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.
Ritualwell will hold several classes in January: “Modern-day Psalms” on Tuesday, January 11, from noon-1:30 pm (free standalone session); “The Soul’s Transit: 24 Hours of Neshama” on Thursday, January 6, from 7-8:30 pm (free standalone session); “Holy Conversation: The Kavannot of the Shabbat Amidah” on Thursdays, January 20 and 27, February 3, 10, 17 and 24, from 7-8:30 pm ($216 for six-session immersion); and “Writing the Revelatory Poem” on Tuesdays, January 25 and February 1, 8 and 15 from noon-1:30 pm ($144 for four-session immersion). For more information or to register, see their schedule.
The Yavilah McCoy of Dimensions Educational Consulting and the Institute for Jewish Spirituality will hold a four-part virtual course “Cycles of Rest, Release, and Liberation: Antiracism and Shemitah as Spiritual Practice” on Wednesdays, January 12, February 16, March 30 and May 11, from 6-8 pm. Sessions will be recorded and are open to all. Participants may join at any time. Optional caucus group sessions based on individuals’ racial identities will also be available. Participation in a caucus group is not required to attend the other sessions. For more information or to register, visit this page.
The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research will hold several free virtual lectures in January: “How Should We Think About Freedom?” on Wednesday, January 5, at 1 pm, with Timothy Snyder, the Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale University and a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna (more info here); “The Other Side: Law, Education, Ideology and Normalizing the Criminal” on Wednesday, January 12, at 1 pm, with Jonathan Brent, the executive director of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City (available here); and “From the Vilna Ghetto to Nuremberg: Memoir and Testimony” on Thursday, January 27, at 1 pm, with Justin Cammy, who is a professor of Jewish studies and world literatures at Smith College (register here).
The Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy will hold the virtual lecture “New York, The Greatest Jewish City in the World: Part 3” on Tuesday, January 4, from 7-8:30 pm. One need not have attended the other two lectures to attend this one. The lecture “examines the incredible diversity of New York’s Jewish community including its ethnic and religious sub-cultures, its secular and religious institutions, and the culinary and commercial offerings of its multiple Jewish neighborhoods.” For more information or to register, visit this link.
The Jewish Museum and Film at Lincoln Center will present the 31st annual New York Jewish Film Festival in person and virtually from January 12-25. For more information, see their event page.
The Milken Archive Oral History Project, which can be found here, features interviews with composers, cantors, musicians, actors and scholars speaking about the development of Jewish musical traditions in America. Topics include the development of the cantorate over the course of the 20th century, the history of early American Yiddish theater and the world of Jewish art music.
Valley Beit Midrash will hold a virtual event presentation by Rabbi Avi Strausberg “From Flood to Rainbow” on Monday, January 31, from 3-4 pm. The cost to attend is $18. The lecture will “revisit the flood story with a new midrash imagining what it was like for the dove and raven to leave the ark and begin anew.” For more information or to register, click here.
Maven will hold two programs in January: “Chosen By Choice: Nellie Bowles and Bari Weiss on Living Jewishly” on Thursday, January 13, from 1-1:45 pm, for which there is no cost to attend (more info here); and “Ethics, Activism and Judaism: Text Study” with Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz on Tuesday, January 11, from 1-2 pm, with a fee of $21 (available here).
The Center for Jewish History will present the virtual program “Endpapers: A Family Story of Books, War, Escape, and Home,” featuring author Alexander Wolff on Thursday, January 20, at 6:30 pm. “Endpapers” tells the story of Wolff’s grandfather, publisher Kurt Wolff, and his father, Niko, who fought in the Wehrmacht during World War II before coming to America. For more information or to register, visit their website.
The Jewish Theological Seminary will offer two online courses for teenagers: “Gender and Human Nature” on Thursdays, January 20 and 27, and February 3, 10, 17 and 24, from 7:30-8:45 pm; and “The Origins of Human Difference” on Tuesdays, January 18 and 25 and February 1, 8, 15 and 22, from 6:30-7:45 pm. For more information or to register, follow this link.
The Jewish Theological Seminary will offer several courses this winter: “Jumpstart Your Biblical Hebrew” on Mondays, January 24 and 31, February 7, 14 and 28, March 7, 14, 21 and 28 and April 4, from noon-1:15 pm (accessible here); “Jews and the Left: A History” on Mondays, February 7, 14, 21 and 28, and March 7, 14 and 21, and April 4, from 7:30-8:45 pm (see here); and “Passover Journeys – From the Torah to Your Seder” on Tuesdays, February 22 and March 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29, from 7-8:30 pm (see event).
The Jewish Arts Collaborative will hold the free virtual event “The Sephardic Roots of Israeli Cuisine” on Wednesday, January 26, at 2 pm. Chef Hélène Jawhara Piñer will cook recipes from her book “Sephardi: Cooking the History. Recipes of the Jews of Spain and the Diaspora, from the 13th Century to Today” and talk with Forward National and Food Editor Rob Eshman. For more information or to register, visit their event page.
Hadar was a new podcast for children ages 6 or older, and families called “Torah Time.” Rabbi Miriam-Simma Walfish and her daughter, Adira, talk about the Torah portion. For more information, visit their Torah Time page.
Judaism Your Way will hold a virtual “Tu B’Shevat Seder” led by Amy Atkins and Dan Yolles on Sunday, January 16, from 5-6:30 pm. There is no cost to attend. The event hopes to help “participants will come away with an understanding of Tu B’shevat from a historical perspective and its modern interpretations including the climate crisis.” For more information or to register, see this page.
The latest edition of the Hillel College Guide Magazine is now available. To request a copy, follow this link.
For additional resources, see previous issues of The Reporter or our other Jewish Online Resources here.