Events List Navigation
March 2020
Medieval Jewish Thinkers in Their Historical Contexts II
Adult Education Maimonides was the most important and most studied medieval Jewish philosopher, yet we still argue over what he really believed. How should we understand God? Do people have free will? Why is there evil in the world? What is the role of the Messiah? Will the dead be resurrected? Why should Jews observe halakha (Jewish law)? This course will explore the writings of Maimonides and compare his views on these questions to those of his predecessors including Saadia…
From Freedom to Slavery and Back Again: The Biblical Book of Exodus
Adult Education The exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt is the most important event in the Bible, and it became a powerful model for other liberation narratives. With expert instructor Dr. Regina Stein, you will read the story carefully, analyzing the way it unfolds, its characters and their motives, as you try to answer the simple question: what is the Torah trying to tell us and why? No previous knowledge of Hebrew or of the Bible is required.…
History Hunters: A Kid’s Life at Synagogue
Family Program The past comes alive in this interactive series that takes you back in time to discover what it was like to be a child on the Lower East Side more than a century ago. In this session, we’ll focus on what it was like to go to shul as a kid in the early 1900s. Balcony seats with a view? Check. Bar Mitzvah cheat sheet? Check. Penny chocolate bars? Check (and yum)! Recommended for children ages 5-11 and…
Medieval Jewish Thinkers in Their Historical Contexts II
Adult Education Maimonides was the most important and most studied medieval Jewish philosopher, yet we still argue over what he really believed. How should we understand God? Do people have free will? Why is there evil in the world? What is the role of the Messiah? Will the dead be resurrected? Why should Jews observe halakha (Jewish law)? This course will explore the writings of Maimonides and compare his views on these questions to those of his predecessors including Saadia…
From Freedom to Slavery and Back Again: The Biblical Book of Exodus
Adult Education The exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt is the most important event in the Bible, and it became a powerful model for other liberation narratives. With expert instructor Dr. Regina Stein, you will read the story carefully, analyzing the way it unfolds, its characters and their motives, as you try to answer the simple question: what is the Torah trying to tell us and why? No previous knowledge of Hebrew or of the Bible is required.…
Medieval Jewish Thinkers in Their Historical Contexts II
Adult Education Maimonides was the most important and most studied medieval Jewish philosopher, yet we still argue over what he really believed. How should we understand God? Do people have free will? Why is there evil in the world? What is the role of the Messiah? Will the dead be resurrected? Why should Jews observe halakha (Jewish law)? This course will explore the writings of Maimonides and compare his views on these questions to those of his predecessors including Saadia…
From Freedom to Slavery and Back Again: The Biblical Book of Exodus
Adult Education The exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt is the most important event in the Bible, and it became a powerful model for other liberation narratives. With expert instructor Dr. Regina Stein, you will read the story carefully, analyzing the way it unfolds, its characters and their motives, as you try to answer the simple question: what is the Torah trying to tell us and why? No previous knowledge of Hebrew or of the Bible is required.…
Stories of Wontons to Waffles
Storytelling Event The experience of making a new home while honoring one’s traditions is a nearly universal part of the American immigrant story. And perhaps more than anywhere else, that interplay happens with our families’ food traditions. Please join us, in collaboration with Eat Darling Eat, for an emotional, funny, and delicious evening of storytelling. Our storytellers will focus on mothers and daughters and the role food and meals and cooking play in the transmission of family history, values, and…
Outsiders Book Club
January 24The Female Persuasion, novel by Meg Wolizer February 21Grace Paley: The Collected Stories, short stories by Grace Paley March 20Lost in Translation: A Life in a New Language, biography by Eva Hoffman. In honor of the Year of the Woman – celebrating the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage – this book club celebrates stories of women as outsiders. The protagonists of these novels, short stories and memoirs find themselves on the margins of society – as activists encountering political,…
April 2020
Who is a Woman of Valor?
Adult Education What does it mean to be a woman of valor? A Hebrew verse cites virtue, but over centuries the definition has been applied to women who are trailblazers, advocates, unflinching and unstoppable. This four-session course, led by expert guide and educator Barry Feldman, will explore the history of the women who get things done. In guided discussions with Barry and your classmates, you’ll fly through time from women in the Bible, to colonial Americans, to the activists 100…
