Ordinary Jews. Talking.

Season 3

Episode 1: Alan Bern – “So I got an accordion, I put it on my back, and I went to Europe…” Do tune in to hear how Alan’s story intertwines music and speech with creativity, compassion, and being Jewish in today’s world. Listen in to hear how the “other” in Other Music Academy is not what you might think and how transcultural work is more about mycelium than bridges. Alan and I met in the courtyard of Etz Hayyim Synagogue and this episode was recorded in the city of Chania on the island of Crete. It is the first of this  3^rd “season” with the tagline of “voices from afar (and not so far).” Give yourself a treat by checking out his work in Weimar and selected music, linked below. Recorded December 20, 2025. Photo: courtesy Shendi Copitman

S3 E1 Notes:

Projects:

• The Other Music Academy: “…an open and inclusive society which invites the most diverse kinds of people to help actively create our common culture and our roles within it.”
• Yiddish Summer Weimar: “YSW is guided by a four-part mission: to research, teach, create and present traditional and new Yiddish culture in an intercultural context… In recent years, YSW has increasingly focused on creating new Yiddish culture projects with young people and renowned artists.”

Music: short bites

• The Semer Ensemble Trailer: Forgotten music recorded by Jewish artists in Berlin in the 1930s on the Semer Label brought back to life for today by an all-star, 8-person ensemble.
• The Other Europeans Trailer: What happens when 14 musicians from 8 countries join forces to recreate the unique musical synthesis of Jewish and Roma music that once animated all weddings and celebrations in Romania and Moldova?
• The Kadya Girls Choir – Shtern Faln (Stars are Falling): A truly unique project that brought together Jewish, Christian and Muslim girls from Israel and Germany to sing new Yiddish choir songs composed by Alan Bern based on the touching poetry for young people by Polish Jewish poet Kadya Molodovsky.

Music: full feasts

• Glikl Oratorio: A Her-Story: A full-length New Jewish Music oratorio composed in 2023 by Alan Bern, with a libretto by Diana Matut, based on the incredible life story of Glikl of Hameln, a Jewish woman who lived in Hamburg at the turn of the 18^th century and left behind candid, fascinating memoires about her life.
• The Kadya Trio: Alan Bern’s new songs based on the poetry of Polish Jewish poet Kadya Molodovsky, arranged for and exquisitely performed by a world-class trio with Sveta Kundish (voice), Mark Kovnatskiy (violin) and Alan Bern (piano, accordion) recorded live in concert at the 33^rd Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow, Poland.
• Brave Old World – Reunion!: From 1990 to the mid-2010s, Brave Old World expanded the horizons of New Yiddish Music throughout the world. This online reunion, recorded in 2021 by Toronto’s Ashkenaz Festival, looks back on 30 years of unparalleled music making and friendship.

About Alan:

• Wikipedia: “In recognition of his leadership of YSW, Alan Bern was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany … in 2022, the Thuringia Order of Merit in 2017 and the Weimar Prize in 2016.”
• Facebook, Instagram

References from the interview:

• New Israeli historiography “The New Historians^[a]are a loosely defined group of Israeli historians who have challenged traditional versions of Israeli history and played a critical role in refuting some of what critics of Israel consider Israel’s foundational myths,^[1] including Israel’s role in the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight and Arab willingness to discuss peace.” While subject to criticism today, their work punctured the myth that Palestinians themselves, along with Arab nations, were responsible for the Nakba. [Wikipedia]
• Martin Buber, I and Thou, 1923, English translations in 1937 (Smith) and 1970 (Kaufman), 36^th edition, Charles Scribners, 1970.

Season 2

Episode 4: Fran Miller  – Fran moved up to Vermont from New York City in the fall of 2019 to work at the Vermont Law School’s Center for Agriculture and Food Systems. Outside her professional work she is active in pro-Palestinian causes including as a member of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). In this interview, she discusses her turnaround from seeing Israel in an ideal light to upholding the social justice ideals of her father who supported Israel yet impressed on her the Jewish value of working on behalf of the underdog. Recorded December 1, 2025  Photo: courtesy Fran Miller

S2 E4 Notes:

• The Farmland Access Legal Toolkit , is a project of the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems housed at Vermont Law and Graduate School.
• Jewish Voice for Peace in New York City and Jewish Voice for Peace Vermont/New Hampshire
• The New Alliance Party is no longer active. Fran recommends this C-SPAN piece to hear directly from some of the party’s leaders regarding its views.
• Timing of the First and Second Intifadas: The First started in December, 1987 and lasted six years, roughly until the signing of the Oslo Accords in September, 1993. The Second started in September, 2000 and lasted until February, 2005.
• Palestinian House of Friendship is a “non-profit, non-governmental, politically independent humanitarian community organization in the West Bank city of Nablus, dedicated to serving the needs of children, adolescents, and their families.”
• Voices from Palestinian Israel and from Palestinians and Jewish Israelis:
  • GroundWork
  • The Long Answer
  • Unapologetic: The Third Narrative
• J Street on Israel’s Nation-State Law per Google AI Overview: “JStreet strongly opposed Israel’s 2018 Nation-State Law, expressing deep sadness, anguish, and concern that it prioritized Jewish identity over democratic equality, downgraded Arabic’s status, and promoted Jewish settlement at the expense of minorities, undermining Israel’s foundations as a democracy for all its citizens.”  For another  example, see The Two-Way Street: Reflections for Rosh Hashanah.
• “1948: Creation & Catastrophe”, a 2017 documentary produced by Dr. Ahlam Muhtaseb and Andy Trimlett. Here’s a link to a review by The Jerusalem Fund which praises aspects of the film yet criticizes reliance on still-limited Israeli archives, to the exclusion of direct Palestinian testimony. A more recent film, “1948: Remember, Remember Not” – has not yet aired although it was produced in 2023 by Kan 11 in Israel and has had festival showing. According to Ha’aretz (gift link), this film by Neta Shoshani relies on oral histories from both Jews and Palestinians, addressing the perceived failing of the earlier film.
• Fran’s other references: Noura Saleh Erekat, Linda Sarsour, MPower Change, Adalah Justice Project
• Liora’s references: JStreet (above), New Israel Fund, Alliance for Middle East Peace (AllMEP) – and more across other show notes and the to be published
• Peter Beinart, author of Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza, 2024, mentioned across several podcasts. Here’s a link to the author’s substack where he talks about the book.

Episode 3: Sandra Gartner  – Among many roles that she plays, Sandra Gartner has been co-producer of Vermont Actors’ Repertory Theatre for 20 years, an actor with the company, and is co-producer with filmmaker Nora Jacobson on her latest project. Sandra also writes for Rutland Magazine and other publications. Not surprisingly, she has a wonderful way of telling stories. In this conversation she picks up threads of her life in Vermont and New York City; her life in theatre, journalism, and the Rutland, VT Jewish community.

Sandra was a Youth Ambassador to Israel in 1966, at 16 years old, and “came back a changed person”. She maintains great affection for the land and people not withstanding that the current situation “doesn’t sit well” with her. The book she is holding in this photo is To Life: A Celebration of Vermont Jewish Women, based on an oral history project she undertook with Ann Zinn Buffum and which was contributed to the Jewish Women’s Archive. Recorded November 20, 2025  Photo: Sandy with book, by Liora

S2 E3 Notes:

• NFTY (National Federation of Temple Youth) is based on the tradition of European youth movements and pursues “tikkun olam [repair of the world], personal growth, youth empowerment, and deep connections, all rooted in Reform Judaism.”
• AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) is the heavy weight political lobby for Israel maintaining unwavering support for the Israeli government.
• Peace Now, established in 1978 by 348 Israeli senior reserve army officers is “the largest and oldest movement in Israel that works to promote peace through a two-state solution for two peoples”. Three years later, Americans for Peace Now (APN) was established to support it. With century old ties to labor movements and progressive causes, Ameinu, (Our People) “was founded in 2005 to reimagine the role of a progressive Zionist voice in the American Jewish community.” Ameinu perceived the need to strength ties with their Israeli counterparts via The Third Narrative. While Peace Now remains active in Israel, in 2024, APN and Ameinu merged forming the New Jewish Narrative promoting peace, justice, and a progressive Israel.
• Jewish Women’s Archive/To Life: A Celebration of Vermont Jewish Women Follow the link to see Sandy’s work.

Episode 2: Irit Librot  – Irit Librot takes us through her early years in Haifa immediately following the creation of the State and the subsequent move to the US where “the streets are paved with gold” (spoiler: didn’t turn out that way). We get a strong and inspiring picture of Irit’s mother, Rachel Dziecholska Rotkovitch, who lived, studied, and worked in Poland, Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt, and the US. You can read about Rachel in the alumni magazine of the American University in Beirut, photos p.51, write up p.64.
Irit’s own experience of October 7 and the war is tempered by her time in Israel and the reactions of those in her close community here, where, as you can see from the show notes, her life is infused with music and dance. Recorded November 12, 2025 Courtesy Photo: Irit

S2 E2 Notes:

• UVJC Healing Circles, discussed in Season 1 Episode 4: Gene Kadish.
• Mussar: The book Irit refers to is Everyday Holiness, by Alan Morinis, Trumpeter, 2007, and the course is from the Mussar Institute.
• Vivian Silver: Here’s a link to the GroundWork episode “Vivian Silver’s Legacy: From Grief to Action”, an interview with her son, Yonatan Zeigen.
• Holding Liat, the film referenced on the captivity and release of Liat Beinin Atzili.
• The orchestra referenced is Firqat Alnoor (“Orchestra of Light/Fire”) “an Arabic classical music orchestra composed of Jewish and Arab musicians from diverse social and geographical backgrounds across Israel.” Enjoy.
• Umm Kulthumm. Can’t say enough. Check her out on Wikipedia and I dare you not to listen to The Voice.
• The singer Irit references is Ziv Yeheskel and here’s a link to him singing Sawaah with The Jerusalem Orchestra East & West.
• And the dance is the Dabka. Looks simple enough. And then…
• Times of Israel is, indeed, both a publication and a podcast. I’ve heard it critiqued from more than one perspective, so, maybe it is, as Irit, claims, presenting all sides.

Episode 1: Kesha Ram-Hinsdale  – Kesha Ram-Hinsdale, as we establish at the outset, is our Vermont Senate Majority Leader, and yet here, she is not talking state politics – she’s just an ordinary Jew. Her story, as a self-proclaimed HinJew, is awash with streams of migration and displacement on both sides of her family. Looking at the origins of Israel, we focus often on the fallout from the mid-century dissolution of the British Empire. At the same time, Kesha’s family was uprooted by the divisions left on the Indian subcontinent by the British exit. She speaks movingly about the legacy of her grandfather, Sir Ganga Ram, the role of art in giving her a sense of place in Israel, and how her dual legacy has shaped her thinking on democracy and human rights. Recorded November 7, 2025 Courtesy Photo: Kesha and baby, VT Statehouse

Episode 0: Hi! I’m happy to be back with a second season of OJT. Here, in Episode 0, I have a few words about the “why” of the podcast and some thoughts on this season in the short S2E0 audio. And let me tease Episode 1 – we start out with a great conversation with VT Senator Kesha Ram-Hinsdale.
I’ve been asked a few times why I’m doing this podcast and I’d be glad to tell you. I felt from the beginning of the Gaza War that I needed a better connection with other Jews. I had been part of the Upper Valley Jewish community, and then I wasn’t. And it was, and still is, such a fraught time and so confusing with the rise in antisemitism, the rise in pro-Palestinian sentiment, and no end to conflict in sight. I was trying to sort out my own history and my own feelings, and I started going back to the UVJC and what I realized was that it wasn’t just me – a lot of people just really needed to sort things out.
And it’s not because there is a shortage of analysis and expertise. There’s great stuff online, really knowledgeable people from a historical perspective, theological, social perspective. But I feel that it isn’t just the experts who need to have these conversation – it’s also us ordinary Jews. More on this topic, including online resources, with a soon-to-be-linked Substack.
Happy listening, and please, do, subscribe! Thank you.

Season 1

Episode 6: Roberta Berner – Roberta has accomplished so much, one would think she lived three lives rather than lived in three places: the deep South, Midwest, and for 27+ years, here in the Upper Valley. She didn’t mention, but I will, that she was awarded a Shem Tov award this year from the NH Jewish Federation. Roberta is a Board Trustee and the immediate past President of the Upper Valley Jewish Community (UVJC) where she leads the Caring and Chesed (loving kindness) Committee and reportedly makes the best Saturday morning coffee. Her remarks on Israel and being Jewish at this moment are touching, difficult, and central to what so many of us are experiencing. Recorded September 3, 2025  Courtesy Photo: Roberta Berner, with her husband, Rich Abel
For my part, I’m taking a pause here after Episode 6 to reflect on where OJT can go from here, line up a new season of guests, and enjoy the glorious Vermont fall. Happy New Year, Shanah Tova u’Metuka – an even better year and a sweeter year – to you all.

Episode 6 Notes: 

• DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution): According to an AI Overview on Google, “The DAR has evolved to be open to all races, religions, and ethnic backgrounds.” Roberta’s reference reflects what was a truism for us growing in mid-century – that Jews need not apply.  
• Shir Shalom, Woodstock VT A Reform Congregation
• The Parents Circle Families Forum (PCFF) Israeli Palestinian Bereaved Families for Peace. “Those who have paid in blood cry out: WE MUST end this war. …there is no other way. Stop the killing. Stop the cycle of revenge…It is time to choose peace and reconciliation.”
• Dr. Meron Medzini, Professor Emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, gave classes at Shir Shalom; his son was a tour guide when Roberta visited in 2019.
• “Israel: A Lesson in Democracy” taught by Hanan Miron about Israeli “judicial reform” in 2024. 
• Military leaders on the conflict in Gaza, mid-2025. See also Episode 5. 
• It’s Time, see also reference in Episode 3. 
• UVJC Healing Circles, discussed in Episode 4: Gene Kadish.

Episode 5: Ilsa Pinkson-Burke & Briane Pinkson – Ilsa Pinkson-Burke and Briane Pinkson grew up going to “shula,” a Cooperative Jewish Children’s School teaching Jewish history, ethics, art, music, and politics – everything except Hebrew, liturgy, or religion. The school was in the tradition of their parents and grandparents, Yiddish-speaking “left-wingers from the twenties and thirties.” Most weekends they all went to political demonstrations, and once – once – they made a field trip to a synagogue. Today, both sisters feel a need to reinforce their sense of Jewish community and to learn more about the history of Israel, while distancing themselves from Zionism. Recorded August 6, 2025  Courtesy Photo: Briane on the left, Ilsa on the right

Episode 5 Notes: 

• Rabbi Dov Taylor leads Chavurat ki-tov and can be reached at rabbit@mymakom.org
• Jewish Voice for Peace, New Hampshire/Vermont Chapter: “We envision a world where all people — from the U.S. to Palestine — live in freedom, justice, equality, and dignity.”
• Letters:
  • A Letter from Over a Thousand Rabbis Worldwide
  • Organizational responses to the suffering and starvation in Gaza:
    • Statement from the Reform Movement
    • Statement from the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly
    • Statement from 80 Orthodox Rabbis (unlike the other statements, this one was international and signed by individuals)
  • Israeli military and security leaders strongly denounce government-directed military action in Gaza, demand an end to pointless death and destruction, and a deal to return the hostages
  • Artists and intellectuals: much reporting on statements, overt or covert boycotts, and reactions from within Israel. Hard to trace back to the statements by artists and intellectuals.
• Camp Kinderland “Summer camp with a conscience since 1923”

Episode 4: Gene Kadish – Being a Jew is central to Gene’s identity. He seeks to be a better Jew as a way to be a better person, practices kyudo, goes to sabbath services as a way of meditation, and attends to the little things. In this interview, he contrasts what was worth dying for prior to the nation state, and what is so valued today. Gene is also one of the organizers of the Healing Circles held by the Upper Valley Jewish Community since October 7. Recorded August 12, 2025  Photo: by LA

Episode 4 Notes: 

• Peter Beinart appearing on Jon Stewart show
• Books referenced: 
  • Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza, by Peter Beinart, 2024. Here’s a link to the author’s substack where he talks about the book. 
  • The Necessity of Exile: Essays from a Distance, by Shaul Magid, 2023. Here’s a link to a discussion with Magid at Harvard Divinity School. 
  • Impossible Takes Longer – Israel at 75, by Daniel Gordis, 2023. Here’s a link to a discussion on the book. See also Gordis’s Substack where he surfaces media from across the Israeli spectrum that reflect the national discourse: Israel from the Inside  including this 22 minute standup routine on PTSD by Udi Kagan. 
• Newspapers: 
  • Ha-aretz, English Edition
  • Times of Israel 
• Organizations supporting a shared future: (just those mentioned in this Episode)
  • New Jewish Narrative
  • Standing Together
  • New Israel Fund

Episode 3: Joy Gaine – Joy defines herself as a teacher, musician, and mother. Her sense of herself as a Jew rose post October 7th with questions on whether being Jewish makes her think differently about the conflict than her progressive friends? And why should that be true? Isn’t it enough to be pro-peace with good will for all who believe in human rights for all? She challenged me greatly on where to see a good outcome, all the while probing where and why “the Jews” are so often at fault. It was a great conversation, do tune in! Recorded July 29, 2025  Photo: Courtesy Joy Gaine

Episode 3 Notes:

• Out of Egypt, 1994, is a memoir and the first book published by André Aciman, better known for his fiction. “Out of Egypt is a love letter to the Jewish diaspora in its portrayal of a Jewish society that has now practically disappeared.” Here’s a fabulous short interview with Aciman where he talks about his enduring love for Alexandria and for Egyptians, “…the nicest human beings I have ever met in my life and will ever meet.” (Oh, and the correct title of the novel he is best known for is Call Me By Your Name.)
• It’s Time, “… a coalition of over 60 peacebuilding and shared society organizations, working together with determination and courage to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a political agreement that will ensure both peoples’ right to self-determination and secure lives.”
• Status of IDF soldiers: Can’t find a link to the interview mentioned in the podcast. This article, also from July 29, anticipates the current (September) wave of refusals to serve and points out the poor fit of the iDF for protracted combat.

Episode 2: Daniel Intraub – I knew Daniel solely through a series of graphics projects, both professional and protest-related, that he supported at Gnomon Copy in Hanover, NH. It was the latter type of project that got us talking about the conflict in Gaza where he mentioned that he was Jewish and we quickly fell into a discussion that led straight to this episode of the podcast. Recorded July 19, 2025  Photo: LA

Episode 2 Notes:

• Birthright Foundation: Founded to help give Jewish young adults the gift of a transformational and educational trip to Israel.
• Dates of the Second Intifada: roughly September 2000 through February 2005.
• Clip of President Obama that starts, “If there’s any chance of us being able to act constructively to do something…” Take a listen. And here’s the link to the full episode of Pod Save America.
• American Friends of the Parents Circle – Families Forum, Palestinian and Israeli Bereaved Families for Peace fosters a peace and reconciliation process and is affiliated with the corresponding Parents Circle in Israel.
• Standing Together: A grassroots movement organizing Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel against the occupation, for full equality for everyone in this land, where true social, economic, and environmental justice are possible.
• What’s So Funny ‘bout Peace, Love, and Understanding: Links to a video of the David Broza version of the Nick Lowe song, recorded in East Jerusalem with Palestinian, Israeli, and American musicians and the Palestinian & Israeli Jerusalem Youth Chorus – which itself is a pretty interesting find!

Episode 1: Susan Russo – Susan is a émigré, coming to Claremont in 1975 from Brooklyn where being Jewish was an effortless part of life, ethics, culture, and family politics. Finding herself and raising her children in a profoundly non-Jewish Upper Valley, her identity has been expressed in friendships, noodle puddings, and the rugelach she bakes and gives out at Christmas time. Her exposure to Israel and the contradictions of that society were shaped by visits with a childhood friend who moved there to marry a Tunisian Jew. We discuss her experience of October 7, her shifting relationship to Judaism and to the post-October 7 conflict, and we fantasize together about where we might find the light. Listen to the stories that are the sign posts of this journey and you’ll also learn the secret identity of “Moe Levine”, the Catholic priest of Claremont, NH. Recorded July 8, 2025  Photo: Susan Russo

Episode 1 Notes:

• The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East, by Sandy Tolan. Here’s a link to the author’s website where he writes about the origins of the book.
• Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza, by Peter Beinart, 2024. Here’s a link to the author’s substack where he talks about the book.

Episode 0: To geo-locate me, Jewishly, I grew up in a WASPy suburb of Chicago, touched down in Pittsburgh for a couple years, then, at age 17, fled this country, my family, and lived in Israel for four and a half years, mostly in Jerusalem with the last year living in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan, returning in December, 1972. These years colored my experience of Israel, and all who live there, and in an oblique way – since I don’t recall ever setting foot in a synagogue – broadened immensely my experience of being a Jew. Since returning, I have found it profoundly difficult to talk about Israel, about being a Jew, inside or outside the country, with just about anyone, no less with my fellow Jews. Until now, and now, while not always easy, I think it’s time. The three pillars that anchor my Jewish life today:
• Chavurat ki-tov: a small group convened by Rabbi Dov Taylor who can be
reached at rabbit@mymakom.org
• Upper Valley Jewish Community/Kol Ha’Emek: “An eclectic, welcoming,
egalitarian congregation providing Jewish spiritual, educational, social and
cultural opportunities.”
• Etz Hayyim: The only synagogue today in Crete, lovingly revived decades after
the Nazi destruction of a 2000 years-old Jewish community.

Photo: Liora, back then, with Haj Baidun