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Reform or Reactive Judaism:
Between an Ideal and a Reality
In Cincinnati, Ohio on the HUC-JIR Campus
October 2004
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Thank you to all our participants and scholars for a wonderful Kinnus. Stay tuned for future Joint Commission On-Site Study opportunities!
Perhaps nothing expresses the historical
tension within Judaism better than Scholem Aleichem's Tevya, the Milkman.
Tevya, the embodiment of tradition, must inexorably adapt to the ever-changing
social and religious circumstances surrounding him. He is neither arbiter
of his family's evolution, nor master of the influences injecting themselves
capriciously upon it. And yet, Tevya's "tradition" succumbs
to his desire to accommodate and sustain his family. He might have chosen
otherwise, as many in his generation did.
As Jewish professionals, we are particularly sensitive to this tension between accommodating and leading. How well do we anticipate what changes should take place and how often do we make changes in the aftermath of social pressures? Reform Judaism has aligned itself with a history it sees as evolutionary, yet are there limits to the various forms of "religious reform" in the modern world?
Our study of cases from antiquity to the present will inform our discussion of the many complexities of this issue. Modern tools of sociology will be used to ask questions that our ideological ancestors could not have anticipated. What do the demographic studies of the past decades tell us about Jews in America? In what way has Reform Judaism adapted itself to the evidence? In what ways might leaders of Reform Judaism use this information to "create" rather than "react?"
Click for a daily
schedule!
Click to view a description of
Leonard Saxe's Keynote Address!
Pre-Convention
Kallah - What's New
in Ethics?
This pre-convention Kallah was an opportunity for text-based study with
Dr. Robert Gibbs of the University of Toronto, author of Why
Ethics? Signs of Responsibilities (link to Amazon.com).
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Click to learn more about: |
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| Pre-Convention Kallah - Robert Gibbs, "What's New in Ethics?" | |
| Limud - Adele Reinhartz "Hollywood and Bible: Trends in Film" | |
An opportunity for text-based study with an engaging scholar, Dr. Robert Gibbs of the University of Toronto, author of Why Ethics? This course provides a forum for rolling up your sleeves and getting involved in text study at its most vital. What do contemporary Jewish thinkers learn from their reading of Tanakh and Talmud? How is text study itself a kind of ethical thinking?
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Dr. Robert Gibbs was raised in Chicago. He completed his BA at Yale, and MA and Ph.D. at the University of Toronto. He has taught at St. Louis University, Princeton, and is now Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. Dr. Gibbs specialized in 20th Century Philosophy and Jewish Thought. Current research is in the field of ethics and more recently on law, and his focus is on the way we are responsible for what other people do. Robert is married and has two daughters: he belongs to Congregation Solel of Mississauga. Other books include: Correlations in Rosenzweig and Levinas (1992), Reasoning After Revelation: Dialogues in Postmodern Jewish Philosophy (1998) with Steven Kepnes and Peter Ochs. |
Limud - A. Reinhartz
"Hollywood and Bible: Trends in Film"
June 20-23, 2004
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Dr. Adele Reinhartz, Dean of Graduate Studies and Research and Professor in the Department of Religion and Culture at Wilfrid Laurier University. |
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Adele Reinhartz, a dynamic speaker and scholar of the history and literature of early Christianity and Judaism, will review some of the key points of her books, Scripture on the Silver Screen and Jesus of Hollywood (forthcoming), and offer her commentary on the new Mel Gibson movie about the life of Jesus. (To view a trailer from this movie, click here.) Prof. Reinhartz was interviewed about Gibson's film on NPR's Morning Edition on January 27, 2004. Click here to find a link to the segment, entitled "Charges of Anti-Semitism Dog 'Passion of Christ'." |
As preparation for this limud, you are encouraged to read through the Four Gospels and to familiarize yourself with their different versions of the passion story (from the Last supper to the end). Any translation will do, though Adele Reinhartz favors the New Revised Standard Version.
Joint Commission Limudim
At past CCAR Conventions
Click below to learn about past CCAR Convention limudim sponsored by the Joint Commission.
| Session Title and Scholar | |
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Jewish Thought with Norbert Samuelson |
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Birth
and Brit: Understanding the Physical and Spiritual Nature of Human Beings Rabbi Lewis Barth, Neil Schuster * |
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The
Rabbi as Learner and Teacher: Studying with Jewish Adults Dr. Dianne Tickton Schuster * |
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Hassidism:
Piety in Modern Society |
*Click here to purchase audio tapes of these limudim (Requires Adobe Acrobat).
The Joint Commission On-Site
is sponsored by
the Central Conference of
American Rabbis &
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute
of Religion
in partnership with the College-Institute's Department of Distance Education.