The Jewish Sufi Pilgrim

This podcast is a journey between the shul, the shrine, and the shaman — a joyful exploration of the shared spiritual and musical worlds among Jewish Kabbalah, Islamic Sufism, and Central Asian traditional healing. These seemingly disparate lineages met often during the medieval era on the iconic Silk Road. Their encounters still echo today.This page links to episode recordings, transcripts and resources housed on Substack.Follow the podcast online:Spotify
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Lastest Episodes

4 April 2026

Season 1 Episode 2 | The Path and the Place

In this intricate and intuitive interweaving, explore the resonances and distinctions between Kabbalistic and Sufi conceptions of spiritual journey, rupture, and return.

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16 March 2026

Season 1 Episode 1 | Why the Jewish Sufi Pilgrim?

Follow a journey across the world that moves between and among the wisdom of Jewish, Sufi and Shamanic peoples, who regularly encountered each other on the old Silk Road.

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3 March 2026

Trailer | Welcome to the Caravanserai

Enjoy a brief intro to the podcast and its style of engagement, plus ney and drum accompaniment to the traditional Sufi tune Hakkı Seven Aşıklerın.

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Writer, Musician & Scholar of Desert Devotion and Migratory Sound

About your host

The Jewish Sufi Pilgrim Podcast is hosted by Lisa England, a writer, musician, and independent scholar of desert devotion who follows migratory lineages of music across the Middle East and Silk Road. Her work explores intersections where the region’s many spiritual traditions meet through voice and instrument, influence one another, and reveal deeper continuities beneath their distinctions.Currently, she is focused on music as medicine across medieval Central Asia and the Ottoman world, with particular attention to voices and healing practices often overlooked in modern transmission — such of those of Jews and women mystics. She honors the legacy of Dr. Rahmi Oruç Güvenç as a spiritual guide in this work, and a steward of medicinal music traditions from Türkiye and the Silk Road.