In this powerful and deeply personal 93rd episode of No Hair, All Heart, Mookie Spitz sits down with Ely Winkler, the Director of Advancement at Eshel, an organization devoted to LGBTQ+ inclusion within the Orthodox Jewish community. Their heartfelt conversation cuts through theology, tradition, and identity with candid honesty and unexpected joy.
Ely shares his remarkable journey from being the rabbi’s son in a Modern Orthodox New Jersey synagogue, to coming out at Yeshiva University in 2009, to becoming one of the leading voices for inclusion and reform within a world that still struggles with acceptance. Mookie brings his trademark mix of empathy and wit as they dig into the biblical roots of exclusion, the interpretations of Leviticus, and how faith and tolerance can not only coexist but strengthen each other.
