Park Avenue Synagogue Podcast

Sermon – Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove – Fault Lines– June 5, 2021

Returning from a rabbinic mission to Israel following the recent violence between Israelis and Palestinians, Rabbi Cosgrove delivers a mixed report of gloomy realities tempered by reasons for hope.

Dialogue - Jennifer Stern Granowitz and Erin Beser: How We Talk About Gender – June 7, 2021

How We Talk About Gender

In honor of Pride Month, the How We Talk About team discusses gender – how we can affirm the presence of a truly diverse and inclusive Jewish community by sharing pronouns, offering alternatives to gendered and binary Jewish rituals (such as bar/bat mitzvah), and thinking about alternative ways to form groups or teams instead of boys vs. girls. What is the important conversation that we need to have about gender in the Jewish community? Jen Stern Granowitz and Erin Beser are joined by Dubbs Weinblatt, the Associate Director of Education and Training for Metro New York at Keshet and the Founder and Executive Producer of Thank You For Coming Out, a podcast and live improv show celebrating the LGBTQ+ community. Weinblatt is currently undergoing a physical transition to better affirm their gender identity and embarking upon a journey to their adult B-mitzvah, a gender-neutral approach to the traditional Jewish coming-of-age ceremony. Listen for advice and guidance about how to have these important conversations about gender.

Discussion and Reflection Questions

• What are ways you have made your classroom inclusive regarding gender? What is the next step to make your learning environment more inclusive?
• Is there a time when you used gendered language when, in hindsight, you could have used different language?
• Question from Dubbs Weinblatt: Think of a time when you were able to bring your full self into a space – fully celebrated and fully affirmed. What did that feel like? How did you know that you were fully affirmed? How did that moment of authenticity affect your relationship with the community you were in? And how can you take that feeling and bring it back to your classroom/learning space/community to help create the same space for others to belong?

Sermon – Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove – Showing Up for Israel – May 22, 2021

What if we threw a rally for Israel and nobody showed up? Rabbi Cosgrove speaks to the battle for the soul of American Jewry and the continued importance of investing in Israel’s future and well-being.

For more information about services and programs at Park Avenue Synagogue, visit our website at https://pasyn.org.

Dialogue - Jennifer Stern Granowitz and Erin Beser: How We Talk About Ability– May 19, 2021

One in five. That’s the number of people with disabilities in the United States today. Today on How We Talk About, Jennifer Stern Granowitz and Erin Beser speak with Dori Frumin Kirshner, Executive Director of Matan, a Jewish non-profit working toward inclusive classrooms and communal and spiritual aspects of Jewish life. What more can we be doing to support learners with special needs and their families? Listen for concrete suggestions and language for talking about learning differences in the classroom and in the world around us.

 

Discussion and Reflection Questions

• Am I doing everything I can to partner with students and ensure they are getting what they need?
• What am I doing to make inclusion a reality, particularly when I am in Jewish communal settings? Am I really thinking about this and stretching myself to become part of the solution?

Sermon - Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove: Wipe Your Tears - May 8, 2021

How do we come back from this past year’s tough times? Do we despair or do we respond with optimism that we can transcend our difficulties to craft a positive future? As Jews have done since the prophet Jeremiah, we can show resilience and choose the positive.

Dialogue - Jennifer Stern Granowitz and Erin Beser: How We Talk About Race – May 5, 2021

Why is talking about race within the Jewish community important? Jennifer Stern Granowitz and Erin Beser speak with Benny Witkovsky, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at UW-Madison, for some background on how to talk about race in white Jewish learning spaces. Talking about this will inherently make people feel uncomfortable – so let’s get uncomfortable.

Discussion and Reflection Questions

1. What is your experience and understanding of race?

2. Do you think it is important to speak about race in the Jewish community? Why or why not?

3. Where do you see a potential opportunity to incorporate a discussion about race with your students?

4. How can we use our Jewish identities to deepen our understanding of race and racial injustice in America today?

5. A question from Benny Witkovksy: What do we do with our history? How do we use it to bring us to action today?

Resources: Anti-Racism Resources Part 1 for Families (pasyn.org)

Sermon - Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove: The Grammar Of Jewish Living - May 1, 2021

Does it matter if we are precise in our observance of mitzvot (commandments)? While always a balance between exactitude and right intention, Jewish living calls on us to be attentive to the sacred grammar of doing mitzvot.

Sermon - Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove: To Life! – April 17, 2021

How do we bring a person who has been isolated because of a dreadful disease back into community? How do we all reintegrate as a community after a year of isolation and disruption?

Dialogue - Jennifer Stern Granowitz and Erin Beser: How We Talk About Death and Dying – April 14, 2021

In this episode, Jen Stern Granowitz and Erin Beser speak about the Jewish views on death and dying with Rabbi Melanie Levav, founder and director of the Shomer Collective, a new Jewish organization focused on improving end-of-life experiences. Listen for some concrete language on how to talk about death with young children, older learners or even what we as adults need to understand about Jewish views on death and dying. In what turned out to be an uplifting and spiritually fulfilling conversation, Rabbi Levav discusses how this work gives us the opportunity to live lives of greater meaning and connection by recognizing our own mortality. Trigger warnings include talk of death, dying, cancer, the Holocaust, and how to speak about these topics with very young children.

 

Discussion and Reflection Questions

1. What are your own views on death and dying?

2. What were the conversations that you had about death and dying when you were younger in your family, at school, and in your community? If you could change or reframe those conversations, would you and how?

3. 3. A question from Rabbi Levav (attributed to the poet Mary Oliver): What will you do with your own wild and precious life?

 

Resources

• Sesame Street's grief toolkit
• PJ Library article: "How to Talk About Death and Dying"
• Tablet's list of kids books about death
• NPR article: "Be Honest And Concrete: Tips For Talking To Kids About Death"
• HealthyChildren.org article: "How Children Understand Death & What You Should Say"

For more information about services and programs at Park Avenue Synagogue, visit our website at https://pasyn.org.

Diaglogue - Jennifer Stern Granowitz and Ellen Alt: How We Talk About Art Part II – April 7, 2021

Episode 7 is a part two of “How We Talk About Art.” Jen Stern Granowitz speaks with PAS Artist-in-Residence Ellen Alt about creative ways to integrate art into teaching about Israel. Check out the show notes for this episode for visuals of the different projects.