May 2022
Author Lecture and Book Signing: “The Choice: A Novel of Love, Faith and the Talmud” with author Maggie Anton
A powerful love story with a purpose: to challenge Jewish customs concerning women, marriage, and equality. The award-winning author of Rashi's Daughters, Maggie Anton, has written a wholly transformative novel that takes characters inspired by Chaim Potok and ages them into young adults in Brooklyn in the 1950s, a time of Elvis and Marilyn, communist scares and polio vaccines, Jewish migration and American integration. When Hannah Eisin, a successful journalist, interviews Rabbi Nathan Mandel, a controversial Talmud professor, she persuades him…
Find out more »June 2022
Virtual Walking Tour: Jewish Budapest
In a city that has seen extremes of both ruin and redevelopment in the last 100 years, Budapest’s Jewish Quarter is a perfect depiction of past and present cohabiting and is a must-see for its unique contrasts of old and new–and sometimes, old as new. The Jewish Quarter is a network of lively, connecting streets that sit in amongst the central VII district, a neighborhood scattered with historical relics, as well as all manner of trendy drinking holes buried within…
Find out more »Morning Mindfulness with Julie Potiker
Wednesdays mornings from 10:00-10:45 am Give yourself the gift of calm. Join Julie Potiker for this grounding way to start the day and move from a place of fear to a place of calm. In these forty-five-minute mindfulness sessions, you will experience bringing your attention to the present moment without judgment. For past sessions, visit: https://blubrry.com/balancedmind/ About Julie: Julie Potiker is a mindfulness expert with extensive teacher training in a variety of tools and methods, including Mindful Self-Compassion. Through her…
Find out more »“American Jewish Literature” led by Rabbi Philip Graubart
Thursdays, June 2, 9, 16, 2022, 10:00 am-11:30 am Series Fee: $30; Beth Israel Member Series Fee $25 What does it mean to be an American Jew? Dozens of talented, engaging writers and poets, from Philip Roth, Cynthia Ozick, Art Spiegelman to Allegra Goodman have grappled with these questions, along with filmmakers, screenwriters, bloggers, and stand-up comics. Is Jewish identity a religion? An ethnicity? A set of moral ideas? An accident of birth? How do American Jews think of their…
Find out more »Peggy Guggenheim’s Special Relationship with the Tel Aviv Museum of Art
Peggy Guggenheim is well known as the collector who discovered and promoted many of the Abstract American artists. She is credited for bringing the first paintings by Jackson Pollock to Europe and introducing him at the Venice biennale in 1948. What is less known is that, in 1953, she donated 36 works by many of her gallery artists to the Tel Aviv Museum. The lecture will discuss Guggenheim's immense influence on the art scene during the middle of the 20th…
Find out more »Dancing with Fire: The Hasidic Masters
The great Mexican chef Enrique Olvera says that Mexico is rich with poverty. When people have nothing to eat, they have to eat nothing and everything; they have to make something strange taste wonderful. Hasidut is a theology of poverty; a theology of suffering, of deprivation. Hasidut is a theology that sees miracles in the dirt; God – in a falling shack; redemption in the heart of despair, joy in the darkness of exile. In this sense, Hasidut shares similar…
Find out more »Morning Mindfulness with Julie Potiker
Wednesdays mornings from 10:00-10:45 am Give yourself the gift of calm. Join Julie Potiker for this grounding way to start the day and move from a place of fear to a place of calm. In these forty-five-minute mindfulness sessions, you will experience bringing your attention to the present moment without judgment. For past sessions, visit: https://blubrry.com/balancedmind/ About Julie: Julie Potiker is a mindfulness expert with extensive teacher training in a variety of tools and methods, including Mindful Self-Compassion. Through her…
Find out more »Moral Philosophy, Spiritual Psychology and A Crisis of Consciousness
Our time is defined by a crisis of consciousness and broken spiritual connection. Driven by a materialist, zero-sum approach to everything, we seek answers in ego, money, power and consumption. It’s an addiction that’s wreaking havoc on the planet—and ultimately leaves us empty. It is this terrain that we tread with spiritual psychologist, historian, philosopher, wisdom counselor and the world’s only rabbi with a black belt in jiu-jitsu, Rabbi Mordecai Finley, Ph.D. In our one hour session, we will learn about…
Find out more »“American Jewish Literature” led by Rabbi Philip Graubart
Thursdays, June 2, 9, 16, 2022, 10:00 am-11:30 am Series Fee: $30; Beth Israel Member Series Fee $25 What does it mean to be an American Jew? Dozens of talented, engaging writers and poets, from Philip Roth, Cynthia Ozick, Art Spiegelman to Allegra Goodman have grappled with these questions, along with filmmakers, screenwriters, bloggers, and stand-up comics. Is Jewish identity a religion? An ethnicity? A set of moral ideas? An accident of birth? How do American Jews think of their…
Find out more »3-Part Virtual Summer Travel Series Featuring Evgenia Kempinski, live on Zoom from Haifa, Israel Honoring Janet Rosenberg An Adventure to Bultoscandia: Norway, Sweden & Estonia
THURSDAY JUNE 9, 2022 Norway - The Land of the Midnight Sun Jewish History in Norway dates back to the 19th century. Today, approximately 1,500 Jews still live in Norway. Join CSP and tour guide Evgenia Kempinski as we explore the beauty of Norway and learn about this country’s brief yet tragic Jewish history. Topics we will address on our vritual adventure to Norway include: The first Jewish community established in Oslo back in the 19th century; The growth of Jewish life…
Find out more »1177 BC Revisited: Updating the Late Bronze Age Collapse and the Rise of Israel
In 1177 B.C., marauding groups known only as the “Sea Peoples” invaded Egypt. The pharaoh’s army and navy managed to defeat them, but the victory so weakened Egypt that it soon slid into decline, as did most of the surrounding civilizations. After centuries of brilliance, the civilized world of the Bronze Age came to an abrupt and cataclysmic end. Kingdoms fell like dominoes over the course of just a few decades. No more Minoans or Mycenaeans. No more Trojans, Hittites,…
Find out more »Secrets of the Torah Revealed Part 4 – Numbers / BeMidbar Trials and Tribulations of the Desert
God may have taken the Jews out of Egypt, but how to take Egypt out of the Jews? The Book of Numbers recounts the difficulties of what can only be termed the adolescence of the Israelite people, and like everyone’s teenage years, it is not a pretty picture. What skills, what sustaining ideas, what resiliences are put into play when the Israelites, having escaped Egypt, must face both the effects of enslavement on their national character, and the threats of growing up…
Find out more »Dancing with Fire: The Hasidic Masters
The great Mexican chef Enrique Olvera says that Mexico is rich with poverty. When people have nothing to eat, they have to eat nothing and everything; they have to make something strange taste wonderful. Hasidut is a theology of poverty; a theology of suffering, of deprivation. Hasidut is a theology that sees miracles in the dirt; God – in a falling shack; redemption in the heart of despair, joy in the darkness of exile. In this sense, Hasidut shares similar…
Find out more »Morning Mindfulness with Julie Potiker
Wednesdays mornings from 10:00-10:45 am Give yourself the gift of calm. Join Julie Potiker for this grounding way to start the day and move from a place of fear to a place of calm. In these forty-five-minute mindfulness sessions, you will experience bringing your attention to the present moment without judgment. For past sessions, visit: https://blubrry.com/balancedmind/ About Julie: Julie Potiker is a mindfulness expert with extensive teacher training in a variety of tools and methods, including Mindful Self-Compassion. Through her…
Find out more »Mirror Image A Screening & Discussion
Jewish Israeli grandparents are challenged by their grandchild to compose an agreed-upon version of the untold story of a large mirror, taken from an Arab village after the 1948 war. An intimate discussion that reflects on how history is written, contested and negotiated. With its accented aesthetic and what can be seen as a surprising choice of topic, Mirror Image teaches us that these counter-spaces can also be occupied by “accented filmmakers” who were born and raised in Israel. It…
Find out more »“American Jewish Literature” led by Rabbi Philip Graubart
Thursdays, June 2, 9, 16, 2022, 10:00 am-11:30 am Series Fee: $30; Beth Israel Member Series Fee $25 What does it mean to be an American Jew? Dozens of talented, engaging writers and poets, from Philip Roth, Cynthia Ozick, Art Spiegelman to Allegra Goodman have grappled with these questions, along with filmmakers, screenwriters, bloggers, and stand-up comics. Is Jewish identity a religion? An ethnicity? A set of moral ideas? An accident of birth? How do American Jews think of their…
Find out more »3-Part Virtual Summer Travel Series Featuring Evgenia Kempinski, live on Zoom from Haifa, Israel Honoring Janet Rosenberg An Adventure to Bultoscandia: Norway, Sweden & Estonia
THURSDAY JUNE 9, 2022 Norway - The Land of the Midnight Sun Jewish History in Norway dates back to the 19th century. Today, approximately 1,500 Jews still live in Norway. Join CSP and tour guide Evgenia Kempinski as we explore the beauty of Norway and learn about this country’s brief yet tragic Jewish history. Topics we will address on our vritual adventure to Norway include: The first Jewish community established in Oslo back in the 19th century; The growth of Jewish life…
Find out more »Jewhooing the Sixties: American Celebrity and Jewish Identity
The 1960s saw a quantum leap in the status of Jews in American life, mediated in large part by the treatment of Jewish celebrities by Jews and gentiles alike. As comedian Lenny Bruce put it, it was suddenly “in” to be Jewish. Celebrities like Lenny Bruce, Sandy Koufax, Bob Dylan, Barbra Streisand and their contemporaries were significantly more transformative than their predecessors. What was it about the 60s that allowed this to happen? Dr. David E. Kaufman is a scholar and…
Find out more »Dancing with Fire: The Hasidic Masters
The great Mexican chef Enrique Olvera says that Mexico is rich with poverty. When people have nothing to eat, they have to eat nothing and everything; they have to make something strange taste wonderful. Hasidut is a theology of poverty; a theology of suffering, of deprivation. Hasidut is a theology that sees miracles in the dirt; God – in a falling shack; redemption in the heart of despair, joy in the darkness of exile. In this sense, Hasidut shares similar…
Find out more »Morning Mindfulness with Julie Potiker
Wednesdays mornings from 10:00-10:45 am Give yourself the gift of calm. Join Julie Potiker for this grounding way to start the day and move from a place of fear to a place of calm. In these forty-five-minute mindfulness sessions, you will experience bringing your attention to the present moment without judgment. For past sessions, visit: https://blubrry.com/balancedmind/ About Julie: Julie Potiker is a mindfulness expert with extensive teacher training in a variety of tools and methods, including Mindful Self-Compassion. Through her…
Find out more »