In 2023, Grace Oedel helped to found and develop The L’Chaim Collective – a justice-seeking, earth-rooted Jewish community in Vermont – for and by people looking to find meaning, cultivate community, wrestle with Torah, and unite their activism with spiritual practice. She joins Lex and Rena Yehuda for a conversation about the specific magic of Judaism in the state of Vermont, along with broader exploration of what it means to build Jewish communities anchored in place -- and not in nationalism.
[1] Learn more about Grace Oedel here (or @grace_oedel on instagram), and explore the work of the L’chaim Collective via their website or @lchaimcollective.
[2] Explore L’chaim Collective’s 10 core values at this link.
[3] For a moving piece that Oedel wrote in the winter of 2026, see “Praying with Frozen Legs,” featured in Religion Dispatches.
[4] Oedel references a number of different spiritually-grounded communities that are grounded in communal singing. For an episode of Judaism Unbound exploring this in more detail, see Episode 367: Let My People Sing - Batya Levine, Anthony Russell, Margot Seigle.
[5] To consider Rena Yehuda’s framework of “Pluralism of Necessity” further, see Bonus Episode: Pluralism of Necessity - Rena Yehuda Newman (Rena Yehuda’s first ever appearance on the podcast, long before they were a co-host).