For the Love of Judaism – Details, episodes & analysis

Judaism can be expressed in many different ways. For someone with a creative soul, art can become a way to make the intangible—faith, history, ethics, resilience—visible. It reflects the Jewish impulse to question, to interpret, and then re-interpret, much like Torah study itself. 

Enter Adar Darnov, a graphic artist who uses his art as a means to expressing the Jewish identity he has developed through a life long love of his faith. This week, he caught up with Rabbi Pont to chat about the way art and Judaism are forever intertwined.

More than 80 years since the end of World War II, we will soon reach a point when there are no more living Holocaust survivors. As we experience a surge in antisemitism in the United States and around the world, finding ways to keep their stories of perserverance and survival alive is more important now than ever before. 

Enter Wendy Tepper, the Outreach Coordinator for 3GNJ, an organization that trains the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors to tell their grandparents stories. Wendy's grandfather Oscar Cukierman, survived five years in concentration camps before making his way to Italy and eventually to the United States. 

In this episode, Wendy shares what it is like to tell her grandfather's story, why it is so important, and how she thinks stories like Oscar Cukierman's help stem the growing tide of antisemitism.

We all know that what it means to be a Jew has changed since October 7th, 2023. From the most observant to the least, Jewish life is different than it was before. In his new book, For Such a Time as This, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of Park Avenue Synagogue offers a poignant explanation of what it means to be Jewish today. 

This week, Rabbi Cosgrove joins his friend of thirty years, Rabbi Pont, for a meaningful conversation about this, about searching for our Esther moment in modern times, and about what it means to get back to being a Genesis Jew post October 7th. 

Retired Colonel Jeff Cantor has seen it all. From Bosnia and Kosovo to Iraq and Afghanistan, the founder of the New Jersey State Veterans Chamber of Commerce has been on the front lines of both war and peace around the world for more than three decades.

In this episode, Retired Colonel (and current Marlboro Town Council President) Cantor joins Rabbi Pont for a frank conversation about what it was like on the ground in the Middle East and how he is trying to help his rescue those left behind after the U.S. pullout last summer.

In this episode Rabbi Pont introduces the audience to Sydney Greenberg and his friend Art through a replay of his 2020 Rosh Hashana sermon. Join RMP, Sydney and Art for this tale of friendship, courage and kindness, complete with lessons all of can take along our path.

In this episode, Rabbi Pont shares his Yom Kippur sermon in which he shared news of his own battle with serious illness and how his faith, friends, and family are helping him through this difficult time. 

When it comes to hot topics, few rival the heat created by a discussion of the COVID-19 vaccine. As this miracle of modern medicine keeps hundreds of millions of people around the world safe from the devistation of serious illness, there are also millions of people who are hesitant to receive their shots.

In this episode, Rabbi Pont will be joined by Dr. Marnie Rosenthal, an infectious disease specialist and front line hero of the past 18 months. Together they will to discuss the role of vaccines in our society and the unequivocal Jewish perspective on the necessity of being vaccinated. 

Forgiveness is hard no matter which side of the equation you find yourself on.  And yet we know that in order to keep our most important relationships strong we must be willing to both ask for forgiveness and accept it when asked. Join Rabbi Pont and acclaimed psychologist, Dr. Judy Kramer, for a meaningful discussion on forgiveness and relationships complete with some strategies for approaching those hard conversations.

When you think of Yom Kippur the first thing that comes to mind is that dreaded fast. That's right...24 hours with no food and no water. But what Talmudic scholars never would have seen coming is that fasting would become the latest health craze and something people do on a regular basis and on purpose.

In this episode, Rabbi Pont talks to physiatrist Dr. Jessica Miller about the benefits of fasting as part of a healthy lifestyle. 

On the day before Yom Kippur, Rabbi Pont had the opportunity to interview Jim Kroeze and Linda Kellner, Co-Interim Executive Directors of Fullfil NJ of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, about hunger and food scarcity in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.