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Virtual Events
Nietzsche & Contemporary Jewish Philosophy
A virtual event presentation by Dr. Daniel Rynhold
Please note event times are listed in MT.
ABOUT THE EVENT:
One of the most potent critiques of religion in the modern age came from the fascinating, if controversial German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The obvious response to Nietzsche is to ignore his critique as the rantings of a rabid atheist. But a more sophisticated response can be gleaned from the writings of certain modern Jewish thinkers with - maybe surprisingly - the Modern Orthodox thinker Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik as the most prominent example. In this session, we will explore the extent to Judaism has the resources to deal with Nietzsche’s critique of religion by partially absorbing it rather than rejecting it.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Born in London, England, and educated at the universities of Cambridge and London, Daniel Rynhold is Dean and Professor of Jewish philosophy at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies. He arrived in the US in August 2007, following 6 years in the department of theology and religious studies at King’s College, London. He has also served as the Shoshana Shier Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto. Daniel has written extensively on Jewish philosophy, both medieval and modern, and is the author of Two Models of Jewish Philosophy: Justifying One’s Practices (Oxford University Press, 2005), An Introduction to Medieval Jewish Philosophy (I.B. Tauris, 2009), and co-author with Michael J. Harris of Nietzsche, Soloveitchik, and Contemporary Jewish Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, 2018), with whom he also, together with Tamra Wright, co-edited Radical Responsibility: Essays in Ethics, Religion, and Leadership Presented to Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks (Maggid Books, 2012). Most recently, he was co-editor with Tyron Goldschmidt of The Routledge Companion to Jewish Philosophy (Routledge, 2025).
Genesis in the Age of AI: A New Story of Consciousness
A virtual event presentation by Marina Zilbergerts
Please note event times are listed in MT
ABOUT THE EVENT:
What distinguishes human consciousness from artificial intelligence? In this talk, Marina Zilbergerts discusses her new book, Genesis in the Age of AI: A New Story of Consciousness, which reads Genesis as a story of the birth and development of human consciousness and explores how the Bible portrays the inner lives of God and human beings. She argues that its emphasis on subjectivity, agency, and inner life offers a powerful way to rethink what defines humanity in the age of AI.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Marina Zilbergerts is the author of Genesis in the Age of AI: A New Story of Consciousness (Routledge). She is a philosopher and scholar of religion whose work explores consciousness, artificial intelligence, and Jewish thought. She is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Ottawa, an advisor with AI & Faith, and writes The Inner Light, a Substack exploring faith, technology, and inner life.
What the Qur’an Really Says About Jews, Judaism and the Torah
A virtual event presentation by Rick Sopher and Abdulla Galadari
Please note event times are listed in MT.
ABOUT THE EVENT:
A Jewish and a Muslim co-author will dive into the connections, similarities and differences between the Qur’an and the Torah to bring out points of Jewish interest.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:
Rick Sopher is a key figure in interfaith scriptural dialogue, especially known for fostering relations between Jewish and Muslim communities. He is a fellow of the Woolf Institute, an academic institute in Cambridge, England, dedicated to the study of interfaith relations between Jews, Christians, and Muslims. In 2007 French President Jacques Chirac awarded him with the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur for his work in religious education.
Abdulla Galadari is an associate professor of Islamic studies at Khalifa University of Science and Technology. He is the author of Qur’anic Hermeneutics: Between Science, History, and the Bible, Metaphors of Death and Resurrection in the Qur’an: An Intertextual Approach with Biblical and Rabbinic Literature, and Spiritual Meanings of the Ḥajj Rituals: A Philological Approach.
Fantastic Flora: What do kabbalists think about trees?
A virtual event presentation by Dr. Jonnie Schnytzer
Please note event times are listed in MT.
ABOUT THE EVENT:
TBA
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Jonnie Schnytzer is probably the only PhD in Jewish Philosophy, focusing on medieval kabbalah, who can say that he once beat the head of Israeli Naval Commandos in a swimming race. His dissertation focused on the scientific kabbalah of Rabbi Joseph ben Shalom Ashkenazi. Jonnie’s forthcoming book is about Ashkenazi’s Kabbalah as well as a critical edition of the kabbalist’s majestic commentary on Sefer Yesira. Jonnie’s also the author of Mossad thriller, The Way Back, which paints a picture of contemporary Israel. Jonnie also orchestrated the publishing of an English edition of ‘The Hitler Haggadah’, an important piece of Moroccan Jewish history from the Holocaust. Jonnie has also taken on several leadership roles in the Jewish world, including advisor to the CEO of Birthright and executive manager with StandWithUs. He lectures on a wide variety of topics relating to Judaism and Israel, especially about the untold stories and unspoken heroes of Jewish history. Jonnie is happily married, with four gorgeous little kids, lives in Israel and thinks that Australian Rules Football is the greatest sport ever invented.
The Lovers' Dance: Movement and Seduction in the Song of Songs
A virtual event presentation by Dr. Amy Kalmanofsky
Please note event times are listed in MT
ABOUT THE EVENT:
This class explores the central role of movement in the young lovers’ courtship in the Song of Songs. It begins with a brief introduction to the Song and then turns to a close reading of selected passages, drawing on dance theory and the instructor’s perspective as a dancer to consider how movement, gesture, and physicality shape the lovers’ encounter.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Dr. Amy Kalmanofsky is dean of the Albert A. List College of Jewish Studies and the Gershon Kekst Graduate School, as well as the Blanche and Romie Shapiro Professor of Bible. As professor of Bible, she teaches courses on biblical literature, religion, and feminist interpretation of the Bible. In her writing and teaching, Dr. Kalmanofsky combines contemporary ideas and critical methods with traditional text study, teaching students to be careful, creative interpreters of Torah.
Dr. Kalmanofsky is the author of several books exploring topics including horror, gender, sisterhood, and biblical interpretation in the Hebrew Bible. She has also written numerous articles examining the biblical representation of women and the roles women play in the Bible, as well as articles that consider the biblical rhetoric of violence.
Theodore Roosevelt and the Jews
A hybrid event presentation (in-person and virtual) by Dr. Andrew Porwancher
Please note event times are listed in MT
ABOUT THE EVENT:
Join Professor Andrew Porwancher as he uncovers the close-knit and often surprising relationship between Theodore Roosevelt and the Jewish community. This lecture traces Roosevelt’s deep connection with the Jewish people at every step of his dazzling ascent. But it also reveals a man of contradictions whose checkered approach to Jewish issues was no less conflicted than the nation he led. Drawing on fresh research from his newest book, American Maccabee, Porwancher explores the complicated relationship between the leader of a youthful nation and the people of an ancient faith.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Andrew Porwancher is the Chaplik Professor at the University of Texas. He previously held fellowships at Harvard, Oxford, and Princeton, and earned his PhD at Cambridge. His fifth book—American Maccabee: Theodore Roosevelt and the Jews—won the 2025 Theodore Roosevelt Book Prize.
Reading the Talmud with Feminist Eyes
A virtual event presentation by Rabbi Jane Kanarek, Ph.D.
Please note event times are listed in MT.
ABOUT THE EVENT:
TBA
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Rabbi Dr. Jane Kanarek is Professor of Rabbinics and Dean of Faculty at the Hebrew College Rabbinical School. She is the author of Biblical Narrative and the Formation of Rabbinic Law and the co-editor of Learning to Read Talmud: What It Looks Like and How it Happens and Mothers in the Jewish Cultural Imagination, the latter two of which were finalists for the National Jewish Book Awards. In fall 2025 her book Beyond Brutality: Reclaiming Female Presence in Bavli Sotah was published by Brandeis University Press.
Jews and Drag: An American Cultural History
A virtual event presentation by Dr. Golan Moskowitz
Please note event times are listed in MT
ABOUT THE EVENT:
From the Yiddish stage to ballrooms, pageants, and reality television, Jewish performers have long shaped, and been shaped by, the art of drag. In this talk, Golan Moskowitz explores the entangled histories of Jewishness and drag performance in America, tracing figures from Pepi Littman and Bessie Thomashefsky to Harvey Fierstein and Sasha Velour. Drawing on his forthcoming NYU Press book, Moskowitz examines how ideas of conditional whiteness, disidentification, and "detachable ethnicity" illuminate the ways Jewish performers have used drag to negotiate visibility, difference, and belonging. Part cultural history and part meditation on performance itself, the talk asks what drag reveals about the long, complicated project of American Jewish identity.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Golan Moskowitz is a Sizeler Family Professor in Judaic Studies at Tulane University in New Orleans and a core faculty member of the Stuart & Suzanne Grant Center for the American Jewish Experience. He is the author of Wild Visionary: Maurice Sendak in Queer Jewish Context (Stanford University Press, 2020) and has published several articles and book chapters on post-Holocaust memory and Jewish literature, art, and film. Dr. Moskowitz serves as Book Review Editor for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and as Director of the annual Jewish American & Holocaust Literature (JAHLit) Symposium.