By Reporter staff

A variety of Jewish groups are offering educational and recreational online resources. Below is a sampling of those. The Reporter will publish additional listings as they become available. 

The Jewish Theological Seminary will hold its spring 2024 learning series “Timely Insights, Timeless Wisdom” on Mondays, January 22-May 20, except for Mondays, February 19, April 22, or April 29. The classes will take place from 1-2:30 pm. There is a suggested donation based on how many classes one wishes to attend. Topics will include teaching Israel on campus; Zion, exile, and diaspora; Russian and Ukrainian attitudes toward Israel and Jews; Judaism and mental health; hope in the Bible; law and morality in the Talmud; Kabbalah and images of the divine; Jewish history and education through the lens of JTS’s rare manuscripts; and holiday-related content for Purim, Passover, Yom Hashoah and Yom Ha’atzmaut. For more information or to register, click here.

The Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue will hold the hybrid lecture “Between Thought and Action: An Intellectual Biography of Fethullah Gülen” on Monday, February 5, from 7-8:15 pm. Ori Z. Soltes will discuss his book, “Between Thought and Action,” which explores the life and the thought of Turkish imam and scholar Fethullah Gülen. For more information or to register, click here.

The Jewish Theological Seminary will hold “Soloveitchik’s Children: Irving Greenberg, David Hartman, Jonathan Sacks, and the Future of Jewish Theology in America” on Monday, January 22, from 7:30-8:30 pm. Daniel Ross Goodman will discuss his book “Soloveitchik’s Children,” which explores Soloveitchik’s influence on Rabbi Irving “Yitz” Greenberg, Rabbi David Hartman and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. For more information or to register, click here.

The American Jewish University will hold the five-part class “Hebrew Through Israeli Songs” on Sundays, January 21 and 28, and February 4, 11 and 18, at 1 pm. The cost to attend is $96. The class will “explore the evolution of Israeli music, from the nostalgic tunes that defined past eras to the modern beats resonating with today’s generation.” For more information or to register, click here.

The Yiddish Book Center will hold the five-part class “The Global Journey of Yiddish Literature” on Wednesdays, March 27, April 3, 10 and 17, from 7-8:30 pm. Professor Ilan Stavans of Amherst College will speak about Yiddish literature from Argentina to Zimbabwe, and Mexico to Melbourne. The cost to attend is $75 for Yiddish Book Center members and $100 for nonmembers. For more information or to register, click here.

The Qesher Book Club will focus on “We Are Not Strangers” by Josh Tuining on Tuesday, January 23, at 3 pm. The event will be on Zoom and live-streamed on Facebook. Tuining’s graphic novel “Tuininga” will trace his family’s Sephardic roots in Turkey and speaks about the multi-ethnic American neighborhood they lived in the Seattle Central District. For more information or to register, click here.

RitualWell will hold the six-week class “Choosing Joy: The Teachings of Rebbe Nachman” on Thursdays, January 25 and February 1-29, from 1-2:30 pm, with Rabbi Daniel Raphael Silverstein. The cost to attend is $250. The class will explore the life and teachings of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (1772-1810). For more information or to register, click here.

Siegal Lifelong Learning will hold the virtual class “Jews and the American Labor Movement” with retired attorney Keith Danish on Friday, February 2, from 10-11:30 am. The cost to attend for non-members is $5. Danish “will survey the individuals and organizations involved in these historic movements and explain how Judaism itself inspired reforms in the secular world.” For more information or to register, click here.

Hadar will hold several classes: “Between Parents and Children in Rabbinic Literature” with Rabbi Goldie Guy on Wednesdays, January 17-February 21, from 1-2 pm (available here); “Rediscovering the Amidah: New Insights Into Judaism’s Most Essential Prayer” with Rabbi Elie Kaunfer on Thursdays, January 18-February 23, from noon-12:30 pm (available here); “The Weekly Parashah” with Rabbi David Kasher on Thursdays, January 18-February 22, from noon-12:30 pm (available here); “Life at the Margins: Newborns and the Elderly in Jewish Law and Lore” with Rabbi Micha’el Rosenberg on Mondays, January 22-February 19, from 2-3 pm (available here); and “Pleasure and Pain: Hadar Winter Lecture Series” with Dena Weiss on Tuesdays, February 13, 20 and 27, from 7-8:30 pm (available here).

The Nosher is offering a free download of “The Jewish Vegan Cookbook,” which features 19 Jewish recipes that offer vegan takes on Jewish classics for every day, including holidays. For more information or to download the cookbook, click here.

Tablet is offering a new podcast, “Israel Update,” featuring Gadi Taub and Michael Doran. To listen to the podcast, click here.

RitualWell will hold six-week classes on “God Cafe: The Immersion” on Mondays, January 22-29, and February 5-26, from noon-1:30 pm, with Rabbi Sarah Brammer-Shlay. The cost to attend is $250. The class “will discuss God/divinity as a concept, exploring what God means to each of us, and learn about the variety of approaches to God in Jewish tradition.” For more information, click here. 

The Braid will hold the virtual conversation “Antisemitism: The Endless Drama” on Sunday, January 21, at 2 pm, with Rick Hirschhaut, director of the American Jewish Committee, LA, who will share his strategic work fighting antisemisitm and protecting the rights of the Jewish community. For more information or to register, click here. 

The Shalom Hartman Institute will hold the three-part virtual lecture series “Ethics of War: Jewish, Philosophical, and Legal Perspectives.” The series will be held from noon-1:15 pm: on Monday, January 15, “Ethics and Rules of Proportionality in the Israel-Hamas War” with Idit Shafran Gittleman; on Wednesday, January 17, (available here); “Siege Warfare and Civilian Casualties: Jewish Values and Israel’s Dilemma’ with Shlomo Brody (available here); and on Tuesday, January 23, “Just War Theory in Israel and the International Community: October 7th and Its Aftermath” with Yitzhak Benbaji (available here).

RitualWell will hold two lectures: “Hidden Moments of Holiness: Finding Sacred Potential in the Everyday” on Wednesday, January 31, from noon-1:30 pm, with Rabbi Cantor Hillary Chorny, Cantor at Temple Beth Am in Los Angeles (available here) and “The Golden Shovel: Digging in Text for New Meaning” on Thursday, February 1, from noon-1:30 pm, with Tzivia Gover, author of “Dreaming on the Page: Tap into Your Midnight Mind to Supercharge Your Writing” (available here).

Uri L’Tzedek will hold several programs in January, including “Organizing the Jewish community to protect Democracy” with executive director of A More Perfect Union Aaron Dorfman on Tuesday, January 16, at noon (available here); “5 tips for talking to youth about personal safety” with Shira Berkovits, president and CEO of Sacred Spaces, on Wednesday, January 31, at 11 am (available here); and “Doing Well While Doing Good: Socially Responsible Investing and Talmudic Wisdom” with Rabbi Jacob Siegel on Wednesday, January 31, at noon (available here). The cost to attend is $18 per program. 

The American Jewish University’s President’s Speaker series will hold the virtual conversation “The Fight Against Antisemitism After October 7” with AJU President Jeffrey Herbst and Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt on Wednesday, January 24, from 6-7 pm. Herbst and Greenblatt will discuss the surge in global antisemitism following the Hamas October 7 attack. For more information or to register, click here.

The OU Women’s Initiative announced “Torat Imecha: Parsha,” a weekly 10-15 minute audio shiur. For more information or to register, click here.

For additional resources, see our Current Issues, Archived Issues, or Jewish Online Resources pages.