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Peretz Wolf-Prusan’s Talmud Circle is a group of students who meet once a month to read the Talmud closely and argue about what it says. Each session works through a passage together, line by line, with plenty of room for questions and disagreement. You don’t need any experience with Talmud. Many participants return year after year, and newcomers join every fall. The Circle meets monthly on Sunday mornings from 10am to noon, alternating between the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco and the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto, with a Zoom option available at every session. The year concludes with a celebratory siyum (culmination) in June. Who this is for: Learners at any level, including those who have never opened a page of Talmud Returning members continuing their study Anyone, of any background, curious about rabbinic literature, Jewish law, and the way the rabbis argued What you'll leave with: Growing ease with the structure, language, and reasoning of a Talmudic passage A year of conversation with the same group of fellow learners Nine Sundays at 10am–noon: October 4 (JCCSF) November 8 (OFJCC, Palo Alto) December 6 (JCCSF) January 3 (OFJCC, Palo Alto) February 7 (JCCSF) March 7 (OFJCC, Palo Alto) April 4 (JCCSF) May 2 (OFJCC, Palo Alto) The siyum (Culmination) with both Talmud Circles will take place at the JCC San Francisco on Sunday, June 6 at 10am–noon Pacific Time. Questions? Our FAQ covers registration, recordings of missed sessions, refunds, and financial assistance.

Most of us picture Judaism and Christianity as two distinct religions from the moment Christianity appeared. For several centuries the two were entangled, overlapping, and often hard to tell apart. This course follows their shared history from the Babylonian exile in 586 BCE to the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE. We begin with the rebuilding of Jewish life after the exile and the upheavals that followed: Hellenism, the Hasmonean revolt, and the arrival of Rome and Herod. We then turn to the many Second Temple “Judaisms,” the sects, movements, prophets, and revolutionaries among whom Jesus of Nazareth lived and taught, and to the Jewish revolts of 66–73 and 132–135 CE, which reshaped Jewish life and hastened the rise of both rabbinic Judaism and the early Jesus movement. The final sessions follow the two traditions as they move apart. On one side are the codification of the Mishnah and the beginnings of rabbinic Judaism; on the other, the Jesus movement through persecution, martyrdom, and fights over orthodoxy and heresy, up to Constantine and the Church as an imperial institution. Drawing on recent scholarship, including the work of Daniel Boyarin, we’ll see how long the ties between the two communities lasted and how each came to define itself, and be defined, as separate from the other. Who this is for: Anyone curious how Judaism and Christianity began and how they separated Readers interested in Second Temple Judaism, the historical Jesus, or early rabbinic Judaism Anyone who assumes the two were always separate religions and would like to see that assumption tested What you'll leave with: An outline of Jewish history from the Babylonian exile to the Mishnah A picture of Jesus of Nazareth within the Jewish world of his time An account of when Judaism and Christianity became separate religions and who drew the lines between them Four Mondays: October 5, [12], 19, 26, and November 2, 7–8:30pm Pacific Note: Due to technical difficulties, the class on October 12 was postponed, and one more session has been added to the course. Questions? Our FAQ covers registration, recordings of missed sessions, refunds, and financial assistance.

For more than fifty years, a group of Bay Area readers has started the weekend the same way: by sitting down with a few chapters of a very old book and arguing about them. The group has outlasted changes of name, venue, and medium, and it now meets on Zoom with participants from around the Bay and beyond. Each week someone different leads the conversation. It might be a rabbi one week, a historian or Bible scholar the next, a poet, an artist, or a longtime member of the group. The starting point is always that week’s Torah portion. Where the hour goes from there depends on who is teaching and who is present. A session might stay with a single verse. Another might follow a passage through medieval commentators and modern novelists, or ask what an ancient law code has to say about an argument happening right now. The group works the way the original Lehrhaus in 1920s Frankfurt hoped learning would: as a conversation among equals, with the teacher as one voice at the table. No background, belief, or Hebrew is required. Friday Morning Torah Study is free and open to everyone, so please consider a donation to New Lehrhaus at checkout to help keep it that way .

Two hundred fifty years ago, American revolutionaries reached for the words of the Hebrew Bible to make their case for independence. The phrase engraved on the Liberty Bell itself, "Proclaim Liberty throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof," comes directly from the Book of Leviticus. In this course, we'll trace how biblical texts including Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy shaped the political imagination of the Revolutionary generation, from sermons and pamphlets to the imagery Franklin and Jefferson proposed for the Great Seal of the United States. We’ll also go back roughly 2,500 years to ask what these passages meant when they were written: who wrote them, why, and what ideas of liberty, covenant, and peoplehood they carried for ancient Israel. Who this is for: Anyone interested in the Hebrew Bible’s place in American history Readers curious how ancient texts get reinterpreted across centuries No prior Bible study needed What you'll leave with: A close reading of key passages in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy in their ancient context An understanding of how Revolutionary-era sermons and pamphlets used those passages, down to the proposals for the Great Seal Nine Sundays: October 11, 18, 25, November 1, 8, 15, 22, December 6 & 13, 5:15–6:45pm Pacific Time Questions? Our FAQ covers registration, recordings of missed sessions, refunds, and financial assistance.

Deena Aranoff's Talmud Circle is a group of learners who meet once a month to read the Talmud closely and argue about what it says. Each session works through a passage together, line by line, with plenty of room for questions and disagreement. You don’t need any experience with Talmud. Many participants return year after year, and newcomers join every fall. The Circle meets monthly on Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 8:30pm, at the East Bay Jewish Community Campus in Oakland, with a Zoom option available at every session. The year concludes with a celebratory siyum (culmination) on Sunday, June 6. Who this is for: Learners at any level, including those who have never opened a page of Talmud Returning members continuing their study Anyone, of any background, curious about rabbinic literature, Jewish law, and the way the rabbis argued What you'll leave with: Growing ease with the structure, language, and reasoning of a Talmudic passage A year of conversation with the same group of fellow learners Eight Wednesdays: October 14 November 4 December 2 January 6 February 3 March 3 April 7 May 5 6:30–8:30pm Pacific Time The siyum (Culmination) will take place at the JCC San Francisco on Sunday, June 6 at 10am–noon Pacific Time. Questions? Our FAQ covers registration, recordings of missed sessions, refunds, and financial assistance.

Where is a stateless culture at home? Yiddish is the language of one of the largest and longest-lasting diasporic cultures in the world, often defined by its lack of a homeland. But what if Yiddish speakers, artists, and writers did feel at home in diaspora, whether in a town their family had lived in for generations or a new city they'd just arrived in, an at-homeness with no claim to sovereignty or state? This course explores four spaces of Yiddish life and writing: Dos Shtetl (The Town) · Market days and mud, but also railways, factory work, political argument, and people planning their departure. Generally rooftop-fiddler-free Di Shtot (The City) · Where millions went, wandering busy streets where technology, politics, economics, and art combined into new and disorienting possibilities Der Hoyf (The Courtyard) · The urban courtyard that defined local life across central and eastern Europe, and reappeared as far away as Buenos Aires Di Svive (The Natural World) · The forests of Belarus, the steppes of Siberia, the mountains of Quebec and New York,where writers turned their attention from people to landscape Through close reading, discussion, and weekly writing prompts, the course asks what these spaces can teach about diasporic belonging and the meaning of home without a state. Who this is for: Readers curious about Yiddish literature, Jewish diaspora history, or modern Jewish culture Anyone interested in place, migration, and belonging in literature What you'll leave with: A map of Yiddish literature's key imaginative geographies: the shtetl, the city, the courtyard, the natural world Firsthand familiarity with major modern Yiddish writers in translation Your own short pieces of writing from the course's weekly prompts Readings include Avrom Karpinowitz, Moyshe Kulbak, Mendel Mann, Anna Margolin, Mimi Pinzon, Fradl Shtok, Avrom Sutzkever, Miriam Ulinover, and more, all in English translation. No prior knowledge of Yiddish required. Four Thursdays: October 15, 22, 29 and November 5 at 12–1:15pm Pacific Time Questions? Our FAQ covers registration, recordings of missed sessions, refunds, and financial assistance.

For more than two millennia, thriving Jewish communities made their homes across Iraq, speaking distinctive Jewish varieties of Arabic. Judeo-Baghdadi Arabic, also known as Yahudic, developed among the Jews of Baghdad and the towns to its south, preserving ancient linguistic features alongside Hebrew and Aramaic elements that set it apart from the Arabic spoken by their Muslim and Christian neighbors. After the mass emigration of Iraqi Jews in the mid-twentieth century, the language began its rapid decline. Today it is critically endangered. This six-session course is built around everyday Baghdadi Jewish life. Each session takes up a theme, so the words you learn come with their cultural setting. You’ll learn the distinctive sounds of the language, greetings and conversational formulas, and how to talk about family and work, food and drink, and the holidays. The last session covers proverbs, colorful expressions, and yes, the swear words. Who this is for: Anyone curious about the Jewish languages of the Middle East Students of Iraqi Jewish history and culture Anyone with Iraqi Jewish roots who wants to connect with the language of their family Learners who have taken New Lehrhaus’s other Jewish language courses. What you'll leave with: The sounds and basic vocabulary of Judeo-Baghdadi Arabic, with greetings and phrases you can use An understanding of the Hebrew and Aramaic elements that set it apart from the Arabic of Baghdad’s Muslim and Christian neighbors No prior knowledge of Arabic or Hebrew is required. Schedule: Six Sundays: October 18 and 25; November 1, 8, 15, and 22, 11:30am–1pm Pacific Time Questions? Our FAQ covers registration, recordings of missed sessions, refunds, and financial assistance.

This intermediate, in-person Yiddish course uses physical movement, conversation, texts, and media to explore how Yiddish describes bodies in motion and talks about sports, exercise, and physical activity. The course is conducted entirely in Yiddish and assumes proficiency with the alef-beys. There will be some physical movement during class, but it's a course for every kind of body. Who this is for: Intermediate learners who already read, write, speak, and understand some Yiddish Students who want a face-to-face class Anyone who learns better by moving than by sitting still What you'll leave with: The vocabulary to take part in, or lead, a movement class in Yiddish Stronger reading and listening skills, built on Yiddish writing and media about exercise from different eras, movements, and places Nine Mondays: October 19, 26; November 2, 9, 16, 23, 30; December 7, 14, 5:30–7pm Pacific Time Questions? Our FAQ covers registration, recordings of missed sessions, refunds, and financial assistance.

Conversations about antisemitism often go badly. Some build understanding; others leave people feeling isolated. Why do arguments that persuade within the Jewish community so often fail outside it, and can familiar approaches make understanding harder? How can people talk about Jewish identity, Israel, Zionism, and antisemitism without every conversation turning into a fight? This two-session online workshop works through real situations from schools, workplaces, civic organizations, and everyday relationships. Participants will look at where people agree and where they genuinely disagree, and practice responses that invite curiosity without minimizing legitimate Jewish concerns. The workshop is open to Jewish and non-Jewish participants alike. Underneath it is one question: can relationships across political, religious, and communal divides make Jews safer, and how do we reach people who see the world differently? Who this is for: Anyone who has struggled to answer a hard question about antisemitism, Israel, or Zionism People addressing antisemitism in schools, workplaces, or community organizations Non-Jewish friends and colleagues who want to know how to help What you'll leave with: Ways to answer hard questions that keep the conversation open A clearer sense of where people agree and disagree about when criticism of Israel or Zionism becomes antisemitism Practice with responses that don’t ask Jews to minimize their own experience Two Wednesdays: October 21 & 28, 6–7:30pm Pacific Time Questions? Our FAQ covers registration, recordings of missed sessions, refunds, and financial assistance.

J. Robert Oppenheimer led the scientific work at Los Alamos, helped bring about the atomic age, and later became one of the best-known victims of the Red Scare. In Robert Oppenheimer: The Sphinx Without a Secret, his new biography in Yale University Press’s Jewish Lives series, David Rieff looks past the public story to Oppenheimer’s inner life: his childhood, his personal relationships, and his deeply ambivalent relation to being Jewish. Rieff joins Steve Wasserman, publisher of Heyday Books and former editor-at-large for Yale University Press, to talk about the man behind the legend and why Oppenheimer still fascinates more than eighty years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Image: Ben Shahn, Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, 1954. © 2026 Estate of Ben Shahn / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Who this is for Anyone who wants more of Oppenheimer’s story than the recent film told Readers curious how his Jewish background shaped him What you'll leave with A fuller picture of Oppenheimer’s inner life, from childhood on The chance to put your own questions to the author Sunday, October 25, 1:30–3pm Pacific Time Questions? Our FAQ covers registration, recordings of missed sessions, refunds, and financial assistance.

What happens when a novelist writes himself into his own novel, then sends a double to impersonate him in Jerusalem? That’s the premise of Philip Roth’s 1993 novel Operation Shylock , set during the First Intifada and the Jerusalem trial of John Demjanjuk. The book brings Jewish powerlessness and Israeli power face to face, and it keeps blurring fiction and fact, memory and history. In this reading circle we’ll look at how Roth uses fiction to get at “the truth,” how the novel has aged, and what it means to read it now. Who this is for Readers of Philip Roth and twentieth-century American Jewish fiction Anyone interested in how fiction has handled Israel, the First Intifada, and Holocaust memory First-time readers and rereaders alike What you'll leave with A close, discussion-based reading of the novel A sense of how Roth uses doubles and unreliable narration to write about Jewish identity Four Wednesdays: October 28, November 4, 11 and 18, 12:30–1:30pm Pacific Time Questions? Our FAQ covers registration, recordings of missed sessions, refunds, and financial assistance.

We often refer to Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages as "the Rabbinic Period," on account of the massive literary production of the rabbis, including the two Talmuds and many midrashic works. But there is a wide-ranging and rich Jewish history known from Latin, Greek, Syriac, and Arabic sources that is entirely ignored in rabbinic literature.These non-Jewish sources offer glimpses into Jewish history, but they are few and often hostile to Jews. How can the historian separate real historical Jews from the symbolic Jews conjured out of Christian and Muslim theological prejudice? In this course, Fred Astren (San Francisco State University) takes up that question, telling stories the rabbis did not tell. Who this is for: Readers interested in Jewish history beyond the rabbinic and Talmudic sources Anyone curious how Jews appear in Greek, Latin, Syriac, and Arabic historical sources Students of Late Antiquity, the early medieval world, or Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations What you'll leave with: Familiarity with how Jews are depicted in Christian and Muslim historical writing Tools for evaluating historically biased or theologically motivated sources A sharper sense of the line between historical Jews and symbolic ones Four Thursdays: October 29, November 5, 12, and 19, 6–7:30pm Pacific Time Questions? Our FAQ covers registration, recordings of missed sessions, refunds, and financial assistance.

Haberes buenos (good news): New Lehrhaus has a brand-new Ladino course! Ladino, the Judeo-Spanish language of the Sephardim, grew out of the languages of fifteenth-century Iberia. For the next five centuries it developed apart from Spanish, in close contact with Turkish, Arabic, Greek, and the other languages of the Mediterranean and the Balkans. This course will ground itself in Sephardic history and culture and will also get you speaking right away. We will primarily be learning the Istanbul dialect of Ladino, but you will learn to recognize other varieties. What You’ll Learn: the socio-historical context of Ladino (where does it come from? who speaks it today?) the sounds of Ladino and pronunciation how to read Ladino in its contemporary Latin-based script greetings and introductions regular and irregular verbs in the present tense basic sentence construction simple conversation about everyday topics how to build an at-home Ladino "language nest"! Bring Ladino into your daily life with our Ladino en Kaza (Ladino at Home) kits! Each boxed Ladino en Kaza (Ladino at Home) kit holds about 30 prompt cards that guide you through everyday activities in Ladino, from washing your hands to making breakfast. Kits are mailed to your home after you register. Who this is for: Anyone interested in learning Ladino, exploring Sephardic history and culture, and beginning to speak and read this unique Judeo-Spanish language. No pre-existing knowledge of Spanish, Hebrew, or Judaism is required. What you'll leave with: Basic Ladino reading, writing, and conversation skills, an understanding of the language’s history and varieties Tools for practicing Ladino at home with the Ladino en Kaza kit. Six Sundays: November 1, 8, 15, and 22; December 6 and 13, 10–11:30am Pacific Time Course will not meet Thanksgiving Week (November 29) Questions? Our FAQ covers registration, recordings of missed sessions, refunds, and financial assistance.

Erich Gruen (UC Berkeley), has spent decades studying Jews in the Greco-Roman world, and much of his work questions popular assumptions about Jewish isolation, religious purity, and political resistance in antiquity. In four sessions he takes up some of the most debated episodes in ancient Jewish history. Each session takes on a question that has divided scholars and puzzled general readers alike: Were Jews in antiquity accused of ritual murder, the charge later known as blood libel? Did they reject Greek mythology as incompatible with their traditions, or engage with it in surprising ways? And what is the history behind Hanukkah? Who this is for Anyone curious about Jews in the ancient world Students of classical antiquity who want to go past the standard accounts Anyone who has wondered where Hanukkah comes from What you'll leave with Answers to four contested questions about ancient Jewish history, and the evidence behind them A way of telling historical evidence apart from later myth-making Four Sundays: November 1, 8, 15, and 22, 2–3:30pm Pacific Time Questions? Our FAQ covers registration, recordings of missed sessions, refunds, and financial assistance.

California has passed a law requiring state agencies that collect ancestry or ethnicity data to include a separate category for Jewish ancestry or ethnicity beginning in 2029. What changes when the state counts Jews as an ethnic group? The panel brings together Ari Y. Kelman, director of the Berman Archive at Stanford; Keith Feldman, professor of ethnic studies at UC Berkeley; Aliya Saperstein, professor of sociology at Stanford; and David Bocarsly of Jewish California, who helped draft Senate Bill 1387 . Asaf Elia-Shalev, editor in chief of J. The Jewish News of Northern California , moderates. After the panel, each table continues the conversation with a facilitator. Presented with J. and cosponsored by Stanford’s Taube Center for Jewish Studies, the Berman Archive, and the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. Who this is for: Anyone curious how governments define and count Jewish identity Californians who want to know what SB 1387 does Anyone who would rather join a small-group conversation than listen to a lecture What you'll leave with: A clear account of what SB 1387 changes in how California collects demographic data Several views on whether, and how, Jewishness works as an ethnic category Monday, November 2, 5:30–7pm Pacific Time Questions? Our FAQ covers registration, recordings of missed sessions, refunds, and financial assistance.

Fewer than 1,000 people still speak Haketia. Work with native speakers to record and study the language, and add to its permanent record.

Founded in the Russian Empire in 1897, the Jewish Labor Bund became one of the most influential Jewish political movements in Eastern Europe. The Bund was secular, socialist, and rooted in the principle of doikayt , or “hereness”: the belief that Jews should fight for dignity and equality in the countries where they lived. It played a major role in Jewish political and cultural life before the Second World War. Most of its members were murdered in the Holocaust, and the movement itself was largely erased from popular memory. What, if anything, does the Bund’s legacy offer American Jewish life today? In this four-session reading group, we’ll explore that question through Molly Crabapple’s new book, Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund , together with supplementary materials. We’ll consider the Bund’s history, its vision of solidarity and Jewish life in the diaspora, and why its ideas still provoke argument. Who this is for: Readers interested in modern Jewish history and politics Anyone curious about Jewish socialism and secular Jewish culture Readers who enjoy discussing a new book in a group What you'll leave with A grounding in the Bund’s history and its idea of doikayt A discussion of what, if anything, the Bund offers American Jewish life today Four Fridays: November 6, 13, 20, December 4, 12–1pm Pacific Time Questions? Our FAQ covers registration, recordings of missed sessions, refunds, and financial assistance.

Bukharian, Kavkazi (Mountain), and Georgian Jews have lived in Central Asia and the Caucasus for many centuries, and their histories touch the Sephardic, Mizrahi, and Russian-speaking Jewish worlds at once. This three-session course introduces each community in turn and explores the multilayered, millennia-old stories of these communities. Who this is for: Anyone curious about the Jewish communities of Central Asia and the Caucasus Readers interested in Sephardic, Mizrahi, and Russian-speaking Jewish identity What you'll leave with: An introduction to the history of each community A sense of how they relate to the Sephardic, Mizrahi, and Russian-speaking Jewish worlds Three Tuesdays: November 10, 17 and 24, 6–7:30pm Pacific Time Questions? Our FAQ covers registration, recordings of missed sessions, refunds, and financial assistance.

Join New Lehrhaus at Berkeley Repertory Theatre for Liberation , Bess Wohl’s play about feminism, memory, and social change. Set partly in 1970s Ohio, the play follows a group of women who meet in a recreation-center basement to imagine new possibilities for their lives. Decades later, the daughter of one of them returns to that history and its hopes, conflicts, and unanswered questions. The Berkeley Rep production, directed by Whitney White, comes to the Bay Area after an acclaimed Broadway run. We’ll gather before the performance for a short introduction to the play and its historical context, then again afterward to talk about what we saw. Who this is for: Theatergoers interested in women’s history and the women’s liberation movement Anyone who enjoys seeing a play with a group and talking about it afterward What you'll leave with: Historical context for the women’s liberation movement before the curtain goes up A post-show conversation with fellow New Lehrhaus participants Please note: Because this special program includes a discounted ticket to a Berkeley Rep performance, New Lehrhaus members will pay only the discounted cost of the theater ticket. Nonmembers will pay the full program fee of $72. Tuesday, November 10, 6:30–10pm Pacific Time Questions? Our FAQ covers registration, recordings of missed sessions, refunds, and financial assistance.

Twenty years ago, historian Cheryl Lynn Greenberg published Troubling the Waters: Black-Jewish Relations in the American Century, a landmark study of the complicated political relationship between Black and Jewish Americans. Challenging both the nostalgic idea of a seamless Black-Jewish alliance and the notion that the relationship simply collapsed, Greenberg traced a history in which cooperation and conflict, shared political goals and competing interests, were intertwined from the beginning. Two decades later, Greenberg returns to Troubling the Waters to ask what has changed, what has endured, and how the history looks from the vantage point of today. What can the past tell us about Black-Jewish relations now, and does the idea of a Black-Jewish alliance still help us understand the political relationship between the two communities? Who this is for Anyone interested in the history of Black-Jewish relations in America, beyond the simplified alliance-or-collapse narrative Readers of Troubling the Waters looking to hear from the author directly, twenty years on Those thinking about coalition politics and how shared and competing interests shape relationships between communities over time What you'll leave with Greenberg’s account of how cooperation and conflict between Black and Jewish Americans were intertwined from the start Her view of what has changed in twenty years, and whether the idea of an alliance still helps explain the present Two Wednesdays: November 11 & 18, 6–7:30pm Pacific Questions? Our FAQ covers registration, recordings of missed sessions, refunds, and financial assistance.

For decades, the children's house stood at the heart of the kibbutz movement's vision of communal education: from infancy through the teen years, children lived and slept there, apart from their parents, as an expression of the movement's founding ideals. Communal sleeping for younger children began to disappear in the 1970s and was gone by the 1990s, although some kibbutzim still maintain separate communal housing for teenagers. For those who lived it, the experience, especially at night, could be exhilarating or deeply traumatizing, and its legacy still shapes how many Israelis think about family, community, and child-rearing. In three weekly sessions, we'll explore the children’s house through literature and film: short stories including work by Amos Oz, memoir excerpts, selections from Bruno Bettelheim's Children of the Dream, and the documentary Children of the Sun. Who this is for: Anyone curious about Israeli history and the social experiments of the kibbutz movement Readers interested in Israeli literature, including the work of Amos Oz. Former kibbutz volunteers who want to revisit that experience through a new lens Anyone interested in the psychology of child-rearing and alternative models of family life What you'll leave with: Discussion of stories by Amos Oz and others, memoirs, Bettelheim’s Children of the Dream , and the documentary Children of the Sun A sense of how growing up in the children’s house shaped the people who lived it Three Mondays: November 16, 23, and 30, 7–8:30pm Pacific Time Questions? Our FAQ covers registration, recordings of missed sessions, refunds, and financial assistance.

Ladino music records the history of the Sephardic world: melodies that joined medieval Jewish liturgy with the Christian and Muslim music of Iberia, then traveled after 1492 to North Africa, Europe, and above all the Ottoman Empire, taking on new influences along the way. The course gives one session each to the genres at the center of Sephardic life: romansas (narrative ballads), kantikas (lyrical songs), and the historical poems and liturgical hymns known as coplas and piyyutim . Throughout, we’ll look at how oral transmission, community identity, and gender shaped each tradition, from medieval Iberia to today’s revival. Session 1: The Narrative Tradition (Romansas) Ballads that began with Iberian street minstrels had spread through Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Spain by the fifteenth century. We’ll listen to romansas sung mostly by women and see how Sephardic communities reshaped their themes of loyalty, honor, and exile to reflect Jewish life. Session 2: Life Cycle and Song (Kantikas) Kantikas , the tradition’s lyrical popular songs, took shape under Mediterranean and Balkan influence from the late nineteenth century on. Sung mostly by women, they cover love, family, weddings, lullabies, and laments, along with songs for the life cycle and the holidays. Session 3: Faith and Identity ( Coplas and Piyyutim ) These two genres were performed by men. Coplas , composed by rabbis and scholars across the Ottoman Empire, taught Jewish history and ethics and chronicled real events such as plagues and political upheavals. Sephardic piyyutim , rooted in the Golden Age of medieval Spain, are sung in Hebrew and form the core of synagogue worship. Who this is for Anyone interested in Sephardic history, Jewish music, or the Ladino language and its revival Students of Jewish liturgy and poetry curious about Sephardic traditions of coplas and piyyutim Readers and singers drawn to the oral and folk traditions of the Mediterranean and Ottoman worlds What you'll leave with A grounding in the history of Ladino music from medieval Iberia through the Ottoman Empire to its modern revival Familiarity with the three core genres of Sephardic song An understanding of how gender, oral transmission, and community identity shaped this tradition over centuries Three Wednesdays: November 25, December 2 and 9, 1–2:30pm Pacific Time Questions? Our FAQ covers registration, recordings of missed sessions, refunds, and financial assistance.

This four-session course introduces Sigmund Freud’s thought through his 1905 book Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious . The book is full of jokes from the world of Freud’s father: Jewish Central Europe rather than cosmopolitan Vienna, a land of matchmakers, schnorrers, and ambivalence about assimilation. We will focus on Freud's own texts in order to understand him as a Jewish thinker hoping to operate in a universalistic scientific idiom, trying to produce a science of the mind out of the material of Jewish experience. We will, of course, think about the jokes themselves, and about what they do for us. Freud said they provide "victory," but he never said over what, leaving us to answer that question for ourselves. Who this is for: Anyone curious about Freud's Jewish background and how it shaped his thought Readers interested in Jewish humor, jokes, and Central European Jewish culture Students of psychoanalysis, Freud, or the history of ideas Anyone who enjoys close reading; no background required What you'll leave with: A close reading of Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious A way of reading Freud as a Jewish thinker as well as a “universal” scientist Your own answer to Freud’s open question: what victory do jokes provide? Four Tuesdays: December December 1, 8, 15, and 22, 1–2:30pm Pacific Time Questions? Our FAQ covers registration, recordings of missed sessions, refunds, and financial assistance.

Avot Yeshurun (1904–1992) is one of modern Hebrew literature's most singular and disorienting voices. He was a poet who insisted Hebrew carry what it could barely hold: the diasporic weight of Yiddish and Arabic, and the ongoing presence of the dead among the living. Writing against the grain of the modern Hebrew literary establishment, Yeshurun forged an iconoclastic, idiosyncratic poetics that unsettles any clear border between languages, generations, and homelands. In this three-session course, we'll enter Yeshurun's work through close attention to key poems in translation, alongside prose selections that illuminate his relationship to language mixing, translation, memory, and catastrophe. No prior familiarity with Yeshurun or Hebrew poetry is required, just a willingness to sit with the difficulty, strangeness, and resonant ghosts that his poetry hosts. Who this is for: Readers curious about modern Hebrew poetry, Israeli literature, or twentieth-century Jewish writing Anyone interested in translation, multilingualism, and diaspora in literature Students of Hebrew literature, Yiddish studies, or Jewish intellectual history What you'll leave with: Close familiarity with key poems and prose by Avot Yeshurun, in translation A framework for reading Yeshurun's hybrid Hebrew-Yiddish-Arabic poetics A deeper understanding of how modern Hebrew literature grapples with memory, loss, and catastrophe Three Wednesdays: December 2, 9, and 16, 6–7:30pm Pacific Time Questions? Our FAQ covers registration, recordings of missed sessions, refunds, and financial assistance.

Why did so many Jews in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries become revolutionaries? Ask the question in New York or Warsaw and you get one set of answers. In Baghdad, Casablanca, or Tehran, the story changes. Radical Jewish Politics: A Global Perspective, a new volume from Rutgers University Press, starts in the Middle East and North Africa, with Jewish communists in Iraq and Egypt and anticolonial fighters in Algeria and Tunisia, and zooms out to Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, and the Soviet Union. What emerges is a history of Jews who wanted to remake the world and, just as much, to find a place in it. Communism, anarchism, and anticolonial nationalism all promised that place, and all of them, sooner or later, exacted a price: prison, exile, or Jewishness itself. Editors Nathaniel Deutsch and Alma Heckman of UC Santa Cruz and Tony Michels of the University of Wisconsin–Madison join us to talk about what this new global view reveals. Who this is for: Anyone interested in modern Jewish history beyond Europe and the United States Readers curious about Jewish communists, anarchists, and anticolonial activists What you'll leave with: A look at Jewish radicals in Iraq, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Argentina, and Brazil and how local conditions shaped their choices The chance to put your questions to the volume’s three editors Monday, December 7, 6–7:30pm Pacific Time Questions? Our FAQ covers registration, recordings of missed sessions, refunds, and financial assistance.

Complete our full Hebrew 1 curriculum in just four weeks! Beginning December 14, this accelerated course uses Prayerbook Hebrew the Easy Way and combines eight recorded lessons with four live online study sessions with the instructor. Two recorded lessons are released each week, allowing you to work through the material on your own schedule, while the weekly live sessions give you a chance to ask questions, review what you’ve learned, and get additional guidance. Because the main instruction takes place in the recorded lessons, the live sessions are designed as brief weekly check-ins rather than full class meetings. By the end of the course, you’ll be ready to continue directly into Hebrew 2 in January. Who this is for: Learners ready to complete most of the Hebrew 1 coursework through recorded lessons, with a short live session each week Hebrew 1 students who would like a concentrated review before beginning Hebrew 2 in January What you'll leave with: Completion of the full Hebrew 1 curriculum in just four weeks The ability to read basic prayerbook and biblical Hebrew texts A solid grasp of the Hebrew alphabet, vowels, and foundational vocabulary Readiness to continue directly into Hebrew 2 in January Required text: Prayerbook Hebrew the Easy Way, available at Afikomen Judaica in Berkeley and other outlets. Recorded lessons: Two each week, released December 14, 21, and 28 and January 4. Live study sessions: Sundays, December 20 and 27 and January 3 and 10, 7–7:30pm Pacific Time, online. Questions? Our FAQ covers registration, recordings of missed sessions, refunds, and financial assistance.

Lomir redn yidish, let's speak Yiddish! This beginner Yiddish course is designed for students with little or no prior Yiddish who want to learn to speak, read, and write the language. Using the In Eynem textbook alongside authentic Yiddish songs, games, and media, you'll build a practical foundation in Yiddish conversation, vocabulary, grammar, and culture. You'll learn the Yiddish alphabet (alef-beys) in both print and cursive, introduce yourself and others, make everyday small talk, and describe your daily routine, all while exploring Yiddish culture past and present. Who this is for: Beginners with little or no Yiddish (including Duolingo learners ready to go further) Hebrew and German speakers who want to build on what they know What you'll leave with Reading and writing the alef-beys in print and cursive Introducing yourself, making small talk, and describing your day in Yiddish A first acquaintance with Yiddish songs, games, and media 15 sessions, Tuesdays and Thursdays: October 20, 22, 27, and 29; November 3, 5, 17, 19, and 24; December 1, 3, 8, 10, 15, and 17, 5:30–7pm Pacific Time (No class November 10, 12, or 26.) Questions? Our FAQ covers registration, recordings of missed sessions, refunds, and financial assistance.