Jewish Online Resources 2/14/25

By Reporter staff

A variety of Jewish groups are offering educational and recreational online resources. Below is a sampling of those. The Reporter will publish additional listings as they become available. 

The Qesher Book Club will hold a virtual discussion of “Shoham’s Bangle,” a picture book by Sarah Sassoon, on Tuesday, February 18, at 3 pm. The book is an award winning children’s picture book about Middle Eastern Jewish refugees and resilience, which tells the story of Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, when more than 120,000 Iraqi Jews were airlifted to Israel. For more information or to register, click here.

The Jewish Book Council will hold the virtual program “Unpacking the Book: You Don’t Own Me: Queer Discovery Within the Jewish Community” on Thursday, February 20, from 7-8 pm. Sara Glass (“Kissing Girls on Shabbat”) and Eli Zuzovsky (“Mazeltov”) will be on conversation about their books with writer and podcast host, Stephanie Butnick. For more information or to register, click here.

Melton will hold the virtual lecture “Mystery and History: Washington’s Letter to the Jews” on Wednesday, February 19, at 1-2 pm. There is a sliding scale cost to attend. Rabbi Charles Savenor will talk about “the historical context, the powerful language, and the enduring legacy of Washington’s words.” For more information or to register, click here.

ALEPH will hold the virtual class “Another Way to Be: Cultivating Self-Compassion” led by Alison Cohen on Tuesdays, March 4-25, from 7-8:15 pm (followed by an optional 15-minute small group if there are additional questions and comments). The cost to attend is $90. For more information or to register, click here.

The Jewish Grandparents Network will hold several virtual events: “The Art of Becoming: Finding Creativity, Meaning, and Identity as Grandparents” on Wednesday, February 26, from 7-8:30 pm (available here); “Grandparents and Jewish Early Childhood Programs: Partners in Building Jewish Family Life” on Wednesday, March 5, from 4-5:15 pm (available here); and “Navigating Your Relationship with Your Adult Children (the Parents of Your Grandchildren)” on Tuesday, March 18, from 7-8 pm (available here).

The Qesher Book Club will hold a virtual discussion of Julie Zuckerman’s “The Book of Jeremiah,” a novel-in-stories, on Tuesday, March 25, at 4 pm. The novel takes place over eight decades and focuses on one family’s American Jewish experience in the 20th century. For more information or to register, click here

Uri L’Tzedek will hold the virtual program “Renewing the Old, Sanctifying the New” with Dr. Marc Shapiro, on Wednesday, February 19, at 4 pm. The cost to attend is $18. Shapiro will discuss his new book on Rav Kook. For more information or to register, click here

Melton will hold the virtual lecture “Seeing Through Jewish Eyes: Responses to Christian Art” on Monday, February 24, from 7-8 pm. The cost to attend is a sliding scale. The lecture will look at how medieval and early modern European Jews who lived in communities surrounded by Christian imagery perceive and respond to these symbols of Christian sanctity. For more information or to register, click here.

18 Doors will hold the virtual four-part program “Couples and Conversation: Antisemitism Edition (National) “ on Thursdays, March 20-April 10, from 7-8:30 pm for interfaith couples. The cost to attend is $54. The program will discuss what “antisemitism is, how to care for each other, for yourself, your extended family and your community, and how to stand up to anti-Jewish hate.” For more information or to register, click here.

The Stanley D. Ginsburg USC Shoah Foundation Lecture Series will hold the virtual lecture “Jewish Languages Today: Endangered, Surviving, and Thriving” on Friday, February 21, at 3:30 pm. Professor Sarah Bunin Benor will discuss various Jewish languages and make a case for the need for documentation and reclamation. For more information or to register, click here.

ALEPH will hold the virtual class “Seasons of the Soul: A Beginner’s Guide to Jewish Holidays,” led by Rabbi Sandra Lawson, on Tuesdays, March 11-April 1, from 7-8:15 pm. The cost to attend is $54. The class will “explore the rhythms of the Jewish calendar, dive into the traditions and stories of each holiday.” For more information or to register, click here.

The Yiddish Book Center will hold the virtual “Litvaks in Love,” a conversation with Prof. David G. Roskies, on Thursday, February 20, at 7 pm. Roskies will speak about his memoir, “Yiddishlands,” in which “a son acts as his mother’s medium as they conjure up Vilna, the Jerusalem of Lithuania. Armed with his mother’s stories and Yiddish songs, [he] sets out to discover traces of Vilna throughout the Diaspora, from New York to Krakow, Moscow to Jerusalem.” For more information or to register, click here.

Roundtable will hold the virtual course “The History of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire” on Wednesdays, March 5-19, from 1-2 pm. The cost to attend is $132. Mary Anne Trasciatti, labor studies professor and president of the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition, will discuss the “historic tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, its impact on the immigrant workers who lived and worked in the area, and the recent efforts to memorialize the event with.” For more information or to register, click here.

The Library of the Hebrew Union College will hold several hybrid/virtual events: “Royal Women at Ugarit: Reconceiving the House of the Father” on Thursday, February 20, at 12:30 pm; “Behind the Laughter: How the Purim Shpiel Came to America” on Tuesday, March 11, at 12:30 pm; and “The Moral Dilemma Created by a Religious Canon: Reflections on How to Read, How to Teach, How to Live” on Tuesday, April 29, at 12:30 pm. For more information or to register, click here.

The Jewish Publication Society and Wisdom Without Wall will present several programs: “A Spiritual Response to Crisis: Inviting God into the Conversation” with Yiscah Smith, on Wednesday, March 2, from 3-4:30 pm; “Jewish Ethics In Complicated Times” with Rabbi Elliot Dorff, on Wednesday, March 19, from 7-8:30 pm; “Exile and Empathy” with Nancy Berg, on Wednesday, April 2, from 7-8:30 pm; and “Who Are the Jews – And Who Can We Become? Reflections on a Post-October 7th World” with Donniel Hartman on Sunday, April 27, from 2-3:30 pm. There is a cost of either $18 or $25 to attend the programs. For more information or to register, click here.

My Jewish Learning will offer the virtual course “Judaism 101: An Intro to Jewish Life and Practice” on Wednesdays, February 19-March 26, at noon. The cost to attend is $72. For more information or to register, click here.

For additional resources, see our Current IssuesArchived Issues, or Jewish Online Resources pages.