The Bruchim Podcast

What a season it’s been on the Bruchim Podcast! Eli and Max debrief the conversations we’ve had with an incredible variety of guests. We cover: hatafat dam brit, including its ethics, lived experienc…

We talk a lot about Jewish circumcision on this podcast, but what’s the significance of the foreskin? Can we even think about the foreskin apart from circumcision? Eli and Max are joined by Prof. Jon…

Your body is good enough just as it is — or so Prof. Clare Chambers (Cambridge University) argues in her book Intact: A Defence of the Unmodified Body. She joins Eli and Max to explain her Principle …

Should Jewish practices related to anatomy be revised in light of new understandings of sex and gender? Should hatafat dam brit replace circumcision both for the bris and for conversion? Eli and Max …

What is it like to undergo circumcision as an adult for the purpose of Jewish conversion? Matthew Barron-Jones tells Eli his story: how he came to Judaism, what his  process of conversion was like, h…

A family shaken by a traumatic hatafat dam brit shares their story with Eli and Max. This wrenching personal account touches on hatafat dam brit and conversion; on the moral dangers of hatafat dam br…

What is it like to undergo hatafat dam brit? Three men who’ve done it tell Eli and Max their stories: what led them to this ritual, how it went down, what it felt like, how they’ve viewed this experi…

How does hatafat dam brit fit into the process of Jewish conversion, and what is the religious and psychological significance of this practice? Eli and Max are joined by Rabbi Oren Steinitz to dig in…

This episode begins our series on hatafat dam brit, a Jewish ritual performed in place of brit milah that involves pricking the circumcision scar to draw a small amount of blood. Eli and Max are join…

Many Jewish males are circumcised in the hospital without any Jewish ritual, but how did this become the case? Eli and Max are joined by the historian Prof. Elizabeth Reis (CUNY), who has studied the…

How might childhood trauma relate to some of the big problems in our relationships and our world? Eli is joined by the psychologist Dr. Ronald Goldman, a longtime Jewish opponent of circumcision, to …

How do you make decisions about whether to circumcise your future kid? For feminist filmmaker Jessie Kahnweiler, the answer is by making a movie! Jessie joins Eli to discuss what it’s like to make a …

Interested in the ethics of circumcision? You’ve come to the right place! Eli and Max are joined by the bioethicist Prof. Brian Earp (National University of Singapore and Oxford University), a leadin…

Buckle up! Season 2 is about to begin.

In this episode, Eli and Max are joined by Dr. Na’ama Carlin to discuss her book Morality, Violence, and Ritual Circumcision. They talk about Dr. Carlin’s distinction between two types of violence: M…

In his second appearance on The Bruchim Podcast, Jeff presents his view on the ethics of circumcision, and Max and Eli respond with their own views on the matter. They discuss the right to bodily int…

In the third part of this  series, Eli and Max are joined by the moral philosopher Jeff Helmreich. After Jeff gets up to speed on the conversation, he complicates matters by introducing a fifth optio…

In the second part of this series, Eli is joined by Bruchim’s Director of Education, Max DuBoff, to look at an essay by Rabbi Ethan Tucker that is directly relevant to the relationship between Ethics…

Are Jewish law and ethics in conflict? Eli is joined by Max DuBoff, Bruchim's Director of Education, to explore this question. They begin by defining their terms and explaining what they mean by ethi…