Shulie Hersh is a graduate of the Academy for Jewish Religion, and a Cantor for the Beth Sholom Congregation in Frederick, MD. Shulie and I went to High School together, and reconnected for the first time on this episode. We speak about what it was like for Shulie growing up with a father who was a Rabbi and how it felt being “the Jewish girl” in our High School. We deconstruct Judaism as both a religion and a culture and discuss the nature of ancestral Jewish trauma. We speak about how we can incorporate traditional practices of all kinds into our lives, but also evolve them to suit our modern day values. And Shulie also explains how Judaism encourages us to question & struggle with faith, how the Jewish calendar can help connect us to nature, and how being angry and processing grief has always been a crucial component Judaism throughout history and into the present.

Send Shulie an Email – cantor@bethsholomfrederick.org

Shulie’s book recommendations: The Jewish Book of Days by Jill Hammer

Songs featured: “Opening” by Jamie Sieber and “Avinu Malkeinu” by Barbara Streisand

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