91�첥 Alumni – Jewish Theological Seminary

A New Understanding of Betzelem Elohim: Biblical Text Through the Lens of Disability Studies

onlinelearning@jtsa.edu — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 12:32:37 +0000

Part of the series 91�첥 Alumni in the World: Scholarship and Impact

With Dr. Ora Horn Prouser (Kekst Graduate School ’91 and Seminary College ‘82), CEO and Academic Dean, Academy for Jewish Religion

One of the most important biblical principles is that we are created betzelem Elohim, in God’s image. While this idea has been used to assert value and dignity to each of us as individuals, it has also enabled us to expand our understanding of the Divine. Studying the Bible through the lens of Disability Studies has made this especially powerful.

We will study some selections from the Bible seeing how viewing certain biblical personalities through this lens provides access to new dimensions of their characters and the texts in which we encounter them. We will then consider the character of God in the Bible and how God too can be more deeply appreciated through the perspective of Disability Studies. This approach challenges us to broaden our understanding of God and ourselves and will help us in the critical work of more fully appreciating the image of God in each and every one of us.

Dr. Ora Horn Prouser is the CEO and academic dean at the Academy for Jewish Religion, a pluralistic rabbinical, cantorial, and graduate school in Yonkers, New York. She received her BA and PhD from the Jewish Theological Seminary, as well as a BA from Columbia University. She has published widely on the Bible, focusing on disability studies, gender issues, and literary analysis. She has also worked with the Melton Center for Jewish Education, the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education at 91�첥, and various educational institutions to develop curricula and approaches to Bible pedagogy for all levels and learning styles. Her book Esau’s Blessing: How the Bible Embraces Those with Special Needs was recognized as a 2012 National Jewish Book Council finalist and as a Gold winner in the 2016 Special Needs Book Awards.

This session is generously sponsored by Barbara Hoffman in loving memory of her daughter, Carolyn (Chaya) Hoffman.

ABOUT THE SERIES

Join esteemed 91�첥 alumni to hear about the important contributions they are making through their work as scholars and thought leaders in their fields. Through their engagement with Jewish text, history, and thought, they are enhancing the spiritual and personal lives of individuals, building more inclusive communities, and preparing the leaders of tomorrow, ensuring a stronger Jewish future.

Rabbi, Will You Do Our Wedding? New Approaches to Working With Interfaith Couples

onlinelearning@jtsa.edu — Mon, 05 Aug 2024 21:34:36 +0000

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Part of the series 91�첥 Alumni in the World: Scholarship and Impact

�¾��ٳ��Rabbi Aaron Brusso(Kekst Graduate School ’01and Rabbinical School ’00), Rabbi of Bet Torah, Mt. Kisco, NY

In the 1970s and 80s there was a Jewish communal attempt to dissuade Jews from entering into relationships with a partner from a different background. These efforts played themselves out as policies, programs and messaging. Like many organizational structures and leadership approaches of the time, the program was hierarchical and authority based. Since then the landscape has shifted significantly as identity formation and rabbinic authority play out differently than they did 50 years ago. Together we will think about the the impact and limits of disapproval policies, the purpose and meaning of the Jewish wedding ceremony and how to shift the conversation to a pastoral and relational one with a couple. A conversation that transfers responsibility for these questions from the community back to the couple, empowering them to articulate their identities and authenticities and determine their relationship to the narratives, rituals, symbols and faith statements of Jewish tradition.

Aaron Brusso has been rabbi at Bet Torah in Mt Kisco, NY, for the past 15 years. He is treasurer of the Rabbinical Assembly and recently chaired a committee to evaluate the professional organization’s 50-year prohibition on officiation at interfaith weddings. He is a member of the 91�첥 Chancellor’s Rabbinic Cabinet and a 2020 recipient of T’ruah’s Human Rights Hero award for his work on immigration. He has written for JTA, The Forward, and Slate and been featured in the Washington Post. He is a 2000 graduate of the 91�첥 Rabbinical School and received a master’s degree in Jewish philosophy from the Kekst Graduate School.

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Innovations in Ritual and Halakhah (Law) Around Jewish Divorce

onlinelearning@jtsa.edu — Mon, 29 Jul 2024 19:43:13 +0000

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Part of the series 91�첥 Alumni in the World: Scholarship and Impact

�¾��ٳ��Rabbi Pamela Barmash, PhD(Rabbinical School ’90), Chair of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, The Rabbinical Assembly, and Professor of Hebrew Bible and Biblical Hebrew, Washington University, andRabbi Karen Reiss Medwed, PhD(Rabbinical School ’95and List College ’91), Member of the Joint Bet Din of the Conservative Movement and Senior Assistant Dean of Faculty Affairs and Network Engagement, Northeastern University College of Professional Studies

What are the essential components of an egalitarian marriage ceremony and divorce? How can we ensure that the Conservative/Masorti movement’s ways of Jewish marriage and divorce reflect our spiritual values and ethical ideals? Rabbi Pamela Barmash, PhD and Rabbi Karen Weiss Medwed, PhD discussed the progress that has been achieved in this area and the challenges that remain.

Rabbi Pamela Barmash, PhD, is the co-chair of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards (CJLS) of the Rabbinical Assembly and a member of the Joint Beit Din of the Conservative Movement. She is a professor of Hebrew Bible at Washington University in St. Louis. Her scholarly research is in the areas of law and justice and of history and memory. Rabbi Barmash authored the 2022 teshuvah (legal responsum) that presented an egalitarian method for divorce and was approved by the CJLS.

Rabbi Karen Reiss Medwed, PhD, is a member of the Joint Bet Din of the Conservative Movement, a member of the Rabbinical Assembly Executive Committee, and a member of the Rabbinical Assembly CJLS. She is Teaching Professor Emerita at Northeastern University. She is the only certified female-identifying mesadderet gittin (officiator of divorce) currently practicing in the Conservative movement.

About the Series

Our esteemed 91�첥 alumni are making important contributions through their work as scholars and thought leaders in their fields. Join them this summer for nine outstanding learning sessions. Through their engagement with Jewish text, history, and thought, they are enhancing the spiritual and personal lives of individuals, building more inclusive communities, and preparing the leaders of tomorrow, ensuring a stronger Jewish future.

Zionism and Antisemitism on Campus and Beyond

onlinelearning@jtsa.edu — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 20:26:48 +0000

Part of the series 91�첥 Alumni in the World: Scholarship and Impact

�¾��ٳ��Dr. Michael Kay(Day School Leadership Training Institute ’08), Head of School, The Leffell School andRabbi Jason Rubenstein(Rabbinical School ’11andKekst Graduate School ‘10), Executive Director, Harvard Hillel

Co-sponsored by The William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education.

Dr. Michael Kay is head of school at The Leffell School, a K–12 Jewish independent school serving 855 students on two campuses in Westchester County, NY. He holds a PhD in Educational Leadership and Jewish Studies from NYU and an undergraduate degree in Religion and History from Harvard College. In 2008, he participated in the Day School Leadership Training Institute, a program of 91�첥’s William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education that prepares new and aspiring heads of school for leadership positions in Jewish day schools.

Rabbi Jason Rubenstein is the executive director of Harvard Hillel. He previously served as Howard M. Holtzmann Jewish Chaplain at Yale’s Slifka Center. Rabbi Rubenstein taught on the faculty of the Hadar Institute from 2008-2018. He received rabbinic ordination and a master’s in Talmud from 91�첥 and holds an AB in Social Studies from Harvard College. He is also the recipient of numerous awards including the Wexner Graduate Fellowship and the Covenant Foundation’s 2015 Pomegranate Prize for Emerging Educators.

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X Troop: The Secret Jewish Commandos who Helped Defeat the Nazis

onlinelearning@jtsa.edu — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 20:48:06 +0000

Part of the series 91�첥 Alumni in the World: Scholarship and Impact

With Dr. Leah Garrett (Kekst Graduate School ’99), Larry A. and Klara Silverstein Chair in Jewish Studies and Director of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Hunter College, City University of New York

In June 1942, Winston Churchill and his chief of staff form a new commando unit made of Jewish refugees who have escaped to Britain. This top-secret unit, trained in counterintelligence and advanced combat, will stop at nothing to defeat the Nazis.

Dr. Leah Garrett discussed X Troop, which draws on extensive original research, including interviews with the last surviving members, to tell the story of these secret shock troops and their devastating blows against the Nazis. Her talk described the X Troopers who emigrated to the United States and will discuss how their postwar lives in America differed from those who remained in the United Kingdom.

Dr. Leah Garrett is the Larry A. and Klara Silverstein Chair and Director of Jewish Studies at Hunter College, CUNY. She received her PhD with Distinction from 91�첥 in 1999. Leah has published five books including her most recent, X-Troop: The Secret Jewish Commandos of World War Two (HarperCollins, US, and Penguin, UK), which was a bestseller in the UK and was translated into multiple languages.

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Judaism Is About Love

onlinelearning@jtsa.edu — Mon, 01 Jul 2024 20:38:18 +0000

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Part of the series 91�첥 Alumni in the World: Scholarship and Impact

�¾��ٳ��Rabbi Shai Held, PhD(Rabbinical School ’99 and Kekst Graduate School ’99), President and Dean, Hadar Institute

In his new bookJudaism is About Love, Rabbi Shai Held offers the radical and moving argument that love belongs as much to Judaism as it does to Christianity.He contradicts centuries of widespread misrepresentation that Christianity is the religion of love and Judaism the religion of law.Rabbi Held shows that love is foundational and constitutive of true Jewish faith, animating the singular Jewish perspective on injustice and protest, grace, family life, responsibilities to our neighbors and even our enemies, and chosenness.

Rabbi Shai Held—philosopher, theologian, and Bible scholar—is president and dean at the Hadar Institute. He received the prestigious Covenant Award for Excellence in Jewish Education and has been named multiple times by Newsweek as one of the fifty most influential rabbis in America and by the Jewish Daily Forward as one of the fifty most prominent Jews in the world. Rabbi Held is the author of Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence (2013), The Heart of Torah (2017), and Judaism Is About Love (2024), and he is the host of Hadar’s newest podcast, .

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Religious Misconceptions: American Jews and the Politics of Abortion

onlinelearning@jtsa.edu — Mon, 24 Jun 2024 20:25:05 +0000

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Part of the series 91�첥 Alumni in the World: Scholarship and Impact

With Dr. Rachel Kranson (Kekst Graduate School ’00), Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Director of Jewish Studies, University of Pittsburgh

We begin by tracing the history of how American Jews contributed to reproductive politics by developing first amendment-based arguments for abortion rights. We also discussthe ways in which reproductive politics transformed American Judaism. In particular, we look at the many rituals that Jewish feminist leaders developed to support people undergoing abortion care and galvanize activists working for reproductive rights.

Dr. Rachel Kransonis director of Jewish studies and associate professor of religious studies at the University of Pittsburgh, specializing in the history of American Jews and the history of gender and sexuality. Before joining the religious studies faculty at the University of Pittsburgh, she earned a PhD in the joint History/Hebrew and Judaic Studies program at New York University and a master’s degree in Women’s Studies from the Jewish Theological Seminary. Dr. Kranson’s current research project is tentatively entitled “Religious Misconceptions: American Jews and the Politics of Abortion.”

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Jews in the American Political and Public Square

onlinelearning@jtsa.edu — Mon, 17 Jun 2024 20:59:18 +0000

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Part of the series 91�첥 Alumni in the World: Scholarship and Impact

With Dr. Lauren Strauss (Kekst Graduate School ’04), Professor of Modern Jewish History, American University

The extent of Jewish participation in the American political process far outweighs the relative number of Jews in the population. Yet the contemporary activism of Jews is consistent with a tradition of civic involvement from the earliest days of Jewish settlement in America. This webinar explored Jewish participation in the American political system. We briefly address the foundations of religious freedom in America through the nineteenth century, and then focus on the watershed politics of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, from labor strikes to landmark legal cases. In studying these issues, we plumb the depths of what it means to be a minority in a democratic society and what it means to be a Jew in the modern world.