The Juice with Jeff #79

On this episode of the podcast, Michael Libbie conducts and co-produces an excellent and fun audio interview with me via Zoom filled with quite a bit of two-way conversation throughout the interview. There were a bunch of things that Michael asked me to talk about during the audio interview including:

1. How I was pretty active with the former Beth El Jacob Synagogue in Des Moines, IA for around 15 years or so and how there was period of time for a couple years (between 2006 and 2008) where I made the effort to attend the minyanim/prayer services at BEJ as much as I was able to. Today, Beth El Jacob has now merged with and is part of the Chabad Lubavitch of Iowa community.

NOTE: A "minyan" refers to the quorum of at least 10 Jewish adults that is required in order for certain parts of the service to be done (e.g. the "Barchu", the "Kedushah" part of the Amidah, the various forms of the "Kaddish", the Torah reading with people being called up for "Aliyahs".) In Orthodox synagogues, only men 13 years of age and older can be counted for a minyan. In Conservative and other non-Orthodox synagogues, women 12 years of age and older can also be counted for a minyan.

2. How in the past I have done event videotaping and video production for people in the Des Moines/central Iowa Jewish community as a hobby and side gig. Nowadays I still do event videotaping for people today occasionally. I talk with Michael about what kind of equipment I have been using for videotaping and editing events, both in the past and also what I will use nowadays.

3. I talk with Michael more about my audio production skills and about discuss the technical details on how I put together these "The Juice with Jeff" podcasts.

4. Michael also asks me to talk in more detail about my love of karaoke and singing for fun, about how I have a really cool karaoke system setup, and how I occasionally bring my karaoke system to the parties that friends have.

5. Michael asks me to talk about the Jewish music group that is led by Lenny Solomon called Shlock Rock, as well as how I am a fan of a good majority of Shlock Rock's music and in terms of how Lenny Solomon uses music to educate the Jewish commmunity about Judaism in a fun and entertaining way. Then Michael asks me to talk about the times that the performer Matisyahu came to Des Moines, and I tell Michael about the one Shabbat (the weekly Jewish Sabbath)  in 2009 that I got to meet and spend some time hanging around with Matisyahu in the synagogue I was praying at.

6. The last thing that Michael asks me to talk about with him is the close friendship/relationship that I had with Rabbi Marshall Berg and Rebbetsin Shirley Berg (both Of Blessed Memory) for quite a long time; and also how the Bergs have had a strong influence in my life in terms of how I practice Judaism.

This interview was recorded on Sunday February 28, 2021 and it runs around 59 minutes long. As is the case with all of the "The Juice with Jeff" podcasts, funding for this podcast is provided by Realty With Ahart and RandomKid. Enjoy!