Join Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback as he talks with an eclectic variety of thinkers, artists, and change-makers about their experiences (Jewish or otherwise) and their own search for meaning and purpose in their lives.
Subscribe and Listen
Episodes
Search for Meaning with Rabbi Yoshi and the leadership of Rwanda’s Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village
In the latest edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts Jean-Claude Nkulikiyimfura and Shiri Sandler, 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 Genocide against the Tutsi. Nkulikiyimfura was born to parents forced to flee their country as teenagers. Had Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village existed then, [...]
Search for Meaning with Matthew Waksman and Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback
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 [...]
Search for Meaning Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts Dr. Afshine Emrani
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 with a degree in microbiology, Dr. Emrani earned his medical degree at U.C. San Diego. He has spent 20 years in emergency rooms, [...]
Search for Meaning with Betsy Borns and Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback
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 [...]