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Work-Life Balance in Ancient Times:
Why the Rabbis Left Their Homes to Study Torah
Aug 9, 2021 By Rachel Rosenthal | Public Event video | Video Lecture
We often think of questions about how to balance work and family as modern ones. However, a series of stories inΒ KetubotΒ show that people have been struggling with these issues for hundreds of years. In these stories, the rabbis leave home to learn Torah, and often return to domestic chaos. Dr. Rachel RosenthalΒ explores these stories to better understand how the rabbis understood their obligations to Torah, to themselves, and to their families.Β Β
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The Early Modern Travel Pass:
Controlling the Plague and ΊΪΑΟΙη Mobility in 16th Century Tuscany
Aug 2, 2021 By Stefanie B. Siegmund | Public Event video | Video Lecture
In the wake of the Black Death, governments in the Italian states began to enlarge their departments of health and sanitation in an effort to control the plague. Over time they experimented by banning travel to and from suspect regions and quarantining merchantsβ goods. Italian Jews, heavily invested in local and regional commerce, were among the merchants affected, attracting the attention of the authorities.
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The Spectacular Story Of S. Anskyβs
The Dybbuk and How it Transformed American ΊΪΑΟΙη Theatre
Jul 26, 2021 By Edna Nahshon | Public Event video | Video Lecture
Since its premiere in 1920Β The DybbukΒ has been revived countless times in both ΊΪΑΟΙη and non-ΊΪΑΟΙη languages and inspired a substantial corpus of works in various media: it was famously filmed in Yiddish 1936 in Warsaw, and to this day has fired the imagination of artists and writers around the globe. JoinΒ Dr. Edna NahshonΒ toΒ discuss this unique play and its various interpretations, focusing on its two foundational productions and the 1936 Polish Yiddish film.Β
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Finding Hijar: A Scholarβs Quest to Uncover the History of Her ΊΪΑΟΙη Community Through the Journey of Its Books
Jul 19, 2021 By Marjorie Lehman | Public Event video | Video Lecture
WithΒ Dr. Marjorie LehmanΒ andΒ Dr. Lucia Conte AguilarΒ ofΒ UniversitatΒ PompeuΒ Fabra
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“The Catastrophist”: A Theatre Talkback
Jul 15, 2021 By ΊΪΑΟΙη | Public Event video
Watch the recording of our conversation with the team behind the acclaimed virtual drama βThe Catastrophist,” a stirring meditation on scientific discovery, Judaism, family, life, and loss.
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Flight, Return, and Emigration:
The Wanderings of a Yiddish Writer During and After the Holocaust
Jul 12, 2021 By David Fishman | Public Event video | Video Lecture
The Yiddish poet Chaim Grade fled his native city of Vilna,Β known to Jews as βthe Jerusalem of Lithuaniaβ, in late June 1941, as the Germans invaded the city. He spent the next four years as a refugee in the Soviet Union, homeless and malnourished. When Grade returned to Vilna in 1945, heΒ found the city in ruins β and learned from survivors of the Vilna ghetto that his wife, mother, friends and colleagues had been murdered by the Nazis. We will follow his journey of exile and redemption through selections from his works.Β
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Backstage Pass: Ben, Jonah, and Henry Platt in Conversation with Abigail Pogrebin
Jun 29, 2021 By ΊΪΑΟΙη | Public Event video
Watch the recording of our conversation with Ben, Jonah, and Henry Platt as they discuss their professional achievements and aspirations as well as how their ΊΪΑΟΙη experiences and involvements have influenced their careers. The annual Henry N. and Selma S. Rapaport Memorial Lecture.
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Judah Halevi: Poet and Pilgrim
Jun 28, 2021 By Raymond Scheindlin | Public Event video | Video Lecture
In the summer of 1141, Judah Halevi, a distinguished doctor, poet, and religious thinker sailed from his homeland, Spain, for the Holy Land, leaving behind his family, his medical practice, and his position as a distinguished leader of the ΊΪΑΟΙη community. Although little is known of his life before the pilgrimage, we can trace his journey in detail thanks to letters preserved in the CairoΒ Geniza. More importantly, we can follow Haleviβs inner religious journey through the stirring poems that he composed in anticipation of and during the voyage. In this session withΒ Dr. Raymond Scheindlin, we will touch on both the external and internal journeys by drawing on the letters and the poems, all in translations by Dr.Β Scheindlin.Β
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Preparing for the Final Journey:
The Tahara Ritual and its Significance
Jun 21, 2021 By Eliezer B. Diamond z”l | Public Event video | Video Lecture
The period between death and burial is understood in ΊΪΑΟΙη tradition as a moment of transition in which the deceased is suspended between this world and the next. JoinΒ Rabbi Eliezer DiamondΒ to study the ritual known as Taharah, which prepares the body of the deceased for burial. It will show us that ΊΪΑΟΙη tradition assumes the continued existence of our individual identities even after death. The Taharah ritual, through word and action, radically transforms our understanding of the body of the deceased as we prepare it for the journey to the next world.
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Home and Exile, Center and Periphery: Ambivalent Journeys in the Torah
Jun 14, 2021 By Benjamin D. Sommer | Public Event video | Video Lecture
The theme of the journeyβto home, and from homeβplays a prominent role in the Torah. But repeatedly, these stories force us to wonder what is home and what is exile. JoinΒ Dr. Benjamin SommerΒ to read narratives from Genesis and Exodus that present a tangled-up view of center and periphery. This persistent ambivalence about the nature of a journey carries weighty implications for biblical understandings of God as nearby but hard to grasp, and about authority and autonomy in religious Judaism.Β
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ΊΪΑΟΙη Bible Translations: Personalities, Passions, Politics, Progress
Jun 9, 2021 By Library of the ΊΪΑΟΙη Theological Seminary | Public Event video
Author Leonard J. Greenspoon discussed his book, ΊΪΑΟΙη Bible Translations: Personalities, Passions, Politics, Progress, in which he highlights distinctive features of ΊΪΑΟΙη Bible translations and offers new insights regarding their shared characteristics and their limitations.
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βIf I forget Thee, O Jerusalemβ: The Idea of the Retun to Zion in ΊΪΑΟΙη History
Jun 7, 2021 By Shuly Rubin Schwartz | Public Event video | Video Lecture
Chancellor Shuly Rubin SchwartzΒ explores the implications of living in a state of longing, how Jews attempted to reconcile the dream of return with the reality of ΊΪΑΟΙη exile, and how this dream was adapted and transformed with the emergence of modern Zionism and a thriving ΊΪΑΟΙη diaspora.
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These are the Developments of the Human
May 26, 2021 By Library of the ΊΪΑΟΙη Theological Seminary | Public Event video
Ethan Daniel Davidson discussed his book, These are the Developments of the Human, a compilation of wisdom and insights that he captured over years of various study partnerships of ΊΪΑΟΙη text with rabbis and other learners from across the world.
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Crushing the Red Flowers
May 13, 2021 By Library of the ΊΪΑΟΙη Theological Seminary | Public Event video
Author Jennifer Voigt Kaplan discussed her book, Crushing the Red Flowers, which tells the story of how two ordinary boys cope under the extraordinary circumstances of Kristallnacht.
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From the Outside In:
How a History of Marginalization Affects ΊΪΑΟΙη Responses to Marginal Populations Today
May 10, 2021 By Daniel Nevins | Public Event video | Video Lecture
In the book of Numbers, the gentile prophet Balaam says that the people Israel are βa nation that dwells apart.β This has been both a blessing and a curse. How has the experience of marginalization defined ΊΪΑΟΙη identity? Join Rabbi Daniel Nevins to look at classical ΊΪΑΟΙη texts and then consider their implications for the role of Judaism in addressing marginalization in contemporary contexts.
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Entering Our Motherβs House:
The Book of Ruth as a Model for Welcoming the Other
May 3, 2021 By Amy Kalmanofsky | Public Event video | Video Lecture
The book of Ruth tells the story of a Moabite woman who marries an Israelite man and ensures the future of the house of Israel. Join Dr. Amy Kalmanofsky to examine how this remarkable book understands the formation of identity and how it offers a model of inclusion that remains relevant and essential today.Β Β Β
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“It is the music that makes us the Abayudaya:” The Cantors Assembly in Uganda
Apr 29, 2021 By Library of the ΊΪΑΟΙη Theological Seminary | Public Event video
In winter 2019, members and affiliates of the Cantors Assembly traveled to Uganda on a mission of solidarity, learning, and peoplehood with the Abayudaya ΊΪΑΟΙη community. Trip participants Dr. Amanda Ruppenthal Stein and Hazzan Jeremy Stein discuss the experiences by the CA missionβs participants. Part of Musical Journeys with The Library of JTS.
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Like ItβOr Not? The Existential Tension of Similarity and Difference
Apr 26, 2021 By Jan Uhrbach | Public Event video | Video Lecture
Foundational ΊΪΑΟΙη texts point to a series of irresolvable dilemmas or polarities at the heart of the human condition, among them the way in which each of us is bothΒ like, andΒ unlike,Β allΒ others. How does this fundamental tension manifest in our personal relationships, our collective challenges, and our religious expressions, and what wisdom does our tradition offer to help us manage, and even grow from, our differences?
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The ΊΪΑΟΙη Music of Leonard Bernstein
Apr 22, 2021 By Library of the ΊΪΑΟΙη Theological Seminary | Public Event video
Hazzan David F. Tilman examines the works of Leonard Bernstein using a rich variety of musical recordings and archival photographs.
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Dangerous Religious Ideas: The Deep Roots of Self-Critical Faith in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Apr 20, 2021 By Library of the ΊΪΑΟΙη Theological Seminary | Public Event video
In Dangerous Religious Ideas, Rabbi Mikva argues all religious ideas are dangerousβnot only those we might consider extremist, but even those that stand at the heart of faith. Because most religious traditions have always understood this peril, they have transmitted tools of self-critique as essential to their teachings.
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