the babies do not survive, and the women are left exhausted, incontinent, humiliated, and—all too often—ostracized by their community. 

"I remember one of the young girls that we operated on had such severe internal damage, that I, as a gynecologist who looks at this anatomy almost every day, could not identify what was left inside the pelvis," Dr. Matityahu said. "Everything had necrosed off. No bladder, no vagina, the colon was hanging open ... It was so devastating that I had no idea what I would have done next."

Dr. Matityahu wanted to learn more about that women, and those like her. As she listened to their horrific stories of rape, starvation humiliation, and desperation, she felt like she had to do something. Three of the women she operated on had one desire after surgery: They wanted to go back to school. 

What started with Dr. Matityahu donating money to fund those three women's education grew into an organization that picks up where surgery leaves off. Not only does Beyond Fistula fight the trauma and stigma facing women who suffer from fistulas, but it provides hope and dignity, along with education, room and board, and vocational training on its property in Kenya. Originally set up with one house and a tailoring program for six young women, Beyond Fistula has evolved. They now offer counseling and courses in tailoring, hairdressing, literacy skills, computer skills, and business for women of all ages—from those in their teens and those who have lived with the fallout from fistulas for 50 years. Through partner Farming God's Way, Beyond Fistula even offers a farm skills training program, whose graduates not only leave with training, but a grant to start their own small farming business.

In this edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts Josh Klausner, who, in addition to being Rabbi Yoshi's college roommate, is a screenwriter, playwright, and director.

Klausner's writing credits include Wanderland (2018), Date Night (2010), and Shrek Forever After (2010). He's also worked as a second unit director on Dumb and Dumber (1994), Kingpin (1996), There's Something About Mary (1998), Me, Myself, and Irene (2000), Shallow Hall (2001), and Green Book (2018).

While Klausner aspired to be an actor, his early interest in poetry and his dissatisfaction with the plays he read during his college years led him down the path to becoming a writer. His thesis advisor at Princeton wound up being none other than Tony Kushner, a four-time Oscar nominee who's won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, a Tony Award for Best Play, and has collaborated with Steven Spielberg on Munich (2005), Lincoln (2012), West Side Story (2021), and The Fabelmans (2022).

Fascinated by the immediacy and intimacy of theater and the moments just before sleep, and trying to process his own parents' divorce, one of his first works was a two-act play about divorce from the point of view of two brothers. A pre-ordination Rabbi Yoshi had a part in that play, Brothers of the Bearded Lady. 

Using one's own written work to process is far from an alien concept for Rabbi Yoshi, who does so with many of his sermons. The two discuss how writing can be a powerful way to work through ideas, concepts, and emotions, and a way to see older ideas in a new light as they are revisited years later in a different context. Through this lens, they discuss regret, life choices, personal discovery, and more in a deeply personal and philosophical conversation.

In this edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts old friend Rabbi Zoë Klein Miles of Temple Isaiah, author of the new book, Candle, Feather, Wooden Spoon (CCAR Press, 2023). Rabbi Klein Miles serves Temple Isaiah in West Los Angeles, where she brings her unique blend of innovation, tradition, creativity, and wisdom.

 The two speak about the lost art of letter writing, the process of authoring a book, Jewish symbols and holidays, storytelling, homiletics, and Rabbi Klein Miles' childhood as the daughter of a studio artist. Possessed of a drive to become an author at an early age, Rabbi Klein Miles recalls a seminal moment in her young life when her father told her: "I will not consider you a writer. You are not a writer until you finish a book. It doesn't matter if it is ever published." 

She has since become a prolific author, writing the novel Drawing in the Dust (Gallery Books, 2009) of which Publishers Weekly wrote, “Insight into the world of biblical excavation in Israel raises Rabbi Klein's debut novel from a Jewish Da Vinci Code to an emotionally rich story of personal and historical discovery.” Drawing in the Dust has been published in five countries. Rabbi Klein Miles is also the author of a children’s story The Goblins of Knottingham: A History of Challah (Apples & Honey, 2017), The Scroll of Anatiya (Wipf and Stock, 2009), and Candle, Feather, Wooden Spoon, a collection of short stories. Rabbi Klein’s writing is included in The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, Teen Texts, Holy Ground: A Gathering of Voices on Caring for Creation, The Sacred Exchange: Creating a Jewish Money Ethic, and more.  Her poems and prayers are used in houses of prayer around the world.

At Temple Isaiah since 2000, Rabbi Klein Miles has served as the associate rabbi, the senior rabbi, and the director of adult education and engagement. A Connecticut native, Rabbi Klein holds a degree in psychology from Brandeis University. Rabbi Klein Miles pursued the rabbinate out of a passion for ancient texts, mythology, liturgy, and poetry. Twenty-five years ago, she received a master's degree in Hebrew literature and rabbinic ordination from Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in New York and Jerusalem. In fact, she and Rabbi Yoshi were ordained together.

In this edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts writer, educator, and human rights advocate Rabbi Michael Marmur, Ph.D. Until 2018, Rabbi Marmur served as the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Provost at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Before that, he served as Dean of HUC-JIR's Jerusalem campus, where he hired Rabbi Yoshi  to be the Director of HUC-JIR's Year-in-Israel Program in 2009.

Rabbi Marmur was born and raised in England, the son of two Polish immigrants by way of Sweden. His father, Rabbi Dov Marmur, was proud of the family's working-class background, particularly his own father, who served as a factory foreman. It wasn't until after World War II that the elder Rabbi Marmur pursued a career in the rabbinate. When the elder Rabbi Marmur, a renowned educator, was asked if he came from a distinguished rabbinical family, he would answer, "No, but my children do."

Michael knew he wanted to follow in his father's footsteps for as long as he can remember. He wound up doing so in more ways than one.

Taking his bachelor's degree in Modern History at Oxford, he married his natural affinity for theology with a passion for study. In 1984, he moved to Israel, where he completed his studies in the Israel Rabbinic Program of HUC-JIR in Jerusalem while studying for his master's in Ancient Jewish History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

For six years after he was ordained in 1992, the younger Rabbi Marmur worked as rabbi and teacher at the Leo Baeck Education Center in Haifa, where he began to delve into the writings of Rabbi Abraham Heschel as he pondered a subject for his doctoral thesis. As Rabbi Heschel became somewhat of a fascination for the younger Rabbi Marmur, he discovered that his father, too, had read Rabbi Heschel with great interest, carefully annotating his own copies of Rabbi Heschel's works.

"Since then, he's been a major part of what I think about and what I do," Rabbi Marmur says. "Heschel has been a major intellectual, spiritual, religious preoccupation of mine for many, many years."

In 2016, he wrote his first book: Abraham Joshua Heschel and the Sources of Wonder (2016), an exploration into how one of the most significant Jewish thinkers in modern times read, interpreted, and used traditional Jewish sources.

Rabbi Heschel rejected the notion that the spiritual and social/political were separate and distinct, and did not believe that religion should be confined to one's own home. He cited Biblical prophets who advocated for the widow, the orphan, and the poverty-stricken, and the fact that God repeatedly demands justice. Not surprisingly, Heschel actively mobilized for the Civil Rights Movement and voiced his opposition to the Vietnam War.

"Heschel is a good bridge ... [between] my current theological project and my involvement in Rabbis for Human Rights," says Rabbi Marmur.

Rabbi Marmur, who describes himself as "Israel's least significant soldier in its entire history," began his journey to RHR while serving the IDF as a jailor at the Megiddo Prison. As he sat in that prison's synagogue, reading Eugene Borowitz's Renewing the Covenant, he contemplated what happens when Judaism is re-introduced to political sovereignty after a 2,000-year gap.

Rabbis for Human Rights deals with the implications of that paradigm shift. The group of Israeli rabbis promotes and protects civil rights of all who live in Israel and beyond not despite their identities as rabbis, but because that's why they are. Rabbi Marmur serves on the organization's board and was its Chair for three years.

In this edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts Ben M. Freeman, author, educator, and founder of the modern Jewish Pride movement.

Born in Scotland, Freeman rose to prominence during the Corbyn Labour Jew-hate crisis and quickly became one of his generation's leading voices against anti-Jewish racism. In February of 2021, he published Jewish Pride: Rebuilding a People, which became known as the Jewish Pride manifesto. In October of 2022, he followed that book up with Reclaiming Our Story: The Pursuit of Jewish Pride, the second in what will become a groundbreaking trilogy when he publishes his finale in 2024.

Freeman's journey to Jewish Pride marries two distinct identities and experiences. For a long time, his identity as a gay man and his Jewish identity were, as he puts it "totally separate." While he was raised in a vibrant, tight-knit, strongly Zionist Jewish community in Glasgow and proudly served that community for five years, the 36-year-old Freeman was born in 1987, at the height of the AIDS pandemic.

"That really clouded society's perception of what it meant to be gay, and I absorbed that, and I internalized it," Freeman tells Rabbi Yoshi. "I felt a huge amount of shame, and had to do a huge amount of work to undo all of that."

[RELATED: Wise Members Share Their Story at Pride Shabbat]

It wasn't until 2018, when the Jewish community of Britain united to oppose Labour Party MP Jeremy Corbyn's possible ascendance to the office of British Prime Minister, that the connection between Freeman's two identities crystalized. Working at the Hong Kong Holocaust Center, Freeman was somewhat on the sidelines as a firestorm erupted around Corbyn's history of antisemitic behavior, his defense of those espousing antisemitic conspiracy theories, and the increasingly antisemitic attitudes of the party he led. He took to social media with the aim to educate, approaching the situation from with his background as a Holocaust educator.

While he was inspired by the united response from the British Jewish community, he noted the difficulty many high-profile, left-leaning Jews had with calling out the clearly racist and antisemitic tropes present in Corbyn's anti-Israel rhetoric.

"I believe they were so married to their identities as leftists," Freeman says. "That just got me reflecting on my experience with gay pride, how it changed my life, and I thought, 'This is unacceptable. We need a pride movement. We deserve a pride movement,' and I started talking a bit online. I made a video with some friends, being like, 'This is why I'm proud [to be Jewish]; why are you proud?' and it went a little bit viral."

Freeman emerged as a thought-leader on Jewish education, history, and identity, and his trilogy of books is informed as much by that as it is his own experiences with LGBTQ+ pride as a gay man. With his trilogy, Freeman aims to educate, inspire, and empower Jewish people to reject the shame of antisemitism imposed on Jews by the non-Jewish world, as well as non-Jewish perceptions of what it means to be a Jew.

In this edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts artist and educator Suzanne Horwich.

Horwich, who hails from Rabbi Yoshi's hometown of Omaha, is the founder of Artists Giving Back, a program she started to bolster the spirits of Ukrainian refugees who have fled their warn-torn country for Poland.

Horwich has long been drawn to the Syrian refugee crisis, but felt helpless as the world turned a blind eye to the horrors wrought by the Assad regime. When Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, she resolved to take action. She eventually connected with Jonathan Ornstein, a friend of Wise and the head of the Krakow Jewish Community Center, which has pivoted from rebuilding the shattered Polish Jewish community to providing food, aid, medical supplies, and housing to those fleeing Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces.

The former Director of Curatorial Affairs for the Aspen (Colo.) JCC, she pitched the idea of using her expertise as an artist to address the psychological trauma experienced by those driven from their homes. A month after they were first introduced, Horwich was on the ground with Ornstein in Poland.

By providing collaborative art therapy to those in need—particularly women, children, and the elderly—Artists Giving Back encourages refugees to get lost in their art, using their imagination and creativity to find healing and community.

The project is funded by generous support from the Staenberg Family Foundation, the Goldrich Family Foundation, Tom and Darlynn Fellman, and Horwich herself. She  hopes to fundraise more to grow and expand the program.

In this edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts Orly Erez-Likhovski, Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center. Erez-Likhovski is an expert in the Israeli judicial system and the reasonableness doctrine, which have been the target of a massive reform push by the far-right current ruling government.

Erez-Likhovski helps listeners understand the controversy surrounding judicial reform, which has fueled massive protests and a historic level of civil unrest in the Jewish state over the last seven months.

Having graduated from the Faculty of Law at Tel Aviv University, clerked at the Israeli Supreme Court, and earned her master's in law from Columbia, Erez-Likhovski is a member of both the Israeli and the New York bar, and has argued multiple cases in front of the Israeli Supreme Court. She is, then, perhaps better equipped than most legal experts to explain the differences and similarities between the American and Israeli high courts, and why the right-wing push for judicial reform is far more dangerous than it sounds.

"It's definitely part of a much larger program or scheme or revolution or coup that the current government is pushing for," Erez-Likhovski says. "It's been one of the first things on their agenda: to take the Israeli court system and dramatically weaken it and politicize it. It's a very, very dangerous initiative."

Since Israel famously does not have a constitution (for a variety of reasons), and therefore no process analogous to the United States' doctrine of judicial review (determining whether a law or policy is unconstitutional), the courts are often the last bulwark against efforts to institutionalize discrimination. Many of the 10,000 cases opened by the Israeli Supreme Court hears are petitions against governmental bodies on different cases of discrimination against Reform Jews, women, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and Israeli Palestinians.

An attorney at the IRAC in Israel since 2004, Erez-Likhovski was the director of the legal department of IRAC from 2014 to 2021. She led the legal struggle against discrimination on the basis of religious affiliation, gender segregation in the public sphere, and racial incitement. She helped abolish gender segregation on public transportation, break the Orthodox monopoly regarding the payment of salaries of state-employed rabbis, and disqualify racist candidates from running for the Knesset.

While the Israeli Declaration of Independence enshrines the rights of "all its inhabitants ... irrespective of religion, race or sex," it does not have the strength of law that a constitution or a bill of rights would have. As such, the most significant tool the courts have to fight corruption and the implementation of discriminatory laws is what is called the reasonableness doctrine. It is what the right-wing government hopes to eliminate.

In short, the doctrine allows the courts to strike down government and administrative decisions seen as having not taken into account all the relevant considerations of a particular issue, or not given the correct weight to those considerations even if those decisions themselves do not violate any particular law or contradict other administrative rulings. The doctrine has been crucial in protecting rights that are not specifically enumerated in Israeli law, but conservatives have long held that the doctrine allows unelected judges to legislate from the bench, intervening in the decisions of elected officials.

In this 66th edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts board game designer Brian Hersch.

Taboo. Outburst. Super Scattergories. Have you played any of these modern classics at family game night? You have Brian Hersch to thank.

Now a General Partner at Hersch and Company, with over $850 million in sales under his belt, Brian didn't set out to design games. His first career was in real estate development, where he honed a keen sense for business.

Then came Trivial Pursuit. When the trivia board game first burst onto the scene in the 1980s, Brian was a natural, so much so that his friends urged him to use his creative energies to invent a game of his own. Bringing his business experience to bear on the idea, he set himself to doing some market research, and found that the game's key feature—its social interactivity—was its most undervalued and under-marketed aspect.

"I'd played games my whole life," says Brian. "It was second nature. Some people watch television and say, 'I want to go into television.' Nobody who plays games says they want to go into games, at least not from our generation."

Brian (a fan of the show who's currently listening to Rabbi Yoshi's interview with Betsy Borns) now runs Hersch and Company with his brother, and is famous for being a creator and proponent of social interactive games.

Hersch has said that the reason he went into adult social games was because they served as a lubrication for rusty social skills. Children are less inhibited, and are more ready, willing, and able to have fun at any moment.

"They don't carry the burdens of life, the responsibilities, the weight of memories both good and bad," Brian says. "Can we facilitate a good time amongst a group of people who may or may not know each other? Can we find the common spark that they share so that they discover that there's something they can enjoy with the same feeling and laughter and pleasure? That's the biggest part of it. My games have always been group games."

His titles have now sold over 45 million copies through strategic relationships with companies such as Milton Bradley, Parker Brothers, Mattel, and Western Publishing.

If you have been any kind of nerd or geek or pop culture enthusiast in the last 20 years, chances are you know the voice of Rabbi Yoshi's guest this week on the Search for Meaning Podcast: voiceover actress Vanessa Marshall.

Though she has lent her voice to 226 shows, games, and movies, Vanessa is perhaps most famous for originating the role of the Rebel Alliance's Twi'lek pilot and general Hera Syndulla in the acclaimed Star Wars animated series Star Wars: Rebels, voicing the character in her subsequent appearances in the series Star Wars: The Bad Batch, and continues to voice her in games and online web series.

During her career, she has voiced heroes -- Marvel's Black Widow and Gamora, and DC's Wonder Woman and Black Canary -- and villains - - DC's Poison Ivy and Catwoman, and Marvel's Hela, goddess of the underworld.

She's lent her voice to characters in multiple Star Wars video games (including Knights of the Old Republic II). You can hear her work in the Metal Gear Solid (Strangelove), Doom, Diablo, Ratchet & Clank, Mortal Kombat (Sonya Blade and Sheeva, and Mass Effect video game franchises; video game adaptations of the Dune novels, the James Bond franchise, Edgar Rice Burroughs' Conan, and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Oh, and she also happens to have been Rabbi Yoshi's dorm neighbor during their freshman year at Princeton. From her parents -- news reporter John Marshall and actress Joan Van Ark -- to her unconventional path from a stand-up comic and plus-sized model to nerd queen, Vanessa tells her story with fun, excitement, and humor, while reflecting on the lessons she's learned. 

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.

 As we reflect during the High Holy Days on issues of life and death, Rabbi Yoshi shares an interview with Lauren Ullmann, a Stanford Business School student and former MIT varsity goaltender player whose life was saved by a donation of peripheral stem cells. Fans of the Search for Meaning podcast will know who made that donation.

Determined to use her experience as a team leader and the lessons taught from seeing the whole field as a collegiate goaltender to excel in business, Ullmann interned for the prestigious Bain & Company, eventually becoming a senior associate consultant.

Late in 2019, she headed to the San Francisco Bay Area -- where he grandparents lived -- for  an externship. The night before running a marathon in early January of 2020, she experienced "horrible, horrible" stomach pain. Though she was able to run the race, it returned several days later. After a miserable week and several blood tests at UCSF, Ullman thought it was the flu or appendicitis. While visiting her grandparents with her mother in town, she was rushed to the Stanford ER at 4:30 a.m. After 11 hours, she was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia.

She began treatment immediately and soon was able to travel back to New York to Memorial Sloan Kettering. She needed a bone marrow stem cell transplant, and neither of her siblings were good enough matches. She turned to the Be The Match Registry. With only three potential matches and the COVID-19 pandemic unfolding, she miraculously found not only a donor, but a new family. 

In this edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts travel writer, author, podcaster, and Stephen Wise Temple Board member Lisa Niver, who just released her memoir, Brave-ish: One Breakup, Six Continents, and Feeling Fearless After Fifty.

Lisa's memoir debuted as the top solo travel title on Amazon.com when it released on Sept. 19. Her podcast, Make Your Own Map, launched this summer and has been watched on six continents. It was a finalist for two Southern California Journalism Awards in 2023.

Elected this summer as a Congregational Director, Lisa is a graduate of Wise’s religious school program. Wise’s founder, Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin, officiated her bat mitzvah. She began her “nomadic” lifestyle by spending a summer in Israel on LA Ulpan, and went on to study abroad in Jerusalem at Hebrew University. She returned to Israel with her family for Rabbi Zeldin’s 80th birthday celebration. As a journalist, Lisa often shares articles about Wise clergy and services, most often through her column in the Jewish Journal. 

Lisa has taught religious school at Wise and science at Brawerman Elementary, and has spoken at Wise about the Jews of Morocco (join our trip there next February!). Through the Jewish Federation, Lisa was part of the Rautenberg New Leaders Project and a mentor for the Julie Beren Platt Teen Innovation Grants Program.

Lisa’s mother, Judi Niver, also served on the temple’s board and both parents are active members in the temple community. Lisa is a regular at Shabbat services (speaking about her book on Sept. 29) and during COVID, she helped coordinate political leaders to read the prayer for our country.

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. 

The existence of our universe is a miracle.
Our own, personal existence is a miracle.
This sermon celebrates creation, the Creator, and creativity.

Stay tuned and be inspired.

Featuring Cantor Emma Lutz and Dr. Tali Tadmor

Arranged by Dr. Tali Tadmor, Cantor Emma Lutz, and Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback

Yarone Levy, guitar 
Larry Steen, bass
Jeff Stern, percussion
Tali Tadmor, piano

Music to "Who is Like You God?" based on "Nobody Like You Lord" by Maranda Curtis

Former U.S. Ambassador to Oman, Gary Grappo, met Rabbi Yoshi and Jacqueline through a mutual friend when Grappo was serving as Chief of Staff of the Quartet in Jerusalem  in 2010. Gary and his wife, Becky, soon became friends with Yoshi and Jacqueline. Over the years, Ambassador Grappo, a career diplomat with four decades of experience in the Middle East, has visited Stephen Wise Temple multiple times to share his insights on the Iran Deal, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and now this most recent war between Hamas and Israel.

In this episode, Ambassador Grappo shares his experience and insights with Rabbi Yoshi  concerning Hamas; the “Administration of Savagery” terrorist playbook; the roles of Qatar, Russia, and the wider Arab world; “proportionality”; and which news sources to trust (and not).

Recorded in front of a live audience at Stephen Wise Temple, "Forward" Editor-in-Chief Jodi Rudoren spoke with Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback on a new episode of "The Search for Meaning" podcast. The veteran reporter, editor and digital innovator spent more than two decades at "The New York Times," including nearly four years as its Jerusalem bureau chief. A sought-after speaker, she provided insights on the war in Gaza and the importance of the Yiddish word, rachmanus – empathy. 

When this is over there will be an encyclopedia of heroism because there were thousands of heroic moments..."
 
In his latest "Search for Meaning" podcast episode, Rabbi Yoshi speaks with Yitzhak Sokoloff, an Israeli political analyst and founder of educational travel company, Keshet. Sokoloff, a resident of Efrat in the Etzion bloc and of Yerucham, re-enlisted in the IDF at age 69 immediately after the October 7 massacre. Yitzhak speaks about the twin goals of destroying Hamas and saving the hostages — and the potential consequences if Israel can't achieve both. 

Rabbi Yoshi recorded this episode on his most recent trip to Israel, which happened to fall during the short-lived cease-fire. His only chance to speak at length with Yitzhak was on their drive together from Tel Aviv to a military base near the Gaza border, where they learned how soldiers use reconnaissance drones to avoid the loss of civilian life and protect IDF soldiers.

In his latest "Search for Meaning" podcast, Rabbi Yoshi speaks with Susie Lubell (left), a self-taught artist and illustrator whose work has been included in galleries and private collections around the world. A friend of Rabbi Yoshi for more than 30 years, she made aliyah in 2011 and lives outside Jerusalem. They discuss her art, ketubot, and how she holds out hope despite the turbulent times.

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.

Professor, columnist, and host of "The Dan Schnur Political Report," Dan shares even-handed analysis on pressing political issues, from domestic policy to geopolitics.   
Rabbi Yoshi gets his take on the 2024 election, the situation in Israel, Jewish values, and the role kindness and empathy play today — no matter which "side of the aisle" you're on. 

Jessica Elter tells her harrowing  October 7th story. She explains that she was supposed to be at the Supernova Music Festival with her boyfriend, Ben Shimoni, but at the last moment, decided not to go. Listen to the extraordinary tale of his heroism and her courage and strength. To learn more about Jessica, Ben, and some of the other people mentioned in this episode, click the links below.

https://twitter.com/kann_news/status/1718984491761270983?s=42&t=I4_94Dtxzrfw9LvjyKJs9w

https://www.timesofisrael.com/gaya-halifa-24-a-gentle-peaceful-soul-who-loved-music/

https://www.timesofisrael.com/ben-shimoni-31-music-loving-angel-who-saved-9-from-supernova/

Audrey Birnbaum grew up in New York in the late 1960s, the child of a Holocaust survivor. When her father, Jack, died in 2018, Audrey discovered hundreds of pages of notes he'd taken which served as a type of memoir of his experience in the Shoah. These notes, her own memories, and her research resulted in her first book: American Wolf: From Nazi Refugee to American Spy.  The book was recently named a finalist for the 2023 Jewish Council National Jewish Book Award in the Holocaust Memoir category.

Yasmeen Ohebsion, a senior at Tulane University, joins Rabbi Yoshi in conversation about antisemitism on college campuses today. Yasmeen, a leader in the Tulane Jewish community, recently testified in front of Congress about her own experiences of antisemitism at Tulane. She shares her personal insight into how antisemitism continues to impact her life and the lives of other college students, both in the classroom and around campus.

https://tulanehullabaloo.com/65669/news/student-testifies-before-congress-voicing-antisemitism-issues-on-campus/

On October 7, Amit Ben Shlomo and Roee Arazi, members of the Givati Brigade, were called up for reserve duty in the Israel Defense Forces. A few months into this horrible war, Roee was badly wounded. Amit rescued him and helped to ensure that he was evacuated safely. Hear their amazing, inspiring story and learn how Beit HaLohem, the Israeli Wounded Veterans Organization, helped Roee deal with his physical, mental, and emotional rehabilitation.

To learn more about Beit HaLohem and how you can help with their extraordinary work, visit https://www.israeliwoundedveterans.org/.

Join Rabbi Yoshi in conversation with his daughter, Naomi, who is a sophomore in a dual degree program at Barnard/Columbia and the Jewish Theological Seminary. She shares her perspective on the disturbing rise in antisemitism and anti-Israel rhetoric on the Barnard/Columbia campus.

Amanda Berman is the founder and executive director of the Zioness Movement where she works to empower and activate Zionists on the progressive left to stand proudly in social justice spaces as both Jews and Zionists. She is a civil rights attorney who has worked to fight antisemitism legally. Learn about how Zioness is working to educate and empower. To learn more and to support their critically important work, visit www.Zioness.org.

Rabbi Yoshi had the opportunity to speak to three current students at Princeton University's Center for Jewish Life along with the CJL director, Rabbi Gil Steinlauf.  Stephen Bartell, Davi Frank, and Seth Kahn, all current Princeton students, share their stories of navigating challenges on the Princeton Campus in the wake of the October 7 attacks.

https://hillel.princeton.edu/ 

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.

Ari Dayan is a composer, artist, and performer who has become an "accidental Israel advocate." Born to Israeli parents who had settled in Tarzana, Ari is the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. Follow Ari @witchofthewestcoast

(The Eretz Nehederet video mentioned in the podcast can be found HERE.)

Join Rabbi Yoshi in conversation with Kenny Hamilton,  an entertainment entrepreneur based in Los Angeles, California.  Kenny has been in music and entertainment for 14 years now, focusing on music management, social media/ influencer marketing, and hospitality.  His journey from an intern on a college radio station to Justin Bieber's bodyguard to a powerhouse in music and sports management is inspiring.  His persistence and pluck is inspiring as is the story of his path to Judaism. 

Sharon Fidelman served as a naval "tatzpitanit" in the IDF. Her job was to monitor Israel's sea border with Gaza using radar and surveillance equipment. Less than a year after completing her service, Sharon witnessed in real-time soldiers in a similar role being slaughtered by Hamas terrorists. She shares her reflections on October 7, describes her experiences of loss and confusion, and offers us reasons to hope.


https://www.timesofisrael.com/sivan-shaarbany-21-curly-haired-partygoer-who-loved-salt-pepper/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDCjjzZm1l0

Yuval Davidovits, Rabbi Yoshi's cousin, grew up in Israel and the United States. He recently completed his service as an officer in the Israel Air Force. He reflects on his time in the U.S., his army service, and his time in the reserves over the past several months. 

Geoff Winston is an Israel educator and tour guide who has worked with Rabbi Yoshi many times over more than two decades. He led Rabbi Yoshi's recent solidarity mission to Israel this past February. Learn about his path to aliya, his reflections on October 7th, and the hope he finds in this moment.

https://wisela.org/wisetravel/

Rabbi Yoshi sits down with Hallel Abramowitz-Silverman, an Israeli activist and advocate. She first gained the attention of the public with her work with Women of the Wall that ended up with a widely reported case at the Israel Supreme Court in 2013. She talks about her service in the IDF focused on combatting online hate directed toward Israel. 

@justhallel

Join Rabbi Yoshi for a conversation with one of his childhood mentors and teachers, Rabbi Michael Zedek. Rabbi Zedek talks about his journey to the rabbinate and his new book, "Taking Miracles Seriously."

Learn more about Rabbi Zedek's teaching and work at: https://rabbimichaelzedek.com/

Arielle Yael Mokhtarzadeh is a first generation Iranian American Jewish leader and advocate. She serves as Co-President of 30 Years After, a nonpartisan nonprofit committed to ensuring the Iranian American Jewish future by cultivating identity, convening community, and catalyzing leadership. She also serves on the Board of the Magbit Foundation, a nonprofit that provides interest-free loans and scholarships to Israelis pursuing higher education. Arielle currently works in the Office of the COO at OpenAI and previously served as an Associate Director of Global Programming at the Milken Institute. She is a proud alumnus of UCLA, where she studied Communications, Public Affairs, and Israel Studies, and served as Undergraduate Student Body President.

Maor and Yossi Levy join Rabbi Yoshi to tell the story of the community of Kibbutz Eilon, just a few miles from the border with Lebanon. Their family, along with tens of thousands of other Israelis, has had to evacuate their home due to almost constant shelling from Hezbollah. Maor and Yossi share how the experience of the last many months has affected their family. Stay tuned and be inspired.

Rabbi Sharon Brous, Senior Rabbi of Ikar in Los Angeles, joins Rabbi Yoshi for a conversation focusing on her new book, "The Amen Effect." In a time of loneliness and isolation, social rupture and alienation, Rabbi Brous suggest ways that we can mend our broken hearts and rebuild our society.

Rabbi Brous also shares about the ways that she has tried to navigate these challenging months since October 7 all the while mourning her father who died a few weeks before Rosh Hashanah in 2023.

To learn more about "The Amen Effect," visit the link below: 

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/720048/the-amen-effect-by-sharon-brous/

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.

Rabbi Yoshi's Rosh Hashanah Sermon for 5785, delivered at Stephen Wise Temple on the evening of October 2, 2024. Learn about the life of Naftali Herz Imber, author of the poem "Tikvoseinu" that became "HaTikvah," the text of the anthem of the Zionist movement, the State of Israel, and the Jewish People. At the dawn of this New Year, we need hope perhaps more than ever.

You can watch the sermon at: https://youtu.be/GRA057vRJ48?si=G0Q1CChIoAvIpVbK

Rabbi Yoshi sits down with Peter Himmelman, a Grammy and Emmy nominated singer-songwriter, visual artist, best-selling author, film composer, entrepreneur, and rock and roll performer with over 20 critically acclaimed recordings to his credit.

They talk about the creative process, songwriting, sacred memory, love, Israel, and Jewish identity. They also discuss Peter's new book, "Suspended By No String." 

Visit https://peterhimmelman.com/ to learn more about Peter's music and new book.

Rabbi Yoshi shares his Yom Kippur Yizkor sermon which honors the memory of his mother, Hermene Davis Zweiback, who died 25 years ago. A few weeks before the Jewish New Year while cleaning up around the house, Rabbi Yoshi came across the gratitude journal his mom kept in the last month of her life. The sermon is a reflection on the lessons it contains. 

While it's a very personal remembrance, it's also universal -- it's about the people who are dear to each of us and the meaning their lives give to ours.

The outro music of this episode is a setting of the Sim Shalom prayer that Rabbi Yoshi composed in his mother's memory twenty-four years ago. You can listen to it wherever you stream your music.

https://youtu.be/YFa_wBxyKMw?si=ZDEsNhzCb-X5NA8_

If you want to learn what it's like to be one of Los Angeles' most sought-after professional guitarists and a USC Professor all while staying true to your Jewish roots and love for Israel, you won't want to miss this latest episode!

Get ready for a soulful, inspiring conversation as Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback sits down with acclaimed guitarist and Professor of Studio Guitar for USC's Thornton School of Music, Molly Miller. Tune in as they discuss creative processes, how Molly's Jewish identity weaves into her music, the challenges she's faced since October 7, and what gives her life meaning—all followed by a Hatikvah rendition unlike any other!

You can learn more about Molly and her music here. 

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.

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!

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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 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.

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. 

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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!

 Yom Kippur Sermon, September, 2021

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.