This course is geared especially toward those with at least some Hebrew reading and comprehension ability who wish to dig in to some meaningful and beautiful Hebrew texts. We improve our Hebrew skills while we engage in rich learning. If you know only a little Hebrew, or even none at all, you are still welcome to come along for the ride.
One of the best ways to enrich one’s understanding of Judaism is to follow the Jewish calendar. Each Jewish holiday highlights a key aspect of Jewish life and history. The ancient holidays are layered with spiritual, historic and nature-related themes. These special days yield endless layers of meaning, personal, communal, and cosmic, and remain vibrant and vital to this day. The modern commemorations offer testimony to our living and evolving tradition, and draw our attention to modern Jewish history. All together, the holidays weave a fascinating tapestry of Jewish life.
Our course will traverse all of the Jewish springtime holidays and commemorations: Purim (March 24), Passover (April 22-30), Yom Hashoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day (May 5), Yom Ha’atzmaut – Israel Independence Day (May 12), Lag B’omer (May 26), and Shavuot (June 11-13). Participants are encouraged to sign up for the entire course to gain the most benefit, but drop-ins are welcome.
Come sing your hearts out and lift your spirits for a great weekend with Broadway musical actress and master teacher Carol Fox Prescott (Fiddler on the Roof, The Rothschilds, Pippin) and Rabbi Jonathan Kligler. We will be focusing on both classics and lesser-known songs from the American musical theater that speak deeply to the human condition. We will open our breath and expand our expressiveness with wonderfully effective vocal and acting exercises. We will enjoy a different kind of Shabbat service filled with popular songs that become our liturgy for the day. And in between we will explore the Jewish roots of Broadway. Open to all voices – joy guaranteed!
The High Holy Days call us to inward reflection and outward acts of reconciliation. With wise teachings from our tradition and honest conversation we will prime ourselves for a meaningful and potent New Year.
“How do I pray?” Prayer can be a powerful transformer of consciousness, and a tool for moving from isolation to life-giving connection, but only if we are taught how to do it. In this powerful course we are thrilled to bring in a variety of experts in different modalities of Jewish prayer: chant, melody, contemplation, movement, kavvanah (intention) and more. Each session will open another doorway into meaningful techniques and experiences of Jewish prayer, while revealing the deep structure and purpose of the prayer service.
This course is geared especially toward those with at least some Hebrew reading and comprehension ability who wish to dig in to some meaningful and beautiful Hebrew texts. We improve our Hebrew skills while we engage in rich learning. If you know only a little Hebrew, or even none at all, you are still welcome to come along for the ride.
So many of us long to move beyond longstanding suspicion and defensiveness and toward an open and frank conversation about Judaism and Christianity. Rabbi Jonathan Kligler and Reverend Matthew Wright bring a refreshing honesty and openness to our exploration of where Judaism and Christianity meet, and where we differ.
The controversial recent Israeli elections have placed the direction of Israel, both ideologically and politically, very much in the news. “Zionism” has become a flashpoint in the war of words about the nature of the Jewish State, and an examination of the history and changing meaning of Zionism is in order. Zionism was conceived in the late 19th century as the national liberation movement of the Jewish People. During the 20th century the Zionist movement achieved its outrageously unlikely dream of establishing the State of Israel as an independent Jewish nation in the Land of Israel, the Jewish ancestral homeland. But what does it mean to be a Zionist now in the early 21st century?
The traditional Passover Haggadah was designed to elicit questions about what it means to be free. We will explore several sections of the Haggadah and elicit our own most burning questions in 5775/2015.
These classes are being offered through the Lev Shalem Institute of the Woodstock Jewish Congregation. For more information and registration contact the institute.