Claire and Merna Barry—born Clara and Minnie Bagelman in New York City—were a popular singing duo who performed on radio, television, records, and in concert halls and nightclubs from 1937 to 1973. In their elegant form-fitting gowns and coiffed hair, they popularized Yiddish Swing, which melded Yiddish theater tunes with a big-band beat. The sisters also performed highly polished arrangeme... Read more

Read and study the Zohar, the masterpiece of Kabbalah in the original Aramaic with Daniel Matt. The upcoming Zohar course (Series 31) runs from April 1 through May 20 on Zoom (including April 3, 24; May 1, 8, 15, 22) from 11am–12:15pm, Pacific. This course will explore volume 3 of The Zohar: Pritzker Edition.

This class will focus on the moon cycle’s connection to water and traditions of immersion from ancient Mesopotamian myths and rituals to Abrahamic religions—the Jewish mikveh, Christian baptism, and Islamic wudu. Participants will engage with traditional texts, and be given the opportunity to create a prayer or symbolic action echoing these texts.

Discover the foods of the Biblical world and how they were produced. We’ll learn about farming in Biblical Israel and neighboring lands, and how the basic foods were processed from the crops. Then we’ll look into everything from cooking methods to the seasonings and other ingredients that made Biblical cuisine s... Read more

The third semester of a three-semester sequence, this course is designed for those who have completed New Lehrhaus Hebrew 1 and 2 and have a working Hebrew vocabulary of about 200 words and are familiar with the grammar of nouns, adjectives, possessive endings and past and present tense verbs. It’s also a great choice for students with basic reading ski... Read more

Biblical Israel’s legacy from its ancient neighbors is not just a saga of conflict. Law, literature, early religious practices, and even food and drink owe much to the surrounding ancient cultures. Mesopotamia's cultures contributed to the foundational tales of the Torah—the Garden of Eden, Noah’s ark, the Tower of Babel and the Abraham narrative, the Jewish calendar, and the Hebrew language. Egypt’s hieroglyphs morphed into the Hebrew alphabet and Egyptian art influenced the iconography of... Read more

Writer Mary Antin’s 1912 book The Promised Land, the first autobiography of a Russian Jewish immigrant to the United States, brought her national fame. But only a few years later, Antin abandoned celebrity in favor of exploring non-Jewish religious groups. Her spiritual journey reveals the resilience of Jewish identity, connections between health and religious practice, and the boundaries of religious communities.

Prof. Ron Hendel will discuss his new commentary on the Book of Genesis and its meaning through the ages.

Closing Session: Our Gift to You! Join us for the closing session of this course with international baroque music conductor and expert, Nicholas McGegan!

Not sure who Jephthah is, or his (unnamed) daughter? Watch the video of this week's session about the Judges Chapter 11&nbs... Read more