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Jewish resources to occupy your family during social distancing – part 25

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. 

  • Clal and the Klezmer Company Jazz Orchestra will hold a virtual “Hanukkah in Jazztime” program on Monday, December 14, at 7:30 pm. The cost to attend is $18 per household. For more information or to register, visit www.clal.org/project/hanukkah-in-jazztime/.
  • Hillel International will holds its first virtual Hillel College Fair from Sunday-Tuesday, November 22-24. It will allow attendees to meet with current students and Hillel staff from schools they are thinking of attending. The fair is free for students, their parents/guardians, and anyone who wants to learn about Jewish college life. For more information or to register, visit https://welcome.hillel.org/virtual-college-fair/.
  • The Museum of Jewish Heritage will hold several virtual events: the Klezmer-rock band Golem will perform on Sunday, November 15, at 7 pm, with a sliding scale cost; and GENerally Speaking with Stephanie Butnick and Beth Kean on Tuesday, November 17, at 7 pm, featuring a discussion of third- or fourth-generation Holocaust survivors. For more information or to register, visit https://mjhnyc.org/current-events/.
  • The Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy presents a four-part workshop “Have You Ever Wanted to Write Your Life Story?” on Zoom for those want to write their life stories – either to just preserve memories, or for their family to read. It will be held on Mondays, December 7, 14, 21 and 28, from 10:30 am-noon. The cost is $99. For more information or to register, visit www.eventbrite.com/e/have-you-ever-wanted-to-write-your-life-stories-tickets-125523721831.
  • To find a variety of virtual events for the current week, check the list at Jewish Journal, https://jewishjournal.com/streaming-guide/.
  • The National Library of Israel offers “The Reading Room,” a new virtual space that offers live lectures, conversations and interviews via Zoom, as well as a range of previously recorded events. To find English speaking events that have already occurred, visit https://live-events.nli.org.il/english.
  • The Jewish Museum of Florida – FIU will hold a virtual authors’ talk “The Tuesday Memoir Group” on Sunday, November 22, from 3:30-4:30 pm. Members of the Tuesday Memoir Group – Jo Anne Bander, Rachel Blechman, Joy Malakoff, Tamara Nixon and Judith Wurtman – will talk about their new book. For more information or to register, visit https://secure.qgiv.com/for/jmoffiu/event/822215/.
  • The Jewish Museum of Florida – FIU will hold its Annual Holiday Klezmer Music Concert, featuring the music of Heavy Shtetl, on Sunday, December 6, from 3-4:30 pm. The cost to attend the Zoom concert is $18 for JMOF-FIU members and $25 for non-members. For more information or to register, visit https://secure.qgiv.com/for/jmoffiu/event/822197/.
  • Friends of the IDF will hold several virtual events as part of “FIDF Engage: Stories Behind the Headline” series including “Unearthing Terror’s Tunnels” with Col. Yuval Moshe, chief of the IDF Engineering Corps – Southern Command, on Tuesday, December 1, at 1 pm; “Fighting Media Bias against Israel” with Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus on Tuesday, December 8, 1 pm; “Cyber Warfare: A New Dimension in Modern War” with Maj. Gen. (Res.) Nadav Padan, former head of IDF Central Command, on Tuesday, December 22, at 1 pm; and “The Northern Border: Exposed” on Tuesday, December 29, at 1 pm, speaker to be announced. For more information or to register, visit www.fidf.org/covid19/engage.
  • The Center for Jewish History will hold the virtual program “Family History Today: What’s New with Yad Vashem’s Shoah Names Database?” on Thursday, December 3, at noon. Serafima Velkovich, an archival researcher in the Reference and Information Department of the Yad Vashem, will highlight the Central Database’s new features and sources. For more information or to register, visit https://programs.cjh.org/tickets/family-history-today-2020-12-03. 
  • Pardes will offer the virtual “Awakening in Challenging Times: A Pardes and Or HaLev Jewish Spirituality Retreat” from December 27-January 1. Most of the retreat will be spent in silence, meditation and yoga, including meditation instruction and questions and answers. There will also be daily teachings as well as text study and discussion, and additional spiritual practices that complement and support meditation practice. For more information or to register, visit www.pardes.org.il/program/na/awakening-in-challenging-times-a-pardes-or-halev-jewish-spirituality-retreat/.
  • The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute will offer several virtual events: “Ruby of Cochin: A Malayali Jewish Woman of Kerala, India” on Monday, November 30, from 12:30-1:30 pm; HBI Virtual Conversations with Anna Solomon, author of “The Book of V,” on Wednesday, December 2, from 2-3 pm; and “Studio Israel: Conversation Series” with Vered Nissim, an Israeli based visual artist, on Thursday, December 10, from 9-10 am. For more information or to register, visit www.brandeis.edu/hbi/events/index.html.
  • The Diller Tikkun Olam Awards honors Jewish teens, 13-19 years old, who demonstrate leadership and engagement in projects that embody the values of tikkun olam, “repairing the world.” Up to 15 recipients will be awarded $36,000 each to further their project or for their education. For more information, visit www.dillerteenawards.org/apply-and-nominate/.
  • Classrooms Without Borders is an independently funded program of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh that offers a variety of virtual lectures. Upcoming lectures include “Dr. Felix Klein: ‘Jewish Life is a Part of Germany’” on Monday, November 23, at noon; and 
  • “Menachem Begin: Peace and War” post-film discussion with film director Levi Zini on Thursday, December 3, at 3 pm. For more information, to register for programs, visit https://classroomswithoutborders.org/events/.
  • The Yiddish Book Center will offer several virtual events: “Keeping It in the Family: Yiddish Writers and Their Legacies” on Thursday, December 3, at 7 pm; “How Folkways Records Planted the Seeds of the Yiddish Renaissance,” with Hankus Netsky on Thursday, December 17, at 7 pm; and “The Extraordinary Voyages of the Yiddish Jules Verne,” with Sebastian Schulman on Thursday, January 7, at 7 pm, which will explore how Verne’s Yiddish translators reshaped the writer. For more information or to register, visit www.yiddishbookcenter.org/events-and-store/virtual-public-programs-calendar.
  • The Jewish Studies Department at Cornell University will hold the virtual conference “Di Linke: the Yiddish Immigrant Left from Popular Front to Cold War” in December. The conference will explore the complex history of the Jewish People’s Fraternal Order. Webinars include Sunday, December 6: “America: Communism, the Jewish Left, and Unity” at 1 pm; Monday, December 7: “A Fraternal Society with Emmas: Mutual Aid, Insurance, Acculturation, Civil Rights and Feminism” at 3 pm; Tuesday, December 8: “Virtual Tour of the Archives and Library” at 3 pm; Wednesday, December 9: “The Internationale” at 3 pm; Thursday, December 10: “Kultur Arbet: Creativity and Repression” at 3 pm; and Monday, December 14: “The Art of Resistance” at 3 pm. Registration is required and can be made at https://jewishstudies.cornell.edu/yiddish-immigrant-left. 
  • The Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy will hold “Hello Gorgeous: An Hour or so with Fanny Brice – the consummate performer!” on Zoom on Monday, December 21, from 7-8:15 pm. Dr. Sharon Keller will discuss Fanny Brice’s career as an American comedienne, singer, theatre and film actress. For more information or to register, visit www.nycjewishtours.org/event-log/fanny-brice-talk-on-zoom.
  • HUC Connect Online Learning will offer several classes: “Thinking Jewish in a Changing America,” on Tuesday, November 24, at 1 pm: “American Jewry: Where Do We Go From Here?” on Tuesday, December 1, at 6:30 pm; “Arguing about Immigration,” on Tuesday, December 8, at 6:30 pm; and “The Supreme Court in Transition,” on Tuesday, December 15, at 6 pm. For more information or to register, visit http://huc.edu/registration-huc-connect-online-learning. 
  • The American Sephardi Federation will present “Sephardic Culinary History with Chef Hélène Jawhara-Piñer: Hanukkah Special; Challah, Candles and Bimuelos (Two-Ways)” on Sunday, November 29, at 10 am. For more information or to register, visit https://americansephardi.org/event/sephardic-culinary-history-with-chef-helene-jawhara-piner-4/.
  • Centro Primo Levi will hold the webinar “Sephardic Journeys Through the Twentieth Century” on Monday, November 30, at 5 pm. Sarah Stein will speak about her book “Family Papers: A Sephardic Journey Through the Twentieth Century” with Aron Rodrigue of Stanford University. For more information or to register, visit https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_H5vqvRcnS_CcF0-3LKLSag.
  • Ritualwell will hold several courses in December and January: “Lighting the Path Within: Jewish Mysticism and Meditation” led by Hadar Cohen on Tuesdays, December 1, 8 and 15, from 7-8:15 pm; “Femme Fatale or Fierce Woman Warrior? Writing Feminist Midrash” led by Sivan Rotholz on Wednesdays, December 2, 9, 16 and 23, from 7-8:15 pm; and “In Their Own Words: American Jews and Social Justice” led by Dr. Reena Sigman Friedman on Tuesdays, January 5, 12, 19 and 26, 2021, from 7:30–8:45 pm. For more information or to register, visit, https://www.ritualwell.org/learn.

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