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APRIL 2023 PROGRAMS
THE TASTE OF JEWISH CULTURE
The Walnut Street Synagogue is pleased to present The Taste of Jewish Culture series. Join us for our fourth program, A Land of Milk and Mufletta: At the Crossroads of Israel’s Cuisine and Culture, on Wednesday, April 19 at 7:00 pm EDT. Please visit our event webpage for more details and to register.
The Taste of Jewish Culture details
CSP
The Walnut Street Synagogue is pleased to be a partner congregation of the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program. Please join us at an upcoming program!
Sunday, April 30, 1:00 pm EDT
(online in partnership with the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program)
Rabbi Jack Riemer is a well-known author and speaker. He is rabbi emeritus of Congregation Beth Tikvah (now Shaarei Kodesh) in Boca Raton, Florida, and founded the National Rabbinic Network, a support system for rabbis across all denominational lines. He is the author of Finding God in Unexpected Places: Wisdom for Everyone from the Jewish Tradition and is editor of The World of the High Holy Days (Bernie Books) and Wrestling with the Angel (Schocken), coeditor of So That Your Values Live On: Ethical Wills and How to Prepare Them, and contributed to May God Remember: Memory and Memorializing in Judaism Yizkor (both Jewish Lights). Widely sought after as a master storyteller and teacher, Rabbi Riemer is one of the most frequently quoted rabbis in the U.S. That’s because of the winding paths he takes in describing the relevance of timeless Jewish wisdom in our modern world. He is often referred to as the “rabbi’s rabbi” among Jewish clergy, because he has taught and mentored so many of his colleagues.
Rabbi Elie Kaplan Spitz approaches the familiar in unfamiliar ways. A spiritual leader and scholar specializing in topics of spirituality and Judaism, he teaches, writes and speaks to a wide range of audiences. He served as the rabbi of Congregation B’nai Israel in Tustin, California, for over three decades and served as member of the Rabbinical Assembly Committee on Law and Standards for twenty years. Rabbi Spitz is author of Healing from Despair: Choosing Wholeness in a Broken World; Does the Soul Survive? A Jewish Journey to Belief in Afterlife, Past Lives & Living with Purpose and Increasing Wholeness: Jewish Wisdom and Guided Meditations to Strengthen and Calm Body, Heart, Mind and Spirit (all Jewish Lights) and many articles dealing with spirituality and Jewish law.
Collective Memory Through Mt. Herzl
Monday, April 24, 1:00 pm EDT
(online in partnership with the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program)
Named for Theodor Herzl, the visionary founder of modern Zionism, Mount Herzl is Israel’s national cemetery, housing the remains of Herzl himself. Also buried there are many of the Jewish state’s leaders over the years, and soldiers killed in battle. Among the figures interred at Mount Herzl are prime ministers Levi Eshkol, Golda Meir and Yitzhak Rabin, presidents Chaim Herzog and Zalman Shazar, and other prominent Zionist leaders. Echoing the temporal proximity of Holocaust Remembrance Day to Yom HaZikaron (Israel’s Day of Remembrance) for its war casualties, Mount Herzl is only a stone’s throw from the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and museum. But the two sites are dedicated to two very different types of grief: On the one hand, the incomprehensible loss of the Holocaust, where one is crushed under the sheer volume of the destruction, and on the other, the more intimate, but nevertheless communal, sorrow for Israel’s perished in combat. This mourning is most acutely felt on Yom HaZikaron, when bereaved families slowly file in crowds through the gates of Mount Herzl to attend the state ceremony.
Moki Schwartz is a Jerusalemite, married to Rachel and father to Harry, Michael and Natalie. Moki is a senior faculty member and lecturer at Kivunim – the academic gap year program for North American students in Jerusalem. Moki teaches an annual course on the History of Zionism and the Making of the Modern Middle East. Moki holds a Master’s degree in Philosophy and Religion from Hebrew University in Jerusalem and a Double Bachelors in History and Archeology from the Hebrew University. Moki is a passionate teacher and tour-educator, who is committed to the success and wellness of his students. Moki is a competitive long distance runner and has served as First Lieutenant in an elite special force’s unit in the IDF.
Program video
The Remarkable History of Codex Sassoon
Sunday, April 23, 1:00 pm EDT
(online in partnership with the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program)
Sharon Liberman Mintz is the Curator of Jewish Art at the Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary and specializes in the fields of Illuminated Hebrew manuscripts and rare printed books. Over the course of 30 years at the Library, she has curated more than 40 exhibitions, authored ten exhibition catalogs and has lectured extensively on a variety of topics in the fields of Jewish Art and rare Hebrew books. As a consultant with Sotheby’s since 1995, Sharon has cataloged and appraised Hebrew books for Judaica sales worldwide for over two decades. In February 2009, she collaborated on the cataloging and exhibition of the Valmadonna Trust Library, at Sotheby’s, the finest private library of Hebrew books and manuscripts in the world. Sharon’s publication, A Journey through Jewish Worlds: Highlights from the Braginsky Collection of Hebrew Manuscripts and Printed Books (2010), accompanied an international exhibition of magnificent Hebrew books that she co-curated. Her most recent publication, The Writing on the Wall: A Catalogue of Judaica Broadsides from the Valmadonna Trust Library (2015), is an in-depth historical examination of this heretofore unexplored genre of Jewish culture.
Program video
Mysticism in Islam and Judaism
Thursday, April 20, 1:00 pm EDT
(online in partnership with the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program)
Dr. David Mendelsohn supervises the entire academic program of Kivunim. His areas of expertise include Islamic Studies, History and Culture of Arabs with Israeli Citizenship, Bedouin Law and the relationship between language and culture in Arabic and Hebrew. His current research examines the influence of Hebrew on the dialects of Arabic spoken in Israel. Mendelsohn also lectures on the history and relationships between Middle East countries and militant organizations. David holds advanced degrees in diverse fields: a Ph.D. Classics / Linguistics, an M.A. in Archaeology / Linguistics and an Honours B.A. in Classical Studies. David is the recipient of one of Canada’s highest academic honors, The Trudeau Prize, and is a world medalist in wrestling. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife Ronny and 3 children.
Program video
The Jews of Summer – Summer Camp and Jewish Culture in Postwar America
Sunday, April 16, 1:00 pm EDT
(online in partnership with the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program)
In the decades directly following the Holocaust, American Jewish leaders anxiously debated how to preserve and produce what they considered authentic Jewish culture, fearful that growing affluence and suburbanization threatened the future of Jewish life. Many communal educators and rabbis contended that without educational interventions, Judaism as they understood it would disappear altogether. They pinned their hopes on residential summer camps for Jewish youth: institutions that sprang up across the U.S. in the postwar decades as places for children and teenagers to socialize, recreate, and experience Jewish culture. Adults’ fears, hopes, and dreams about the Jewish future inflected every element of camp life, from the languages they taught to what was encouraged romantically and permitted sexually. But adult plans did not constitute everything that occurred at camp: children and teenagers also shaped these sleepaway camps to mirror their own desires and interests and decided whether to accept or resist the ideas and ideologies their camp leaders promoted. Focusing on the lived experience of campers and camp counselors, Sandra Fox’s new book, The Jews of Summer: Summer Camp and Jewish Culture in Postwar America, explores how a cultural crisis birthed a rite of passage that remains a significant influence in American Jewish life. Join us to hear from Sandra Fox about how camp life grew out of a cultural crisis and became a rite of passage in American Jewish life.
Sandra Fox, a visiting assistant professor of Hebrew Judaic Studies and Director of the Archive of the Jewish Left Project at New York University, is a scholar of American Jewish history, Jewish youth and childhood, and contemporary Yiddish culture. A Jim Joseph Postdoctoral Fellow, she received her doctorate from New York University’s joint program in history and Hebrew Judaic studies in 2018. She is also the founder and executive producer of the Yiddish-language podcast Vaybertaytsh, and serves as peer-review editor at In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies.
Program video
“I’m Sorry I Ate Your Fish” – The Sturgeon Controversy and the Fish that Divided the Ashkenazic World
Tuesday, April 11, 3:30 pm EDT
(online in partnership with the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program)
The debate over the kashrut of the sturgeon at turn of the 19th century Hungary began as a relatively minor Halachic dispute. Within a couple of years it erupted into a full-blown war of words replete with denunciations and threats of excommunication. Beyond the original fish question, at stake in this explosive controversy was the dynamic nature of Jewish law and whether or not long-established conventional tools of halachic-based innovation were still acceptable in the modern world. In the end, the controversy laid the basis for the emergence of Hungarian-style religious reform and the rejectionist posture that came to be known as Orthodox Judaism.
Professor Howard Lupovitch is Professor of History and Director of the Cohn-Haddow Center for Judaic Studies at Wayne State University. He was educated at the University of Michigan, and Columbia University (earning a Ph.D. in History from the latter). Over his career, Prof. Lupovitch has taught at Cornell University, Colby College, the University of Western Ontario, and the University of Michigan, where he was also a fellow at the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies. Prof. Lupovitch is the author, most recently, of Transleithanian Paradise: A History of the Jewish Community of Budapest, 1738-1938, and is presently completing a history of the Neolog Movement and researching a new history of the Jews of Detroit.
Program video
Pharaoh in Canaan – Egyptian Presence in Israel
Sunday, April 9, 2:00 pm EDT
(online in partnership with the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program)
The name “Canaan,” which derives from the Bible and from ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern records, generally refers to the region of present-day Israel, western Jordan, Lebanon, and coastal and southern Syria and is more or less equivalent to the modern term “Levant.” Ancient texts from the region indicate that its population was of Semitic origin. The earliest mention of Canaan and Canaanites dates from the eighteenth century BCE, but the terms are now often applied to the region and its population in relation to earlier periods as well. Relations between Canaan and Egypt, its southwestern neighbor, are attested by textual evidence and archaeological remains dating as far back as the fourth millennium BCE. These relations were determined by political developments in both regions and thus were continually changing. Egypt’s earliest organized contacts with Canaan were associated with the importation of luxury goods sought by the rising Egyptian elite around the time of the unification of Egypt in the late fourth millennium BCE. It was at that time that cultural interaction between the two regions commenced, gradually increasing over the course of the third and second millennia BCE and varying to a great extent in accordance with political developments in both regions. Join us as we explore the archaeological evidence reflecting the relations between Egypt and Canaan, with a focus on the political and cultural implications of these relations. We will visit Jaffa, Megiddo and Beit Shean as well as a few more sites where important Hyksos and Egyptian jewelry have been found.
Nachliel Selavan, “The Museum Guy,” originally from Jerusalem’s Old City, has Bachelor’s degrees in both Tanach and Mass-Media along with a teachers’ certificate. He also holds an MA in education from Hebrew University’s Melton School of Jewish Education, and is currently completing a second Master’s degree in Ancient Jewish History at Yeshiva University, along with doing annual fieldwork in archaeological excavations. Nachliel’s unique approach to museum tours and storytelling combines Tanach, Jewish History and other disciplines, engaging visitors with the treasures of art and archaeology in an exciting and enthralling way. Nachliel has engaged Jewish communities in cities all over the world with guided educational programs in classrooms and museums, and lectures and tours for Jewish schools, summer camps, organizations and institutions including the WZO, National Bible Contest USA, the Jewish Agency and UJA Federation. He currently lives in Israel, and aside from guiding in the Israel and Bible Lands Museums, he is a part-time high school teacher.
Egypt, the Exodus, and the Passover Story
Monday, April 3, 1:00 pm EDT
(online in partnership with the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program)
We all know the story of the Exodus – we hear it each year in the Torah reading, we discuss it yearly at our Seders, and we have our conceptions of illustrations firmly embedded in our minds-eye. But when we look at the story through the lens of Egypt, with actual Egyptian artifacts, what can we see? Not the pyramids, and not the chain-gang slave marches of Hollywood, rather a glimpse of life, a peak at what could be understood in an ancient contemporary context. Join us as we examine some of our preconceived notions and therefore see the story in a different light.
Prof. Sharon Keller, who served as CSP’s 15th Annual One Month Scholar in residence in January 2016 and who earned her doctorate at New York University (NYU) in the Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies in the area of Bible and the Ancient Near East, is a member of the Classics faculty at Hofstra University. She has been an Assistant Professor of Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages at The Jewish Theological Seminary and at Hebrew Union College; she has also held appointments at NYU, and New York City’s Hunter College—teaching biblical text courses as well as more general courses in biblical literature and history, as well as the courses in the art and archaeology of the lands of the Bible and the ancient Mediterranean world. She has written and edited numerous scholarly articles and academic books, most of which relate to the interplay between biblical Israel and ancient Egypt. Her most popular book, Jews: A Treasury of Art and Literature was awarded the prestigious National Jewish Book Award. Known for the enthusiasm and humor that she brings to all of her talks that make otherwise esoteric subjects easily accessible, Sharon is an in-demand lecturer and adult education course instructor throughout the United States.
Jewish Tunisia – At a Crossroads of Civilization
Sunday, April 2, 1:00 pm EDT
(online in partnership with the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program)
Rafram Chaddad (b. 1976) was born on Djerba, an island off the coast of southern Tunisia and grew up in Jerusalem where he completed his art studies. Since 2005 he has been working on his art practice mostly between Europe, Israel and based in Tunisia for the last 8 years. In 2010, while working on a Jewish heritage project in Libya, which focused on documenting the remains of Jewish Libyan communities, he was kidnapped by the Libyan secret police and was held for six months in the notorious Abu Salim prison. Later on, Chaddad wrote an account of his incarceration titled Rafram’s Guide to the Libyan Prison, published with Am Oved publishing. Since 2019, he has been conducting research for Leftovers, an upcoming book investigating how food practices in cities formerly occupied by the Ottoman Empire are inter-connected. The book highlights recipes particular to each place and oral histories around food-making that challenge the nationalization of food and encourage us to approach food as a shared experience. Rafram’s work reflects on his personal life experiences and comments on broader socio-political issues including migration and displacement, identity and belonging. Over the past twenty years, he’s created dozens of short films and installations, which have exhibited worldwide in cultural institutions, galleries, and museums.
Program video
COMMUNITY PROJECTS
CJP Plan to Combat Antisemitism
Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP) has developed a five-point plan to combat rising antisemitism in Massachusetts. They are seeking stories for their mobilization campaign to fight back. If you have experienced antisemitism in any form at any time, join them and say enough is enough! Stories can be of any length and can be submitted anonymously.
Learn more and submit your story
YAD CHESSED
Yad Chessed helps Jewish individuals and families who struggle with financial hardship pay their bills and buy food. As a social services agency rooted in the Jewish values of kindness (chessed) and charity (tzedakah), they are committed to helping those in need navigate a path toward financial stability while preserving their privacy and dignity. They provide emergency financial assistance, grocery gift cards and compassionate advice for those trying to make ends meet. Hundreds of families and individuals throughout the state rely on Yad Chessed to provide for their essentials, and even at times, a Jewish burial for a loved one. Members of our community, as well as others in the Jewish community, who need assistance may contact Yad Chessed by phone at 781-487-2693 or by Email at intake@yadchessed.org for a confidential conversation. Questions can be directed to info@yadchessed.org.
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