This live event, dedicated in honor of OC "Unorthodox" superfans Mindy Schwartz and Alit Braswell, is co-sponsored by the Community Scholar Program (www.occsp.net) and the Merage Jewish Community Center (www.jccoc.org) and is fully funded by a grant from the Albert and Rhoda Weissman Arts Endowment Fund, a joint program of Jewish Community Foundation Orange County and Jewish Federation Orange County. To learn more about the "Unorthodox" podcast, vist https://www.tabletmag.com/podcasts/unorthodox.

If you’re new to “Unorthodox”, prepare to hear the latest news of the Jews, plus interviews with special guests including a Jew and Gentile of the Week. In our special May 2, 2021 live event, hosts Stephanie Butnick, Liel Leibovitz and Mark Oppenheimer fare joined joined by American actress, singer, and playwright Tovah Feldshuh!

Since its debut in 2015, Tablet Magazine’s “Unorthodox”, a smart, fresh, fun weekly take on Jewish news and culture, has become the most popular and beloved Jewish podcast in the world. Podcast creator and co-host, Mark Oppenheimer, pitched the idea of a Jewish podcast to Tablet Magazine six years ago when he began noticing that “podcast listening was exploding.” Unorthodox boasts a loyal and diverse fan base of more than 20,000, known as the #JCrew. Special episodes each year include the Apology episode each fall, to coincide with the High Holy Days, and the Conversion episode each Shavuot. The Unorthodox podcast, which reminds its 5,280 Facebook group members that it is “not a group for the Netflix show and book of the same name,” recently aired episode 270.

Meet the Podcast Team

Stephanie Butnick is the deputy editor of Tablet Magazine and has written for the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. She has a bachelor’s degree in religion from Duke and a master’s in religious studies from NYU. She lives in New York with her husband and their cat, Cat Stevens. Stephanie notes, “The best part of Unorthodox for me is showcasing the diversity of the Jewish experience, and the many different ways of being Jewish. We hear from listeners who don’t live near a Jewish community, or have no interest in going to synagogue, but they find a deep Jewish connection each Thursday when they play the podcast. That is incredibly meaningful for me as a host.”

Liel Lei­bovitz, a senior writer for Tablet Magazine and a contributor to a number of national publications, including The Atlantic and The New Republic, is the author of sev­er­al books, includ­ing, most recent­ly, A Bro­ken Hal­lelu­jah, a spir­i­tu­al biog­ra­phy of Leonard Cohen. He has a Ph.D. in video games from Colum­bia, a fact that makes his sev­en-year-old self very hap­py. Liel served as a Non-Commissioned Officer in the Israel Defense Forces’ Spokesperson’s Unit, and has reported extensively from and about Israel and the Palestinian Authority. He has also served as a visiting assistant professor at New York University and taught classes about mass media, security, and politics in a number of academic institutions, including Barnard College. He lives in New York with his wife and their two children.

Mark Oppenheimer, creator and co-host of “Unorthodox,” describes himself as a writer, talker, father, husband, dog-owner, and challah baker - though not necessarily in order of importance. A resident of New Haven, where he lives with his wife, five kids and two dogs, Mark holds a PhD in religion from Yale University. He has taught at Yale, Stanford, New York University and, as he puts it, “many other schools worthy of admission scandals.” Mark's varied career also includes stints as a newspaper beat reporter for the Hartford Courant, an essayist for The American Scholar, Southwest Review, and Yale Review, and an historian of religion, and six years, as the Beliefs columnist for The New York Times.

Special Guest

Tovah Feldshuh is a 6-time Tony & Emmy nominee and the winner of 4 Drama Desks, 4 Outer Critic Circle, 2 Dramalogues, The Theatre World, Obie, Lucille Lortel and Helen Hayes Award for Best Actress. Among her many Broadway credits, Tovah starred in William Gibson’s Golda’s Balcony which was directed by Scott Schwartz and became the longest running one woman show in Broadway history. She also starred in Scott Schwartz’s acclaimed production of Arsenic & Old Lace at the Dallas Theater Center opposite Betty Buckley. Her latest role on Broadway was for Stephen Schwartz, in the Tony-winning Broadway revival of Pippin as Grandma Berthe singing the show-stopping No Time at All while simultaneously doing a full out trapeze act. Her latest television series includes The Walking Dead and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. She was awarded three honorary doctorates and has received the Israel Peace Medal and Eleanor Roosevelt Humanities Award.