Not That Kind of Rabbi

Mar 05 2025 109 ep. 54 mins 16
Not That Kind of Rabbi Podcast artwork

Spiritual journeys, discussions and lessons from award-winning broadcaster Ralph Benmergui. Every two weeks, join Ralph and his insightful guests for an in-depth sit-down conversation about the unseen problems affecting our world. 

  Religion & Spirituality  Society & Culture
RSS feed Share
Copy RSS


Subscribe on Podcast Addict


Amichai Lau-Lavie, the 'Sabbath Queen', is forging his own traditions

Mar 05 2025 38 mins  
When Amichai Lau-Lavie realized he was gay, he knew he had to make a choice: hide his identity to abide by his Orthodox upbringing, or be true to himself. It wasn't an easy call for a man whose ancestors had been rabbis for generations—including his uncle and cousin, who both served as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel. Ultimately, Lau-Lavie decided to split the difference. As

For Rabbi Aaron Rotenberg, environmentalism isn't adjacent to Judaism—it's a core tenet

Feb 12 2025 34 mins  
Rabbi Aaron Rotenberg realized at a young age he was drawn to Jewish studies. After graduating from Jewish day schools around Toronto, he decided to attend the Jewish Theological Seminary, a Conservative rabbinical school in New York City, for five years—only to end up a Renewal rabbi years later, ordained just this month. As the spiritual leader of the Annex Shul in downtown To

'You can forgive and seek justice at the same time': Robert Enright on how to learn forgiveness

Jan 21 2025 37 mins  
With the recent news of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas and the eventual return of the remaining Israeli hostages, tensions remain high between pro- and anti-Zionist communities here in Canada, who've stood sharply divided on the foreign conflict for 15 months. Members of those communities may still be holding hatred or anger in their hearts—leading to increased depress

Gary Topp ushered Toronto into the cultural future—and he’s still making alternative history

Jan 13 2025 34 mins  
Once upon a time, Toronto was a sleepy city. The atmosphere shut down at night. Red tape and cultural meekness kept things status quo. But through the 1970s and 1980s, the city's younger generations changed how things work—and one of the biggest players behind the scenes was Gary Topp. A music promoter and independent movie theatre operator, it was Topp—along with his colleague

How Choir! Choir! Choir! grew out of a living room gathering into 2,500 strangers singing Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' in Montreal

Dec 23 2024 29 mins  
On Oct. 9, around 2,500 strangers packed Montreal's Place des Arts concert hall to sing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" in surprisingly perfect harmony. The melody was beautiful. In a video recording posted online, tears and smiles are visible as people sing out the familiar chorus. You could say it was a spiritual performance—unless you're Nobu Adilman, who co-organized t

Playwright Mark Leiren-Young explains why Shylock needed a revival in 2024

Dec 05 2024 39 mins  
Mark Leiren-Young wrote Shylock in 1996, a play using Shakespeare's controversial Jewish character in The Merchant of Venice to explore modern-day cancel culture. While the script saw productions aorund the world, Leiren-Young was wary of giving the rights away too quickly, knowing it was complex, sensitive subject matter that required an intellectual approach. So when he met the

Filmmaker Allan Novak turns the camera on his family: the oldest living Holocaust survivors in the world

Nov 19 2024 31 mins  
Growing up, Allan Novak assumed his family was fairly ordinary: modest, witty, hardworking Jewish immigrants who found a new live in Canada after the war. That his mother was one of four sibling survivors was noteworthy, but the outside world did not take notice. That is, until the siblings all began reaching the age of 100. Once international reporters and Holocaust foundations

In his new memoir, Michael Coren recounts his life, from Jewish cabbie's son to Anglican priest

Nov 07 2024 34 mins  
Michael Coren has lived many lives. Born to a Jewish cab driver in England, Coren converted to Catholocism in the 1980s, then Evangelicalism in the '90s; he grew into a bombastic right-wing Christian talk radio and TV personality with shows on the Sun News Network and the Crossroads Television System; then he came back to embrace the Catholic Church, before finally leaving again to

How Eva Almos channels the spirit of her survivor mother in an audio drama about Holocaust zombies

Oct 22 2024 26 mins  
Both of Eva Almos's parents were Holocaust survivors. Her mother, from Lithuania, was a kind and gentle soul who went out of her way to uplift strangers and support her daughter. But her father was the opposite: a traditional Greek man with chauvinist ideas who was hardened by the horrors of the Holocaust. The duality sent Almos into therapy, where she spent years trying to piece h

From devastation to creation: How artist Devon Spier found spiritual meaning through affliction

Oct 02 2024 33 mins  
Devon Spier has long COVID. The artist, poet and spiritual guide has spent days bedridden, feeling ill and angry at God. But that forced pause gave her time to reflect on her life, art and beliefs, and she began to realize more emphatically how God, for her, exists in liminal spaces—in the wilderness, in small moments of peace and beauty between devastation and pain. These though