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Join us for a morning with guest speaker Rabbi Dr. Sharon Shalom, who will teach about the Ethiopian Jewish Holiday of Sigd and his experience immigrating from Ethiopia to Israel. The event will include discussion, learning activities, and the music of Sigd.
The Metrowest CultureFest co-sponsors include Hebrew College, Congregation Or Atid, Temple Beth Sholom, Temple Beth Am, and 2Life Communities.
About the Speaker
Rabbi Dr. Sharon Zaude Shalom immigrated alone to Israel from Ethiopia in 1982. A graduate visiting scholar from Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University, PhD in Jewish philosophy from Bar-llan University. Head of the International Center for Study of Ethiopian Jewry Jewish Studies Lecturer Faculty of Humanities Ono Academic College. He serves as well as a rabbi of the “Kedoshei Yisrael” community in Kiryat Gat, a community of Holocaust survivors.
He received his ordination at Har Etzion and serves as a member of Beit Hillel and TZOHAR, an Orthodox Rabbinic organization. His M.A. thesis was on “Circumcision in the Beta Yisrael Community” and his Ph.D. thesis was on “Judaism of Fate? A Case Study on Theology of the Ethiopian Jewish Community,” both completed at Bar-llan University. He has lectured widely in many contexts on the following subjects: philosophy of halakha, Ethiopian Jewry, and the immigrant experience. He has published books, From Sinai To Ethiopia: The Halakhic and Conceptual World of Ethiopian Jewry including Shulchan Ha Orit (The Table of Light): a halachic guide for the Beta Israel Community. He also published the book Conversation about Love and Fear the Dialogue between the Rabbi’s Daughter and the Kes’s Son. At Brandeis University, he has worked to create a curriculum on Ethiopian Jewry, halakha, heritage and history, in collaboration with the “Village Way” of Yemin Orde, Professor Sharon Feiman Nemser, and Prof. Yehudah Mirsky. He currently resides in Kiryat Gat with his wife Avita and five children.