NYJM - Not Your Jewish Mother: Recent Episodes
Elianna Yolkut and Tova Leibovic-Douglas
We are, Elianna Yolkut and Tova Leibovic-Douglas, here exploring what it means to be rabbis, mothers and women in the world. Each week we will laugh and think together about the wisdom we learn in our everyday lives as rabbis, parents and humans bringing our listeners the insights of the Torah, our spiritual tradition and our own exploration of meaning in the questions of the everyday. In moments of doubt and struggle, we lean into faith with courage, hope and love. NYJM is sometimes uplifting, challenging and irreverent but always a journey towards a holy, authentic and meaningful truth.
Parenting can be the source of deep anxiety - how do Tova and Elianna cope with the worries, tension and all around culture of anxiety
Elianna, Tova and special guest, Nicole Guzik who is the incoming co-senior rabbi at Sinai Temple chat about all the things!
Elianna and Tova discuss the recent New York Times piece revealing the lack of general education, abuse and trauma in some of the Hasidic schools in New York. They discuss their personal thoughts and feelings on educational systems.
They conclude with a beautiful Poem by Nikita Gill.
Where we explore why we feel so harried and overwhelmed - is it us? Being a parent of young-ish children? Societal challenge?
Sabbatical. Rest. Breathe. How do we connect to the notion of radical rest - finding space to breathe and find room to connect to ancient notion of stopping.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/20/opinion/teach-children-to-be-lazy.html
Elianna and Tova discuss this important holiday and all that it brings up. This episode also has some great tips on ways to make the seder feel as welcoming and creative as possible.
Join Tova and Elianna for a wide ranging conversation with colleague and friend Rabbi Sari Laufer.
There is a great deal of change happening in the jewish world between congregations in search of rabbis, major jewish establishments selling their property and everything in between. We discuss the deconstruction and reconstruction of this Jewish institutional life and the possibilities of the moment.
Using the beautiful song from Encanto, Surface Pressure, Tova and Elianna wonder how do we manage the demands of modernity? Society asks us to juggle so much and seek out perfection in every aspect of who we are -- what do we loose as a consequence and how do Tova and Elianna experience this tension and try to create space for more joy and less pressure.
https://www.google.com/search?q=surface+pressure+lyrics&oq=surface+pressure+l&aqs=chrome.0.35i39j69i57j0i433i512j46i512j0i512j69i60l3.4623j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Based on this article:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/01/texas-synagogue-anti-semitism-conspiracy-theory/621286/
Elianna and Tova discuss some reflections on Anti-Semitism today, where we have been and where we are going...
In this episode Tova and Elianna discuss the origin story of NYJM and what this process brings up for each of them.
This is our first special guest! Tova and Elianna interview Shira on the many journeys: her rabbinate, jewish-spiritual life, parenthood and more!
Rabbi Shira Stutman is a nationally known faith-based leader and change-maker with more than twenty years of experience motivating and inspiring groups large and small, most recently as the founding rabbi of Sixth & I in Washington DC. She teaches and speaks nationally on topics including growing welcoming Jewish spiritual communities; building the connective tissues between different types of people; and the current American Jewish community zeitgeist. She also is writing a book on the blessing of interfaith couples. Next month, she and the actor Joshua Malina will launch the PRX podcast “Chutzpod,” which aims to provide Jewish answers to life’s contemporary questions and help listeners build lives of meaning. She was named one of “America’s Most Inspiring Rabbis” by The Jewish Forward, among other awards. She graduated from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, where she was a Wexner Graduate Fellow.
Tova and Elianna discuss their connection to wellness and sports as players and spectators.
Elianna and Tova continue the series on smashing the patriarchy and discuss their personal experiences of being female rabbis.
In this episode Tova and Elianna explore the nooks and crannies of parenthood in a world that at times seem scary and dangerous and ask how should we think about our parenting and how much risk we are willing to take and teach our kid.
Join Rabbis Elianna Yolkut and Tova Leibovic Douglass as they explore how to think of gathering, spirituality and life during a sacred season for a second year of pandemic living.
The second season opens as we discuss how we cope when the world feels like it is falling apart, when we are stuck, when we despair and trying to find the light.
Welcome back to season two of NYJM! This is a podcast with rabbis, two women and two mothers (Elianna Yolkut Tova Leibovic-Douglas) discussing spirituality, judaism, parenthood and how it all intersects. This season you can expect some tears, laughter, disagreement and special guests.
Join Tova and Elianna for an intimate conversation on how they became rabbis - what inspires their rabbinates, what is challenging for them as rabbis and the sparks of their rabbinic vision.
Join as we explore what it means to say no in a public and private way. How do women confront the reality of a system set up for constant production even to our determinant.
A story about Star Wars and a piece of Torah wisdom on Good and Evil Inclination.
Tova and Elianna reflect on the role of rabbis during this painful moment. They both, as usual, have different opinions and thoughts and bring their personal reflections to this episode. This is a hard topic and we at NYJM recognize that many of our listeners will have different thoughts and feelings on this. Our goal as always is to create a space which at the heart contains discourse, human to human and soul to soul conversation.
Article/Letter Discussed:
https://forward.com/scribe/469900/my-rabbinical-students-letter-shows-imbalance-and-a-lack-of-empathyfor/
https://forward.com/scribe/469583/gates-of-tears-rabbinical-and-cantorial-students-stand-for-solidarity-with/
In this episode Elianna and Tova focus on education. They discuss the power of amazing teachers, their personal thoughts on education and the purpose of school and conclude with an amazing rabbinic story related to the theme.
A surprising tidbit of trivia about Elianna revealed in our story.
The beginning of what will be an ongoing conversation on equity and gender.
Stunning Torah on the nameless voices of our sacred texts.
Join us.
Walking in the world with our kids, how will the pandemic change faith communities and where love meets rebuke.
Join us for a wide ranging conversation on parenting as our communities begin to open and we start to navigate what it mean to parent our children through this time. Bonus of some deep Torah of the moon cycle by Tova and Elianna shares a personal story of coming out.
Tova and Elianna explore their personal connection to traditional Judaism and the longstanding trend of the decline of organized religion membership throughout the world. They explore if there is a difference between religion and spirituality and share thoughts on the current moment of deconstruction of structures that contained religion/spirituality for a long time.