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Virtual Events
Striving to Be Human
A virtual event presentation by Rabbi Leah Cohen Tenenbaum and Rabbi Douglas Kohn
Please note the event times are listed in PST.
ABOUT THE EVENT:
In his clarion call for ethical behavior, Rabbi Hillel tells us, “In a place where there is no humanity, strive to be human.” But what exactly does it mean to be human, especially in an age of rapid transformation? Striving to Be Human: Jewish Perspectives on Twenty-First-Century Challenges confronts this question with boldness, hope, and a foundation of Jewish wisdom. The volume begins with “Challenges from Within Us,” addressing such topics as moral justice, belonging, queer theology, and good and evil. In part two, “Challenges from Beyond Us,” the authors delve into artificial intelligence, robotics, reproductive technologies, and the animal-human relationship. The result is a profound conversation about Jewish values and human dignity in our evolving landscape.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:
Rabbi Leah Cohen Tenenbaum, DMin, BCC-PCHAC (HUC-JIR 2000), serves as the inpatient palliative care chaplain and as a member of the Ethics Committee at Yale New Haven Hospital. She is a faculty member of FASPE (Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics) and has served on the CCAR Board of Trustees, the CCAR National Ethics Taskforce, and currently the CCAR Press Council. She has written chapters for The Sacred Struggle: Jewish Responses to Trauma (CCAR Press, 2025) and Fragile Dialogue: New Voices of Liberal Zionism (CCAR Press, 2018) and is the coeditor with Rabbi Douglas Kohn of Striving to Be Human: Jewish Perspectives on Twenty First-Century Challenges. She frequently teaches and presents on spirituality, serious illness, and medical ethics.
Rabbi Douglas Kohn serves Temple Beth Jacob in Newburgh, New York, having previously served congregations in Buffalo, Baltimore, Chicago, and Southern California, and is happily busy in all aspects of congregational and community endeavors. In addition to coediting Striving to Be Human with Rabbi Leah Cohen Tenenbaum, he is the editor of two other volumes, Life, Faith, and Cancer: Jewish Journeys Through Diagnosis, Treatment, and Recovery (URJ Press, 2008) and Broken Fragments: Jewish Experiences of Alzheimer’s Disease Through Diagnosis, Adaptation, and Moving On (URJ Press, 2012), and has written and spoken widely on the themes of illness, medical ethics, and being human. Rabbi Kohn has served on numerous CCAR, URJ, and communal commissions, committees, and boards, while still savoring time to read, write, and paint, as well as exercise, cook, and travel with his wife, Cindy, and their children and grandchildren.
Primacies: Experience, Expression and the Jewish Imagination
A virtual event presentation by Michael Fishbane
Please note the event times are listed in PST.
ABOUT THE EVENT:
Primacies begins with the assertion that our earliest preverbal experiences are accompanied by a primary language—tears, cries, and laughter—offered long before we learn our ordinary languages. In this virtual book talk, Michael Fishbane explores how ancient, medieval, and modern literature and poetry express and transform these primal sensations into powerful articulations of sorrow, joy, and fulfillment. Building on his theological work in Sacred Attunement and Fragile Finitude, Fishbane presents a radically new lived hermeneutics that reimagines the relationship between experience and language.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
TBA
Cain's Children: Mysticism and Monstrosity in the Jewish Tradition
A virtual event presentation by David Shyovitz
Please note event times are listed in PST.
ABOUT THE EVENT:
Classical Jewish texts are chock full of demons, monsters, incantations, and other occult and fantastical contents. But these elements are often treated dismissively or deemed embarrassing or "superstitious" -- when they are even acknowledged at all. In this session, we will analyze a cryptic series of texts about the monstrous "Children of Cain," and explore the profound spiritual lessons Jewish authors have drawn from them -- lessons that remain relevant today.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
David Shyovitz is Associate Professor of Jewish History at Northwestern University and Director of NU's Crown Family Center for Jewish and Israel Studies. He is the author of the award-winning A Remembrance of His Wonders: Nature and the Supernatural in Medieval Ashkenaz.
Soul Train: Learning the Words of the Jewish Heart
A virtual event presentation by Rabbi Jeff Salkin
EVENT CO-SPONSORED BY: BMH-BJ
Please note event times are listed in PST.
ABOUT THE EVENT:
No, “Soul Train” isn’t just a retro music show—it’s about training our souls to rediscover the sacred power of Jewish prayer. Rabbi Jeff Salkin will help us explore the deeper meaning of the siddur; why prayer can feel distant for modern Jews, and how it can become relevant, moving, and even transformative. Based on his new book “Inviting God In: A Guide to Jewish Prayer” (CCAR Press).
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Rabbi Jeff Salkin is a noted writer and author. He has discussed the American political scene on CNN and the BBC. His column, “Martini Judaism: For Those Who Want to be Shaken and Stirred,” published by the Religion News Service, has won several awards for best religion column of the year, and is also an award-winning podcast. He has been a commentator on the American political scene on CNN and the BBC, his essays have appeared in the Washington Post, Commentary, the Wall Street Journal, Tablet, and Forward.
He is the author of twelve books on such diverse topics as b’nai mitzvah, masculinity, Israel, interfaith relations, the spirituality of career, and Judaism as counter-culture. His most recent book is Inviting God In: A Guide to Jewish Prayer, which will teach Jews how to find meaning in the worship experience. His other recent book is Tikkun Ha’Am: Repairing Our People – Israel and the Crisis of Liberal Judaism – the first book to predict the post-October 7 era of American Judaism. Reviewers have called the book “daring” and “controversial.”
After a distinguished career as a congregational rabbi, Rabbi Salkin co-founded and co-directs “Wisdom Without Walls: an online salon for Jewish ideas,” a program that engages Jews in Zoom conversations with significant Jewish thinkers about American Judaism, post-October 7.
Rabbi Salkin currently lives in Montclair, New Jersey, and devotes his time to his family, friends, and consuming vast quantities of coffee.
Building Intentional Spiritual Communities
A virtual event presentation by Rabbi Sid Schwarz
Please note event times are listed in PST.
ABOUT THE EVENT:
TBA
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Rabbi Sid Schwarz is a social entrepreneur, author and teacher. He is currently a Senior Fellow at Adamah: People, Planet, Purpose (formerly, Hazon). Rabbi Sid directs the Clergy Leadership Incubator (CLI), a program that trains rabbis to be visionary spiritual leaders. He also created and directs the Kenissa: Communities of Meaning Network which is identifying, convening and building the capacity of emerging spiritual communities across the country. Rabbi Sid founded and led PANIM: The Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values for 21 years. Its work centeredon integrating Jewish learning, Jewish values and social responsibility. He is also the foundingrabbi of Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation in Bethesda, MD where he continues toteach and lead services. Sid was awarded the prestigious Covenant Award for his pioneering work in the field of Jewish education and was named by Newsweek as one of the 50 most influential rabbis in North America. Sid's most recent book is Jewish Megatrends: Charting the Course of the American Jewish Future (Jewish Lights, 2013). His book, Finding a Spiritual Home: How a New Generation of Jews can Transform the American Synagogue (2000) is one of the seminal works in the field of synagogue transformation.
Who's the Anomaly? American Jews and Israel/Israelis in Contemporary Novels
A virtual event presentation by Professor Sylvia Barack Fishman
Please note the event times are listed in PST.
ABOUT THE EVENT:
This class will draw on recent American and Israeli novels that portray what it's like to be a Jew in each country as well as changing relationships between Jews in America and Jews in Israel, as Jews in both countries feel threatened by unanticipated challenges.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Sylvia Barack Fishman, Ph.D., is the Joseph and Esther Foster Professor of Judaic Studies, Emerita, in the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Dept. at Brandeis University, and was the Founding Co-Director of the Hadassah Brandeis Institute. She is the author of eight books and numerous articles and book chapters on contemporary Jewish life and culture, and received the Marshall Sklare award from the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry. Prof. Fishman served on the JOFA Board for many years and continues her active involvement.
Why Should Jews Care about Christianity, and Why Should Christians Care about Judaism?
A virtual event presentation by Professor Elias Sacks
Please note event times are listed in PST.
ABOUT THE EVENT:
What can Jews learn from Christianity, and what can Christians learn from Judaism? What might we gain from interreligious dialogue, and what challenges can such conversations pose? To what extent does a commitment to Judaism or Christianity benefit from—or perhaps even require—learning about the other tradition, and what sorts of risks might arise from these encounters? We will explore diverse answers to these questions, examining the changing ways in which Judaism and Christianity have interacted with one another, and wrestling with sources from the Hebrew Bible and New Testament to works of post-Holocaust theology.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Elias Sacks is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Jewish Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he studies Jewish thought, philosophy of religion, Jewish-Christian relations, religious ethics, and religion and politics. He is the author of Moses Mendelssohn’s Living Script: Philosophy, Practice, History, Judaism (2017), as well as articles on medieval and modern thinkers including Mendelssohn, Moses Maimonides, Baruch Spinoza, Nachman Krochmal, Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, and Jacob Taubes. Previously, Sacks served as Director of The Jewish Publication Society.
Elias Sacks is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Jewish Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he studies Jewish thought, philosophy of religion, Jewish-Christian relations, religious ethics, and religion and politics. He is the author of Moses Mendelssohn’s Living Script: Philosophy, Practice, History, Judaism (2017), as well as articles on medieval and modern thinkers including Mendelssohn, Moses Maimonides, Baruch Spinoza, Nachman Krochmal, Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, and Jacob Taubes. Previously, Sacks served as Director of The Jewish Publication Society.
Nonviolence in a violent world: Aharon Shmuel Tameres in Conversation with Martin Luther King and James Lawson
A virtual event presentation by Rabbi Aryeh Cohen
Please note event times are listed in PST.
ABOUT THE EVENT:
TBA
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
TBA