Rabbi Yehuda Albin grew up as a Reform Jew in Scarsdale, NY. He was exposed to Judaism and his father ran several secular Jewish camps for youth. He became religious in Jerusalem, after graduating Bowdoin College with the highest honors.  Then he studied the Torah and the Talmud for nearly a decade in Jerusalem, before returning to the states, and moving to Chicago. In Chicago he established a Torah teaching and counseling practice, focused on successful businesspeople and professionals. He has been doing this for 30 years wearing two different ..read more

Baruch Lytle is an African American Orthodox Jew from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and he identifies as a Satmar Chasid.  He describes his conversion to Judaism as the defining moment of his life and greatest accomplishment.  He is also an award-winning journalist, having written nearly 200 articles for the largest Jewish newspaper in America, The Jewish Press.    In 2023, he won the Simon Rockower Award – the Jewish journalism version of the Pulitzer – for Excellence in Journalism. His favorite writing assignments deal with self- improvement, and he has worked extensively ..read more

Michael Feldstein is a keen observer and commentator on all aspects of the Orthodox Jewish community, and his weekly columns in the Jewish Link newspaper draws an enthusiastic readership. His upcoming (January 2024) book, "Meet Me in the Middle," is a collection of 75 of his essays and, in this episode, we discuss five of them: • Prayer, Politics and the Pulpit • The Changing Geographic Face of Orthodoxy in America • The Culture of Fear in Orthodoxy • Time for a Jewish Vocational School • Seven Things I Would Change about Jewish Weddings In our "What Do You Want to Know?” segment, we expand on ..read more

This episode is an exploration of a pioneering study of people who have left the Orthodox community, as we examing  journeys, practices, beliefs, identity, community and relationships, across Chasidic, Yeshivish and Modern Orthodox segments of the population. In this episode, we review many highlights of this study, including: 1. Why People Leave Orthodoxy 2. How Do They Now Identify Jewishly? What Have They Held Onto? 3. What About “Double-Lifers”? 4. How Are Their Family Relationships? What are their Levels of Acceptance? 5. How Widespread Is This Phenomenon? 6. Final Thoughts and Refle ..read more

In this episode, we first look at how Covid affected a shul and community, and we discuss with Rabbi Brander the creativity, innovations, and possible lasting changes that took place.  We then discuss with a leading demographer the impact that Covid had on the Jewish community in terms of actual mortality and death statistics. While we are typically aware of things that happen within our community and within our families, there is only speculation as to how the community as a whole did. Dr. Staetsky will disclose his ground-breaking research on this topic.    We want to hear fro ..read more

In this episode, we speak with Benyamin Cohen, news director at The Forward, author of “My Jesus Year: A Rabbi’s Son Wanders the Bible Belt in Search of His Own Faith,” named one of the best books of the year by Publishers Weekly, “The Einstein Effect: How the World's Favorite Genius Got into Our Cars, Our Bathrooms, and Our Minds,” and a man of diverse and fascinating interests and explorations.   In our brief film discussion, I recommended “Fill the Void” as my favorite Jewish movie of the past decade. Check it out and let me know what you think.   In our "What Do You Wan ..read more

In this episode, we speak with the noted Jewish world demographer Dr. Daniel Staetsky about population trends, particularly in the Haredi world. Dr. Staetsky is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (London), and has published widely on Jewish, Israeli and European demography and social statistics. He has written many popular columns in the Times of Israel.  Many of the Orthodox community research studies we reference in this podcast are available and downloadable free at http://nishmaresearch.com/social-research.html.  These include our recent article ..read more

In this episode, we speak with Prof. Naomi Seidman about people leaving Orthodoxy and the related stories, experiences and misconceptions. She shares what she personally learned in leaving her Haredi community, as well as the insights of many others.   We also draw upon the 2016 study “Starting a Conversation: A Pioneering Survey of Those Who Have Left the Orthodox Community,” in which 885 people recounted their experiences, and we include some verbatim quotes from some of these people, explaining what motivated them and what they want the Orthodox community as a whole to know about ..read more

In this episode, we speak with Keshet Starr about the agunah (“chained wife”) problem and what is being done to resolve it. Hot off the press (from a large-scale survey that had not yet been released as we recorded this episode), we have new data on the agunah situation and some fascinating verbatim comments from women and men about their divorce difficulties, which we will read and discuss. Link to ORA to find out more, at http://getora.org. In our "What Do You Want to Know?” segment, we answer a question we are often asked … why do we do research? Why do we even get into “these issues”? Many ..read more

Elana Silber is CEO of Sharsheret (https://sharsheret.org), a national non-profit organization that improves the lives of Jewish women and families living with or at increased genetic risk for breast or ovarian cancer, through personalized support and educational outreach. We address such issues as: which Orthodox groups are at higher risk, what advances are being made, and how can people be helped in facing health, emotional, financial and family impacts? The Sharsheret website has much valuable information and informative links. In our "What Do You Wan ..read more