An Orthodox Rabbi Interviews a Reform Rabbi [Denominations 1/4]
18Forty Podcast
18Forty
4.7 • 704 Ratings
🗓️ 6 January 2026
⏱️ 101 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode we discuss:
- How do we re-determine how to be Jews in America?
- Is there really an “education gap” between Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews?
- How should we handle the question of “who is a Jew” across denominations?
Interview begins at 22:11.
Diana Fersko is the Senior Rabbi of The Village Temple, a Reform synagogue at the heart of downtown Jewish life in New York City. An internationally recognized author, speaker, and thought leader, she is a defining voice in the contemporary Jewish world, known for her clarity, compassion, and ability to bring Jewish tradition into meaningful dialogue with modern life.
References:
View of the World from 9th Avenue
Tzidkat HaTzadik 54
No Country for Old Men
The Tapestry of Jewish Time: A Spiritual Guide to Holidays and Life-Cycle Events by Nina Beth Cardin
A Letter in the Scroll by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi friends and welcome to the 1840 podcast where each month we explore different topic balancing modern sensibilities with traditional |
| 0:21.6 | sensitivities to give you new approaches to timeless Jewish ideas. I'm your host, David Bischepkin, |
| 0:27.7 | and today we are exploring Jewish peoplehood and Jewish denominations in a fascinating two-part series. |
| 0:35.1 | This podcast is part of a larger exploration of those big, juicy, Jewish |
| 0:39.1 | ideas. So be sure to check out 1840.org. That's 1-8-F-O-R-T-Y.org, where you can also find |
| 0:44.8 | videos, articles, recommended readings, and weekly emails. There is an incredibly famous cover |
| 0:50.9 | illustration that adorned the March 1976 issue of The New Yorker. I'm sure most |
| 0:58.4 | listeners have already seen that, though they may not associate it with the year. They may |
| 1:03.4 | not know the background behind it, but it's a picture that you likely have seen, and it is called |
| 1:07.4 | The View of the World from 9th Avenue. |
| 1:15.4 | And essentially it is the image of somebody looking out from New York City, |
| 1:18.4 | and you see 9th Avenue, and you see 10th Avenue, |
| 1:20.1 | and then you see the Hudson River. |
| 1:22.1 | That is the border of New York. |
| 1:26.0 | Then across the Hudson River, you see kind of a line that says Jersey, and then past Jersey, all of a sudden, it's like Kansas City, Nebraska, the Pacific Ocean, you see over there and have like Texas, Los Angeles, but essentially the map starts to break down once you leave New York. In New York, it's this hustling and bustling town, 9th Avenue to 10th Avenue, to the west side highway in the Hudson River. It's hustling and bustling. |
| 1:45.2 | And then once you cross the Hudson, it's basically like a desert wasteland where you just |
| 1:49.6 | see Jersey, Chicago, Nebraska, Las Vegas, Texas, L.A., the Pacific Ocean. |
| 1:55.1 | And then past the Pacific, you can see three little bodies that say China, Japan, Russia. |
| 1:59.6 | What this cover is obviously poking fun at |
| 2:02.6 | is the worldview of a New Yorker, the worldview of how somebody who lives in New York |
| 2:08.7 | becomes very New York-centric. This is something I deal with very often as an educator. I have |
| 2:13.8 | to be careful. I teach at Nisheva University, and it comes up constantly that I can't just |
... |
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