There has been discussion over the past thirty years about the vision of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, as well as the compatibility of observant Jewish life and American democracy. Can the two—Jewish and democratic—be reconciled? The two presenters, one a Jewish historian, the other a scholar of American law, will explore the consonances and tensions between Jewish and democratic values in Israel and ... Read more

This course tracks the historical development of antisemitism in Western civilization from the Greco-Roman period to its present resurgence throughout the West. We will discuss the nature of antisemitic prejudice, constructions, and concepts of race, the relationship between antisemitism and anti-Zionism, and the ongoing reality of Jew-hatred as a recurring phenomenon. Together, we will work to understand the sources of antisemitism’s post-Holocaust resurgence, paying close attention to cur... 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.

Wednesdays, February 26 & March 5 @ 7-8:30pm... 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

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

Moses has long been the prototype of the successful revolutionary leader who must cajole his willful followers to cut ties with tyrants and embark on the painful journey from bondage to freedom. The most well-known student of leadership is Niccolo Machiavelli, whose name is synonymous with cunning, amoral political machinations. Yet, he regarded Moses as his model for the ideal leader in The Prince, his famous study of leadership. Join us in an examination of this surprising pairing,... Read more

German Jews since Moses Mendelssohn have struggled with their self-definition: are they German Jews (Jews first) or Jewish Germans (Germans first)? We will chart this complex road from the stirring music of Felix Mendelssohn, Moses' grandson who converted to Christianity, through 19th and 20th-century attitudes towards conversion to Phillip Kuttner's own family history.

Watch the fascinating documentary film ... Read more

Grounded in Jewish values and concepts of what it means to be human, we will critically examine the intrusion of AI into increasingly more aspects of our daily experiences. Jewish teachings will provide a framework for critically determining if, what and when to engage with artificial intelligence applications.