Podcast: Malka Groden on Adoption Within the Orthodox Community

A Lubavitcher adoptive mother, and a passionate advocate of adoption within the Orthodox community, explains the unique challenges she faced while pursuing her goal.

Motortion/iStockPhoto.

Motortion/iStockPhoto.

Observation
March 14 2019
About the authors

A weekly podcast, produced in partnership with the Tikvah Fund, offering up the best thinking on Jewish thought and culture.

Malka Groden is a domestic-adoption advocate in the American Jewish community.

This Week’s Guest: Malka Groden

 

On any given day, there are more than 400,000 children in foster care in the United States, and that number is only growing as the opioid epidemic continues to ravage communities across America. These children need the stability and care that come from living in families—yet many Americans seeking to adopt turn overseas instead.

Malka Groden and her husband made a different choice. Born and raised in the Lubavitch ḥasidic community, Groden always planned to have a large biological family. But when infertility treatments failed, she and her husband decided to adopt. Today, Groden is the mother of an adopted son and daughter, a passionate advocate for domestic adoption, and the bearer of a unique message: namely, that the family culture nurtured in traditional Jewish communities is a model that Jews can offer to their fellow Americans.

In this podcast, Groden joins Jonathan Silver to discuss her journey to domestic adoption. Along the way, she speaks about challenges she faced in the Orthodox world itself as she pursued her goal, and explains how her Judaism has moved her to advocate adoption not only in general but specifically within her own religious community.

Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble, as well as “Great Feeling” by Alex Kizenkov.

 

Listen via iTunes Podcasts | Google PlayStitcher | Spotify

 

Background

 

Every Thursday, the Tikvah Podcast at Mosaic will bring to to your car/earbuds/home stereo/Alexa the latest in our efforts to advance Jewish thought. For more on the new podcast, check out our inaugural post here and listen to our background episode here:

A final note: If you would like to share your thoughts on the podcast, ideas for future guests and topics, or any other form of feedback, just send us an email at [email protected]. We’re grateful for your support, and we look forward to a new year of great conversations on Jewish essays and ideas.

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