Raviv Ullman, The Study, and Torah in Tough Times

If you pop over to Alma, you’ll see this lovely feature (Rachel Levin, July 1) about Raviv, a study buddy of mine back during our in-person days at American Jewish University in Intro to Judaism:

The former Disney star chats with Alma about his passion for Judaism, activism, and how “they feel one and the same.” He writes:

“My practice in Judaism is very supportive of that; they feel one and the same. We are to question our place in the universe, and wrestle with what God means, and love our neighbors as we love ourselves. The core of what the Torah teaches is to be an activist, right? I think the term activist is really interesting, because it sounds radical. But all of these things that we’ve been fighting for, whether it’s clean air, clean water, rights for Native Americans, the fact that Black lives matter — those aren’t progressive ideas. Those are simple human rights.

“And just like faith, I think our relationship to how active we are in that fight will forever be changing. We have to figure out how to balance ourselves and be able to take a deep breath every once in a while. But that work is never over. I don’t see a world in which these battles ever stop.”

Raviv is now on an epic journey producing The Study, a torah study podcast, and as his, his calm baritone has kept me company across road trips, multiple moves, and through some weird, dark, hard pandemic times. It also hosts some rad guests like Rabbi Adam Greenwald and Mayim Bialik. Woah!

— Bobby Apperson