Adult Classes

Wednesdays, Noon – 1:00pm

Hidden In Plain Sight
Cantor Stuart Binder
June 3, 10, 17
Is it possible that the texts our scholars poured over for thousands of years can still have secrets to reveal? Believe it or not, recent scholarship has cast some new light on some of our favorite and most familiar bible stories. Come and learn something new - from something old!
 

Unorthodox – A Discussion of the Netflix Series
Anne Berman-Waldorf, RJE
July 1, 8, 15
Join us for a discussion of the issues raised by the Netflix series, Unorthodox (loosely based on the book of the same name by Deborah Feldman). We will focus on scenes from the series as we discuss the complicated issues of identity and belonging and the journey to find ourselves.

Mishnah Taanit: Why We Fast
Rabbi Adena Blum
August 5, 12, 19
Fasting has always been a feature of Western religion. Join Rabbi Adena Blum for an exploration of early Jewish traditions around this spiritual practice in response to the harsh realities of the ancient world. Why our ancestors fasted may instruct how we respond to that which is out of our control.

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Summer Reading Series

Thursdays, 12:30 – 1:00pm

The Floating Feldmans by Elyssa Friedland

June 25

Sink or swim. Or at least that’s what Annette Feldman tells herself when she books a cruise for her entire family. It’s been over a decade since the Feldman clan has spent more than twenty-four hours under the same roof, but Annette is determined to celebrate her seventieth birthday the right way. Just this once, they are going to behave like an actual family. Too bad her kids didn’t get the memo.

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The Color of Love by Marra B. Gad

July 23

In 1970, three-day-old Marra B. Gad was adopted by a white Jewish family in Chicago. For her parents, it was love at first sight—but they quickly realized the world wasn’t ready for a family like theirs. Even in her own extended family, racism bubbled to the surface. The Color of Love explores the idea of yerusha, which means "inheritance" in Yiddish. At turns heart-wrenching and heartwarming, this is a story about what you inherit from your family.

 

Inheritance by Dani Shapiro

August 27

What makes us who we are? What combination of memory, history, biology, experience, and that ineffable thing called the soul defines us? Inheritance is a book about secrets–secrets within families, kept out of shame or self-protectiveness; secrets we keep from one another in the name of love. It is a book about the extraordinary moment we live in–a moment in which science and technology have outpaced not only medical ethics but also the capacities of the human heart to contend with the consequences of what we discover.