Episodes

CO-HOST

Watch Rabbi Lappe’s ELI Talk or TEDx Talk, or read some of her essays.

Ordained by The Jewish Theological Seminary in 1997,Benay Lappe founded SVARA in 2003. An award-winning educator specializing in the application of queer theory to Talmud study, Benay has served on the faculties of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Temple University, The University of Judaism, The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, The Graduate Theological Union’s Center for Jewish Studies at UC-Berkeley, and The Wexner Institute. She also currently serves as Senior Fellow at the Institute for the Next Jewish Future in Chicago.

Benay was named to Jewrotica’s Sexiest Rabbis List of 2013 (and is a little embarrassed about this but also a little bit proud), The Forward’s 2014 List of Most Inspiring Rabbis, is a Joshua Venture Fellow, and in 2016 received the prestigious Covenant Award for innovative Jewish education. She was named to The Forward’s 2018 list of “Sexiest Jewish Intellectuals Alive” (and is both embarrassed again, and also more sheepish about the intellectual part than the sexy part), and was recently named to the 2020 Forward 50 list of most influential American Jews (she was #10, and is grateful that her name starts with a “b” because it was in alphabetical order). While learning and teaching Talmud are her greatest passions, Rabbi Lappe is also a licensed pilot, shoemaker, and patent-holding inventor.

CO-HOST

Dan (he/him) is the Founder of Judaism Unbound and currently serves as President of Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah. Dan co-hosts the Judaism Unbound Podcast and The Oral Talmud videocast, and he teaches in the UnYeshiva. He served as president of Judaism Unbound from its founding until 2023. Dan previously served as Executive Director of the University of Chicago Hillel and Director of New Initiatives at Harvard Hillel, and he serves on the faculties of the HUC-JIR Zelikow School of Non-Profit Management, the Bronfman Fellowship, the Wexner Heritage Program, and other programs. He is a 2009 AVI CHAI Fellow and received the Richard M. Joel Exemplar of Excellence award, Hillel International's highest professional honor. Dan attended Harvard College and Harvard Law School, where he graduated magna cum laude and was an articles editor of the Harvard Law Review. Dan is the translator of The Orchard by Israeli novelist Yochi Brandes and the translation editor of The Secret Book of Kings by the same author. He lives in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago with his wife, two children, and two dogs.

Contact Dan at Dan@JudaismUnbound.com

ORAL TALMUD PODCAST COORDINATOR

Olivia Devorah (they/them) is a Jewish Demonologist, Talmud enthusiast, theatre collaborator, and challah sculptor. They have been published in Kenden Alfond’s “Feeding Women of the Talmud, Feeding Ourselves” and performed as dramaturg/meturgemon for Ella-Gabriel Mason’s “Queer Jewish: Dancing In Diaspora.” They serve as Program Coordinator for SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva, and co-op member of The Glitterbox Theater in their home of Pittsburgh, PA (Shawnee & Haudenosaunee land). Olivia puts the femme in ephemera & the trans in translation! Learn more at www.TalmudMagic.com

PRODUCER

Joey (he/him) serves as the Executive Director of Bespoken Live, a radical storytelling initiative. He is also the producer of the podcast “Common Good” and teaches world religions in prisons. Joey’s artful story telling is obvious in the way he has curated and threaded this new podcast. Joey lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.