Two queer, self-loving anti-zionist Jews bringing you community and radical Jewish learning 🕯️🌿✡️
Making Mensches is your home for Queer, Anti-Zionist Jewish ritual, radical education, and community!
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Shout out to Nate for the intro music! Follow him at instragram.com/naebird.wav
Join Elana and Jesi from the Making Mensches team for a conversation with Stacy Friedman (https://www.instagram.com/stacy.e.art) (she/her) and Elly Stern (https://www.ellystern.com/)(she/her), the author and illustrator of new children’s book, “Never Again, for Anyone.”
We talk with them about the genesis for this book and all the considerations that went into the writing and illustration of the book, the importance of community and how their community influenced this book, and the necessity of a children’s book like this one.
Stacy is a Jewish mama, educator, and organizer committed to creating a world where all children are safe. Guided by cultural teachings of empathy and justice, she learns and teaches with land, food, and community. Never Again, for Anyone is her first book and the first Jewish children’s book that supports Palestinian liberation.
Elly is an award-winning artist, animator, and community organizer who uses visual storytelling to inspire change. Through stop-motion film-making and mixed media, her works capture the textures of human experience. As a third-generation Holocaust survivor and anti-Zionist Jew from Israel-Palestine, Elly is committed to intertwining art with justice advocacy. Never Again, for Anyone is her first book.
If you want to read the book with children in your life or buy it for loved ones with kids, it’s available for pre-order (https://arsenalpulp.com/Books/N/Never-Again-for-Anyone) and will be in stores in North America on September 29th.
If you want to support the book, request it at your local bookstore and library! Ask your synagogue or other local orgs to buy it for their library! Share it on social media!
[This episode was recorded in May 2026.]
Big thanks to Stacy and Elly for this conversation, Jesi for being part of the team, Jessie for editing the podcast, and to Nate for our podcast music. If you want to support our work, you can do so here. (http://makingmensches.com/mensch)
15 Jun 2026
Judaism and Abolition: No One Is Disposable with Rachel Joy
Join the Making Mensches team (Elana, Jesi/Rocki, and Jessie) and Rachel Joy (they/she) for the third episode of our Judaism and Abolition series!
Rachel is an abolitionist social worker, lay leader, and organizer. Rachel has been teaching, leading Jewish services, and community building with folks inside jails for the past five years and spent the past 9 months organizing with Matir Asurim: The Jewish Care Network for Incarcerated People (https://www.matirasurim.org/). Rachel also started the NYC Resource Library (https://www.instagram.com/nycresourcelibrary/) - a database of free resources across NYC and an in-person mutual aid distribution.
In this episode, we talk about supporting Jewish folks who are incarcerated, the connections between anti-zionism and abolition, the importance of our own healing when engaging in movement work, racism in Jewish communities, how to get involved in mutual aid/organizing work, and soooo much more.
It was a true pleasure to get to talk to Rachel and this episode is so full of wisdom. We hope it moves you in the direction of community and true justice <3
Show Notes:
Matir Asurim
matirasurimnetwork@gmail.com (mailto:matirasurimnetwork@gmail.com)
NYC Resource Library
nycresourcelibrary@proton.me (mailto:nycresourcelibrary@proton.me)
If you enjoyed this episode, please donate to Matir Asurim. (https://www.matirasurim.org/)
[This episode was recorded in May 2026.]
Big thanks to Rachel for this conversation, Jesi for being part of the team, Jessie for editing the podcast, and to Nate for our podcast music. If you want to support our work, you can do so here. (http://makingmensches.com/mensch)
6 May 2026
Judaism and Abolition: Grasping at the Root with Ayeola Omolara Kaplan
Join the Making Mensches team (Elana, Jesi/Rocki, and Jessie) and Ayeola Omolara Kaplan (https://www.ayeola.org/) for the second episode of our Judaism and Abolition series!
Ayeola is a revolutionary surrealist artist who creates artwork that synchronizes abolitionist dreams and experiential reality. Ayeola’s craft is inspired by her Jewish eco-spirituality and the divinity that seeds the intersecting threads of disability justice, gender liberation, racial equity, and class abolition.
In this episode, we talk about ecospiritualism, Cop City in Atlanta, the significance of ecological consciousness in abolition work, teshuva, how we can reconstruct Judaism, and so much more. We are so grateful for Ayeola’s wisdom and art and hope if you’re listening, you’ll go support her.
Show Notes:
BUY AYEOLA’S ART (https://www.ayeola.org/)
DWELL in Revolution MM episode with Ayeola (https://open.spotify.com/episode/3DnavhyN0hiJkQG1vFSKsT?si=6F3cNCMUS9Cz8RCjiX-_oA)
Why Cop City Goes Against Jewish Values (https://atmos.earth/political-landscapes/cop-city-atlanta-forest-jewish/)
The Prisoner’s Herbal by Nicole Rose (https://solidarityapothecary.org/prisonersherbal/)
Uncle Jim’s Worms (https://unclejimswormfarm.com/)
Vermicomposting (https://rodaleinstitute.org/science/articles/vermicomposting-for-beginners/)
Reorienting Within a World of Plastic episode (https://forthewild.world/listen/dr-max-liboiron-on-reorienting-within-a-world-of-plastic-encore-294)
Rose Luxemburg’s prison letters (https://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1918/letters.htm)
If you enjoyed this episode, please support Ayeola’s work. (https://www.patreon.com/cw/Ayeola)
[This episode was recorded in April 2026.]
Big thanks to Ayeola for this conversation, Jesi for being part of the team, Jessie for editing the podcast, and to Nate for our podcast music. If you want to support our work, you can do so here. (http://makingmensches.com/mensch)
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