Masterclass

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Masterclass for Alumni

Join professors, classmates, and colleagues for a limited-enrollment monthly study group. These seminar-style classes will allow you the opportunity to gather ideas for future sermons, network with peers, and reconnect with mentors.

HUC Masterclass 2022 – 2023

Fall 2022

Steven Windmueller, Interim Director of HUC’s Zelikow School & Emeritus Professor of Jewish Communal Studies

“The New American Judaism: How Jewish Life is Changing and Why?”

American Judaism is undergoing a profound structural revolution. In this HUC masterclass, we will be examining both the external and internal factors that are contributing to the transformational changes now occurring. In this four-session course, Steven Windmueller will explore generational factors, the impact of COVID, the rise of social media, and the imprint of American culture on our community. As part of this endeavor, Professor Windmueller will step back to lay the foundations of the American Jewish experience, providing his audience with a richer understanding of the historic context in which the Jewish storyline has emerged.

As part of this encounter, a series of probing questions will be introduced. What can we anticipate in moving forward, understanding both the potential challenges but also the extraordinary opportunities before us?

Dates: Mondays: October 24, November 21, December 12, January 23
Time: 7:00 pm IT / 12:00 pm ET / 9:00 am PT

* Details are subject to change. Please stay tuned for updates.

Spring 2023

Rabbi Dalia Marx, Ph.D., Rabbi Aaron D. Panken Professor of Liturgy and Midrash, HUC-JIR/Jerusalem

“Hebrew/English, Israel/America: The Vanguard of Tefillah”

What does it mean for a siddur to be inclusive and diverse? And even more than that, what does it mean to communicate these values in living Hebrew and elegant, accessible English?

Join Professor Dalia Marx, co-editor of Tfillat Ha-Adam: Israeli Reform Prayer Book, to investigate the most challenging choices of the liturgy, and their application to our changing world. Together you will explore linguistical aspects, theology, gender and Zionism as these themes appear in the Siddur.

No prior knowledge or experience is necessary to participate in this program.

Dates: Mondays: March 20, April 24, May 15, June 12

Time: 7:00 pm IT / 12:00 pm ET / 9:00 am PT

Registration opens January 2023.

Previous Masterclass

“The Qur’an Shi’ur”

Rabbi Reuven Firestone, Ph.D.

Regenstein Professor in Medieval Judaism and Islam, HUC-JIR/Los Angeles

The Qur’an includes many stories, traditions and laws that are familiar to anyone who is acquainted with the Tanakh: Adam and Eve in the Garden, Noah and the flood, Abraham and the Akedah, Moses and Pharaoh, the Exodus, Sinai, David and Solomon, kosher food laws, Sabbath stories and much more. Yet they appear in the Qur’an according to their own unique formulations. The relationship has fascinated and flummoxed scholars and lay people alike for centuries, but today we have a much better understanding of the Qur’an in relation to prior scripture.

This course of study will examine the Qur’an as sacred scripture and late antique literature. We will study its narrative, law, history, and tradition in relation to Jewish parallels. All will be text-oriented, hence the title “shi’ur,” a Hebrew word that describes the primary method of Jewish text study since the time of the ancient rabbis. We will study not only the fascinating similarities between our traditions, but also the profound differences.