By The 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.
ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal will hold “8 Forms of Love in the Tree of Life” on Sundays, September 4, 11, 18 and 25, at 7 pm. The cost to attend is $54. Elly Malka Faden will teach about the “8 Steps of Love in the Tree of Life” through Reb Zalman’s “4 Worlds and the Sephirot” to discover new forms of love and thoughts. To register, click here.
ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal will hold “Lesbian Jews in Post-Victorian Boston” on Thursday, September 8, at 7:30 pm. The cost to attend is $18. Ellen Levy, who has written four books of historical fiction, will discuss Boston from 1910 to 1920, and how young lesbians found each other during a time before the internet, gay bars, or even books about queer women. To register, click here.
The Jewish Theological Seminary will offer a year of online learning for Jewish teens across North America. Five courses of six-eight sessions each will be offered with topics including “What to Wear? Jews, Clothing, and Identity”; “Sodom: The Evil Society”; “A Just Death? Capital Punishment in Jewish Law”; “Jewish Migrations”; and “Gender and the Garden of Eden.” All courses will meet on Wednesday evenings from 7:30-8:45 pm. The cost will be $215 per course. For more information about specific courses or to register, click here.
The Yiddish Book Center will hold the virtual program “”The House of Memory: Jewish Stories from Jewish Women of Latin America,” with Marjorie Agosin, on Thursday, September 15, at 7 pm. “The House of Memory” was the first anthology of Latin American Jewish women’s writing to be published in the United States. Agosin, editor of the anthology, will be joined by Yiddish-speaking writers Andrea Jeftanovic and Perla Sneh, whose work was included in the collection. For more information or to register, click here.
Jewels of Elul offers a daily e-mail during the month of Elul (which begins this year on August 28). The e-mails will offer “a collection of short introspections from both well-known and under-the-radar people.” This year’s theme is “on their shoulders” and seeks to inspire readers to think about the mentors who helped shape their lives. For more information or to sign up for the e-mails, click here.
Keeping It Sacred will hold the virtual “Elul Book Club with Rabbi Heather Miller,” which will discuss Miller’s book “Resolutions: A Practical Guide for Self-Repair” on Fridays, September 2, 9, 16 and 23, from 1-2 pm, as preparation for the High Holidays. For more information or to register, click here.
The Museum of Jewish Heritage will hold the “Modern Jewish Sounds Concert: Kami Maltz and Friends” on Thursday August 18, from 7-8 pm, in-person and online. Maltz’ music has been called “a sensuous combination of folk and indie elements, with an added touch of cotton-candy, pop embellishments.” For more information or to register, click here.
The Museum of Jewish Heritage will hold a “Wartime North Africa” book talk on Thursday, September 1, from 6-7 pm. Sarah Abrevaya Stein, who is the author of “Wartime in North Africa: A Documentary History, 1934-1950” and “Family Papers: A Sephardic Journey Through the Twentieth Century,” will discuss her latest book, which discusses those who experienced fascist rule in Vichy-controlled Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia; Nazi-controlled Tunisia; and Italian-fascist Libya. For more information or to register, click here.
Hadassah-Brandeis Institute will hold the virtual program “Seven Species, Three Generations: Adele Bacow in Conversation with the Seven Schön Family Artists” on Thursday, September 8, at 7 pm. The Schön family artists will share stories about their art, how they became a family of intergenerational artists, and their feminist interpretations of the seven species: olives, dates, figs, wheat, barley, grapes and pomegranates. To register for the program, click here.
Reform Judaism will hold the virtual class “Pursuing Justice” on Tuesdays, October 18 and 25, from 8-9:30 pm. The class will look at foundational Jewish teachings about a systemic approach to justice, including the obligation to provide for society’s most vulnerable and to set up a fair legal system. People can join one or both sessions. For more information, click here.
A Way In will hold the virtual class “Turn and Return: A Journey through Elul to the Shores of the New Year” on Wednesdays, September 7, 14, 21 and 28, at 7 pm. The class is explore the spiritual practice of teshuvah (return). For more information or to register, click here.
ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal will hold the virtual class “The Heart Knows its Own Bitterness” on Mondays, September 5, 12 and 19, at 7:30 pm. The class will explore how the wisdom of the rabbis informs our end-of-life decisions. For more information or to register, visit click here.
ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal will hold the virtual class “A Time for Turning and Returning – Preparing for the High Holy Days” on Tuesdays, September 6, 13 and 20, at 8 pm. The class will explore the themes of the High Holy Days. For more information or to register, click here.
18 Doors will hold the virtual program “Our Year of Firsts” on Sundays, September 11, October 2, November 6, December 4, January 8, February 5, March 5, April 2, May 7, and June 4, from 7-8:30 pm. The cost to attend is $180. The program is open to all engaged or newly married couples who are interfaith (intercultural, dual faith, Jew-ish, etc.). It offers the opportunity to explore the deeper meaning behind Jewish holidays, create new traditions together and meet other interfaith couples. For more information or to register, click here.
The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute will hold a program of the Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series featuring Rachel Barenbaum, author of “Atomic Anna,” on Wednesday, September 14, at 7 pm. To register for the virtual version of the program, click here.
The Museum of Jewish Heritage will hold the virtual program “From WWII to the Space Race: The Story of Project Paperclip” on Tuesday August 30, from 2-3 pm. Dr. Michael Neufeld, senior curator at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and author of “Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War,” and Eric Lichtblau, author of “The Nazis Next Door: How America Became a Safe Haven for Hitler’s Men,” will discuss how, after World War II, the United States government brought more than 1,500 German scientists and engineers into the country through Project Paperclip so they could work on guided missiles, jet and rocket engines, aerodynamics, aerospace medicine and submarine technology. For more information or to register, click here.
The Jewish Book Council will hold the virtual talk “Koshersoul: A Conversation with Michael Twitty and Adeena Sussman” on Thursday, September 15, from 12:30-1:30 pm. They will hold a conversation about identity, food, culture and intersectionality. For more information or to register, click here.
Maven will hold the virtual program “One Hundred Saturdays: A Testament to Remembrance and Friendship” on Tuesday, September 6, from 3-3:345 pm. Michael Frank will talk about his book “One Hundred Saturdays,” which was the recipient of the Jewish Book Council’s Natan Notable Book Award, and tells the story of 99-year-old Stella Levi. Levi talked to Frank about Jewish Rhodes, where she once lived, and the deportation to Auschwitz that extinguished 90 percent of the community. For more information or to register, click here.
The Chicago YIVO will hold the virtual program “You Have 60 Seconds: Yiddish Education and Advocacy on TikTok” on Sunday, August 21, from 3-4 pm. Cameron Bernstein will discuss her experience becoming a Yiddish content creator in the 21st century, engaging and communicating with a diverse global audience of Yiddish language learners or enthusiasts, and the current state of Yiddish social media. For more information or to register, click here.
The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research will hold the virtual program “Orthodox, Female, Poet: the Litvish Life of Hadasah Hirshovitz Levin, 1912-1946” on Thursday, September 1, at 1 pm. Tzipora Weinberg will examine Levin’s written legacy and discuss the experiences of traditionalist women in greater Jewish Lithuania. For more information or to register, click here.
Jewish Together and the Florence Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning will hold the virtual program “Judaica Roadshow: Your Jewish Library” on Thursday, September 1, from 7-8 pm. Dr. Joellyn Zollman, Ph.D. will use an “Antiques Roadshow”-style approach to explore how Jewish books and literature are used as resources for understanding American Jewish history, identity and personal tastes. For more information or to register, visit click here.
For additional resources, see previous issues of The Reporter or our other Jewish Online Resources here.