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.
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Episodes
Search for Meaning With Ariela Cohen From “Your Soft Landing”
> 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 [...]
Search for Meaning With Rabbi Josh Weinberg
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 [...]
Search for Meaning With Beata Poźniak
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 successfully lobbied 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 [...]
Search for Meaning With Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback and Rabbi Matthew Gewirtz
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 [...]