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 Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin will hold a hybrid event “Identity Between Worlds: Hungarian-Jewish Cultural Achievement” on Thursday, April 28, from 7-8:30 pm. Kati Marton and András Koerner will discuss the role of national identity in the lives of Hungarian Jews. The program will be streamed on Zoom and on the Institute’s Facebook and YouTube pages. For more information, visit their event page.
The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research will hold the virtual program “‘What Does Your Dream Tell You?’: B. Rivkin and Yiddish Occultism in America” on Monday, May 2, at 1 pm. Sam Glauber-Zimra will discuss a little known part of Rivkin’s literary career. For more information or to register, visit here.
The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research will hold the hydrid program “Am Yisrael High: The Story of Jews and Cannabis” on Thursday, May 5, at 7 pm. Eddy Portnoy will moderate a discussion with Ed Rosenthal, Adriana Kertzer, Rabbi/Dr. Yosef Glassman, and Madison Margolin. Registration for Zoom is required and may be made here.
The Center for Jewish History will hold the virtual program “A ‘Feminist’ Department Store in Imperial Berlin? Kaufhaus N. Israel” on Monday, May 9, at noon. Dr. Sophie Bookhalter will examine the place in Imperial Germany of a Jewish-owned department store and fashion house. For more information or to register, visit this page.
The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research will hold the hydrid concert “Continuing Evolution: Yiddish Folksong Today” on Monday, May 9, at 7 pm. The concert will feature music by Sergei Prokofiev, Maurice Ravel, Joel Engel, Alexander Veprik, Aaron Copland and more. Registration is necessary for Zoom. For more information or to register, visit their events calendar.
The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research will hold the virtual event “Israel’s Moment: International Support for and Opposition to Establishing the Jewish State, 1945-1949” on Wednesday, May 11, at 1 pm. Jeffrey Herf will discuss his book of the same name. For more information or to register, visit this link.
Elmad presents the podcast “Halakha of the Harvest: Identifying the Fruit of the Forbidden Tree” featuring the maggid of Melbourne, Levi Cooper. For more information or to subscribe, visit the podcast episode.
ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal will hold the virtual class “Torah at the Intersection” on Tuesdays, May 10, 17, 24 and 31, at 7:30-9 pm. The cost to attend is $72. The class will “explore the weekly reading, or parasha, of the Torah, connecting its wisdom to traditional and new Jewish midrash, Nonviolent Communication, Buddhism and other major streams of learning that can deeply inform our lives today.” For more information or to register, click here.
The Jewish Museum will hold the virtual program “Virtual Unpacking the Book: Jewish Writers in Conversation with Claire Stanford and Gary Shteyngart, ‘Happiness in the Time of Technology’” on Thursday, May 12, from 7-8 pm. They will discuss “what happiness means in today’s fragmented world, and what technological advancements mean for the future of happiness.” For more information or to register, see their calendar.
The Light of Infinite Festival will take place on Tuesday, May 31. The festival is sponsored by the podcast Light of Infinite where Erez Safar offers insights into the weekly Torah portion and Kabbalah. The festival will include live talks and musical performances. For a list of those performing/speaking or to register, visit their rsvp page.
The UnYeshiva from Judaism Unbound will offer rounds of mini-courses this spring. The April 25-May 15 classes include “Encountering the World: The How and Why of Jewish Practice,” “Ebb and Flow: The Psychedelic History and Future of Judaism” and “Queer and Present Prophecy: A Playful and Provocative Exploration of Isaiah.” The May 16-June 5 include “Whose Canon Is It, Anyway? An Exploration of Jewish Storytelling,” “Traditionally Unbound: A Crash Course in Karaite Judaism” and “Gender, Identity, and Jewish Mysticism: Finding Your Place, Whoever You Are.” For specific information about each class or to register, visit their online classes page.
Jewish Women Archives will hold three “Quarantine(ish) Book Talks” in May: Thursday, May 5, at 8 pm, Riva Lehrer, author of “Golem Girl: A Memoir”; Thursday, May 12, at 8 pm, Julie Klam, author of “The Almost Legendary Morris Sisters”; and Thursday, May 19, at 8 pm, Cindy Rizzo, author of “The Papercutter” (The Split, #1). For more information, see here.
The Institute for Jewish Spirituality will hold the virtual program featuring IJS Executive Director Rabbi Josh Feigelson in conversation with Joy Ladin, Ph.D., and Rabbi Dr. Erin Leib Smokler on Tuesday, May 3, from 8-9 pm. Preregistration is required. Register here.
Jewish Book Week announced the first videos of its in-hall events from the 2022 festival are now available. Speakers include Howard Jacobson, Elif Shafak, Steven Isserlis, Claudia Roden, Mike Leigh and Philippe Sands, among others. Videos from this season and past seasons can be found here.
The Biblical Archaeology Society will present the virtual lecture “New Views on the Philistines: What Archaeology Reveals about Goliath and His Peers” on Sunday, June 19, from 3-4 pm. The speaker will be Aren M. Maeir, who is a professor of archaeology and the head of the Institute of Archaeology at the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel. For more information or to register, click here.
The Jewish Book Council will hold “Virtual Unpacking the Book: Gary Shteyngart and Claire Stanford: Happiness in the Time of Technology” on Thursday, May 12, from 7-8 pm. Gary Shteyngart and Claire Stanford will discuss “what happiness is in today’s fragmented world, and what the future of happiness will be as technology advances.” For more information or to register, visit this page.
Ritualwell will hold “The Throne of God: Prostration as a Jewish Practice” on Mondays, May 2-23, at 1:30 pm. The class will discuss the “embodied Jewish prayer practice of prostrations.” Classes will be recorded, but live participation is encouraged. The cost to attend the four sessions is $144. For more information or to register, follow this link.
The latest issue of JewishFiction.Net is available free online and can be accessed by visiting this link.
The Museum of Jewish Heritage will hold the virtual program “Introduction to Sephardic History in Salonica” on Wednesdays, May 4-25, from 6-7:15 pm. There is a $144 fee for the classes, which may not be taken separately. The course will look at the history of Sephardic Jewry, Ladino culture and the Jewish heartland of southeastern Europe and Anatolia through the story of one family from Salonica (current-day Thessaloniki, Greece). For more information or to register, visit click here.
18Doors will hold the virtual program “Couples and Conversation” on Tuesdays, May 3, 10, 17 and 24, at 7:30 pm. The workshop is $54/couple and registration is required. The online workshop is intended for “seriously dating, engaged and newly married Jewish/interfaith couples.” For more information or to register, visit here.
For additional resources, see previous issues of The Reporter or our other Jewish Online Resources here.