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Jewish resources to occupy your family during social distancing – part 19

By Reporter staff

A variety of Jewish groups are offering online resources – educational and recreational – for those who are not allowed out of the house. Below is a sampling of those. The Reporter will publish additional listings as they become available. 

  • The Clal virtual program “American Jewish New Year in JazzTime” will be a concert of American jazz, blues and Negro spirituals mixed with old world klezmer. Joining the Klezmer Company Jazz Orchestra will be Clal’s Rabbi Irwin Kula. The event will take place on Saturday, September 19, from 11 am-12:15 pm. The cost per household is $36. For more information or to sign up, visit www.clal.org/project/american-jewish-new-year-jazztime.
  • Literature lovers can watch a video of the 2020 Sami Rohr Prize ceremony at www.samirohrprize.org/ceremony. Also on the page are videos featuring information about the finalists and the ceremonies that took place in 2018 and ‘19.
  • Rachel Korazim gave a lecture and reading celebrating the 50th anniversary of Israeli poet Nathan Alterman’s passing. This was originally part of an offering of the Shalom Hartman Institute. The video can be found at www.youtube.com/watch?v=udlEO2zhxTA&feature=youtu.be.
  • The Gesher Multicultural Film Fund offers a variety of independent short films, as well as those made by students in Israeli film schools. For more information or to view films, visit http://tportmarket.com/partners/gesher-vod. 
  • CCAR Press Speaker Series will hold the program “Inside Mishkan HaNefesh: A Conversation on Today’s Machzor” with Cantor Evan Kent, Rabbi Leon Morris and Rabbi Hara Person on Thursday, September 3, at 12:30 pm. To register for the event, visit https://ccar.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_aoW0wl9oTbi6gtmtg_rrmA?fbclid=IwAR3DPQB6t2Y5QxZfhjwHnQEtOMJtNrneiJD6bqtIRGaErORKy3RJEqCcnv.
  • The Pardes Community Education offers a variety of online classes. The Elul schedule includes classes from August 31-September 24 on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. For more information about these classes, and online fall and spring classes, or to register, visit www.pardes.org.il/program/community/pardes-community-education/.
  • The Jewish National Fund continues to offer online programming. Upcoming programming includes “Virtual Shabbat Experience (For Ages 22-40)” on Friday, September 11, at 5:30 pm, and “Spice Up Your Life” with Chef Lior Lev Sercarz on Wednesday, September 16, at 8 pm. For more information on programs or to register, visit jnf.org/ondemand.
  • The Israel-American Council will hold a three-day e-summit called “The Parenting Puzzle: Piecing It Togther” from September 23-25. The summit hopes to help parents reboot their parenting skills – and re-imagine their roles inside the home – during the pandemic. For more information and to register, visit www.parentingpuzzle.org.
  • Birthright Israel is offering virtual tours of Israel. The interactive video allows users to choose their own adventures and visit different sites around the country. To see the video, visit https://video.eko.com/v/AJm2Ly. For more information about Birthright Israel, visit https://www.birthrightisrael.com/.
  • The Lower Eastside Jewish Conservatory will hold “Auschwitz #34207 – The Joe Rubinstein Story: A Book Talk on Zoom” with author Nancy Sprowell Geise on Wednesday, September 9, from 7-8:30 pm. The talk is limited to 100 registrations. For more information or to register, visit www.nycjewishtours.org/event-log/auschwitz-book-talk-with-author-nancy-sprowell-geise.
  • The YIVO Bruce and Francesca Cernia Slovin Online Museum’s digital exhibition “Beba Epstein: The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Girl” is available now at museum.yivo.org. The online exhibition draws on YIVO’s archive of more than 23 million documents and artifacts to illustrate 20th century Jewish history through the interactive narration of one young girl’s story.
  • The Center for Jewish History has several upcoming programs, including “Live from the Archives: Rosh Hashanah Recipes – Live on Zoom” on Tuesday, September 8, at 1 pm; “Hank Greenberg and Yom Kippur” on Tuesday, September 22, at 1 pm; “Sukkah in the Sky” on Tuesday, October 6, at 1 pm; and “Jews and Crime” on Tuesday, October 20, at 1 pm. Register at forms.office.com to receive a link to the Zoom program. For information about more programs, visit https://programs.cjh.org/.
  • A free online-tool-kit of music and inspiration, 40 Holy Days, features Jewish artists from around the globe. More information can be found at https://40holydays.org/.
  • Hadassah-Brandeis Institute will hold the program “Braided: A Journey of a Thousand Challahs” on Thursday, September 10, from 7-8 pm. The program will feature real-time challah baking with Beth Ricanati, M.D., author of “Braided: A Journey of a Thousand Challahs.” For more information or to register, visit www.brandeis.edu/hbi/events/index.html.
  • ChaiFlicks is the first Jewish streaming service focusing on Jewish and Israeli entertainment and culture. There is a charge for the service. For more information, visit www.chaiflicks.com/. 
  • The Streicker Center’s fall catalog can be found at https://streicker.nyc/catalog-fall-2020. There are cooking lessons, looks at “hot topics in archeology,” lectures on biblical writings called “Agreeing to Disagree: How Jewish and Christians Read Scripture Differently,” “Conversations Live from Israel” and more.
  • The Jewish Museum of Florida: FUI will hold “Thursday at Three: Jacqueline Goldstein with Billy Corben” on Thursday, September 3, from 3-4 pm. Miami filmmaker Billy Corben will talk with JMOF-FIU Curator Jackie Goldstein about filmmaking in South Florida. For more information or to register, visit https://secure.qgiv.com/for/jmoffiu/event/818713/.
  • MyJewishLearning,com is offering free classes, prayer services, moments for reflection, and more. For more information, visit www.myjewishlearning.com/article/join-my-jewish-learning-live-online-for-the-high-holiday-season/.
  • Rabbi Jill Zimmerman is offering a free guided workbook and soul-journey for the High Holiday season. For more information or to receive the free workbook online, visit https://ravjill.com/return.
  • The Museum of Jewish Heritage is offering a recording of prize-winning Sephardic historian Sarah Abrevaya Stein’s talk on her book “Family Papers: A Sephardic Journey Through the Twentieth Century.” To view the program, visit https://mjhnyc.org/family-papers-a-sephardic-journey-through-the-twentieth-century/.
  • The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College is offering graduate level courses open to the public. All course sessions will take place in real time on Zoom. The fall semester runs from September 1 to December 15, including holiday breaks. There is a charge for the classes. For more information, visit www.rrc.edu/courses-open-public/graduate-level-courses-open-public.
  • Respectability offers a free toolkit called “Opening Your Virtual Gates: Making Online High Holiday Celebrations Accessible to All.” For more information or to access the toolkit, visit www.respectability.org/high-holidays-2020/.
  • Reboot’s annual 10Q annual reflection project will send participants a question a day for 10 days starting Friday, September 18, which is during the High Holiday period. The annual 10Q questions are not intrinsically religious and are focused on life, personal goals, plans for the future, relationships, our place in the world and more. For more information or to sign up, visit www.doyou10q.com.
  • Ritualwell will hold “Return to Self through the Writings of Etty Hillesum: A Five-Day Intensive” on Monday, September 21, at noon. It will offer ways to engage in spiritual practices inspired by the writings of Etty Hillesum. For more information about the program or how to register, visit www.reconstructingjudaism.org/recon-connect.
  • The Center for Jewish History will hold “Family Affairs: Writing Personal Histories – Live on Zoom” on Thursday, September 17, at 3 pm. The program cost is “pay what you like.” The program explores researching and writing about Jewish experiences from a personal perspective. The two authors featured will be Daniel Mendelsohn (“The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million”) and Omer Bartov (“Erased” and “Anatomy of a Genocide: The Life and Death of a Town Called Buczacz”). For more information or to sign up, visit https://familyaffairs.bpt.me/.
  • The Breman Museum will hold the Zoom panel discussion “Married to the Rabbi” on Tuesday, September 1, at 2 pm. The discussion is inspired by the book “Married to the Rabbi: Sixty Spouses of Retired Reform Rabbis in Their Own Words” edited by Naomi Patz and Judy Maslin, There is no charge for the event. For more information or to register, visit www.thebreman.org/Events/Upcoming-Events/Panel-Discussion-Married-to-the-Rabbi.

For additional resources, see previous issues of The Reporter on its website, www.thereportergroup.org.