Jewish Ideas to Change the World

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowtiz (President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash) explores social justice in the weekly parsha (Torah portion). This podcast series is now available as its own podcast channel titled "Social Justice in the Parsha." Make sure to subscribe! Stay Connected with Valley Beit Midrash: • Website: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org • Donate: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/donate • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ValleyBeitMidrash • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiLYSyEus7DcWMhyEZ_CQFQ • Become a Member: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member Follow Rabbi Shmuly: • https://www.facebook.com/RabbiShmulyYanklowitz Listen to all of Valley Beit Midrash’s podcasts: • Jewish Ideas to Change the World (diverse Jewish perspectives) • Social Justice in the Parsha (divrei torah by Rabbi Shmuly) • Pearls of Jewish Wisdom on Living with Kindness (Rabbi Shmuly's class series) ★ Support this podcast ★

Enjoy the twenty seventh session of Valley Beit Midrash's "The 40 Greatest Debates in Jewish History!" series. (1 per week for 40 weeks). Topic - What's the Purpose of Mitzvot? Obedience vs. Meaning In this class, we will explore the 40 greatest debates in Jewish history. We will study texts, reflect on the historical contexts, and discuss the values involved. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz will present for about 20-30 minutes and then the remaining 30-40 minutes will be for questions and conversation. DONATE: www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowtiz (President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash) explores social justice in the weekly parsha (Torah portion). This podcast series is now available as its own podcast channel titled "Social Justice in the Parsha." Make sure to subscribe! Stay Connected with Valley Beit Midrash: • Website: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org • Donate: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/donate • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ValleyBeitMidrash • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiLYSyEus7DcWMhyEZ_CQFQ • Become a Member: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member Follow Rabbi Shmuly: • https://www.facebook.com/RabbiShmulyYanklowitz Listen to all of Valley Beit Midrash’s podcasts: • Jewish Ideas to Change the World (diverse Jewish perspectives) • Social Justice in the Parsha (divrei torah by Rabbi Shmuly) • Pearls of Jewish Wisdom on Living with Kindness (Rabbi Shmuly's class series) ★ Support this podcast ★

Enjoy the twenty sixth session of Valley Beit Midrash's "The 40 Greatest Debates in Jewish History!" series. (1 per week for 40 weeks). Topic - Body vs. Soul In this class, we will explore the 40 greatest debates in Jewish history. We will study texts, reflect on the historical contexts, and discuss the values involved. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz will present for about 20-30 minutes and then the remaining 30-40 minutes will be for questions and conversation. DONATE: www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

This lecture is in honor of Dr. Sherman Minkoff. ABOUT THE EVENT: The Hebrew School I attended as a child taught us about every catastrophe that befell the Jewish People. It was a tale of endless destruction, persecution, and exile. But left out of the story they told us was the best part — the miraculous capacity of the Jewish People to turn catastrophe into opportunity, and tragedy into creativity. The Jewish talent for renewal, re-invention, and resilience can give us hope for our future. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Rabbi Ed Feinstein is senior rabbi of Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, California. He serves on the faculty of the Ziegler Rabbinical School of the American Jewish University, the Wexner Heritage Program, the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and lectures widely across the United States. He is the author of several books, including: Tough Questions Jews Ask – A Young Adult’s Guide to Building a Jewish Life, (Jewish Lights, 2003), was chosen for the American Library Association’s Top Ten Books on Religion for Young Readers and a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. Jews and Judaism in the Twenty-First Century: Human Responsibility, the Presence of God and the Future of the Covenant (Jewish Lights, 2007) was also a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award, Capturing the Moon (Behrman House, 2008) retells the best of classic and modern Jewish folktales. Most recently, Chutzpah Imperative! – Empowering Today’s Jews for a Life that Matters (Jewish Lights, 2014), offers a new way to “do Judaism,” Rabbi urges us to recover this message of Jewish self empowerment, or chutzpah, to reshape the world. An engaging lecturer and storyteller, Rabbi Feinstein unites the ancient Jewish love of ideas with the warmth of Jewish humor. -- DONATE: www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

Stay Connected with Valley Beit Midrash: • Website: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org • Donate: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/donate • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ValleyBeitMidrash • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiLYSyEus7DcWMhyEZ_CQFQ • Become a Member: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member Follow Rabbi Shmuly: • https://www.facebook.com/RabbiShmulyYanklowitz Listen to all of Valley Beit Midrash’s podcasts: • Jewish Ideas to Change the World (diverse Jewish perspectives) • Social Justice in the Parsha (divrei torah by Rabbi Shmuly) • Pearls of Jewish Wisdom on Living with Kindness (Rabbi Shmuly's class series) ★ Support this podcast ★

A virtual event presentation by Dr. Jon Greenberg Event Co-Sponsored By: Sinai and Synapses, Scientists and Synagogues Program ABOUT THE EVENT: The class will cover many of the following ideas – *How the discoveries of Isaac Newton and Ferdinand Magellan changed the halachic definitions of up and down *Changing meaning within Tanach: Why is “a land dripping with milk and honey” a blessing in Torah but a curse in Isaiah?” *How did the Talmud’s classification of living things anticipate a scientific discovery by 1700 years? *Structure of the Solar System in the Talmud and later ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Jon Greenberg received his Bachelor’s degree with honors in biology from Brown University and his Master’s and Doctorate in agronomy from Cornell University. He has also studied with Rabbi Chaim Brovender at Israel’s Yeshivat HaMivtar and conducted research on corn, alfalfa, and soybeans at Cornell, the US Department of Agriculture, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Cancer Research. Since 1989, he has been a science teacher and educational consultant. Dr. Greenberg was Senior Editor of science textbooks at Prentice Hall Publishing Co. Previously on the faculty of Yeshivas Ohr Yosef, the School of Education at Indiana University, and the University of Phoenix, he has taught at the Abraham Joshua Heschel School since 2008. He is a frequent speaker at synagogues, schools, and botanical gardens. Dr. Greenberg publishes his essays on Biblical and Talmudic botany on his Web site, TorahFlora.org. He can be contacted at 201-261-0385 or [email protected]. -- DONATE: www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

ABOUT THE EVENT: This event will be a book interview of Dr. Fishbane’s latest work of original poetry entitled: “EMBERS OF PILGRIMAGE”. Rabbi Dr. Aubrey Glazer, who wrote the interpretive introduction, will offer a valuable voice in drawing meaning from the poetry while in conversation with Dr. Fishbane. Rabbi Dr. Aubrey is also the Director of The Panui Institute, of which this book is a project. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Dr. Eitan P. Fishbane is Associate Professor of Jewish Thought at The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), where he teaches students in all five graduate and undergraduate schools. Fishbane earned his Ph.D. and B.A., summa cum laude, from Brandeis University, and he served on the faculties of Carleton College and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion before coming to JTS in 2006. A 2015-2016 JTS Chancellor’s Fellow, Fishbane recently completed a term of service on the Faculty Executive Committee; he serves on the Rabbinical School Council at JTS, as B.A. and M.A. Advisor in Jewish Thought, and as Division Chair for Jewish Mysticism at the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS). Among his published works are The Art of Mystical Narrative: A Poetics of the Zohar (Oxford University Press, 2018) and As Light Before Dawn: The Inner World of a Medieval Kabbalist (Stanford University Press, 2009). Fishbane was a 2011 recipient of the Charles A. Ryskamp Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies. -- DONATE: www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

Enjoy the twenty fifth session of Valley Beit Midrash's "The 40 Greatest Debates in Jewish History!" series. (1 per week for 40 weeks). Topic - Love: Emotion vs. Deed In this class, we will explore the 40 greatest debates in Jewish history. We will study texts, reflect on the historical contexts, and discuss the values involved. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz will present for about 20-30 minutes and then the remaining 30-40 minutes will be for questions and conversation. DONATE: www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowtiz (President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash) explores social justice in the weekly parsha (Torah portion). This podcast series is now available as its own podcast channel titled "Social Justice in the Parsha." Make sure to subscribe! Stay Connected with Valley Beit Midrash: • Website: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org • Donate: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/donate • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ValleyBeitMidrash • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiLYSyEus7DcWMhyEZ_CQFQ • Become a Member: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member Follow Rabbi Shmuly: • https://www.facebook.com/RabbiShmulyYanklowitz Listen to all of Valley Beit Midrash’s podcasts: • Jewish Ideas to Change the World (diverse Jewish perspectives) • Social Justice in the Parsha (divrei torah by Rabbi Shmuly) • Pearls of Jewish Wisdom on Living with Kindness (Rabbi Shmuly's class series) ★ Support this podcast ★

Enjoy the twenty fourth session of Valley Beit Midrash's "The 40 Greatest Debates in Jewish History!" series. (1 per week for 40 weeks). Topic: Judging Others Favorably vs. Judging for Justice In this class, we will explore the 40 greatest debates in Jewish history. We will study texts, reflect on the historical contexts, and discuss the values involved. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz will present for about 20-30 minutes and then the remaining 30-40 minutes will be for questions and conversation. DONATE: www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

A virtual presentation by Rabbi Dr. Devorah Schoenfeld ABOUT THE EVENT: The Song of Songs is a collection of poems describing romantic love, and is traditionally read as an allegory for the love between God and God’s people. Traditional commentaries have tended to read the Song of Songs as one continuous narrative, telling a single love story between two lovers. But is the Song of Songs one story or many? And how many lovers are there really? Using Rashi’s commentary and Midrash Rabbah as well as modern scholarship we will look at different possible answers to these questions, and how they can help us think about what it means to love God in a complicated world. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Rabbi Dr. Devorah Schoenfeld is associate professor of Judaism at Loyola University Chicago. She received her PhD from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley in 2007 and her rabbinic ordination from Yeshivat Maharat in 2019. Her research is on biblical interpretation and Jewish-Christian relations. -- DONATE: www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowtiz (President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash) explores social justice in the weekly parsha (Torah portion). This podcast series is now available as its own podcast channel titled "Social Justice in the Parsha." Make sure to subscribe! Stay Connected with Valley Beit Midrash: • Website: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org • Donate: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/donate • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ValleyBeitMidrash • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiLYSyEus7DcWMhyEZ_CQFQ • Become a Member: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member Follow Rabbi Shmuly: • https://www.facebook.com/RabbiShmulyYanklowitz Listen to all of Valley Beit Midrash’s podcasts: • Jewish Ideas to Change the World (diverse Jewish perspectives) • Social Justice in the Parsha (divrei torah by Rabbi Shmuly) • Pearls of Jewish Wisdom on Living with Kindness (Rabbi Shmuly's class series) ★ Support this podcast ★

Enjoy the twenty third session of Valley Beit Midrash's "The 40 Greatest Debates in Jewish History!" series. (1 per week for 40 weeks). Topic: Prioritizing the Poor vs. Equity Toward all Parties In this class, we will explore the 40 greatest debates in Jewish history. We will study texts, reflect on the historical contexts, and discuss the values involved. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz will present for about 20-30 minutes and then the remaining 30-40 minutes will be for questions and conversation. DONATE: www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

A virtual presentation by Jonnie Schnytzer ABOUT THE EVENT: Chassidic masters created a Jewish revolution, which rekindled a mass of souls that were on the verge of burning out. They chose stories & melodies over the study-hall. In this series we feel the power & charm of the Chassidic stories, as well as learn how these brought God and His Torah not only to the learned, but also to the locksmith. Let’s go back in time and hear the stories as they were told in the heart of forests, inside wagons and ultimately, penetrating into the very study-halls, which opposed the Chassidic movement (this can be 1-8 lessons focusing on the background and rise of the Besht, the story of Chassidic masters and the stories they told (Ba’al Shem Tov, R. Nahman of Breslav, The Rozhiner Rebber, Chabad etc), the many aspects of the chassidic story – the idea of a multilayered story suited for everyone; giving simple meaning as well as vehicles carrying secrets, the story as a new way of teaching Torah, the story as a magical charm redefining time etc.) ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Jonnie Schnytzer is a Phd candidate focusing on medieval kabbalah. His dissertation is focused on the kabbalistic system of thought of Rabbi Joseph ben Shalom Ashkenazi. Jonnie is also preparing a critical edition of Ashkenazi’s commentary on Sefer Yesira. Probably the only PhD student in Jewish Philosophy who can say that he once beat the head of Israeli naval commandos in a swimming race, Jonnie’s also the author of Mossad thriller, The Way Back, which paints a picture of contemporary Israel. Jonnie has recently orchestrated the publishing of an English edition of ‘The Hitler Haggadah’, an important piece of Moroccan Jewish history from the Holocaust. Jonnie has also taken on several leadership roles in the Jewish world, including advisor to the CEO of Birthright and executive manager with StandWithUs. He lectures on a wide variety of topics relating to Judaism and Israel, especially about the untold stories and unspoken heroes of Jewish history. Jonnie is happily married, with four gorgeous little kids, lives in Israel and thinks that Australian Rules Football is the greatest sport ever invented. -- DONATE: www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowtiz (President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash) explores social justice in the weekly parsha (Torah portion). This podcast series is now available as its own podcast channel titled "Social Justice in the Parsha." Make sure to subscribe! Stay Connected with Valley Beit Midrash: • Website: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org • Donate: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/donate • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ValleyBeitMidrash • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiLYSyEus7DcWMhyEZ_CQFQ • Become a Member: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member Follow Rabbi Shmuly: • https://www.facebook.com/RabbiShmulyYanklowitz Listen to all of Valley Beit Midrash’s podcasts: • Jewish Ideas to Change the World (diverse Jewish perspectives) • Social Justice in the Parsha (divrei torah by Rabbi Shmuly) • Pearls of Jewish Wisdom on Living with Kindness (Rabbi Shmuly's class series) ★ Support this podcast ★

A virtual event presentation by Professor Paul Franks ABOUT THE EVENT: What is the legacy of German Judaism, and what can it still offer us today? German Judaism began with Moses Mendelssohn’s controversial German translation of the Humash in 1783, and ended with the Nazi pogrom of November 1938. The best known slogan of the Torah-true wing of German Judaism is “Torah im derekh erets” (“Torah with the way of the land”). But this slogan is often misunderstood as nothing more than an educational philosophy that came in one flavor. In fact, it is an ideal of humanity articulated, in several competing versions, in the context of the quest for Jewish civil rights. The German-Jewish tradition raises vital questions that remain relevant today: What is the mission of Jews within civil society? What makes a Jewish community Jewish? What role should Jews play within the ongoing struggle for social justice and civil rights? ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Paul Franks is the Robert F. and Patricia Ross Weis Professor of Philosophy and Judaic Studies at Yale University. He was educated at Gateshead Yeshiva; Balliol College, Oxford; and Harvard University. Before arriving at Yale in 2011, he was the inaugural holder of the Jerahmiel S. and Carole S. Grafstein Chair in Jewish Philosophy at the University of Toronto. He has also taught at University of Michigan, Indiana University Bloomington, University of Notre Dame, and University of Chicago, and he has given shiurim at synagogues and Jewish community centers throughout Britain, Israel, and North America. Paul works at the intersection of the Jewish and German philosophical traditions, specializing in Kantian and post-Kantian metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of the humanities and social sciences. He is the translator and annotator, with Michael L. Morgan, of Franz Rosenzweig, Philosophical and Theological Writings (Hackett, 2000); and he is the author of All or Nothing: Systematicity, Transcendental Arguments, and Skepticism in German Idealism (Harvard, 2005), as well as over fifty academic articles. He is currently writing, with his collaborator Morgan, an ambitious survey that will reveal the dynamic interaction between Jewish philosophy and modern European philosophy from Luria to Levinas, and he is also working on a monograph on Kant’s metaphysical and epistemological legacy. -- DONATE: www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

A virtual event presentation by Rabbi Dr. Aryeh Cohen ABOUT THE EVENT: By any measure (except the rawest type of vengeance) our carceral system is broken. In this class we will take a look at a Rabbinic understanding of justice which is not punishment centered, but rather center’s the victim’s experience and looks at the threeway relationship between victim/survivor, offender, and society as the basis for creating safety and justice for everybody. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Rabbi Dr. Aryeh Cohen is Professor of Rabbinic Literature at American Jewish University, Rabbi in Residence at Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, Southern California, a co-convener of the Black Jewish Justice Alliance (BJJA), and immediate past chair of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE). He was the recipient of the 2016 Giant of Justice Award from CLUE. Cohen‘s latest book is Justice in the City: An Argument from the Sources of Rabbinic Judaism. -- DONATE: www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

Enjoy the twenty second session of Valley Beit Midrash's "The 40 Greatest Debates in Jewish History!" series. (1 per week for 40 weeks). Topic: Auschwitz vs. Sinai: Which is the More Central Jewish Narrative Today? In this class, we will explore the 40 greatest debates in Jewish history. We will study texts, reflect on the historical contexts, and discuss the values involved. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz will present for about 20-30 minutes and then the remaining 30-40 minutes will be for questions and conversation. DONATE: www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowtiz (President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash) explores social justice in the weekly parsha (Torah portion). This podcast series is now available as its own podcast channel titled "Social Justice in the Parsha." Make sure to subscribe! Stay Connected with Valley Beit Midrash: • Website: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org • Donate: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/donate • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ValleyBeitMidrash • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiLYSyEus7DcWMhyEZ_CQFQ • Become a Member: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member Follow Rabbi Shmuly: • https://www.facebook.com/RabbiShmulyYanklowitz Listen to all of Valley Beit Midrash’s podcasts: • Jewish Ideas to Change the World (diverse Jewish perspectives) • Social Justice in the Parsha (divrei torah by Rabbi Shmuly) • Pearls of Jewish Wisdom on Living with Kindness (Rabbi Shmuly's class series) ★ Support this podcast ★

A virtual event presentation by Rabbi Yoni Rosensweig ABOUT THE EVENT: In this class we will be looking at the different attitudes within Jewish law towards the possibility of abortion. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Rav Yoni Rosensweig is the Rabbi of the Netzach Menashe community in Beit Shemesh, a teacher in Midreshet Linenbaum, and author of several books. -- DONATE: www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

Enjoy the twenty first session of Valley Beit Midrash's "The 40 Greatest Debates in Jewish History!" series. (1 per week for 40 weeks). Topic: Capital Punishment vs. The Death Penalty In this class, we will explore the 40 greatest debates in Jewish history. We will study texts, reflect on the historical contexts, and discuss the values involved. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz will present for about 20-30 minutes and then the remaining 30-40 minutes will be for questions and conversation. DONATE: www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowtiz (President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash) explores social justice in the weekly parsha (Torah portion). This podcast series is now available as its own podcast channel titled "Social Justice in the Parsha." Make sure to subscribe! Stay Connected with Valley Beit Midrash: • Website: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org • Donate: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/donate • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ValleyBeitMidrash • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiLYSyEus7DcWMhyEZ_CQFQ • Become a Member: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member Follow Rabbi Shmuly: • https://www.facebook.com/RabbiShmulyYanklowitz Listen to all of Valley Beit Midrash’s podcasts: • Jewish Ideas to Change the World (diverse Jewish perspectives) • Social Justice in the Parsha (divrei torah by Rabbi Shmuly) • Pearls of Jewish Wisdom on Living with Kindness (Rabbi Shmuly's class series) ★ Support this podcast ★

Enjoy the twentieth session of Valley Beit Midrash's "The 40 Greatest Debates in Jewish History!" series. (1 per week for 40 weeks). Topic: Heaven vs. Earth In this class, we will explore the 40 greatest debates in Jewish history. We will study texts, reflect on the historical contexts, and discuss the values involved. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz will present for about 20-30 minutes and then the remaining 30-40 minutes will be for questions and conversation. DONATE: www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowtiz (President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash) explores social justice in the weekly parsha (Torah portion). This podcast series is now available as its own podcast channel titled "Social Justice in the Parsha." Make sure to subscribe! Stay Connected with Valley Beit Midrash: • Website: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org • Donate: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/donate • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ValleyBeitMidrash • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiLYSyEus7DcWMhyEZ_CQFQ • Become a Member: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member Follow Rabbi Shmuly: • https://www.facebook.com/RabbiShmulyYanklowitz Listen to all of Valley Beit Midrash’s podcasts: • Jewish Ideas to Change the World (diverse Jewish perspectives) • Social Justice in the Parsha (divrei torah by Rabbi Shmuly) • Pearls of Jewish Wisdom on Living with Kindness (Rabbi Shmuly's class series) ★ Support this podcast ★

ABOUT THE EVENT: This event will cover the Tree of Life shooting and how the historically Jewish community of Squirrel Hill embodied resilience in the aftermath ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Mark Oppenheimer directs the Yale Journalism Initiative and is a lecturer in Yale’s English department, political science department, and Divinity Schools. He received his B.A. and his Ph.D. in religious studies from Yale. He was the religion columnist for The New York Times from 2010 to 2016 and has written for The New York Times Magazine, GQ, The Washington Post, Slate, Mother Jones, The Nation, and The Believer, among others. He has been a commentator on NPR and is also the host of Tablet magazine’s podcast, Unorthodox. He is the author of four books, including The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut. You can purchase his new book on the topic here –https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/611023/squirrel-hill-by-mark-oppenheimer/ -- DONATE: www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowtiz (President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash) explores social justice in the weekly parsha (Torah portion). This podcast series is now available as its own podcast channel titled "Social Justice in the Parsha." Make sure to subscribe! This week's parsha was generously sponsored by the Isaacson's in honor of a beloved family member.Stay Connected with Valley Beit Midrash: • Website: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org • Donate: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/donate • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ValleyBeitMidrash • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiLYSyEus7DcWMhyEZ_CQFQ • Become a Member: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member Follow Rabbi Shmuly: • https://www.facebook.com/RabbiShmulyYanklowitz Listen to all of Valley Beit Midrash’s podcasts: • Jewish Ideas to Change the World (diverse Jewish perspectives) • Social Justice in the Parsha (divrei torah by Rabbi Shmuly) • Pearls of Jewish Wisdom on Living with Kindness (Rabbi Shmuly's class series) ★ Support this podcast ★

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz interviews Deepak Bhargava ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Deepak Bhargava is currently a Distinguished Lecturer at the City University of New York’s School of Labor and Urban Studies and a Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. He’s a lifelong activist, organizer and campaigner who ran Community Change, one of the country’s premier support centers for grassroots groups in low-income communities of color, for 16 years. He’s campaigned on poverty, immigration, racial justice at the local, state an national level and has published and spoken widely. ★ Support this podcast ★

Enjoy the nineteenth session of Valley Beit Midrash's "The 40 Greatest Debates in Jewish History!" series. (1 per week for 40 weeks). Topic: Israel vs. the Diaspora In this class, we will explore the 40 greatest debates in Jewish history. We will study texts, reflect on the historical contexts, and discuss the values involved. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz will present for about 20-30 minutes and then the remaining 30-40 minutes will be for questions and conversation. DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

ABOUT THE EVENT: While the secular world may respect the elderly out of politeness or as a moral obligation, in Judaism, the Torah teaches us that we must observe the mitzvah of respecting the elderly. What does that entail? Join us to find out! ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Sharona made aliya in August 2004 from Riverdale, NY. She has a BA in Judaic Studies and an MS in Jewish Education from Yeshiva University. Prior to making aliya, Sharona served as the first Madricha Ruchanit at The Hebrew Institute of Riverdale with Rabbi Avi Weiss where she was involved in teaching numerous female converts. Sharona lives in Jerusalem and is the founder and director of Torat Reva Yerushalayim, a non-profit organization that provides Torah study groups to students of all ages and backgrounds. Sharona is also a member of Beit Hillel. DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

ABOUT THE EVENT: Combining insights from thousands of years of traditional Jewish wisdom and contemporary literature on spirituality with her own utterly relatable first-person storytelling, author Dasee Berkowitz helps readers embrace every moment with their families while leaning into the challenges of parenting with renewed perspective and enthusiasm. This is not a parenting how-to book. Instead, Becoming a Soulful Parent asks questions to help readers explore the contours of their inner life, developing their internal compass as they lead their families with love and wisdom. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Dasee Berkowitz is a sought-after educator and facilitator and founder of Ayeka’s Becoming a Soulful Parent program. Her groundbreaking approach to education has been enthusiastically received by scores of Jewish community centers and synagogues since the program launched in 2015. Dasee has lectured internationally, served as Scholar-in-Residence for Jewish federations, and trained facilitators at educational agencies across North America. Dasee lives in Jerusalem with her husband and three children. DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

Enjoy the eighteenth session of Valley Beit Midrash's "The 40 Greatest Debates in Jewish History!" series. (1 per week for 40 weeks). Topic: Pro-life vs. Pro-choice In this class, we will explore the 40 greatest debates in Jewish history. We will study texts, reflect on the historical contexts, and discuss the values involved. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz will present for about 20-30 minutes and then the remaining 30-40 minutes will be for questions and conversation. DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

Enjoy the seventeenth session of Valley Beit Midrash's "The 40 Greatest Debates in Jewish History!" series. (1 per week for 40 weeks). Topic: What is Greater: Learning or Action? In this class, we will explore the 40 greatest debates in Jewish history. We will study texts, reflect on the historical contexts, and discuss the values involved. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz will present for about 20-30 minutes and then the remaining 30-40 minutes will be for questions and conversation. DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Rabbi Norman Solomon was born in Cardiff, South Wales, on 31 May 1933. This coincided with the Jewish festival of Shavuot and with the running of the Derby, won by Tommy Weston on Lord Derby’s Hyperion. The first of these events was by far the more influential on my development, for the festival celebrates not only the First-Fruits but the proclamation of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. Cardiff, capital city of Wales, was still a major port, and came under attack from the air in World War II. It was a great place to grow up, enlightened, tolerant, with a vigorous musical life in which I was able to take part. There was a small but active Jewish community, inclined to Zionism (they were fond of pointing out that Israel was comparable in size and population to Wales); they were not on the whole very religious, but I came under the influence of some families of refugee German Orthodox Jews. From Cardiff High School I entered St John’s College, Cambridge in 1951 with no break; though National Service was still obligatory HM King George had declined my offer to serve in his Air Force, accusing me of being flat-footed. I read Moral Sciences for Tripos Part I and Music for Part 2, gained a teaching diploma at Bristol University, collected an ARCM in Composition, a B.Mus. degree from London, and in 1961 a Rabbinical Diploma from Jews’ College, London. In the summer vacation of 1953 I spent some weeks at Gateshead Yeshiva. In 1955 I married Devora (Doris) Strauss, with whom I enjoyed 43 happy years of marriage until her death in 1998. From her I have four children and four grandchildren. In 2000 I married Hilary Nissenbaum. DONATE: www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

ABOUT THE EVENT: Bring a laptop (or pen and paper), and an open view of yourself. Confidentiality assured. The purpose of this workshop is to bring all the lofty concepts of Teshuva down to earth, and down to each of us and our own life. Join me as we spend about 45 minutes in a guided introspective writing exercise to do some critical stock-taking so we can move forward to change. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Dr. David I. Bernstein is the Dean of the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies on Jerusalem. Previously he was the Director of Midreshet Lindenbaum. He lectures widely and travels with student and adult groups to Poland and other Jewish heritage sites in Europe as historian-in-residence. DONATE: www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

ABOUT THE EVENT: This event will cover the discussion of “But really, what is antisemitism? Is there antisemitism at my university? If so, what can I do about it?” ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Rachel Underweiser conducted a research study through the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University called “The Perception of Antisemitism on College Campuses in the U.S. and the U.K,” which has become the largest study on antisemitism at universities to date. Hundreds of interviews and surveys later, she has quantitative and qualitative data on what antisemitism means to both Jewish and non-Jewish students – and practical tools to combat hate wherever, and whenever, it manifests. She now works for the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism and their front-facing initiative called [tbh] Together Beat Hate where she researches, writes, and conceptualizes innovative ways to discuss and counter hate, bigotry, and discrimination. DONATE: www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Rabbi Gideon Sylvester serves as the British United Synagogue’s rabbi in Israel. He has taught Jewish approaches to Human Rights to Israelis studying at the Hebrew University and rabbinic students from the Diaspora. Before that he served as an Adviser at the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel. He is currently writing his doctorate about Settlers involved in religious peacebuilding with Palestinians. His essay on the legitimacy of publicly criticising Israel appeared in the festschrift published by Maggid Books for Rabbi Sacks. His essay on the significance of Yom Ha’atzmaut appeared in the Koren Yom Ha’atzmaut-Yom Yerushalayim Machzor. Rabbi Gideon has written a fortnightly Parshat Hashavuah column for the Jerusalem Post and a monthly column for Haaretz.com. He is a frequent contributor to the Judaism page of the Jewish Chronicle. Before making aliya, Gideon served as rabbi of Radlett United Synagogue turning it from an embryonic shul into Britain's fastest growing community. DONATE: www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

ABOUT THE EVENT: How does the Talmud understand the phrase “Tikkun Olam” and how that informs our own social justice work. In essence, it tries to move us from using that term as a “catch-all” to having a sophisticated understanding of it that helps guide us ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Rabbi Devin Maimon Villarreal has worked in Jewish education for over ten years as a classroom teacher in both orthodox and community day schools during which he was awarded the Covenant Foundation’s Pomegranate Prize for emerging Jewish educators. In his most recent past position he also served as Jewish Studies department chair. Currently, he teaches as adjunct faculty at Hebrew Union College’s DeLeT program for teachers and works as an Education Consultant for organizations such as Pedagogy of Partnership and the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals. At the center of all of his work is his belief in Judaism’s ability to help people discover and nourish their best selves. He received semikha (rabbinic ordination) from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah as well as from Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo. A graduate of UCLA in the Study of Religion, he also holds a Master’s Degree in Teaching from the American Jewish University. Rabbi Villarreal, his wife and five children recently relocated to Southeast Idaho. DONATE: www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

ABOUT THE EVENT: Professor Ross will discuss the virtues and limitations of employing allegory as a method of reconciling religious truth claims with science, as evidenced in Maimonides’ defense of creation ex nihilo in his Guide to the Perplexed. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Professor Tamar Ross is Professor Emeritus of the Department of Jewish philosophy at Bar Ilan University. She continues to teach at Midreshet Lindenbaum. She did her Ph.D. at the Hebrew University and served as a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard. She is the author of Expanding the Palace of Torah: Orthodoxy and Feminism. Her areas of expertise include: concepts of God, revelation, religious epistemology, philosophy of halacha, the Musar movement, and the thought of Rabbi A.I. Kook. DONATE: www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

ABOUT THE EVENT: A class on the relevance of Shmita (meaning, letting go periodically of a GOOD practice) to Jewish morals (as distinguished from teshuva which is letting go of sinful practice. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Jerusalem-born rabbi Leah Shakdiel is a proud iconoclast. More than 30 years ago, the Orthodox feminist appealed, successfully, to the Supreme Court of Israel for the right to sit on the Yerucham Religious Council, where she served from 1988 to 1993. She is active in religious peace organizations, was ordained last year and now serves as the rabbi at the Center for Women’s Justice. At 69, she is also the matriarch of a large family, which includes seven children (some from her husband’s first marriage), 27 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. DONATE: www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

Enjoy the sixteenth session of Valley Beit Midrash's "The 40 Greatest Debates in Jewish History!" series. (1 per week for 40 weeks). Topic: A Purpose to Life vs. No Meaning to Life? In this class, we will explore the 40 greatest debates in Jewish history. We will study texts, reflect on the historical contexts, and discuss the values involved. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz will present for about 20-30 minutes and then the remaining 30-40 minutes will be for questions and conversation. DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

This episode is sponsored by the Hammerman Family.ABOUT THE EVENT: Building Beloved Community For generations, we have carried the Torah’s audacious dream of a society redeemed, a world imbued with justice and shared responsibility. To manifest that dream, we must start with the realization that every person is created in God’s own image, deserving of love and dignity. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Rabbi Sharon Brous is the senior and founding rabbi of IKAR and has devoted her rabbinate to reinvigorating Jewish tradition and practice and advancing soulful, multi-faith justice work in Los Angeles and around the country. Brous’s 2016 TED talk, “Reclaiming Religion,” has been viewed by more than 1.4 million people and translated into 23 languages. In 2013, she blessed President Obama and Vice President Biden at the Inaugural National Prayer Service, and returned in 2021 to bless President Biden and Vice President Harris, and then to lead the White House Passover Seder that spring. DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ ★ Support this podcast ★

Enjoy the fifteenth session of Valley Beit Midrash's "The 40 Greatest Debates in Jewish History!" series. (1 per week for 40 weeks). Topic: Is Judaism Situated in the Past or Future? In this class, we will explore the 40 greatest debates in Jewish history. We will study texts, reflect on the historical contexts, and discuss the values involved. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz will present for about 20-30 minutes and then the remaining 30-40 minutes will be for questions and conversation. DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

ABOUT THE EVENT: Join Rabbi Avi Orlow for a zoom class about the Messianic Idea. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Rabbi Avi Orlow is the Vice President at the Foundation for Jewish Camp. He has a deep love of irreverent, relevant, revealing Torah. Before joining Foundation for Jewish Camp in 2008, Avi was the Campus Rabbi and Assistant Director of the St. Louis Hillel at Washington University and has held numerous positions as rabbi, educator, and youth leader. He spent 17 years as a camper and then educator at Ramah Camps in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and YUSSR camps in the Former Soviet Union. Avi has a B.A. in religious studies from Columbia University. He was ordained in the charter class at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, the open Orthodox rabbinical school. Avi lives in White Plains with his wife, Cantor Adina Frydman, and their children, Yadid, Yishama, Emunah, and Libi. DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

ABOUT THE EVENT: How is body liberation as Jewish issue? In this session, we will learn about the Jewish roots, as well as the Jewish future, of the body liberation movement. We will explore both the history and the current state of fat activism and body positivity, and look at how Jewish communities and Jewish values have an important role to play in this. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Founder and president of Fat Torah, Rabbi Minna Bromberg, PhD is passionate about bringing her three decades of experience in fat activism to writing, teaching and change-making at the nexus of Judaism and body liberation. Her forthcoming book is Belonging for Every Body: a Fat Torah guide to building inclusive spiritual community. Minna received her doctorate in sociology from Northwestern University, with a dissertation on identity formation in interfaith couples, and was ordained at Hebrew College in 2010. Since then she has led a 250-family Conservative congregation in Reading, PA, released a fifth album of original music, and run the Year-in-Israel program for Hebrew College rabbinical students. In addition to her work with Fat Torah, Minna is a voice teacher who specializes in helping people use their voices in leading prayer. She lives in Jerusalem with her husband, Rabbi Dr. Alan Abrams, and their two children. Fat Torah is here to smash the idolatry of weight stigma and lead us all from Narrowness to Freedom. We bring together the inner work of tikkun halev (healing the heart) with the social justice of tikkun olam (repairing the world). We provide education, awareness-building, and mentoring for confronting weight stigma and growing communities where every body belongs. We believe that Jewish tradition both calls us to this work and can be deployed for the liberation of all bodies. DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

Enjoy the fourteenth session of Valley Beit Midrash's "The 40 Greatest Debates in Jewish History!" series. (1 per week for 40 weeks). Topic: Divine Torah vs. Biblical Criticism In this class, we will explore the 40 greatest debates in Jewish history. We will study texts, reflect on the historical contexts, and discuss the values involved. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz will present for about 20-30 minutes and then the remaining 30-40 minutes will be for questions and conversation. DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

Enjoy the thirteenth session of Valley Beit Midrash's "The 40 Greatest Debates in Jewish History!" series. (1 per week for 40 weeks). Topic: Local vs. Global In this class, we will explore the 40 greatest debates in Jewish history. We will study texts, reflect on the historical contexts, and discuss the values involved. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz will present for about 20-30 minutes and then the remaining 30-40 minutes will be for questions and conversation. DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

ABOUT THIS EVENT: Liturgy is a kind of sacred poetry, using metaphors and imagery that spoke to our ancestors. What happens when we pair our liturgy with more contemporary poetry? How does poetry help us better understand the yearnings, pain, joy, and questions expressed in our liturgy? And how does it offer us new insights and ways to grapple with the big questions, with doubt, and with our aspirations? ABOUT THIS SPEAKER: Rabbi Hara Person is the Chief Executive of Central Conference of American Rabbis. Previously, she was the CCAR’s Chief Strategy Officer. In that capacity, she oversaw the Communications Department and served as Publisher of CCAR Press, and worked with leadership on overall organizational strategy. Rabbi Person was ordained in 1998 from Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, after graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Amherst College (1986) and receiving an MA in Fine Arts from New York University’s International Center of Photography (1992). She served as Educator at the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue from 1990-1996, and was the Adjunct Rabbi there from 1998-2019. Since 1998, Rabbi Person has been the High Holy Day Rabbi of Congregation B’nai Olam, Fire Island Pines, NY. Before coming to the CCAR, Rabbi Person was the Editor-in-Chief of URJ Books and Music, where she was responsible for the revision of The Torah: A Modern Commentary (2005) and the publication of many significant projects, including the Aleph Isn’t Tough adult Hebrew series and Mitkadem: Hebrew for Youth as well as several award-winning children’s books. While at URJ, she was also the Managing Editor of The Torah: Women’s commentary, named the National Jewish Book Award Book of the Year in 2008. DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

ABOUT THIS EVENT: The Jews’ Indian investigates the history of American Jewish relationships with Native Americans, both in the realm of cultural imagination and in face-to-face encounters. These two groups’ exchanges were numerous and diverse, proving at times harmonious when Jews’ and Natives people’s economic and social interests aligned, but discordant and fraught at other times. American Jews could be as exploitative of Native cultural, social, and political issues as other American settlers, and historian David Koffman argues that these interactions both unsettle and historicize the often triumphant consensus history of American Jewish life. Focusing on the ways Jewish class mobility and civic belonging were wrapped up in the dynamics of power and myth making that so severely impacted Native Americans, this books is provocative and timely, the first history to critically analyze Jewish participation in, and Jews’ grappling with the legacies of Native American history and the colonial project upon which America rests. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: David S. Koffman (PhD, NYU, 2011) is a cultural and social historian of Canadian and US Jewries. He holds the J. Richard Shiff Chair for the Study of Canadian Jewry, and is an associate professor in the Department of History at York University, where he teaches courses on Canadian Jewish history, religion in American life, the meanings of money, genealogy as history, and modern antisemitism. He earned Masters degrees in Anthropology (University of Toronto), Public Administration (Wagner School of Public Service, NYU) and Hebrew & Judaic Studies (NYU), and held a SSHRC Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the Department of History at the University of Toronto. His first monograph, The Jews’ Indian: Colonialism, Pluralism, and Belonging in America (Rutgers University Press, 2019), winner of a 2020 Association for Jewish Studies’ Jordan Schnitzer Book Award and runner up for the Saul Veiner Book Award of the American Jewish Historical Society, explores the American Jewish encounter with Native America in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. His published work has appeared in several volumes of collected essays, and in journals including The Journal of American Ethnic History, The Journal of Jewish Education, Contemporary Jewry, American Jewish History, and The Journal of The Gilded Age and Progressive Era. His newest book project, an edited volume entitled, No Better Home? Jews, Canada, and the Sense of Belonging, was published by the University of Toronto Press in early 2021. He serves as the associate director of York University’s Israel & Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies, and is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes. DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★

ABOUT THIS EVENT: Through classic Jewish sources and contemporary issues we will delve into the essential practice of social justice in Jewish life. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Rabbi Rick Jacobs is president of the Union for Reform Judaism, the most powerful force in North American Jewish life. The URJ leads the largest and most diverse Jewish movement in North America, reaching more than 1.5 million people through nearly 850 congregations, 15 overnight camps, the Reform teen youth Movement NFTY, and the Religious Action Center in Washington DC. DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP​​​​​​​ For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library/ https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmi...​ Become a member today, starting at just $18 per month! Click the link to see our membership options: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/become-a-member/ ★ Support this podcast ★