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Homesick for Lubavitch

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Rating
★★★★★
4.8
from
55 reviews
This podcast has
84 episodes
Language
English
Explicit
No
Date created
2023/09/15
Latest episode
2026/01/18
Average duration
97 min.
Release period
12 days

Description

An exploration of Lubavitch identity in 2023, hosted by Bentzi Avtzon.

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Check latest episodes from Homesick for Lubavitch podcast


Ep. 84 // "When We Run Out of Answers" w/ R' Gershon Schusterman
2026/01/18
Reb Gershon Schusterman grew up in Brooklyn and today lives in Los Angeles. Almost forty years ago he was on shlichus in Long Beach, California when his first wife and mother of their eleven children suddenly passed away. In the years since he remarried, raised his children and continued to build his life, but he has also spent his time thinking about the religious and chassidic approach processing tragedy. Not just what the texts say about it, but what they can't say, the space of faith that is beyond answers. In this episode we discuss his upbringing and how it framed his approach to dealing with personal tragedy. ____ His book, "Why God Why" can be purchased here: https://www.amazon.com/Believe-Heaven-When-Hurts-Like/dp/0826608469 ____ Support this podcast at: https://www.hflpodcast.com/donate If you would like to sponsor an episode or advertise on the podcast please reach out to [email protected] ____ This week's episode is brought to you by "This World Is A Garden," a new film and live concert production by Yuvla Media based on the Rebbe's first talk, Bosi Lgani. Combining beautiful cinematography with a live performance by a string quartet, this production is a meditation on hope and holding on to a vision even as time passes by. Now you can bring this groundbreaking experience of Bosi Lgani to your community. For more info please visit: ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com/thisworldisagarden ____ Homesick for Lubavitch is a project of Yuvla Media. Bentzi Avtzon is a filmmaker who specializes in telling the stories of thoughtful and heartfelt organizations. Business inquiries only: [email protected] Connect with Bentzi Website | ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com
Ep. 83 // "On The Topic of Closeness" w/ Rabbi Leibel Korf
2026/01/11
Rabbi Leibel Korf grew up in Crown Heights and is a shliach today in Los Feliz, a neighborhood in Los Angeles.In this episode, we discuss what it was like growing up in Crown Heights in the home of the famed chossid Reb Pinye Korf a"h and his father Reb Sheia Korf a"h, all in close proximity to the Lubavitcher Rebbe and the environment of 770.The episode is a beautiful survey of three generations of chassidim, all growing up in vastly different epochs and yet all connected by a through line of commitment, closeness and devotion.____Support this podcast at: https://www.hflpodcast.com/donateIf you would like to sponsor an episode or advertise on the podcast please reach out to [email protected]____This week's episode is brought to you by "This World Is A Garden," a new film and live concert production by Yuvla Media based on the Rebbe's first talk, Bosi Lgani.Combining beautiful cinematography with a live performance by a string quartet, this production is a meditation on hope and holding on to a vision even as time passes by.Now you can bring this groundbreaking experience of Bosi Lgani to your community.For more info please visit: ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com/thisworldi...____Homesick for Lubavitch is a project of Yuvla Media.Bentzi Avtzon is a filmmaker who specializes in telling the stories of thoughtful and heartfelt organizations. Business inquiries only: [email protected] with BentziWebsite | ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com
Ep. 82 // "Wheelchair At The Rebbe's Farbrengen" w/ Tzvi Burston
2025/12/14
Tzvi Burston grew up in Crown Heights and lives today in Los Angeles.After an accident during his birth, Tzvi was diagnosed with cerebral palsy which resulted in his being wheelchair bound the rest of his life.In this episode, Tzvi shares what it was like growing up as a boy with disabilities in Crown Heights in the 90s, what it was like to interact with the Rebbe and 770 despite his limitations, and how he related differently to the ideas of miracles and even Moshiach.____Support this podcast at: https://www.hflpodcast.com/donateIf you would like to sponsor an episode or advertise on the podcast please reach out to [email protected]____This week's episode is brought to you by "This World Is A Garden," a new film and live concert production by Yuvla Media based on the Rebbe's first talk, Bosi Lgani.Combining beautiful cinematography with a live performance by a string quartet, this production is a meditation on hope and holding on to a vision even as time passes by.Now you can bring this groundbreaking experience of Bosi Lgani to your community.For more info please visit: ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com/thisworldisagarden____Homesick for Lubavitch is a project of Yuvla Media.Bentzi Avtzon is a filmmaker who specializes in telling the stories of thoughtful and heartfelt organizations. Business inquiries only: [email protected] with BentziWebsite | ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com
Ep. 81 // "The Case for Optimism" w/ Rabbi Mendel Cohen
2025/12/07
Rabbi Mendel Cohen grew up in Montreal and has been on shlichus to Sacramento for over thirty years.In this conversation, he lays out the case for optimism for Chabad chassidim thirty years after Gimmel Tammuz, why younger chassidim should be encouraged to think about their strengths and not what they're missing and how his commitment to study hours of Torah each day helped him come to this outlook.____Support this podcast at: https://www.hflpodcast.com/donateIf you would like to sponsor an episode or advertise on the podcast please reach out to [email protected]____This week's episode is brought to you by "This World Is A Garden," a new film and live concert production by Yuvla Media based on the Rebbe's first talk, Bosi Lgani.Combining beautiful cinematography with a live performance by a string quartet, this production is a meditation on hope and holding on to a vision even as time passes by.Now you can bring this groundbreaking experience of Bosi Lgani to your community.For more info please visit: ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com/thisworldisagarden____Homesick for Lubavitch is a project of Yuvla Media.Bentzi Avtzon is a filmmaker who specializes in telling the stories of thoughtful and heartfelt organizations. Business inquiries only: [email protected] with BentziWebsite | ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com
Ep. 80 // "The Temptation to Spiritualize" w/ Rabbi Meni Even Israel
2025/11/30
Rabbi Meni Even Israel was born and raised in Jerusalem and lives there to this day.In this episode, we hear what it was like to be raised by his parents, Rabbi Adin and Chaya Even Israel (Steinsaltz), and how their iconoclastic personalities fit and didn't fit into the general Chabad identity.We discuss a number of fascinating anecdotes from his father's interactions with the Rebbe, and the Rebbe's insistence that their relationship stay grounded in the world of the here and now.____To find out more about the new Steinsaltz Rambam please visit:https://www.steinsaltz-center.org.Use the code ST10 at checkout for 10% off____If you would like to sponsor an episode or advertise on the podcast please reach out to [email protected]____This week's episode is brought to you by "This World Is A Garden," a new film and live concert production by Yuvla Media based on the Rebbe's first talk, Bosi Lgani.Combining beautiful cinematography with a live performance by a string quartet, this production is a meditation on hope and holding on to a vision even as time passes by.Now you can bring this groundbreaking experience of Bosi Lgani to your community.For more info please visit: ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com/thisworldisagarden____Homesick for Lubavitch is a project of Yuvla Media.Bentzi Avtzon is a filmmaker who specializes in telling the stories of thoughtful and heartfelt organizations. Business inquiries only: [email protected] with BentziWebsite | ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com
Ep. 79 // "Aiming for Higher" w/ Rabbi Michoel Gourarie
2025/11/23
Rabbi Michoel Gourarie grew up in South Africa and today directs Binah, a center of adult learning and growth in Sydney, Australia.In this episode, we discuss his parents very different Chabad family histories and what led them to South Africa.We discuss how the study of Chassidus impacts an individual, the potential and the limits of engrossing the mind in the study of G-d, and the need to measure ourselves against impossible standards.____This week's episode is sponsored by Jnet, a project of Merkos 302.Join over ten thousand volunteers sharing their Torah knowledge with fellow study partners around the world.Visit jnet.org for more info.Support this podcast at: ⁠https://www.hflpodcast.com/donate⁠___If you would like to sponsor an episode or advertise on the podcast please reach out to [email protected]____This week's episode is brought to you by "This World Is A Garden," a new film and live concert production by Yuvla Media based on the Rebbe's first talk, Bosi Lgani.Combining beautiful cinematography with a live performance by a string quartet, this production is a meditation on hope and holding on to a vision even as time passes by.Now you can bring this groundbreaking experience of Bosi Lgani to your community.For more info please visit: ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com/thisworldisagarden____Homesick for Lubavitch is a project of Yuvla Media.Bentzi Avtzon is a filmmaker who specializes in telling the stories of thoughtful and heartfelt organizations. Business inquiries only: [email protected] with BentziWebsite | ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com
Ep. 78 // "We Need To Ask & Question Everything" w/ Rabbi Mendel Zirkind
2025/11/16
Rabbi Mendel Zirkind grew up in Crown Heights and was recently appointed to fill the position of his late grandfather, Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Groner a"h, as Moro D'asra of the Chabad community in Melbourne, Australia. In this episode, we discuss the challenge of "filling the shoes" of such an enormous personality and on a more general level, finding our own place in a heritage with such a rich past and endless future. Along the way, we discuss the growing need for courage, not certainty, in a world and time that forces us to challenge all assumptions and make them our own. ____ This week's episode is sponsored by Jnet, a project of Merkos 302. Join over ten thousand volunteers sharing their Torah knowledge with fellow study partners around the world. Visit jnet.org for more info. ___ Support this podcast at: ⁠https://www.hflpodcast.com/donate ⁠___ If you would like to sponsor an episode or advertise on the podcast please reach out to [email protected] ___ This week's episode is brought to you by "This World Is A Garden," a new film and live concert production by Yuvla Media based on the Rebbe's first talk, Bosi Lgani. Combining beautiful cinematography with a live performance by a string quartet, this production is a meditation on hope and holding on to a vision even as time passes by. Now you can bring this groundbreaking experience of Bosi Lgani to your community. For more info please visit: ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com/thisworldisagarden ____ Homesick for Lubavitch is a project of Yuvla Media. Bentzi Avtzon is a filmmaker who specializes in telling the stories of thoughtful and heartfelt organizations. Business inquiries only: [email protected] Connect with Bentzi Website | ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com
Ep. 77 // "The Ability To Adapt" w/ Rabbi Dovid Eliezrie
2025/11/10
Rabbi Dovid Eliezrie is a shliach and author in Yorba Linda, California.In this episode, we discuss his recently published book, "Undaunted: How the Sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn Saved Russian Jewry, Reimagined American Judaism, Ignited a Global Jewish Renaissance."We discuss his approach to learning and writing about a Rebbe's life and the lessons he learned from the Friediker Rebbe's ability to adapt to a life of many varying challenges.Book can be purchased on Amazon____This week's episode is sponsored by Jnet, a project of Merkos 302.Join over ten thousand volunteers sharing their Torah knowledge with fellow study partners around the world.Visit jnet.org for more info.Support this podcast at: ⁠https://www.hflpodcast.com/donate⁠___If you would like to sponsor an episode or advertise on the podcast please reach out to [email protected]____This week's episode is brought to you by "This World Is A Garden," a new film and live concert production by Yuvla Media based on the Rebbe's first talk, Bosi Lgani.Combining beautiful cinematography with a live performance by a string quartet, this production is a meditation on hope and holding on to a vision even as time passes by.Now you can bring this groundbreaking experience of Bosi Lgani to your community.For more info please visit: ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com/thisworldi..⁠.____Homesick for Lubavitch is a project of Yuvla Media.Bentzi Avtzon is a filmmaker who specializes in telling the stories of thoughtful and heartfelt organizations. Business inquiries only: [email protected] with BentziWebsite | ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com
Ep. 76 // "The Mystery of Emunah" w/ Rabbi Yitzchok Kaufmann
2025/11/03
Rabbi Yitzchok Kaufmann grew up in Minnesota and today is a teacher and lecturer at The Mayanot Institute in Jerusalem. In this episode, we discuss the elusiveness of Emunah, how what seems so obvious to one person seems impenetrable to the next, and how we all struggle to fully define it.We discuss the importance of an embodied Emunah, one that resides in the lived experience and history of the individual, and in every aspect of his life. ____ Support this podcast at: ⁠https://www.hflpodcast.com/donate⁠ ___ This week's episode is sponsored by Jnet, a project of Merkos 302. Join over ten thousand volunteers sharing their Torah knowledge with fellow study partners around the world. Visit jnet.org for more info.____This week's episode is brought to you by "This World Is A Garden," a new film and live concert production by Yuvla Media based on the Rebbe's first talk, Bosi Lgani.Combining beautiful cinematography with a live performance by a string quartet, this production is a meditation on hope and holding on to a vision even as time passes by.Now you can bring this groundbreaking experience of Bosi Lgani to your community.For more info please visit: ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com/thisworldi..⁠.____Homesick for Lubavitch is a project of Yuvla Media.Bentzi Avtzon is a filmmaker who specializes in telling the stories of thoughtful and heartfelt organizations. Business inquiries only: [email protected] with BentziWebsite | ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com⁠
Ep. 75 // "45 Years On Shlichus" w/ Rabbi Yosef Levin
2025/09/08
Rabbi Yosef Levin is a shliach in the Silicon Valley from before it was known as the Silicon Valley. Before that he grew up in Belfast and Sunderland and went to yeshiva in Brunoy, Kfar Chabad and Morristown. In this episode, Rabbi Levin shares his recollections of his years in Yeshiva, the hanholo in Brunoy who didn't believe there can be spoiled milk, the first hookups with the Rebbe's farbrengens, as well as his first and hardest years on shlichus in Northern California, the "valley of very dry bones."____Support this podcast at: ⁠https://www.hflpodcast.com/donate⁠___If you would like to sponsor an episode or advertise on the podcast please reach out to [email protected]____This week's episode is brought to you by "This World Is A Garden," a new film and live concert production by Yuvla Media based on the Rebbe's first talk, Bosi Lgani.Combining beautiful cinematography with a live performance by a string quartet, this production is a meditation on hope and holding on to a vision even as time passes by.Now you can bring this groundbreaking experience of Bosi Lgani to your community.For more info please visit: ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com/thisworldi..⁠.____Homesick for Lubavitch is a project of Yuvla Media.Bentzi Avtzon is a filmmaker who specializes in telling the stories of thoughtful and heartfelt organizations. Business inquiries only: [email protected] with BentziWebsite | ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com⁠
Ep. 74 // "Thinking The Unthinkable" w/ Prof. Eliot Wolfson
2025/08/31
Elliot R. Wolfson is a scholar of Jewish studies, comparative mysticism, and the philosophy of religion and lives today in a suburb of S. Barbara, California. He is also the author of, "Open Secret: Postmessianic Messianism and the Mystical Revision of Menahem Mendel Schneerson."In this episode, we discuss his upbringing in Brooklyn and his first encounters with Chabad and Chassidus, his decision to leave the yeshiva for academia and his constant returning to the works of Chabad Chassidus.We discuss the limits of language, the limits of those limits, and the companionship one finds at the edge of this study.____Support this podcast at: ⁠https://www.hflpodcast.com/donate⁠___If you would like to sponsor an episode or advertise on the podcast please reach out to [email protected]____This week's episode is brought to you by "This World Is A Garden," a new film and live concert production by Yuvla Media based on the Rebbe's first talk, Bosi Lgani.Combining beautiful cinematography with a live performance by a string quartet, this production is a meditation on hope and holding on to a vision even as time passes by.Now you can bring this groundbreaking experience of Bosi Lgani to your community.For more info please visit: ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com/thisworldi..⁠.____Homesick for Lubavitch is a project of Yuvla Media.Bentzi Avtzon is a filmmaker who specializes in telling the stories of thoughtful and heartfelt organizations. Business inquiries only: [email protected] with BentziWebsite | ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com⁠
Ep. 73 // "Today We're All The Same" w/ Rabbi Binyomin Scheiman
2025/08/24
Rabbi Binyomin Scheiman grew up in Brighton Beach and is the shliach today in Des Plaines, Illinois.In this episode we discuss his introduction to Lubavitch as a young teenager and his very gradual immersion into this new way of life.We discuss his work today as a shliach who focuses on helping Jewish prisoners in the Illinois prison system and running camps for young Lubavitch children: the differences between these two groups and the similarities. ____Support this podcast at: ⁠https://www.hflpodcast.com/donate⁠____This episode is sponsored by "Beyond Breadwinning," a new twelve hour course by Rabbi Dr. Dovid Brownstein that helps bochurim and young men approach shidduchim and marriage with intention.Next course is in person in Crown Heights over Labor Day Weekend. Visit https://www.beyondbreadwinning.com to reserve a place and use code "ELUL85" for a 33% discount.____If you would like to sponsor an episode or advertise on the podcast please reach out to [email protected]____This week's episode is brought to you by "This World Is A Garden," a new film and live concert production by Yuvla Media based on the Rebbe's first talk, Bosi Lgani.Combining beautiful cinematography with a live performance by a string quartet, this production is a meditation on hope and holding on to a vision even as time passes by.Now you can bring this groundbreaking experience of Bosi Lgani to your community.For more info please visit: ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com/thisworldi..⁠.____Homesick for Lubavitch is a project of Yuvla Media.Bentzi Avtzon is a filmmaker who specializes in telling the stories of thoughtful and heartfelt organizations. Business inquiries only: [email protected] with BentziWebsite | ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com⁠
Ep. 72 // "A Tomim In Montreal" w/ Rabbi Joseph Polak
2025/08/17
Rabbi Joseph Polak is the Av Beis Din of Boston and served for over four decades years as a university chaplain at Boston University.But before all of that he spent over a decade studying in the Lubavitch yeshiva and Beis Medrash in Montreal where he encountered famous personalities like Reb Volf Greenglass and many others.In this episode we discuss how those years in Yeshiva formed his identity as a chossid that remains with him to this very day and how Chassidus inspired his work on campus and his life in general.____Support this podcast at: ⁠https://www.hflpodcast.com/donate⁠____This episode is sponsored by "Beyond Breadwinning," a new twelve hour course by Rabbi Dr. Dovid Brownstein that helps bochurim and young men approach shidduchim and marriage with intention.Next course is in person in Crown Heights over Labor Day Weekend. Visit https://www.beyondbreadwinning.com to reserve a place and use code "ELUL85" for a 33% discount.____If you would like to sponsor an episode or advertise on the podcast please reach out to [email protected]____This week's episode is brought to you by "This World Is A Garden," a new film and live concert production by Yuvla Media based on the Rebbe's first talk, Bosi Lgani.Combining beautiful cinematography with a live performance by a string quartet, this production is a meditation on hope and holding on to a vision even as time passes by.Now you can bring this groundbreaking experience of Bosi Lgani to your community.For more info please visit: ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com/thisworldi..⁠.____Homesick for Lubavitch is a project of Yuvla Media.Bentzi Avtzon is a filmmaker who specializes in telling the stories of thoughtful and heartfelt organizations. Business inquiries only: [email protected] with BentziWebsite | ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com⁠
Ep. 71 // "50 Years on Shlichus" w/ Mrs. Esther Goldstein
2025/08/10
Mrs. Esther Goldstein was born in Williamsburg to parents who had both survived the Holocaust.Though her family were not Lubavitchers, a year after her marriage to Rabbi Aharon Goldstein she arrived to University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan.But unlike her husband and the other shluchim in those days, her first day on the job was also the first time she encountered shlichus.In this episode, she shares her unique journey from the shteibel to the Chabad House and the decades since.____Support this podcast at: ⁠https://www.hflpodcast.com/donate⁠____If you would like to sponsor an episode or advertise on the podcast please reach out to [email protected]____This week's episode is brought to you by "This World Is A Garden," a new film and live concert production by Yuvla Media based on the Rebbe's first talk, Bosi Lgani.Combining beautiful cinematography with a live performance by a string quartet, this production is a meditation on hope and holding on to a vision even as time passes by.Now you can bring this groundbreaking experience of Bosi Lgani to your community.For more info please visit: ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com/thisworldi..⁠.____Homesick for Lubavitch is a project of Yuvla Media.Bentzi Avtzon is a filmmaker who specializes in telling the stories of thoughtful and heartfelt organizations. Business inquiries only: [email protected] with BentziWebsite | ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com⁠
Ep. 70 // "Horizontal Connections" w/ Rabbi Yossi Lipsker
2025/08/03
Rabbi Yossi Lipsker grew up on shlichus in Northeast Philadelphia and lives today on shlichus in Swampscott, a suburb of Boston.In this episode, Yossi shares his childhood memories of growing up on shlichus and coming on occasion to 770 and the distance between those two worlds.We discuss the tensions between a parent's dreams for their child and the child's own dreams, between the boundaries of the community and the identity of the individual, and how tzimtzum lo kipshuto plays a role in everything.____Support this podcast at: ⁠https://www.hflpodcast.com/donate⁠____If you would like to sponsor an episode or advertise on the podcast please reach out to [email protected]____This week's episode is brought to you by "This World Is A Garden," a new film and live concert production by Yuvla Media based on the Rebbe's first talk, Bosi Lgani.Combining beautiful cinematography with a live performance by a string quartet, this production is a meditation on hope and holding on to a vision even as time passes by.Now you can bring this groundbreaking experience of Bosi Lgani to your community.For more info please visit: ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com/thisworldi..⁠.____Homesick for Lubavitch is a project of Yuvla Media.Bentzi Avtzon is a filmmaker who specializes in telling the stories of thoughtful and heartfelt organizations. Business inquiries only: [email protected] with BentziWebsite | ⁠https://www.yuvlamedia.com⁠

Podcast reviews

Read Homesick for Lubavitch podcast reviews


4.8 out of 5
55 reviews
★★★★★
WesleyMama 2025/08/11
For the mind and the heart
Honest, engaging, and no punches pulled. Bentzi interviews an incredibly wide range of Lubavitchers and asks hard questions while also being incredibl...
★★★★★
Mendel Leverton 2024/01/02
Interview candidates
Thank you Bentzi for a very interesting podcast. Can you please interview the Rosh from Los Angeles?
★★★★★
Yoel C. KB 2023/09/20
Bentzi is the man.
Bentzi. This podcast fits very well with your probing, curious, and intellectual yet open personality. May Hashem bless you to continue in your עבודת ...
★★★☆☆
Peretz770 2023/12/03
Very interesting
I really wish that the interviewer would not interrupt his guests so much and allow them more time to talk.
check all reviews on apple podcasts

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