This session explores two radical innovations in Jewish culture and education that have their roots in the 1920s: the legacy of the Jewish People's Fraternal Order and Yiddishkayt Los Angeles, alongside Franz Rosenzweig's "New Learning" and today's New Lehrhaus.

The JPFO was one of Los Angeles's most important Jewish organizations in the early 20th century, centering anti-racist organizing and Yiddish culture. After its McCarthyist destruction in 1950, former ... Read more

Brave Maccabees defeat the evil Seleucid Empire and rededicate the Temple; miracle oil burns for eight days (thus the latkes). Not really...the Books of the Maccabees tell a far messier tale.

Yes, Hanukkah celebrates a stirring victory of Jewish forces, led by Judah Maccabee, over those of the Greco-Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes, who had sought to stamp out the religion, rituals, and institutions of the Jewish nation. But the historical record is more complicated. It was no... Read more

In this multimedia talk, author Seth Rog... Read more

Back in Europe, Yiddish-speaking Jews traditionally let loose on Christmas Eve with feasting, drinking, dancing, and gambling. Scholars have previously assumed that this Christmas Eve vacation from Torah study was some sort of antagonistic counterculture to Christians celebrating Christmas. But Jordan Chad’s recent book Christmas in Yiddish Tradition: the Untold Story* reveals that the Christmas traditions ... Read more

This richly illustrated class explores the lifeways, places, and events of ancient Israelite civilization, from the Age of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs to the early rabbinic era. We'll visit the region's most important ancient sites, covering the millennia from 1500 BCE to 500 CE. We'll discover daily life in ancient times: what people ate and drank; how, where, and what they worshipped; the battles won and lost; and the kings, queens, and prophets who shaped this history. Studying this an... Read more

Join us for an engaging series of conversations led by acclaimed multidisciplinary artist and educator Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell exploring the music, narratives and histories behind his 2018 EP covering a century of African American and Ashkenazic Jewish music, Convergence.

Doikayt, or "hereness" in Yiddish, has recently emerged as a central concept for Jewish critics of Zionism and proponents of Diaspora Nationalism. While many cite its historical importance to the Jewish Labor Bund, the true origins of the term remain widely misunderstood. This online lecture exploring Jewish political history presents new research into the roots of the Bundist ideology. We will propose an alternative origin for doikayt that challenges modern interpretations and forces a ret... Read more

Join us for the Radical Jewish Reading Circle: three evenings of reading, thinking, and conversation about radical thinkers of Jewish origin.

This month we turn to Rosa Luxemburg, starting with her famous 1917 letter to Mathilde Wurm, in which she declared: "I have no special corner in my heart for the ghetto: I am at home in the entire world wherever there are clouds and birds and human tears." Born in 1871 to a Jewish family in Russian-controlled Poland, Lux... Read more

Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel (1524-1609)—the Maharal of Prague—is famous for the Golem legend, but his actual philosophical and theological system is far more complex and daring than the myth suggests. Together, we will explore selections from the Maharal’s prolific writings, examining his ideas about language, Torah study, the nature of time, and the relationship between the divine and the material world. The Maharal's unique blend of rationalism and mysticism has much to offer the modern ... Read more