Greetings Beth Emet Adult Learners,
Great news! Our Lifelong Learning opportunities for December through February are open for registration! Learning is at the core of Beth Emet values. Beth Emet is a diverse community of individuals with different viewpoints, backgrounds, and a broad range of Jewish learning experiences.
Below is our lineup for December through February, including our year-long courses.
Be sure to check out these sessions:
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Tuesday, December 6 | 7:00 pm
Virtual on Zoom Only
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Wednesday, January 10
7:30 pm | In-Person and Virtual
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This term will continue with some classes and programs in-person, others only remote through Zoom, and some in a fusion fashion using Zoom and in-person learning. Classes are listed and described chronologically. Everyone is welcome to listen, learn, contribute, and share new insights with other members of the Beth Emet community.
We look forward to learning with you.
Helene Rosenberg, Adult Education Chair
Marci Dickman, Director of Lifelong Learning
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Fridays, December 2 and 9 | 11:00 am
In-Person and Virtual on Zoom
It goes without saying that the Bible is filled with stories. Are there also overarching themes and messages emerging from the text that the Tanakh is trying to teach us? We will explore two approaches and suggest some unexpected themes.
Member fee $25, or included in Friday morning package; non-member fee $35
RABBI MICHAEL BALINSKY was the Executive Vice-President of the Chicago Board of Rabbis and was Director of the Louis and Saerree Fiedler Hillel Center at Northwestern University for nineteen years. He greatly enjoys teaching adults and helping them engage with classical Jewish sacred texts in an open, pluralistic setting. He is a graduate of Yeshiva University and the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary.
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Sunday, December 4 | 10:00 am
In-Person and Virtual on Zoom
What can you learn while researching your own genealogy? Professional genealogist Debbie Kroopkin will share many examples of documents, resources, and methods you can use to explore your family history. With archives and libraries digitizing a wealth of records daily, the internet has opened up new opportunities to discover your family’s journey without leaving home.
DEBBIE KROOPKIN is currently co-president of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois. She has explored her family history for over two decades and now conducts research for others. She has discovered her family and client family origins in countries including Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, Moldova, and Romania. She loves the hunt of research and loves connecting with new families, both in person and on paper. She has a master’s degree in social work administration.
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Tuesday, December 6 | 7:00 pm
Virtual on Zoom Only
This class will explore how Jewish thought considers cases in clinical ethics, drawn from Dr. Zoloth’s latest book, Second Texts and Second Opinions: Essays Towards a Jewish Bioethics. We will learn about the source, methods, and texts that make Jewish clinical ethics distinctive, and consider how and whether arguments that are drawn from particular religions should play a role in public discourse.
Member fee $10; non-member fee $20
LAURIE ZOLOTH is chair of the ethics area at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. Her research in Jewish thought and bioethics has focused on the application of rabbinic arguments and the philosophy of Levinas, Arendt, and Susman to contemporary dilemmas in health care and emerging medical technology. She is the author or editor of nine books and has served on national ethics boards for the American Heart Association; NASA; the NIH; and the CDC. She is the former dean at the Divinity School and the former president of both the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities and the American Academy of Religion.
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Thursday, December 8 | 7:00 pm
Virtual Registration Still Available
Cooking Magic is all about fast, easy, healthy, and delicious meals. Come for recipes, cooking, and comradery. This program is for everyone from kitchen novices to experienced cooks.
This class will now be held in a hybrid fashion with a limited number of participants in person at Robin Langer’s home. All participants will be sent the recipes in advance so they can follow along as Robin demonstrates the cooking instructions.
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Friday, December 9 | 9:30 am
In-Person and Virtual
(continuing Friday mornings through June)
There are many ways to interpret Torah and its nuances of meaning that are often overlooked. We will continue our learning, reading and interpreting the text of the Book of Deuteronomy line by line. New learners are always welcome.
No Fee for members; non-member fee is $60.
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Thursday, December 15 | 7:15 pm
Virtual on Zoom
(continuing the third Thursday of the month through May)
Not sure how to connect to the Mystery or the Divine in the world? Perhaps you are seeking an honest conversation about making meaning in life and what really matters. Maybe you know what you do not believe but are still hungry or wanting something more spiritual. We will use the prayerbook, poetry, prose, and ourselves as our texts, aiming to deepen our connections and discern meaningful paths in our daily lives. Our tools will include mindfulness practices, journaling, questioning, and conversation.
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Tuesday evenings, beginning in January
This 21-session class- live on Zoom, with closed captioning available by request- is for adults seeking a deeper understanding of Jewish life through a reform lens. People from all backgrounds are welcome, including interfaith couples, Jews who want a meaningful adult learning experience, adults raising Jewish children, spiritual seekers, and individuals considering conversion. Topics include holidays, life cycles, core beliefs, simple Hebrew vocabulary, prayer, the Bible and other sacred texts, history, antisemitism and the Holocaust, Israel, the North American Jewish experience, and the diversity of the Jewish people today. Wherever you are on your journey with Judaism, Introduction to Judaism Online is designed to be a safe and welcoming space in which to explore.
A limited number of stipends are available to Beth Emet congregants this year. Interested? Contact Marci Dickman
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Tikkun Middot at Beth Emet
Middot are character traits expressed in our behavior that can impact our relationships. Participants in Beth Emet’s Tikkun Middot groups follow the innovative national program developed by the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, built on the Jewish tradition of Mussar, to cultivate moral traits such as patience, compassion, trust, and mindful speech.
Wise Aging Through the Lens of Tikkun Middot facilitated by Jane Weintraub and Sue Nadel
Monthly on Sunday afternoons, January- June
Are you thinking of retiring? Is your nest emptying? Are you facing age-related challenges or moving from one phase of life to another? Are you sandwiched between generations? Do you have fewer stairs to climb professionally and are more interested in making your next chapter meaningful? We will address these and other situations through a wide range of Tikkun Middot practices to focus on our personal characteristics, traits, or virtues, and employ curiosity and openness to investigate our internal and external reactions to situations. Through this lens, we will look at issues of aging and consider how choice points can help us create openings for personal and spiritual growth and turn away from reactive behaviors. Together, we will consider how to reframe life’s peaks and valleys into opportunities for growth and change, meeting monthly to examine how we wish to navigate this new landscape. Limited to 14 participants.
New Tikkun Middot Va’ad (small group) facilitated by Marci Dickman
Monthly, January- June; Specific days and times to be determined by the participants
The Va’ad focuses on a particular character trait each month, and each session includes meditation, mindfulness practice, study of Jewish and secular texts, and self-reflection. Between sessions, participants work with a chevruta (partner) on specific exercises to explore the internal and external obstacles and opportunities present in each moment in order to access wiser, more wholesome choices. In the words of a congregant participating in Tikkun Middot practice for their fifth year: “It is a blessing in my life and has gently pushed me to review and develop how I connect and interact with others, self, and with God… Learning and practicing Tikkun Middot has been a lifesaver for me. It was the place I turned to when I was confused about how to live in this unusual time.” The group is open to congregants of all ages and interests.
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Fridays, January 6 and 13 | 11:00 am
In-Person and Virtual on Zoom
The war of 1948 has shaped the history of the modern Middle East more than any other single event, and it continues to shape both Israeli and Palestinian societies to this day. We will discuss the major events that led to the outbreak of the war, its main stages, and the different, even contrasting, narratives Israelis and Palestinians created about it. We will examine the diverse voices of those who participated in or experienced the war to shed new light on this constitutive and complex event.
Member fee $25 or included in Friday morning package; non-member fee $35.
MAAYAN HILEL is a lecturer at the Crown Family Center for Israel and Jewish Studies at Northwestern University. She is a historian of the modern Middle East, specializing in the cultural and social history of Palestine / Land of Israel during the first half of the twentieth century. Dr. Hilel teachers history courses about Jewish-Arab relations; leisure, and popular culture in the Middle East; the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; and more.
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Wednesday, January 10 | 7:30 pm
In-Person and Virtual
A continuing lecture-discussion class on contemporary public issues of interest to Jews as citizens. Special attention will be given to the policy and political issues facing the Biden administration. Two additional classes will be offered in the Spring term. Participation in prior sessions not required.
No fee for members; non-members fee $10.
DAVID ZAREFSKY is the Owen L. Coon Professor Emeritus of Communication Studies at Northwestern University, specializing in argumentation and the analysis and criticism of American political discourse. He is a former president of the National Communication Association, the Rhetoric Society of America, and the Central States Communication Association. In 2012 he received the Lifetime Teaching Excellence Award from the National Communication Association. David is a past president of Beth Emet
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Wednesday, January 18 | 7:30 pm
In-Person and Virtual on Zoom
The daughter of Polish Holocaust Survivors, the late Israeli author Batya Gur had a special interest in how kibbutznikim who came from the death camps found solace in the rhythms of communal life. Murder on a Kibbutz (1991), the third book in her series featuring the Moroccan-born chief detective of the Jerusalem police Michael Ohayon, explores the tensions within a northern Negev desert kibbutz as the ideals of the founding generation are challenged by the next generation.
This program is sponsored by the Israel Committee
LISA LIEBERMAN is a historian of postwar Europe and the author of a historical mystery series featuring blacklisted Hollywood people on the lam in dangerous international locales.
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Fridays, January 20 and 27 | 11:00 am | In-Person and Virtual on Zoom
David Weiss Halivni z’l (1927-2022) was a revolutionary in two separate intellectual arenas- talmudic analysis and Jewish theology. As an academic scholar of talmud, Halivni innovated the notion that much of the Talmud was produced by a group of unnamed editors whom he called Stammaim. As a theologian, he worked to process both his own and the communal experience of the Holocaust in religious terms. We will learn about Halivni’s work and discuss how this Talmud theory and unique theology might inform one another.
Member fee $25 or included in Friday morning package; non-member fee $35
BARRY SCOTT WIMPFHEIMER is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Law at Northwestern University. Wimpfheimer specialized in the study of Jewish Law and the Rabbinic Tradition, particularly in the Babylonian Talmud. His book The Talmud: A Biography was published as part of Princeton University Press’ Lives of Great Religious Books series in Spring 2018.
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Fridays, February 3 and 10 | 11:00 am
In-Person and Virtual on Zoom
Pre-modern Jews are often described as “people of the book,” but Jews produced visual art over the centuries as well – images in illuminated Bibles, Machzorim, and Haggadot that are complex, often learned, and sometimes deeply subversive. How might our understanding of Torah study shift if we accompany study of Jewish texts with study of Jewish images?
Member fee $25; non-member fee $35
DAVID SHYOVITZ (PhD University of Pennsylvania) is Associate Professor of History at Northwestern University, and Director of NU’s Crown Family Center for Jewish and Israel Studies. He is the author of A Remembrance of His Wonders: Nature and the Supernatural in Medieval Ashkenaz (2017), and has lectured widely throughout the United States, Israel, and Europe.
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Sunday, February 5 | 11:00 am
Virtual on Zoom
The historic Abraham Accords dramatically improved Israel’s position in the Middle East, normalizing Israel’s ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. In 2½ years, the Accords have led to a renewed relationship with Morocco, security agreements with Bahrain and Morocco, Saudi Arabia treating Israel “as a potential ally,” expanded trade and other business opportunities, and more.
Sponsored by the Israel Committee
EITAN NA’EH is Israel’s Ambassador to Bahrain. He headed the diplomatic mission (2020-2021) to implement the Abraham Accords normalization deal between Israel and three Arab countries, and served as Israel’s envoy to the United Arab Emirates until he was appointed in 2021 to be Israel’s first ambassador to Bahrain, after serving as Ambassador to Turkey, Deputy Ambassador in London, and Ambassador to Azerbaijan.
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Fridays, February 17 and 24 | 11:00 am
In-Person and Virtual on Zoom
Who can ask us for financial help? How do we maintain respect for people who need money from us? Is it religiously admirable, or something else, to allow ourselves to become poor? We’ll consider these and other questions in connection with texts from the Mishnah and Maimonides.
Member fee $25 or included in Friday morning package; non-member fee $35
SAMUEL FLEISCHACKER is LAS Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC). His writings include Divine Teaching and the Way of the World (Oxford, 2011), and The Good and the Good Book: Revelation as a Guide to Life (Oxford, 2015), and Being Me Being You: Adam Smith and Empathy (Routledge, 2019). Sam received his PhD from the Philosophy Department at Yale University, and taught at Williams College before coming to UIC.
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Telling' Tales Theater Performance
Thursday, February 23 | 5:15 pm | In-Person
"Telling Tales models a society where all people are accepted and respected regardless of race, income or perceived ability." They will bring a performance at Beth Emet Synagogue in honor of Jewish Disabilities Awareness Acceptance and Inclusion Month. More details to follow.
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