Welcome to Regeneration, a podcast about reimagining Jewish practice in a modern world. Hosts Debra Weinberg and Eileen Levinson help friends, families, and chosen families revive customs with authenticity, creativity, and joy. Each episode explores how real Jewish families keep traditions alive in their own way—and how you can, too.
In partnership with Jewish Grandparents Network
In the past five years, we’ve lived through a global pandemic, October 7 and its subsequent shockwaves, and a changing political and technological landscape. We’ve also gone through personal changes – starting families, making big moves, and thinking about our place in that rapidly changing world.
Rituals ground us, connect us, and challenge us to connect both to the world and to our tradition. From Shabbat candles to everyday blessings, discover how to weave old and new practices together across generations to bring the people you love closer.
On today’s episode, a conversation with Rabbi Vanessa Ochs, Professor Emerita of Religious Studies at UVA, and author of Inventing Jewish Ritual, Sarah Laughed, and The Passover Haggadah: A Biography.
Through her work and interview, Vanessa describes the parallels between rituals and choreographed performance – and how both elevate experiences, mark time, and help us understand who we are as people.
This week on Regeneration, Rabbi Adam Greenwald of Congregation B’nai Israel in Orange County, California, joins us for a conversation about intentionality in ritual and the journey of discovering his own. Adam is the author of On One Foot, considered foundational coursework for Intro to Judaism curriculum. He previously served as Vice President for Jewish Engagement at American Jewish University (AJU), founded the Maas Center for Jewish Journeys, and lectures at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, where he is facilitating a course on the art of teaching sacred text.
We all have family stories. All are true, and some actually happened. From Shabbat candles to everyday blessings, discover how family stories can weave old and new practices together across generations and bring the people you love closer.
In this episode of Regeneration, psychologist Marshall Duke shares research showing that children who know the stories of where they come from tend to be more resilient. He explores how the stories families tell can build connection, identity, and strength across generations.
Rabbi Lisa Rubin, Director of the Center for Exploring Judaism at Central Synagogue in Manhattan, has helped Jews and non-Jews engage with ritual, text, and tradition since 2010. In this conversation, Rabbi Rubin explores how we learn and embrace rituals and how many of us may already be practicing rituals without even realizing it.
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