Recent news reports suggest that anti-Semitism on college campuses is skyrocketing and Jewish students are cowering in fear. But how can we separate reality from hysteria? Using the most up-to-date data, we will explore the following questions:
In this session, we’ll be exploring texts from Chumash that both explicitly and implicitly highlight individual silence. We’ll lean on select rabbinic commentaries which attempt to hear what these silent voices are saying (or not saying), and pair those perspectives our own parsing of the texts.
Do All Lives Matter, or just Jewish Lives? What demands does having privilege make on us as we relate to others? In this class, we will mine through biblical and rabbinic texts that deal with the tension between loyalty to fellow Jews and commitment to the well-being of those outside of our religious communities. Though the class will not be political in nature, participants are encouraged to consider how the sources we learn may be relevant in light of current events.
Comparative analysis of the legal system of the United States demonstrates how the basic human rights were formed and developed in biblical law and rabbinic Halakhah.
From Exodus in Egypt until the preparations to enter Canaan, the Israelite journey in the wilderness was more than just a long transformation from slavery to freedom. It was a journey of loss, growth, and renewal. Come join interfaith chaplain Ari Weber as we attempt to walk through 40 years of spiritual and emotional experiences through the eyes, ears, and hearts of the Israelites.
There is more than one way to read a book if that book contains Hebrew illuminated letters. Using images and live demonstrations we will journey into the long, inventive, expressive, humorous, exotic, figurative, and abstract history of Hebrew letter illuminations. We will find esthetic enjoyment in the artistry as wonder as we decode the allusions, metaphors, and meaning to be discovered in ketuboth, manuscripts, printed books, and synagogue walls and ceilings.
Over the 4000 years that we have been thinking about G_d, our technology has come along way. Together we'll explore how changes in the technological landscape affect our beliefs about G_d, holiness, and each other.
Shoah memorialization focuses primarily on the Horror Story - what perpetrators did TO Jewish victims. We overlook the Help Story - what Jewish victims tried to do FOR one another. At risk of life, many secretly aided the survival of kin and strangers alike, though American Jewry knows far too little about this. Non-militant acts of forbidden stealth altruism drew on the Altruistic Impulse (Darwin) and empowering Jewish values. We must reset the Shoah Narrative, schooling, and commemoration to include the Help Story lest Holocaust "fatigue" overcome the entire matter. Fortunately, many pragmatic reform ideas are available, and a few outstanding Holocaust museums already show the way. Reset ... or lose the way.
Come learn how we can pray, learn, and resist with our bodies, through the wisdom of the Kabbalah and the ethical teachings of Rabbi Moses Cordovero.
You're not the only one; the Rabbis of the Talmud also had that little voice in their head saying, “You’re a fraud!" "Who gave you permission to revolutionize Judaism?” It might have asked, "Who do you think you are?" The very human stories of our Sages reveal feelings of self-doubt as they vied for their place in the chain of tradition, and fought to gain authenticity and authority. Together, we will explore the moving and enduring emotion of these stories, and look at how the Rabbis dealt with their Imposter Syndrome.
We will explore various Jewish and American legal texts to trace the evolution over time to create a more inclusive environment for our LGBT community. We will examine problematic texts in Torah and U.S. law, tracing the interpretations that led to the legalization of gay marriage and greater inclusion of the LGBT community in the broader Jewish Community. We will discuss whether similarities in the two legal traditions share a common moral world view.
Serah bat Asher is mentioned only three times in the Torah, but the midrashic tradition gives her a central role in the history of the Jewish people. “Songster, poet, and woman of wisdom,” as the Bible scholar Rachel Adelman describes her, Serah demonstrated the remarkable capacity of art to both transform and tell the truth. In this class, we will explore the legacy of this lesser known Jewish figure, and what she can teach us about the power of art and beauty in our times today.
This workshop will provide participants with guidelines and templates for finding their own voice and message for meaningful occasions and life transitions: children leaving home to attend college, marriage, birth of a child, purchase of a home, passing of a beloved relative, or any time or circumstance you choose.
Jeff Saperstein will explain legacy circles, process, and ways to communicate—live speech, written letter, audio and video recording, website.
The participants will interact and express to one another stories, insights, reflections, feelings, and principles each may wish to say to a loved one.
You should come away with more confidence that you can initiate a legacy communication and overcome your fears to do what you so much want to do.
How did the sages respond to people whose minds or bodies worked differently from their own? This class will explore ways that rabbinic texts view various types of differences and disabilities. We will aim to glean wisdom from these texts to uncover how our communities can become more inclusive today.
I-SAEF: Funding Alternative Energy research projects at Israeli universities
In perhaps no other religious tradition does Law hold more central place than it does in Judaism. In their founding code, The Mishnah, the rabbis mapped out a system of laws that are meant to regulate nearly every sphere of human life. Yet of out 63 tractates there is one - Avot - that does not seem to dictate legal obligations, but simply to advise good behavior. What is the role of this exceptional volume in the larger work of the Mishnah, and what does it tell us about the relationship between Law and Ethics in Judaism?