72 Miles til Kentucky

From Sunday School in Nashville to Sunday dinner at Granny's, my family bushogged our way towards a cohesive religious identity. Even as my mother was returning to the faith of her childhood, my father was moving further away from his, and towards an unlikely home — The American Society of Friends.

Introducing a third faith in our household seemed to solidify our identity, rather than shatter it, and my brother and I were quick to absorb the tenets of our father's new faith, a chance we got every summer, for a few years, when we attended SAYMA – the Southern Appalachian Yearly Meeting, including a short stint in Quaker youth group. Still, as much as Quaker ideals of compassion, equality, love, and simplicity lined up with our own Jewish and family values, my mother was deeply uncomfortable with the idea of our being both, and she dearly wanted us to be Jewish. But towards the end of her life, having lived her own experience and used it in turn to counsel dozens of young interfaith couples, she changed her tune...slightly.

Special thanks this episode to Jacob’s Ladder, for use of their original music in Chapter 7: Back & Forth. Check out all of their music on their website!

Jacob's Ladder is an internationally touring band seeking to push the boundaries of contemporary Jewish music and traditional American Roots music through Jewish communal singing and prayer. In melding these two musical worlds, they tell their story through Eastern European Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jewish traditions, but also through their American heritage and its influence on their unique musical style.

72 Miles features the stories of three separate interfaith Jewish families–two real, one not, and one mine. Together, they trace 150 years of Kentucky history, with experiences that resonate today—about being Jewish in America, about being Jewish and southern at the same time. About being Jewish, being interfaith, and the blending of the two.

So strap in, and take a ride with me, up and down I65, or back and forth on the L&N Railroad. In the end the when and the who don’t make as much difference and you might think. But the where sure does. My name is Nathan Jordan Vaughan. It’s 72 Miles til Kentucky. Let’s get moving.

72 Miles Til Kentucky was written and produced by Nathan J. Vaughan. Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Lofi Girl. Curricular components for each episodes are available on the show's website.

You can learn more about me and any of my work on my website, www.nathanjvaughan.com.

Subscribe to my regular Torah podcast, Modern Torah anywhere you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening.