Adult Education Blog

Join us on Zoom at 10:30 the last Wednesday of every month. This month we are reading and discussing our next Book Club choice, The Thread Collectors by Shaunna Edwards and Alyson Richman.

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On April 26th at 10:30 via Zoom we will meet to discuss The Ritual Bath by Faye Kellerman.

"Detective Peter Decker of the LAPD is stunned when he gets the report....Read more...

This month, we are studying Jewish sexual ethics through a Reform Lens. Using the book Sacred Encounter: Jewish Perspectives on Sexuality by the CCAR Press, and it's study guide (though in an abbreviated form), we are looking at the issues of Marriage, LGBTQIA inclusion, Healthy Relationships, Modesty in the Modern World, and Sexual Desire.

While folks are certainly welcomed to try to read along with me, Sacred Encounter is a bit dry...Read more...

On the last Wednesday of February (the 22nd) we will be meeting at 10:30 am via Zoom to discuss our next book, Then She Found Me by Elinor Lipman.

On December 11th we will meet for our 4th and penultimate class on Jewish History. We continue our timeline from the 1700s-1900s, focusing mostly on Enlightenment and Emancipation, and the beginning of Modernity.

Lesson 4 Timeline

Lesson 4 PowerPoint

Lesson 4 Outline

We did not end up meeting on 11/27.

Please join us 12/3 for our third installment of Jewish History.

This class will pick up with the turn of the millennia (the tenth century) and bring us up to just before the Enlightenment.

Lesson 3 Outline

Lesson 3 Timeline

Lesson 3 PowerPoint

Throughout the next five weeks, we will be going through the NJOP's curriculum for a Crash Course in Jewish History: 4,000 years in five one-hour sessions.

This first week will focus on the Biblical period: creation to the First Temple.

Timeline for Lesson 1

Lesson 1 PowerPoint

Lesson 1 Outline

Our Book Club will next meet on October 26th to discuss Nathan Englander's What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank.

From Goodreads:

These eight new stories from the celebrated novelist and short-story writer Nathan Englander display a gifted...Read more...

We will meet on August 31 at 10 AM on Zoom to discuss this month's read: Maggie Anton's The Choice.

From Goodreads: A powerful love story with a purpose: to...Read more...

Our last two weeks in this course (6/26 and 7/3) we will jump to Masechet Yevamot and check in a bit on what most other Talmud-studiers around the world are reading this week.

Here's a little primer on what to expect from Yevamot as a whole, and here is the text of Yevamot 107-108 (what we will be reading the next two weeks) from the indispensable Sefaria.org.

Please Note that the July 3rd, the class will meet at 11 AM rather...Read more...

Sunday, March 27th, we are learning with and from Rabbi Justin Jaron Lewis (https://justinjaronlewis.wordpress.com/) as he guides us through a lesson about the Zohar - the most prominent book of Jewish mysticism.

Justin Jaron Lewis is a rabbi, Jewish Studies professor, and storyteller who loves the imagination and emotional richness of the Zohar. He is the author of Imagining Holiness: Classic Hasidic Tales in Modern Times and...Read more...

For One Class Only! 

3/6 1:00pm Everything you wanted to know about Mikvah but were afraid to ask

 Learn about the history, purpose, and modern potential of the mikveh with Rabbi Lizz! If there is interest in a follow up, and covid restrictions allow, we may take a "field trip" at a later date to the community (non-Orthodox) mikveh in DC. 

Source Sheets on Mikva'ot: 

The...Read more...

Our fifth and final class on Jewish Humor will discuss contemporary Jewish comedy and where it looks like the future of American Jewish Comedy is headed.

Rachel Bloom is a musical theatre and literary nerd who embraces her Jewishness in a deep and very visible way with her songs such as Remember that We Suffered (with Patti LuPone and Tovah Feldshuh), The JAP Battle, and the JAP Battle Reprise.

Jessica Kirson, slightly older...Read more...