Category: Events

Hebrew College is pleased to share information about an online community gathering of connection, learning and support around Israel.

Tuesday, October 24, 7:30-9 pm on Zoom

These conversations will be facilitated by Dr. Jonathan Golden, director of Wellspring Initiatives at the Shalom Hartman Institute, along with members of the Jewish Teen Initiative at CJP and Gann Academy faculty.

Representatives from BaMidbar, Jewish Family & Children’s Service, and Gateways will also be present to share resources on how our community is supporting and promoting mental health and wellness.

This program is designed for teens (grades 8-12) and parents/guardians of teens. Teens and their parents/guardians are not required to attend together. Educators working with Jewish teens are also invited to attend.

Questions? Contact Leah Finkelman, CJP’s Engagement Manager, Teens & Camping.

Event Sponsors:

 

Hebrew College is pleased to share information about a community gathering of connection, learning and support around Israel.

• Thursday, October 19, 7:30-9 pm at Gann Academy
• Tuesday, October 24, 7:30-9 pm on Zoom

These conversations will be facilitated by Dr. Jonathan Golden, director of Wellspring Initiatives at the Shalom Hartman Institute, along with members of the Jewish Teen Initiative at CJP and Gann Academy faculty.

Representatives from BaMidbar, Jewish Family & Children’s Service, and Gateways will also be present to share resources on how our community is supporting and promoting mental health and wellness.

This program is designed for teens (grades 8-12) and parents/guardians of teens. Teens and their parents/guardians are not required to attend together. Educators working with Jewish teens are also invited to attend.

Questions? Contact Leah Finkelman, CJP’s Engagement Manager, Teens & Camping.

Event Sponsors:

 

With Dr. Danielle Rubin, a teacher in Sderot & community organizer in Netivot, sharing stories from the past four days in Southern Israel.

Opening Kavana from Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld

Songs from Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer & Miléna Kartowski-Aiach

Moderated by Myriam Darmoni & Prof. Denis Charbit

The event is in partnership with Hebrew College and Ohavi Zedek Congregation, Burlington, Vermont.

Representing the Unrepresentable

October 23| 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. |  Hebrew College

Drawing upon early mystical sources, including Sefer Yetzira and Zohar, enter with us into an exploration of visual, verbal, and musical efforts to depict that which cannot be depicted. The conversation will be followed by a Q & A session and is related to our current art exhibit, “In the Beginning,” featuring works in acrylic and ink on canvas by Boston artist Mel Brown. Read more about the exhibit, on view through December 14, here.

Kindly RSVP by October 18, 2023 using the purple button above or to the right.

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Our Speakers

Rabbi Nehemia Polen, PhD is Professor of Jewish Thought at Hebrew College and a leading expert in Hasidism and Jewish thought. A widely published author, his books include The Holy Fire: The Teachings of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto; a translation of Malkah Shapiro’s The Rebbe’s Daughter: Memoir of a Hasidic Childhood, a project that originated in Polen’s research as a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow and recipient of a National Jewish Book Award; Filling Words With Light: Hasidic and Mystical Reflections on Jewish Prayer; and From Tiberias, With Love: A Collection of Tiberian Hasidism, Volume I: Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk. His most recent book, most recent book Stop, Look, Listen: Celebrating Shabbos Through a Spiritual Lens (Maggid 2022), was named a finalist for the 72nd Jewish Book Council’s Myra H. Kraft memorial Award for Contemporary Jewish Life & Practice.

Polen holds a doctorate from Boston University, where he studied with and served as a teaching fellow for Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel. Prior to his career in Jewish academia, Polen served for 23 years as a congregational rabbi.

Mel Brown is a self-taught painter, entrepreneur, and an occasional mystic descended from a family of Eastern European rabbis who originally came from Spain. He grew up in a working-class steel town in Northwest Indiana.

In his early years, he worked as a railroad switchman as well as a boiler cleaner at U.S. Steel in Gary, Indiana. He also studied abstract experimental photography at Indiana University under the tutelage of Henry Holmes Smith, one of the most influential fine art photography teachers of the mid-20th century.

For many years he has also been a dedicated student and teacher of Jewish mystical texts. In addition to leading intimate study groups in a line-by-line parsing of the Torah, he also co-leads a post-denominational Jewish spiritual community in the Boston area.

Through his many life experiences and journeys, Mel has been a keen observer of many cultures and traditions which has allowed him to weave a certain transcendent universalism into his art.  He is engaged in creating non-representational art that is unique and evocative, drawing on his own wide ranging experiences, his sense of mystery, and his ongoing engagement with ancient Jewish texts.

The exhibit and talk are organized by the Hebrew College Arts Initiative.

Mel Brown’s original artwork and limited-edition prints will be available for purchase during the run of the fall exhibit. Through a generous arrangement with the artist, half of the proceeds will be given to Hebrew College.

In celebration of the launch of the Jewish Women’s Archive’s Nicki Newman Tanner Oral History Collection, Hebrew College and JWA are co-sponsoring a panel discussion about women rabbis, leadership, and what it means to make history on November 1.

Our Panelists

• Rabbi Claudia Kreiman, Rabbi at Temple Beth Zion in Brookline, MA
  
• Rabbi Shayna Rhodes `08, Hebrew College faculty member
• Rabbi Margie Klein Ronkin `11, Executive Director of the Essex County Community Organization (ECCO)

Moderator: Rabbi Tiferet Berenbaum `11, Rabbi of Congregational Learning & Programming, Temple Beth Zion in Brookline

We are cancelling tonight’s event (Sunday, October 15) at Hebrew College because Reverend Rob Schenck, one of the featured guests, has contracted COVID-19. We made this decision for everyone’s protection, and send our best wishes for a speedy recovery to Reverend Schenck.

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Join us for “Religious Leadership & Public Repair”: A conversation with Rev. Rob Schenck, Supreme Court whistleblower and former right-wing evangelical activist, and Abigail E. Disney, filmmaker/philanthropist/activist.

The conversation, moderated by Rabbi Or Rose, Director of Hebrew College’s Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leadership, will include clips from Disney’s award-winning documentary, The Armor of Light, to explore Schenck’s evolution as a minister, his relationship with Disney, and their reflections on the need to forge relationships across divides. This will include discussion of lessons learned, current projects, and future possibilities.

>> Read the press release here

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About the film “Armor of Light”

The film captures Schenck’s journey of conscience, as he began to question the consistency of the pro-gun and pro-life stances of the far-right evangelical movement that he represented at the time. This would eventually lead to Schenck’s break from evangelical orthodoxy on guns, abortion, and the public display of religious symbols.

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Our Speakers

Reverend Dr. Rob Schenck spent nearly four decades as a controversial far-right national figure. The once prominent anti-abortion activist has since repudiated his radical conservative positions and has dedicated himself to promoting racial justice, reducing gun violence, and fostering religious inclusion. As part of his new mission to repair damage done to democracy and the social fabric, Rob is working on a book exposing how he and others recruited wealthy religious right operatives to exert undue influence on conservative Supreme Court justices. He has voluntarily cooperated with numerous investigations into corruption at the High Court, including testifying before Congress. He is serving as a Hebrew College Visiting Faculty member for the 2023-2024 academic year, working closely with the College’s Miller Center for Interreligious Leadership & Learning.

Abigail E. Disney advocates for real changes to the way capitalism operates in today’s world. As a philanthropist and social activist, she has worked with organizations supporting peacebuilding, gender justice, and systemic cultural change. She is a documentary filmmaker who won an Emmy for her film, The Armor of Light. Her latest film, The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales, which she co-directed with Kathleen Hughes, made its world premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. The film screened in select theaters and is available on demand. In Season 4 of the podcast All Ears, Abigail uses the film as a jumping-off point to ask big-thinking business leaders, union organizers, economists, and others how they would fix our broken economy.

She is also Chair and Co-Founder of Level Forward, an ecosystem of storytellers, entrepreneurs, and social change-makers dedicated to balancing artistic vision, social impact, and stakeholder return. She also created the nonprofit Peace is Loud, which uses storytelling to advance social movements, and the Daphne Foundation, which supports organizations working for a more equitable, fair and peaceful New York City.

Rabbi Or Rose is the founding Director of the Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leadership of Hebrew College. Before assuming this position in 2016, he worked in various administrative and teaching capacities at Hebrew College for over a decade, including serving as a founding faculty member and Associate Dean of the Rabbinical School. Rabbi Rose was also one of the creators of CIRCLE, The Center for Interreligious & Community Leadership Education, cosponsored by Hebrew College and Andover Newton Theological School (2007-2017). In addition to his work at Hebrew College, Rose has taught for the Bronfman Youth Fellowships, The Wexner Graduate Fellowship, Me’ah, and in a variety of other academic, religious, and civic contexts throughout North America and in Israel. Rose is the co-editor of Speaking Torah: Spiritual Teachings from Around the Maggid’s Table (Jewish Lights), and the award-winning anthology, My Neighbor’s Faith: Stories of Interreligious Encounter, Growth, and Transformation (Orbis). His most recent publication is the anthology Words To Live By: Sacred Sources for Interreligious Engagement (Orbis 2018). In 2009-2010, he was selected as a member of the Shalom Hartman Institute’s inaugural North American Scholar’s Circle. In 2014, Northeastern University honored him for his interreligious educational efforts.