The Grand Conversation: The Machon Siach Podcast

Ep. 30 - Supporting Sephardic Students in our School

This episode of The Grand Conversation: "Supporting Sephardic Students in Our Schools" features an important conversation between Rabbi Shmuel Hain and Ms. Denise Samstein, Judaic Studies faculty member and Director of Sephardic Engagement at SAR High School. Questions discussed include: What is the experience of Sephardic families and students in schools where they are a minority? What more can we do to include Sephardic history, culture and halakha in our school life?

Ep. 29 - Am V'Ometz: Building Jewish Confidence

This episode of The Grand Conversation is devoted to the subject of Building Jewish Confidence. In the podcast, Rabbi Shmuel Hain is in conversation with Ms. Adina Shoulson, Chair of SAR High School’s History Department and Dr. Caryn Keller, History faculty at SAR HS. Ms. Shoulson and Dr. Keller were the coordinators of Am V’Ometz: Building Jewish Confidence Conference. This conference, along with a number of curricular and co-curricular activities at SAR HS and ongoing projects at Machon Siach are designed to instill and reinforce students’ confidence in their Jewish identity.

Ep. 28 - Jewish Sexual Ethics with Ms. Shuli Taubes

This special episode of the Grand Conversation is devoted to the subject of teaching Jewish sexual ethics at SAR high school and in the broader modern orthodox community. Rabbi Hain speaks with Ms. Shuli Taubes, the author of This Too is Torah, SAR High School's tenth grade beit midrash program on Jewish sexual ethics, values and practice.

Ep. 27 - It's Deeper than College Admissions: A Conversation with Professor Daniel Markovits

American Jews have benefited greatly from access to higher education and the professional pathways it opened to them. Today, here is a great deal of concern about the culture and climate for Jews and Zionists on campus. But our students are still striving for acceptance into competitive universities, and we still see our students struggling with the endless demands of the college admissions process, one that seems to get more daunting with every year. Even as we reconsider whether our community should remain bought in to this system, is there any way to rethink how we define, demonstrate, and reward merit? Is it possible to enjoy the benefits of striving for excellence without all of the costs that our current system imposes? Professor Daniel Markovits of Yale Law School, author of The Meritocracy Trap: How America's Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, and Devours the Elite, speaks with Rabbi Tully Harcsztark and Dr. Rivka Press Schwartz about the nature of problem, how we got here, and what we might do about it. * This was recorded prior to October 7th, 2023.

Ep. 26 - Lifnai V’Lifnim/Vaad with Rabbanit Lisa Schlaff & Ms. Shira Schiowitz

In this episode of the Grand Conversation, Rabbi Shmuel Hain discusses SAR High School's Vaad program with Rabbanit Lisa Schlaff and Ms. Shira Schiowitz. Vaad enhances the spiritual growth and meaning making of our faculty and students by devoting one period a week to their inner world. Listen to find out how SAR HS teachers and students develop the skills and dispositions to support one another in their religious and emotional journeys. SAR High School's Vaad program was developed in partnership with Lifnai V'lifnim, an organization dedicated to deepening connections and transforming relationships with oneself, with others, with community and with Torah and God.