These preparatory lectures for a New Lehrhaus/Tiyul Jewish Journeys September trip are open to anyone interested in the history of the region, not just trip participants.

Fred Rosenbaum will describe the millennia-long importance of the Rhine River to the economy, culture, and geopolitics of Western Europe with a focus on Frankfurt and the fraught Jewish experience in the region. The lecture will encompass medieval persecution and ghettoization, the ast... Read more

Freedom fighter, double agent, femme fatale—Tamar said she was all three. Decades after her death, a page she wrote in a diary from a Nazi-run women's camp reveals a hidden identity, leading her daughter on a global reckoning with secrets she took to her grave. 

The film uniquely addresses Holocaust sexual trauma and agency, and gives women survivors the platform to tell thei... Read more

Enjoy West Edge Opera's production before it opens! To prepare, watch sessions 1 and 2 of our winter program, "From the Page to the Stage: The Bible in Text and Opera". (Search for "stage" in our video library to call up the videos). Here's West Edge Opera's Trailer.

New Lehrhaus is co-presenting this heartfelt film which brings long-overdue recognition to Henrietta Szold, a Jewish American humanitarian whose legacy includes advocating for binational cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians. In Labors of Love, the filmmaker honors Szold's legacy and brings her story to life as a touching historical portrait as well as a roadmap for confronting the continued challenges of our... Read more

And Now Can Love Begin is an imagined memoir, ventriloquizing the author's parents, based on 100 love letters exchanged in Palestine from 1945-46. Join us as Rachel Biale describes a fascinating glimpse into an epistolary romance set just after WWII in Palestine by two Jewish refugees from Europe.

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Director Mark Streshinsky and renowned biblical scholar Ron Hendel explore Charpentier's David & Jonathan. From the power of Baroque opera to the theological dimensions of the biblical text, this event brings two perspectives of this relationship into dialog.

Join Professor Andrew Porwancher as he uncovers the close-knit and often surprising relationship between Theodore Roosevelt and the Jewish community. This lecture traces Roosevelt’s deep connection with the Jewish people at every step of his dazzling ascent. But it also reveals a man of contradictions whose checkered approach to Jewish issues was no less conflicted than the nation he led. Drawing on fresh research from his newest book, American Maccabee, Porwancher explores the compl... Read more

Each day reveals new developments and risks, and unanswered questions about the future. Veteran Haaretz journalist Bradley Burston will provide a briefing about the current situation and discuss possible scenarios for its unfolding.

Join us as Rabbi David Cooper discusses Burt Jacobson's search for the Baal Shem Tov. For three decades, between his radical political activism and his rabbinic responsibilities, Burt Jacobson, founder of Kehilla Synagogue, investigated and drafted notes on the teachings and life journey of the 18th-century founder of Hasidism, the Baal Shem Tov. Those notes became the 600-page Living in the Presence, published posthumously last year. Jacobson's own journey is a key eleme... Read more

Resistance to authoritarian, oppressive regimes is as old as those regimes themselves. We will examine the historical record for resistance efforts and movements around the world with particular emphasis on the ordeal and role of Jews, as victims and/or defiers.

Sessions will be recorded, so if you miss one you can find the recording in our video library the following day.... Read more

“Hear the gay shouts of liberation in the tents of the just!” (Psalm 118:15). Reciting the festival liturgy on Pride Shabbat was an important innovation—first celebrated at Congregation Beth Simchat Torah in New York in 1973—and so was this early gay-inclusive new translation of the psalm. This session, in honor of LGBTQ Pride, will e... Read more

"Jewish Peoplehood" has recently been the nom de jour in the Jewish community. What does Jewish Peoplehood actually mean? Is it a historical phenomenon, a demographic characterization, or a genetically transmitted set of traits? Our three distinguished presenters will examine the meaning, validity, and usefulness of this term.

Program in memo... Read more