Jewish Ancestral Healing Podcast
hosted by Taya Mâ Shere
Jewish Ancestral Healing teacher and practitioner Taya Mâ Shere engages spiritual leaders, artists, activists and visionaries on their journeys of ancestral healing, embracing resilience, and ancestor reverence practices rooted in Jewish traditions and counter-oppressive devotion. May this offering be a portal of connection, that we may root in positive resource, remember ancient ways, reclaim and innovate new possibilities, and be deeply nourished by the well of our loving and wise ancestors.
With so much gratitude to Kohenet Sarah Salem for Lean Back, the song which opens and closes each session, and to Kohenet Laura Ahava for the opening call.
Download from your favorite podcast platform, or listen directly below.
Qes Efraim Lawi
Episode 1: Beta Israel and Ethiopian Jewish Ancestral Traditions
Taya Mâ interviews Qes Efraim Lawi of Beta Israel
Qes Efraim is the son of Qes Zion Lawi and grandson of high Qes Lawi Zeno. His parents made aliyah as a part of Operation Moses in 1984, after a long and arduous journey from Ethiopia through the Sudanese desert. Qes Efraim’s father served as the religious leader of the Ethiopian Jewish community (the Beta Israel) of Karmiel and encouraged his son to follow in his footsteps. At age 9 Qes Efraim began the studies necessary to be ordained a qes (i.e. kohen or priest). When he turned 13, his father officially designated him as his future successor. Qes Zion Lawi passed away three years later, but Qes Efraim’s mother, Ahuva, urged him to carry on with his religious training, sending him to study with two prominent qesstoch in southern Israel, Qes Malke Azaria and High Qes Govesa Tesfahum, who continued to teach him the long-standing prayers, benedictions, laws and customs of Ethiopian Judaism. He was ordained a qes and now serves in the Ethiopian Jews community of Karmiel, teaching and facilitating the community’s traditional observances, including weddings, funerals, and memorials, as well as the ritual slaughter of animals. Qes Efraim lives in Karmiel with his wife, Fasika, and five children. JAH is grateful to Shai Afsai for support in crafting this bio of Qes Efraim. (https://shaiafsai.com)
Mazal Masoud Etedgi
Episode 2
Taya Mâ interviews Mazal Masoud Etedgi
Mazal Masoud Etedgi (they/them/theirs), is a trans/non-binary artist, arab/mizrahi/amazigh jew, spoonie/chronically ill person, drama therapist, community facilitator, clown, poet, and herbal medicine maker living on Ohlone land in Huichin Village (Berkeley, CA). Maz utilizes imagination, play, and ritual as tools for liberation, healing and connection. They honor, study and practice the plant medicines, liturgy, piyutim (sacred songs) and rituals of their mizrahi, arab jewish and amazigh lineages. Their plantcestral herbal practice and apothecary (B'samim Apothecary) offers community herbal support through consultations, custom formulations and herbal ritual. Mazal is currently a drama therapist at the Liberation Institute (San Francisco, CA) providing care to QTBIPOC, white, and first-generation adults. mazal has also worked with Bay Area Community Resources providing Drama Therapy to elementary school children and their families, co-facilitated Drama Therapy and Restorative Justice support groups, and a series of workshops titled Leaning Back into our Ancestors: A Drama Therapy Ritual Workshop for Mizrahi Jews. They hold a Masters in Counseling Psychology and Drama Therapy from the California Institute of Integral Studies. Mazal and their work can be found at their website: https://bsamimapothecary.com/, Instagram: @bsamim.apothecary, and Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/mazal18
Yoshi Silverstein
Episode 3
Taya Mâ interviews Yoshi Silverstein
Yoshi Silverstein is Founder and Executive Director of Mitsui Collective, which builds resilient community through embodied Jewish practice and racial equity. He is also Cleveland community organizer for Edot: The Midwest Regional Jewish Diversity Collaborative, and served as director of the JOFEE Jewish Outdoor Food, Farming and Environmental Educators Fellowship @ Hazon. As a Chinese-Ashkenazi-American Jew, Yoshi is an advocate and educator in the Jews of Color community and speaks regularly on diversity, equity, and inclusion. He sits on the Board of Directors for Repair the World, is a member of the Grants Advisory Group for the Jews of Color Initiative, and has been a cast member of Kaleidoscope Project's "What Does Jewish Look Like to You" monologue series and an ELI Talks speaker. Yoshi holds certificates in Spiritual Entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, permaculture design, ecovillage design, and environmental education. His master’s thesis in Landscape Architecture explored the intersection of embedded Torah with landscape interpretation, journey, exploration, and meaning-making in Jewish outdoor learning. Also a 2nd degree blackbelt and aficionado of Chinese Roast Duck, Yoshi lives in the Cleveland area with his wife, daughter, and pup. Website: https://mitsuicollective.org/
Galeet Dardashti
Episode 4
Taya Mâ interviews Galeet Dardashti
Iranian-descended composer and anthropologist Dr. Galeet Dardashti has earned a reputation as a trail-blazing performer, educator and advocate of Middle Eastern and North African Jewish culture. Dardashti is the first woman to continue her family’s tradition of distinguished Persian and Jewish musicianship. She is the leader and founder of the all-woman Middle Eastern Jewish ensemble Divahn, which released its newest album, Shalhevet, in 2020 and through her multi-disciplinary commissions The Naming and Monajat. In The Naming, Dardashti interprets some of the compelling women of the Bible. Time Out New York called The Naming “urgent, heartfelt and hypnotic,” and The Huffington Post described it as “heart-stopping.” In her multi-sensory piece, Monajat, Dardashti reinvents the reflective musical ritual of Selihot using digital technology to sing with recordings of her famed Iranian grandfather.
As a scholar, Dardashti’s publications examine Israeli music/media and Mizrahi cultural politics; she is currently writing a book on the Mizrahi piyyut (sacred song) phenomenon in Israel. Dardashti has held postdoctoral fellowships at NYU and Rutgers and most recently served as Assistant Professor of Jewish Music/Musician in Residence at the Jewish Theological Seminary. As Affiliated Fellow at University of Pennsylvania’s Katz Center in 2020/21 she’s begun research on young North American Jews of Middle Eastern and North African background. Dardashti offers lectures, workshops, and residencies on her artistic and academic work throughout the world. Website: http://www.galeetdardashti.com/
Daniela Labi
Episode 5
Taya Mâ interviews Daniela Labi
Daniela Labi is a Libyan-American feminist screenwriter, actor, singer, and body activist living on Tongva Kizh land (Los Angeles). Her short films, Brown Butterflies and Cara Nuccia, use archival footage as a means to uncover and bridge the unknown of her Libyan lineage, and her upcoming short-form series Bloom explores the perils of diet culture through the experience of a 30-year-old, plus-size virgin. With every project, she strives to include the voices of her most inspiring collaborators: her ancestors. You can sign up for her newsletter at https://tinyurl.com/danielalalabi
Deatra Cohen and Adam Siegel
Episode 6
Taya Mâ interviews Deatra Cohen and Adam Siegel
Deatra Cohen and Adam Siegel are authors of Ashkenazi Herbalism: Rediscovering the Herbal Traditions of Eastern European Jews. Deatra is an herbalist, visual artist and librarian, with degrees from the Berkeley Herbal Center, the University of California, Davis, and San Jose State University. Adam is a translator and bibliographer. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, the University of California, Berkeley, and San Jose State University. Deatra and Adam live in Northern California on Patwin land and seek to practice reverence for this planet and its many inhabitants, for ourselves and each other, for the living and for the ancestors.
In essays, lectures, and spiritual services, Jericho Vincent invites people to reconnect with estranged parts of themselves, their communities, and their lineages. Raised in an ultra-Orthodox rabbinical home, Jericho learned from Buddhist, Sufi, and atheist communities before returning to Judaism to excavate timely wisdom from their family’s ancient traditions. They hold a master's degree in Public Policy from Harvard University, where they were a Pforzheimer Fellow. Certified in IFS coaching, they are currently a rabbinical candidate and a Wexner Fellow. Jericho is the author of the memoir Cut Me Loose. Their essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Daily Beast, and The Cut. They have been named to the Jewish Week’s 36 Under 36 and to The Forward’s Forward 50 for their work.
Ariel Luckey
Episode 9
Taya Mâ or Leora Cockrell interviews Ariel Luckey
Bio
Koach Baruch (KB) Frazier is a transformer, heartbeat of movements, healer, musician and co-founder of the Tzedek Lab, a networking of practitioners working at the intersection of dismantling racism, anti-Semitism and white supremacy. A collaborative leader, rooted in tradition, curiosity and love, KB strives to dismantle racism, actualize liberation and transform lives both sonically and spiritually. KB lives with their wife LaJuana in Philadelphia, where he is a student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College..
photo is of Ahri Golden
Susan Duhan Felix and Ahri Golden
Episode 16
Taya Mâ interviews Susan Duhan Felix through Ahri Golden
BIOS
Matta Ghaly
Multireligiosity, The Path of the Heart & Karaite Jewish Traditions
Matta Ghaly shares their journey of multireligious identity, speaks to Karaite Jewish traditions, sings Jewish prayer in the maqam of the heart and brings blessings of connection with queer ancestors.
Matta (they/them) is a queer spiritual devotee of Egyptian descent, residing on Stl’pulmsh lands, near Chinook territory in Portland, Oregon. After studying process-oriented psychology, Matta completed a Master of Divinity at Luther Seminary and a Master of Arts in Liberation Theology at the Graduate Theological Union. In their practice, teaching and accompaniment, Matta aspires to be intimate with the heart, attuned to the body’s wisdom, and grounded in cultural humility. Matta enjoys being out in nature, pilgriming to sacred places and deepening connections in loving community.
Jill Hammer
Ancestral Wisdom in Jewish Mysticism
Jill Hammer shares the brilliance of ancestral wisdom in the earliest Jewish mystical text, the Sefer Yetzirah, speaks to the magic of midrash, creatively telling the stories of ancient ancestors, and invites us into the power of ancestral dreaming.
Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD is a ritualist, author, educator, dreamworker, midrashist, and poet. She is the co-founder of Kohenet: The Hebrew Priestess Institute. She is also the Director of Spiritual Education at the Academy for Jewish Religion, a pluralistic Jewish seminary. Rabbi Hammer is the author of Sisters at Sinai: New Tales of Biblical Women, The Jewish Book of Days: A Companion for All Seasons, and The Book of Earth and Other Mysteries, and the co-author of The Hebrew Priestess: Ancient and New Visions of Jewish Women’s Spiritual Leadership and Siddur HaKohanot: A Hebrew Priestess Prayerbook, as well as other books. She was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary and holds a doctorate in social psychology from the University of Connecticut. Her forthcoming book is called Return to the Place: The Magic, Meditation, and Mystery of Sefer Yetzirah. She is also known as Rav Kohenet Ye’ilah.
Arthur Waskow
Justice, God Everywhere & the Coming Transformation of Religion
Arthur Waskow tells intimate stories of his ancestors as the inspiration for his lifelong justice work, shares powerful racial, social and environmental justice movement history as it intersects with his own deepening on a Jewish spiritual path, and invites us to find God everywhere and in everything.
Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Ph.D., founded and directs The Shalom Center. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award as Human Rights Hero from T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, and has been named the Forward as one of the “most inspiring” Rabbis. He pioneered in urging (1969) a two-state peace settlement between Israel and Palestine; beginning (1989) to shape the theory and practice of Eco-Judaism; initiating (2002) Abrahamic multireligious action in the US; and urging a Transformative Judaism (2010) that would be committed not only to renew Judaism internally but shaping a Judaism that could help transform the world. He continues to engage nonviolent protest and has been arrested about 27 times. Rabbi Waskow’s newest book, of his more than twenty on Jewish thought and practice, is a harvest of his past work, intended to feed the future, is Dancing in God's Earthquake : The Coming Transformation of Religion.
https://theshalomcenter.org
Daniyel Berchenko
Ancestral Pilgrimage & Genealogy
Daniyel Berchenko shares of his pilgrimages to ancestral homelands in Eastern Europe, invites us into the portal that can open when visiting the place of one’s people, and speaks to gathering genealogical research as a pathway for revealing connection.
Daniyel is a detective of his ancestral story and supports others in uncovering and connecting with their own ancestral tales. Daniyel grew up in a family of Soviet Jewish refugees who had been cut off from Jewish tradition for generations. In 2013, at a Jewish community farm in Berkeley to learn farming and permaculture skills, he experienced a profound awakening of ancestral memory in his bones that shook him to his core, and found the doorway back into his Jewish heritage. He embarked on a pilgrimage through his ancestral homelands that lasted two years. Out of his own pilgrimage came the next call, to offer guidance to others seeking to connect with their own ancestral stories. He has guided pilgrims through their ancestral shtetls in Lithuania and Ukraine, offers Jewish genealogy research support and will be offering Jewish ancestral pilgrimage guidance to Eastern European lands when safe travel is possible again. Learn more at www.daniyelberchenko.com.
Rachel Rose Reid
Ancestors & the Power of Story
Rachel Rose Reid speaks to story-telling as a portal for ancestral memory, shares ways of tending grief-rituals across distance, and invites us to listen for the deep wells of wisdom beneath the surface of things.
Kohenet Rachel Rose Reid's work encompasses story, song, community activism, and ritual. She was a founding resident of Moishe House London. Whether holding space at Sukkat Shalom, Limmud South Africa, Wilderness Torah, or the Sadeh, her priority is the renewal of meaningful, living connection with Jewish-rooted spiritual practice and ancestors, in particular for those who struggle to find themselves reflected in institutional spaces. She is an award-winning writer and storyteller who has worked with Billy Bragg, BBC Radio and the London Symphony Orchestra. Together with Kohenet Yael Tischler she is co-founder of Yelala, a constellation of work that celebrates Earth-centred, feminist Jewish spirituality and reclaims the practices of our women/femme and folk ancestors.
www.rachelrosereid.com // www.yelala.co.uk
