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Jewish resources to occupy your family during social distancing – part 14

By Reporter staff 

A variety of Jewish groups are offering online resources – educational and recreational – for those who are not allowed out of the house. Below is a sampling of those. The Reporter will publish additional listings as they become available. 

  • The America-Israel Friendship League will offer the webinar “From ‘Start Up’ to ‘Grown Up’: Accessing the Israeli Market in a Post-COVID World” on Wednesday, July 1, at noon. The webinar will explore how Israel’s economy is likely to look after COVID recovery. It will seek to answer such questions as, will Israel continue to be at the forefront of innovation? Will it attract foreign investments at similar levels? Will it provide similar returns? The webinar will feature insights from various investor perspectives. For information about how to sign up for this and other upcoming events, visit https://aifl.org/events.
  • Be’Chol Lashon is offering writings from Black Jews on its “Black Lives Matter” page. To read the articles, visit https://globaljews.org/. That page connects to a variety of blog articles about the topic.
  • The Friends of the IDF filmed the webinar it did with Dr. Ruth Westheimer called “Dynamic Dialogue with Survivor, Haganah Sniper, and Trailblazer, the World-Renowned Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer.” Westheimer offers a look at her time in the Haganah. The event was moderated by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, investigative reporter and news anchor Jerry Levine. It can be found at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy7IcN2fpCk&feature=emb_title.
  • Be’Chol Lashon is offering free access to its “Passport to Peoplehood” educational resources, which explore the history and traditions of Jewish communities around the world and celebrate the fact that Jews are a multicultural people. The resources are appropriate for use with children. For more information, visit https://globaljews.org/learn/p2p/families/.
  • NCSY will hold “Bike NCSY 2020” on Sunday, August 9. There will be multiple pre-arranged regional routes, a variety of courses for riders and a $10 registration fee for teens. For more information or to register, visit https://bike.ncsy.org/.
  • Jewish Action, the quarterly magazine of the Orthodox Union, is a new publication that seeks to convey Orthodox Jewish values and concerns in a way that will enlighten, educate and inspire its readers. To receive issues by e-mail and curated Jewish Action content, visit https://jewishaction.com/.
  • The Moscow State Yiddish Theater collection at the Blavatnik Archive Foundation is now fully cataloged and accessible online at www.blavatnikarchive.org/collection/2. The collection consists of 581 items, including 147 photographs and 434 documents in Russian, Yiddish, Ukrainian, Hebrew, German and French. Formerly, it was the family archive of Iustina Minkova (1895-1979) and Solomon Zil’berblat (1897-1977), Yiddish actors and members of the GOSET (Gosudarstvennyi evreiskii teatr, the Russian acronym of the Moscow State Yiddish Theater) troupe. Although the collection contains documents from the 1900s through the 1970s, most are from GOSET’s “golden years,” the 1920s-30s. The collection includes the theater’s internal memos and letters, draft playbills, scripts, annotated by actors, administrative correspondence, minutes of the local actors’ union meetings, posters, bills and more.
  • Mayim Bialik will host “FunOrthodox: Star-Studded Evening of Comedy/Music.” The event will take place on Sunday, June 28, at 8 pm, and be available online after the live show. FunOrthodox (funorthodox.com) will include performances by Emmy Award-winning comedians Bruce Vilanch and Judy Gold, Leah Gottfried (and the cast of the web series “Soon by You”), Cory Kahaney (“Last Comic Standing”), and more. FunOrthodox will include 14 acts. The show runs approximately 70 minutes. The trailer can be viewed at https://tinyurl.com/FunOrthodoxTease. The event will launch via Facebook LIVE on Eshel’s Facebook page. All proceeds from the event will benefit the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Eshel Inc., which works to make a difference in the lives of LGBTQ+ Jews, their families and their communities. For more information, visit www.funorthodox.com.
  • National Museum of Jewish American History will offer the live program “Songs of Our People, Songs of Our Neighbors: Deborah Sacks Mintz” on Wednesday, June 24, at 6 pm, via Facebook Live and the NMAJH website. It will feature Deborah Sacks Mintz’s new album, “The Narrow and The Expanse.” She will sit down virtually with NMAJH public programs manager and musician Dan Samuels to talk about her upbringing, musical influences, favorite collaborators and what drives her efforts to heal the world with music. There will be premieres of never-before-seen recordings of Mintz and other musicians created during the making of the album. There is no cost for the program, although donations will be accepted. The program will be available on the NMJAH Facebook page and at NMAJH.org via a pop-up message on the homepage. 
  • YIVO will sponsor “Continuing Evolution: Yiddish Folksong in Classical Music,” a digital musical performance preview, on Tuesday, June 30, at 4 pm. It will feature new works by composers Martin Bresnick, Marti Epstein, Aaron Kernis, Judith Shatin and Alex Weiser. The concert will be shown at www.youtube.com/user/yivoinstitute and www.facebook.com/YIVOInstitute.
  • National Museum of Jewish American History will offer the live program “Conversation and Concert with Rabbi Yosef Goldman” on Wednesday, July 1, at 6 pm. It will explore the music of Goldman’s new album, “Open My Heart.” Goldman will sit down virtually with NMAJH public programs manager and musician Dan Samuels to talk about his upbringing, musical influences, favorite collaborators and what drives his efforts to heal the world with music. There will be a premiere of never-before-seen recordings of Goldman and other musicians created during the making of the album. There is no cost for the program, although donations will be accepted. The program will be available on the NMJAH Facebook page and at NMAJH.org via a pop-up message on the homepage.
  • Jewish Book Week will hold the webinar “Rebecca Abrams in conversation with Yoel Finkelman: Jewish Treasures” on Wednesday, July 8, at 2 pm. Rebecca Abrams, award-winning author of “The Jewish Journey,” will present “Jewish Treasures: an exploration of the Bodleian Library’s world-class Jewish manuscripts collection.” Dating back to the Bodleian’s beginning, the collections represent four centuries of collecting and a thousand years of Jewish history. In conversation with Yoel Finkelman, curator of the Judaica Collection at the National Library of Israel, Abrams will discuss many highlights of the collection, which includes a fragment of Maimonides’ autograph draft of the Mishneh Torah with his handwritten edits; one of the oldest surviving Jewish seals (or “starr”) in England; manuscripts from the Cairo Genizah documenting the cultural and religious life of Egypt’s medieval Jewish community; illuminated Hebrew Bibles collected by Benjamin Kennicott; and the earliest dated fragment of the Talmud. To register for the event, visit https://mailchi.mp/jewishbookweek/jewish-treasures.
  • Those who missed the AJC’s “A Conversation with Dr. Anwar Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, United Arab Emirates” can view it at https://www.ajc.org/news/a-conversation-with-dr-anwar-gargash-minister-of-state-for-foreign-affairs-united-arab. In it, Dr. Anwar Gargash, minister of state for foreign affairs of the United Arab Emirates, details his nation’s efforts to promote regional stability and interfaith cooperation. Other sessions of AJC’s Virtual Global Forum 2020 can be found at www.ajc.org/globalforumnews2020.
  • The Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU will hold an “Author Talk with Marcia Jo Zerivitz: ‘Jews of Florida: Centuries of Stories’” on Sunday, July 12, at 2 pm, via Zoom. In celebration of the museum’s 25th anniversary, Marcia Jo Zerivitz will use a PowerPoint presentation to highlight some stories that represent the themes of her newest book, “Jews of Florida: Centuries of Stories.” The images will reflect the contributions of Floridian Jews and make connections to Florida history and current global issues. To register for the event, visit https://secure.qgiv.com/for/jmoffiu/event/816319/.
  • Elmad offers a four-part class called “Tales of Hasidic Tales with Rabbi Levi Cooper” at https://elmad.pardes.org/tales-of-hasidic-tales-with-rabbi-levi-cooper/. Cooper currently teaches chasidut, Maimonides and midrash at Pardes. He has also taught Bible, Talmud and the philosophy of halachah. He previously served as the director of the Fellows program and the director of the Kollel, as well as heading the Pardes Educational Seminar to Turkey.
  • The Center for Jewish History will hold “Virtual Visit: Meet Emma Lazarus” on Sunday, June 28, at 11 am. In the live, interactive program, children will have the opportunity to engage with Emma Lazarus, a poetess, about her life and the issues of her time. Lazarus will encourage families to identify a cause that they care about and discover their own creative voice. The program is recommended for children ages 7-12, but all families are welcome to watch. The is no cost for the program, but registration is required. The register, visit https://programs.cjh.org/event/meet-emma-lazarus-2020-06-28.
  • Adamah at Home is a three-week virtual program to build food skills, ecological connection and Jewish community that will be held from July 6-26. It is open to all aged 18 and older who can commit to 12-15 hours a week. The program will support students in getting their hands dirty – growing food on balconies or in backyards, preparing and preserving food in the kitchen, and exploring their local food system. The program is being offered on a sliding scale. Applications are due Wednesday, July 1, or until 25 spots are filled. For more information, visit https://hazon.org/adamah/adamah-at-home.
  • The Jewish National Fund is offering virtual tours of Israel. The tours include regular tourist sites, off-the-beaten-path sites, Jewish National Fund projects and places. Included are the Old City of Jerusalem, Ayalon Institute, Rosh Ha’Nikra, Akko, JNF’s Sderot Indoor Recreation Center, Be’er Sheva, Timna Park and more. The $50 registration fee ($36 for JNFuture tours) per Zoom spot includes a week of live touring in Israel for one hour a day Monday-Friday. After a break, there will be one-hour social dinner/cocktail hour. Friday will feature a one-hour pre-Shabbat experience. For more information, visit www.jnf.org/travel-pages/jnf-virtual-tours-to-israel or contact Rebecca Cohen at rcohen2@jnf.org or 212-879-9305, ext. 256.
  • Yeshiva University, the Rabbinical Council of America and the Orthodox Union will hold a “Siyum and Shloshim in Memory of Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm” on Sunday, June 28, at 9 pm. There will be a short feature film, “Rabbi Lamm in His Own Words: The Role of Torah in the Modern World,” followed by a siyum. The event will be live streamed at bit.ly/RabbiLammSiyum.
  • The Ayin Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies releases its second educational film bringing Torah and science together. “Quantum Torah with Alexander Poltorak II” is a short documentary about Torah and science that seeks to uncover parallels between Jewish tradition and quantum physics. The second episode in this series focuses on wave-particle duality as a metaphor for principles of KLAL (general) and PRAT (particular) – cornerstones of biblical hermeneutics, quantum-mechanical superposition. The film can be seen at https://youtu.be/nIoX7H8vQCA or on the YouTube Quantum Torah channel at www.youtube.com/c/QuantumTorah.

For additional resources, see previous issues of The Reporter on its website, www.thereportergroup.org.