Doikayt, or "hereness" in Yiddish, has recently emerged as a central concept for Jewish critics of Zionism and proponents of Diaspora Nationalism. While many cite its historical importance to the Jewish Labor Bund, the true origins of the term remain widely misunderstood. This online lecture exploring Jewish political history presents new research into the roots of the Bundist ideology. We will propose an alternative origin for doikayt that challenges modern interpretations and forces a ret... Read more

Haberes buenos (good news): you’re invited to join New Lehrhaus’s brand-new Ladino course! This six-session course offers an introduction to Ladino, the Judeo-Spanish language whose evolution traces the very history of the Sephardic people. With roots in 15th-century languages of the Iberian Peninsula, Ladino has spent the past five centuries evolving separately from Spanish and in close contact with languages of the Mediterranean, especially Turkish, Arabic, Greek, and other Balkan ... Read more

We know the story of Purim as a classic narrative of good and evil with a triumphant ending: "Now let's eat!" — but the narrative is worthy of a closer reading. The biblical book is a bawdy, sometimes slap-stick, sometimes serious work of fiction which conceals and reveals its purpose and meanings while giving us insights into the fantasies and reality of the Jewish world of its creators. We will read and discus... Read more

Join New Lehrhaus director Dr. Robby Adler Peckerar for an online discussion of Steven J. Zipperstein's groundbreaking literary biography of Philip Roth one of America's most celebrated writers. Drawing on extensive archival materials and over one hundred interviews—including conversations with Roth himself—Zipperstein explores the unprecedented range of Roth's work, from Goodbye, Columbus and Portnoy's Complaint to the Pulitzer Prize–winning American Pastoral, placing his wri... Read more

Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel (1524-1609)—the Maharal of Prague—is famous for the Golem legend, but his actual philosophical and theological system is far more complex and daring than the myth suggests. Together, we will explore selections from the Maharal’s prolific writings, examining his ideas about language, Torah study, the nature of time, and the relationship between the divine and the material world. The Maharal's unique blend of rationalism and mysticism has much to offer the modern ... Read more