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MAY 2024 PROGRAMS
JERUSALEM: THE HOLY CITY’S DEVELOPMENT FROM ANTIQUITY TO TODAY
The Walnut Street Synagogue is pleased to present our Jerusalem: The Holy City’s Development from Antiquity to Today series. Join us online in April for our fourth program, Rechavia and Beyond: 1920-Present, on Wednesday, May 15 at 7:00 pm EDT. Please visit our event webpage for more details and to register.
Jerusalem Series details
SPRING SPEAKER SERIES – JEWISH EXPERIENCES IN AMERICA
The Walnut Street Synagogue is pleased to present our Spring Speaker Series – Jewish Experiences in America series. Join us online in May for our third program, Overcoming Antisemitism in America, on Wednesday, May 22 at 7:00 pm EDT. Please visit our event webpage for more details and to register.
Speaker Series 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!
Jewish Heritage Across the Balkans: A Journey Through History and Culture
Part 1 – Croatia – Sunday, May 12, 1:00 pm EDT
(online in partnership with the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program)
Immerse yourself in the captivating history and rich culture of Balkan Jewry with our exclusive series, “Jewish Heritage Across the Balkans: A Journey Through History and Culture.” Starting on May 12th, join us for a virtual exploration through Croatia, Trieste, Slovenia, Serbia, and Bulgaria. Discover the enduring legacy of Jewish communities, from ancient synagogues to modern-day resilience. Witness the unique blend of Sephardic and Ashkenazi traditions, and learn about their significant contributions throughout history.
Part 1 – Croatia – Explore the stunning landscapes of Croatia and uncover the active Jewish community’s proud heritage in Zagreb, Dubrovnik, and Split. Witness the remarkable history and current vibrancy of this small but spirited community.
Evgenia Kempinski, our guide, is a Russian Jew born and raised in St. Petersburg. Her family was originally from the Pale of Settlement – Poland, Ukraine and Belorussia – and endured the suppression of Judaism in the Soviet Union then the rebirth of Jewish culture and religious life in today’s St. Petersburg. She has been an official St. Petersburg tour guide for over 15 years and is the founder and owner of St. Petersburg Jewish Tours – a company offering Jewish travelers a unique experience of showcasing the best of Russia from a Jewish point of view. She currently lives in Haifa, Israel, still keeping close connections with St. Petersburg and its Jewish community.
Part 1 – Program video
Sovereignty, Violence and Morality – Zionism and the Ethics of Judaism
Part 1 – Thursday, May 9, 3:30 pm EDT
Part 2 – Thursday, May 16, 3:30 pm EDT
Part 3 – Thursday, May 23, 3:30 pm EDT
Part 4 – Thursday, May 30, 3:30 pm EDT
(online in partnership with the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program)
The current Israeli-Palestinian conflict has seen a revival of the discussion regarding the Jewish right to establish a state in the Land of Israel that has occasioned a renewed focus on the dynamics of sovereignty. Beyond a doubt, the implementation of Jewish sovereignty in Eretz Yisrael is the essential dimension of political Zionism. In this four-part seminar, Rabbi Seidler-Feller will examine the manner with which religion interacts with sovereignty and with the nationalist impulse that it nurtures. Among the questions considered are: Can the mingling of religion and state function constructively or must their interplay always be toxic, resulting in harmful and oppressive outcomes? Can God and religious values curb the excesses of nationalist fervor? How does the seductively alluring nature of power factor into the Zionist expression of Jewish sovereignty? And can there be a Zionism that embraces God, but does not aspire to sovereignty? We will study a variety of sources, ranging from the writings of the Rabbi of Satmar (an avowed anti-Zionist), to the power centered ideology of Vladimir Jabotinsky, to the messianic exhortations of the Rabbis Kook (father and son) and the settler rabbis of Gush Emunim (the Bloc of the Faithful), to the pacifist thought of “One of the Passionate Rabbis” and to the humanistic teachings of Ahad Ha’amand the founders of religious Zionism. We will see how some of these teachings inform and shape Israeli politics and foment the extremism that is evident today. And we will discover the sober voices of the tradition that promote constraint and a limitation on the unfettered exercise of power.
Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller recently celebrated his fortieth year of working with students and faculty as the Executive Director of the Yitzhak Rabin Hillel Center for Jewish Life at 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 Palestinian Authority which is now offered on 90 campuses. He is married to Dr. Doreen Seidler-Feller, a clinical psychologist, and is the father of Shulie, a photojournalist and Shaul, an ordained rabbi who is currently serving as a Judaica consultant at Sotheby’s while pursuing a doctorate in Jewish History at the Hebrew University.
The Madwoman in the Rabbi’s Attic: Rereading the Women of the Talmud
Tuesday, May 28, 1:00 pm EDT
(online in partnership with the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program)
How does the Talmud portray its heroines? Why are they never as they first seem? And what does this tell us about the rabbis’ views of marriage, sex, childbirth, and what it means to be a woman in the world? In this first international launch of her new book, Gila Fine sits down with Rabbi Dr. Shai Cherry to discuss the stories of six Talmudic heroines, how to read them, and why she came to write about them. Join us for this exclusive CSP event.
Gila Fine is a lecturer of rabbinic literature at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, exploring the tales of the Talmud through philosophy, literary criticism, psychoanalysis, and pop-culture. She serves on the faculties of the Nachshon Project, Amudim Seminary, the Tikvah Scholars Program, the London School of Jewish Studies, the Community Scholar Program, and WebYeshiva, and has taught thousands of students at conferences, campuses, and communities across the Jewish world. As editor in chief of Maggid Books, Gila worked closely with such leading scholars as Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, publishing over a hundred titles of contemporary Jewish thought, including several bestsellers and eight National Jewish Book Award winners. She is also the former editor of Azure: Ideas for the Jewish Nation. Her work has been featured in the BBC, Haaretz, The Jerusalem Post, The Jerusalem Report, Tradition Journal, Jewish News, and The Jewish Chronicle (which selected her as one of the ten most influential Brits in Israel). Haaretz has called her “a young woman on her way to becoming one of the more outstanding Jewish thinkers of the next generation.”
Rabbi Dr. Shai Cherry serves as rabbi and Creative Educational Officer of Congregation Adath Jeshurun in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. After eighteen years in academics, Cherry shifted from university teaching to the pulpit in 2019. Rav Shai’s first book, Torah through Time: Understanding Bible Commentary from the Rabbinic Period to Modern Times, redirected his focus from creation to revelation—how is God’s word and will understood in changing circumstances? Finally, how do we respond to what we understand to be God’s will? His latest work, Coherent Judaism: Constructive Theology, Creation, and Halakhah brings these threads together to offer a vision of 21st-century Judaism. Formerly on the faculties of Vanderbilt University and the University of San Diego, he is the featured lecturer for The Great Courses’ “Introduction to Judaism.”
Program video
Intersections of Art, Conflict, and Memory: George Segal’s ‘The Sacrifice of Isaac’
Tuesday, May 21, 1:00 pm EDT
(online in partnership with the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program)
It’s been 51 years since American pop artist George Segal’s sculpture Sacrifice of Isaac was first installed outside Tel Aviv’s Mann Auditorium. The modernist artist, raised in New York by his Eastern European immigrant parents, chose the story of the sacrifice of Isaac as an homage to his father and his own affinity with the biblical story. The sculpture was first exhibited in May 1973 at the outdoor plaza of Tel Aviv’s Mann auditorium. Five months following the sculpture’s installation, the Yom Kippur War broke out, and the events of those weeks of war charged the sculpture with a new range of political and social meanings. For the casting of the characters, Segal invited Israeli sculptor Menashe Kadishman and his son to model Abraham and Isaac. The collaboration between the American artist and a prominent Israeli artist regarding a politically charged subject resulted in a significant work on an international scale. Years later, Kadishman ended up creating his own take on the “Sacrifice of Isaac” story, with a connection to his own son’s beginning his service in the Israeli army (his sculpture is on permanent display outside the Tel Aviv Art Museum in Hostages Square. In our session with Sophia, we will examine art works by Segal, focusing on this remarkable sculpture, and explore its relevance today.
Since 2016, Sophia Berry has been working as an Assistant Curator at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (TAMA). Her position at TAMA includes responsibilities of managing exhibitions from the museum’s collections and external loans, researching the museum’s collections, overseeing outgoing loans, writing catalogue texts, and leading restoration projects. Sophia’s latest project was a special exhibition of George Segal’s (1914–2000) sculpture, Sacrifice of Isaac, that was uncovered after a two-year restoration process. Sophia has also curated a special display dedicated to Joseph Israel’s From Darkness and Light (1871), which was recently discovered to have been Jewish property before the War. Since her return from a two-year sabbatical in Denver, Sophia has been working in the photography department.
Program video
Artifacts of Identity – Exploring Jewish Material Culture Through Time
Part 5 – Erased Synagogues – Tuesday, May 14, 7:00 pm EDT
(online in partnership with the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program)
Part 4 – At Home in the Jewish World – What can we learn about Jewish life from the Jewish home, as depicted in art? Where can we find the “lost treasures” of historical Jewish civilizations now gone?
Part 5 – Erased Synagogues – So many synagogues that were, in former times, the hubs of vibrant communities are no longer extant, for a myriad of reasons. Can we reconstruct these beautiful, vanished buildings?
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 PhD at Yale University, and did much of his graduate research at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. During the 1980s, 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.
Part 4 – Program video
Part 5 – Program video
Tracing the Footsteps of Jewish Prague: A Journey Through Centuries of Resilience
Thursday, May 2, 1:00 pm EDT
(online in partnership with the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program)
Join us on a compelling virtual journey through the Jewish history of Bohemia, starting from the 10th century. We’ll uncover the stories behind the WWII Stolpersteine (“stumbling stones”) and the annexation of Czechoslovakia, delve into the narratives of the Shoah and the Terezín Concentration Camp, celebrate the heroism of Nicholas Winton, who rescued 669 children, and visit one of the oldest synagogues in Europe. Our journey will conclude with insights into the life of former US ambassador Norman Eisen and the history of Petschka Palace, now a U.S. diplomatic residence in Prague.
Our guide, Nikola, is the proud ambassador of Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. She has been working in tourism for over 15 years and has been working as a full-time guide for the last 4 years. When Nikola has free time, she enjoys cooking, hiking, biking and spending quality time with her twins.
COMMUNITY PROGRAMS
Explore the Heart of Judaism – Spirit, Ethics and Community
Part 1 – Finding Torah in Our World: How the Torah Developed – Thursday, May 23, 7:30 pm EDT
Part 2 – What is Jewish Community: The People Israel – Thursday, May 30, 7:30 pm EDT
Part 3 – What Do Jews Believe: Wrestling with God – Thursday, June 6, 7:30 pm EDT
Part 4 – Where Do We Go from Here: Next Steps Q & A – Thursday, June 20, 7:30 pm EDT
(online series presented by the Lappin Foundation)
Join the Lappin Foundation for an online series with Rabbi Jessica Lowenthal from Temple Beth Shalom in Melrose and Rabbi Alison Adler from Temple B’nai Abraham in Beverly. This series is provided at no cost thanks to generous support from the Morton and Lillian Waldfogel Charitable Foundation and Peter and Maureen Waldfogel.
It Happened on May 13
Thursday, May 9, 7:30 pm EDT
(online program presented by the Lappin Foundation)
May 13th is the 85th anniversary of the ill-fated SS St. Louis from Germany in 1939. It is also the eve of the establishment of the State of Israel in 1939. Join the Lappin Foundation for a special panel discussion of these two historic two events and how they are related.
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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