Adult Education: Past Course Recordings
The Trouble with Sacred Text with Rabbinic Intern Beck
Tuesdays, March 11, 25, and April 1, 7:00-8:15 pm
Zoom
What does it mean to read the Torah as sacred text? Can it still be sacred if we feel troubled by what we read? How do we reckon with the troubling parts that are wholly irreconcilable to our sense of the sacred? Together we will explore strategies for engaging with difficult passages, consider the relevance of these texts today, and explore how the shadow side of Torah might yet shape our understandings of faith, justice, and community.
Class #1 (Class recording):
Troublesome Pesach Texts | Broken Tablets Source Sheet
Class #2 (Class recording):
Shekhinah in Exile Source Sheet
Class #3 (Class recording)
Kantika: A Sephardic Journey — Book Talk with Author Elizabeth Graver
Sunday, March 23, 4:30-6:00 pm
CDT Sanctuary and Zoom
Novelist Elizabeth Graver will discuss her novel Kantika ("song" in Ladino), a multi-generational saga inspired by her grandmother Rebecca, who was born into a Sephardic Jewish family from Istanbul in the early 20th century and whose kaleidoscopic journey took her to Barcelona, Havana, and New York. Kantika explores themes of displacement, endurance, disability and language crossings, as well as the rich, vanishing culture of Sephardic Jews.
Rediscovering Mazaltob, A Century-Old Feminist Sephardi Novel with Frances Malino
Thursday, March 6, 7:30-9:00 pm
CDT Sanctuary and Zoom
Watch the recording | View the source sheet
Our discussion of Mazaltob (translated and edited by Yaelle Azagury and Frances Malino and published in 2024 by Brandeis University Press) focuses on Bendahan’s masterly exploration of the lives of Jewish women in early 20th century North Africa, while also reflecting upon the intellectual milieu of mid-twentieth century France.
Stamped on History: Looted Books at Brandeis with Lou Hartman
Wednesday, February 5, 2025, 7:00-8:30 pm
Zoom
Watch the recording on YouTube
CDT member Lou Hartman will share their work at the Brandeis University Library identifying and documenting books that were looted during the Holocaust, then brought to Brandeis and other Jewish institutions for safekeeping.
What is my Legacy? Ethical Wills and Planned Giving
Thurs 4/4 and Wed 4/10 2024, 7:00-8:15 pm
Zoom
Session 1: Ethical Wills
Class recording | Materials: What Is My Legacy? worksheet; "Ethical Wills" excerpt from Wise Aging
Session 2: Planned Giving
Class recording
Igbo Jews Historically & Today with Yehudah Webster
Thursday, March 7, 2024, 7:00-8:15 pm
Zoom
Watch the recording on YouTube
Spiritual activist and community organizer Yehudah Webster shared about the history of the Igbo Jews through the lens of his Igbo Jewish lineage by way of the forced enslavement and conversion of his ancestors in Guyana.
For anyone interested in learning more about Igbo Jewry, go to https://kulanu.org/communities/nigeria/
For those interested in supporting Yehudah in organizing a group of Jews with potential/confirmed Igbo ancestry to go connect and learn, please go to this link.
Zionism and Beyond: Ideals, Debates, and Counter-narratives
With Rabbi Toba Spitzer
Tuesday, January 16, Thursday, January 25, and Tuesdays, January 30 & February 6, 2024, 7:00-8:30 pm
Class #1 (Tuesday, January 16) (Class recording)
Sources/Resources: Chapter 1 of Zionism: An Emotional State; Texts - Session 1
Class #2 (Thursday, January 25) (Class recording)
For this class, we will be joined by Prof. Derek Penslar, Director of Harvard's Center for Jewish Studies and author of Zionism: An Emotional State (Rutgers University Press, 2023)
Class #3 (Tuesday, January 30) (Class recording)
We will by joined by CDT member Marjorie Feld, who will discuss her forthcoming book, The Threshold of Dissent: A History of American Jewish Critics of Zionism.
Sources/Resources: Chapter 4 of The Necessity of Exile, Shaul Magid; Marjorie Feld, Abstract of The Threshold of Dissent
Class #4 (Tuesday, Feb 6) (Class recording)
Sources/Resources: Where do I connect? (worksheet); Book talk - Omri Boehm, Haifa Republic: A Democratic Future for Israel; Pieces by Rabbi Toba: Creating a New Narrative; Beyond Erasure: On Anti-Zionism & Antisemitism; Loving All Who Dwell in the Land.
Reparations: Where Do We Go From Here?
Thursdays, November 2, 9, 16, 30, and December 14, 2023, 7:00-8:30 pm
Class #1 (Class recording)
Sources/Resources: Jewish Sources on Reparations | “The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism,” Edward E. Baptist
Class #2 (Class recording)
Sources/Resources: Historical Reparations | Reparations Timeline | Video-History of Reparations
Class #3 (Class recording)
Sources/Resources: CA Task Force on Reparations
Nat'l African-American Reparations Commission | H.R. 40
Amherst Report | Video-Racial Wealth Gap
Class #4 (Class recording)
Sources/Resources: Dispossession of Native Americans; The Cost of Free Land
Class #5 (Class recording)
Beyond the Two-State Solution
With Dr. Jonathan Kuttab
Wednesday, October 4, 2023, 7:30-9:00 pm
CDT Sanctuary & Zoom
Co-sponsored by Temple Beth Zion,Temple Sinai of Brookline Israel Committee, and Temple Israel of Boston
Human rights lawyer and peace activist Jonathan Kuttab will share with us his vision for peace in Israel-Palestine that he advances in his short book Beyond the Two-State Solution. Dr. Kuttab challenges the assumptions of both Zionism and Palestinian nationalism in his transformative vision of a homeland for both the Jewish and Palestinian peoples that meets the existential needs of both people. Please join us for what promises to be a thoughtprovoking conversation! Beyond the Two State Solution is available to download for no charge; visit www.nonviolenceinternational.net/beyond2states.
Jonathan Kuttab is a renowned Palestinian human rights lawyer, cofounder of the independent NGO Al Haq, the premier human rights organization in the West Bank, and cofounder of Nonviolence International, which seeks to realize the worth and dignity of all people through the nonviolent resolution of conflicts around the globe.
Judaism Disrupted: Book Talk & Conversation (5783)
with Rabbi Michael Strassfeld
Watch the recording of Rabbi Strassfeld's conversation with Rabbi Toba and CDT members!
From Metaphor to Practice: An Exploration (5783)
with Rabbi Toba Spitzer
Session One, November 30: God as Water and as Voice — How do we nourish our spirits through prayer, song, meditation, and other Jewish rituals?
There is no recording available for Session One.
Session Two, December 7: God as Place & Rock of Refuge — Where is the divine as we support one another in times of transition and crisis, illness and mourning?
Class recording
Session Three, December 14: God as Fire, Rain of Justice — Where do we locate God/liness in our work to repair the world?
Class recording
Session Four, December 21: The God-Cloud and Becoming — When so many forces in society threaten to tear us apart, what might God/liness have to do with fostering community?
Class recording
With All Your Possessions: The Torah of Money (5782)
with Rabbi Toba Spitzer
What does Judaism have to say about money and our economic relations? A lot! We will explore Jewish texts and practices related to mindful consumption, tzedakah and economic justice, and the radical implications of Shabbat and the sabbatical year. Members of the CDT Economic/Class Difference working group will also share some of the groundbreaking work they have been doing in exploring personal connections to issues of class and economic inequality, both at CDT, in the Jewish community, and in society at large.
Session 1
Recording Texts
Session 3
Recording Texts Worksheet
Session 4
Recording Texts Worksheet
Session 5
Texts
Jewishness, Whiteness, and Race in America (5782)
with Rabbi Toba Spitzer and Dr. Jenny Sartori
Recordings: Session 1 Session 2 Session 3 Session 4
Readings: Goldstein --Karen Brodkin essay- Course Materials
