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 Gratz College Scholars Program will offer a variety of virtual classes for spring 2022 from January-March. Classes include “The Path to Modernity: The Jews of Galicia”; “History of Antisemitism,” taught by Rabbi Lance Sussman; “Authentically Orthodox: A Tradition-Bound Faith in American Life”; “Abraham Joshua Heschel and Mordecai Kaplan”; “Six Perspectives of the American Civil War”; and “Jews Who Came Before the Courts.” There is a charge for the classes. For more information, visit click here. 

The Jewish Publication Society and HUC-JIR are working together on the College Commons Podcast. JPS speakers will include Kari Tuling (“Thinking about God: Jewish Views”) on Thursday, December 23; Helen Plotkin (“In This Hour: Heschel’s Writings in Nazi Germany and London Exile”) on Thursday, January 20; and Noam Sachs Zion (“Sanctified Sex: The Two-Thousand-Year Jewish Debate on Marital Intimacy”) on Thursday, February 17. For information about how to subscribe to the podcast, visit this page.

Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program will hold a variety of programs in December, including England as the “Custodian of the Jewish Past – Part 2: The Cairo Geniza: Discovery and Documents” on Sunday, December 12; “A Virtual Tour: A Jewish Odyssey in Mainland of Greece Leshets” on Monday, December 13; “The Rabbis Confront Death: Four Stories from the Midrash, Part 1 – The Death of Moses” on Tuesday, December 14; “Enter Laughing; Exit Stage Left: Does the Bible have its Own Set of Stage Directions?” on Thursday, December 16; “Here All Along: Finding Meaning, Spirituality, and a Deeper Connection to Life–in Judaism (After Finally Choosing to Look There)” on Sunday, December 19; and more. The times listed online are Pacific Time. For more information or to register, follow this link.

YIVO’s Shine Online courses are now available at no charge. The courses allow users to study at their own pace. Courses include “A Seat at the Table: A Journey into Jewish Food”; “Oh Mama, I’m in Love! The Story of the Yiddish Stage”; “Folksong, Demons, and the Evil Eye: Folklore of Ashkenaz”; and “Discovering Ashkenaz: Jewish Life in Eastern Europe.” For more information or to register, see here.

The YIVO-Bard Winter Program on Ashkenazi Civilization will hold a variety of classes in January, including “Conquering the Space: Symbolic Topography of the Former Warsaw Ghetto”; “Grace Paley and Philip Roth: Writing Jews in America”; “Victory over the Sun: The Revolution Before The Revolution”; “Reviving European-Jewish Thought and Culture after 1945”; “The Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race, and American Identity”; “History of the Yiddish Language”; “Jews, Anarchism, and the Pursuit of Radical Freedom”; and “Jews and Science Fiction.” All classes are six sessions. Click here to learn days and times, and to register.

The Yiddish Book Center will hold two events in January: “The Letter’s Project: A Daughter’s Journey,” with Eleanor Reissa on Thursday, January 20, at 7 pm; and “Shakespeare & Yiddish,” with Ilan Stavans on Thursday, January 27, at 7 pm. For more information or to register, visit their public programs calendar.

Keeping It Sacred will hold the Zoom class “Balancing Your Inner Life: Based on Rabbi Bachya Ibn Pakuda’s ‘Duties of the Heart,’” on Sundays, January 9-March 6, at 1 pm. His book is considered the basis for the Mussar Movement. For more information or to register, see this page. 

Elmad presents a new podcast by Rabbi Dr. Levi Cooper, Pardes faculty and “A Shot of Torah Podcast” host, called “This Covid Life: Corona Kaddish Conundrum.” The podcast can be found here.

The Jewish Museum will hold the virtual concert “Nefesh Mountain: YouTube Video Premiere” on Thursday, December 23, from 4-4:45 pm. The band will perform original melodies from their albums “Songs from the Mountain” and “Beneath the Open Sky,” in addition to other music such as Woody Guthrie’s “Hanukkah Dance.” For more information or to register, see this page about the event.

Kung Pao Kosher Comedy will hold its “Christmas Eve in a Virtual Chinese Restaurant” from December 24-26, on Zoom or Youtube Live Livestream. There is a cost to view and the times listed are Pacific Time. For more information or to register, visit their website.

Valley Beit Midrash will hold the virtual class “Rabbinic Inferno: Hell in Classical Judaism” on Thursday, February 17, from 3-4 pm. The cost to attend is $18. For more information, see the event page here.

Aleph, the Alliance for Jewish Renewal, will hold the virtual class “Exploring the Parables of Jesus: An Interfaith Perspective” on Wednesday, February 16, at 7:30 pm. The class will be taught by Rabbi Debra Smith and Sister Eleanor Francis, and will cost $18. It will explore the parables of Jesus and their roots in Judaism. To register, follow this link.

The Jewish Theological Seminary will hold two book talks: “Between the Lines: Remember KHURBM: The Forgotten Genocide” with Alexander Gendler, author of “KHURBM 1914-1922: the Prelude to the Holocaust,” on Monday, January 10, at 1 pm (more info here); and “Between the Lines: Embers of Pilgrimage” on Tuesday, January 11, at 7:30 pm, with Dr. Eitan Fishbane author of “Embers of Pilgrimage,” a poetry collection that incorporates imagery from Jewish mystical works (available here).

For additional resources, see previous issues of The Reporter or our other Jewish Online Resources here.