Hevriacast: Talking With Awesome Creative Jews

Connecting revelation and creativity. Seeing how context affects the creative work we put out into the world. Exploring the spiritual power of bubblegum pop. All of this and more in this episode of HevriaCast featuring Miriam Brosseau. Miriam, whose LinkedIn bio calls out "Communication is an act of creation," is the Director of Engagement at See3. She also happens to be the lead singer of Stereo Sinai, a band she formed with her husband to explore the Torah through pop music. And she is a master of online communication. All this and more is what she brought to this episode. Enjoy!

In this special episode of HevriaCast, Elad interviews Brad Hirschfield, the president of Clal. Clal is a pluralist Jewish organization that oversees projects like "Rabbis Without Borders". In addition, it happens to be where Elad works, and is the fiscal sponsor of Hevria. But that's not what this episode is about. Rather, it's an exploration into the deeper creative ideas behind Brad's work. Things like the idea of "service vs. sales" and how to create a Jewish world that becomes more focused on love than on fear. Brad has two podcasts you can follow: 1. "6 Minutes With Brad Hirschfield": https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1224330760 2."Cracking The Echo Chamber": https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/cracking-the-echo-chamber/id1229222081?mt=2

If you've ever read a piece on the hit Jewish parenting site Kveller, it probably passed through the careful and caring hands of Molly Tolsky, who until recently was its editor. She will soon be launching a new site in partnership with Kveller called Alma. The first half of this episode is devoted to discussing the challenges and joys of creating work for a less religiously engaged Jewish audience. And in the second half Elad and Molly discuss the power of fear in the creative process. Get a sneak peak of Alma on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/heyalmacom/ Read Kveller here: http://kveller.com

Leah Gottfried, creator of "Soon By You", joins us this week to talk about balancing an orthodox life in the secular creative world and a creative life in the orthodox world. Drawing on her experience acting on television as well as being determined to be an actress in a community that often discouraged her dreams, the conversation revolves around the importance of creative communities, how to grow as an artist even when faced with challenges, and more. Episode 4 of "Soon By You" premieres this Thursday! Catch up with the episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxDfmL4kiek&list=PLCGQM1zwcGG2x7qh_Hn2jSvSR6f7dNCjY And if you're in New York City, you can go to the premiere party this Wednesday! Find out more info here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1817309771629527/

Meet Amy Guterson, the founder and director of Tzohar, a Hasidic seminary for the arts. Hear how her program was started, how she found out that spirituality and the arts work together to make us better people, and how the Hasidic world is starting to embrace the arts, all in this powerful episode.

Eli Schwebel, a musician who has made a huge mark on the orthodox Jewish world, joins us this week. In this HevriaCast, we discuss the difference between creativity and expression, how Jewish identity fits into creativity, and whether everyone can actually be creative or not.

Hannah Roodman used to produce films and campaigns for people like Alicia Keys and organizations like the UN. Today, she has radically redeveloped her approach to creativity by focusing on creating intimate in-person communities, most notably with her organization BeingWith_. Discover why Hannah has chosen to go from "big" to personal, why she feels the categories the world has put on us are far too limiting, and why she sees empowering others to be creative as a deeply spiritual act in this latest podcast.

Hasidic comedian Mendy Pellin gets serious (but not too serious) about his craft, dealing with criticism, and how to impact the world with your art.

Rishe Groner, a writer who stirred things up quite a bit last year on the Hevria blog when she wrote about being harassed on the streets of Crown Heights, opens up about the piece some more, the difficulties that come with speaking up about the orthodox community, and being true to your beliefs.

MaNishtana joins HevriaCast for its third episode, in which he and Elad discuss how to balance politics and art, comic books, and when to listen to your audience (and when not to). And, of course, what IS this thing called Jewish creativity?

Painter, musician, awesome creative Jew. AKA: Noah Lubin. In episode 2 of HevriaCast, Elad and Noah talk about everything from what the essence of creativity is to the Little Prince to how to motivate ourselves as creatives.

It's episode 1 of Hevria's first podcast! In this episode, Elad chats with the fabulous artist Yitzchok Moully about everything from his work to what it really means to be a creative Jew to how to stand out as a creative. We can't wait for you to enjoy! Portrait by the great Marko Dashev. Music in the intro and outro by Darshan.