Hartman Resources for this Moment

June 10, 2020
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June 10, 2020

 

Today:

Hartman launches a new website and this page will not be updated anymore.

 

Register Now:

Running from June 29-July 23, 2020, All Together Now: Jewish Ideas for this Moment is free and open to all. Learn from almost 100 Hartman scholars over 4 weeks of inspiring learning tailor-made for this unique moment.

Alongside a wide range of offerings for the interested public, we’ll have special tracks for rabbis, college students, teens and Muslim leaders.

The learning doesn’t kick off for a few more weeks, but register now for priority access to small group seminars!

Check out our new home page :

Explore the highlights of Hartman content and programs, explore our Ideas, People, and Programs, and keep an eye out for new, improved formats for publications and videos from Hartman scholars and faculty soon.

 

The Shalom Hartman Institute remains committed to bringing ideas and insights to the Jewish community, despite the current challenging situation.

 

In a simple, concise way, this page will update you about our exciting new virtual offerings, most notably our summer celebration of ideas, “All Together Now.”

 

June 9, 2020

 

Today: Hartman launches our new website! Check out our home page for the top highlights of Hartman content and programs, explore our Ideas, People, and Programs, and keep an eye out for a new and improved format for ongoing publications and videos from Hartman scholars and faculty soon.

In a simple, concise way, this page will update you about our exciting new virtual offerings, most notably our summer celebration of ideas, “All Together Now.”

 

June 9, 2020

 

Read: Research Fellow Alan Abbey is quoted in Jane Eisner’s survey of the long history and precarious state of Jewish newspapers, “The Uncertain Future of Jewish New Media,” published by the Columbia Journalism Review.

Last Chance: Hartman Gateway Fellowship June 22 – July 29
A selective 6-week program for rising college sophomores, juniors, and seniors in North America. The Fellowship offers elements of learning, research, and practice, and includes tracks in Thought Leadership, Design Thinking, and TechEd. Fellows will be awarded a $750 stipend upon completion of the Fellowship. Applications are due Wednesday, June 10.

 

Read: David Hartman Center Rabbinic Fellow Rori Picker Neiss writes to her community about protests happening in their city and nationwide: “There are no easy answers but there is much that we can do. No one action is sufficient, and many could be uncomfortable. The work of dismantling oppression is uncomfortable work,” in the St Louis Jewish Light.

Applications Due This Week!

Emerging Jewish Thought Leaders Fellowship July 7-August 5

This summer, an extraordinary cohort of North American teens will join top Hartman scholars like Tal Becker, Elana Stein Hain, Yehuda Kurtzer, and Mijal Bitton to spend a month grappling with the pressing questions of American Jewish Life in this moment. Read about the program in eJewishPhilanthropy and send interested teens from the high school classes of ’20, ’21, and ’22 to apply here. Applications are due Friday, June 12!

 

 

All Together Now! Registration is open for #HartmanSummer 2020!! Running from June 29-July 23, 2020, All Together Now: Jewish Ideas for this Moment is free and open to all. We’ll have special tracks for rabbis, college students, teens, and Muslim leaders, alongside a wide range of offerings for lay people. Learn from almost 100 Hartman scholars over 4 weeks of inspiring learning tailor-made for this unique moment. The learning doesn’t kick off for a few more weeks, but register now for priority access to small group seminars!

 

June 8, 2020

 

Read: David Hartman Center Rabbinic Fellow Rori Picker Neiss writes to her community about protests happening in their city and nationwide: “There are no easy answers but there is much that we can do. No one action is sufficient, and many could be uncomfortable. The work of dismantling oppression is uncomfortable work,” in the St Louis Jewish Light.

Identity/Crisis: After a dramatic week of violence and protest following the very visible murder of George Floyd z”l, Yehuda Kurtzer talks with Ginna Green of Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice and Jews of Color Field Building Initiative, and Isaiah Rothstein of Hazon about the stake of American Jews in the struggle. Through deeply personal stories and historical analysis, they consider questions and obligations facing Jews to achieve the American promise of equality for all.

Remember: In Tablet, Fellows Rivka Press Schwartz and Michael Avi Helfand eulogize the great teachers of their lives: Rebbetzin Chaya Ausband z”l, the yeshivish morah of the Yavne Teachers College for Women in Cleveland, OH, and Rabbi Norman Lamm z”l, the Modern Orthodox thinker and former president of Yeshiva University.

Applications Due This Week!:

Emerging Jewish Thought Leaders Fellowship July 7-August 5

This summer, an extraordinary cohort of North American teens will join top Hartman scholars like Tal Becker, Elana Stein Hain, Yehuda Kurtzer, and Mijal Bitton to spend a month grappling with the pressing questions of American Jewish Life in this moment. Read about the program in eJewishPhilanthropy and send interested teens from the high school classes of ’20, ’21, and ’22 to apply here. Applications are due Friday, June 12!

Hartman Gateway Fellowship June 22 – July 29
A selective 6-week program for rising college sophomores, juniors, and seniors in North America. The Fellowship offers elements of learning, research, and practice, and includes tracks in Thought Leadership, Design Thinking, and TechEd. Fellows will be awarded a $750 stipend upon completion of the Fellowship. Applications are due Wednesday, June 10.

 

All Together Now! Registration is open for #HartmanSummer 2020!! Running from June 29-July 23, 2020, All Together Now: Jewish Ideas for this Moment is free and open to all. We’ll have special tracks for rabbis, college students, teens, and Muslim leaders, alongside a wide range of offerings for lay people. Learn from almost 100 Hartman scholars over 4 weeks of inspiring learning tailor-made for this unique moment. The learning doesn’t kick off for a few more weeks, but register now for priority access to small group seminars!

 

June 5, 2020 — Special Pre-Shabbat Update

In an op-ed published today in JTA, “Pluralism is a Jewish value. But pretending all ideas are equal destroys democracy,” President Yehuda Kurtzer writes, “if we value the rabbinic understanding of pluralism, we must defend it against misuses — especially those with violent consequences… To attach The New York Times’ decision to the legacy of rabbinic pluralism and the majesty of God is to desecrate them both.”

U.S. Army photo: Charles E. Spirtos/Wikimedia Commons
U.S. Army photo: Charles E. Spirtos/Wikimedia Commons

Read the full article here.

June 5, 2020

Register: While gearing up for #HartmanSummer, register now to join Research Fellow Micah Goodman speaking to the Orange

County Jewish community next week on Monday June 8 at 10:00am PDT/ 1:00pm EDT. Catch ’67: What is the Debate Over Israel Really About? Find out from one of Israel’s leading voices on the challenges and opportunities facing Israel and contemporary world Jewry.

Today:After a dramatic week of violence and protest following the very visible murder of George Floyd z”l, Yehuda Kurtzer talks with Ginna Green of Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice and Jews of Color Field Building Initiative, and Isaiah Rothstein of Hazon about the stake of American Jews in the struggle. Through deeply personal stories and historical analysis, they consider questions and obligations facing Jews to achieve the American promise of equality for all. 

Remember: In Tablet, Fellows Rivka Press Schwartz and Michael Avi Helfand eulogize the great teachers of their lives: Rebbetzin Chaya Ausband z”l, the yeshivish morah of the Yavne Teachers College for Women in Cleveland, OH, and Rabbi Norman Lamm z”l, the Modern Orthodox thinker and former president of Yeshiva University.

Hartman Summer for Students:

Emerging Jewish Thought Leaders Fellowship July 7-August 5

This summer, an extraordinary cohort of North American teens will join top Hartman scholars like Tal Becker, Elana Stein Hain, Yehuda Kurtzer, and Mijal Bitton to spend a month grappling with the pressing questions of American Jewish Life in this moment. Read about the program in eJewishPhilanthropy and send interested teens from the high school classes of ’20, ’21, and ’22 to apply here.

Hartman Gateway Fellowship June 22 – July 29
A selective 6-week program for rising college sophomores, juniors, and seniors in North America. The Fellowship offers elements of learning, research, and practice, and includes tracks in Thought Leadership, Design Thinking, and TechEd. Fellows will be awarded a $750 stipend upon completion of the Fellowship. Applications are due Wednesday, June 10.

 

All Together Now! Registration is open for #HartmanSummer 2020!! Running from June 29-July 23, 2020, All Together Now: Jewish Ideas for this Moment is free and open to all. We’ll have special tracks for rabbis, college students, teens, and Muslim leaders, alongside a wide range of offerings for lay people. Learn from almost 100 Hartman scholars over 4 weeks of inspiring learning tailor-made for this unique moment. The learning doesn’t kick off for a few more weeks, but register now for priority access to small group seminars!

 

June 4, 2020

 

All Together Now! Registration is open for #HartmanSummer 2020!! Running from June 29-July 23, 2020, All Together Now: Jewish Ideas for this Moment is free and open to all. We’ll have special tracks for rabbis, college students, teens, and Muslim leaders, alongside a wide range of offerings for lay people. Learn from almost 100 Hartman scholars over 4 weeks of inspiring learning tailor-made for this unique moment. The learning doesn’t kick off for a few more weeks, but register now for priority access to small group seminars!

 

2min 53 seconds of Silence that Scream #BlackLivesMatter: In this powerful Shavuot sermon, Faculty Member Sharon Brous, founding Rabbi of IKAR-LA, calls us to hear what was revealed to us through the video of the murder of George Floyd and to not be distracted in the wake of that revelation.

Register: While gearing up for #HartmanSummer, register now to join Research Fellow Micah Goodman speaking to the Orange County Jewish community next week on Monday June 8 at 10:00am PDT/ 1:00pm EDT. Catch ’67: What is the Debate Over Israel Really About? Find out from one of Israel’s leading voices on the challenges and opportunities facing Israel and contemporary world Jewry.

The Conversation Continues: President Yehuda Kurtzer’s piece “Courageous Leadership Now” is quoted as the jumping off point for this eJewishPhilanthropy article, “Emerging Leadership Lessons from the Crisis”.

Read: Research Fellow Gordon Tucker explains and defends Conservative Judaism’s methodology behind their recent responsum permitting the use of technology on Shabbat and Yom Tov for the purposes of virtual services in his opinion piece “Conservative Judaism Passionately Asks What’s Possible in Light of the Impossible” in The New York Jewish Week.

Hartman Summer for Students:

Emerging Jewish Thought Leaders Fellowship July 7-August 5

This summer, an extraordinary cohort of North American teens will join top Hartman scholars like Tal Becker, Elana Stein Hain, Yehuda Kurtzer, and Mijal Bitton to spend a month grappling with the pressing questions of American Jewish Life in this moment. Read about the program in eJewishPhilanthropy and send interested teens from the high school classes of ’20, ’21, and ’22 to apply here.

Hartman Gateway Fellowship June 22 – July 29
A selective 6-week program for rising college sophomores, juniors, and seniors in North America. The Fellowship offers elements of learning, research, and practice, and includes tracks in Thought Leadership, Design Thinking, and TechEd. Fellows will be awarded a $750 stipend upon completion of the Fellowship. Applications are due Wednesday, June 10.

 

All Together Now:  Hartman is going online this summer! Register now for Summer 2020 and start planning for 2021: Our Community Leadership program will run June 23–30, 2021 and the Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar will run July 6–15, 2021. Next year in Jerusalem!

 

June 3, 2020

 

All Together Now! Registration is open for #HartmanSummer 2020!! Running from June 29-July 23, 2020, All Together Now: Jewish Ideas for this Moment is free and open to all. We’ll have special tracks for rabbis, college students, teens, and Muslim leaders, alongside a wide range of offerings for lay people. Learn from almost 100 Hartman scholars over 4 weeks of inspiring learning tailor-made for this unique moment. The learning doesn’t kick off for a few more weeks, but register now for priority access to small group seminars!

 

2min 53 seconds of Silence that Scream #BlackLivesMatter: In this powerful Shavuot sermon, Faculty Member Sharon Brous, founding Rabbi of IKAR-LA, calls us to hear what was revealed to us through the video of the murder of George Floyd and to not be distracted in the wake of that revelation.

Register: While gearing up for #HartmanSummer, register now to join Research Fellow Micah Goodman speaking to the Orange County Jewish community next week on Monday June 8 at 10:00am PDT/ 1:00pm EDT. Catch ’67: What is the Debate Over Israel Really About? Find out from one of Israel’s leading voices on the challenges and opportunities facing Israel and contemporary world Jewry.

Listen: Research Fellow Yossi Klein Halevi and Co-Director of Muslim Leadership Initiative Abdullah Antepli have an interfaith conversation about God entitled Struggle or Surrender, hosted by the National Library of Israel. For a taster, read “And Then: Meeting Hate with Love,” a column in JewishBoston which quotes extensively from the conversation.

Hartman Summer for Students:

Emerging Jewish Thought Leaders Fellowship July 7-August 5

This summer, an extraordinary cohort of North American teens will join top Hartman scholars like Tal Becker, Elana Stein Hain, Yehuda Kurtzer, and Mijal Bitton to spend a month grappling with the pressing questions of American Jewish Life in this moment. Read about the program in eJewishPhilanthropy and send interested teens from the high school classes of ’20, ’21, and ’22 to apply here.

Hartman Gateway Fellowship June 22 – July 29
A selective 6-week program for rising college sophomores, juniors, and seniors in North America. The Fellowship offers elements of learning, research, and practice, and includes tracks in Thought Leadership, Design Thinking, and TechEd. Fellows will be awarded a $750 stipend upon completion of the Fellowship. Applications are due Wednesday, June 10.

 

 

Learn with Hartman Shavuot BannerIn case you missed it: Our Shavuot content isn’t gone! These recommendations, videos, articles, and study guides are evergreen.

All Together Now:  Hartman is going online this summer! Register now for Summer 2020 and start planning for 2021: Our Community Leadership program will run June 23–30, 2021 and the Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar will run July 6–15, 2021. Next year in Jerusalem!

 

June 2, 2020

 

2min 53 seconds of Silence that Scream #BlackLivesMatter: In this powerful Shavuot sermon, Faculty Member Sharon Brous, founding Rabbi of IKAR-LA, calls us to hear what was revealed to us through the video of the murder of George Floyd and to not be distracted in the wake of that revelation.

Read: David Hartman Center Fellow Sara Wolkenfeld encourages us to dive into the sea of digital Torah after Shavuot in her article “The Mountain and the Ocean” in eJewishPhilanthropy.

Listen: Research Fellow Yossi Klein Halevi and Co-Director of Muslim Leadership Initiative Abdullah Antepli have an interfaith conversation about God entitled Struggle or Surrender, hosted by the National Library of Israel.

Got Summer Plans?  Because of the ongoing pandemic, our #HartmanSummer won’t be taking place in Jerusalem for the first time in almost 40 years. Instead, it will be in your home! Join us beginning June 29 for four weeks of free learning with over 50 Hartman scholars from across Israel and North America. Our All Together Now programming will address questions about citizenship, moral responsibilities and spiritual sustenance in a time of darkness and loss through lectures, discussions and seminars. Register here to receive more information!

Hartman Summer for Students:

Emerging Jewish Thought Leaders Fellowship July 7-August 5

This summer, an extraordinary cohort of North American teens will join top Hartman scholars like Tal Becker, Elana Stein Hain, Yehuda Kurtzer, and Mijal Bitton to spend a month grappling with the pressing questions of American Jewish Life in this moment. Read about the program in eJewishPhilanthropy and send interested teens from the high school classes of ’20, ’21, and ’22 to apply here.

Hartman Gateway Fellowship June 22 – July 29
A selective 6-week program for rising college sophomores, juniors, and seniors in North America. The Fellowship offers elements of learning, research, and practice, and includes tracks in Thought Leadership, Design Thinking, and TechEd. Fellows will be awarded a $750 stipend upon completion of the Fellowship. Applications are due Wednesday, June 10.

 

 

Learn with Hartman Shavuot BannerIn case you missed it: Our Shavuot content isn’t gone! These recommendations, videos, articles, and study guides are evergreen.

All Together Now:  Hartman is going online this summer! Read about our big plans and sign up to receive more information about 2020’s virtual programming here and start planning for 2021: Our Community Leadership program will run June 23–30, 2021 and the Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar will run July 6–15, 2021. Next year in Jerusalem!

 

June 1, 2020

 

Register: Shavuot may be over, but we’re not done learning! While gearing up for #HartmanSummer, register now to join Research Fellow Micah Goodman speaking to the Orange County Jewish community next week on Monday June 8 at 10:00am PDT/ 1:00pm EDT. Catch ’67: What is the Debate Over Israel Really About? Find out from one of Israel’s leading voices on the challenges and opportunities facing Israel and contemporary world Jewry.

Got Summer Plans?  Because of the ongoing pandemic, our #HartmanSummer won’t be taking place in Jerusalem for the first time in almost 40 years. Instead, it will be in your home! Join us beginning June 29 for four weeks of free learning with over 50 Hartman scholars from across Israel and North America. Our All Together Now programming will address questions about citizenship, moral responsibilities and spiritual sustenance in a time of darkness and loss through lectures, discussions and seminars. Register here to receive more information!

Hartman Summer for Students:

Emerging Jewish Thought Leaders Fellowship July 7-August 5

This summer, an extraordinary cohort of North American teens will join top Hartman scholars like Tal Becker, Elana Stein Hain, Yehuda Kurtzer, and Mijal Bitton to spend a month grappling with the pressing questions of American Jewish Life in this moment. Read about the program in eJewishPhilanthropy and send interested teens from the high school classes of ’20, ’21, and ’22 to apply here.

Hartman Gateway Fellowship June 22 – July 29
A selective 6-week program for rising college sophomores, juniors, and seniors in North America. The Fellowship offers elements of learning, research, and practice, and includes tracks in Thought Leadership, Design Thinking, and TechEd. Fellows will be awarded a $750 stipend upon completion of the Fellowship. Applications are due Wednesday, June 10.

 

 

Learn with Hartman Shavuot BannerIn case you missed it: Our Shavuot content isn’t gone! These recommendations, videos, articles, and study guides are evergreen.

All Together Now:  Hartman is going online this summer! Read about our big plans and sign up to receive more information about 2020’s virtual programming here and start planning for 2021: Our Community Leadership program will run June 23–30, 2021 and the Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar will run July 6–15, 2021. Next year in Jerusalem!

 

May 28, 2020

 

Learn with Hartman Shavuot BannerThe Teachers of Our Teachers: Hartman scholars share recommendations of books, articles, and treats they’re reading and eating this Shavuot – explore our Up All Night video series!

Holiday Reading:

For creative responses to the broken tablets that Moshe throws down upon seeing the golden calf, read David Zvi Kalman’s short story at Lehrhaus, Moshe the Marvelous and Washington DC Manager Jennifer Raskas’ Times of Israel post, John Locke, COVID-19, and the Second Tablets.

For interpretations of the Book of Ruth, traditionally read at Shavuot, check out Washington DC Manager Jennifer Raskas’ flipbook which reads Ruth in the light of the Book of Judges published by 929, and Fellow in Residence Mijal Bitton’s article in the Forward about the resonances of the famine that begins the Book of Ruth for us today.

For writing that speaks to how this Shavuot is different from all other Shavuots, read Scholar in Residence Elana Stein Hain’s Times of Israel post about the ramifications of living Jewishly in this moment, Going to Sinai without Community, and Rabbinic Leadership Initiative alumnus Aaron Brusso’s assertion that The Rush to Return to Our Sanctuaries is Misplaced in the Forward. 

 

Hartman @ Tikkunim: Find Hartman scholars at these upcoming tikkunim across the globe!

Beit Avi Chai in Jerusalem offers a feast of prerecorded video shiurim in Hebrew and English, including a Hebrew session by Hartman Research Fellow and Scholar in Residence Tomer Persico – available now!

On Thursday night, Jew It At Home based in Los Angeles is offering prerecorded shiurim, clickless live Zoom Room tracks, and live webinars. Scholar in Residence Tomer Persico and Fellow in Residence David Zvi Kalman have contributed videos!

On Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, join Hartman scholars Channa Pinchasi, Tomer Persico, David Zvi Kalman and Chaya Gilboa at a bilingual tikkun hosted by the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto, CA! Hebrew and English sessions will be offered. See the class schedule and register now!

 

Featured: Be sure to check out our Hartman@Home: Shavuot page for a complete listing of Hartman Shavuot offerings online, including articles, videos, and study guides from our scholars in North America and Israel!

 

Got Summer Plans?  Because of the ongoing pandemic, our #HartmanSummer won’t be taking place in Jerusalem for the first time in almost 40 years. Instead, it will be in your home! Join us beginning June 29 for four weeks of free learning with over 50 Hartman scholars from across Israel and North America. Our All Together Now programming will address questions about citizenship, moral responsibilities and spiritual sustenance in a time of darkness and loss through lectures, discussions and seminars. Register here to receive more information!

Featured: This summer, an extraordinary cohort of North American teens will join top Hartman scholars like Tal Becker, Elana Stein Hain, Yehuda Kurtzer, and Mijal Bitton to spend a month grappling with the pressing questions of American Jewish Life in this moment. Read about the program in eJewishPhilanthropy and send interested teens from the classes of ’20, ’21, and ’22 to apply here.

 

May 27, 2020

 

Got Summer Plans?  Because of the ongoing pandemic, our #HartmanSummer won’t be taking place in Jerusalem for the first time in almost 40 years. Instead, it will be in your home! Join us beginning June 29 for four weeks of free learning with over 50 Hartman scholars from across Israel and North America. Our All Together Now programming will address questions about citizenship, moral responsibilities and spiritual sustenance in a time of darkness and loss through lectures, discussions and seminars. Register here to receive more information!

The Teachers of Our Teachers: Hartman scholars share recommendations of books, articles, and treats they’re reading and eating this Shavuot – explore our Up All Night video series!

Read Now: In Forward, Fellow in Residence Mijal Bitton draws our attention to the overlooked catalyst for the Book of Ruth – the famine – and what this natural disaster teaches us in our moment of calamity.

 

Hartman @ Tikkunim: Find Hartman scholars at these upcoming tikkunim across the globe!

Beit Avi Chai in Jerusalem offers a feast of prerecorded video shiurim in Hebrew and English, including a Hebrew session by Hartman Research Fellow and Scholar in Residence Tomer Persico – available now!

On Thursday night, Jew It At Home based in Los Angeles is offering prerecorded shiurim, clickless live Zoom Room tracks, and live webinars. Scholar in Residence Tomer Persico and Fellow in Residence David Zvi Kalman have contributed videos!

On Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, join Hartman scholars Channa Pinchasi, Tomer Persico, David Zvi Kalman and Chaya Gilboa at a bilingual tikkun hosted by the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto, CA! Hebrew and English sessions will be offered. See the class schedule and register now!

 

 

Featured: This summer, an extraordinary cohort of North American teens will join top Hartman scholars like Tal Becker, Elana Stein Hain, Yehuda Kurtzer, and Mijal Bitton to spend a month grappling with the pressing questions of American Jewish Life in this moment. Read about the program in eJewishPhilanthropy and send interested teens from the classes of ’20, ’21, and ’22 to apply here.

 

Learn with Hartman Shavuot BannerFeatured: Be sure to check out our Hartman@Home: Shavuot page for a complete listing of Hartman Shavuot offerings online, including articles, videos, and study guides from our scholars in North America and Israel!

All Together Now:  Hartman is going online this summer! Read about our big plans and sign up to receive more information about 2020’s virtual programming here and start planning for 2021: Our Community Leadership program will run June 23–30, 2021 and the Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar will run July 6–15, 2021. Next year in Jerusalem!

 

May 26, 2020

 

Got Summer Plans?  Because of the ongoing pandemic, our #HartmanSummer won’t be taking place in Jerusalem for the first time in almost 40 years. Instead, it will be in your home! Join us beginning June 29 for four weeks of free learning with over 50 Hartman scholars from across Israel and North America. Our All Together Now programming will address questions about citizenship, moral responsibilities and spiritual sustenance in a time of darkness and loss through lectures, discussions and seminars. Register here to receive more information!

Tomorrow: Register now to join “The Revelation will be Digitized” a panel moderated by West Coast Director of Education Joshua Ladon discussing the future of Jewish education with Miriam Heller-Stern (HUC-JIR), Daniel Septimus (Sefaria), and Lisa Colton (Darim Online) on Wednesday, May 27th at 1:00pm PDT/ 4:00pm EDT. 

Watch Now: Research Fellow Yossi Klein Halevi’s Yom Yerushalayim talk with AJC about his book, Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation.

This Weekend: Join Hartman scholars Channa Pinchasi, Tomer Persico, David Zvi Kalman and Chaya Gilboa at a bilingual tikkun hosted by the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto, CA on Saturday May 30 and Sunday May 31! Hebrew and English sessions will be offered. See the class schedule and register now!

 

Learn: Return to Sinai with Research Fellow and Yale professor Christine Hayes with Part 2 of her video lecture and study guide, Moses at Sinai: God’s Partner or Adversary? Or, catch up with Part 1 and learn both together!

 

Featured: This summer, an extraordinary cohort of North American teens will join top Hartman scholars like Tal Becker, Elana Stein Hain, Yehuda Kurtzer, and Mijal Bitton to spend a month grappling with the pressing questions of American Jewish Life in this moment. Read about the program in eJewishPhilanthropy and send interested teens from the classes of ’20, ’21, and ’22 to apply here.

 

Learn with Hartman Shavuot BannerFeatured: Be sure to check out our Hartman@Home: Shavuot page for a complete listing of Hartman Shavuot offerings online, including articles, videos, and study guides from our scholars in North America and Israel!

All Together Now:  Hartman is going online this summer! Read about our big plans and sign up to receive more information about 2020’s virtual programming here and start planning for 2021: Our Community Leadership program will run June 23–30, 2021 and the Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar will run July 6–15, 2021. Next year in Jerusalem!

 

Special Sunday Edition May 24, 2020

► WEBINAR Monday May 25 at 8:00 pm EDT

TRUTH AND RELATIONSHIPS IN A POLARIZED WORLD: Join Elana Stein Hain to explore how our attachments or revulsions to people impact how we view the truth. How do relationships make truth-telling difficult? How can different truths make or break relationships? Join us as we consider how Talmudic texts speak to questions of truth in the current moment. The session will be designed to allow for engaged participation and shared learning.

May 22, 2020

 

Today: On this week’s episode of Identity/Crisis, host Yehuda Kurtzer discusses the future of denominational Judaism with Rick Jacobs (Union for Reform Judaism) and Jacob Blumenthal (Rabbinical Assembly / United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism). Don’t forget to tell your friends to subscribe and listen to the podcast!

 

This Weekend: Four Hartman scholars are teaching at the Limmud eFestival on Sunday, May 24! Register to join David Zvi Kalman, Sara Labaton, Tomer Persico, Yehuda Kurtzer, and others.

Reading for the Long Weekend:

Scholar-in-Residence Elana Stein Hain is quoted in the Forward on the difficult position Orthodox women and their communities are put in by new New York state guidelines.

Research Fellow Micah Goodman is interviewed in Israel Hayom about the lessons we can and must carry forward from the coronavirus crisis.

 

For a longer view, Research Fellow Sarah Wolf’s dissertation on The Rabbinic Legal Imagination was spotlighted in the Ancient Jew Review. Learn the literary element of this foundational legal text!

Return to Sinai with Research Fellow and Yale professor Christine Hayes with Part 2 of her video lecture and study guide, Moses at Sinai: God’s Partner or Adversary? Or, catch up with Part 1 and learn both together!

Next week: Register now to join “The Revelation will be Digitized” a panel moderated by West Coast Director of Education Joshua Ladon discussing the future of Jewish education with Miriam Heller-Stern (HUC-JIR), Daniel Septimus (Sefaria), and Lisa Colton (Darim Online) on Wednesday, May 27th at 1:00pm PDT/ 4:00pm EDT. 

 

Featured: This summer, an extraordinary cohort of North American teens will join top Hartman scholars like Tal Becker, Elana Stein Hain, Yehuda Kurtzer, and Mijal Bitton to spend a month grappling with the pressing questions of American Jewish Life in this moment. Read about the program in eJewishPhilanthropy and send interested teens from the classes of ’20, ’21, and ’22 to apply here.

 

Learn with Hartman Shavuot BannerFeatured: Be sure to check out our Hartman@Home: Shavuot page for a complete listing of Hartman Shavuot offerings online, including articles, videos, and study guides from our scholars in North America and Israel!

All Together Now:  Hartman is going online this summer! Read about our big plans and sign up to receive more information here.

 

 

May 21, 2020

 

Tomorrow: Register to join Research Fellow Yossi Klein Halevi and AJC New England on Friday, May 22 to discuss his book Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation in honor of Yom Yerushalayim at 11am EDT.

This Weekend: Four Hartman scholars are teaching at the Limmud eFestival on Sunday, May 24! Watch the promo video and register to join David Zvi Kalman, Sara Labaton, Tomer Persico, Yehuda Kurtzer, and others.

Next week: Register now to join “The Revelation will be Digitized” a panel moderated by West Coast Director of Education Joshua Ladon discussing the future of Jewish education with Miriam Heller-Stern (HUC-JIR), Daniel Septimus (Sefaria), and Lisa Colton (Darim Online) on Wednesday, May 27th at 1:00pm PDT/ 4:00pm EDT. 

 

Featured: This summer, an extraordinary cohort of North American teens will join top Hartman scholars like Tal Becker, Elana Stein Hain, Yehuda Kurtzer, and Mijal Bitton to spend a month grappling with the pressing questions of American Jewish Life in this moment. Read about the program in eJewishPhilanthropy and send interested teens from the classes of ’20, ’21, and ’22 to apply here.

 

Learn with Hartman Shavuot BannerFeatured: Be sure to check out our Hartman@Home: Shavuot page for a complete listing of Hartman Shavuot offerings online, including articles, videos, and study guides from our scholars in North America and Israel!

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

 

May 20, 2020

 

Featured: This summer, an extraordinary cohort of North American teens will join top Hartman scholars like Tal Becker, Elana Stein Hain, Yehuda Kurtzer, and Mijal Bitton to spend a month grappling with the pressing questions of American Jewish Life in this moment. Read about the program in eJewishPhilanthropy and send interested teens from the classes of ’20, ’21, and ’22 to apply here.

Shavuot: Join Hartman scholars Channa Pinchasi, Tomer Persico, David Zvi Kalman and Chaya Gilboa at a bilingual tikkun hosted by the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto, CA on Saturday May 30 and Sunday May 31! Hebrew and English sessions will be offered. See the class schedule and register now!, and watch this space for tikkunim across the country featuring Hartman scholars!

This Week: Register to join Research Fellow Yossi Klein Halevi and AJC New England on Friday, May 22 to discuss his book Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation in honor of Yom Yerushalayim at 11am EDT.

Featured: Be sure to check out our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

 

May 18, 2020

Today: Join Scholar-in-Residence Elana Stein Hain this afternoon at 2pm EDT for a panel discussion with  Laura Shaw Frank and Zev Eleff, author of the new book Authentically Orthodox: A New Way to Understand Change in American Orthodox Life. Register here!

 

Quick Read: Research Fellow Aryeh Cohen reminds us of the need for moral outrage in the face of impossible choices, in hospital intakes and in our lives.

Plan Ahead: Register now to join “The Revelation will be Digitized” a panel moderated by West Coast Director of Education Joshua Ladon discussing the future of Jewish education with Miriam Heller-Stern (HUC-JIR), Daniel Septimus (Sefaria), and Lisa Colton (Darim Online) on Wednesday, May 27th at 1:00pm PDT/ 4:00pm EDT. 

 

Featured: Be sure to check out our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

 

May 15, 2020

Today: On this week’s episode of Identity/Crisis, host Yehuda Kurtzer chats with OneTable Exec Director Aliza Kline and CNN contributor Elissa Strauss about the delights, challenges and ethics of cooking and parenting while everyone is stuck at home. Don’t forget to tell your friends to subscribe and listen to the podcast!

 

Shavuot: Start your ascent to Sinai in plenty of time! Hartman Research Fellow and Yale professor Christine Hayes begins our journey with the first of a two part series exploring God and Moshe’s relationship at the moment of revelation and the aftermath of the Golden Calf. Watch the lecture, learn the sources, and come back for part two!

 

Featured: Be sure to check out our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

 

May 14, 2020

Watch: Research Fellows Aryeh Cohen and Shaul Magid discuss why Meir Kahane matters in this conversation about the struggle for Jewish identity through the American Jewish University’s B’Yachad Together program (50 minutes).

Listen: The Jewish Women’s Repertory Company sings “For Now” from acclaimed musical Avenue Q. See if you can spot Hartman’s Los Angeles Director, Michelle Bider Stone!

Register: Four Hartman scholars are teaching at the Limmud eFestival on Sunday, May 24! Register here to join David Zvi Kalman, Sara Labaton, Tomer Persico, Yehuda Kurtzer, and others a week from Sunday.

Featured: Be sure to check out our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

 

May 13, 2020

 

Featured: Four Hartman scholars are teaching at the Limmud eFestival on Sunday, May 24! Watch the promo video and register to join David Zvi Kalman, Sara Labaton, Tomer Persico, Yehuda Kurtzer, and others a week from Sunday.

Mazal Tov: Masua Sagiv, a post-doctoral fellow at the David Hartman Center for Intellectual Leadership, was awarded the prestigious Ben Halperin Award for outstanding doctoral work in the field of Israel Studies for her dissertation, “A Time to Rend, and a Time to Sew – Halakhic Feminism in Israel between Law and Society.”

 

Read: Micah Goodman’s piece in Haaretz, What the Coronavirus Can Teach Us About the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, where he encourages us to apply the non-utopian, non-binary thinking that the Covid-19 crisis is teaching us to the conflict. 

 

Featured: Be sure to check out our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

 

May 12, 2020

Featured: Donniel Hartman re-imagines the relationship between Jews around the world in light of today’s growing tensions and challenges in Together, Apart, and Alone: Thoughts on the Jewish Community in Our Time, his lecture to the Detroit Jewish community last week.

Mazal Tov: Masua Sagiv, a post-doctoral fellow at the David Hartman Center for Intellectual Leadership, was awarded the Ben Halperin Prize for outstanding doctoral work in the field of Israeli Studies for her dissertation, “A Time to Rend, and a Time to Sew – Halakhic Feminism in Israel between Law and Society.”

Lag B’Omer: Read Dan Friedman’s reflections on the Omer beard in the Forward last year, and celebrate safely!

 

Read: Donniel Hartman’s important article in the Times of Israel about the Israeli government’s annexation proposal. Annexation Now?
What does a desire to annex parts of Judea and Samaria at this globally troubled moment in history say about Israel and its values? 

 

Featured: Be sure to check out our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

May 11, 2020

Today: Read Donniel Hartman’s important article in the Times of Israel about the Israeli government’s annexation proposal. Annexation Now?
What does a desire to annex parts of Judea and Samaria at this globally troubled moment in history say about Israel and its values? 

Featured: Watch Elana Stein Hain conclude her webinar mini-series, Talmud from the Balcony, with a conversation on how the current pandemic is a humbling moment for humanity, one that challenges how we think about the power dynamic between humans and nature.

Featured: Listen to Hartman scholar in residence, Rachel Rosenthal, talking about stories of infertility in the Bible and her own experiences as a modern Orthodox woman on Tablet’s Unorthodox podcast episode Chai Fidelity.

Featured: Subscribe and listen to the latest Identity/Crisis podcast with host Yehuda Kurtzer. This week he discusses the Netflix series Unorthodox and depictions of Jewish culture in TV and film, with guests Joseph Cedar (director of Oscar-nominated Footnote), Naomi Seidman (author of My Scandalous Rejection of Unorthodox in Jewish Review of Books) and Shayna Weiss (Israeli television scholar and Associate Director of Schusterman Center for Israel Studies).

Conversation: Join A Wider Bridge in conversation with Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, Yossi Klein Halevi, to better understand the complexity of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.

Navigating the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict through the LGBTQ Lens will focus both on the history of the conflict and the existing challenges today preventing peace and security. We will also explore the conflict through the lens of the LGBTQ community and what role LGBTQ activists are playing in the peace movement. May 14 12:30 pm EDT Register here.

Featured: Be sure to check out our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

May 8, 2020

Today: Listen to the new Identity/Crisis podcast with host Yehuda Kurtzer. This week he discusses the Netflix series Unorthodox and depictions of Jewish culture in TV and film, with guests Joseph Cedar (director of Oscar-nominated Footnote), Naomi Seidman (author of My Scandalous Rejection of Unorthodox in Jewish Review of Books) and Shayna Weiss (Israeli television scholar and Associate Director of Schusterman Center for Israel Studies).

Don’t forget to tell your friends to subscribe and listen to the podcast!

► Watch the webinar from last night
Humanity’s Power over Nature…According to the Rabbis
Elana Stein Hain concludes her webinar mini-series, Talmud from the Balcony, with a conversation on how the current pandemic is a humbling moment for humanity, one that challenges how we think about the power dynamic between humans and nature.

 

Featured: Listen to Hartman scholar in residence, Rachel Rosenthal, talking about stories of infertility in the Bible and her own experiences as a modern Orthodox woman on Tablet’s Unorthodox podcast episode Chai Fidelity.

Conversation: Join A Wider Bridge in conversation with Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, Yossi Klein Halevi, to better understand the complexity of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.

Navigating the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict through the LGBTQ Lens will focus both on the history of the conflict and the existing challenges today preventing peace and security. We will also explore the conflict through the lens of the LGBTQ community and what role LGBTQ activists are playing in the peace movement. May 14 12:30 pm EDT Register here.

Featured: Be sure to check out our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

May 7, 2020

► WEBINAR Today, May 7 at 8:00 pm EDT, Register here.
Humanity’s Power over Nature…According to the Rabbis
Elana Stein Hain concludes her webinar mini-series, Talmud from the Balcony, with a conversation on how the current pandemic is a humbling moment for humanity, one that challenges how we think about the power dynamic between humans and nature.

Today: Watch a live recording of the Identity/Crisis podcast at 9:00 am EDT on JewishLIVE (or on our Facebook page).

Host Yehuda Kurtzer discusses the Netflix series Unorthodox and depictions of Jewish culture in TV and film, with guests Joseph Cedar (director of Oscar-nominated Footnote), Naomi Seidman (author of My Scandalous Rejection of Unorthodox in Jewish Review of Books) and Shayna Weiss (Israeli television scholar and Associate Director of Schusterman Center for Israel Studies). Then subscribe and listen to the podcast!

Featured: Protesters went to the Michigan state house and used “Nazi… imagery to criticize Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, social distancing and sheltering-in-place.” Read senior rabbinic fellow Asher Lopatin in The Detroit Free Press, denouncing the trivialisation of the Holocaust.

Conversation: Join A Wider Bridge in conversation with Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, Yossi Klein Halevi, to better understand the complexity of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.

Navigating the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict through the LGBTQ Lens will focus both on the history of the conflict and the existing challenges today preventing peace and security. We will also explore the conflict through the lens of the LGBTQ community and what role LGBTQ activists are playing in the peace movement. May 14 12:30 pm EDT Register here.

Featured: Be sure to check out our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

May 6, 2020

► WEBINAR Today, May 6 noon EDT  Register here.

Join Shalom Hartman President Donniel Hartman as he re-imagines the relationship between Jews around the world in light of today’s growing tensions and challenges. Together, Apart, and Alone: Thoughts on the Jewish Community in Our Time is presented in partnership with Congregation Beth Ahm in West Bloomfield, Michigan.
The Jewish people are experiencing upheaval as we are forced to separate from our community, and the family metaphor for Jewish peoplehood is taking on new meaning as the gap between American and Israeli Jews continues to widen.

Today: Listen to Hartman  David Zvi Kalman talking to Interleaved: a talmudic podcast, talking about the nature of time, how the rabbis saw it and how our modern understanding might change all that. And read him in Tablet, proposing that an innovative new Nintendo children’s game, Animal Crossing, might be the lens through which we see the Jewish future.

Featured: Protesters went to the Michigan state house and used “Nazi… imagery to criticize Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, social distancing and sheltering-in-place.” Read senior rabbinic fellow Asher Lopatin in The Detroit Free Press, denouncing the trivialisation of the Holocaust.

Featured: Read Hartman fellow Michael A. Helfand in Tablet, discussing the impact on the fight against the novel coronavirus of the ill-phrased attack on the Jewish community by New York mayor Bill de Blasio.

► WEBINAR Tomorrow, May 7 at 8:00 pm EDT, Register here.
Humanity’s Power over Nature…According to the Rabbis
Elana Stein Hain concludes her webinar mini-series, Talmud from the Balcony, with a conversation on how the current pandemic is a humbling moment for humanity, one that challenges how we think about the power dynamic between humans and nature.

Required Reading: Read Israel’s Arab Moment by Yossi Klein Halevi in the Atlantic. Can the shared disaster of COVID-19 become a pivotal point for Israel’s minority Arab population?

Featured: Be sure to check out our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

May 5, 2020

Today: Read David Zvi Kalman in Tablet, proposing that an innovative new Nintendo children’s game, Animal Crossing, might be the lens through which we see the Jewish future.

Featured: In Hadassah magazine, Yossi Klein Halevi discusses the impact of his 2018 best-selling book, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor on himself and some of his young Arab readers.

► WEBINAR Tomorrow, Wednesday, May 6 noon EDT  Register here.

Join Shalom Hartman President Donniel Hartman as he re-imagines the relationship between Jews around the world in light of today’s growing tensions and challenges. Together, Apart, and Alone: Thoughts on the Jewish Community in Our Time is presented in partnership with Congregation Beth Ahm in West Bloomfield, Michigan.
The Jewish people are experiencing upheaval as we are forced to separate from our community, and the family metaphor for Jewish peoplehood is taking on new meaning as the gap between American and Israeli Jews continues to widen.

► WEBINAR Thursday, May 7 at 8:00 pm EDT, Register here.
Humanity’s Power over Nature…According to the Rabbis
Elana Stein Hain concludes her webinar mini-series, Talmud from the Balcony, with a conversation on how the current pandemic is a humbling moment for humanity, one that challenges how we think about the power dynamic between humans and nature.

Required Reading: Read Israel’s Arab Moment by Yossi Klein Halevi in the Atlantic. Can the shared disaster of COVID-19 become a pivotal point for Israel’s minority Arab population?

Featured: Be sure to check out our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

May 4th Be With You

Listen:  Yehuda Kurtzer and guests Tomer Persico (Hartman’s Bay Area scholar and visiting professor of Jewish Law and Israel Studies, UC Berkeley) and Sigalit Ur (David Hartman Center Fellow and member of the Beit Midrash for Israeli Rabbis) discuss the concept of home and homeland.

Thinking both in terms of terms of America and Israel and the renewed importance of home during the pandemic, they explore contemporary celebrations and historical texts.

Subscribe and listen to the podcast!

► WEBINAR Wednesday, May 6 noon EDT, Register here.

Join Shalom Hartman President Donniel Hartman as he re-imagines the relationship between Jews around the world in light of today’s growing tensions and challenges. Together, Apart, and Alone: Thoughts on the Jewish Community in Our Time is presented in partnership with Congregation Beth Ahm in West Bloomfield, Michigan.
The Jewish people are experiencing upheaval as we are forced to separate from our community, and the family metaphor for Jewish peoplehood is taking on new meaning as the gap between American and Israeli Jews continues to widen.

► WEBINAR Thursday, May 7 at 8:00 pm EDT, Register here.
Humanity’s Power over Nature…According to the Rabbis
Elana Stein Hain concludes her webinar mini-series, Talmud from the Balcony, with a conversation on how the current pandemic is a humbling moment for humanity, one that challenges how we think about the power dynamic between humans and nature.

Featured: Read COVID-19, Haredi Jewry, and “Magical” Thinking, by Shaul Magid in Tablet. Why are we judging the ultra-Orthodox for practicing what other Jews preach?

Required Reading: Read Israel’s Arab Moment by Yossi Klein Halevi in the Atlantic. Can the shared disaster of COVID-19 become a pivotal point for Israel’s minority Arab population?

Featured: Be sure to check out our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

May 1, 2020

Today: Read Israel’s Arab Moment by Yossi Klein Halevi in the Atlantic. Can the shared disaster of COVID-19 become a pivotal point for Israel’s minority Arab population?

Register: Join Shalom Hartman President Donniel Hartman as he re-imagines the relationship between Jews around the world in light of today’s growing tensions and challenges. Together, Apart, and Alone: Thoughts on the Jewish Community in Our Time is presented in partnership with Congregation Beth Ahm in West Bloomfield, Michigan. Wednesday, May 6 at noon EDT.
The Jewish people are experiencing upheaval as we are forced to separate from our community, and the family metaphor for Jewish peoplehood is taking on new meaning as the gap between American and Israeli Jews continues to widen.

Featured: Read COVID-19, Haredi Jewry, and “Magical” Thinking, by Shaul Magid in Tablet. Why are we judging the ultra-Orthodox for practicing what other Jews preach?

► WEBINAR Thursday, May 7 at 8:00 pm EDT , Register here.
Humanity’s Power over Nature…According to the Rabbis
Elana Stein Hain concludes her webinar mini-series, Talmud from the Balcony, with a conversation on how the current pandemic is a humbling moment for humanity, one that challenges how we think about the power dynamic between humans and nature.

Featured:  Yehuda Kurtzer and guests Tomer Persico (Hartman’s Bay Area scholar and visiting professor of Jewish Law and Israel Studies, UC Berkeley) and Sigalit Ur (David Hartman Center Fellow and member of the Beit Midrash for Israeli Rabbis) discuss the concept of home and homeland.

Thinking both in terms of terms of America and Israel and the renewed importance of home during the pandemic, they explore contemporary celebrations and historical texts.

Subscribe and listen to the podcast!

Featured: Be sure to check out our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

April 30, 2020

Today: Watch a live recording of the Identity/Crisis podcast at 11:00 am EDT on JewishLIVE (or on their Facebook page).

Yehuda Kurtzer and guests Tomer Persico (Hartman’s Bay Area scholar and visiting professor of Jewish Law and Israel Studies, UC Berkeley) and Sigalit Ur (David Hartman Center Fellow and member of the Beit Midrash for Israeli Rabbis) will discuss the concept of home and homeland, thinking both in terms of terms of America and Israel and the renewed importance of home during the pandemic. Then subscribe and listen to the podcast!

Featured:  If you missed our Yom Ha’atzmaut offerings yesterday, take a look at our Special Yom Ha’atzmaut webpage!

Featured: Watch our roundtable discussion (in partnership with JFNA) about the state of the Jewish people in the “Age of Corona” with Yehuda Kurtzer, Donniel Hartman and Nechumi Yaffe, moderated by Sara Labaton.

Featured: Be sure to check out our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

April 29, 2020 Happy 72nd Birthday to Israel!

► YOM HA’ATZMAUT  

Visit our Special Yom Ha’atzmaut webpage!

Today: Make sure to register for a roundtable discussion (in partnership with JFNA, sign up here) with Yehuda Kurtzer, Donniel Hartman, Nechumi Yaffe and Sara Labaton.

Listen: With Yossi Klein Halevi as he discusses 72 Years of Israel in 12 Songs, his playlist of Israeli music.

Watch: As Tal Becker addresses the Jewish challenges of going from no home to two homes. What has it meant for the Jewish people to feel at home?

Consider: The insights of rabbis Angela Buchdahl (NY) and Dotan Arieli (Israel) – in conversation with Tal Becker – as they unpack their own separate, yet connected, Jewish senses of home.

Study: Different models and metaphors of Jewish peoplehood through guiding questions and texts from our noted iEngage research team.

Explore: The Miracle of Hebrew, in Under 15 Minutes as Channa Pinchasi explains how the Hebrew language bridges from ancient to modern and from holy to mundane (in Hebrew).

Analyze: Three examples of Israeli poetry from the 1940’s and the past decade, with a study kit created by Rachel Korazim.

Watch:  Donniel Hartman discuss Yom Ha’atzmaut “In the Rabbi’s Study” with Rabbi Ed Feinstein of Valley Beth Shalom synagogue in LA.

Featured: Be sure to check out our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

April 28, 2020

Today: Today is Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Remembrance Day. Tonight and tomorrow is Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day. We’re on our way from commemoration to celebration.

Find Thought-Provoking Resources: Here are lectures, essays and thoughts about Yom Ha’atzmaut itself and also the “Israeli High Holidays” on our Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut resource page. It features essays and videos by Yehuda Kurtzer, Channa Pinchasi, Donniel Hartman, Ruth Calderon and more.

Prepare for Yom Ha’atzmaut: Make sure to register for a roundtable discussion (in partnership with JFNA, sign up here) with Yehuda Kurtzer, Donniel Hartman, Nechumi Yaffe and Sara Labaton. Register here.

► YOM HA’ATZMAUT  

Visit our Special Yom Ha’atzmaut webpage!

Listen: With Yossi Klein Halevi as he discusses 72 Years of Israel in 12 Songs, his playlist of Israeli music.

Watch: As Tal Becker addresses the Jewish challenges of going from no home to two homes. What has it meant for the Jewish people to feel at home?

Consider: The insights of rabbis Angela Buchdahl (NY) and Dotan Arieli (Israel) – in conversation with Tal Becker – as they unpack their own separate, yet connected, Jewish senses of home.

Study: Different models and metaphors of Jewish peoplehood through guiding questions and texts from our noted iEngage research team.

Explore: The Miracle of Hebrew, in Under 15 Minutes as Channa Pinchasi explains how the Hebrew language bridges from ancient to modern and from holy to mundane (in Hebrew).

Analyze: Three examples of Israeli poetry from the 1940’s and the past decade, with a study kit created by Rachel Korazim.

Watch:  Donniel Hartman discuss Yom Ha’atzmaut “In the Rabbi’s Study” with Rabbi Ed Feinstein of Valley Beth Shalom synagogue in LA.

In the News: A conference about ethics in the time of a global pandemic featured Hartman scholars Noam Zohar and Irit Offer Stark. Read what they and their colleagues had to say in the Times of Israel.

Featured: Be sure to check out our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

April 27, 2020

Today: Watch Donniel Hartman “In the Rabbi’s Study” with Rabbi Ed Feinstein of Valley Beth Shalom synagogue in LA. Monday, April 27 at 7pm PDT / 10pm EDT.

► YOM HAZIKARON  

Tonight and tomorrow is Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Remembrance Day. It’s a somber moment of reflection and gratitude to those who have made our lives possible.

Read: A timeless essay by our founder, David Hartman about the crucial importance of memory and aspiration on the way from commemoration to celebration.

Find More: Here are lectures, essays and thoughts about the “Israeli High Holidays” on our Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut resource page. It features essays and videos by Yehuda Kurtzer, Channa Pinchasi, Donniel Hartman, Ruth Calderon and more.

► YOM HA’ATZMAUT  

Tomorrow night and Wednesday is Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day. This year we face an Independence Day unlike any other in the 72-year history of the State of Israel. Over the course of next week Hartman will host a series of activities to question, celebrate and learn for Hartman@Home: Yom Ha’atzmaut.

Register: Make sure to sign up to listen to a roundtable discussion (in partnership with JFNA, register here) with Yehuda Kurtzer, Donniel Hartman, Nechumi Yaffe and Sara Labaton. Register here.

Upcoming: Our coverage will be posted later today and will include Yossi Klein Halevi discussing Israeli music, Channa Pinchasi explaining the miracle of Hebrew and Tal Becker, Angela Buchdahl and Dotan Arieli unpacking personal and theoretical ideas of Jewish at-homeness. Plus study guides and much more! Click here for details.

Featured: Listen to Identity/Crisis, the weekly podcast that gets to the ideas behind the news. This week Yehuda Kurtzer and guests Stephanie Ives (Head of school at Beit Rabban Day School) and Ethan Tucker (President and rosh yeshiva at Machon Hadar) discuss Jewish education: the industry, the practice, the immense parental responsibility and the sheer joy of it.

Identity/Crisis is available on Spotify, iTunes, and all major platforms.

Featured: Be sure to check out our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

April 24, 2020 A Double Helping for Shabbat

Today: Listen to the new episode of Identity/Crisis, the weekly podcast that gets to the ideas behind the news.

Teaching Judaism at home is hard, here’s what you can do.

Yehuda Kurtzer and guests Stephanie Ives (Head of school at Beit Rabban Day School) and Ethan Tucker (President and rosh yeshiva at Machon Hadar) discuss Jewish education: the industry, the practice, the immense parental responsibility and the sheer joy of it.

Identity/Crisis is available on Spotify, iTunes, and all major platforms.

Featured: Hartman Scholar in Residence and Director of Faculty Elana Stein Hain continues her Talmud from the Balcony mini-series with a discussion of  Pikuach Nefesh: The Primacy of Saving a Life. Find her sources here.

Today: Visit Tablet Magazine to read the new poem, Psalm, by Hartman faculty member Zohar Atkins.

Today: Visit Reform Judaism’s blog to read an article of hope looking ahead toward May, by senior rabbinic fellow Michael L. Feshbach.

Today: Hartman Director of LA, Michelle Bider Stone — who has lots of hair — discusses baldness and using razors to cut hair during this pandemic.

► YOM HA’ATZMAUT  

Upcoming: This year we face an Independence Day unlike any other in the 72-year history of the State of Israel. Over the course of next week Hartman will host a series of activities to question, celebrate and learn for Yom Ha’atzmaut.

This will include a roundtable discussion (in partnership with JFNA, register here) with Yehuda Kurtzer, Donniel Hartman, Nechumi Yaffe and Sara Labaton. Register here.

Don’t miss Yossi Klein Halevi discussing Israeli music, Channa Pinchasi explaining the miracle of Hebrew and Tal Becker, Angela Buchdahl and Dotan Arieli unpacking personal and theoretical ideas of Jewish at-homeness. Plus study guides and much more! Click here for details.

Featured: As part of our Yom Haatzmaut offering, North American Scholar in Residence Mijal Bitton and Hartman Research Fellow Tehila Friedman, program director at Shaharit, a think tank promoting a new social covenant in Israel, discuss how Israeli society is feeling about its leadership, the current moment in Israeli politics, and the strain on peoplehood in the time of coronavirus.

 

Featured: Be sure to check out our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

April 23, 2020

Today:  For the first part of our Yom Ha’atzmaut offering (watch for much more next week), North American Scholar in Residence Mijal Bitton and Hartman Research Fellow Tehila Friedman, program director at Shaharit, a think tank promoting a new social covenant in Israel, will discuss Government and Peoplehood in Israeli Society During COVID-19.

Find out how Israeli society is feeling about its leadership, the current moment in Israeli politics, and the strain on peoplehood in the time of coronavirus. Today from 1:00-2:15 pm EDT. Register here.

Mijal Bitton
Tehila Friedman

 

 

 

Today: Hartman research fellow Rivka Press Schwartz will give discuss Race And Us: White Flight and Jewish Day Schools in partnership with B’nai Jeshurun in New York. Today from 7:00-9:00 pm EDT. Register  before noon.

The Jewish community takes great pride in education. But the history of private schools for Jews in America is not only a history of loving learning, it is also a story of race and class, of white flight and suburbanization. This lecture will confront some of the more challenging parts of that history—the stories we don’t tell—and ask questions about implications in the past, the recent present and the current COVID-19 crisis. Register for Race And Us: White Flight and Jewish Day Schools here.

In the News: As Andrew Silow-Carroll, editor of the New York Jewish Week, writes about the possibilities of an American Jewish world after the pandemic, he cites Yehuda Kurtzer on the possibilities of collective mobilization and Rivka Press Schwartz on the challenges of racial and class disparity.

Featured: Be sure to check out our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

April 22, 2020 — Happy Earth Day!

Today:  Hartman Scholar in Residence and Director of Faculty Elana Stein Hain continues her Talmud from the Balcony mini-series with a discussion of  Pikuach Nefesh: The Primacy of Saving a Life on Wednesday, April 22 at 8pm EDT. Register here.

Featured:  Listen to Hartman research fellow Hizky Shoham discuss the relationship between Passover and Independence Day in Israel. Shmuel Rosner discusses with Shoham his newest book, “Israel Celebrates: Jewish Holidays and Civic Culture in Israel.”

Tomorrow: As part of our Yom Ha’atzmaut offering, North American Scholar in Residence Mijal Bitton and Hartman Research Fellow Tehila Friedman, program director at Shaharit, a think tank promoting a new social covenant in Israel, will discuss Government and Peoplehood in Israeli Society During COVID-19. Find out how Israeli society is feeling about its leadership, the current moment in Israeli politics, and the strain on peoplehood in the time of coronavirus. Thursday, April 23 from 1:00-2:15pm EDT. Register here.

Mijal Bitton
Tehila Friedman

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow: Hartman research fellow, Rivka Press Schwartz will give the Race and Us lecture in partnership with B’nai Jeshurun in New York. Thursday, April 23 from 7:00-9:00pm EDT. Register  before noon.

The Jewish community takes great pride in education. But the history of private schools for Jews in America is not only a history of loving learning, it is also a story of race and class, of white flight and suburbanization. This lecture will confront some of the more challenging parts of that history—the stories we don’t tell—and ask questions about implications in the past, the recent present and the current COVID-19 crisis. Register for Race and Us here.

Featured: Be sure to check out our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

April 21, 2020

For Yom HaShoah: Read the “Untimely Meditations” of Shraga Bar-on, director of the David Hartman Center, whose grandmother was freed from Auschwitz by the Red Army. At the Times of Israel, he talks poignantly about being a third-generation Shoah survivor.

Today: Learn iEngage with Lauren Berkun, starting with this year’s new video series, Together and Apart: the Future of Jewish Peoplehood. Register for this free Hartman iEngage online course, Tuesdays beginning April 21 at 12:00 noon EDT (10 sessions). Learn more about the online course >

Tomorrow: Hartman Scholar in Residence and Director of Faculty Elana Stein Hain continues her Talmud from the Balcony mini-series with a discussion of  Pikuach Nefesh: The Primacy of Saving a Life on Wednesday, April 22 at 8pm EDT. Register here.

Featured: Listen to our Identity/Crisis podcast where Yehuda Kurtzer talks with Laura Everett (executive director of the Massachusetts Council of Churches) and Maggie Siddiqi (director of the Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative at the Center for American Progress) about the challenges facing different faiths as we journey through the season of Passover, Easter and Ramadan. 

Identity/Crisis is available on Spotify, iTunes, and all major platforms.

Featured: Be sure to check out our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

April 20, 2020

We are writing to share the difficult decision that our #HartmanSummer programs will not take place in Jerusalem this year. This marks the first summer in nearly 40 consecutive years when the Hartman Beit Midrash will not be filled with leaders from North America in July, and we are really disappointed.

We did not make this decision lightly. But we simply cannot predict when the current protocols of ‘social distancing’ will change, or when it will be considered safe to travel, or when international borders will once again be more easily traversed. In some ways, this decision is an act of citizenship in our democracies, and an act of solidarity with all those brave individuals working to contain this pandemic and depending on all of us to make intentional sacrifices and changes to our social behavior to make their work possible.

In the next few weeks we will share in greater detail a variety of inclusive online programs that will replace our in-person summer retreats and seminars. Our summer content will address the topic of Together and Apart and Alone: Jewish Peoplehood, Community, and Identity in a Pandemic. Our Shalom Hartman Institute faculty is hard at work developing ideas and curating content to respond to the world-changing, singular event of COVID-19 which is already reshaping our attitudes about collective community, and raising important questions about citizenship, nationalism, democracy, interpersonal relationships, theology, spirituality, and social responsibility.

As always we are committed to putting ideas in the hands of leaders and shaping a Judaism of meaning that can stand up to our challenges; and this is an important moment for ideas, for Torah, and for thought-leadership on behalf of our community and our tradition. Even as we cannot gather in person this summer in Jerusalem, we promise to provide you with the strongest educational experience we can create from afar. We also anticipate complementing core educational programs with continued major public offerings in the spirit of our Hartman@Home series that has been running since March – including our Yom Ha’atzmaut offerings, the book launch for The New Jewish Canon, cultural programs, public conversations with leading figures in Israel, and much more.

If you are registered for one of our summer programs, the Shalom Hartman Institute will offer full refunds of registration fees. Program directors will be in touch with specific details in the coming days and we appreciate your patience as we work out the logistics of this unprecedented situation. Like many other organizations, however, we are carrying significant ongoing costs that are not recouped in canceling our programs. We would be grateful if you would consider converting all or part of your registration fees into a tax-deductible donation to the Institute to support our ongoing work, or into registration fees for future Hartman programs.

As always, we are grateful to you – our community of learners – for making the Hartman Beit Midrash your home, and for affirming the centrality of “Hartman Torah” in your lives and in your communities. We look forward to seeing you online, and we cannot wait to welcome you back in the future. As we all said earlier this month, in our homes across the Jewish world – next year in Jerusalem.

With love,

Donniel Hartman
President, Shalom Hartman Institute

Yehuda Kurtzer
President, Shalom Hartman Institute of North America

April 20, 2020

Today: Hartman commemorates Yom HaShoah with a Hitkansut ceremony on Zoom (Hebrew).

Featured: In the Wall Street Journal Michael Helfand argues that, despite separation of church and state, states might think of funding clergy salaries as a response to the COVID-19 crisis.

Featured: Read Mijal Bitton at JTA on why coming out of “Egypt” means we are obliged to keep our eyes on the most vulnerable in our community.

Featured: Listen to our Identity/Crisis podcast where Yehuda Kurtzer talks with Laura Everett (executive director of the Massachusetts Council of Churches) and Maggie Siddiqi (director of the Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative at the Center for American Progress) about the challenges facing different faiths as we journey through the season of Passover, Easter and Ramadan. 

Identity/Crisis is available on Spotify, iTunes, and all major platforms.

Also: Read Shraga Bar-on, director of the David Hartman Center, at Times of Israel on the moral struggle at the heart of Israel’s COVID crisis.

Learning Opportunity: Learn iEngage with Lauren Berkun, starting with this year’s new video series, Together and Apart: the Future of Jewish Peoplehood. Register for this free Hartman iEngage online course, Tuesdays beginning April 21 at 12:00 noon EDT (10 sessions). Learn more about online course >

Learning Opportunity: Hartman Scholar in Residence and Director of Faculty Elana Stein Hain continues her Talmud from the Balcony mini-series with a discussion of  Pikuach Nefesh: The Primacy of Saving a Life on Wednesday, April 22 at 8pm EDT. Register here.

Featured: Be sure to check out our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

April 17, 2020

Today: Listen to the new episode of Identity/Crisis, the weekly podcast that gets to the ideas behind the news.

This week, “No mosque for Ramadan, no church for Easter, no shul for Passover. Now what?”

Yehuda Kurtzer and guests Laura Everett (executive director of the Massachusetts Council of Churches) and Maggie Siddiqi (director of the Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative at the Center for American Progress) will discuss the challenges facing different faiths as we journey through the season of Passover, Easter and Ramadan.

Identity/Crisis is available on Spotify, iTunes, and all major platforms.

Featured: In the Wall Street Journal Michael Helfand argues that, despite separation of church and state, states might think of funding clergy salaries as a response to the COVID-19 crisis.

Featured: Read Mijal Bitton at JTA on why coming out of “Egypt” means we are obliged to keep our eyes on the most vulnerable in our community.

Upcoming: Hartman Scholar in Residence and Director of Faculty Elana Stein Hain continues her Talmud from the Balcony mini-series with a discussion of  Pikuach Nefesh: The Primacy of Saving a Life on Wednesday, April 22 at 8pm EDT. Register here.

Featured: Be sure to check out our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

April 14, 2020 Our Last Post of Passover

Today: Watch a live recording of the Identity/Crisis podcast at 11am EDT on JewishLIVE (or on their Facebook channel).

Yehuda Kurtzer and guests Laura Everett (executive director of the Massachusetts Council of Churches) and Maggie Siddiqi (director of the Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative at the Center for American Progress) will discuss the challenges facing different faiths as we journey through the season of Passover, Easter and Ramadan. Then subscribe and listen to the podcast!

Today: Listen to Yossi Klein Halevi at noon EDT talking about Israeli politics during the pandemic to Professor David Schanzer from the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.

Today: Read Mijal Bitton at JTA on why coming out of “Egypt” means we are obliged to keep our eyes on the most vulnerable in our community.

Featured: Read the Times of Israel where research fellow Aliza Sperling writes about what lies behind the mask of matzah!

Featured: Read the latest Canadian news on CBC, where senior rabbinic fellow Lisa Grushcow says Montrealers’ Passover celebrations won’t be lessened by COVID-19.

Featured: Listen to Yossi Klein Halevi “In the Rabbi’s Study” with Rabbi Ed Feinstein of Valley Beth Shalom synagogue in LA.

Upcoming: Hartman Scholar in Residence and Director of Faculty Elana Stein Hain continues her Talmud from the Balcony mini-series with a discussion of  Pikuach Nefesh: The Primacy of Saving a Life on Wednesday, April 22 at 8pm EDT. Register here.

Featured: We have launched our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

April 13, 2020 Moadim l’Simcha to Everyone

Today: Listen to Yossi Klein Halevi “In the Rabbi’s Study” with Rabbi Ed Feinstein of Valley Beth Shalom synagogue in LA, at 7pm PDT (10pm EDT).

Featured: As part of Limmud Michigan, Hartman Fellow in Residence David Zvi Kalman, offered a live Zoom webinar entitled, What is Shabbat in the 21st Century?

Upcoming: Listen to Yossi Klein Halevi at noon on Tuesday April 14, talking about Israeli politics during the pandemic to Professor David Schanzer from the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.

Upcoming: Hartman Scholar in Residence and Director of Faculty Elana Stein Hain continues her Talmud from the Balcony mini-series with a discussion of  Pikuach Nefesh: The Primacy of Saving a Life on Wednesday, April 22 at 8pm EDT. Register here.

Featured: We have launched our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

April 8, 2020 — It’s (Zoom) Seder Night, We Wish You a Safe, Healthy, Peaceful Passover

Seder plate image courtesy of Laura CowanPesach: Read in the Times of Israel how we might need four new questions (and four new “sons”) from Rabbi Aaron Starr of Southfield, MI, a member of Cohort VII of our Rabbinic Leadership Initiative.

Pesach: Read Yossi Klein Halevi in the Times of Israel, talking about the importance of this particular Passover.

Pesach: Add the Coronavirus Seder Planner to your seder preparations. Prepared and provided by Hartman senior research fellow Noam Zion, the planner links to, among other things, his beloved A Different Night haggadah (co-written with David Dishon) and the Coronavirus Supplement (co-written with Mishael Zion).

Pesach: Listen to the special seder episode of Identity/Crisis, where host Yehuda Kurtzer chats with Sandra Di Capua about how to make a small but delicious Seder. Get their tips on matzoh balls, charoset and Ashkenazi/Sephardic relations. Identity/Crisis is available on Spotify, iTunes, and all major platforms.

Upcoming: Hartman Scholar in Residence and Director of Faculty Elana Stein Hain continues her Talmud from the Balcony mini-series with a discussion of  Pikuach Nefesh: The Primacy of Saving a Life on Wednesday, April 22 at 8:00 pm EDT. Register here.

Featured: We have launched our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

April 7, 2020

Today: Read Yossi Klein Halevi in the Times of Israel, talking about the importance of this particular Passover.

Featured: At the Times of Israel, Donniel Hartman talks about the obligations we have to each other in this time of pandemic. Read his piece, Distinguishing Between Blood and Blood.

Upcoming: Hartman Scholar in Residence and Director of Faculty Elana Stein Hain continues her Talmud from the Balcony mini-series with a discussion of  Pikuach Nefesh: The Primacy of Saving a Life on Wednesday, April 22 at 8:00 pm EDT. Register here.

Featured: We have launched our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

April 6, 2020

Today: Listen to the special new episode of Identity/Crisis, our exciting weekly podcast.

In this episode, host Yehuda Kurtzer chats with Sandra Di Capua about how to make a small but delicious Seder. including tips on matzoh balls, charoset and Ashkenazi/Sephardic relations. Identity/Crisis is available on Spotify, iTunes, and all major platforms.

Featured: At the Times of Israel, Donniel Hartman talks about the obligations we have to each other in this time of pandemic. Read his piece, Distinguishing Between Blood and Blood.

Featured Watching: Talking to Democratic Majority for Israel, Yossi Klein Halevi discusses what Israel’s new government means for the future of the Jewish state.

Featured for Pesach: Add the Coronavirus Seder Planner to your seder preparations. Prepared and provided by Hartman senior research fellow Noam Zion, the planner links to, among other things, his beloved A Different Night haggadah (co-written with David Dishon) and the Coronavirus Supplement (co-written with Mishael Zion).

Featured: We have launched our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

April 3, 2020 — A double helping for Shabbat Gadol

Today:  Read about possibilities of campus pluralism as Gabriel Klapholz, a student at Yale University, writes in the New York Jewish Week about Hartman’s iEngage Student Seminar in Jerusalem.

Featured: Listen to a fresh episode of Identity/Crisis, our weekly podcast that goes to the substance of the news.

Our country has chosen a system where many of us live one paycheck to the next and entwined in a system of deep inequity. From the midst of a crisis that will cost us all many paychecks host Yehuda Kurtzer discusses empathy, understanding and obligation to the needy with David Rosenn of the Hebrew Free Loan Society and Joanna Samuels of the Manny Cantor Center.

Identity/Crisis is available on Spotify, iTunes and wherever podcasts are distributed.

Featured: Add the Coronavirus Seder Planner to your seder preparations. Prepared and provided by Hartman senior research fellow Noam Zion, the planner links to, among other things, his beloved A Different Night haggadah (co-written with David Dishon) and the Coronavirus Supplement (co-written with Mishael Zion).

Upcoming: Browse our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

April 2, 2020

Today: Join our director of faculty Elana Stein Hain as launches Talmud from the Balcony, a mini-series starting with the rabbinic ideas behind Pesach. Thursday, April 2 at at 8:00 pm EDT Zoom webinar, register here.  Sources here.

Featured: Visit The Nation to read the new poem, Lyric, by Hartman faculty member Zohar Atkins.

Featured: Add the Coronavirus Seder Planner to your seder preparations. Prepared and provided by Hartman senior research fellow Noam Zion, the planner links to, among other things, his beloved A Different Night haggadah (co-written with David Dishon) and the Coronavirus Supplement (co-written with Mishael Zion).

Featured: Browse our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Upcoming: Watch Yehuda Kurtzer and the Identity/Crisis podcast recording live on JewishLIVE Friday April 3, at 11am EDT.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

April 1, 2020 — It’s No Joke!

Today: Watch Yehuda Kurtzer discuss the current emergency with Eliyahu Freedman of the Jewish Response Against COVID-19.

Today: Read in the LA Times, the particularly heart-wrenching story of the cantor Evan Kent and his husband Rabbi Don Goor from RLI who are stuck in Jerusalem, separated from their congregation in Italy during the magefa, plague.

Today: Join in one of our three exciting virtual programs:

Lunch ‘n’ Learn with Hartman Bay Area Scholar in Residence Tomer Persico. Join Hartman and the Cohn-Haddow Center for Judaic Studies at Wayne State University, for a session entitled, The Time of Our Freedom: The Struggle Against Slavery and The Change in  Our Conception of What it Means to be Free from 12:00-1:30 pm EDT. To join this session, please use this link. Find the sources for this program here.

Rivka Press Schwartz and Shani Bechhofer discuss how Orthodox communities approach American politics, civic engagement, and COVID-19. Wednesday, April 1 at 8:00 pm EDT  Zoom webinar, join here.

Limmud Michigan was postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, but they are bringing you a taste of their amazing conference! Hartman Fellow in Residence David Zvi Kalman, will be offering a live Zoom webinar entitled, What is Shabbat in the 21st Century? at 8:15 pm EDT. To join this session, please use this link.

Featured: Peruse all our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Upcoming: Join our director of faculty Elana Stein Hain as launches Talmud from the Balcony, a mini-series starting with the rabbinic ideas behind Pesach. Thursday, April 2 at at 8:00 pm EDT Zoom webinar, register here.  Sources here.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

March 31, 2020

Today: Watch Michael Walzer discuss with Yehuda Kurtzer the ways in which Jewish values relate to American democracy.

 

Today: Talking to JCPA’s David Bernstein, Hartman’s Yossi Klein Halevi discusses “Coronavirus and Israeli Democracy:Crisis and Opportunity.”

Today: In the Times of Israel, Shraga Bar-On, the director of the institute’s, David Hartman Center for Intellectual Excellence writes, “‘An Angel Full of Eyes’: Fearing Death and the Sanctifying Life during COVID-19” about how our treatment of health is of deep moral significance.

Upcoming: Join in one of our three exciting virtual programs happening tomorrow, Wednesday, April 1.

Rivka Press Schwartz and Shani Bechhofer discuss how Orthodox communities approach American politics, civic engagement, and COVID-19. Wednesday, April 1 at 8:00 pm EDT  Zoom webinar, register here.

In partnership with the Cohn-Haddow Center for Judaic Studies at Wayne State University, Hartman Bay Area Scholar in Residence Tomer Persico will be offering a lunch and learn session entitled, The Time of Our Freedom: The Struggle Against Slavery and The Change in  Our Conception of What it Means to be Free from 12:00-1:30 pm EDT. To join this session, please use this link. Find the sources for this program here.

Limmud Michigan was postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, but they are bringing you a taste of their amazing conference! Hartman Fellow in Residence David Zvi Kalman, will be offering a live Zoom webinar entitled, What is Shabbat in the 21st Century? at 8:15 pm EDT. To join this session, please use this link.

Featured: Peruse all our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

March 30, 2020

Today: Read two different experiences of Hartman Senior Rabbinic Fellows at the blogs of the Times of Israel. Vernon Kurtz writes from Jerusalem about the lessons he’s learned from the pandemic and Lisa Grushcow writes from the temple of Zoom!

Upcoming: Join the Zoom, or watch the Jewish Covid 19 Facebook page at 9am tomorrow (Tuesday March, 31), as Eliyahu Freedman interviews Yehuda Kurtzer on his urgent article about how we face the pandemic and about other aspects of Jewish response to the outbreak.

Upcoming: In conversation, Yehuda Kurtzer and Michael Walzer discuss Jewish Values and American Democracy.

Featured: We launched our Hartman@Home online offerings on Friday. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

March 27, 2020 — A Double Helping of Manna for Shabbat

Today: Listen to the new episode of Identity/Crisis, our exciting weekly podcast that launched in February.

In this episode, host Yehuda Kurtzer discusses the sudden funding crisis with guests Andres Spokoiny of the Jewish Funders Network, Hindy Poupko of UJA-Federation of New York and Shira Hanau of The Jewish Week. Michael Helfand of Pepperdine Caruso School of Law joins to discuss the idea of Jewish sacrifice for America.

Identity/Crisis is available on Spotify, iTunes and wherever podcasts are distributed.

Weekend Listening: For the Tikvah Fund podcast Yossi Klein Halevi discusses the history of Israeli music and how it has mirrored the transformation of Israeli society. From songs that emerged out of the Ashkenazi, socialist, kibbutz ethos of the Labor Zionist governing elite, Israeli music came to draw on its diasporic history, especially that of the Jews of North Africa and the Middle East.

Weekend Watching: Watch Yehuda Kurtzer discussing “Coronavirus and American Jewish Life” with Shmuly Yanklowitz from Valley Beit Midrash in Phoenix, Arizona.

Featured: We have launched our Hartman@Home online offerings. Some are already available, others will appear throughout the spring.

Topics of the lessons, lectures and discussions, include insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America. See below for information.

Sunday:  Sarah Mulhern, Manager of Hartman’s Created Equal Project, along with faculty members Rachel Rosenthal and Zohar Atkins will be leading sessions at the Limmud eFestival on Sunday, March 29.

Also Sunday: Watch Hartman Senior Kogod Research Fellow Shaul Magid in conversation with Dan Cedarbaum, to consider, “The Future of the American Jew: Mordecai Kaplan’s Vision Reappraised,” on Sunday, March 29, at 4pm EDT.

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

March 26, 2020

Today:  Watch Channa Pinchasi give a new rabbinic webinar about the concept of freedom and Passover in the Time of the Coronavirus. Click here for Channa’s sources for this webinar.

 

Also Today: Hartman faculty member Zohar Atkins, author of the acclaimed poetry volume, “Nineveh,” will be on Zoom reading his new poem “Going Viral” and discussing it with Yehuda Fogel from The Lehrhaus, 12pm EDT.

Featured: Read Yehuda Kurtzer’s urgent article at eJewish Philanthropy about the stark challenges facing the Jewish community during and after the coronavirus pandemic.

Also Featured: Watch Senior Fellow, Co-Director of the Muslim Leadership Initiative Abdullah Antepli and Rabbinic Leadership Initiative graduate Denise Eger offer thoughts and prayers for the Human Rights Campaign’s interfaith service on perseverance among the LGBTQ community during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Upcoming: Watch Hartman Senior Kogod Research Fellow Shaul Magid in conversation with Dan Cedarbaum, to consider, “The Future of the American Jew: Mordecai Kaplan’s Vision Reappraised,” on Sunday, March 29, at 4pm EDT.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

Programs & Events:  The Israeli Rabbanut Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute is running a virtual Beit Midrash (in Hebrew). You can find details here.

March 25, 2020

Today: Read in the Jerusalem Post, Maya Resnick’s moving account of life during quarantine as an 11th grader at the Shalom Hartman Midrashiya High School for Girls in Jerusalem.

Featured: Read Yehuda Kurtzer’s urgent article at eJewish Philanthropy about the stark challenges facing the Jewish community during and after the coronavirus pandemic.

Upcoming: Tomorrow evening, listen to the brand new episode of Identity/Crisis, our exciting weekly podcast that launched in February. Subscribe now on Spotify or iTunes  so you’ll be immediately notified.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

March 24, 2020

Today: Read Yehuda Kurtzer’s urgent new article at eJewish Philanthropy.

iStock
iStock

The challenge of the coronavirus has brought into focus a stark need for the Jewish community to adopt a new collective responsibility. It needs to do it for whose who face threats to their health, their livelihood and their long-term well-being.

This means the leaders, workers and all the members of the disparate and gloriously pluralistic American Jewish community working together.

Featured: Read Hartman Rabbinic Leadership Initiative Fellow and Rachel Timoner‘s explanation of the Jewish imperative to engage in building the American civic space.

Hers is the last of a series of pieces to come out of the Judaism and American Democracy Convening (hosted by Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah and Shalom Hartman Institute of North America).

Also Featured: Yossi Klein Halevi remembers with love and deep sadness the remarkable David Ehrlich who made possible Tmol Shilshom, a remarkable coffee and bookstore in Jerusalem.

Upcoming:  Zohar Atkins — author of the acclaimed poetry volume, “Nineveh,” and a Hartman faculty member — will be on Zoom reading his new poem “Going Viral” and discussing it with Yehuda Fogel from The Lehrhaus on Thursday March 26, 12pm EST.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

March 23, 2020

Today: Read Yehuda Kurtzer’s urgent new article at eJewish Philanthropy.

iStock
iStock

The challenge of the coronavirus means the Jewish community needs to adopt a new collective responsibility: for the people under its umbrella who are facing threats to their health, livelihood and long-term wellbeing. For its leaders, its workers and its members.

 

Featured: Listen to the new episode of Identity/Crisis, our exciting weekly podcast that launched in February.

In the most recent episode, host Yehuda Kurtzer, with guests Donniel Hartman and Rivka Press Schwartz, discuss different models of leadership. They trace the principles of how we respond to the coronavirus from 14th century Spain to contemporary America, and from the policies of the Riverdale school where some of the first infected Americans were found to the stringent actions of the Israeli national government.

Identity/Crisis is available on Spotify, iTunes and wherever podcasts are distributed.

Upcoming:  Sarah Mulhern, Manager of Hartman’s Created Equal Project, along with faculty members Rachel Rosenthal and Zohar Atkins will be leading sessions at the Limmud eFestival on Sunday, March 29.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

Programs & Events:  See below for information about Hartman @Home our online offerings including insights and discussions about Pesach, freedom, democracy and Jewish engagement in America.

March 20, 2020 – First day of Spring!

Today: Listen to the new episode of Identity/Crisis, our exciting weekly podcast that launched in February.

In the most recent episode, host Yehuda Kurtzer, with guests Donniel Hartman and Rivka Press Schwartz, discuss different models of leadership. They trace the principles of how we respond to the coronavirus from 14th century Spain to contemporary America, and from the policies of the Riverdale school where some of the first infected Americans were found to the stringent actions of the Israeli national government.

Identity/Crisis is available on Spotify, iTunes and wherever podcasts are distributed.

Reading For Shabbat: In Times of Israel, Yossi Klein Halevi writes about the outbreak. Corona in Jerusalem: What Story Will We Tell? asks whether Israelis will awake even more divided or remember they were all in it together on the morning after Israel’s first non-military emergency.

Featured:  Learn, or teach, from our new online iEngage Video Series Together and Apart: The Future of Jewish Peoplehood. The pressing issue of Peoplehood is the central topic of our fifth iEngage video course dealing with contemporary challenges to Jewish unity.

Upcoming:  Sarah Mulhern, Manager of Hartman’s Created Equal Project, along with faculty members Rachel Rosenthal and Zohar Atkins will be leading sessions at the Limmud eFestival on Sunday, March 29.

Programs & Events:  See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

March 19, 2020

Today:  Watch Yossi Klein Halevi virtually discuss his New York Times bestselling book, “Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor” with a community-wide book group in Detroit.

Featured:  Learn, or teach, from our new online iEngage Video Series Together and Apart: The Future of Jewish Peoplehood.The pressing issue of Peoplehood is the central topic of our fifth iEngage video course dealing with contemporary challenges to Jewish unity.

Upcoming:  Sarah Mulhern, Manager of Hartman’s Created Equal Project, along with faculty members Rachel Rosenthal and Zohar Atkins will be leading sessions at the Limmud eFestival on Sunday March 29.

Programs & Events:   See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

March 18, 2020

Today: Read Elana Stein Hain’s beautiful prayer, Soul and Breath,  in Times of Israel.

Featured: Listen to Identity/Crisis, the exciting new podcast we launched in February.

In the most recent episode, host Yehuda Kurtzer, with guests David Zvi Kalman and Mijal Bitton, discuss coronavirus and its impact on the Jewish community: how it affects synagogue and family life, and how it might change our relationship to virtual spaces.

Identity/Crisis is available on Spotify, iTunes and wherever podcasts are distributed.

Featured: Watch Yossi Klein Halevi delivering the 78th Annual Glazer Institute virtual lecture, Entering Each Other’s Faith Narratives: A Religious Jew’s Journey into Islam and Christianity.

Featured:  Learn, or teach, from our new online iEngage Video Series Together and Apart: The Future of Jewish Peoplehood. The pressing issue of Peoplehood is the central topic of our fifth iEngage video course dealing with contemporary challenges to Jewish unity.

Upcoming: Elana Stein Hain will be delivering a virtual Talmud from the Balcony next week. Watch this space for details.

Programs & Events: See below for information about Summer Programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

March 17, 2020

Today: Yossi Klein Halevi will lead the Detroit Community Book Club in a discussion of his book, “Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor” at 12:00 noon. Click here to join.

Featured: Listen to Identity/Crisis, the exciting new podcast we launched in February.

In the most recent episode, host Yehuda Kurtzer, with guests David Zvi Kalman and Mijal Bitton, discuss coronavirus and its impact on the Jewish community: how it affects synagogue and family life, and how it might change our relationship to virtual spaces.

Identity/Crisis is available on Spotify, iTunes and wherever podcasts are distributed.

Featured:  Learn, or teach, from our new online iEngage Video Series Together and Apart: The Future of Jewish Peoplehood. The pressing issue of Peoplehood is the central topic of our fifth iEngage video course dealing with contemporary challenges to Jewish unity.

Upcoming: Channa Pinchasi will be talking about “Passover in the Time of Corona” for a rabbinic holiday webinar.

Programs & Events: See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

March 16, 2020

Today: Yossi Klein Halevi will be live from Jerusalem at 7:30 pm EST, delivering the 78th Annual Glazer Institute virtual lecture, Entering Each Other’s Faith Narratives: A Religious Jew’s Journey into Islam and Christianity.

Featured: Read Rabbi Joshua Ladon in J. The Jewish News of Northern California, writing about the challenges of social distancing.

Also Featured: Read David Zvi Kalman in Tablet Magazine, reflecting on what it means to come together physically, as faith gatherings move virtual.

Upcoming: Channa Pinchasi will be talking about “Passover in the Time of Corona” for our rabbinic holiday webinar.

Programs & Events: See below for information about summer programs, Community Leadership Program (CLP), Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI) and Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar (RTS).

April 20, 2020

We are writing to share the difficult decision that our #HartmanSummer programs will not take place in Jerusalem this year. This marks the first summer in nearly 40 consecutive years when the Hartman Beit Midrash will not be filled with leaders from North America in July, and we are really disappointed.

We did not make this decision lightly. But we simply cannot predict when the current protocols of ‘social distancing’ will change, or when it will be considered safe to travel, or when international borders will once again be more easily traversed. In some ways, this decision is an act of citizenship in our democracies, and an act of solidarity with all those brave individuals working to contain this pandemic and depending on all of us to make intentional sacrifices and changes to our social behavior to make their work possible.

In the next few weeks we will share in greater detail a variety of inclusive online programs that will replace our in-person summer retreats and seminars. Our summer content will address the topic of Together and Apart and Alone: Jewish Peoplehood, Community, and Identity in a Pandemic. Our Shalom Hartman Institute faculty is hard at work developing ideas and curating content to respond to the world-changing, singular event of COVID-19 which is already reshaping our attitudes about collective community, and raising important questions about citizenship, nationalism, democracy, interpersonal relationships, theology, spirituality, and social responsibility.

As always we are committed to putting ideas in the hands of leaders and shaping a Judaism of meaning that can stand up to our challenges; and this is an important moment for ideas, for Torah, and for thought-leadership on behalf of our community and our tradition. Even as we cannot gather in person this summer in Jerusalem, we promise to provide you with the strongest educational experience we can create from afar. We also anticipate complementing core educational programs with continued major public offerings in the spirit of our Hartman@Home series that has been running since March – including our Yom Ha’atzmaut offerings, the book launch for The New Jewish Canon, cultural programs, public conversations with leading figures in Israel, and much more.

If you are registered for one of our summer programs, the Shalom Hartman Institute will offer full refunds of registration fees. Program directors will be in touch with specific details in the coming days and we appreciate your patience as we work out the logistics of this unprecedented situation. Like many other organizations, however, we are carrying significant ongoing costs that are not recouped in canceling our programs. We would be grateful if you would consider converting all or part of your registration fees into a tax-deductible donation to the Institute to support our ongoing work, or into registration fees for future Hartman programs.

As always, we are grateful to you – our community of learners – for making the Hartman Beit Midrash your home, and for affirming the centrality of “Hartman Torah” in your lives and in your communities. We look forward to seeing you online, and we cannot wait to welcome you back in the future. As we all said earlier this month, in our homes across the Jewish world – next year in Jerusalem.

With love,

Donniel Hartman
President, Shalom Hartman Institute

Yehuda Kurtzer
President, Shalom Hartman Institute of North America

 

March 12, 2020

A Letter About Coronavirus and Hartman Summer Planning:
Dear Friends,

Together with you, we are watching with increased concern the coronavirus health crisis that is affecting our world. What we know is that no one knows when it will end and how it will impact our daily lives both in the short and longer terms. Every day brings new regulations as nationally – both in Israel, and across North America – and individually, we search for responsible ways to respond and ensure the health and safety of ourselves and others.

As an Institute we have responded proactively and cancelled all staff travel and large gatherings. We will continue to monitor the situation and respond accordingly. As is required by our tradition, the safety and concern for human life must always come first. We are also working to create online and other resources for our program participants across North America, not only to replace the programs that we have cancelled but also to strengthen the bonds of community and the opportunities for engagement and learning that many people are seeking in these complicated and often isolated times.

As you know, we are in the midst of extensive preparations for our summer programming – which, to date, promised to be the most well-attended in our history. We are continuing these preparations with the intention of running our programs, but are doing so with the knowledge that we can only make provisional decisions based on what we know now, and that events beyond our control will determine whether we will be able to proceed. We are also following protocols and directives as we receive them from local and national government authorities.

As a result, we have decided on the following plan of action for our summer sessions:

Anyone who has registered for our summer programs, or registers in the future, will have registration costs refunded whether they choose to cancel due to the coronovirus, or whether events require us to cancel the programs.

We will continue to monitor the situation and will make a final decision regarding summer programming by the middle of April, in order to facilitate your hotel and airplane reservations and cancellations in a timely manner.

In the event that cancelling our summer programming becomes necessary, we will explore other options for learning together. It is highly possible that we will all have to adjust to a “new normal,” and implement different modalities of communication and convening.

We will continue to be in communication with you if anything becomes clearer in the meantime.
With hopes and prayers for health in these trying times.

Sincerely yours,

Donniel Hartman
President, Shalom Hartman Institute

Yehuda Kurtzer
President, Shalom Hartman Institute of North America

 

 

► LEARN OUR FLAGSHIP JEWISH PEOPLEHOOD COURSE: Learn iEngage with Lauren Berkun, starting with this year’s new video series, Together and Apart: the Future of Jewish Peoplehood. [Registration Closed] Tuesdays beginning April 21 at 12:00 noon EDT (10 sessions).  Learn more about this online course >

► 5/7 WEBINAR:  Hartman Scholar in Residence and Director of Faculty Elana Stein Hain concludes her Talmud from the Balcony mini-series with a conversation on how the current pandemic is a humbling moment for humanity, one that challenges how we think about the power dynamic between humans and nature.

► 5/6 WEBINAR: Join Shalom Hartman President Donniel Hartman as he shares how can we re-imagine the relationship between Jews around the world in light of today’s growing tensions and challenges. Presented in partnership with Congregation Beth Ahm in West Bloomfield, MI.,  Together, Apart, and Alone:
Thoughts on the Jewish Community in Our Time considers how
the family metaphor for Jewish peoplehood is taking on new meaning as the gap between American and Israeli Jews continues to widen.

 

► 4/29 YOM HA’ATZMAUT  

Visit our Special Yom Ha’atzmaut webpage!

Watch: In partnership with JFNA Hartman hosts a roundtable discussion about the state of the Jewish people in the “Age of Corona” with Yehuda Kurtzer, Donniel Hartman and Nechumi Yaffe, moderated by Sara Labaton.

Listen: With Yossi Klein Halevi as he discusses 72 Years of Israel in 12 Songs, his playlist of Israeli music.

Watch: As Tal Becker addresses the Jewish challenges of going from no home to two homes. What has it meant for the Jewish people to feel at home?

Consider: The insights of rabbis Angela Buchdahl (NY) and Dotan Arieli (Israel) – in conversation with Tal Becker – as they unpack their own separate, yet connected, Jewish senses of home.

Study: Different models and metaphors of Jewish peoplehood through guiding questions and texts from our noted iEngage research team.

Explore: The Miracle of Hebrew, in Under 15 Minutes as Channa Pinchasi explains how the Hebrew language bridges from ancient to modern and from holy to mundane (in Hebrew).

Analyze: Three examples of Israeli poetry from the 1940’s and the past decade, with a study kit created by Rachel Korazim.

Watch:  Donniel Hartman discuss Yom Ha’atzmaut “In the Rabbi’s Study” with Rabbi Ed Feinstein of Valley Beth Shalom synagogue in LA.

► 4/23 WEBINAR: As part of our Yom Haatzmaut offering, North American Scholar in Residence Mijal Bitton and Hartman Research Fellow Tehila Friedman, program director at Shaharit, a think tank promoting a new social covenant in Israel, discuss how Israeli society is feeling about its leadership, the current moment in Israeli politics, and the strain on peoplehood in the time of coronavirus.
Mijal Bitton
Tehila Friedman

 

► 4/23 WEBINAR: Hartman research fellow Rivka Press Schwartz discusses Race And Us: White Flight and Jewish Day Schools in partnership with B’nai Jeshurun in New York.

The Jewish community takes great pride in education. But the history of private schools for Jews in America is not only a history of loving learning, it is also a story of race and class, of white flight and suburbanization. This lecture will confront some of the more challenging parts of that history—the stories we don’t tell—and ask questions about implications in the past, the recent present and the current COVID-19 crisis.

VIDEO TO COME.

► VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH: Learning in Hebrew — Join a virtual beit midrash from the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem led by graduates of the Beit Midrash for Israeli Rabbis, an egalitarian program training pluralistic Israeli spiritual community leaders. (sessions in Hebrew) See sessions, dates and times >

► 4/22 WEBINAR:  Hartman Scholar in Residence and Director of Faculty Elana Stein Hain continues her Talmud from the Balcony mini-series with a discussion of  Pikuach Nefesh: The Primacy of Saving a Life. Sources here.

► 4/2 WEBINAR: Elana Stein Hain launches Talmud from the Balcony, a mini-series starting with the rabbinic ideas behind Pesach. Sources here.

► 4/1 WEBINAR: In partnership with the Cohn-Haddow Center for Judaic Studies at Wayne State University, Hartman Bay Area Scholar in Residence Tomer Persico gave a lunch and learn session entitled, The Time of Our Freedom: The Struggle Against Slavery and The Change in  Our Conception of What it Means to be Free  Find the sources for this program here.

► 4/1 WEBINAR:  Limmud Michigan was postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, but they are bringing you a taste of their amazing conference! Hartman Fellow in Residence David Zvi Kalman, offered a live Zoom webinar entitled, What is Shabbat in the 21st Century?

► 4/1 WEBINAR: Rivka Press Schwartz and Shani Bechhofer discuss how Orthodox communities approach American politics, civic engagement, and COVID-19.

 

► 3/31 VIDEO: Yehuda Kurtzer interviews Michael Walzer on the themes of the Exodus and American Democracy in this moment.

 

► 3/26 VIDEO: Watch Channa Pinchasi’s Pesach webinar, Passover in the Time of Coronavirus. Click here for Channa’s sources

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