Talking It Out

This week, we reflect on the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent protests that have spread across the world, with hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets to decry racism and police violence.

Our first guest is Jason Kirschner, Mark’s first cousin and close friend from childhood. Their Northeast Jewish suburban upbringings were strikingly similar, except that Jason is black. The cousins catch up by phone, and discuss race for the first time.

Then we hear from Rabbi Alex Ozar of OU-JLIC and the Slifka Center for Jewish LIfe at Yale, who is writing his PhD on what Jewish ethics teach us about our responsibility for social justice, focusing on the work of Hannah Arendt, Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Joseph Soloveitchik. He explains what our obligations are as Jews in the face of injustice.

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