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鈥淚t is not up to you to finish the work鈥� (Pirkei Avot 2:21): On Striving for the Unattainable
Dec 13, 2021 By Alan Cooper | Public Event video | Video Lecture
Some of the most dramatic moments in the Tanakh describe the completion of work鈥攖he creation of the world (Genesis); the fabrication of the Tabernacle (Exodus); and the construction of the Temple (Chronicles). In contrast, at the end of chapter 2 ofPirkeiAvot, RabbiTarfonadmonishes us that while we are under pressure with much work, a tight deadline, a penchant for laziness, and a demanding boss, nevertheless 鈥渋t is not up to [us] tofinishthe work.鈥�
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When Matzoh Bakers and Tallis Weavers Went on Strike: The Jewish Workers鈥� Movement in Eastern Europe
Dec 6, 2021 By David Fishman | Public Event video | Video Lecture
The grandparents or great grandparents of most American Jews were poor wage-earning workers from Eastern Europe. This session will explore the world of Jewish workers in Tsarist Russia, in particular the Jewish labor movement that arose at the end of the 19thcentury. The movement organized strikes, underground trade unions, classes, and cultural activity for workers in Yiddish, and a Jewish socialist party known as the 鈥淏und.鈥� Its ideas and practices migrated to the United States and left a powerful imprint on American Jewish life.
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Maimonides at Work: A Rabbi鈥檚 Workday in Medieval Egypt
Nov 29, 2021 By Tamar Marvin | Public Event video | Video Lecture
Toward the end of his life, Maimonides received a request from his translator and admirer in France: to come and visit the great rabbi and discuss with him the important matter of translating his most sensitive work,The Guide of the Perplexed. In response, Maimonides waves off Samuel IbnTibbon, the translator, recounting how busy he is.The correspondence between Maimonides and his translatoris rich in detail, providing insight into Maimonides鈥檒ife.
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How to Make Work Meaningful for Us: Exploring the Value of Work in Biblical and Rabbinic Sources
Nov 22, 2021 By Eliezer B. Diamond z”l | Public Event video | Video Lecture
Work can be uplifting; it can also be draining and demoralizing. This depends not only on what we do but on how we do it.We鈥檒l look at Jewish sources that offer us different ways of thinking about work and some wisdom about how to make the work we do work for us.
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If There Is No Bread, There Is No Torah: The Other Careers of the Talmudic Rabbis
Nov 15, 2021 By Rachel Rosenthal | Public Event video | Video Lecture
We often think of the rabbis in the Talmud as having careers as full-time rabbis. However, numerous narrative traditions tell us about their other jobs and their financial struggles. If one cannot make a living learning Torah, how should we balance Torah with more mundane concerns? We鈥檒l study some of these stories together and look at some models for lives that are enriched both by Torah and by work.
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Abraham Joshua Heschel: A Life of Radical Amazement
Nov 10, 2021 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video
Author and historian Julian E. Zelizer when he talks about his book, Abraham Joshua Heschel: A Life of Radical Amazement, which chronicles the life of Heschel as a symbol of the fight to make progressive Jewish values relevant in the secular world.
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A Nice, Jewish Teacher: How American Elementary Education Became 鈥淲omen鈥檚 Work鈥�
Nov 1, 2021 By Shira D. Epstein | Public Event video | Video Lecture
Early 20thcentury elementary school teaching became synonymous with being female, and particularly in NYC, with being the right kind of Jewish young woman.
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We Refuse to Be Enemies
Oct 26, 2021 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video
Authors Sabeeha Rehman and Walter Ruby talk about their book, We Refuse to Be Enemies, a manifesto that offers experience and guidance on the rise of intolerance, bigotry, and white nationalism in the United States.
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The Jewish Middle Class in an Age of Social Justice
Oct 25, 2021 By Nancy Sinkoff | Public Event video | Video Lecture
his session will explore the historian Lucy S. Dawidowicz鈥檚 challenging essay, 鈥淭he Business of American Jews: Notes on a Work in Progress鈥� (1992), which called for a reassessment of Jewish economic social mobility as apositivevalue in Jewish life.
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Even God Makes Time for Leisure: Rabbinic Narratives About God鈥檚 Work, Play, and Rest Schedule
Oct 11, 2021 By Sarit Kattan Gribetz | Public Event video | Video Lecture
Genesis 2:2-3announces that, after working hard to create the worldand humanity over the course of six days, God took a day off to celebrate the Sabbath. Other passages in the Bible build uponGod鈥檚 dayof rest to mandate that all created beings rest, andthat heads of householdsensure that everyone under their control be allowed to rest on the seventh day. Divine time, we learn, alternates between periods of creative work and deliberate rest. But what does God鈥檚 work entail,how does God manage divinetime,does God make time forleisure, anddoes God have a schedule?
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Six Days Shall You Labor: Shabbat and the Meaning of Work
Oct 4, 2021 By David C. Kraemer | Public Event video | Video Lecture
Shabbat, a day on which 鈥渨ork鈥� is forbidden, also offers a commentary on work鈥攐n its place in our lives, its importance, and its limitations. Notably, the rabbinic Sabbath鈥攖hat is, the 鈥渢raditional鈥� Sabbath鈥攐ffers a perspective that differs from that of the Torah, both original and unique.JoinDr. David Kraemerto explore biblical and rabbinic views of the Sabbath as commentaries on the significance of work.
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Traveling to Babylon鈥擣or Good
Aug 23, 2021 By David C. Kraemer | Public Event video | Video Lecture
The first time Jews traveled to Babylon, it was part of a great exile. But when the rabbis returned to Babylon many centuries later, joining a now 鈥渘ative鈥� Jewish community there, they found themselves very much at home. Some did indeed claim Babylon as home, while others traveled back and forth between Babylon and Palestine as rabbinic messengers to ensure that the teachings of each were available to the other. Two confident centers of Jewish life developed, not unlike modern New York and Jerusalem. In this session, Dr. David Kraemer explores the legacy of those rabbis and how their work continues to impact Jewish life today.
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A Journey Without End鈥�
The Explusion From Spain and the Age of Perpetual Jewish Migration
Aug 16, 2021 By Jonathan Ray | Public Event video | Video Lecture
In the summer of 1492, the Jews of Spain were expelled from their homeland by royal decree. The dispossessed embarked on a series of journeys in search of new homelands 鈥� a process that would last generations and transform Sephardic society and culture.
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Work-Life Balance in Ancient Times:
Why the Rabbis Left Their Homes to Study Torah
Aug 9, 2021 By Rachel Rosenthal | Public Event video | Video Lecture
We often think of questions about how to balance work and family as modern ones. However, a series of stories inKetubotshow that people have been struggling with these issues for hundreds of years. In these stories, the rabbis leave home to learn Torah, and often return to domestic chaos. Dr. Rachel Rosenthalexplores these stories to better understand how the rabbis understood their obligations to Torah, to themselves, and to their families.
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The Early Modern Travel Pass:
Controlling the Plague and Jewish Mobility in 16th Century Tuscany
Aug 2, 2021 By Stefanie B. Siegmund | Public Event video | Video Lecture
In the wake of the Black Death, governments in the Italian states began to enlarge their departments of health and sanitation in an effort to control the plague. Over time they experimented by banning travel to and from suspect regions and quarantining merchants鈥� goods. Italian Jews, heavily invested in local and regional commerce, were among the merchants affected, attracting the attention of the authorities.
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The Spectacular Story Of S. Ansky鈥檚
The Dybbuk and How it Transformed American Jewish Theatre
Jul 26, 2021 By Edna Nahshon | Public Event video | Video Lecture
Since its premiere in 1920The Dybbukhas been revived countless times in both Jewish and non-Jewish languages and inspired a substantial corpus of works in various media: it was famously filmed in Yiddish 1936 in Warsaw, and to this day has fired the imagination of artists and writers around the globe. JoinDr. Edna Nahshontodiscuss this unique play and its various interpretations, focusing on its two foundational productions and the 1936 Polish Yiddish film.
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Finding Hijar: A Scholar鈥檚 Quest to Uncover the History of Her Jewish Community Through the Journey of Its Books
Jul 19, 2021 By Marjorie Lehman | Public Event video | Video Lecture
WithDr. Marjorie LehmanandDr. Lucia Conte AguilarofUniversitatPompeuFabra
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“The Catastrophist”: A Theatre Talkback
Jul 15, 2021 By 91快播 | Public Event video
Watch the recording of our conversation with the team behind the acclaimed virtual drama 鈥淭he Catastrophist,” a stirring meditation on scientific discovery, Judaism, family, life, and loss.
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Flight, Return, and Emigration:
The Wanderings of a Yiddish Writer During and After the Holocaust
Jul 12, 2021 By David Fishman | Public Event video | Video Lecture
The Yiddish poet Chaim Grade fled his native city of Vilna, known to Jews as 鈥渢he Jerusalem of Lithuania鈥�, in late June 1941, as the Germans invaded the city. He spent the next four years as a refugee in the Soviet Union, homeless and malnourished. When Grade returned to Vilna in 1945, he found the city in ruins 鈥� and learned from survivors of the Vilna ghetto that his wife, mother, friends and colleagues had been murdered by the Nazis. We will follow his journey of exile and redemption through selections from his works.
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Backstage Pass: Ben, Jonah, and Henry Platt in Conversation with Abigail Pogrebin
Jun 29, 2021 By 91快播 | Public Event video
Watch the recording of our conversation with Ben, Jonah, and Henry Platt as they discuss their professional achievements and aspirations as well as how their Jewish experiences and involvements have influenced their careers. The annual Henry N. and Selma S. Rapaport Memorial Lecture.
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