A selection of interviews, podcast conversations, and profiles exploring Jewish life, learning, spirituality, creativity, community, and leadership.

Featured Interview

Rabbinical Assembly Spotlight: Laurie Matzkin Merges Jewish Wisdom and Yoga

“It’s easy to sit in the Beit Midrash and not think about the body that is housing your brilliant mind. What has become meaningful for me is the spirit of iyyun, a slower, deeper exploration – similar to when we’re doing a chanting practice, and we go deeper and deeper into one verse until we really embody it, until it’s really inside us and showing us a truth about our own experience. That’s the way I try to approach the text.”

Podcast Conversation: Holy Sparks with Saul Kaye
Reflections on multifaith community-building, public ritual, Jewish leadership, and responding to moments of crisis with creativity and connection.

Featured Profile
65 Faces of IES Abroad: Laurie Matzkin, Vienna 1999

“I have always had these two sides – creativity and music, and spirituality and Judaism. Even before studying in Vienna, I had changed my degree so that I had a slightly smaller expectation on my practice hours as a flutist, and with that time I added a second Jewish studies course each semester. I didn’t want the isolation of 10-hour practice days. My early dreams were to play flute in a Broadway pit orchestra or record on the Disney sound stage. But by the time I finished college, and after having conversations with leaders in the Jewish community, I knew that if I wanted to make a difference, I needed to go all the way and become a rabbi.”