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NOVEMBER 2023 PROGRAMS
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Israel Emergency Fund
Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP) has launched the Israel Emergency Fund in response to the unprecedented and horrifying attack against Israel was launched over Shabbat and Shemini Atzeret. 100% of donations received will help support victims of terror and address the unprecedented levels of trauma caused by these horrific attacks.
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THE TASTE OF JEWISH CULTURE
The Walnut Street Synagogue is pleased to present The Taste of Jewish Culture series. Join us in November for our eighth program, Oil, Almonds, and… Ears?! The Customary Foods of Chanukkah, Tu B’Shvat, and Purim, on Monday, November 20 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!
Danger: Women with Books
Part 1 – Women, Books and the Seder – Wednesday, November 1, 7:00 pm EDT
Part 2 – Rewriting the Rules: Women, Halakhah and the creation of Jewish Books – Thursday, November 9, 7:00 pm EST
Part 3 – To Write Holy Words: A Soferet Encounters the Sacred – Thursday, November 16, 7:00 pm EST
Part 4 – Queering The Torah Text: Strange Letters and A Woman’s Hand – Thursday, November 30, 7:00 pm EST
(online in partnership with the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program)
The profession of safrut, of the sacred scribal arts has traditionally been thought of as “man’s work” both from an halakhic (legal) perspective and from a sociological one. Yet the very first illustrated Scroll of Esther that has come down to us has the signature of a female scribe, women copied Torah manuscripts in book form in societies as conservative as Yemen, and wealthy women in Italy wrote manuscripts, had liturgy “reformed” to reflect specifically female concerns, and are depicted within manuscripts. This series, with Vassar professor Marc Michael Epstein considers the effects (and the perceived dangers) of women who write and illustrate sacred texts.
Part 1 – Women, Books and the Seder – It is notable that the hand-written and illustrated manuscripts of the Passover Haggadah often depict their patrons holding and reading from books. It is particularly striking when women appear. But these illustrations present a variety of questions. Do they reflect actual practices? Were such practices normative? And if they do not represent the way things were for the medieval Jewish patrons, why do they appear at all?
Part 2 – Re-writing the Rules: Women, Halakhah and the creation of Jewish Books – Are you the kind of person who stays for the credits at the movies? Well, if you were a scholar of Jewish art, you would then certainly read the colophons of manuscripts—the short concluding texts that can contain patron names and/or information about artists. Fascinatingly, a number of these have come down to us in which women have literally inscribed their participation in the creation of sacred texts. What was the halakhic (legal) position on such practice? To what does the fact that it occurred testify?
Part 3 – To Write Holy Words: A Soferet Encounters the Sacred – Professor Epstein will be in conversation with Jen Taylor Friedman about her practice as a soferet (scribe) and the experience of writing a variety of different types of manuscripts, including the first Torah scroll known to have been created by a woman.
Part 4 – Queering The Torah Text: Strange Letters and A Woman’s Hand – There are still patrons in the world today who commission Jewish manuscripts. Some are ostensibly Orthodox, yet they insist on female scribes. Why? This session will explore the creation of one of the most radical (yet deeply traditional!) manifestations of this impulse, the creation of a Torah scroll full of “strange letters,” a little-known tradition that is being revived in our own day.
Winner of the 2015 Jewish Book Award in Visual Arts for Skies of Parchment, Seas of Ink: Jewish Illuminated Manuscripts, Marc Michael Epstein is the product of a mixed marriage between the scions of Slonimer and Lubavitcher Hassidim and Romanian socialists, and grew up, rather confused, but happy, in Brooklyn, New York. He is currently Professor of Religion at Vassar College, where he has been teaching since 1992, and was the first Director of Jewish Studies. At Vassar, he teaches courses on medieval Christianity, religion, arts and politics, and Jewish texts and sources. He is a graduate of Oberlin College, received the Ph.D. at Yale University, and did much of his graduate research at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He has written numerous articles and three books on various topics in visual and material culture produced by, for, and about Jews. His book, The Medieval Haggadah: Art, Narrative, and Religious Imagination (Yale, 2011) was selected by the London Times Literary Supplement as one of the best books of 2011. During the ‘80s, Epstein was Director of the Hebrew Books and Manuscripts division of Sotheby’s Judaica department. He continues to serve as consultant to various libraries, auction houses, museums and private collectors throughout the world.
Program video – Part 1
Program video – Part 2
Program video – Part 3
The Sephardic Holocaust – The Destruction of the Jews of Greece
Tuesday, November 28, 1:00 pm EST
(online in partnership with the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program)
Although often omitted from standard presentations of the Holocaust, the Jews of Greece suffered one of the highest mortality rates of any Jewish community under Nazi occupation. The largest of all Ladino-speaking communities, Salonica (Thessaloniki), known as the “Jerusalem of the Balkans,” where Jews comprised half of the city’s residents at the turn of the century and where the port closed on Saturday in observance of the Jewish Sabbath, was completely decimated. This lecture will explore the distinctive processes of destruction, possibilities of survival, and the echoes of the memory of this once great community.
Dr. Devin E. Naar is the Isaac Alhadeff Professor in Sephardic Studies, Associate Professor of History, and faculty at the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies in the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. Born and raised in New Jersey, Dr. Naar graduated summa cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis and received his Ph.D. in History at Stanford University. He has also served as a Fulbright fellow to Greece. His first book, Jewish Salonica: Between the Ottoman Empire and Modern Greece, was published by Stanford University Press in 2016. The book won the 2016 National Jewish Book Award in the category of Research Based on Archival Material and was named a finalist in Sephardic Culture. It also won the 2017 Edmund Keeley Prize for best book in Modern Greek Studies awarded by the Modern Greek Studies Association.
TRUE COLORS: Stories from Jews of Color Exploring Identity and Community
Sunday, November 26, 7:00 pm EST
(online in partnership with the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program)
Join us for TRUE COLORS, a captivating online salon theatre show presented by The Braid (formerly Jewish Women’s Theatre). This enlightening production spotlights Jews of Color, delving deep into their personal stories of identity, resilience, and the quest for belonging. While reflecting on challenges unique to Jews of Color, TRUE COLORS reveals the universal human experience that binds us all. From a daughter born to a Jewish mother and a Black/Chinese father learning to celebrate her diversity to a woman grappling with her Jewish and Latin heritages, and an African American man reconciling his Jewish identity, each tale unveils profound truths about acceptance and understanding. Ronda Spinak, The Braid’s Artistic Director, captures the essence of the production: “These are poignant tales of commitment, questioning, and connection— quintessential and universal Jewish stories.” Conceived and produced as part of The Braid’s Salon Theatre season in May 2019, and masterfully curated and adapted by Ronda Spinak, directed by Susan Morgenstern, and co-produced by Eric Greene, this is a show not to be missed.
Artist Spotlight Series: Heritage, Tech, and Tradition
Tuesday, November 21, 1:00 pm EST
(online in partnership with the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program)
The story of an apartment building in Poland owned by the artist’s family is the departure point for an intimate look into Jewish and Israeli identity and heritage. Starting in 2017 at a residency in POLIN museum in Warsaw, Hagar Cygler explored her personal history through objects and images found in local flea markets, creating an installation and a booklet. This deep dive into her family history continued in 2019 in Lodz and later at the Yiddishland Pavilion in Venice, with materials from the city’s archive regarding the actual building. This journey led to an exhibition and artist’s book with the final part manifested in a handmade book, published earlier this year. In the program we’ll travel with Hagar through her own research and art, placing emphasis on the intersections between personal-national-religious identities, how they translate over time and continents and the unique connections between art and archives.
Hagar Cygler is a graduate of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design (B.F.A., 2006) and the California Institute of the Arts (M.F.A., 2017). Cygler works in the larger context of archives and collections, focusing on the classification and reorganization of material and information. Her focus is on personal and historical memory, and by connecting photographs with personal and anonymous objects, she explores the act of collecting and its role within the archive as cultural memory.
Program video
A New Jewish Voice: Europe
Tuesday, November 14, 1:00 pm EST
(online in partnership with the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program)
The contemporary Jewish story has three voices: the mass immigration to the Golden Medina from the old country, the Holocaust and the birth of the State of Israel, and the third only now is beginning to be heard. It is the story of post-Holocaust Europe. It has its own compelling narrative, its own perspectives, and its potential to contribute to the choir of Jewish civilization. With the fall of Communism came the awakening of the third narrative and the past 30 years since have brought a renaissance of Jewish culture and heritage, together with a focus on regaining Jewish literacy. Recently the European Union has become an active partner in this movement and with it a new European voice, crossing traditional national borders.
Barbara Lerner Spectre, the Founding Director of Paideia, previously served on the faculty of the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, teaching Jewish Thought and cofounding the Seminary of Judaic Studies. Renowned for her research in post-Holocaust theology, she has been honored with a grant from Yad V’Shem Institute. Barbara has authored significant works, including A Theology of Doubt and co-wrote A Different Light: The Hannukah Book of Celebration with Noam Zion. Among her many accolades, she received the Max M. Fisher Prize for Jewish Education in 2007, the ICRF Women in Action award in 2008, the Abraham Geiger Medal in 2016, and in 2018 was honored with the King’s Medal from Sweden’s King Carl Gustav XVI for her remarkable contributions to Jewish culture both in Sweden and internationally.
Program video
Chazzanus, Aesthetics and Non-Conformity
Monday, November 13, 1:00 pm EST
(online in partnership with the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program)
In this talk, scholar and musician Jeremiah Lockwood will discuss the role of cantors as stars of mass media in the early 20th century and the ways in which new outlets for performance allowed people with outsider identities to perform roles of sacred authority. Combining storytelling, deep listening to old records, and conversation, this event will offer a provocative and pleasurable entry into the world of early 20th century Jewish American musical life and its echoes into the present day.
Jeremiah Lockwood is a scholar and musician, working in the fields of Jewish studies, performance studies and ethnomusicology. His work embraces archival and ethnographic research methods to explore 19th, 20th and 21st century Jewish liturgical music as a locus for understanding lived experience in contexts of political and social change. Jeremiah’s career as scholar and musician engages with issues arising from peering into the archive and imagining the power of “lost” forms of expression to articulate keenly felt needs in the present. He successfully defended his dissertation in the Stanford University Graduate School of Education Concentration in Education and Jewish Studies in 2021, and is currently a 2022-23 Fellow at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. Jeremiah was the 2019-20 recipient of the YIVO Kremen Memorial Fellowship in East European Arts, Music and Theater, the 2020 AJS Women’s Caucus innovative scholarship award and the 2021 Salo Baron New Voices in Jewish Studies Award. His writing has been published in Religion and American Culture, Studies in American Jewish Literature, Germanica and In geveb, as well as in popular publications such as Tablet and the Forward.
Program video
Duets on Psalms – Drawing New Meaning from Ancient Words
Sunday, November 12, 1:00 pm EST
(online in partnership with the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program)
Psalms are spiritual poems to God that emerged from pivotal moments in the lives of their biblical authors. They serve as essential components of Jewish and Christian liturgy and are integral to secular culture, such as the widespread familiarity with “The Lord is my Shepherd” or the exclamation of “Halleluyah.” These ancient compositions are marked by an honesty that conveys wisdom colored with a wide-pallet of intense emotions. In Duets on Psalms (release date of November 2023), Rabbi Elie Spitz and Rabbi Jack Riemer, a pair of rabbis of differing generations, examine eleven psalms as if wearing bifocals, They will be looking closely at the artistry and original context while extracting personal insights for contemporary readers. Join us as we learn about this welcome addition to the Jewish bookshelf and to explore two of the psalms featured in the book, Psalm 1 and Psalm 23.
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. Rabbi Spitz spent seventeen months teaching the Psalms with half-hour presentations for each Psalm (recently completing all 150 Psalms!).
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.
Program video
Antisemitism, Israel and the Politics of Resentment on the Campus Today
Sunday, November 5, 1:00 pm EST
(online in partnership with the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program)
How has the increasing support for the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment (BDS) initiative affected campus climate and attitudes toward Israel? Is there evidence of greater hostility towards Jews and reports of instances of discrimination? Are the responses and interventions of the Jewish Community helpful? What has been the reaction of Jewish students and academics to the Hillel Israel guidelines? Should J Street U be included in the campus Jewish Community? Is the next generation inclined to continue being actively engaged on behalf of Israel? Does the expression of support for BDS and embrace of an anti-Zionist position constitute antisemitism? These and other questions will be considered by a four decade plus veteran of the campus wars.
Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller recently celebrated his 40th year of working with students and faculty as the Executive Director of the Yitzhak Rabin Hillel Center for Jewish Life at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is currently Director Emeritus. He was ordained in 1971 at Yeshiva University where he completed a Masters in Rabbinic Literature. Chaim has been a lecturer in the Departments of Sociology and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA and in the Department of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University. He is currently a faculty member of the Shalom Hartman Institute North America, and of the Wexner Heritage Foundation. He was the founding director of the Hartman Fellowship for Campus Professionals and a founding member of Americans for Peace Now. In 2014 he initiated a fact finding mission for non-Jewish student leaders to Israel and the Palestine Authority which is now offered on 90 campuses.
COMMUNITY PROGRAMS
Introducing Jewish Neighborhood Voices
Thursday, November 30, 6:00 pm EST
(online program presented by the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center)
The Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center recently launched “Jewish Neighborhood Voices,” an oral history project and online exhibit that documents Jewish life in Chelsea, Dorchester, Lynn, and Roxbury in the first half of the 20th century. During the webinar, a tour will be given of the new online exhibit and the process on conducting and exhibiting oral histories will be shared. Presented by Rachel King and Sarah Quiat.
Israeli Civil Society During War
Part 1 – Monday, November 20, 12:00 pm EST
Part 2 – Thursday, December 7, 12:00 pm EST
Part 3 – Thursday, December 14, 12:00 pm EST
(online program presented by the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University)
All are welcome to Join Professor Yehudah Mirsky for a series of conversations with three leading figures from Israeli civil society to hear about how diverse groups of Israelis are responding to the aftermath of October 7th, and what it can teach us about Israeli society as a whole.
Part 1 – Professor Michal Muszkat-Barkan, Jerusalem Civilian Command Center and Hebrew Union College (HUC)
Part 2 – Rabbah Yael Vurgan, Rabbi of the Gaza Border Communities
Part 3 – Mr. Mohammad Darawshe, Givat Haviva Center for Shared Society
March for Israel
Tuesday, November 14, 1:00 pm EST (National Mall, Washington, DC)
Join Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP) and leaders, clergy, friends, allies, and loved ones from across North America — to stand together, loudly and proudly, at a march to support Israel in Washington, DC. CJP will be arranging for bus and air transportation from Boston and lodging for those who are interested.
More information
Shloshim Memorial Event
Sunday, November 5, 7:00 pm EST (location to be provided upon registration)
Join the Israeli American Council – IAC New England along with the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP), Consulate General of Israel to New England and Temple Israel of Boston for an evening of remembrance and unity along with a call to release the hostages.
Solidarity Gathering With Hostage Table Display
Friday, November 3, 12:00 pm EDT (Brighton Common, 30 Chestnut Hill Ave, Brighton)
Join Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP) , Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, ADL New England and the Israeli American Council – IAC New England for a solidarity gathering in support of the hostages.
More information
Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass
Thursday, November 2, 7:30 pm EDT
(online program presented by the Lappin Foundation)
The Walnut Street Synagogue is a community partner for the virtual Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass program, presented by the Lappin Foundation. Guest speaker Gregg Philipson will explore the root cause, the key players and the catalyst for the last and the most devastating pogrom before the mass murder and near destruction of European Jewry,
Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass(Event flyer)
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.
Support Yad Chessed
COMMUNITY PROJECTS
CJP Plan to Combat Antisemitism
Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP) has developed a plan to combat rising antisemitism in Massachusetts. They have also recently launched their Face Jewish Hate campaign. Their campaign combines the real-life stories of antisemitic incidents happening in Greater Boston to draw attention to this issue and provides a resource center focused on educating, mobilizing and empowering our community.
Learn more