Rabbi Victor Gross Is Reimagining Religion As A Force Of Unity—not Division Not That Kind Of Rabbi podcast

1:03:20

On this episode of Not That Kind of Rabbi, Ralph Benmergui speaks with neohasid.org founder and author of the book, Kabbalah and Ecology, Rabbi David Seidenberg, on how we can restore the spiritual bond with an earth based Judaism.

Not That Kind of Rabbi

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Amichai Lau-Lavie, the 'Sabbath Queen', is forging his own traditions 40:24

22 weeks ago40:24

40:24

When Amichai Lau-Lavie realized he was gay, he knew he had to make a choice: hide his identity to abide by his Orthodox upbringing, or be true to himself. It wasn't an easy call for a man whose ancestors had been rabbis for generations—including his uncle and cousin, who both served as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel. Ultimately, Lau-Lavie decided to split the difference. As an out gay man, he became an Jewish leader, drag performer and rabbi, founding Lab/Shul—a "God-optional" experimental community for Jewish gathering—in New York City. Now, he's also the star of a documentary about his controversial career, Sabbath Queen , which is currently touring the American film festival circuit. If anyone is "not that kind of rabbi," it's Amichai Lau-Lavie—and he joins Ralph Benmergui this week on Not That Kind of Rabbi , a show about spirituality and personal journeys. Credits Host: Ralph Benmergui Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Yevhen Onoychenko Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Not That Kind of Rabbi (Not sure how? Click here )…

Not That Kind of Rabbi

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For Rabbi Aaron Rotenberg, environmentalism isn't adjacent to Judaism—it's a core tenet 36:23

25 weeks ago36:23

36:23

Rabbi Aaron Rotenberg realized at a young age he was drawn to Jewish studies. After graduating from Jewish day schools around Toronto, he decided to attend the Jewish Theological Seminary, a Conservative rabbinical school in New York City, for five years—only to end up a Renewal rabbi years later, ordained just this month. As the spiritual leader of the Annex Shul in downtown Toronto—and one of a handful of Renewal rabbis in the city—his goal is to connect with younger audiences. That means leading unconventional services including music, dance parties and an emphasis on Earth-based Judaism. Just ahead of Tu b’Shevat, Rabbi Rotenberg sat down with Ralph Benmergui on Not That Kind of Rabbi for a lengthy discussion about the Renewal movement, eco-spirituality and the age-old relationship between Jews and the land. Credits Host: Ralph Benmergui Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Yevhen Onoychenko Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Not That Kind of Rabbi (Not sure how? Click here )…

Not That Kind of Rabbi

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'You can forgive and seek justice at the same time': Robert Enright on how to learn forgiveness 40:36

28 weeks ago40:36

40:36

With the recent news of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas and the eventual return of the remaining Israeli hostages, tensions remain high between pro- and anti-Zionist communities here in Canada, who've stood sharply divided on the foreign conflict for 15 months. Members of those communities may still be holding hatred or anger in their hearts—leading to increased depression, anxiety and isolation. But according to Dr. Robert Enright, forgiveness is a choice rooted in mercy—and doesn't come at the expense of moral justice. As the co-founder of the International Forgiveness Institute, Enright has dedicated his career to studying forgiveness and the effects it has on the human brain and body. He joins Ralph Benmergui on the latest episode of Not That Kind of Rabbi . Credits Host: Ralph Benmergui Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Yevhen Onoychenko Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Not That Kind of Rabbi (Not sure how? Click here )…

Not That Kind of Rabbi

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Gary Topp ushered Toronto into the cultural future—and he’s still making alternative history 37:06

29 weeks ago37:06

37:06

Once upon a time, Toronto was a sleepy city. The atmosphere shut down at night. Red tape and cultural meekness kept things status quo. But through the 1970s and 1980s, the city's younger generations changed how things work—and one of the biggest players behind the scenes was Gary Topp. A music promoter and independent movie theatre operator, it was Topp—along with his colleague, Gary Cormier, together known as the Two Garys—who first brought and promoted The Ramones, The Police, Slayer and other countercultural icons to Canadians for the first time. Topp also began operating the Roxy Theatre, an art deco building on the Danforth, for punk concerts and movie screenings that wouldn't be shown anywhere else in the country. Last month, Topp's transformative career was printed in a coffee table book, He Hijacked My Brain: Gary Topp's Toronto , recalling legendary stories and performances from decades past. He joins his old friend Ralph Benmergui (who also grew up in Forest Hill, not far away) for a walk down memory lane in exploring his influence on the cultural fabric of the city—and what's changed in the music scene today. Credits Host: Ralph Benmergui Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Yevhen Onoychenko Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Not That Kind of Rabbi (Not sure how? Click here )…

Not That Kind of Rabbi

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How Choir! Choir! Choir! grew out of a living room gathering into 2,500 strangers singing Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' in Montreal 32:47

32 weeks ago32:47

32:47

On Oct. 9, around 2,500 strangers packed Montreal's Place des Arts concert hall to sing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" in surprisingly perfect harmony. The melody was beautiful. In a video recording posted online, tears and smiles are visible as people sing out the familiar chorus. You could say it was a spiritual performance—unless you're Nobu Adilman, who co-organized the event, for whom this mass choir has always been about enjoying life. While people often feel tapped into a higher power, Adilman is more pragmatic about the whole thing. Adilman, along with his artistic partner, Daveed Goldman, founded the group Choir! Choir! Choir! in a living room more than a decade ago. The idea was simple: strangers singing songs together. Those first contributors had so much fun, Adilman and Goldman decided to keep it going. The group grew in popularity until they amassed hundreds of thousands of social media followers and tour dates that rack up hundreds, even thousands of paying attendees. And before all that, Adilman worked at CBC with a young Ralph Benmergui. Adilman reconnects with his old mentor on Not That Kind of Rabbi to discuss the origins of his hit group and the innate spirituality of music. Credits Host: Ralph Benmergui Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Yevhen Onoychenko Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Not That Kind of Rabbi (Not sure how? Click here )…

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Playwright Mark Leiren-Young explains why Shylock needed a revival in 2024 42:45

35 weeks ago42:45

42:45

Mark Leiren-Young wrote Shylock in 1996, a play using Shakespeare's controversial Jewish character in The Merchant of Venice to explore modern-day cancel culture. While the script saw productions aorund the world, Leiren-Young was wary of giving the rights away too quickly, knowing it was complex, sensitive subject matter that required an intellectual approach. So when he met the acclaimed actor Saul Rubinek, who proposed that Leiren-Young rewrite the script to tailor it to his own real life, Leiren-Young jumped at the chance. A fan of blending fact with fiction, the B.C.-based writer began researching Rubinek's life and updating the nearly 20-year-old script to match a post-pandemic view of what "cancel culture" really means. The result is Playing Shylock , running at Canadian Stage until Dec. 8 in Toronto. Leiren-Young sat down with his old friend Ralph Benmergui to discuss how this show came to life, what it was like creating the production during and after Oct. 7, and how he got his start in writing—including an early break writing an unconventional pacifist episode of the '90s CGI cartoon Beast Wars . Credits Host: Ralph Benmergui Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Yevhen Onoychenko Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Not That Kind of Rabbi (Not sure how? Click here )…

Not That Kind of Rabbi

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Filmmaker Allan Novak turns the camera on his family: the oldest living Holocaust survivors in the world 31:55

37 weeks ago31:55

31:55

Growing up, Allan Novak assumed his family was fairly ordinary: modest, witty, hardworking Jewish immigrants who found a new live in Canada after the war. That his mother was one of four sibling survivors was noteworthy, but the outside world did not take notice. That is, until the siblings all began reaching the age of 100. Once international reporters and Holocaust foundations discovered the story of the world's oldest survivor siblings, Novak—a veteran director who worked with Canadian comedy icons in the 1980s and '90s—decided to turn the camera on his own family. The result is a 30-minute documentary called Crossing the River: From Poland to Paradise , featuring intimate and insightful interviews with his aunts, uncle and mother, the youngest of whom is 96-years-old. The film has been touring the festival circuit this year and is currently available on-demand . Novak sat down to share his family's remarkable story with his longtime friend and collaborator, Ralph Benmergui, on the latest episode of Not That Kind of Rabbi . Credits Host: Ralph Benmergui Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Yevhen Onoychenko Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Not That Kind of Rabbi (Not sure how? Click here )…

Not That Kind of Rabbi

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In his new memoir, Michael Coren recounts his life, from Jewish cabbie's son to Anglican priest 35:24

39 weeks ago35:24

35:24

Michael Coren has lived many lives. Born to a Jewish cab driver in England, Coren converted to Catholocism in the 1980s, then Evangelicalism in the '90s; he grew into a bombastic right-wing Christian talk radio and TV personality with shows on the Sun News Network and the Crossroads Television System; then he came back to embrace the Catholic Church, before finally leaving again to become not just an Anglican—but an Anglican priest. Coren's spiritual malleability—including open repentance for insulting comments he made about queer people decades ago, and the journey he's taken to fundamentally change various political opinions—is at the heart of his new memoir, Heaping Coals: From Media Firebrand to Anglican Priest , published in October 2024. In it, he recounts how he never considered how hard it was for his parents when he left his home country for Canada, and how his perspective on Christian values has changed, while the role of Christiandom has shifted in the broader Western world. Coren sits down with fellow former broadcaster Ralph Benmergui for a frank talk about his numerous mea culpas, handling backlash on social media and the profound difficulty in forgiveness. Credits Host: Ralph Benmergui Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Yevhen Onoychenko Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Not That Kind of Rabbi (Not sure how? Click here )…

Not That Kind of Rabbi

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How Eva Almos channels the spirit of her survivor mother in an audio drama about Holocaust zombies 28:03

41 weeks ago28:03

28:03

Both of Eva Almos's parents were Holocaust survivors. Her mother, from Lithuania, was a kind and gentle soul who went out of her way to uplift strangers and support her daughter. But her father was the opposite: a traditional Greek man with chauvinist ideas who was hardened by the horrors of the Holocaust. The duality sent Almos into therapy, where she spent years trying to piece herself together. All this time, she was making a career in the Los Angeles entertainment industry. She's worked on numerous cartoons from the 1980s to today, including Care Bears , Pinky and the Brain and the popular current PBS show Wild Kratts . But her latest project has a very different vibe. Almos voices numerous characters in The CJN's new original audio drama, Justice: A Holocaust Zombie Story , including a survivor whose voice she styled after her late mother. To explain more about her inspiration and life, Eva Almos sat down with her old friend Ralph Benmergui for a candid conversation about the impacts of generational trauma and the new zombie audio drama, available at thecjn.ca/zombies . Credits Host: Ralph Benmergui Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Yevhen Onoychenko Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Not That Kind of Rabbi (Not sure how? Click here )…

Not That Kind of Rabbi

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From devastation to creation: How artist Devon Spier found spiritual meaning through affliction 35:04

44 weeks ago35:04

35:04

Devon Spier has long COVID. The artist, poet and spiritual guide has spent days bedridden, feeling ill and angry at God. But that forced pause gave her time to reflect on her life, art and beliefs, and she began to realize more emphatically how God, for her, exists in liminal spaces—in the wilderness, in small moments of peace and beauty between devastation and pain. These thoughts led her to create a new exhibit that blends art, design, poetry and spirituality. "18 Plus One" is on display at the Gerrard Art Space in Toronto from Oct 2 - 9, ahead of a fuller exhibit at the JCC Ann Arbor in Michigan from December 2024 to February 2025. Spier joins Ralph Benmergui—who is, like Spier, also not a rabbi but kind of vaguely close to one—on Not That Kind of Rabbi for a fulsome conversation about artistic expression, humanistic empathy and the meaning of God. Credits Host: Ralph Benmergui Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Yevhen Onoychenko Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Not That Kind of Rabbi (Not sure how? Click here )…

Not That Kind of Rabbi

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Trailblazing artist Neshama Carlebach opens up about her next spiritual goal: the rabbinate 45:06

46 weeks ago45:06

45:06

Growing up in the Orthodox movement, Neshama Carlebach would hear it a lot: "It's a shame your father never had sons." The father in question, the acclaimed Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, instead had two daughters—and the implication was that his legacy as a prolific songwriter, whose repertoire includes the popular 1965 folk anthem "Am Yisrael Chai", would die with him. Neshama didn't let those comments stop her—in fact, the opposite became true. After growing up in Toronto, Neshama ended up following in her father's footsteps, first becoming an acclaimed singer, teacher and songwriter, and now embarking on a years-long journey to becoming a rabbi. Her theological studies changed tone after Oct. 7, sparking a new desire in her to be "a rabbi who fights" for her community. But what's remained consistent has been her stubborn defiance of societal expectations. Neshama joins Ralph Benmergui on Not That Kind of Rabbi to discuss her life and music, and explain what it's like raising two sons to carry on the Carlebach legacy in an increasingly antisemitic world. Credits Host: Ralph Benmergui Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Yevhen Onoychenko Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Not That Kind of Rabbi (Not sure how? Click here )…

Not That Kind of Rabbi

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Jesse Brown lost 9% of his supporters after he began spotlighting antisemitism. Here's why he won't stop 43:07

48 weeks ago43:07

43:07

In the aftermath of Oct. 7, Jesse Brown—who has risen to prominence as a media critic and muckraker with his Canadaland podcast and digital media company—once again stirred up controversy online. But it wasn't a big news investigation that sparked outrage; it was a series of posts about antisemitic attacks on Canadian Jewish-aligned institutions, from synagogues and community centres to bookstores owned by Jews. Brown was shocked at the response he got from his own progressive supporters. As he saw it, he was doing what he'd always done: report in objective terms about the ongoing harassment of an ethnic minority on Canadian soil. But not everyone saw it that way. Every day, by the dozens, his supporters dropped off, boycotting him and pressuring his advertisers to do the same. Ralph Benmergui invited Brown onto Not That Kind of Rabbi to hear what it's been like going through this public flogging—and also chat about the evolution of news media and where podcasting fits into everything. Credits Host: Ralph Benmergui Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Yevhen Onoychenko Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Not That Kind of Rabbi (Not sure how? Click here )…

Not That Kind of Rabbi

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Rabbi Victor Gross is reimagining religion as a force of unity—not division 44:45

50 weeks ago44:45

44:45

When Rabbi Victor Gross was looking for a home to grow his congregation in Boulder, CO, he knew he didn't want a dedicated building. It wasn't just the cost, but the environmental impact of operating a space that's only used a few hours a week. Instead, he looked for a church to rent out Friday evenings and Saturday mornings. He asked church leaders two questions: Was the church open and affirming to everyone? And could the churchgoers and clergy not proselytize to Jews? After many honest rejections, they found a partner in a Lutheran church, establishing a concrete example of what's been dubbed "deep ecumenism". It's a level beyond interfaith work that sees members of different religious communities dialoguing, working together and praying in the same space—a true form of acceptance and tolerance. This is just one way of drastically reimagining the future of not just Judaism, but all organized religions, as many synagogues shutter and congregations dwindle across the world. Rabbi Gross joins his former student, Ralph Benmergui, on Not That Kind of Rabbi to explain more about deep ecumenism and how religion can be used as a force of unity—rather than division. Credits Host: Ralph Benmergui Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Yevhen Onoychenko Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Not That Kind of Rabbi (Not sure how? Click here )…

Not That Kind of Rabbi

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Mary Darling reflects on conflict and division from the Baha'i headquarters in Haifa 50:17

1 year ago50:17