The Bridging Connections Podcast

JIFA: Jewish Initiative for Animals
Featuring: Rabbi Jonathan Bernhard, Executive Director and Melissa Hoffman, Director of Programs

The Jewish Initiative for Animals supports innovative programs to turn the Jewish value of compassion for animals into action while building ethical and sustainable Jewish American communities in the process.

Jewish tradition urges us to keep a healthy skepticism about the sourcing of our ...

What is Jewish Farming?

Featuring: Dr. Adrienne Krone

Adrienne Krone is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and past Director of Jewish Life at Allegheny College.Her research focuses on communal Jewish farms and the sustainable Jewish farming movement in the United States. Her expertise ranges from the history of religion in the U.S., to modern Judaism, to religion and food. Krone holds a Ph.D. in American Religion from Duke Uni...

Kavod v’Nichum

Featuring: Sarit Wishnevski, Executive Director

Their Mission: Kavod v’Nichum provides the Jewish community resources, education, and training about the end of life, from serious illness through dying, death, bereavement, and mourning.

Their Vision is to  transform the final life transition for every Jewish person so that it is understood, cared for, and respected.

About:  Kavod v’Nichum, כבוד וניחום, is Hebrew for “hono...

Haggadot.com

Featuring: Eileen Levinson, Founder and Executive Director
Haggadot.com is part of Custom & Craft, a nonprofit design lab using technology, art and new media to imagine new formats for engaging with ancient traditions. Founded in 2011, our online platforms Haggadot.com and Custom and Craft make home-based Jewish ritual accessible, meaningful, and diverse – giving individuals of all faith backgrounds the tools to...

Secular Synagogue 

Featuring: Rabbi Denise Handlarski, Founder 

What is Secular Synagogue?

Secular Synagogue is a digital Judaism, online community, engaged and meaningful learning and practice. Their goal is two-directional: explore how Judaism can be an enriching force in your life and, in turn, make you a more kind, just, and effective force for good in the world. 

Who is Secular Synagogue for?

Jewish, Jew-ish, Intermarried, In-marri...

Fat Torah 

Featuring: Rabbi Minna Bromberg, Founder and President

Fat Torah’s Goals

Smashing the idolatry of fatphobia and leading ourselves from Narrowness to Freedom

1. ending weight stigma in Jewish communal life and training Jewish professionals, lay leaders, and community members to confront fatphobia wherever they encounter it (including in themselves).
2. equipping people who already work in fat activism, Health at Every Siz...

The Yeladim Project

Featuring: Sagit Sol Epstein and David Epstein

Including a special interview with Yarden, Eli and Lilah

Sagit Sol Epstein, an Israeli living in in the United States saw an opportunity to help bridge the culture gap between American Jew and Israelis. She with the help of her husband, David created The Yeladim Project. It’s a complete family collaboration. Sagit translates and produces, the children sing and dance an...

Project Zug, founded by Benjamin Ross and Hagit Bartuv. Benjamin and Hagit connected in 2012 in Jerusalem, and developed a shared goal of using Jewish learning to connect Jews in Israel and America. Their vision became a reality, leading to more than 2,000 participants in Project Zug!

Project Zug’s mission is to empower Jews to take ownership over their learning through one-on-one havruta learning. They believe that havruta can chan...

Strength to Strength

Featuring: Sarri Singer, Founder

The Bridging Connections Podcast deals in a variety of topics. There are light-hearted topics, educational topics and very serious topics. This podcast is the most serious and possibly triggering topic explored so far. This conversation caused both crying and laughter in under an hour. In a perfect world, there would be no sadness or acts of terrorism. Unfortunately, the world and...

BaMidbar 

Featuring: Jory Hanselman Mayschak, Founder and CEO

Through a variety of modalities, BaMidbar supports mental health and wellness and envisions a Jewish community that actively supports its members in building the resilience to thrive.

BaMidbar  has a 6-14 week summer residential therapeutic program that focuses on using the environment to support skill building and self exploration while bringing in Jewish tradition and sto...

It’s amazing what beautiful things can come out of uncertainty and isolation. The four Loffman Siblings, Elana, Hannah, Marni and Sara, found themselves all back at home together at the beginning of the pandemic. This togetherness brought them to baking challah. Although the challah was initially for family and friends it...

Living Tree Alliance

Featuring: Co-Founders Koehenet Sephira Oshkello and Melanie Kessler

Meaningful Earth-Based Living
Living Tree is a modern kibbutz-inspired community designed for joyful, adventurous earth-based living in Vermont’s great outdoors. They are a cohousing curator, event producer, and education center dedicated to connecting participants to self, community, earth and spirit through homesteading, camping, celebrati...

Jewish Free Loan Chicago

Featuring: Leah Greenblum, Founder and Executive Director

In the Middle Ages Moises Maimonides (1), great philosopher, physician and rabbi, outlined eight levels of tzedakah (charitable giving). He describe the highest form of giving is to give a gift, loan, or partnership that will result in the recipient becoming self-sufficient instead of living upon others. Jewish Free Loan Chicago is embodying this level...

Shomer Collective
Featuring: Rabbi Melanie Levav,  Executive Director
Inspiring End-of-Life Conversations and Experiences, Guided by Jewish Values

Who am I? What’s the meaning of life? What’s my legacy? What do I have left in the next portion in my life? These are all age old questions. Quite possible you have contemplated some of these in during your lifetime. These are questions that our sages have questioning for years. T...

Nazun (formerly Challah for Hunger)

Featuring: Rebecca Bar, Executive Director and Rabbi Lily Solochek, Director of Programs and Education

Food insecurity is prevalent throughout the United States. According to the USDA over 10% of American families were food insecure in 2019 and it is estimated that this has doubled since the onset of Covid. This is also a problem on our nation’s college campuses. According to the Hope Sur...

GatherDC

Featuring: Alexandra Tureau, Managing Director

GatherDC’s Mission and Vision

GatherDC helps Jewish 20s/30s connect to Jewish life and to each other.

GatherDC is a Jewish nonprofit that serves as the one-stop-shop for everything 20s and 30s need to live their best Jewish life. Whether you’re looking for Jewish events, people, synagogues, housing, jobs, rabbis, kosher food, or anything in between – we connect you.

We are here to ...

The Eden Center

Featuring: Dr. Naomi Marmon Grumet, Founder & Executive Director

Jewish identity is based on three foundations, according to Dr. Naomi Marmon Grumet, the Sabbath, the laws of kashrut and mikvah, ritual bath. In fact, our sages tell us that it is incumbent on a community to build a mikvah before building any other communal structure including a synagogue. They say that it is so important a community should sell a T...

The Gender Equity in Hiring Project
Featuring: Sara Shapiro Plevan, Founder & Executive Director

The Gender Equity in Hiring Project started in 2018 to have deep conversations regarding respectful, equitable workplaces. They established a growing network of female partners and thought leaders across our community to listen and collect data. With the stories they heard, they began the work of advocacy launching thie...

Sacred Spaces
Featuring:
Shira Berkovits, President & CEO
The Torah charges us to be an or l’goyyim (light unto the nations). We can not fulfill this important charge without looking inward. Looking within ourselves, our communities and institutions to do what is necessary to create safe surroundings.  The need and desire for safe environments is universal. Everyone wants to work in a safe environment. Everyone wan...