MACHER
WHO Dovid Bashevkin
WHAT Rabbi, writer, podcast host
MAJOR PROJECT Asking big questions at 18forty.org
THE PEAK YEAR of the first Industrial Revolution and its surrounding societal shifts was 1840, although the number has come to represent something different to Jewish podcast listeners. The director of ed- ucation for the National Council of Syna- gogue Youth (NCSY) became the voice of 18Forty in 2020. And now he’s spent five years chronicling a different societal shift, the one playing out in the Jewish world be- tween religious denominations, political dif- ferences, and varying opinions on the defi- nition of observance. “Promoters of Jewish unity are like ostriches with their heads in the sand not wanting to admit our differences,” he says. “I’ve watched this approach fail every time — and it’s been failing even harder since October 7.” By talking to people who take their beliefs, whatever they are, seriously, this 40-year-old Modern Orthodox rabbi from Te- aneck, New Jersey (who’s also an annual High Holidays fixture at Kehillat Shaarei Torah in Toronto) only demands of his diverse inter- viewees that they “show their work.” He’s now been doing it for long enough to begin navigating a touchy topic: the range of opin- ions on how converts are defined. Like all Jewish media outlets, 18Forty had its train of thought derailed by external shock last year, but the agenda is turning back to com- munity again. “The reason to fight antisemi- tism,” he says, “should be so that we can focus on Judaism.” Marc Weisblott
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