HUC Connect Event
Speakers: Jessica Roda, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Jewish Civilization, Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University; Andrew Rehfeld, Ph.D., President, Hebrew Union College; moderator
With the psychedelic renaissance, actors from the biomedical field, as well as from religious, spiritual, and healing communities, have taken up this theme with great interest. What is new in this process, compared to the emergence of psychedelic studies before the War on Drugs, is the desire to legitimize these practices through the framework of mental health. At the heart of this renaissance, ultra-Orthodox Jews have mobilized this discourse in unexpected ways. Within these practices lie both a desire to detach from the suffering produced by highly controlled societies and an attempt to find better alignment with one’s inner self. Psychedelics are an entry point to acknowledge the suffering generated by the structured universe in which one lives, while also serving as a means of healing, especially as psychedelic ceremonies are now taking place within ultra-Orthodox circles themselves. This lecture offers an entry into the world of Jewish psychedelics, beginning with a brief historical overview of the connections between Jews and psychedelic cultures, given the significant Jewish presence in these spheres, and then moving into a case study centered on ceremonies and their meaning. In doing so, this approach contributes to an anthropology of pain from a Jewish perspective.
Jessica Roda is Associate Professor of Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service. An anthropologist and ethnomusicologist trained in Europe and North America, her research explores the intersections of music, religion, cultural heritage, gender, health, and media. Her latest monograph, For Women and Girls Only: Reshaping Jewish Orthodoxy through the Arts in the Digital Age (NYU Press, 2024), analyzes how ultra-Orthodox Jewish women, and women who have left religious life, mobilize artistic practices, performance, and digital media to negotiate, challenge, and transform religious authority and gendered norms. The work has received multiple distinctions, including the Cashmere Award from the AJS Women’s Caucus (2021), the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Research Award (2021), the 2024 Society for Ethnomusicology Jewish Music Special Interest Group Prize, and it was shortlisted for the 2025 Religion and the Arts Book Award from the American Academy of Religion. Her current research examines altered states of consciousness, breathwork, and psychedelics, focusing on how global wellness cultures and plant-based healing practices are translated and reframed within Jewish theological and communal contexts.
The Fritz Bamberger Memorial Lecture honors Dr. Fritz Bamberger, z”l, a beloved member of the Hebrew Union College community, remembered for his contributions to German-Jewish scholarship, teachings in Jewish intellectual history, and his role as Assistant to the President. Notably, after Hitler’s rise in Germany, Dr. Bamberger organized a system of schools from kindergarten to college for Jewish students expelled by the Nazis from public institutions. At great personal risk, he helped establish new types of Jewish schools along with educational innovations to meet the needs of young Jews during the Nazi era.
Register here to attend on Zoom.
