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.
Melton will hold the virtual program “Israel Revealed: September 2023” on Tuesday, September 19, from 1-2 pm. The cost to attend is $18. Avi Ben-Hur will offer “a breakdown of the latest and greatest developments and little-known nuggets from the Promised Land.” This is the first in a series of monthly programs about Israel. For more information or to register, click here.
An “All-of-a-Kind-Family” virtual tour of the Lower East Side will take place on Thursday, September 14, at 6 pm. The tour will look at the streets mentioned to show the real-life people and Lower East Side places that inspired the author Sydney Taylor to write “All-of-a-Kind Family.” The cost of the tour is “pay what you want.” For more information or to register, click here.
Ritualwell will hold “Honoring Heirloom through Words: Writing to Discover and Declutter” on Wednesdays, October 18 and 25, and November 1 and 8, from noon-1:30 pm. The cost to attend is $180. Decluttering coach Gari Julius Weilbacher will provide decluttering strategies using the wisdom of the Jewish calendar and the energy of the new year. Writer Ellen Blum Barish will show how to deepen an understanding of “object relationships” through the power of writing a memoir. For more information or to register, click here.
The Museum of Jewish Heritage will hold several hybrid events: “Sephardic Stories with Elizabeth Graver, Michael Frank, Maira Kalman, and Shoshana Bean” on Thursday, September 14, from 7-9 pm, a $10 donation is requested (available here); “In the Garden of the Righteous” with Richard Hurowitz and Margaret Hoover on Thursday, September 21, from 7-8:30 pm (available here); “Hamlet’s Children” with Richard Kluger and Julianna Margulies on Thursday, October 5, from 7-8:30 pm, a $10 donation is requested (available here); and Shakespeare’s Globe Presents: “The Merchant of Venice” on Thursday, October 12, from 7-10 pm, a $10 donation is requested (available here).
Uri L’Tzedek will hold the virtual class “’The Measure of Sedom’: Capitalism, Socialism, and Barbarism” with Rabbi Will Friedman on Wednesday, October 25, at 3 pm. The cost to attend is $18. The class will use rabbinic text to look at the idea of private property. For more information or to register, click here.
Melton will hold the virtual course “Evolving Tradition: Deepening Our Understanding of Reconstructionist Judaism” on Tuesdays, October 10-24, from 1-2:30 pm. There is a sliding scale cost to attend. Students will learn about the ideas and new ways of understanding Judaism of Mordecai Kaplan and how they impact other Jewish movements. There will also be a discussion of Reconstructionist ideas of theology and faith. For more information or to register, click here.
The American Jewish Historical Society will hold the hybrid program “Fighting Fascism: A Symposium on Jewish Responses From the Interwar Period to the Present Day” on Friday, October 15, from 10 am-5 pm. The cost to attend is $36. Panels include “This is the Way the World Ends: What is Fascism?”; “The Empty Stomach of Germany: Fighting Fascism in Europe”; “Star Spangled Fascists: Fighting Fascism in the U.S.”; “The Language of the Good: Fighting Fascism in Culture”; and “In the Name of Humanity: Fighting Fascism in the Postwar World.” For more information or to register, click here.
Melton will hold the virtual class “Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z’l: A Spiritual Biography” on Wednesdays, October 11-November 1, from 1-2:30 pm. There is a sliding scale cost to attend. Rabbi Johnny Solomon will share a range of teachings of the late rabbi on themes relating to identity, self-esteem, failure and joy. For more information or to register, click here.
Ritualwell will hold the virtual class “Shabbat Shalom: Finding Peace Within” on Fridays, October 20 and 27, and November 3 and 10, from noon-1:30 pm. The cost to attend is $180. Participants will “read poetry and texts, listen to music and look at art focused on Shabbat, rest and tranquility. [They] will engage in writing prompts and exercises to explore [their] emotions and energy around these themes.” For more information or to register, click here.
The American Jewish University will hold the three-part course “Jewish Composers of ‘New Hollywood’ and Their Epic Soundtracks” on Wednesdays, October 11-25, from 3-4 pm. The course will look at the world of the Jewish composers who crafted “the greatest film scores and toe-tapping tunes that have stood the test of time.” For more information or to register, click here.
Hadassah will hold the virtual program “One Book, One Hadassah: ‘How to Love Your Daughter’” on Thursday, October 19, at 7 pm. Hadassah Magazine Executive Editor Lisa Hostein will interview Israeli author Hila Blum about her newly translated book, “How to Love Your Daughter.” For more information or to register, click here.
The Yiddish Book Center will hold the virtual course “Between Heaven and Earth: Yiddish Women’s Folklore, Rituals, & Magic” on Wednesdays, October 11, 18 and 25, and November 1, from 7-8:30 pm. The cost is $75 for Yiddish Book Center members and $100 for nonmembers. The course will “explore the ways that Yiddish-speaking women created rituals and customs such as making soul candles (neshome likht) and birthing amulets (kimpet brivlekh), becoming healers and curse removers (opshprekherins) and performing personal prayer practices (tkhines).” For more information or to register, click here.
The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute will hold a variety of hybrid and online events: “ The Power of Art: Preserving Memory, Teaching the Holocaust” on Tuesday, September 12, at 7 pm; Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series featuring Jennifer Rosner, author of “Once We Were Home” on Wednesday, September 13, at 7 pm; “Torn Fabric: Loss, Gender and the Holocaust” on Wednesday, October 11, at 7 pm; Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series: “Jewish Girls and Women in Forced Labor in the Holocaust” featuring Janine Holc and Joanna Michlic on Wednesday, October 18, at 12:30 pm; and Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series featuring Lea Taragin-Zeller, author of “The State of Desire: Religion and Reproductive Politics in the Promised Land,” on Tuesday, November 28, at 11 am. For more information or to register, click here.
The Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy will hold “A Virtual Tour of Jewish Krakow – Part 1: The Golden Age” on Tuesday, September 19, from 7-8:30 pm. The cost to attend is $10. The tour will focus on Krakow’s old Jewish quarter Kazimierz. For more information or to register, click here.
HUC-JIR Jewish Language Project will hold the virtual lecture “Jewish Holiday Names” with Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, on Wednesday, September 13, from 3-4 pm. Klein will discuss “the history and cultural significance behind these names, including Haggai, Pesach, Chanukah and Sivan.” For more information or to register, click here.
The American Jewish University will hold the virtual class “The Collaborators: Deception and Survival in WWII” on Thursday, October 12, from 3-3:45 pm. Author Ian Buruma will speak about his book “The Collaborators,” which “unravels the lives of a Dutch fixer, a Manchu princess, and Himmler’s masseur,” and explores “their roles as potential con artists, collaborators, or even heroes during the Japanese and German occupations.” For more information or to register, click here.
For additional resources, see previous issues of The Reporter or our other Jewish Online Resources here.