The Juice with Jeff #266

The Juice with Jeff’s Podcast

On this episode of the podcast, Catalina Samaniego and Alex Phillips conduct and co-produce their fantastic, superb, and very conversational interview with me thru Zoom. This is the debut/first time on the podcast for both Catalina and Alex.

Catalina and Alex asked me the following questions:

Have you always been a practicing Jew and what is your relationship with your religion throughout your life?

Do you have friends that you still keep on both sides of the religious observance spectrum or has it been difficult to maintain all those relationships?

How is it that you understand the relationship between your Jewish community and your ability to worship to your heart's content with both sides of the Jewish community?

Do you ever feel that having Autism made you practice different than other folks or did you feel like it wasn't a concern. Did people talk about being Neurodivergent or Neurodiversity when you started becoming more religiously observant during the 1990's?

Have there been times where your religious community has provided accommodations for people that are Neurodivergent or Autistic?

Could you talk to us more about how your brain processes things differently, do you ever feel like that impacts your ability to worship?

Are there parts of Jewish teaching and tradition that you see bolster Autism. awareness or acceptance, which do you think is favored?

When you went to synagogue in the past, was it difficult to get accommodations for your being autistic?

How has your role changed in Jewish communities in the context of Neurodivergence?

Practicing Judaism on your own, do you miss the communal aspects of what went on in the synagogue?

Catalina shares a story on her experiences with a church that she was a part of at one point.

In the future when it comes to religious worship, will you intend to stay as a more individual practitioner, or will you go out back into the community?

We have a conversation throughout concerning any involvement I have in the Jewish community, the ongoing Covid spread and how I still take some Covid precautions seriously, the importance of caring about the health and lives of others, my turning 50 recently, and about the super amazing year we've had with the podcast.

This episode of the podcast was recorded on Thursday November 7, 2024 and it runs 1 hour and 6 minutes long. Our opening and closing theme music is provided by Oleg Kyrylkovv courtesy of Pixabay. Funding for this podcast is provided by RandomKid, Ann Kaatz LoBue, Fran Parr, Sarah Stokes, and Renee Whisnant. Enjoy!!