PODCASTS
Listen to shows that have hosted Zack as a guest
Adapting Podcast:
The Communal Reckoning We Need
Season 5, Episode 2, Sept. 12, 2024
In this week's episode of Adapting, David Bryfman and Zack Bodner have a provocative conversation inspired by Bodner's recent article in The Jerusalem Post on communal reckoning. Together, they explore where we've gone wrong as a Jewish community, and to try to figure out why some students stand as defenders of the Jewish people and nation, while others feel ashamed and distance themselves from Israel. They reflect on the idea that to move forward, we must take internal stock of where we are.
Holy Sparks Podcast
with Saul Kaye
and Guest Zack Bodner
Season 4, Episode 3 May 3, 2024
Our Mission is To Illuminate the brightest lights in the Jewish world and beyond so that we elevate the Holy Sparks within us and make the world around us a better place.
Saul Kaye is an internationally touring music artist with 10 CDs out. He has produced 8 for other artists. He has written three books. After his last book of interviews with rising Jewish Music Artists, he decided to launch the Holy Sparks Podcast to shine more light on some incredible humans in the Jewish World. you can find out more about Saul, his music, and his work at www.saulkaye.com
On this week's episode, I sit down with my friend Zack Bodner, President and CEO of the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto. We explore his latest book, Why Do Jewish? We talk about his time at AIPAC, the role of the JCC in the Jewish tapestry, Israel, and a compelling vision for the Jewish People.
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Bringing American and Israeli Jews Together
on
The Z3 Project Podcast
Episode 1, July 27, 2023
Zack Bodner is the first guest on the first episode of the Z3 Podcast, the home for Diaspora and Israeli Jewish communal dialogue! The podcast is an outgrowth of the Z3 Project and Z3 Conference, where thinkers and creators come to engage every year on the most important topics facing our people. In this episode, our host and head of Z3 Amitai Fraiman is joined by the CEO of the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto and founder of Z3, Zack Bodner. Together, they delve into the very idea of what Z3 is to set the foundation for the future of the podcast.
Search for Meaning
with Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback
and Zack Bodner
January 18, 2023
Join Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback as he talks with an eclectic variety of thinkers, artists, and change-makers about their experiences (Jewish or otherwise) and their own search for meaning and purpose in their lives.
In the latest edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts Zack Bodner, CEO of the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center and author of “Why Do Jewish? A Manifesto for 21st Century Jewish Peoplehood.”
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His new book discusses what it means to live a meaningful, relevant, and joyful Jewish life. Bodner touches on the role of Jewish education in general, and Jewish preschools in particular, including Wise’s Aaron Milken Center. Bodner also touches on the evolution of interfaith marriages and Judaism’s relevance to our increasingly multifaceted sense of personal identity.
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What, though, does it mean to “do” Jewish, instead of just “being” Jewish?
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“In my mind, how you live and what you do is way more important,” Bodner says. “I start the book off with this quote from David BenGurion: ‘Words without deeds are nothing,’ because it really is, in my mind, about the doing.”
THE Z3 PROJECT
on
ISRAEL CAST by JNF
Episode 146, July 20, 2022
IsraelCast is Jewish National Fund's premier podcast where they share stories of interesting people doing fascinating work all over Israel. Host Steven Shalowitz talks with guests to discuss Israeli news, culture, history, and much more. New episodes are released every other Wednesday.
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Zack Bodner is a bridge-builder. The CEO of the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center, Bodner has been creating dialogue and understanding between diaspora and Israeli Jews through his Z3 project. As a former AIPAC regional director who has worked on college campuses, Bodner has experience with Jews from all walks of life, and understands the important role Israel has played in Jewish history and the importance of coming together as a people despite our differences. Host Steven Shalowitz sits down with Bodner to discuss the three central principles of the Z3 project, the ambivalence he feels over anti-Zionist Jews, and how being Jewish means different things to different people.
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Binah: WHY DO JEWISH?
on
KALW Public Media
April 7, 2022
Binah features creative voices from the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. In this series, we bring you remarkable artists and thinkers who’ve come to speak at the JCCSF as part of their Arts & Ideas program.
Zack Bodner, CEO of the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto, thoughtfully shifts from asking why be Jewish to why do Jewish, and provides a roadmap for anyone looking to live a more meaningful Jewish life.
DISCOVERING THE MEANING OF LIFE
on
HOW'D YOU GET THAT JOB?
Season 2, Episode 7 (May 2021)
Join us as we pull back the curtain to get a behind-the-scenes look at the unique, transdisciplinary, and inspiring careers of Claremont Graduate University alumni.
What do you want to do? Who do you want to be? What is your purpose? Zack Bodner (MA, Philosophy of Religion and Theology, ’98), CEO of the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center, tells us his remarkable journey in attempting to answer those questions for himself. Listen in as he talks about making a difference and not ruling out any possibilities that led to him interning for American social and political activist, Tom Hadden, before becoming a writer and discovering the “meaning of life.” Also, be sure to check out Zack’s book Why Do Jewish? A Manifesto for 21st Century Jewish Peoplehood when it comes out this summer.
For a transcript of this episode, email cgupodcasts at gmail.com and include the episode title.
​​​​​​WHY IS "DOING JEWISH" IMPORTANT FOR JEWISH EDUCATION?
on
ADAPTING THE FUTURE
OF JEWISH EDUCATION
Season 2, Episode 5 (Nov 2021)
The Jewish world often finds itself divided on issues related to Israel, Jewish practice, and intermarriage. At times, our divisions seem to threaten the very idea of global Jewish peoplehood. On this episode Zack Bodner speaks about the imperative to “do Jewish,” what motivated him to write his new book Why Do Jewish? A Manifesto for 21st Century Jewish Peoplehood, and the way Bodner, CEO of the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto, California, thinks West Coast Judaism is redefining American Jewish culture for the 21st century.
​​​​​​DOING JEWISH
on
JUDAISM UNBOUND
Episode 302 (Nov 2021)
Zack Bodner, CEO of The Oshman Family JCC and author of Why Do Jewish? A Manifesto for 21st Century Jewish Peoplehood, joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about his book. They also explore together what makes West-Coast Judaism distinctive, along with whether the digital world is itself a new kind of geographic "coast."
ZIONISM 3.0
on
JUDAISM UNBOUND
Episode 128
Judaism Unbound, a project of the Institute for the Next Jewish Future, is a project that catalyzes and supports grassroots efforts by “disaffected but hopeful” American Jews to re-imagine and re-design Jewish life in America for the 21st Century.
Dan and Lex welcome back Zack Bodner, CEO of the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto, California. In their conversation, they explore his organization's "Zionism 3.0" conference, along with broader questions regarding the ever-evolving relationship between American Jews and Israel.
20
MINUTE
LEADERS
Episode 133 (Sep 2020)
Daily talk show with thought leaders from around the world.
Zack is the CEO of the OFJCC, where under his leadership they launched the Center for Social Impact, the Architects of the Jewish Future Series, and the Zionism 3.0 Project, which is creating a new paradigm for Israel-World Jewry relations. He is a writer, speaker and thought-leader on issues of modern American Judaism and Zionism. Previously he served as the Pacific Northwest Director for AIPAC. He holds a MA from Claremont Graduate School, a BA from Yale University and has studied at Hebrew University in Jerusalem as well as Stanford Graduate School of Business.
JEWISH? COMMUNITY? CENTER?
on
JUDAISM UNBOUND
Episode 66
Judaism Unbound, a project of the Institute for the Next Jewish Future, is a project that catalyzes and supports grassroots efforts by “disaffected but hopeful” American Jews to re-imagine and re-design Jewish life in America for the 21st Century.
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Zack Bodner, CEO of the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto, joins Dan and Lex in our Silicon Valley series to explore the shifting role of Jewish Community Centers, possibilities for a "Judaism 4.0," and what special role a JCC in the heart of the experimental and entrepreneurial landscape of Silicon Valley might play in playing with the possibilities.
WANDERING IN THE WILDERNESS
on
JUDAISM UNBOUND
Episode 61
Judaism Unbound, a project of the Institute for the Next Jewish Future, is a project that catalyzes and supports grassroots efforts by “disaffected but hopeful” American Jews to re-imagine and re-design Jewish life in America for the 21st Century.
Dan and Lex are joined by guest co-hosts Zack Bodner and Tova Birnbaum, from the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto, California. In this episode, they explore the Torah's narrative of the wandering in the wilderness, asking how lessons from that story can apply to contemporary Jewish life.