This course involves screening popular American and Israeli movies in order to study a complex
and profound issue in Jewish life today. This issue is the fundamental tension between the lives
and attitudes of modern Jews, and the lives and attitudes of traditional religious Jews (also
sometimes referred to as hareidim, ultra-orthodox, or hassidim). Designed as the first of two
courses (each may be taken separately), this course focuses on films that offer starkly different
depictions of traditional Jewish life. In particular, these films will help us attend to deep conflicts
over issues such as individual self-expression, family, the value of communal life, and the
experience of romance and love. Students will screen the films on their own before class;
important clips will be shown in class. Carefully chosen academic readings, and short stories will
be provided each week, both for background on that week’s film, and to enhance the experience
of viewing it.
Dates: 5 Wednesdays, 4/7, 4/14, 4/21, 4/28, 5/5
Time: 7:00 – 9:00 pm
Cost: $165, generous financial aid is availableFor more information, contact Marilyn Stern at meah@hebrewcollege.edu
Instructor: Dr. Jacob Meskin
Sponsored by Hebrew College and hosted by Congregation Eitz Chayim, Tremont Street
Shul, and Kahal B’raira, Cambridge
The Executive Committee is Kahal B’raira’s leadership and coordinating body. It includes the president, vice-president, treasurer, secretary, members-at-large, Sunday school chair and representative to the Society for Humanistic Judaism. Meetings are open to all KB members. RSVP for Zoom link to info@kahalbraira.org
Gaining Ground, the beloved farm we have been going to for many years, is back open for volunteers! Lauren Kopans has reserved Saturday, May 15 from 9-10:30, for a group. Up to 16 people can join, ages five and up. Wheelchair accessible. Please email Lauren if you’d like to volunteer. Spaces will be available on a first-come first serve basis, but if there’s enough interest, we can organize a second volunteer day.
How can Jewish education be both meaningful and relevant for kids? At Kahal B’raira’s secular Sunday School, students explore how Jewish values can help us create a better world.
- A curriculum that emphasizes collaboration, critical thinking, and decision making skills.
- A space for our students to celebrate the diversity in Jewish culture. Our program is engaging and fun for students of diverse identities, cultures, beliefs, and interests, including from interfaith and LGBTQ households.
- A place where children connect Jewish learning and values with action.
- 9:00-10:00am – Students and parents visit classes
- 10:00-10:30am – Q&A with school director Sophia Brion-Meisels
“Kahal B’raira provides a place for my family to live Jewishly and where I can raise my children in a tradition that is both Jewish and has intellectual integrity.”
Click Here to RSVP, or email Sophia at eddirector@kahalbraira.org.
We’ll kick off our next community gathering with the annual meeting, where members will have a chance to vote an a bylaws revision and on the incoming board slate! Stay tuned for details.
Following the meeting, we’ll have a Shavuot themed service and time for game rooms and an extended schmooze!
Our Torah: How Learning Leads to Action
The evening of Shavuot finds Jews around the world gathering in synagogues and learning through the night, often fueled by coffee and cheesecake. This practice of all-night Torah study is known as ‘tikkun leil Shavuot.’
Join the IISHJ on Zoom for a series of 15-20 minute sessions, either direct presentations or conversations with organizations doing good in the world.
Secular Humanistic Jews celebrate Shavuot with Jewish literature and ideas from all eras, not only the Torah, and we agree with the Talmud’s sages that “study leads to action.” Join Leaders and Rabbis in Secular Humanistic Judaism as they turn our Tikkun Leil Shavuot into Tikkun Olam [”repairing the world”] through learning experiences with organizations and people doing good here and now! Topics under consideration include the challenges of secular education in ultra-Orthodox schools, the importance of Biblical literacy for secular people, how understanding Jewish racial diversity can help motivate work for racial justice, maybe even the new Duolingo Yiddish program! More details on the program to come, so stay tuned.
KB members are invited to join our book group where we will learn together through reading, self-reflection, and discussion. We will read both non-fiction and fiction (current and historical fiction) and will also share online resources with each other that will support our learning and current experiences. This is a peer-supported group and not led by an expert on the subject. We are on a learning journey and hope you will join us.
For the Zoom link, please email info@kahalbraira.org.
Tentative Schedule
October – initial meeting – discussion / introduction initial self-reflection
November – So You Want to Talk About Race, by Ijeoma Oluo
December – Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
January – The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas
February – Movies: 13th and Selma
March – The Water Dancer, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
April – The Color of Law, by Richard Rothstein [no relation]
May – Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, by Eddie S Glaude, Jr.
June, July, and August – Caste: The Origins of our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson
Join on Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/92438039826
Meeting ID: 924 3803 9826
Dial by your location: 929-205-6099