GOLDA Girls
A podcast for Jewish women with a lot to say.
GOLDA founder Stephanie Butnick sits down with journalist Gabby Deutch, novelist Esther Chehebar, and Rabbi Diana Fersko each week to talk culture, community, identity, and the everyday moments shaping modern Jewish life.
GOLDA Girls
Everything with Chive, Knicks in Five
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
GOLDA founder Stephanie Butnick, journalist Gabby Deutch, novelist Esther Chehebar, and Rabbi Diana Fersko chat about the Tony Awards, Gabby’s recent Jewish insider article on AI’s implications for Jewish life, and the bagel-fueled excitement over the Knicks’ NBA Finals run.
The hosts also share their summer wedding gift recommendations in response to a listener who wrote in looking for some inspiration:
GOLDA Girls' wedding gift picks:
Crystal candlesticks from Happy Kangaroo
Cherry blossom challah board from Happy Kangaroo
Eye tray from ABC Carpet & Home
Travel shabbat candles from Emanuel
Smash glass from Tchotchke
Smash Hamsa from Tchotchke
This week’s Good for the Jews picks:
Stephanie: Congregation Rodeph Sholom sponsoring West Side Campaign Against Hunger’s recent block party.
Gabby: Camp Ramah celebrating alumni Caissie Levy’s Tony Award win by sharing this 2015 video of Levy singing “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Mis in Hebrew.
Esther: A mother-daughter trip to Home Goods.
Diana: Bat mitzvahs!
GOLDA is a Jewish lifestyle destination built around one idea: making Jewish life bright, beautiful, and full of meaning. Subscribe to our newsletter at www.goldaguide.com and follow GOLDA on Instagram at @goldaguide.
GOLDA Mahjong Night is popping up on Tuesday, June 23 at one of our favorite restaurants on the Upper East Side for a night of open play (no instruction). Location will be revealed to attendees the week before the event. Sign up here.
Sign up for Diana’s snail mail newsletter Modern Jewess here, and Gabby’s Substack here. Get Esther’s novel Sisters of Fortune here and Stephanie’s book, The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia, here.
GOLDA Girls is a production of GOLDA Media. The show is executive produced by Ariel Shapiro and edited by POLDHU.
Sponsors:
GOLDA Girls is presented by Nu Reads, a new Jewish book subscription series curated by the Jewish Book Council that brings remarkable literature straight to your door. Use code NuGolda at checkout for 15% off your subscription. Visit NuReads.org to get started today.
You can listen to GOLDA Girls on:
- Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/golda-girls/id1895644983
- Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/1eLma0Exh3LDv2Ay8fx8Cq
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Stay GOLDA.
Intro + Tonys
SPEAKER_03Before we get to today's show, I want to tell you about our presenting sponsor. New Reads is a Jewish book subscription series that brings remarkable literature straight to your door. I'm still thinking about Porcupines, the latest pick from debut author Fran for Brisky. Check out her interview in the Golda Girls feed. I can't wait to see what's arriving in my next New Reads box. It's all curated by our friends at the Jewish Book Council. With New Reads, you're not just getting books, you get exclusive access to experiences with authors and a community built on a shared passion for Jewish storytelling. Newreads is offering Golda Girls listeners 15% off their subscription. Just use the code NewGolda at checkout. Visit Newreads.org, that's n-r-e-a-d-s.org to get started today. Welcome to Golda Girls, the podcast for Jewish women with a lot to say. I'm Stephanie Butnick, the founder of the Jewish Lifestyle newsletter Golda, and I am joined by my three brilliant hosts, Rabbi Diana Fersko. I wore Golda Pink for you. I love it. Journalist Gabby Deutsch from Jewish Insider. Good morning. My nails are also pink. Oh my God, I really appreciate this. And novelist Esther Shahebar. And I wore blue just to throw a wrench in things.
SPEAKER_00Good morning, everybody. I'm wearing Nick Nick's blue today, not on personal.
SPEAKER_03Respect it. We love it. We love it. So each week on our show, we talk about the things we can't stop thinking about. We answer a listener question in Ask Golda, and we end on a sweet note with good for the Jews. But before we get to all that, can we talk about the Tony Awards that happened on Sunday night? I'm still not over how big a night this was for the Jewish ladies. You had Pink hosting the whole thing, who's recently talked so much about her Jewish identity. She did that incredible opening number, leading Lady Marmala, the funniest thing I've ever seen. It was so good. Casey Levy won for Ragtime, Shoshana Bean won for the Lost Boys. I just feel like it was like a big, amazing Jewish women's moment.
SPEAKER_02I can co-sign that and I can say As a rabbi. My official Tony's Hector. I my mom, a proud Jewish woman, was at the Tony's. What? And yeah, that's a thing sometimes you can do in New York. She's just an awesome person. You can just go to the Tony's. Wait, how did she get tickets? Tell us everything. I will tell you, she got tickets because she was there supporting a proud Jewish woman. So she is friends with the mom of a producer of the show Liberation, which won. And that show is about it's a show about feminism and the difference in generational feminism, which I saw, which was very interesting. So she got to go. She got to see all the dresses and the performances and the people. And she said it was pretty spectacular. And any chance to celebrate the art of a Jewish woman, I think is a good one. That's what she weared.
SPEAKER_04Your mother, Diana.
SPEAKER_02Oh my gosh, what did she wear? She wore a gorgeous nude-colored jeweled gown, and she looked like a movie star. That's so fun.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it was awesome. Stephanie introduced this talking about these amazing wins at the Tonies, and we were like, actually, we're gonna do Jewish geography of the Tonies and find out who we know who was there, and that's what we're gonna talk about.
SPEAKER_02And what and what were they wearing? And I also saw something everyone's talking about Giant. A lot my congregation went on a field trip to see that show, and John Lithgow won. So I'm wondering what you guys think about that.
SPEAKER_03So I have seen Giant. It's a really fascinating look at Roald Dahl, the author of children's classics like James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and many other books. It's about how he was actually wildly anti-Semitic. And it's also about how Jews process and deal with anti-Semitism. The play was written by Mark Rosenblatt, he's a British playwright, and it stars obviously John Lithgau as Roald Dahl and Elliot Levy as Dahl's real-life Jewish publisher. And it has the amazing Ayak Hash as a fictionalized Jewish publishing executive who comes over from America's gotta talk to him. And it's a dramatization of something that really happened in the 1980s, which is when Roald Dahl kicked up this controversy around comments he made about Israel. And then he ultimately, these are in the made, he made them in he made them in a book review, and then ultimately spiraled into a bigger, definitively anti-Semitic rant that he also did. It was also another media interview he gave. I don't want to give anything else away about the play because it is worth seeing, but it's been pretty controversial and it sparked a lot of conversations. And I have to say, I really liked it. I really liked watching it. I think it made me uncomfortable in the way that good theater is supposed to. And I also appreciated how it focused not just on Dahl and the question of is he anti-Semitic? Is he anti-Israel? Yes, it probes that, but it's also about the Jewish characters in the play and in his life and how they reckoned with their identity and working with someone who, while brilliant and obviously capable of the warmth and empathy that makes for such wonderful children's literature, could also have been so deeply prejudiced. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Has anyone else seen it? I have not seen it yet, Stephanie, but I bought tickets for next week and I'm so excited. A very interesting journey and experience as a roll doll reader. When my oldest son turns, I think, five, I bought him the full collection of all of his books, and we started going on this journey of reading them together. And then I was then thrown back into the absurdity and the terror of his world. And obviously, these books are marketed as children's books, right? But they're actually terrifying and they have really scary themes. And my son and I were completely wrapped up in these books. We really dove deep. And I had actually not known about his anti-Semitic remarks and his feelings towards Israel. And so uncovering that was like an interesting, it's an age-alt question, right? Of how much do we separate the artist from his or her work? My son's still young, he's only eight, but I ultimately made the decision not to reveal some of his problematic comments to him. But it did make me think as a mom and also an author and an artist, where do we draw the line between an artist and their work and their public persona and their artistic persona? Oh, I am so excited for you to see it then.
SPEAKER_03And we'll talk. We'll talk when you're back. We'll keep the conversation going. And I want our listeners to let us know what they think. Hi at goldenguide.com. Let's get to our topics for the week.
How AI is Transforming Judaism
SPEAKER_03Each week we're talking about the things we can't stop thinking about. And for me this week, I can't stop thinking about an article you wrote, Gabby, over at Jewish Insider, which is all about AI and the Jews. The headline is As AI Reshapes Society, Jewish leaders grapple with what comes next. I have to say, I was reading this article and then I saw your byline and I was like, oh, great. Gabby wrote this. We can ask her all about this on the podcast. So set this up for us.
SPEAKER_04Thank you, Stephanie, for reading it. And the idea for this story came about a month and a half ago. I saw a news report that Anthropic, the obviously huge AI company behind Claude, the folks at Anthropic were holding a couple of meetings with faith leaders. And so first they had a meeting with a whole variety of Christian faith leaders over two days. And then they had their Christian meeting and then their minority meeting, where they had the Jews, the Muslims, the Hindus, the Buddhists, Confucians, all kinds of people who they brought together for another two-day convening to talk about religion and AI. And I was really intrigued by this because I was curious what they wanted to hear about. And so for these AI companies, the question that I had was like, what are they, what do they want to hear? Because a lot of these companies, they're massively powerful. They have come out of nowhere in the past few years and reshaped our world. And are they trying to learn from religion? Do they have something to say about religion? And so that that got on my radar. And then a few weeks later, the Pope puts out this massive document called Encyclical with his thoughts on AI and how it's going to affect humanity and how we can hold on to our humanity in a robot age. So I spent the last couple of weeks talking to rabbis and educators in the Jewish world, Jews who are working in tech, who are engaging with AI about what does this all mean? And the questions that I was asking were not really how do we use AI for religious purposes, but these sort of bigger moral and theological questions of what role should AI be playing in our lives? And what a lot of people are thinking about, which I found fascinating, are big religious and moral questions of like how do we promote human dignity and make sure that humans are able to lead good and fulfilling lives when we have this technology available to us that in some ways can help with that, right? It can make our lives a lot easier and do things we never thought about, but also can undermine it. But I think a lot of it is still a little bit on the sidelines. And everyone's talking about AI for sure and what's our preferred chatbot and how do we all use it? But how is it going to affect our lives and allow us to continue to still lead meaningful lives? Those are the questions that I was finding people asking, which I thought was fascinating. And I don't know if this is something that's been on any of your minds, Diana. You're a rabbi. Are people asking you things about AI?
SPEAKER_02Yes, I think AI is obviously a huge new technology. So people are talking about it all the time. I've encountered it a few times at work just to begin on a very small place, which is when a 13-year-old comes in with a draft of their drosh for their bat mitzvah or bar mitzvah, and I'm like, you can't pronounce any of the words in this. I'm wondering, where did you get this? They're like, what do you mean? Okay, let's go back. So it's just on a very low level, making internal policies. How can we use AI at this point that feels okay and good if you're using it for Torah learning? Go ahead, bivaka shah. But the truth is that it lies all the time about Torah. I was looking up some teaching about like retirement. I said, give me the top 10 teachings you have. And one of them was by Nachmodis. And I was like, Oh, okay, I'm not familiar with this. So I asked a follow-up. Show me the site where Nachmanides said this. Claude basically came back and was like, You got me. Nachmodies didn't say this. I should never just throw that stuff out there.
SPEAKER_04Oh, I apologize. I'm so good at owning my mistakes. You gave this thing up, but sure.
SPEAKER_03It is so funny. But so you're like fact-checking, being like, but I love this idea that you thought that maybe there was something you didn't know. Like you were open to that. I first of all, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02I just I love the hubris of these companies in some sense. In the fight between AI versus Torah, I'm picking Torah any day of the week. And my prediction is based on nothing except my own imagination, is that AI will create a world where we're so dependent on technology and screens and that sort of thing that we have to be intentional about making community and about embracing ancient wisdom and things that are analog. And that culture of digital robotic world is going to drive people, like exactly to me and my world. So I say, have fun with your screens, but I know where they're ending up, and that's with Torah. I believe in it so much more than I believe in Claude.
SPEAKER_03It's interesting because Gabby, your piece brings up these questions that you say are like they're almost halakhic questions, right? They're almost like Jewish legal questions. Should rabbis be allowed to use AI for sermons, or can a chapot be like a study partner, a Havruta? Could what are the ways in which these machines can pass as human interaction for us in the context of Torah learning?
SPEAKER_02At the beginning, when AI first like came into being and became accessible to everyone, it over-indexed certain Jewish thinkers. So it over-indexed this man called the Kutzkarebbe. So, with all due to the Kutzkarebbe, very important Hasidic rabbi, Poland, all this, he's not like number one Rebbe. But if you looked around the service, the sermons of a lot of rabbis over those first few weeks, you would see the Kutzkarebbe said, and you could just tell, like, that it was happening. So I think like Jewish AI is behind like other AI, and like it is not sorted yet. I don't know what's going on.
SPEAKER_04Maybe the Kutzkarabi's descendants did a payoff to anthropic. They got in at some of those early meetings. They're on the board. They were on it. Well, I think, yeah, there's all these interesting questions. Something that I found when I was reporting this story is that the Orthodox Union, which is the main body of the modern Orthodox movement in the US, created an app, an AI app that helped with Torah learning. And I didn't download it, so I don't know exactly what it does. But it was created by Orthodox Jews for Orthodox Jews, but really as more as an introductory kind of tool for people who might not actually be as learned, who cannot necessarily sit down with the page of Talmud and actually understand it. And they even said when they released the app that it shouldn't be relied on for sort of halachic matters, right? If you have a question about, is this thing kosher? Can I do this? What does this tech say? That app, that chatbot cannot be used as the definitive source. And so the question is, what purpose is it serving? So they're very much unanswered questions. I will give a shout out to someone I interviewed named Zohar Atkins, who is a rabbi very much in the Jewish world, but also creates these tech products. And he created something that I think is launching this week called Yochai, which is a chatbot for Torah learning. And he sent me this beta version. And so I went on this platform, Yochai, and I said, Hey, I talked to this rabbi. He quoted this line from Devarim, the book of Deuteronomy. Can you tell me what it means? What was the context? What else was happening in that parsha? And it was so helpful. And then it asked me all these engaging questions. And so maybe it's not as good as sitting down with a Kavruta and studying Torah, but you know what? The alternative for me is not sitting down with Khavruta and studying Torah, it's not studying Torah. So I thought that was pretty cool.
SPEAKER_02Wait a minute. Are we back to your lack of Torah study again? Well, I'll be sending you another Zoom link, Gabby.
SPEAKER_00I will take another Zoom link. Unless your chat bot responds to your Talmudic question with another Talmudic question, it's not truly in the vein of Judaism. But no, but seriously, I Gabby, I loved this piece.
SPEAKER_04But I have to admit, like when I first started reading it and I was reading about this like big was it a conference that these religious leaders had with Yeah, so there was Anthropic had these meetings, but then in New York City, there's this group that is organizing meetings with interfaith leaders, and there were people from Anthropic and OpenAI and other tech companies where they're trying to do a mind meld of what kind of religious wisdom can be offered to the tech companies.
SPEAKER_00So it it felt a little like letting a wolf into the hen house to me. Like when I was reading it, I was like, ooh, I don't know, something about it felt dangerous. But then back to Diana's point about community, I think as I was reading your article, I found myself thinking, okay, what are the things that I consistently glean or take away from my Judaism? And for me personally, it's not sitting with the charuta, it's not consistently learning Torah, it's the feeling of community and tradition. And I just think that's not something that AI or a chappa can replicate yet. I think Judaism has always adapted to tech developments in different ways. I think where AI is different is obviously like the existential reality of it, where A, we don't know where it's ultimately leading. And B, something that Gabby mentioned to her piece was like if AI subsumes to be all knowing, then what's the purpose of God? AI is knowing only to the limit that like we humans feed it information. So I don't know if I like buy that point. But I think it definitely raises interesting questions of it's like the cost-benefit analysis, right? You're you might be inviting more people like into the tent by making Judaism more accessible, but the format's different. So, Diana, I look to you because you're our rabbi and you're in it.
SPEAKER_02Mostly what I am is you're a technology expert. I just I love that sort of thing. Right. I always know how to plug things in, but I feel a few ways about it. One, I feel AI so far is really good at knowing what's on Reddit. That's a different thing than being all knowing. I think that for me, I'm usually comfortable letting other people test out technology and see what will happen. And I think you're right. Jews have long been on the forefront of technological advances and often feel comfortable there. And for me, what it calls to mind is the printing press. That was a profound revolutionary technology that changed the world. And we capitalized on that. Books changed Jewish existence in the best possible way. So I'm going in as an optimist. Yes, I know about all the scary and crazy parts of AI, but if anyone can figure out how to use this in an appropriate and meaningful way, it's us. So I support all the Jewish entrepreneurs that are out there trying to make it happen for us.
SPEAKER_04Diana, you mentioned a kid coming in for their bar bar mitzvah who had clearly written the speech. I think the platonic ideal of a bar mitzvah speech is Jacob the Bar mitzvah boy and that whole thing on SNL where he would get on. Vanessa Bayer, yeah. Vanessa Bayer, absolutely iconic character and really spot on, got the reform or conservative bar mitzvah speech where he's saying in this New York accent, I want to thank my mom for driving me to Hebrew school and all of this. When you have kids coming in with AI writing their bar and bar mitzvah speeches, are those gone? What are we looking at now?
SPEAKER_02A non-Jewish, extremely intelligent adult seems to have written it. It's not Jewy, it's not personal. And I just make them rewrite it because we're all friends here. So I just say to them in the nicest way, okay, can you tell me what your Torah portion is about and see if we can do this out loud in words? Oh, you actually didn't get a chance to read it. Maybe we can use this time to read it together. And now it has to be this. You guys, you should only know. Now it has to be part of my Barbat Mitzvah orientation. I can say, listen, you can use AI in the same way you can use Google. It is wonderful to discover Torah teachings on AI. But maybe, first of all, ask a follow-up question because maybe Ahmadis didn't really say it, for example. But also the writing has to be yours. You have to do it because something transformative is supposed to happen in the writing process where you become a part of the thing. And it's not just a technological pass-through that you are an orator at your bar mitzvah for.
SPEAKER_03And because there's nothing more human than a bar mitzvah, right? There's nothing more human than seeing a 12 or 13-year-old kid up there or being that kid yourself and just being like so awkward. You're probably pimply. Your voice is changing. We're at our most awkward and our most vulnerable, our most human, and we are put up in front of our community, and it's it's fine and it's okay. And there's something so beautiful, so profoundly, again, human about that experience. And so I love we got to keep our mitzvahs human. I have a weird question, Diana. Is it something the Kutzer Rabbi said?
SPEAKER_00It's not about the Kutzkar Rebbe who I have not heard of, but I guess I'm not using Jewish AI enough. What about this element of confession? You go to a rabbi traditionally to ask your questions, and oftentimes you're divulging something very deeply personal, and sometimes there's an element of shame in it. And so I could imagine if I have the opportunity to strip that away, the same way that I ask my chat bot all of my questions about my various health insecurities and anxieties, and I don't feel like my doctor judging me. Do you feel like that's in crisis? The patient, doctor, rabbi, congregant relationship, where people might feel like, okay, instead of going to my rabbi for advice and divulging some of my deepest, darkest secrets, I can just consult my now Jewish chatbot.
SPEAKER_02I don't think it's in crisis because I know lots of people that ask AI lots of very personal questions, not just about health things, but about emotional things. Can you explain why I'm so upset that my child gotta be plus or whatever it is? Um, or like serious emotional things, but I don't think it's fulfilling to them. I think in this case, it's this a similar dynamic that we've seen on social media, where the process itself becomes very isolating. And that has a lot of negative effects. So if you're constantly getting affirmation and strokes from a chat bot, that can feel really good in the moment. That's like your little dopamine hit. But once you sign off, it has like a long and negative tail. And I think that people have to be disciplined about getting deeper, more sustained relationships and human interaction so that you don't sink into this isolated depression, like we saw so many young people in particular do through social media.
SPEAKER_03I want to take this to a
Knicks in Five!
SPEAKER_03different craze of the moment, not AI, but something happening here in New York, which is Knicks fever taking over New York City. The Knicks are in the NBA finals for the first time since 1999. They are playing the Spurs. As of this recording, they are winning 2 1. So it's not gonna be Knicks in four, but there is something magical happening in New York City. There's been articles about how we're all united. There's something really special happening in the streets. And I want to bring our attention to a few memeified moments. That have come out of this. The first one happened right outside Madison Square Garden. I'm going to play it for you.
SPEAKER_01My mayor, Muslim, my begun's Jewish, my Christian New York, Nixon!
SPEAKER_03Okay, so this catchphrase, obviously, since as of recording, it is not gonna be Nixon Four, they lost last night. But what do we make of this moment, the sort of like Jewish creeping into the memes of Knicks right now?
SPEAKER_04I'll go first as someone who is not in New York, just to addify our explorer. What's it like outside there? What's it like in the outside world in DC? Down here south on the Acela corridor, still in Washington, D.C. So yeah, I don't really have a horse in this race, although I should note that my boyfriend is from the upper west side and loves the Knicks. So perhaps that's my horse, and I want to impress him and like root for his team. But our texts over the past couple of weeks have basically just been Knicks memes. And until two weeks ago, like I couldn't have told you a single thing about the New York Knicks. Didn't know they were good, didn't know they were in the playoffs, wasn't following.
SPEAKER_03Well, for a long time they were not. So you were not a good idea.
SPEAKER_04My experience with the Knicks was like I would walk past Madison Square Garden when I was getting on the train at Penn Station.
SPEAKER_00And I think that's a lot of people's experience. Like, I think there's a lot of performative Nick. Oh, of course.
SPEAKER_04And I guess my point who cares? Because it's New York City, I feel like everyone is paying attention. And it's sweeping my Twitter feed, at least my algorithm has become transformed by Nick's content. And because it's New Yorkers and people are being insane, I just think it's hilarious. The meme that you said, Stephanie, my mayor muzzle, my bagel's Jewish, my Christian Dior, my Nick's and four. People I know are just repeating that to each other because it's so funny. I saw a woman at the airport the other day with the Christian Dior bag, and I was like, my Nick's in four. And I'm just here for fun content. It seems low stakes. We don't really have enough of that. I'm all in. I don't want to say I'm all in on the Knicks because I don't really care all that much. But you're all in on the moment. I'm in on the moment. And it would be fun if they won. It would be fun for New York. I don't want to say, oh, New York deserves a win. It's New York City. New York is winning like all the time. Everyone loves it. But it would be fun for them to have that.
SPEAKER_00I think also it shows how like New York, how hungry New York was for this or anything. I think we were actually, I say we because I grew up in New York, and even though I recently relocated to New Jersey, I still live in New York.
SPEAKER_02You have so much New York on you, Esther. There's not even a chance. Also, tri-state area.
SPEAKER_00We're all well, we're all welcome here. I went to a bar last night to watch the game, and I felt like I was back in Brooklyn and it was amazing. But I think it just shows how hungry New York was for unification. Like the fact that we can all, there's no other option. There's no other team. We can all, we have the Brooklyn Nets, but not really. We can all get behind the Knicks and like there, this hero's journey of Jalen Brunson and this victory. And I'm for it. I'm for like the Hasidics dancing on the street. Love to watch them have their moment in the spotlight. And that's what New York is, right? It's like all these unexpected factors coming together on a street corner and occasionally toppling a lamppost and or uprooting a tree.
SPEAKER_03Speaking of heroes' journey, there's an image that's circulating of those signs that we always see on the street, the lamppost saying Messiah is here. But instead of the picture of the Lubavitch Rebbe, it's Jalen Brunson in a black hat. So I do think that the things have been elevated to the theological uh the next thing you know, Jalen Brunson's gonna be rapping Tiffylene on the corner of 42nd Street. Jalen Brunson's like life is Jewish. Yeah, their kids are Jewish, right? We'll take it. Well, it's got one more time for the group.
SPEAKER_04Did you guys see this video or just going around on social media? Fat Joe, who's a rapper, said this thing where he says, I seen Hasidic Jews breakdancing with black kids. This is the greatest unification of the city since 9-11. There's a lot in that statement to unpack, but then these videos of Hasidic kids breakdancing in the streets of New York City have been going around, and the content is just so good.
SPEAKER_02I really like this show, this one that we're doing, because I get to find out what's on the internet. So thank you for sharing all of these memes with me. None of the things that's not. I was gonna say, did the Kutzka Rebbe do it? Because that's all I know. No. He's rooting for the Knicks. I heard that from Claude. She told me he loves the Knicks and also me. So I'm 100% in on this Knicks journey. So fun to see how the cities come alive. I think we handled the loss, which was last night when we're recording this. I think we handled it well, although apparently not everyone, but for the most part. And I think it's just it's cross-generational, it's cross-cultural, it's the power of sports, and couldn't be happier about it.
SPEAKER_03But I do want to say, I want to talk about this, my bagel Jewish, because there is, I don't want I want to complicate this a little bit. My bagel Jewish, so happy to be in the chant, right? So happy to be like mentioned, right? I'm speaking on behalf of the Jews and the bagels, but there is something. I don't know. I feel like you could argue bagels are bagel as symbolic of Jews. How do we feel about that? Because I feel like there's a sort of a flattening. My mayor Muslim, that's amazing, right? Like that's a thing. So the mayor's Muslim, but the bagels are Jewish. I don't know. Let's complicate this a little bit.
SPEAKER_00I have to disagree. I love it. Bagels are arguably more important and vital to the city than the mayor. 500. 100% true. If Jews want to take that, then we should have that. Bagels are the highest compliment that you can pay. I think it is bringing some lightness and levity back into the conversation around Jewishness and being Jewish in New York. And I have to say I appreciate it. And it's definitely a step up from a Christian Dior. No. Yes, I know. We should feel really sad for the Christians.
SPEAKER_02Right. That's the part I didn't get. The only thing he could think was Christian was Dior.
SPEAKER_04That's why it's so funny, though. I'm with Esther. I'm in a job as a journalist where I am looking for anti-Semitism around every corner and often finding it. It's there. There's a lot of it. There's a lot going on. And obviously, New York politics, there's a lot to talk about. But in this case, I just think it's pretty funny. It's one of these lines that has caught on. And for a bigger conversation about bagels and Jewish culture and what does it mean when things are called Jewish without depth to it. There is something there. But I think in this case, when the whole nature of the thing is celebratory and fun, I'm just I'm willing to let the people of New York City have it.
SPEAKER_03Diana, give us the official dispensation. What are we ruling?
SPEAKER_02I don't think memes are the place for nuance.
SPEAKER_03So I love this. And so it's true. It's like we are in the conversation. We're happy to be here in the playoffs. We're happy to be here in the finals. We will supply all the bagels.
SPEAKER_00What about the amazing Jewish representation on court side at the Knicks game? That was cool. Oh my gosh. It's really wild.
SPEAKER_04Larry David, Mike. We had Ben Stiller, Emmanuel, Ben Stiller, Timothy Chalamet.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. They were all there. Larry David sitting next to the Emmanuel brothers. Michael Bloomberg. Michael Bloomberg getting the wind knocks whacked in the face.
SPEAKER_00Also, really funny.
SPEAKER_03But I do feel like there's an old New Yorkiness to this where it's like you got Spike Lee, you have all these characters who are there. Of course, Larry David's there, and now you have the newcomers like Timothy Chalamet. I do think you're right. It reminds us that something being New York and something being Jewish are very similar in a lot of ways. I mean pizza is New York now, bagels are New York, and I think that's a nice reminder to us. And the two things we're talking about are like the Hasidic kids dancing. That's a wonderful thing to be like celebrating that because we've seen all these statistics. Sorry to be depressing again about anti-Semitic attacks on people who look visibly Jewish. And so to have them be dancing in the street with everyone else, I think is you're right. I think you I think this is a really great moment for Unity. So let's just see. We'll see what's gonna rhyme with Nixon Five. We'll have to find out on the internet today. And Diana will send it to you. Thank you. Please tell me next week. I'm in no rush. Okay. We'll be back in a bit with Ask Goldo, where we answer a listener
Ask GOLDA: Summer Wedding Gifts
SPEAKER_03question. Golda gang, we are back with another Mahjong night in New York City. Join us on Tuesday, June 23rd. We're popping up at one of my favorite restaurants on the Upper East Side for a night of open play. The fun starts at 6 p.m. with dinner and drinks, and then it's time to play. We'll have fun prizes as always, great company and a great night. I love doing these events. It's so fun. They sell out every single time. So make sure to get your ticket now. There's a link to sign up in the show notes, or you can head to goldyguide.com/slash P slash events. All right, it's time for Ask Golda, the segment where we answer a listener's burning question. This one comes in from Jenna in Washington, DC. She writes, Dear Golda, I have five weddings to go to this summer, most of them Jewish. I'm trying to find gifts that are cool and meaningful, but nothing I found quite works. Do you have any tips or should I just give up and cut some checks? All right, guys, we're diving into it's summer wedding season. We're talking gifts, we're talking registry, off registry, checks. Like, where do we stand? Gabby, I feel like you are going to a lot of weddings right now. I want to throw this to you first because I feel like this is something you're thinking about.
SPEAKER_04Jenna, my girl, I live in Washington, D.C. Maybe I'll see you at a wedding this summer. I've got a lot of them. Here's some tips. I'm gonna just lightly brag about an incredible wedding present that I bought for my best friend last year who got married in Washington, DC. And she and her husband are Shoner Shabbat, and they host me all the time. And I wanted to get them similarly a meaningful Jewish gift. And I got them a holiboard with cherry blossoms on it because famously DC has beautiful cherry blossoms that are in bloom in the spring, and it's a whole thing. A haliboard is great. Something that I've done, I did for my sister's wedding two years ago. I bought her the glass that her husband stepped on at the wedding, which then you collect and it got turned into a maziza that now hangs on their home. I would just encourage you, feel confident in your choices. Go look for Judaica, even if it's not on their registry, if these friends are Jewish. I feel every wedding I've gone to, people are so excited to get something that's thoughtful. They don't want a platter that they didn't pick out. They don't want you to choose something that's gonna mess up the aesthetic. But for Judaica, I feel like people I have often found that's thoughtful. And so just have a great time. There's a ton of cool stuff out there. Golda will help you find it.
SPEAKER_03Yes, I have some suggestions. Before we get to me, I want to see Esther and Diana. Do you guys have anything? Like, Diana, as a rabbi, is the expectation that you're coming with something profound and Jewish every event you go to? There's three categories.
SPEAKER_02So my real answer to this is text Stephanie Butnik. Everyone knows that. That's what I would do. I already did that. That's why I say I got here. She's like, I literally did that. If I'm officiating the wedding, then no, they're not expecting me to come with the gift. But I'm often this is the present. I'm saying, I'm actually working when I'm doing that. But I love it and it's wonderful. But often when I'm a guest, I'm very much aligned with Gabby. I like to go on their registry and see their style. Is their style, do they have a lot of glassware? Is it very modern? And that will help me indicate if I'm doing off-registry for a gift, what style of Judaica to get them. And I'll just say personally, I remember every single gift I got for my wedding, which was a long time ago, that was Judaica. Where I'm sitting right now, I can see the Seder plate my stepsister got me for a wedding that we use every single year. So I love a kiddish cup that you can use every week. I actually got my husband a kiddish cup as a wedding gift when we got married. I love candlesticks for Shabbat because you can have multiples of them and it's fine. Or I love a Seder plate because it's Passover and it's the best.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I definitely agree. Judeaika is a great route. Stephanie, I met through you, the owner of whose name is escaping me, but the owner of Tchajki. Oh, yeah, these beautiful ketuvas, ketuvas. And those are really beautiful. Me personally, I am a big registry girl. I do go to a lot of weddings. You're a rule follower. In this case. We found one case where I am a rule follower. Yeah, no, but I go to a lot of weddings. Typically, if someone has a registry, then I just feel like it's maybe it's laziness. If I'm not super close to the bride and groom, I will opt for just picking something off the registry because you can't lose with that. You already know that they want it. But then, yeah, I think I also like Abby, my sister's got me the re-glued back together kiddush cup that my husband shattered under the hoopah. And it's probably one of my most treasured beloved items that I own. I definitely think that's a great gift. But I really think you can't go wrong with either.
SPEAKER_03You mentioned Esther, the brand Chochki. They make this really cool smash glass, the idea, like the thing you smash under the hoopah, and then they make it actually not into a mazuza, but into a Hamsa sort of like stained glass thing. And so I think that's really fun. Again, if you're close enough to the person that you can give this to them, and also if you get it to them early enough. But I think that's a fun thing. I also love things that for a wedding celebrate the Jewish home. And so I love getting someone a mazuza because it's like a nice add-on, right? Maybe you're starting your Jewish home together. Again, I hear your note, Diana, but looking on the registry, seeing what the vibe is. One of my favorite places to shop for gifts is Happy Kangaroo. It's a Jewish owned store in the upper west side. That's where I got Mega. Yes. Oh, really? That's where I got the cherry blossom cutting board. I ordered it on that. That makes sense. It's amazing. Rhonda runs it and she has this huge e-commerce business. And it's just nice to know that you're, even if you get a beautiful bowl or a cake stand, it's coming from a Jewish shop. Yeah, I think I also love ABC Home. They have really good gifts and everything's like Jewish-y there. Like just it feels, it feels very Jewish, even if the items are like secular items. So I endorse that. I also love anything that's personalized with something about your friendship, which I think is really fun. You mentioned Gabby's hollow board when Edith was born. This woman, Ellen Conzegger, who had been an unorthodox listener, had become a friend. She sent me this beautiful wooden hala board that she made and she had engraved my daughter's name in it and the date she was born. And I was just like, it was such a beautiful thing. And again, it's like the Jewish home, the family, Shabbat, Hala, and like she sees her name on it now, and it's so exciting to her. So I think things that I'm not a monogram girl, but things that are personalized to the family, I think are really sweet. So, Jenna, we'll we're gonna put all of this, we're gonna put our Golden Girls guide to the summer wedding. We'll put that in the show notes with all of these suggestions, and we'll we hope you have a good summer with all these weddings. I have an Ask Golda plus one, an add-on, a listener note that I wanted to just get in. This goes to you, Diana, which is someone who wrote in to say that she just purchased your book choice, Psalms, your summer reading choice, the book of circles from a few episodes ago with Zivi Owens. If you want to check out the full list, you can head back a few episodes to that. But they're asking if you could explain a little bit about when to recite which psalms for a particular purpose. She said she's always been interested, but she doesn't know the parameters of using this mysterious book of psalms that you told us all to read on the beach this summer.
unknownIt was 101.
SPEAKER_02Right. Beach reading psalms is a new genre that I haven't heard of before, but I'm excited we're inventing it because it has to happen. I would just say, yes, there are there are certain times during worship where we recite the psalms. There are certain psalms that apply to each day of the week. But the way I meant to use it is more of like a companion for the self and a lens through which to see the world. So I would say, make a there are 150 psalms, set yourself a goal. I'm gonna read two a day. I'm gonna read three a day, and that's enough. And turn it into a practice, and you you'll see where it goes from there. And I predict that you'll be pleasantly surprised and fulfilled by the wisdom you find there, which is not found in AI.
SPEAKER_03Okay, so just open the book to a random page, start at the beginning. I would I would go in order. Start with order. Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Do we have any other additions to that? Any suggestions from my girls or no? That was fine.
SPEAKER_03I think when it comes to the book of Psalms, you are psalmists. You're Kitzkar Rebbe. You're Psalmelier. I'm here all week. All right, that's it for Ask Golda. We'll be right back with what's good for the Jews this week. All right, it's time for our final segment of the show, Good for the Jews, where we each share something this week that is, in fact, good for the Jews. I'm gonna start because I'm already talking, and why ever, why would I ever stop talking? Do not. I live on the upper west side of Manhattan. I don't think I've mentioned that this episode, and I feel like
Good for the Jews
SPEAKER_03it's my duty to my adopted homeland of the Upper West Side to say it. We have something called the West Side Campaign Against Hunger, Whisca, which is this amazing food pantry. It's run out of a few different food truck type of things, and it's on the corner of 86 and West End, and it's a neighborhood site, and it's really an amazing thing that's supported by a lot of different local institutions. And every summer they have the Whisker block party. It takes place on a block on the upper west side, and they close it down, and there's music and there's crafts, and there's so many fun things. It's like a real highlight for us each year to go. It's just very wholesome and fun, and you can get your face painted and balloon animals, and then you can also pack groceries for the coming weeks for the people who come to the food pantry, and it's just really special. And they started the sort of presentation at whatever hour we were there, and they said, Welcome to the Whiske Block Party. We want to thank our presenting sponsor, Congregation Road of Sholem, on the upper west side. And I was like, Hey, that's good for the Jews. I didn't realize that the congregation was involved. It makes perfect sense. It's right nearby. But I was like, oh, this is a block party for everyone. Whiske helps everyone. How amazing is it that is a Jewish temple, a Jewish synagogue that is supporting this really fun day? And I thought on this block for this afternoon, everyone heard something really good about the Jews. That the Jews are helping this thing. It doesn't just help Jews, it helps everyone. And that we are supporting this. I don't know. It just made me feel like this is one of these good neighborhood moments for her people to just like get a good positive feel about Jews. I got the warm and fuzzies, guys. It doesn't happen often.
SPEAKER_04That's amazing. I have somehow made it through our entire podcast without mentioning that I went to Camber Mah, which is my Upper West Side or my Roman Empire, if you will. So now to make it relevant, here's a story about Camper Mah, which is I went on Facebook and I saw a post from National Ramah Commission, which is the big umbrella group that oversees and supports all the different Ramah camps. There are several of them across the country, and also in Canada, which is relevant to this story. So here's the post Mazzle Tove to Camper Mah and Canada alum Casey Levy, who last night won the 2026 Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a leading role in a musical for her performance as Mother and the Revival of Ragtime. While at Ramah Canada, Casey performed lead roles in Hebrew language productions of Hare and Le Miz. She once shared, quote, the musicals we did every summer at Camp Ramah were huge building blocks for my career on stage. She went on to play roles in Broadway productions of these musicals, as well as lead roles in other shows, including Frozen and Wicked. We are thrilled for her and delighted to share this clip of her performing a song from Le Miz at the Ramah on Broadway event back in 2015. So I just love this. This is my life summed up in a Facebook post, always looking for some Jewish snippet to share. And I'm just imagining who the person is at Ramah with the institutional knowledge of 11 years ago, this Broadway star performed at some Ramah event, and there's a clip of it, and we're gonna share it on Facebook so that we can claim her win for our community. And as we should.
SPEAKER_03The Ramada Broadway pipeline is quite strong. It is Ben Platt. There's so many people who are like major theater actors who got their start at Camp Rama, and there's a really fun clip of Ben Platt singing at Joe's pub. I forget what song it is, but he's singing in Hebrew. The idea were all the musicals in Hebrew at camp?
SPEAKER_04All the musicals were in Hebrew. And I was wild. We did hairspray in Hebrew as well. I can't sing or dance, so I was not really in it. Although I did put a lot of hairspray in my hair. It's just it's funny to think that she, this now Tony award-winning star, was singing the same poorly translated Hebrew versions of hairspray songs that I was, except for her, it launched a Broadway career.
SPEAKER_00That is amazing. You basically won a Tony by association. Okay, so Gabby went to Camper Ma. Stephanie grew up on the Upper West Side. And no, I didn't grow up here. I don't know. I grew up in Great Next. He lives on the Upper West Side. 516 Forever. And I grew up in New York, but have recently relocated to New Jersey. So now three out of four of our out there. So I've spoken about my love of Costco on this podcast before, I believe. But now I'm going to talk about another big box chain store, and that is home goods. And just wait while I make the connection for why it's good for the Jews. Home goods, I feel like it's the Lowman's version of home decor. Every like Jewish girl who grew up in the Tri-Sid area has like their home goods version of the Lowman's moment with their mom as a young adult. And I personally have rejected home goods for a long time. I was like, mom, that's not for me. It's like she will incessantly ask me on a Sunday, hey, let's go to Home Goods together. I need new wooden spoons. She does not need new wooden spoons. Just 8,500 wooden spoons pouring out of every cabinet in her house. So I have resisted Home Goods for a very long time. Now that I live in New Jersey, I can no longer resist Home Goods or Marshall's its conjoined neighbor. I recently took a trip out to Home Goods and Marshalls, and how wrong I have been. This is the Mecca. I disowned Home Goods and March. I was like, I'm not gonna be that mom, I'm not gonna be that wife, I'm not gonna be that girl who harbors this obsession with home goods. And then I walked in recently and I was like, this is incredible. I saw 100 people that I knew in every aisle. I I caught up, I chit chatted. There was leftover Passover memorabilia in the aisles of home goods. They had so much Passover decor in the aisles of home goods in June. And I bit my own tongue. And I there there is a Jewish connection here. And even if it's just that HomeGoods is beloved by so many Jewish women that I know and is such an incredible purveyor of discounted hosting items that we all don't need but want regardless. I am now here for it. I'm a what's what's it called? I'm a convert. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I think this is true. And I will say, discount shopping, we'll call it that. Looking for a fun thing. Yes, all very Jewish. A coupon. But but also a coupon. But also, Home Goods have this incredible Hanukkah section. I'm gonna show you a picture. And look, I don't know if you can see, but in the center is my book, The Newest Jewish Encyclopedia. That's amazing. They have they had a really thoughtful, they have thoughtful Jewish holiday sections. I actually, my mother-in-law snapped that picture, but we are yes, I married into a big Home Goods, Home Sense. They're always like, We're at Home Sense, do you need anything? And I'm like, Yes, I actually need a very specific item, and they're it's always there. We we took Edith there. Oh my gosh. It was amazing. It's the best. It's but I did I saw I sent that picture to my publisher, and she was like, Yeah, this is we have a big order from Home Goods. They're really trying to stock those Jewish shelves. And I think that it's really amazing. And I'd love to support any store that loves us back.
SPEAKER_02I've spent hours at Home Goods, was my mind. Hours now that you mentioned. I never thought about it. I never thought about it as Jewish. You you've changed you've changed my mind. Now, now I see. Yes.
SPEAKER_00Do you also spend time in the communal dressing room of Lomans?
SPEAKER_03Of course. Lomens, yes, of blessed memory. That was the place to see big bosomed women in naked in the dressing room at Loman's. Our daughters will not experience that, I don't think.
SPEAKER_02Well, we still have town shop here where they do come into the dressing room. Can I measure you? It's very upper west side.
SPEAKER_03Um, has not changed a bit in years, but I love it. Diana.
SPEAKER_02Okay. My good for the Jews is a little on the nose this week. It is bot mitzvahs. And been a congregational rabbi for 15 years, and now I'm moving towards the organizational world where I'll be able to do things like attend bar mitzvahs rather than have been pretty busy.
SPEAKER_03Officiate them.
SPEAKER_02I've been busy, and I absolutely love officiating bar and bat mitzvahs. I love it. My my favorite part is looking at the faces of the parents as they see their child, chant Torah. I have the best view. So I love that. But now I'm in the kahal. I'm in the congregation watching. And so this past Thursday, I attended a bat mitzvah of a dear family friend, and I got to watch this child, Lane Torah, for the first time. Her father actually led most of the service. And it was this sort of smallish, very warm, not pretentious service where the focus was on prayer and Torah and warmth and love and family. It felt like it fed my soul. I just think we're just the luckiest people to have this amazing tradition. And I love bot mitzvahs. Good for the Jews.
SPEAKER_03And you could get a gift for the bot mitzvah at Home Goods. Oh my God, there's so much. I got her the book of Psalms. Aren't you listening? No. A personalized copy of the book of Psalms. This is good. I'm feeling like I'm feeling like things are good for the Jews right now after hearing all of this. I'm feeling very good.
SPEAKER_04Nixon five. Look, we're into that.
SPEAKER_00I don't like this because five is like the hamsa, and I just think we need to like find a different Nix. But let's just, what about like let's go next? Super open-ended. Nixon, six minus one.
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah, I forgot six minus one.
SPEAKER_00Do you guys know about this? This is a conversation for another time. I'm not prepared.
SPEAKER_03Okay, we're gonna get into Jewish superstitions on a full episode. Esther can unload about all of them. We can all share our personal favorites. So many. All right, what an episode. Golda Girls is a production of Golda Media. The show is hosted by me, Stephanie Butnik with Gabby Deutsch, Shana First Go and Esther Shahebar. Ariel Shapiro is our executive producer, and we are edited by the team at Puldue. Get more Golda and subscribe to our newsletter at Goldaguide.com. Follow us on Instagram at Goldeguide. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and we will send you a Golda sticker. Send a screenshot of your review to high at goldeguide.com. You can also send your Ask Golda questions there as well. That's high at Goldaguide.com. Thanks for listening and stay Golda.
SPEAKER_01That's a Golda podcast.
