A virtual event presentation by Rabbi Dr. Alan Brill

EVENT CO-SPONSORED BY: BMH-BJ

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ABOUT THE EVENT:

The 21st-century Kabbalistic approaches to AI offer optimistic utopian approaches based on the writings of Sefer Yetzirah and Rabbi Isaac Luria. Secular innovators of AI at MIT who see the world as informational and AI as creativity, authors in Jewish thought who see the world as the Lurianic network, and rabbis who treat the new informational era as the unfolding of the divine mind and even a messianic fulfillment. 

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Rabbi Prof. Alan Brill is the Cooperman/Ross Chair for Jewish-Christian Studies at Seton Hall University. Brill is an expert on Jewish thought and interfaith relations. He is the author of many books including Judaism and World Religions: Christianity, Islam, and Eastern Religions (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), Judaism and Other Religions: Models of Understanding (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). Brill received a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh in India. He was a keynote speaker at the R-20 conference held in Indonesia, This research produced his recent volume Rabbi on the Ganges: A Jewish Hindu Encounter (Lexington Books, 2019). His recently published book is A Jewish Trinity: Contemporary Christian Theology Through Jewish Eyes (Fortress Press, 2025).

A virtual presentation by Dr. Marc Dollinger

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One of the thorniest questions in contemporary American Jewish life, the boundaries between anti-Israelism, anti-Zionism, and antisemitism are now the subject of university policy debates as well as proposed state and federal action. This presentation offers historical background into each category, outlining the points of debate in this highly-contentious subject.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Dr. Marc Dollinger holds the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies and Social Responsibility at San Francisco State University. Dr. Dollinger currently serves on the executive board of the Union for Reform Judaism. He is also board president of URJ Camp Newman. Professor Dollinger has spoken about his research with the CEO of the NAACP on CNN as well as the CNN-podcast “Silence Is Not An Option,” the PBS docu-series Black and Jews: An Interwoven Alliance, the NFL Network, ESPN, and Germany’s National Public Radio. Just for fun, Dr. Dollinger helped actress Helen Hunt learn about her Jewish roots on the prime-time NBC show, “Who Do You Think You Are?”

A virtual event presentation by Dr. Paul Franks

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What is kavanah — usually translated as “intention” — in the performance of mitzvot?  What, in particular, is kavanah in Jewish prayer?  Often used but rarely explained, the term will be illuminated by means of the speech act theory of the great Oxford philosopher and architect of the Normandy invasion, J. L. Austin (1911-60), articulated most famously in his 1955 William James Lectures at Harvard, later published as How to Do Things with Words.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Paul Franks is the Robert F. and Patricia Ross Weis Professor of Philosophy and Jewish Studies, and the Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Yale University. Educated at Gateshead Yeshiva, Oxford and Harvard, he has taught at Indiana University, Notre Dame, and Toronto, and has been visiting professor at Chicago, Leuven, and Hebrew University.  He works on post-Kantian philosophy, Jewish philosophy and kabbalah.  Among his publications are Franz Rosenzweig: Philosophical and Theological Writings, and All or Nothing: Systematicity, Transcendental Arguments, and Skepticism in German Idealism.

A virtual event presentation by Rabbi Steven M. Bob

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The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah tell the story of the return to Jerusalem from the first exile in ancient Babylonia. These books contain the foundational ideas for our modern sense of Jewish identity and key elements of our Jewish lives. The public reading of the Torah begins with Ezra reading from the scroll before the community in Jerusalem. In these books we will meet the first people to think of themselves as Jews. Jewish holidays take shape during the beginning of this period, as does the Jewish calendar. Ezra and Nehemiah are the first biblical books to use the names on the months that we use today, like Elul and Kislev.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Rabbi Steven M. Bob was Senior Rabbi of Congregation Etz Chaim in Lombard, IL for 35 years. Rabbi Bob serves as a Guest faculty member at Wheaton College and as an Instructor at the Hebrew Seminary for the Hearing and the Deaf. He is a leader of the faculty of Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute. His newest book is When Judaism Began: Exploring the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah (2026). He is also the author of Go to Nineveh (2013) and Jonah and the Meaning of Our Lives (2016) and Ha'aretz named Rabbi Bob as one of the 36 American Jews who helped shape the 2008 Presidential election.  

A virtual event presentation with Dr. Jonnie Schnytzer

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Throughout Jewish history, there have been a series of individual attempts to organize Jewish communities towards conquering the Land of Israel and reinstalling Jewish sovereignty. Time and again, these attempts were turned down and declined by the masses. Why? Learning about the fascinating stories of a few individuals we learn a valuable lesson about freedom and the slippery slope from redemption to messianism.  

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.

A virtual event presentation by Professor Amy-Jill Levine

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The famous “Parable of the Good Samaritan” has been interpreted in multiple ways –  as a condemnation of racism, as promoting concern for the marginalized, and as justification for taking aid from people of differing political views. Perhaps most often, it is presented by Christians through an ahistorical, antisemitic lens as a condemnation of Jewish religious practice, xenophobia, and elitism. What did it mean to the Jews to whom it was first told, how did antisemitic interpretations develop, and how might interpretations informed by correct understandings of Jewish practice and belief be relevant today?  

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Amy-Jill Levine is the Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, Hartford International University for Religion and Peace;  University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies Emerita and Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies Emerita, Professor of New Testament Studies Emerita, Vanderbilt University.