Friday, November 5 at 9:30 am
A Close Look at Torah with Rabbi Andrea London
There are many ways to interpret Torah and its nuances of meaning that are often overlooked. We will continue our learning from last year, reading and interpreting the text of the Book of Deuteronomy line by line. New learners are always welcome. Texts will be provided.
No fee for members, non-member fee $100
Fridays, November 5 and 12 at 11:00 am
Rabbinc Inferno: Hell in Classical Judaism with Dov Weiss
The leading rabbis of American Reform Judaism declared in the 1885 Pittsburgh Platform that “we reject as ideas not rooted in Judaism, the belief … [in] Gehenna (Hell).” Arguing that this claim misrepresents the history of Judaism, this two-part class will examine ancient Jewish discourse about Gehenna to unearth the distinctive values, aesthetics, fantasies, and hopes found within classical Jewish culture. Without such an analysis, one’s understanding of Judaism remains incomplete.
Member fee $25, or included in Friday morning package; non-member fee $35
Dov Weiss is an Associate Professor and Conrad Humanities Scholar (21-26) of Jewish Studies in the Departments of Religion, Classics and Medieval Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He completed his PhD at the University of Chicago Divinity School as a Martin Meyer Fellow in 2011 and was the Alan M. Stock Fellow at Harvard University’s Center for Jewish Studies in 2012. Dov’s first book, Pious Irreverence: Confronting God in Rabbinic Judaism (University of Pennsylvania Press), won the 2017 National Jewish Book Award in the category of Scholarship.
Mondays, November 8 at 7:00 pm
Tropical Zion: Jewish Settlements in the Spanish-Speaking Caribbean with
Dara E. Goldman- Part 2
Learn about the Jewish populations of the Spanish speaking Caribbean. In the first session we will discuss the origins and development of Jewish communities in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, and how they compare to other Caribbean Jewish populations. The second session will focus on the Jewish settlement in Sosúa, Dominican Republic, drawing upon some of the fictional and archival materials from the original settlers, their descendants, and historians who have studied the settlement.
No fee for members; $10 each session for non-members
Dara E. Goldman is Associate Professor of Spanish at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, specializing in contemporary Caribbean and Latin American literatures and cultures, gender and sexualities studies and cultural studies. She is the author of Out of Bounds: Islands and the Demarcation of Identity in the Hispanic Caribbean (2008) and is completing a project on recent Cuban cultural production. She has also published articles on Caribbean and Jewish cultural production. Professor Goldman currently chairs the Program in Jewish Culture and Society.
