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DECEMBER 2021 PROGRAMS

CSP

The Walnut Street Synagogue is pleased to be a partner congregation of the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program!

 A History of the Talmud in Four Objects

Part 4 – Thursday, December 30, 1:00 pm EST
(online in partnership with the Orange County Community Scholar Program)

How did jars come to be so important in the ancient world? What did the rabbis’ Shabbat candles look like? And why does the Talmudic Angel of Death carry a knife, not a sword? There are certain stories only objects can tell. And yet, we know so little about rabbinic material culture, how the men and women of the Talmud prepared their food, mended their clothes, or decorated their living rooms. This course explores four objects of the rabbinic household, revealing how their physical properties, historical use, and cultural implications radically shape our understanding of their stories.  Gila Fine is editor in chief of Maggid Books (Koren Publishers Jerusalem). She is also a teacher of Aggada, exploring the tales of the Talmud through philosophy, literary criticism, psychoanalysis, and pop-culture. Gila is a faculty member of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, the Nachshon Project and Amudim Seminary, and has taught thousands of students at conferences, community centers, and synagogues across the Jewish world. Haaretz has called her “a young woman on her way to becoming one of the more outstanding Jewish thinkers of the next generation.”

 

The Rabbis Confront Death 

Part 1: The Death of Moses – Tuesday, December 14, 3:30 pm EST
Part 2: The Death of Rabbi Meir’s Sons and Elisha Ben Abuya – Tuesday, December 21, 3:30 pm EST (online)
Part 3: The Death of Rabbi Akiba – Tuesday, December 28, 3:30 pm EST
(online in partnership with the Orange County Community Scholar Program)

Midrash Mishle (The Midrash to Proverbs, 9th century CE) waxes narrative with four stories of death and mourning. These legends offer a comprehensive rabbinic view on death, mourning, and consolation that have meaningful lessons for us today.  Prof. Burton L. Visotzky, PhD, serves as Appleman Professor of Midrash and Interreligious Studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he joined the faculty upon his ordination in 1977.  He serves as the Louis Stein Director of the Finkelstein Institute for Religious and Social Studies at JTS, programming on public policy, and directs JTS’s Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Prof. Visotzky served as Master Visiting Professor of Jewish Studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome (where he will return to teach in Spring 2022). He is the author of ten books, editor of seven other volumes, and has authored over 125 articles and reviews. He has been featured on radio, television, and in print. In 1995-1996, he collaborated with Bill Moyers on the ten-part PBS series, “Genesis: A Living Conversation.”  In 2012, Visotzky worked with Christiane Amanpour on her four-hour mini-series, “Back to the Beginning.” Rabbi Visotzky has been named to “The Forward 50” and repeatedly to the Newsweek/Daily Beast list of “The 50 Most Influential Jews in America.”  Prof. Visotzky holds an EdM from Harvard University; and has been visiting faculty at Oxford; Cambridge; and Princeton Universities; and the Russian State University of the Humanities in Moscow.
Program video – Part 1
Program video – Part 2
Program video – Part 3

 

 

 

Secrets of the Torah Revealed

Part 2 – Exodus/Shemot – Monday, December 20, 2:00 pm EST
(online in partnership with the Orange County Community Scholar Program)

If the Book of Genesis is about the “original Jewish family,” its parental favoritism and its sibling rivalries, the Book of Exodus is about what happens when that family encounters problematic others. Join us as we discuss, among other things, why Miriam was a prophetess; what “matter was known” that caused Moses to flee Egypt for Midian; Moses’ utter lack of suitability for Jewish leadership, and what your S.U.V., a Christmas creche and your angry neighbors have to do with the Exodus from Egypt. Winner of the 2015 Jewish Book Award in Visual Arts for Skies of Parchment, Seas of Ink: Jewish Illuminated Manuscripts, Prof. 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.
Program video

 

 

 

England as the Custodian of the Jewish Past

Part 3 – The British Library and the John Rylands Library – Sunday, December 19, 3:00 pm EST
(online in partnership with the Orange County Community Scholar Program)

Most people are well aware of England’s role as a center of antiquarianism, with so much of the ancient world preserved in institutions such as the British Library, the British Museum, and the libraries of Oxford and Cambridge. Most people are equally aware of England’s abiding interest in all matters biblical: witness John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, the King James Version, and the major role played by the Bible generally in the Church of England.  Much less well known, however, is England’s role as the custodian of the Jewish past. To put it plainly: No other country in the world possesses both the quality and the quantity of Hebrew manuscripts in its library collections. Why is this so? And how did it happen? In this three-part series, historian and self-styled Anglophile Gary A. Rendsburg, who spends almost every summer conducting research in English museums and libraries, will survey all of this material and more, as we proceed through the centuries, from Tudor times to the Victorian age.

Part 3 – The British Library and the John Rylands Library – And then there is London! The British Library has its own superb collection of Hebrew and related manuscripts, including documents once in the possession of the Duke of Sussex, son of King George III, the oldest complete copy of the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Bible), and the most ancient and reliable Targum (Aramaic translations of the Bible) manuscripts. Though let’s also not forget the John Rylands Library in Manchester: within its collection are the oldest fragments of the Septuagint, the oldest fragments of the New Testament, and one of the most beautiful of all medieval illuminated Haggadah manuscripts.

Prof. Gary A. Rendsburg holds the Blanche and Irving Laurie Chair in Jewish History in the Department of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in Hebrew Studies from New York University, and then taught at Canisius College and Cornell University‒the latter for 18 years‒before joining the Rutgers faculty in 2004. The author of seven books and c. 200 scholarly articles, Professor Rendsburg takes a special interest in literary approaches to the Bible, the history of the Hebrew language, the relationship between ancient Israel and ancient Egypt, post-biblical Judaism, and the Hebrew manuscript tradition. His most recent book is How the Bible Is Written (2019), with special attention to the use of language to create literature.  Professor Rendsburg has visited all of the major archaeological sites in Israel, Egypt, and Jordan, and he has participated in excavations at Tel Dor and Caesarea. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and from the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, plus he has served as visiting research professor at the Hebrew University, the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Sydney.
Program video

 

Enter Laughing; Exit Stage Left: Does the Bible have its Own Set of Stage Directions?

Thursday, December 16, 1:00 pm EST
(online in partnership with the Orange County Community Scholar Program)

We are all familiar with those words in italics that tell us how to read, or to speak, the playwright’s lines. In our close readings of a variety of biblical texts, we will note that the Bible has its own subtle set of stage directions, which provide much meaning between the lines of the text. Judy Klitsner is a senior educator at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, where she has taught Bible and biblical exegesis to a generation of students, of whom many now serve as teachers and heads of Jewish studies programs throughout the Jewish world.  A disciple of the great Torah teacher Nehama Leibowitz, Judy is a popular international lecturer, who brings an accessible, text-based teaching style—with an eye toward modern relevance– to a myriad of audiences that span the denominational spectrum.  Judy Klitsner is the author of Subversive Sequels in the Bible: How Biblical Stories Mine and Undermine Each Other, which won a National Jewish Book Award. She is the founding board chair of Sacred Spaces, an organization that seeks to address abuses of power in Jewish institutions.

 

 

A Winter’s Tale

Wednesday, December 15, 3:30 pm EST
(online in partnership with the Orange County Community Scholar Program)

“A Winter’s Tale” focuses on Chanukah and Purim, both related to events that occurred during the Second Temple. The story of Purim took place in the Persian Empire, and the story of Chanukah took place in Judah, under Hellenistic rule. This program highlights some history and archaeology from those empires and examines Purim and Chanukah through a philosophical lens. These are the last holidays of the Jewish Year before Passover and they play a unique role in the development of the Nation of Israel. Nachliel Selavan, originally from Jerusalem’s Old City, is back in Israel after seven years of teaching full-time in the United States, developing his unique and engaging method of learning Torah through tour, travel and archaeology.  Nachliel completed his first MA through the Melton Blended Masters in Jewish Education at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and is studying for his second MA in Ancient Jewish History at Bernard Revel Graduate School, Yeshiva University.

 

 

A Virtual Jewish Odyssey in Greece

Monday, December 13, 1:00 pm EST
(online in partnership with the Orange County Community Scholar Program)

Join us as we “visit” one of one of the most ancient Jewish communities in the world, located 1,000 miles from Israel on the eastern Mediterranean coast line. Since the time of Alexander the Great, the Jewish community of Greece has witnessed, experienced and influenced the beginnings of Christianity, the rise and fall of Empires and the creation of the Modern State. While the Holocaust left the community devastated, the ancient traditions and cultural practices of Greek Jews have been kept alive by the few who remain. Our online guide, Yona Leshets, was born and raised in Haifa, where he also earned his BSc (summa cum laude) and MSc degrees in electrical engineering from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. For almost thirty years, Yona was fully engaged in the world of technology, serving in the 8200 intelligence unit of the IDF, and later as part of the seed team of a successful start-up company that was acquired by Intel. During his technology career, Yona filed eight patents and was honoured twice by presidents of Israel for his security and technological achievements. As of 2010, after two years of college studies, Yona channelled his passion for open fields, history, geopolitics, culture, and technology into his second career as a tour educator. He focuses on guiding tourist in Israel, and occasionally he leads groups to Greece and Japan. Yona lives in Kohav Yair, a small suburb outside of Tel Aviv, and is married with four children and a new born granddaughter.
Program video

 

 

Currently on Exhibit: 7 Great Contemporary Artists (in 75 Minutes)

Tuesday, December 7, 3:30 pm EST
(online in partnership with the Orange County Community Scholar Program)

Tobi Kahn will lead a tour of some amazing exhibitions throughout the world, exploring the work of 7 contemporary artists including: Barbara Kruger, Alex Katz, Elizabeth Murray, Philip Pearlstein, Ed Ruscha, Claire Tabouret, and Gabriel De La Mora. We will also view short videos to better understand why they create what they create. Tobi Kahn is a painter and sculptor whose work has been shown in over 60 solo museum exhibitions since he was selected as one of nine artists to be included in the 1985 Guggenheim Museum exhibition, New Horizons in American Art. Kahn will be the subject of 3 solo museum exhibitions in 2022. FORMATION: Images of the Body, will open to the public at the Henry Luce III Center for Art and Religion at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., Qorbanot: Offerings at the Verostko Center for the Arts at St. Vincent College in Pittsburgh, and Elemental, A Decade of Paintings by Tobi Kahn at PACMoca, Long Island, NY. FORMATION: Images of the Body opened virtually in December 2020 accompanied with a short film by filmmaker Susan Dryfoos. Works by Kahn are in major museums, hospitals, sacred/interfaith spaces, corporate, and private collections.

 

 

Chanukah Candles, the Burning Bush and the Jewish People – Some Biblical Insights into Modern Realities and Challenges

Wednesday, December 1, 1:00 pm EST
(online in partnership with the Orange County Community Scholar Program)

The origins, as well as the meaning, of the post-biblical holiday of Chanukah are hard to pinpoint. In an attempt to shed light on the holiday and to understand its contemporary relevance, we will compare the Chanukah story to another story of a flame that burns but does not extinguish: the biblical story of Moses at the burning bush.   Judy Klitsner is a senior educator at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, where she has taught Bible and biblical exegesis to a generation of students, of whom many now serve as teachers and heads of Jewish studies programs throughout the Jewish world.  A disciple of the great Torah teacher Nehama Leibowitz, Judy is a popular international lecturer, who brings an accessible, text-based teaching style—with an eye toward modern relevance– to a myriad of audiences that span the denominational spectrum.  Judy Klitsner is the author of Subversive Sequels in the Bible: How Biblical Stories Mine and Undermine Each Other, which won a National Jewish Book Award. She is the founding board chair of Sacred Spaces, an organization that seeks to address abuses of power in Jewish institutions.

 

 

COMMUNITY PROJECTS

2022 March of the Living for High School Juniors and Seniors

The New England Friends of March of the Living is promising a $2,000 Scholarship to every qualified Massachusetts high school junior or senior who wishes to participate in the 2022 Jewish Heritage Trip to Poland and Israel (April 24 to May 8, 2022).  March of the Living teaches about roots of prejudice — and growing hatred and antisemitism needs to be fought.  Space is limited. Registration is now underway.
2022 March of the Living flyer
More information and registration

 

Yad Chessed

Sponsor meals for those in our community who are struggling with economic hardship and isolation and help to support other needs through Yad Chessed.    Yad Chessed serves as a safety net for Jewish individuals and families and is 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.   Questions can be directed to info@yadchessed.org.
Support Yad Chessed