Session 1 – Why Does Tanakh Translation Matter and How Did it Arrive in its Current Shape? – Thursday, March 6, 3:30 pm ET (online)
Session 2 – The Septuagint: Is Translation Divinely Aided or a National Curse? – Thursday, March 20, 3:30 pm ET (online)
Session 3 – The Targums: When is a Translation Not a Translation? – Thursday, March 27, 3:30 pm ET (online)
(online in partnership with the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program)

Join Rabba Dr. Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz for a fascinating three-part series exploring how Jews have translated and transmitted the Tanakh through the ages. From the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Septuagint (the 2,000-year-old Greek translation by Jews in Egypt) and the Targums (the Aramaic “translations” that influenced Rashi and merge into midrash), we’ll uncover the complex history of how the Hebrew text reached us and examine why translation matters.  Don’t miss this journey through the history, complexity, and significance of Tanakh translation!
Rabba Dr. Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz obtained her PhD from University College London in Jewish Studies and Anthropology, her MA from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Prehistory, and her BA from Cambridge University in Archaeology and Anthropology). In 2021 she received Orthodox rabbinic ordination from Yeshivat Maharat in New York.  She has also participated in the Cambridge Senior Faith Leadership Program and held a Susi Bradfield Women Educators Fellowship. She is a Teaching Associate at Cambridge University, an Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Jewish Studies, Manchester University, and a lecturer and Research Fellow at London School of Jewish Studies. She is currently writing her second book, on the history and development of Limmud. Her first, published in 2021 by the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, was Challenge and Conformity: The Religious Lives of Orthodox Jewish Women. In 2019 she founded the Pop-Up Beit Midrash, and more recently, she was one of the three founders of Azara, a cross-denominational Beit Midrash providing Jewish learning in the United Kingdom.
Part 1 – Program video
Part 2 – Program video
Part 3 – Program video

Session 1 – Tuesday, March 25, 1:00 pm ET (online)
Session 2 – Tuesday, April 1, 1:00 pm ET (online)
(online in partnership with the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program)

Curator Simona Di Nepi leads a two-part, in-depth virtual tour of one of the very first Judaica galleries in an encyclopedic art museum in the world. Explore the 27 works on view and the stories behind their recent acquisition (or unearthing): from an Italian Renaissance Torah binder and an Iraqi Torah case used in India, to a Yemenite woman’s festive headdress and a Torah Ark from 1920s Chelsea, Massachusetts. Spanning five hundred years and four continents, and featuring silver, textiles, furniture, paintings, and books, these works highlight the extraordinary diversity of Jewish culture.
Simona Di Nepi is the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Curator of Judaica at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where she is responsible for building and displaying the Judaica collection, and for curating Intentional Beauty: Jewish Ritual Art from the Collection, the museum’s first Judaica gallery. Originally from Rome, before moving to the United States  Simona studied and worked in London and Tel Aviv for 25 years. She filled curatorial roles, in both decorative arts and Old Masters, at the Victoria and Albert Museum, The National Gallery, and the Royal Academy of Arts in London, where she cared for permanent collections and curated exhibitions. In Israel, she worked as curator at Anu: The Museum of the Jewish People and as Lecturer in Italian Renaissance art at Reichman University, Herzlyia. Simona curated the exhibitions and wrote the accompanying catalogues for Reunions: Bringing Early Italians Paintings Back Together (The National Gallery, London, 2005), and Dreyfus: The Story of a French-Jewish Family (Anu: the Museum of the Jewish People, Tel Aviv, 2014). She is also the author of the National Gallery’s collection catalogue From Duccio to Leonardo: Renaissance Painting 1250-1500. In Judaica, Simona wrote the essays “Itinerant Sephardic Judaica: from Dutch Ports to the Harbours of Europe and the Americas,” “Jewish Things at the Museum of Fine Arts: a History,” “The Servi Shaddai: the Family History of an amulet at the MFA Boston”, and “Treasures from storage: Two Rediscovered Italian Jewish Textiles.”

Session 1 – Hitler Conquers Europe: Only England Fights and Stalin Watches – Sunday, March 2, 7:00 pm ET (online)
Session 2 – Barbarossa: The Rising Sun Makes Its Move – Sunday, March 9, 7:00 pm ET (online)
Session 3 – Stalingrad, Overlord, and the Tide Turns in the Pacific – Sunday, March 16, 7:00 pm ET (online)
Session 4 – On to Berlin: Iwo, Okinawa, and a Mushroom Cloud – Sunday, March 23, 7:00 pm ET (online)
(online in partnership with the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program)

Join us for a new four-part series with Professor Stephen Berk, following his February series on World War I, as we delve into the transformative impact of World War II. This conflict not only accelerated the changes sparked by the Great War but also reshaped the global order, marking the end of imperialism, the rise of two superpowers, and the dawn of the nuclear age. Each session will focus on a critical phase of the war.
Stephen M. Berk, who served as CSP’s 10th Annual One Month Scholar in Residence in February 2011, is Professor of History at Union College in Schenectady, New York, former Chair of the Department of History, Director of the Program in Russian and Eastern European Studies and Faculty Advisor to the Jewish Student Organization. He is the author of Year of Crisis, Year of Hope: Russian Jewry and the Pogroms of 1881-1882 (Greenwood Press, 1985). He is currently writing a book titled  Our People Are Your People: American Jewry and the Struggle for Civil Rights 1954-1965. The book provides an interesting discussion of an extremely important chapter in the history of the civil rights movement and attempts to dispel the myths and misunderstandings surrounding the Black-Jewish relationship. A recipient of the Citizens Laureate Award of the University of Albany Foundation, Professor Berk has been a consultant to the Wiesenthal Holocaust Center in Los Angeles, has written articles on Russian and Jewish history, antisemitism, and the Middle East and has lectured on throughout the United States and Canada including such distinguished colleges and universities as Princeton, Vanderbilt, The University of Texas at Austin and Williams College.
Part 1 – Program video
Part 2 – Program video
Part 3 – Program video
Part 4 – Program video

Tuesday, March 18, 1:00 pm ET (online)
(online in partnership with the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program)

Gila Levitan takes us behind the scenes of the extraordinary new National Library of Israel, which opened in October 2023 near the Knesset in Jerusalem. Designed by Herzog & de Meuron, this 45,000-square-meter landmark redefines the library experience with cutting-edge facilities for exhibitions, research, and cultural events. Discover its vast collections—millions of books, photographs, and manuscripts—preserved in a secure, sustainable space that fosters knowledge and cultural engagement for future generations.
Originally from Sydney, Australia, Gila Levitan moved to Israel 20 years ago. In Australia, she was involved in Zionist Youth movements and spent a year in Israel between high school and university which helped build the foundations for her love and support of this unique little country. After moving to Israel in 2005, she pursued her career in Physiotherapy, eventually deciding to become a licensed tour guide and pursue her passion for exploring and traveling around Israel. Gila is very curious and likes to know all the little details, which may be why she loved working in research, but she also loves people and being a guide enables her to teach people about a place that she loves and helps them on their own path of discovery about all the treasures that Israel has to offer. Gila is in the top 10 on TripAdvisor and was awarded the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence 4 years in a row. Gila was our guide on our most recent Israel adventure, and we’re excited to have her back!
Program video

Tuesday, March 4, 1:00 pm ET (online)
(online in partnership with the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program)

Created about seven centuries ago, the Luzzatto High Holiday Mahzor is a scribal masterpiece comprising the liturgy for the two holiest festivals on the Jewish calendar, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Preserved in exceptionally fine condition, it is one of only a small number of illustrated Ashkenazic mahzorim to have come down to us. This presentation will explore the manuscript’s decorative program, text, and provenance with an eye toward understanding how the book can teach us about medieval and early modern Jewish custom, migration, and spiritual resilience.
Shaul Seidler-Feller joined the Sotheby’s Books and Manuscripts Department as a Judaica specialist in 2017. Since that time, he has researched and catalogued such important sales as SASSOON: A Golden Legacy (December 2020), The Luzzatto High Holiday Mahzor (October 2021), and Codex Sassoon: The Earliest Most Complete Hebrew Bible (May 2023), the latter two of which broke auction records for Judaica. In addition, he serves as a freelance Judaica consultant and has translated or edited four books in Jewish Studies. He holds a master’s degree in medieval Jewish history from the Bernard Revel Graduate School, Yeshiva University, and rabbinic ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary.
Program video