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When a person is near the end of their life loved ones are often faced with some of the most difficult issues they will ever face as a family. No matter what the circumstance, all of us want those we care about to live, and to die, on their terms. Making that happen often the responsibility of people like Dr. Howard Stein, Medical Director of Bioethics at Centrastate Hospital in Freehold, who joined Rabbi Pont this week for a wide reaching conversation about bioethics, New Jersey's Medical Aid in Dying Act, and how to help families and patients go through these horrible moments with dignity.

By now all of us have heard about the brazen act of antisemitism that befell Congregation Beth Israel in Jackson, Mississippi. On Saturday, January 10th, an arsonist set this 166 year old Synagogue ablaze in an irrily similar attack to the one that this same Congregation experienced in 1967 from the Ku Klux Klan. As we celebrate the memory and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King this week, Rabbi Pont sat down with Robyn Ringel Pollack, a former Board Member at Congregation Beth Israel whose family has been members there for four generations. To help Congregation Beth Israel rebuild visit https://www.bethisraelms.org.

Issues surrounding interfaith marriage and the roles clergy can or can’t play in these ceremonies have long been taboo within conservative Judaism. But in today's world, where nearly 75% of non-Orthodox married Jews are married to someone of a different faith, the status quo is no longer sustainable for the Conservative Movement. On this episode, Rabbi Pont is joined by the perfect guest to explore these issues—his friend and colleague, Rabbi Aaron Brusso. Rabbi Brusso is the Senior Rabbi at Congregation Bet Torah in Mount Kisco, New York, and co-chair of the Rabbinical Assembly’s Intermarriage Working Group. Rabbi Brusso is deeply involved in reshaping how the Rabbinical Assembly, in partnership with the Cantors Assembly and United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, is rethinking interfaith marriage and the processes surrounding it for clergy, Jewish professionals, and communities. Whether interfaith marriage is part of your life now or might be in the future, this is an episode you won’t want to miss.

Louis Brandeis was among the most prominent figures of his time. He was also the first Jewish person ever appointed to the Supreme Court. His life, his values and his Judaism offer important lessons which are detailed in a brand me childrens' book, What Louis Brandeis Knows by author Richard Michelson. Richard is a return guest to the podcast, having previously been interviewed about his book Next Year at the White House. This conversation offers a look at a unique figure in American Jewish history from his childhood through his appointment to the Supreme Court and focuses on Brandeis's fight for social justice, emphasizing lessons about equality, privacy, and workers' rights that he learned from his father and uncle.

Judaism can be expressed in many different ways. For someone with a creative soul, art can become a way to make the intangible—faith, history, ethics, resilience—visible. It reflects the Jewish impulse to question, to interpret, and then re-interpret, much like Torah study itself.  Enter Adar Darnov, a graphic artist who uses his art as a means to expressing the Jewish identity he has developed through a life long love of his faith. This week, he caught up with Rabbi Pont to chat about the way art and Judaism are forever intertwined.

More than 80 years since the end of World War II, we will soon reach a point when there are no more living Holocaust survivors. As we experience a surge in antisemitism in the United States and around the world, finding ways to keep their stories of perserverance and survival alive is more important now than ever before.  Enter Wendy Tepper, the Outreach Coordinator for 3GNJ, an organization that trains the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors to tell their grandparents stories. Wendy's grandfather Oscar Cukierman, survived five years in concentration camps before making his way to Italy and eventually to the United States.  In this episode, Wendy shares what it is like to tell her grandfather's story, why it is so important, and how she thinks stories like Oscar Cukierman's help stem the growing tide of antisemitism.

Being a teenager has always been hard, but now it is harder than ever before. From the impact of COVID to social media and cell phone usage, teenagers are struggling to find their place in the world and grow the confidence they need to succeed. Enter Melissa Gohar, an educator and health care professional who has designed a workbook designed to help teenagers quiet their inner-critic, bounce back from failure, set boundaries, and embrace who they really are.  This week Rabbi Pont speaks to Melissa about the workbook in a must-listen episode for every parent or grandparent of a teenager.

Growing up as the Cantor's daughter is not easy. It is even harder when our father dies when you are very young, leaving an even larger shadow for a growing child. This week, Rabbi Pont speaks with author Diana Harmon Asher about her new book, Trouble Finds Evie Lefkowitz, in which the title character lives in the shadow that Diana grew up with. A wonderful book about resilience, childhoom, community and friendship, you will certainly understand why PJ Library chose this book for publication after hearing from Diana.

The October 7th massacres and the subsequent war have claimed the lives of nearly 2,000 civilians and soldiers. It has become a tradition in Israel, during this war, for families and friends to create a memorial sticker for their loved ones. Many of these include a personal motto or phrase that held special significance to the individual. The Stickers of Meaning project was created to collect and present these stickers to the public in a central repository, making them and the powerful messages they carry accessible to as many people as possible. This week, Rabbi Pont is joined by Stickers of Meaning founder Jeff Weiss and Executive Director North America Orlie Braha to discuss this amazing project and how you can get involved. Checkout the stickers here: https://stickersofmeaning.org/ Ushpizin Packets for Sukkot: https://stickersofmeaning.org/ushpizin/

As we continue to get ready for the High Holidays we revisit Rabbi Pont's two Yom Kippur sermons from last year. The first is an interesting look at the role our smartphones play in the lives of teens today. The second is a deeper exploration of antisemitism and the best ways to overcome its rise. Enjoy!

For the Love of Judaism is here for its 5th season and just in time for the High Holidays! On this first episode of the new season, we look back to last Rosh Hashana and the two polar opposite sermons that Rabbi Pont gave. A year later, both resonate in different ways.

In what will likely be our season finale, Rabbi Pont offers teachings that he spoke about to the congregation at Marlboro Jewish Center on recent Shabbat mornings. Three short sermons about food from a Shiva house, Mother's Day and the recent horrifying murders of two Israeli embassy workers.

When we teach our children about the Holocaust, it is largely from the perspective of those who survived. But what about the million or more Jews who lived in communities that were completely destroyed. Thus began the quest of this week's guest, Julie Brill, whose family was from Belgrade, Serbia one of those places whose entire Jewish community was destroyed in the early days of the War.  Julie details her family's history, and her journey to memorialize all those who died in Belgrade, in her new book, Hidden in Plain Sight: A Family Memoir and the Untold Story of the Holocaust in Serbia. In this week's conversation, Julie and the Rabbi dive deep into the book, into the horrors that happened to Julie's family, and reason why Julie worked so hard to tell this story.

As we get ready for Passover, here are a couple of teachings that Rabbi Pont recently offered to his congregation at Marlboro Jewish Center!

We all know that what it means to be a Jew has changed since October 7th, 2023. From the most observant to the least, Jewish life is different than it was before. In his new book, For Such a Time as This, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of Park Avenue Synagogue offers a poignant explanation of what it means to be Jewish today.  This week, Rabbi Cosgrove joins his friend of thirty years, Rabbi Pont, for a meaningful conversation about this, about searching for our Esther moment in modern times, and about what it means to get back to being a Genesis Jew post October 7th.