The Land-as-Woman is one of the most deeply rooted metaphorical systems in Jewish as well as Western and Middle-Eastern cultures, used to support the discourses of colonialism and nationalism throughout history. It has its origins in the Hebrew Bible. In modern Hebrew poetry modernist women poets critique a tradition that views women always as metaphors, never as literal subjects, developing a new erotics of the address to the land that calls into question patriarchal models of conquest and subjugation.

Eleanor Shapiro: Jewish Music Matters

We will explore, via lecture and discussion, stories written by major Jewish American authors of the post-World War II period.  What does their fiction reveal to us about major motifs of Jewish identity and Jewish values and why is their work of ongoing importance? Authors will include Bernard Malamud, Grace Paley, and Isaac Bashevis Singer.

While we follow the Russian invasion of Ukraine with heartbreak and grave anxiety and hold ALL Ukrainians in our hearts and thoughts, we step back in history with Prof. Natan Meir, to the days when Kyiv - Kiev was a flourishing Jewish Metropolis. Populated by urbane Jewish merchants and professionals as well as new arrivals from the shtetl, imperial Kiev was acclaimed for its opportunities for education, culture, employment, and entrepreneurship but cursed for the often pitiless persecution of its Jews.

In Partnership with Congregation Beth El, Berkeley

“It is not a coincidence,” says photographer Penny Wolin “that Jews are attracted to the alchemy of photography and photography has found its storytellers in Jews.” Over six years, Wolin had in-person encounters with 70 leading American Jewish photographers, including Robert Frank, Annie Leibovitz, and Arnold Newman. With a visual and verbal discussion, we will explore the motivations of Jews in photography.

The abortion debate has just reached fever pitch following the leak of the Supreme Court majority opinion suggesting the demise of Roe vs. Wade. If it is overturned, what other personal freedoms are already/will be in danger: transgender health services, gay marriage, contraception?

Program Video: https://youtu.be/FEzwnh37xBY

In partnership with The East Bay International Jewish Film Festival, Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, and A Wider Bridge

Explore culture, history and, of course, great food on an exciting and educational trip to Morocco, March 3-13, 2023. Rabbi Yoel Kahn will lead us on a journey to fabled cities like Casablanca, Fez and Marrakech, as well as the desert and the mountains. Jews have lived in Morocco for over two thousand years and we will engage with both the historical and contemporary Jewish sites and community.

In partnership with Osher Marin JCC

This inquiry into violence and non-violence in Jewish tradition employs Gandhi’s model of satyagraha (“a determined but nonviolent resistance to evil”) as a benchmark for non-violent resistance.