Maria Friedman

Unfortunately, my Jewish upbringing was minimal, and I didn't really get a chance to learn about my Judaism or connect with that side of my identity at all.  Judaism was just kind of an accessory.  My parents grew up in the Soviet Union; my dad grew up in Belarus, his side was from Poland and Belarus.   My mom's side was from Ukraine and Russia.  As you know, there was a lot of antisemitism in the Soviet Union during the time they grew up, so a lot of traditions and connections to Judaism got lost.  I didn't have a bat mitzvah or celebrate Shabbat growing up.  To this day, I am one of the only people in my family that studies Judaism and tries to infuse it in my daily life, which can be daunting sometimes.   But it's also a beautiful thing; I have a slate upon which I can paint and be the architect of my own life.

My grandmother, Masha/Maria, whom I was named after, was a Holocaust survivor and a decorated war veteran, as she was part of the partisan movement of Jews who fled to forest and tried to survive there (while fighting the Nazis).

I heard about TPF from my Olami Souled coach and mentor, Devorah Vale.  She said, "Hey, there's this Podcast Fellowship where you can watch videos and audio about Judaism and get paid for discussing them with me!"

My reaction was amazed, happy and glad to hear that they're incentivizing people to learn.  I thought the stipend was a big amount and it really piqued my interest in the program.

Honestly, I would still have participated in the fellowship without the $15, but I wouldn't have approached the information as quickly and as consistently--maybe once a month.  I do love podcasts, I'm an auditory learner.  I've always loved hearing somebody use their voice to tell a story or explain concepts, even in school.  So, I would have done it, but not consistently, every week, to the level that I did.

An amazing experience.  Nearly every week, Devorah and I discuss a podcast or video.  What I love about it is that there's such a wide range of topics; everything from family, relationships, love, travel, motivation, depression, anxiety, fear, how to live your daily life with success, money, so many great topics to choose from and touch all areas of life.  Also with the speakers, there's a lot of variety.

I will say there were moments when I started listening to lectures which were very advanced and difficult for me to grasp, as someone lacking foundational knowledge and not knowing Hebrew or the Torah that well.  In that case, I either chose a different one or pushed myself through it, writing down a lot of interesting questions for my mentor.  I would tell her, "maybe I grasped about 20% of this, but can we talk about it?"  That's what I love about TPF, it challenged me to learn about things that I wouldn't have sought out otherwise, as well as a wide variety of things directly applicable to my life.

Devorah is able to fill in gaps, offer different insights and different sources to compliment what I learned in the podcast.  That, to me, is instrumental in my learning because it helps me see the interconnection and grasp a deeper meaning than I would have on my own.  My mentor lives and breathes Torah, and lives it every day with her family.  Without that discussion piece I wouldn't be able to truly understand the weight of the concepts from these amazing speakers.

I really love "Rav Gav,"  Rabbi Gavriel Friedman, because he is truly engaging and comical.  I actually had a chance to meet him during an all-women's trip called Jewel, before the pandemic, at Aish HaTorah.  He makes things so funny and engaging that I do not lost interest whenever he is speaking, even for a second.  He spells things out very clearly in a way that the topic stays with me for days and I am able to grasp it, understand it and explain it to someone else.

I also listened to a lot of Charlie Harary, who does motivational podcasts, which I liked because they were more general and less Torah-heavy.  I think motivational and mindset podcasts are so important, no matter what you're doing in your life.  In order to achieve any goal you have to have the right mindset, to be motivated to change and to think critically about what you're doing in your life so that you're not wasting time.  Listening to these podcasts helped me through a lot of stressful situations as well.

As I mentioned before, being able to discuss the podcast content with my mentor has helped me grow immensely.  Sometimes we'll relate the discussion to something that's coming up on the Jewish calendar, or we'll discuss something that's going on in her personal life, or my personal life, which is really helpful to add color and depth to what I'm learning.  It has propelled me to want to dive into Judaism further.

It's also given me a consistent structure; with the weekly incentive, every single week I have made sure to listen to my podcast or watch my video.  Even if it's only once a week that I put in a half-hour to an hour listening, then another half-hour or 45 minutes discussing with my mentor, that is a good structure to actually take this seriously into my life and begin to color my life with the Judaism that was missing from my childhood.

It's an interesting question: where am I as a Jew?  Learning with TPF has helped me start putting concepts into action.  For example: lighting Shabbat candles.  There were podcast that spoke about it, but I also talked about it in-depth with my mentor.  A friend helped me get my first Judaica--Shabbat candle-holders and candles--which I can't say I light every Friday, but probably light 85%-90% of the time.   This is something I never had in my life.  It's really amazing to me, if you think about coming from almost nothing to lighting candles consistently.

Even though I have maxed out the Fellowship, I still listen to the podcasts and I still meet with Devorah on a weekly basis.  I was able to go visit her in Toronto, where she lives, and celebrate Shabbat with her and some of the other mentees.  I'm also doing a trip to Panama with Olami Souled in January.

TPF has really encouraged me to go deeper in my Judaism, to not stop learning, to keep eating it up.  I feel like I don't have an excuse; all these things are at my fingertips, there's so much information out there that's free and accessible, that I can listen to when I'm cooking, when I'm driving...  We all have busy lives, but this format makes it easy to keep growing.

I want to infuse more Judaism into my life.  I don't have kids yet, but I want to raise my kids in a Jewish way, and I attribute that to all the Jewish learning I've been doing.

I'm not a student, but I do live very close to the Brown University campus, and I have friends who are students and faculty.  I have heard of a lot of antisemitic incidents there.  I makes me really sad.  I know there have been extreme protests there too.  I'm glad we have a Jewish young professional community in Rhode Island, where we feel safe, and we meet and talk about it.  It's very scary that these universities, especially the elite Ivy League schools such as Brown and Harvard, have been so openly antisemitic.  It is frightening and I hope it will change, but it will be a long journey to change people's hearts and minds.

"An accessible, convenient, non-intimidating way to learn about your Judaism at any level.  AND you get paid weekly.  What's not to love? 🥰"