Registration is still open for “Outsmarting Antisemitism,” a four-part course that speaks about “the absurdity of antisemitism and now to beat it with purpose, positivity and pride.” The four-week course will begin on Monday, November 1. The 7 pm section of the class will be offered in person at the Chabad Center and via Zoom. The 8:45 pm section will be offered via Zoom. Sign-in information will be provided upon enrollment. To sign up, e-mail rshea@ChabadofBinghamton.com or call Chabad at 797-0015 and indicate if coming in person or attending via Zoom. Zoom participants who live locally can pick up the book in person or ask to have it mailed to their home. The course registration fee, which includes the book, is $79 per person and $150 for couples.
“Using history, talmudic sources, Jewish mysticism and contemporary expert analysis, the course addresses some of the questions we grapple with as individuals and as a community,” said organizers of the course. “Why does antisemitism persist? How can we make hate go away? How can we counter Israel-focused antisemitism and prevent our own youth from unwittingly lending their voices to antisemitic agendas?”
“We will not allow antisemitism to define us, nor can we ignore it, however,” says Rivkah Slonim, who is teaching the course. “This course will offer thoughtful responses to this eternal problem and offer tools for not internalizing the hatred, but rather, moving forward unapologetically, with positivity and pride.”
“Outsmarting Antisemitism could scarcely appear at a better moment,” asserted American Jewish historian Jonathan Sarna, Ph.D. “As hatred of Jews resurges across the world, Jews everywhere wrestle with the question of what causes it and how best to respond. This course supplies time-tested answers.”
It is designed to appeal to people at all levels of knowledge, including those without any prior experience or background in Jewish learning. All JLI courses are open to the public, and attendees need not be affiliated with a particular synagogue, temple or other house of worship.