Community Connect

2022-2023 Community Connect Offerings

Turn it and Turn it

An overview of our High Holy Days and how we can find newness within them each year.
Featuring Rabbi Dalia Marx, Ph.D., Rabbi Aaron D. Panken Professor of Liturgy, HUC/Jerusalem

Being a Nachshon

Looking at the story of Passover and the midrash of Nachshon, the intrepid Israelite who took the first step across the Red Sea.
Featuring Rabbi Dvora Weisberg, Ph.D., Rabbi Aaron D. Panken Professor of Rabbinics; HUC-JIR Rabbinical School Director and Rabbinical Program Director, Los Angeles

the Tent

Looking at how we can make our spaces more equitable and welcoming for Jews of Color.
Featuring Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, Central Synagogue, New York City; Bruce Phillips, Ph.D. Professor of Sociology & Jewish Communal Service, HUC/Los Angeles; and Andrew Rehfeld, Ph.D., HUC President; Moderator

Six-Pointed Mosaic

Looking at the connection between our sacred texts and the art we create through them.
Featuring Alicia Jo Rabins, Singer/Songwriter; Rabbi Dr. Ariel Burger, Author; Aaron Henne, Founder and Artistic Director of theatre dybbuk; and Jon Adam Ross, Founder and Managing Director of the in[heir]itance project; and Dr. Miriam Heller Stern, Vice Provost for Educational Strategy; National Director of the HUC-JIR School of Education; Associate Professor (blended track), HUC-JIR/Los Angeles moderator

In the Image of God, God Created Them

Genesis 1:27 through a Jewish and queer lens.
Featuring Joel Kushner, Ph.D., Director, Kalsman Institute on Judaism and Health; Director, Institute for Judaism, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity; Director, Jeff Herman Virtual Resource Center, HUC/Los Angeles; Eliana Rubin, Candidate, Master of Educational Leadership, HUC/Los Angeles; Moderator; Rabbi Nancy H. Wiener, D.Min., MAHL, M.Phil., Dr. Paul and Trudy Steinberg Chair in Human Relations; Founding Director, Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Center for Pastoral Counseling, HUC/New York

Lo alecha…

Understanding reparations through the intersectionality of Jews of Color and white privilege.
Featuring Rabbi Jonathan Crane, Raymond F. Schinazi Scholar of Bioethics and Jewish Thought at the Ethics Center, Emory University; Professor of Medicine, Emory School of Medicine; Professor of Religion, Emory College of Arts and Sciences; Christina Jefferson, Director, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) at the San Francisco Forty Niners; and Andrew Rehfeld, Ph.D., President; Moderator

Antisemitism Then and Now

Exploring antisemitism through the story of Purim and considering ways to combat it in the modern-day.
Featuring Sara J. Bloomfield, Director, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy…

Exploring the tension between honoring our own health and doing our best work.
Featuring Alyza Berman, LCSW, Founder, Owner, and Executive Director, Berman Center; Daniel Epstein, LMHC, LPC, Licensed Psychotherapist; Co-Founder, Blue Dove Foundation; Director, Client Care at The Berman Center; Gabrielle (Gabby) Leon Spatt, Staff, The Blue Dove Foundation; Justin Milrad, CEO, Berman Center

Getting to the Root

Identifying our Jewish values and exploring how to live through them through secular actions.
Featuring Dr. Neal S. Scheindlin, Instructor in Rabbinics, HUC/LA

I and Thou

Looking at how our thoughts, words and actions may be in misalignment, and how to realign them to work with our values.
Featuring Rabbi Denise L. Eger, Congregation Kol Ami

2021-2022 Community Connect Offerings

Tzedaqah (Charity): Who and What Is It For?

Alyssa Gray, JD, Ph.D., Professor of Codes and Responsa Literature and Emily S. and Rabbi Bernard H. Mehlman Chair in Rabbinics, HUC-JIR/New York

Prayer Is an Art Form

Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, Ph.D., The Barbara and Stephen Friedman Professor Emeritus of Liturgy, Worship and Ritual, HUC-JIR/New York

Innovation and Inclusion: The Rabbis Remaking of Passover

Rabbi Dvora Weisberg, Ph.D., Rabbi Aaron D. Panken Professor of Rabbinics; HUC-JIR Rabbinical School Director and Rabbinical Program Director, Los Angeles

Engaging Tradition

Rabbi Sharon Brous, Founder and Senior Rabbi, IKAR

Sinai and Synapses

Rabbi Geoffrey A. Mitelman, Founding Director, Sinai and Synapses

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