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 Museum of Jewish Heritage will hold the New York Jewish Book Festival on Sunday, December 11. Some of the programs will be available virtually, including “A Banker’s Journey: How Edmond J. Safra Built a Global Financial Empire” from 10-11 am; “Approaches to Portraiture of Holocaust Survivors and Global Conflicts with Martin Schoeller, B.A. Van Sise, and Jonathan Alpeyrie” from 11:30 am-12:30 pm; “Women Holding Things with Maira Kalman” from 1-2 pm; “Writing a Life in Film: A Conversation with A.O. Scott, Mark Harris, and Annette Insdorf” from 2:30-3:30 pm; “Our Country Friends” with Gary Shteyngart and Alex Halberstadt from 4-5 pm; “Happy Hour with Sloane Crosley, Isabel Kaplan, and Stephanie Butnick” from 5:30-6:30 pm; and “Koshersoul: Cooking and Storytelling with Michael Twitty and Jane Ziegelman” from 7-8:30 pm. For more information or to register, click here.
The Blue Dove Foundation has published new articles to help parents help their children with mental health issues: “Five Ways to Foster a Young Person’s Mental Health” (available here); “How Parents and Caregivers Can Support Their Kids’ Mental Wellness” (available here); and “What Are the Most Common Mental Illnesses in Children?” (available here).
Qesher will hold several virtual programs, including “The Bene-Israel of India: an ancient living community” on Thursday, December 8, at 3 pm; “Shtetl: A Jewish Universe” on Sunday, December 11, at 3 pm; “Shtetl: A Virtual Tour of the Once Jewish Towns of Eastern Europe” on Thursday, December 15, at 3 pm; “Salonica and Sarajevo: Balkan Sephardi Metropolises” on Sunday, December 22, at 3 pm; “Kavkazi “Mountain Jews”: Ancient Hebrew and Persian roots at the border of Azerbaijan and Russia” on Thursday, December 29, at 3 pm; and “Jewish city tour of Riga, the hidden gem of the Baltic” on Thursday, January 5, at 3 pm. Click here to see their upcoming events.
The Center for Jewish History will hold the hybrid program “Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War: Discoveries from the Shapell Roster” on Monday, December 12, at 7 pm. Professor Adam D. Mendelsohn, author of “Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War: The Union Army,” will give a talk in conversation with Professor Deborah Dash Moore (University of Michigan), current Editor-in-Chief of the Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, and author of “GI Jews: How World War II Changed a Generation.” For more information or to register, click here.
The Center for Jewish History will hold the book talk “Arthur Miller: American Witness” with author John Lahr and MacArthur Prize-winning playwright Sarah Ruhl on Monday, December 19, at 4 pm. For more information or to register, click here.
The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research will hold the lecture “A Very Jewish Christmas: Jesus and Shabbtai Zvi, from Heretic to Hero” on Thursday, December 22, at 7 pm. Professor David Biale will discuss the transformation of Jewish thought about Jesus and Shabbtai Zvi during the 19th and early 20th century. For more information or to register, click here.
Diller Tikkun Olam Awards are “seeking teen leaders who show significant initiative and leadership in creating and leading a new initiative – or have considerably deepened or expanded an existing project – that embodies the values of tikkun olam, repairing the world.” Nominations are due December 22 and applications are due January 5. For information about nominating someone or applying, visit click here.
The American Psychiatric Association offers a “Stress & Trauma Toolkit for Treating Jewish Americans in a Changing Political and Social Environment,” which can be found here.
Ritualwell will hold “This Little Light of Mine: 8 Mindful Rituals for Hanukkah” on Tuesday, December 13, from noon-1:30 pm. Dr. Mira Neshama Weil will reflect on the meaning of the festival, meditating and teach rituals for the menorah lighting for each night. For more information or to register, click here.
The Museum at Eldridge Street will hold several virtual programs in December: “Divine New York Book Talk: In Conversation with the Photographer and Author Michael Horowitz and Elizabeth Anne Hartman” on Thursday, December 8, from 6-7:30 pm (available here); “The Chanukah Miracle: What are we Celebrating?” on Tuesday, December 13, at 7:30 pm (available here); “Art History through a Jewish Lens: See Chanukah in a New Light!” on Wednesday, December 14, from 7-8:30 pm (available here); and “Cinema Chats with Lee Grant: ‘In the Heat of the Night’” on Wednesday, December 28, at 6 pm (available here).
The American Jewish Committee is offering “The Forgotten Exodus,” a new limited podcast series about the 800,000 Jews who left or were driven from their homes in Arab nations and Iran in the mid-20th century to forge new lives for themselves and future generations. Episodes are available here.
Ritualwell will hold the virtual program “Healing Through Writing: For Cancer Survivors and Those Facing Illness” on Monday, December 19, from noon-1:30 pm. It will “focus on writing and ritual as a means of healing, which has been studied as an effective way to heal from both physical and emotional trauma.” For more information or to register, click here.
The Tikvah Fund is looking for college students and recent graduates for its Beren Summer Fellowship. For more information, click here.
The Institute for Jewish Spirituality and Or Halev will hold a virtual 10-month program, “Yesod: Foundations for Deepening Jewish Mindfulness Meditation,” beginning in January. It will offer anyone with an established meditation practice a new, systematic, stage-by-stage approach to deepen your mindfulness meditation skills within an authentic Jewish spiritual framework.” For more information, click here.
Judaism Your Way will hold the class “Jewish Cooking with Bubbe (Grandma),” featuring Hanukkah recipes, on Sunday, December 11, from 12-1 pm. For more information or to register, click here.
The Shalom Hartman Institute is offering the podcast series “Heretic in the House.” Naomi Seidman will discuss Hasidic Jews with believers and heretics to uncover their hidden stories. For more information, click here.
The Forward will hold “Yiddish Tonight! with Rukhl Schaechter” on Thursday, December 15, at 2 pm. Forward’s Yiddish editor Rukhl Schaechter for an informal conversation with comedian Rabbi Barry Schechter. The talk will be recorded and sent to registrants. For more information or to register, click here.
The Museum of Jewish Heritage will hold the virtual program “Arise, My Friend, My Beautiful One, and Go Forth! – Hanukkah Edition” on Tuesday, December 13, from 7:30-8:30 pm. The Braid, a troupe that transforms stories from the page to the stage, will portray contemporary stories that focus the Hanukkah’s themes of empowerment and triumph. For more information or to register, click here.
Maven will hold the virtual program “Mayim Bialik: Being Jewish in Hollywood” on Tuesday, December 6, from 3-3:45 pm. Bialik will be in conversation with AJU’s Chief Innovation Officer Rabbi Sherre Hirsch to explore her Jewish journey, her newest projects and her response to the most recent streams of antisemitism in the media. For more information or to register, click here.
18 Doors will hold two virtual programs about the December holidays: “To Tree or Not To Tree: Navigating the December Holidays” on Wednesday, December 7, from 8-9 pm (click here); and “What To Do in December – A Live Q&A for Parents Balancing Hanukkah and Christmas” on Thursday, December 8, from 8-9 pm (click here). There is no charge to attend, but registration is required.
The Blue Dove Foundation, which addresses mental illness and addiction in the Jewish community and beyond, offers resources for the holiday of Hanukkah here.
HUC Connect will hold three webinars: “The Land as Woman: Esther Raab and the Afterlife of a Metaphorical System”’ on Monday, December 5, at 5 pm; “Street Visions: Europe, 1934 – Photographs by Richard J. Scheuer” on Wednesday, December 7, at 2 pm; and “Zionism in Seminary Education” on Thursday, December 15, at 4:30 pm. One may attend one or all of the seminars. For more information or to register, click here.
The Museum of Jewish Heritage will hold the virtual program “Kosher Nostra: The Life and Times of Jewish Gangsters in the United States” on Tuesday, December 6, from 1-2 pm. Robert Rockaway, author of “But He Was Good to His Mother: The Lives and Crimes of Jewish Gangsters,” and Joe Kraus, author of “The Kosher Capones: A History of Chicago’s Jewish Gangsters,” will speak. For more information or to register, click here.
For additional resources, see previous issues of The Reporter or our other Jewish Online Resources here.