How’s your Hebrew?

Did you know HUC has a Hebrew program? Join instructor Iris Cohen and Student Learning Coordinator, Lisa Ansell, for an overview of the Seminary Hebrew program. This session will cover the program timeline, curriculum, and expectations.

The Guiding Hand: The BARR Foundation Collection of Torah Pointers – Make Your Own YAD!

Join Cincinnati artist Judith Serling-Sturm for a hands-on workshop to create your own Torah pointer, or yad. Serling-Sturm, who works in her Pendelton Arts Center Studio, is a mixed-media artist and maker of artist books, handmade blank books, as well as sculpture and one-of-a-kind mezuzot made from natural elements and found objects. A mezuzah is a vessel containing a scroll that is traditionally hung on the doorpost of a Jewish home. Serling-Sturm has conducted workshops for adults and teens throughout the Cincinnati region. The workshop will include a guided tour of the exhibition.

Prooftexts and HUC Connect Present “Like a Sacrifice Ascending from the Flames”: Hadar Goldin’s Mesilat Yesharim in Israeli Religious Nationalist Thought

Mesilat Yesharim, an 18th century work of pietistic and ethical perfection, has been transformed by religious Zionists in Israel into a textual and social experience of civic as well as military duty. This webinar focuses on a contemporary commentary on the text published posthumously by Lt. Hadar Goldin, a casualty of Israel's 2014 war in the Gaza Strip. Hadar's body is being held captive by Hamas having yet to be returned to Israel for burial. Dr. Stern demonstrates how Hadar's version of Mesilat Yesharim functions as a medium through which religious Zionist communities work to balance between the religious, political, and intimately personal obligations inherent within Israeli society. In a larger sense, this webinar highlights how the study of Jewish (sacred) texts can be used as a window into better understanding the competing passions and dilemmas of everyday cultural life.

Judaism in a Digital Age: An Ancient Tradition Confronts a Transformative Era

Rabbi Danny Schiff’s new book is critical in helping to frame the future of the Reform Movement. Schiff asks key questions, ranging from topics such as whether existing institutions and approaches can survive alongside a world that is grappling with the digital transformation of society, the role of Judaism as a counter-cultural phenomenon, and how Judaism and our Jewish institutions can respond. In honor of the sixth Yahrzeit of Rabbi Aaron D. Panken, Ph.D., z”l, join us in conversation as Rabbi Schiff sheds light on these ideas and more.

Yehudit (Judith): A New Opera by Iris Karlin ‒ Reclaiming a Feminist Legacy

Temple Emanu-El (1 E 65th St, New York, NY 10065)

In her opera premiere, Iris Karlin, Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music ‘24 has redeveloped the story (as both composer and librettist) of Yehudit through a modern feminist lens into a musical midrash (creative interpretation), determined to bring forth and reclaim the Chanukah legend.