Part of the series “America at 250: Jewish Ideas and the American Experiment”  

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With Dr. Arnold Eisen, Chancellor Emeritus; Professor of Jewish Thought, 91żě˛Ą, and 
E.J. Dionne, Journalist, Harriman Chair in American Governance, Brookings Institute

A frank and wide-ranging conversation between two admirers of these great religious leaders  about the fateful linkage of politics to prophecy in America from the “greatest generation” until our own day. Focusing on the intertwined legacies of Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Reinhold Niebuhr, the discussion will explore how their distinct approaches to prophecy, justice, and political responsibility continue to shape American public life. 

About the Series

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, the 91żě˛Ą Summer 2026 Learning Series will explore the rich and surprising intersections between Jewish thought and American life. From baseball and youth culture to constitutional law, storytelling, and democratic theory, leading scholars reveal how Jewish ideas, texts, and experiences have shaped—and been shaped by—the American experiment. 

Part of the series “America at 250: Jewish Ideas and the American Experiment”  

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With Rabbi Benjamin Resnick, Author of Next Stop, Rabbi Pelham Jewish Center, Rabbinical School Alum 

For decades, Jewish American literature was defined by giants like Roth, Bellow, Malamud, and Ozick, whose novels explored assimilation and the immigrant experience. But what defines Jewish American writing today? Author and 91żě˛Ą alum Rabbi Benjamin Resnick reflects on how the field has changed and asks whether the Jewish American novel still exists in the way readers once understood it. 

About the Series

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, the 91żě˛Ą Summer 2026 Learning Series will explore the rich and surprising intersections between Jewish thought and American life. From baseball and youth culture to constitutional law, storytelling, and democratic theory, leading scholars reveal how Jewish ideas, texts, and experiences have shaped—and been shaped by—the American experiment. 

Further Reading
Shalom Spiegel, Amos vs. Amaziah, reprinted in Judah Goldin. ed. The Jewish Expression (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976), pp. 39-65. (Amos vs. Amaziah was originally published in 1958 by 91żě˛Ą as an independent small monograph).

Shira Billet, “Harry S. Truman’s Bible and Earl Warren’s Talmud: A Forgotten Story in the Encounter Between American Law and Jewish Studies,” DinĂ© Israel: Studies in Halakha and Jewish Law, vol. 38 (2024), pp. 11-36.

With Dr. Shira Billet, Assistant Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics, 91żě˛Ą

In the decades after World War II, Jewish American legal thinkers began drawing on biblical and rabbinic stories to help explore fundamental questions of constitutional interpretation. The work of Robert Cover in the 1980s, first developed in the context of the Vietnam war, is the most famous and influential example. But lesser-known figures such as Edmund Cahn and 91żě˛Ą professor Shalom Spiegel began developing this discourse in the context of the postwar moment in 1950s America, and the civil rights movement that emerged in its wake.

Dr. Shira Billet examines how these figures, and others, brought Jewish narrative traditions into American law schools and legal thought, shaping new ways of thinking about law, interpretation, and the relationship between law and ethics. 

About the Series

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, the 91żě˛Ą Summer 2026 Learning Series will explore the rich and surprising intersections between Jewish thought and American life. From baseball and youth culture to constitutional law, storytelling, and democratic theory, leading scholars reveal how Jewish ideas, texts, and experiences have shaped—and been shaped by—the American experiment. 

Part of the series “America at 250: Jewish Ideas and the American Experiment”  

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With Dr. Sarah Wolf, Assistant Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics, 91żě˛Ą

How do judges settle cases when there is no clear right answer? How are precedents mined for new rulings? Should laws be the product of a legislator’s own creativity, or are there other sources for legal truth that need to be turned to first? These are all questions that have animated both contemporary American and late ancient rabbinic legal thinkers.

In this session, we will put ideas and concepts from U.S. legal theory into conversation with rabbinic texts to illuminate different approaches to the challenges of legal decision-making. We will discuss some of the ways the ancient rabbis responded to those challenges and the legacy those approaches have left in Jewish thought and culture. 

About the Series

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, the 91żě˛Ą Summer 2026 Learning Series will explore the rich and surprising intersections between Jewish thought and American life. From baseball and youth culture to constitutional law, storytelling, and democratic theory, leading scholars reveal how Jewish ideas, texts, and experiences have shaped—and been shaped by—the American experiment. 

Part of the series “America at 250: Jewish Ideas and the American Experiment”  

With Dr. Jack Wertheimer, Joseph and Martha Mendelson Emeritus Professor of American Jewish History, 91żě˛Ą

Within the first decade of his 91żě˛Ą presidency, Rabbi Louis Finkelstein energetically launched a broad range of new initiatives.  His efforts garnered widespread attention and even an adulatory cover story in Time magazine. They also prompted sharp public challenges from some of his closest colleagues.

This session examines his distinctive leadership style, the debates he provoked, and the reasons his legacy might be ripe for reconsideration. Dr. Jack Wertheimer, Emeritus Professor of American Jewish History, will present research from his forthcoming biography of Finkelstein. 

About the Series

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, the 91żě˛Ą Summer 2026 Learning Series will explore the rich and surprising intersections between Jewish thought and American life. From baseball and youth culture to constitutional law, storytelling, and democratic theory, leading scholars reveal how Jewish ideas, texts, and experiences have shaped—and been shaped by—the American experiment. 

Part of the series “America at 250: Jewish Ideas and the American Experiment”  

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With Dr. Robert A. Harris, Professor of Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages, 91żě˛Ą

Baseball has long been called America’s pastime—but what happens when we read the game through the lens of philosophy, theology, halacha and aggadah? This session explores the striking parallels between rabbinic interpretation and the rules, debates, and evolving traditions that shape baseball—from classic arguments over judgment calls to today’s introduction of the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) system, which raises new questions about authority, precision, and the role of human interpretation.

Through stories of Jewish players, fans, and cultural figures—and with insights from Rabbi Robbie Harris, known as the “rabbi of the right field bleachers” for the New York Yankees—we’ll uncover how meaning is constructed both on the field and in the beit midrash. Expect a lively conversation that brings together sport, text, and the enduring Jewish love of argument. 

About the Series

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, the 91żě˛Ą Summer 2026 Learning Series will explore the rich and surprising intersections between Jewish thought and American life. From baseball and youth culture to constitutional law, storytelling, and democratic theory, leading scholars reveal how Jewish ideas, texts, and experiences have shaped—and been shaped by—the American experiment. 

Part of the Learning Series,Seasons of Responsibility: InterreligiousConversationson Environmental Justice and Repair

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With Rabbi Laura Bellows, Director of Spiritual Activism & Education, Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action, and Joe Blumberg, Rabbinical Student, 91żě˛Ą

At the heart of Passover is a question that feels urgent today: how do we move forward when the future feels uncertain and frightening? This session explores the Crossing of the Sea through midrash and contemporary thought, treating imagination as a muscle that must be strengthened in times of crisis. As we conclude Seasons of Responsibility, we’ll shift focus from individual anxiety to collective responsibility, inviting participants to consider how shared storytelling, community, and action help bring the world we long for into being.

About the Speakers

Rabbi Laura Bellows works to build climate-resilient, spiritually-rooted, justice-seeking communities centered in Jewish wisdom. She has served as a curriculum and ritual designer, outdoor experiential educator, program manager, artist, and facilitator in Jewish and inter-religious spaces. Laura studied Environmental Studies at Oberlin College and was ordained at Hebrew College, where she recently lead Prozdor and Teen Learning programs. She moonlights as a soferet (scribe) and freelance rabbi for couples and communities throughout the Boston area. 

Joe Blumberg is a fourth-year rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and the Senior Rabbinic Fellow at B’nai Jeshurun on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He previously worked as an educator at Brown RISD Hillel and spent a year as a Fulbright scholar in Jerusalem, where he also studied at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies. Joe was a 2022-2023 rabbinical student fellow at Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action, where he advised Jewish communities on their climate justice work. He has served as a teacher and prayer leader around the country, most recently as a rabbinic intern at Congregation Shearith Israel in Dallas, Texas, and Beth Israel Congregation in Bath, Maine. Joe holds a B.A. in American History from Yale. 

About the Series

Across Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Hindu traditions, spring is a season of reflection, renewal, and ethical commitment. Grounded in holidays from Tu Bishvat and Lent to Ramadan, Holi, and Passover, this interreligious series explores responsibility, repair, and leadership in the face of urgent ecological challenges. Together, participants consider how religious wisdom can inspire ethical action and collective hope. 

Part of the Learning Series, Seasons of Responsibility: Interreligious Conversations on Environmental Justice and Repair

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There are ways to exist in harmony with all of creation that cultivate the soul and a relationship with the Divine. Hussein Rashid and Rabbi Gordon Tucker bring Muslim and Jewish texts into dialogue to explore how religious traditions resist transactional relationships with the earth and with one another. Drawing on the sabbatical vision from Leviticus and a Muslim sources on overtaxation, they reflect on restraint, renewal, and the dangers of extraction. Timed with converging sacred moments—the beginning of the Jewish calendar, Persian New Year, and the close of Ramadan—this session offers a shared language for ethical living in a fragile world.

About the Speakers

Hussein Rashid, PhD, is a free range academic, currently affiliated with Union Theological Seminary. He is a board member of the Interfaith Center of New York. He specializes in working on Muslims in US popular culture and Shi’i theologies of justice. He has served in various academic and culturally creative capacities, most recently as Project Director of The Arts of Devotion at the Smithsonian’s National Muslim of Asian Art. He has taught at Virginia Theological Seminary and Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. He is also a producer of the PBS Digital Series American Muslim Stories and of the award-winning New York Times op-doc The Secret of Muslims in the US.

As vice chancellor for Religious Life and Engagement, Rabbi Gordon Tucker focuses on enhancing Jewish life at 91żě˛Ą, enriching our study of Judaism with the joy and deep understanding that only lived experience can provide. A leading scholar and interpreter of Conservative Judaism, he also articulates the enduring power of 91żě˛Ąâ€™s compelling approach to Jewish law and Jewish life, while strengthening 91żě˛Ąâ€™s religious leadership through partnerships with organizations in the Conservative Movement and beyond.

About the Series

Across Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Hindu traditions, spring is a season of reflection, renewal, and ethical commitment. Grounded in holidays from Tu Bishvat and Lent to Ramadan, Holi, and Passover, this interreligious series explores responsibility, repair, and leadership in the face of urgent ecological challenges. Together, participants consider how religious wisdom can inspire ethical action and collective hope.