Meet Anna Marie Rosenberg, the Hungarian Jewish immigrant who became one of FDR’s closest advisors during World War II. Though Anna Rosenberg emerged from modest immigrant beginnings, equipped with only a high school education, she was the real power behind national policies critical to America winning the war and prospering afterward. Astonishingly, her story remains largely forgotten...until now. Join us for a deep dive into the life of this incredible woman!

Did Abraham begin to practice Judaism as a toddler or as an adult? How could he have done so before the Torah was given at Mount Sinai? Join us for an exploration of intuition, tradition, and the search for God as we ask whether religious practice is intuitive, or if it requires slow, deliberate reasoning to shape how we live and believe.

Join Anat Halevy Hochberg for an evening of Yemeni song. Accompanied by Yoni Battat, Anat will perform songs from both the men’s and women’s singing traditions. Come ready to sing!

How does food tell the story of Sephardic identity from the medieval period to the present? This is exactly the question we will be exploring through this 4-class series led by Sara M. Gardner. Through discussion of primary source texts and hands-on experimentation with medieval and modern recipes, this class will offer participants a comprehensive introduction to Sephardic food and identity throughout time and place. Come to one session or all four!

There are many resources available to those who seek higher pay, professional advancement, or career guidance. How can Jewish texts and teachings also enhance work life? This class will present rich and diverse Jewish perspectives on income, work, and careers that provide a spiritual lens through which to view our professional lives.

Where did Europe’s Jewish communities come from, and how did they evolve over time? This class delves into groundbreaking genetic research on Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews, analyzing genome-wide data from over 300 individuals across medieval Europe (7th–18th centuries). Through the lens of ancient DNA, we’ll explore how genetics is reshaping our understanding of Jewish history, migration, and cultural interactions in Europe.

Join Karen Kisten, author of Irena’s Gift, a 2025 National Jewish Book Award Finalist for Autobiography & Memoir, as she shares her family’s history and discusses how reckoning with moral complexity, family betrayal, and silenced history can reframe our identities—and why excavating these truths matters so deeply at a time when Jewish identity itself is under scrutiny.

Flowing from Rabbinic literature into Jewish folktales, Lilith becomes something more than a demon: she becomes a paradox. In this session, we’ll see how rabbis, mystics, and artists reimagined Lilith across the centuries.  From a dangerous seductress to a feminist icon, from protective amulets to the cover of Lilith Magazine, we’ll explore what her evolving image reveals about gender, magic and transformation.

What is a "queer reading" of a text, anyway? Can you do a queer reading of Jewish texts, like...the Torah? (Spoiler alert: yes-- and there are many reasons you might!) In this interactive workshop, we will explore the whys and hows of different strategies for learning Torah through an LGBTQ+ lens.

June 20th marks the summer solstice - the longest day of the year! Ancient agricultural societies, like the Israelites, were keenly aware of seasonal change. Combining text study and art making, we will explore the seven heavens of Jewish thought using the Jewish Studio Process - a unique methodology combining practices from the field of art therapy with a reimagined approach to Jewish learning and spirituality.

Across Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions, food laws and dining practices aren’t just about what’s eaten—they shape who belongs, who doesn’t, and how communities draw boundaries. In this class, we’ll explore how these three traditions think differently about sharing meals across lines of difference—and why those differences still matter today.

Philip Roth's Sabbath's Theater is his masterwork--maybe. The book follows Mickey Sabbath, a disgraced puppeteer in late middle age, as he careens through grief, lust, memory, and self-destruction with almost no filter and even less restraint. It's rarely taught in schools or discussed in reading groups. Together, we are going to dive in to this work of complicated genius. 

Ever since Joseph’s fateful invitation to Egypt, Jewish life in diaspora has been marked by a paradox: welcome and warning, opportunity and danger. This class uses Poland as a case study in that complex dynamic—once a center of Jewish autonomy and culture, later a site of devastation, and now a place of revival, often led by non-Jews. Through historical analysis and personal reflection, we’ll explore how memory, belonging, and rejection shape what we mean when we speak of “the old country.”

What does it take to build a culture of lifelong Jewish learning—and who gets to call themselves a Jewish learner? This session explores insights from the Jewish Learning Collaborative, grounded in Pirkei Avot teachings on mentorship and learning across a lifetime.

What if a single Hebrew verb could reshape the story of what really happened in the Garden of Eden? In this session, we’ll follow Rashi’s bold reading of Genesis just after the expulsion—and uncover how his interpretation hinges on the hidden power of Biblical Hebrew grammar.

Lilith refuses to stay silent.  In our final session, we’ll follow her into the worlds of music, visual art, and speculative fiction.  Here, Lilith claims her role in radically new ways, emerging as a mirror, a prophet, and a guide.  What does it mean to reclaim Lilith not only as a figure from the past, but as a hero to inspire us in our own struggles?  Together, we'll reflect on how contemporary creators summon Lilith’s story to challenge norms and envision new possibilities for Jewish identity and imagination.

When Rebecca Rubin joined the American Girl lineup in 2009, she was a long-awaited Jewish addition—but how fully does she represent Jewish identity? This class explores the richly detailed portrayal of Jewish immigrant life in Jacqueline Dembar Greene’s novels alongside the more commercialized version of Rebecca as a doll. We’ll ask what it means to “get it right” when representing Jewishness —and where that representation falls short.

Gashmius: Towards A Progressive neo-Hasidism is an online magazine dedicated to Jewish mystical thought, practice, and culture. As the inaugural Gashmius Holiday Fellow, Avidan Halivni spent the past year writing essays and other pieces on the Jewish holiday cycle through a neo-Hasidic lens, placing the Baal Shem Tov, Rabbi Nahman of Breslov, and other Hasidic masters in conversation with Emmanuel Levinas, Judith Butler, and Rabbi Adina Allen. Join Avidan for a night of celebration of a year of creativity and reflections on the deep spiritual arc structured by the flow of the Jewish calendar.

Sefardi Jews have long used amulets and plants as tools for spiritual protection, adapting these practices across centuries of diaspora life. This class explores folk rituals involving materials like Algerian coral, Turkish rue, and symbolic foods, all used to ward off the evil eye and cultivate safety. We’ll also look at how natural elements like water and the ocean are invoked in Sefardi protective traditions, revealing deep connections between ritual, resilience, and place.

In the 1960s the space age was in full swing. We took our first steps into outer space and science alerted us to the possibility that we are not alone in the universe. What were the religious and moral implications of this? Building on great Jewish thinkers of yore, Rabbi Norman Lamm wrote a brilliant analysis which we’ll take a look at (and hear the thoughts of other great Jewish thinkers along the way.) As NASA today discovers more worlds that might harbor life, the question of our place in the universe—and who else might share it—gains new urgency and spiritual depth.

In this session, we will discuss the culture and cuisine of the Jews on the medieval Iberian Peninsula. By investigating sources including a 13th-century Andalusi Muslim cooking manual, a 15th-century Hebrew medical treatise, and the 16th-century court documents of the Catholic Monarchs, we will explore the definitional flavors of premodern Sephardic identity.

Join us for an evening of Yiddish folk songs that celebrate Shabbat. This workshop will prepare you to take the songs with you out into the world, to teach to students or congregants, hum to yourself in the kitchen, or sing with family and friends! No previous experience with Yiddish or with singing is required. A word sheet will be provided with lyrics in Yiddish, transliteration, and English translation.

Have you ever wondered how Jewish communities, throughout the centuries, have beautified their homes, sukkot, and Shabbos tables? How they sewed colorful challah covers, created intricate papercuts, or dipped their candles? Have you ever wished that you, too, could learn and practice these traditions? In this class we’ll learn about the long history and evolution of Jewish craft practices. We’ll look at examples of historic and contemporary ritual objects, tell stories about the heirlooms and sacred items in our own families, and try our hand at a few of these traditions ourselves.

Explore the Divine in everyday locations through the poetry of Lea Goldberg and Yehuda Amichai, two of Israel’s most celebrated 20th-century poets. Join us for a rare chance to engage with their poetry in a setting that echoes their words.

Can a video game tell a Jewish coming-of-age story better than a novel or film? In this session, we’ll explore “Perfect Tides”—a critically acclaimed indie video game about a teenage Jewish girl—and what it reveals about the untapped potential of Jewish storytelling in digital worlds.

In this session we will explore the various transformations to Sephardic Jewish food and life that occurred at the end of the 15th-century with the onset of the Spanish Inquisition. We will explore how certain ingredients and specific dishes came to be associated in the early modern Spanish imagination with Jewish identity, as well as how food becomes central to the preservation and expression of converso and New Christian identity.

We will wrap up our time together with a comparative look at recipes from divergent corners of the global dispersion of the Sephardic Jews after 1492. Through an exploration of Ladino music and proverbs as well as our own culinary experimentation, we will discuss how specific flavors and dishes come to be understood as quintessential Sephardic cuisine in the modern period.