What confers sacredness onto space? Distinguished sanctuary designers discuss how they approach the shaping of spaces meant to focus the mind and transport the soul. Here, Susie Coliver and Steve Rajninger will describe the thinking behind Kol Shofar, via an introductory Zoom session and site visit, where you will experience the architect's ideas in vivo at the synagogue.

Eli Gumener’s 1921 Yiddish memoir, A Ukrainian Chapter: Two Years in Podolia (A Kapitl Ukraine. Tsvey Yor in Podolye), is set in a region in southwest Ukraine. The memoir depicts the fate of Jews caught in the middle of the Russian Civil War and the challenges of providing aid to Jewish communities. Gumener (1886-1941) was Michael Nutkiewicz’s uncle and worked for all the major aid organizations in the interwar period. Nutkiewicz was unaware of Gumener’s story until he discovered the book in his parents’ library after they passed away. Translated into English by Nutkiewicz and published in 2022, Gumener’s memoir is a highly valuable and rare historical source that focuses on the two most devastating years of pogroms in Ukraine, 1918-1920. Eli Gumener was a communal activist right up to the time that he himself became a victim during the Holocaust.

In partnership with Congregation Kol Emeth and Congregation Beth Am

Explicitly and implicitly, Torah texts point to the idea that we are stewards of a planet to which we never gain title. Surprisingly visionary obligations follow to treat this earth with reverence. This course will focus on a journey through Torah and later rabbinic teaching searching for wisdom to safeguard our only shared home.

Tuesday, November 14 @ 7–8:30pm; FREE

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In partnership with Congregation Kol Emeth and Congregation Beth Am

In partnership with Urban Adamah

Join us on Fridays at noon for a look at the Torah Portion of the week through the portal of the Zohar. The gate pictured here is the entrance to the garden of Moses de Leon, the compiler of the Zohar. He published it as a weekly Torah companion, and that is how we will encounter it.

In this richly illustrated course, we’ll start by searching out the beginnings of Jewish Spain over 2,000 years ago, including the Roman and later Visigothic centuries. Then we’ll focus on the Muslim invasion and the Golden Age of Islamic Spain that followed. This was the era of La Convivencia, when Jews, Christians and Muslims lived largely in peace and shared and contributed to a common culture far advanced beyond the rest of Europe’s states. From there, we’ll chronicle the slow but steady advance of Christian armies, finally leading to the Expulsion of Jews (and Muslims) from Spain in 1492 and later years. We’ll close with a look at the fate of Sephardic Jews after the Expulsion as well as the fate of Spain in those centuries right up to today.

Kenneth Bob, President of Ameinu—who has been in Israel since before October 7th—will provide a "report from the ground" covering the war, the hostage situation, the state of affairs in Gaza, and life on the home front. Following that, Rabbi Judy Shanks (New Lehrhaus Board Co-President) will facilitate sharing your thoughts and feelings with fellow participants.

Join us on Fridays at noon for a look at the Torah Portion of the week through the portal of the Zohar. The gate pictured here is the entrance to the garden of Moses de Leon, the compiler of the Zohar. He published it as a weekly Torah companion, and that is how we will encounter it.

In this richly illustrated course, we’ll start by searching out the beginnings of Jewish Spain over 2,000 years ago, including the Roman and later Visigothic centuries. Then we’ll focus on the Muslim invasion and the Golden Age of Islamic Spain that followed. This was the era of La Convivencia, when Jews, Christians and Muslims lived largely in peace and shared and contributed to a common culture far advanced beyond the rest of Europe’s states. From there, we’ll chronicle the slow but steady advance of Christian armies, finally leading to the Expulsion of Jews (and Muslims) from Spain in 1492 and later years. We’ll close with a look at the fate of Sephardic Jews after the Expulsion as well as the fate of Spain in those centuries right up to today.

Martin Buber was born in Vienna in 1878, and was a utopian Zionist. He is best-known for his book I and Thou, which focuses on how people relate to the world. For Buber, our relationship with the Divine, and as much as possible with each other, should be I-Thou rather than I-It relationships.

Join us on Fridays at noon for a look at the Torah Portion of the week through the portal of the Zohar. The gate pictured here is the entrance to the garden of Moses de Leon, the compiler of the Zohar. He published it as a weekly Torah companion, and that is how we will encounter it.