Our Programs & Teachers (REGISTRATION LINKS on HOME PAGE)
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Testimonials
Your feedback is welcome! For now, please email us at newlehrhaus@gmail.com
Our Programs & Teachers
Program Descriptions and Teachers' Bios listed in chronological order of program start date. ALL REGISTRATION LINKS are on the HOME PAGE.
LECTURES & WORKSHOPS
Inaugural Lecture: A Revolution in Jewish Life and Learning— Lehrhaus Then and Now
Wednesday, October 27, 7:00-8:30 PM
Fred Rosenbaum, Founding Director of Lehrhaus Judaica, educator and author
Respondent: David Biale, UC Davis
In partnership with the Emanuel Ringelblum Chair in Jewish History at UC Davis
Description:
The diverse adult school founded a century ago in Frankfurt, Germany by the philosopher Franz Rosenzweig presented several of the greatest modern interpreters of Judaism such as Martin Buber, A.J. Heschel, and Gershom Scholem. But the emphasis was always on the students and their dialogue with the teachers and with each other. That transformative experience was central to the German-Jewish revival between the wars and, since 1974, Lehrhaus has provided a similar pathway to Jewish knowledge and engagement in the Bay Area.
Teacher’s Bio:
Fred Rosenbaum, the Founding Director of Lehrhaus Judaica, led the organization for 44 years until 2017. He is the author of Cosmopolitans: A Social and Cultural History of the Jews of the Bay Area (UC Press, 2009) and the co-author of four Holocaust memoirs. He has taught at several Bay Area universities and a myriad of Jewish institutions and has been the traveling scholar on 25 study tours throughout the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Rosenbaum
Welcoming the Stranger
Wednesday, November 3, 7:00-8:30 PM
Avi Rose, Former Executive Directorand Fouzia Palyal Azizi is Director of Refugee Services Jewish Family and Community Services East Bay.. In partnership wiht JFCS East Bay.
Description:
Why do we feel called to welcome the stranger? Delve into texts that inspire this mandate and learn how Jews, along with a wide spectrum of faith-based organizations, are currently putting it into practice by welcoming refugees to our community.
Teachers' Bios:
Avi Rose, MSW, led JFCS East Bay for 15 years until retiring in 2020. He worked alongside staff and many community volunteers to extend the agency’s guiding its gradual pivot from resettling Russian Jews to resettling refugees of all backgrounds from many countries, including LGBTQ asylees from Africa and the Middle East. In the last decade, the agency has welcomed special immigrant visa holders from Afghanistan, with over 80 arrivals in August 2021 alone. https://www.jweekly.com/2020/12/14/avi-rose-retiring-after-years-of-passion-for-jfcs-east-bay
Fouzia Palyal Azizi is Director of Refugee Services at Jewish Family & Community Services East Bay. Fouzia grew up in Afghanistan and came to the US as a refugee in the 1990's.
Two Traditions, One Home
Wednesday, November 17, 7:00-8:30 PM
Dawn Kepler, Founding Director of Building Jewish Bridges
Description:
Gain essential tools for navigating life for multi-faith and dual-tradition families and households, through group discussion and expert tips.
Teacher’s Bio:
Dawn Kepler, Founding Director of Building Jewish Bridges, has supported and guided families and individuals on their multi-faith and conversion journeys and has taught and facilitated group discussion for Lehrhaus Judaica/HaMaqom for two decades. https://buildingjewishbridges.org
Sign up here.
Inspired by Light, Driven by Fire: Hanukkah Arts Workshop (Adults & Kids 10+)
Wednesday, December 1, 7:00-8:30 PM
Adina Polen, Founder & Director of Atiq: Jewish Maker Institute
Description:
Using simple yet expressive materials we'll explore the personal meaning in an age-old Hanukkah argument. Do we start with one light and add a candle every night? Or do we start with a full blaze of 8 candles, and reduce all the way to one for the final night? No prior art making experience required!
Teacher’s Bio:
Adina Polen is the Founder and Executive Director of Atiq: Jewish Maker Institute, an applied arts yeshiva based in Berkeley, CA. https://www.atiqmakers.org
Jews of Color - Inside and Out: Lessons from the New Jews of Color Study
Wednesday, December 8, 7:00-8:30 PM
Bruce D. Haynes, professor of Sociology UC Davis and Bruce Phillips, Professor of Sociology and Jewish Communal Studies, University of Southern California
Description:
Prof. Bruce Haynes speaks about the lived experiences - now and historically - of Jews of Color (JOC) and situates the issue in the context of racialization and race thinking. Prof. Bruce Phillips presents the 10,000 feet view, using the Pew 2013 & 2020, and other studies, and investigating the questions these studies used to identify JOC. From there, the conversation unfolds.
Teachers’ Bios:
Bruce Haynes, Professor of sociology at UC Davis, is the author of several books including Down the Upstaircase and The Soul of Judaism: Jews of African Descent in America, which received the Raboteau Book Prize for Best Book in Africana Religions. His current research focuses on the Racialization of People and Place. https://sociology.ucdavis.edu/people/bdhaynes
Bruce Phillips, is Professor of Sociology & Jewish Communal Service, Hebrew Union College
and at Louchheim School of Judaic Studies at the University of Southern California. His published work covers topics from Iranians and Israelis in the United States, to Jewish suburbanization, Jewish education, the economics of Jewish life, and more. He authored the 2004 Bay Area Jewish Community Study and the ground-breaking study, Re-Examining Intermarriage. https://crcc.usc.edu/people/bruce-phillips
How Long Does It Take to Make a Change? Ten Years from Israel's Tent Protests to the “Change Government
Wednesday, December 15, 7:00 -8:30 PM
Tova Birnbaum, Director of Jewish Content at Oshman Family JCC, Palo Alto
Description:
In the summer of 2011 city squares throughout Israel were filled with young people demanding immediate economic change. For a decade there were no visible signs of real change. In summer 2021, against all odds and after four elections, a new government was born. We will trace the path that Israel has taken for a decade, identifying the imperceptible turning points and the buds of change hidden from view.
Teacher’s Bio:
Tova Birnbaum is the Director of Jewish Content at the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto. She is a faculty member of the Mandel Educational Leadership Program and was one of the founders of the BINA Secular Yeshiva in Tel Aviv. https://www.paloaltojcc.org/jewish-life
COURSES
In chronological order of start date.
Food Fights: Authority and Authenticity in American Jewish Food
December 6, 13, 7:00-8:00 PM
Rachel Gross, Professor of American Jewish Studies, San Francisco State University
Course Description
What is authentic Jewish food and who gets to decide? This course will examine shifting ideas about who is an authority on Jewish food and what counts as Jewish food in the United States throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We'll examine artisanal delis (including in the Bay Area), the 1933 Crisco Recipes for the Jewish Housewife, and the “culinary delights” of 1950s kitchens. Manufacturers, cookbook authors, publishers, and restaurateurs have all used food to express their longing for Jewish pasts, to reshape American Jewish communities in the present, and to articulate values for the future. Thinking about American Jewish food in these contexts will help us reconsider where we look for religious practice and whom we see as a religious expert.
Session 1: Referendum on the Jewish Deli Menu: American Jewish Religion and the Deli Revival
Session 2: Jews, Schmaltz, and Crisco: Authority and Authenticity in the Age of Industrial Food
Session 3: Shabbat Candlestick Salad: The Serious Business of Jewish Food and Fun in the 1950s
Teacher’s Bio
Rachel B. Gross is Assistant Professor and John and Marcia Goldman Chair in American Jewish Studies in the Department of Jewish Studies at San Francisco State University. She is a religious studies scholar who studies twentieth- and twenty-first-century American Jews. Her book, Beyond the Synagogue: Jewish Nostalgia as Religious Practice (New York University Press, 2021), received an Honorable Mention for the 2021 Saul Viener Book Prize, of the American Jewish Historical Society. https://jewish.sfsu.edu/rachel-b-gross
The Bible Now: Literature and History in the Hebrew Bible
Mondays, November 1, 8, 15, 22, 7:00-8:30 PM
Robert Alter, Professor Emeritus, Hebrew and Comparative Literature, UC Berkeley
Ron Hendel, Professor Emeritus, Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies, UC Berkeley
Course Description
A multilayered introduction to the Bible, addressing such issues as the relation of traditional texts to history and what constitutes history-writing, the relevance of literary analysis to biblical narrative, the uses of philology, and the ancient Near Eastern background.
Teachers’ Bios:
Robert Alter is the author of The Art of Biblical Narrative, The Art of Biblical Poetry, The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary, and many other books, including a landmark translation for the complete Hebrew Bible into English. He is the recipient of the Los Angeles Times Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime contribution to American letters. https://jewishstudies.berkeley.edu/people/robert-alter
Ron Hendel is the author of How Old is the Hebrew Bible?, The Book of Genesis: A Biography, Remembering Abraham, and other books. He is general editor of The Hebrew Bible: A Critical Edition. https://jewishstudies.berkeley.edu/people/ron-hendel
Torah from the Bedroom: Sexuality in Jewish Tradition
Tuesdays, November 2, 16, 30 and December 14, 7:00-8:15 PM
David Biale, Professor of Jewish History at UC Davis
Rachel Biale, Jewish community professional, educator and author
Course Description:
Rabbi Kahana lay under the bed of his teacher to see how he makes love, proclaiming: "It is Torah and I must study it." Our course will consider texts from the Talmud, medieval philosophy, mysticism and Hasidism that demonstrate a wide range of attitudes toward sexuality in the Jewish tradition
Teachers’ Bios:
David Biale is Emanuel Ringelblum Distinguished Professor of Jewish History at UC Davis. he is the author or editor of eleven books, one of which is Eros and the Jews: From the Bible to Contemporary America. https://history.ucdavis.edu/people/dbiale
Rachel Biale is the author of Women and Jewish Law. She has worked in the Bay Area as a therapist, Jewish cultural programmer, community organizer and ketubah artist. https://www.rachelbiale.com
Cultural Memory: Ladino Music and Poetry
Mondays, November 8, 15, 22, 4:00-5:00 PM
Rivka Amado, Ladino music scholar and performing artist
Course Description
After two millennia, the Jews of Spain were expelled in 1492. Most left with only two possessions: their language – Ladino, and their music. This course explores Ladino music, introducing students to the language through songs. We examine Ladino music found in ballads and lyrical songs (Cantikas) of life-cycle events; Ladino liturgy - still heard in some synagogues today; the influence of Roma music, flamenco, and popular songs of the day.
The sessions include performance with voice and piano.
Teacher’s Bio
Rivka Amado grew up in a Ladino-Speaking home, where she learned traditional melodies from her grandmother, Rivka Amado Mandil. Born in Holon, she spent most of her adult life in Jerusalem and came to Berkeley in 2004. She has researched Sephardic culture and performed traditional Ladino music and her own compositions in Australia, Spain, Israel, and the US. youtube.com/results?search_query=Rivka+Amado+
Revisiting Philip Roth: Still Crazy After All These Years?
Tuesdays, November 9, December 7, 7:00-8:00 PM
Steven J. Zipperstein, Professor in Jewish Culture and History, Stanford University
Course Description:
What is it like to reread Philip Roth? Steven J. Zipperstein, who knew Roth, is at work on a biography of him for Yale's Jewish Lives. He will lead a two-session class where he will explore what it's like to revisit one of the most explosively controversial - and intriguing - of all contemporary American voices.
Students are encouraged to purchase Goodbye, Columbus, Portnoy's Complaint and The Facts. in advance. 2nd hand copies are only a few dollars each. Oo find the texts here: https://b-ok.cc/
Reading (in advance):
Session 1: Goodbye, Columbus, and chapter 2 of Portnoy's Complaint, "Whacking Off."
Session 2: Chapter 1, "Safe at Home" and “Epilogue” of Roth's autobiography The Facts.
Teacher’s Bio:
Steven J. Zipperstein is the Daniel E, Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture and History at Stanford University. He is the author and editor of nine books, most recently Pogrom: Kishinev and The Tilt of History (Liveright/ WW Norton, 2018). https://history.stanford.edu/people/steven-zipperstein
Mussar: The Art of Menschmaking
Thursdays, November 11, 18, December 2, 7:00-8:00 PM
Judy Shanks, Rabbi Emerita, Temple Isaiah, Lafayette
Course Description
Mussar is a time-honored Jewish path of personal transformation through study and practice. We look at ourselves through a Mussar lens to set our own ethical, spiritual and relational growth curriculum. Our search is for a place of balance between extremes. I might need to find more patience; you might need to drop your martyrdom, yet assert your own needs more firmly. You’ll need to leave the comfy couch behind — but not wear yourself out. Self-reflection and everyday encounters bring ancient Mussar texts to life as we focus and strive to reach our full potential as menschen (good people) in this world. For beginners as well as those who have studied Mussar in the past.
Teacher’s Bio
Rabbi Judy Shanks has taught Mussar at Temple Isaiah in Lafayette, for The Mussar Institute and at OLLI adult education. She is Rabbi Emerita of Temple Isaiah, retiring after 26 years of service to the community. Her first pulpit was Temple Beth Hillel in Richmond, CA, directly after ordination from Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion, in 1984. https://twitter.com/rabbishanks?lang=en
LANGUAGES
Beginning Prayerbook/Biblical Hebrew A
Sunday, October 10, 17, 24, 31; November 7, 14, 21; December 5, 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM
Discover the essentials of Prayerbook Hebrew, starting with the alphabet, vowels, sight-reading, and basic grammar, all in a friendly, supportive environment. We’ll also learn some of the key Prayerbook melodies, and discuss the meaning of the prayers. This course provides a strong grammatical basis for Biblical Hebrew and some of the vocabulary for modern Israeli Hebrew. And just in case you need it, free online tutoring is available.
Required text: Joseph Anderson et. al., Prayerbook Hebrew the Easy Way is available for sale at Afikomen Judaica in Berkeley and other outlets. Please purchase the book before the first class session.
Learn More: https://youtu.be/zh5z_tg1zTQ
This course will be available live online via Zoom conference services and full video recording.
Tuition: $100 (scholarships available)
To Register: contact the instructor at jehon@att.net and specify your course selection to receive registration instructions.
Intermediate Prayerbook/Biblical Hebrew C
This course covers the more vocabulary and verbal system features of the language and introduces students to the process of translating and analyzing texts found in the Hebrew Bible and the Prayerbook. We will continue with the later chapters of our text, Prayerbook Hebrew the Easy Way. This course will benefit students seeking to brush up on established biblical grammar and reading skills in preparation for more advanced work. And just in case you need it, free online tutoring is available.
Prerequisite: HaMaqom Prayerbook/Biblical Hebrew B or similar. If you have questions about your level, please contact instructor at jehon@att.net
Required text: Joseph Anderson et. al.,
Prayerbook Hebrew the Easy Way
Sunday, October 10, 17, 24, 31; November 7, 14, 21; December 5, 4:35-6:00 PM
Learn More: https://youtu.be/Bg2YvsmbFvc
This course will be available live online via Zoom conference services and full video recording.
Tuition: $100 (scholarships available)
To Register: contact the instructor at jehon@att.net and specify your course selection to receive registration instructions.
Reading Biblical Hebrew: Solomon’s World: His Wealth and the Queen of Sheba
Sunday, October 10, 17, 24, 31; November 7, 14, 21; December 5, 6:05-7:30 PM
In power, wealth and wisdom, the Bible ranks Solomon as the greatest of Israel’s kings. But what do we really know about him and his world? Our class will dig deep into chapter 10 of I Kings to get answers. As we translate the text, we’ll also discover what archaeology can tell us about his time, as well as what ancient commentators like Flavius Josephus and medieval rabbis had to say. The focus will be the Queen of Sheba, and, for her legendary visit, we’ll delve into movie midrash, with film clips courtesy of Yul Brynner and Gina Lollobrigida.
Students will receive a rich visual introduction to Solomon’s world as well as extensive notes to assist in translation.
While basic knowledge of Biblical (or modern) Hebrew is helpful, students without that background will be able to share the learning since both the Hebrew text and an English translation will be on screen for every verse.
Learn More: https://youtu.be/54Yo5Hxpcm8
This course will be available live online via Zoom conference services and full video recording.
Tuition: $100 (scholarships available)
To Register: contact the instructor at jehon@att.net and specify your course selection to receive registration instructions.
Teacher's Bio for the above Hebrew classes
Jehon Grist, Ph.D., is a long time educator. He earned his doctorate in Near Eastern Studies from UC Berkeley, where he was a Regents’ Fellow. He has conducted field research in Israel, the Gaza Strip, and the Valley of the Queens in southern Egypt.
Beginning Yiddish from Scratch
8 Sundays, starting 10/17, 7:00 - 8:30 PM
Ken Blady, M.A, Jewish educator and author
Course Description
Learn this rich and colorful language in a relaxed, irreverent and heimishe atmosphere.
Emphasis will be placed on interactive conversation among students (almost) entirely in Yiddish in order to develop the ability to form sentences for basic needs when conversing with Yiddish speakers. The instructor will include salient aspects of Yiddish history and culture as grist for conversation.
Teacher’s Bio
A native Yiddish speaker, Jewish educator and author Ken Blady, M.A., grew up in Chassidic Brooklyn, where he attended yeshiva and rabbinical seminary. He is the translator of seven works from Yiddish and has been teaching Yiddish in the Bay Area for over forty years. http://www.kenblady.com/
Modern Hebrew: Multiple Levels with Orna Morad
Orna's fall classes are hosted by Beth Am in Los Altos. They have already begun but you can contact Orna about entering a current class. See the details on the website below.
Variable Times: Hosted by Cong. Beth Am: https://www.betham.org/adult-hebrew-2021
Orna Morad has taught Hebrew for Lehrhaus Judaica and HaMaqom for two decades.
COSPONSORED COURSES
Talmud Circles
Variable Times
Rabbi Peretz Wolf-Prusan, Rabbi Dorothy Richman, Prof. Deena Aranoff
Course Description:
The Bay Area Community Talmud Circle is a growing, dynamic, and welcoming community engaged in modern Talmud study and active conversation. The Talmud Circles are all meeting via Zoom in fall 2021. We hope to return to in-person gathering in 2022.
There is a San Francisco / Santa Rosa Talmud Circle, a Marin Talmud Circle, a Berkeley Talmud Circle. These Circles meet at 10am, monthly, on Sunday Mornings. There is also the Downtown SF Lunchtime Talmud Circle, bi-weekly meetings at noon.
While the majority of participants are continuing students, anyone may join.
Text: Vol. 12 Ta'anit, Megilla. https://korenpub.com/products/vol-12-taanit-megilla-pdf
Teachers’ Bios:
Rabbi Peretz Wolf-Prusan lives in Berkeley and leads online Talmud Circles and works in his shed producing serigraphs of Hebrew lettering.
Rabbi Dorothy Richman has been teaching Talmud joyfully with the Talmud Circle since its beginning. She serves as rabbi of Makor Or: Jewish Meditation, and teaches Torah throughout the Bay Area.
Prof. Deena Aranoff is Faculty Director of the Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. She teaches rabbinic literature, medieval patterns of Jewish thought, and the broader question of continuity and change in Jewish history. Her recent publications engage with the subject of childcare, maternity and the making of Jewish culture.
Riva Gambert: "We Are the Jews" Lecture Series
Variable days and times https://www.underonetent.org/we-are-the-jews
Naomi Seidman: Reading Yiddish Literature (in Translation)
Wednesdays, October 6, 13, 20, 27, 5:30-6:30 PM. Hosted by the Jewish Community Library: https://tinyurl.com/seidmancourse