Jewish Ideas to Change the World

A virtual, six-part series presented by Rabbi Dr. Darren Kleinberg About the Event: In this mini-course , we welcome back Valley Beit Midrash founder, Rabbi Darren Kleinberg, for a new encounter with the Torah. Commonly understood as a book of laws and stories, Rabbi Kleinberg will unlock new ways of reading through the words of Judaism’s foundational sacred text to unlock practices that can be in...

A virtual event presentation by Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins The event was co-sponsored by Rodef Shalom About The Event: The Judaism of the 21st century demands that we each become compelling and thrilling storytellers. Could you imagine a world without a creation narrative that experiences order in the universe, that looks at a rainbow and sees a promise of life, stories filled with real struggles of...

A virtual, six-part series presented by Rabbi Dr. Darren Kleinberg About the Event: In this mini-course , we welcome back Valley Beit Midrash founder, Rabbi Darren Kleinberg, for a new encounter with the Torah. Commonly understood as a book of laws and stories, Rabbi Kleinberg will unlock new ways of reading through the words of Judaism’s foundational sacred text to unlock practices that can be in...

A virtual event presentation by Rabbi Tali Adler About the Event: What did it look like to find God in the Warsaw Ghetto? How did one man make sense of the deepest human suffering while locating himself uncompromisingly within Jewish tradition? Join us as we study the Aish Kodesh, the Piacezna Rebbe’s weekly sermons delivered each Shabbat in the Warsaw Ghetto , and attempt to uncover how his Torah...

A virtual, six-part series presented by Rabbi Dr. Darren Kleinberg About the Event: In this mini-course , we welcome back Valley Beit Midrash founder, Rabbi Darren Kleinberg, for a new encounter with the Torah. Commonly understood as a book of laws and stories, Rabbi Kleinberg will unlock new ways of reading through the words of Judaism’s foundational sacred text to unlock practices that can be in...

Dr. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz (Dean of Valley Biet Midrash) interviews Rabbi Alexander Goldberg in London, England. Rabbi Alex Goldberg is the Dean of Religious Life and Belief at the University of Surrey leading a team of 25 from 8 world faiths and the humanist tradition serving a community of 22,000 staff and students. He is the only rabbi within this role in Europe and serves as the campus and lo...

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yankolwitz (Dean of Valley Beit Midrash) interviews Rabbi Tom Cohen in Paris, France. ★ Support this podcast ★

A virtual event presentation by Dr. Nathaniel Berman The event was co-hosted by Hebrew Educational Alliance About the Event: What can kabbalistic teachings contribute to a world in which rival claims to sacred land continue to cause such suffering? It is true that some kabbalistic teachings make such conflicts worse – bestowing specific sites with absolute value, making compromise impossible. Othe...

A virtual, six-part series presented by Rabbi Dr. Darren Kleinberg About the Event: In this mini-course , we welcome back Valley Beit Midrash founder, Rabbi Darren Kleinberg, for a new encounter with the Torah. Commonly understood as a book of laws and stories, Rabbi Kleinberg will unlock new ways of reading through the words of Judaism’s foundational sacred text to unlock practices that can be in...

A virtual event presentation by Rabbi Bezalel Naor The event was co-hosted by Beth El About the Event: Rav Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935) was a highly complex individual: legalist and philosopher, mystic and poet. In his role as Chief Rabbi of Eretz Israel (1921-1935), he emerged as a leader of world Jewry. Since his passing, Rav Kook’s literary legacy has exercised generations of scholars and thi...

A virtual, six-part series presented by Rabbi Dr. Darren Kleinberg About the Event: In this mini-course , we welcome back Valley Beit Midrash founder, Rabbi Darren Kleinberg, for a new encounter with the Torah. Commonly understood as a book of laws and stories, Rabbi Kleinberg will unlock new ways of reading through the words of Judaism’s foundational sacred text to unlock practices that can be in...

A virtual event presentation by Rabbi Jonathan Spira-Savett The event was co-sponsored by Congregation Or Tzion & BMH-BJ      About The Event: One of the most nuanced recent explorations of teshuvah is a television show that has been described as “the smartest, dumbest show on TV.” The Good Place follows four human beings whom we meet in a “neighborhood” of the afterlife supervised by two eter...

A virtual event presentation by Dr. Jonnie Schnytzer The event was co-sponsored by Congregation Or Tzion About the Event: The words of the Jewish prayer may be described as a confluence of the most personal of moments and the story of an entire nation. Diving into its pages we will learn of moments of faith and fears, moments of indescribable ecstasy and sheer suffering – moments that created pray...

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz (President and Dean of Valley Beit Midrash) interviews Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman .  . . Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman is president of the Shalom Hartman Institute and holds the Kaufman Family Chair in Jewish Philosophy. He is the author of the highly regarded 2016 book, Putting God Second: How to Save Religion from Itself, and is the host of “For Heaven’s Sake,” one of the...

A hybrid event (in-person and virtual) by Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman The event was co-hosted by Temple Solel About the Event:  Israel did not only establish the homeland of the Jewish people. It established the Jewish people as a people of power. This power, which enabled Israel’s survival, and was a primary source of attraction and identification with Israel, is increasingly becoming a source of c...

Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman is president of the Shalom Hartman Institute and holds the Kaufman Family Chair in Jewish Philosophy. He is the author of the highly regarded 2016 book, Putting God Second: How to Save Religion from Itself, and is the host of “For Heaven’s Sake,” one of the most popular Jewish podcasts in North America. Donniel is the founder of some of the most extensive education, train...

A virtual event presentation by Dr. Russ Linden The event was co-sponsored by Rodef Shalom About the Event: We Jews like to debate and argue – with each other, with our teachers, even with God. Indeed, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks ZT”L wrote that “God loves those who argue.”* Why? Because we mortals can’t see the entirety of an issue, so we need to hear another side. However, it’s one thing to debate and...

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz (President and Dean of Valley Beit Midrash) interviews Rabbi Mike Feuer.  Rav Mike Feuer is an educational entrepreneur, content creator, and spiritual counsellor who uses the power of story to teach and inspire. He is the host of the Jewish Story history podcast, co-author of The Age of Prophecy biblical fantasy series, and offers narrative therapy to people around the...

A hybrid event (in-person and virtual) by Rabbi Mike Feuer The event was co-sponsored by Temple Chai About the Event: Zionism was initially a small element of Jewish life in America, running at times counter to the mainstream. Israel’s independence forced a revolution on American Jews as well, and a new covenant with the state was stuck which placed Zionism at the base of American Jewish life. Thi...

A virtual event presentation by Rabbi Dr. Joshua Garroway The event was Co-Hosted by Temple Emanuel Denver About the Event: Ancient Jewish and Christian admirers of Plato struggled to reconcile the philosopher’s concept of creation with Genesis 1. This class explores how the Jewish philosopher, Philo, the Christian Gospel of John, and the midrash, Genesis Rabbah, understand creation in nearly iden...

A virtual event presentation by Rabbi Will Friedman The event was Co-Hosted by Temple Solel About the Event: The Jewish phrase “because of repairing the world” has become a widespread slogan for a commitment to a broad array of social justice causes. But many scholars and activists have cautioned that a phrase that can advocate anything can end up meaning nothing. A careful reappraisal of the rabb...

Rabbi Benjamin Berger, Vice President for Jewish Education and Experience Rabbi Ben Berger oversees Jewish and Israeli education at Hillel International, including three major priority areas: student experiences, educator development, and movement culture. Together these pillars of Hillel’s work center are Jewish learning and powerful Jewish experiences with the goal of growing the skills, knowled...

A virtual event presentation by Rabbi Adina Lewittes Event Co-Sponsored by Temple Emanuel About the Event: Cultural and environmental trends of the 21st century are raising important challenges to long-accepted notions of Kevod Hamet (“respect for the deceased”) in the way we handle bodies after death. Are our assumptions around the requirements for burial grounded in our sacred texts? Is burial r...

A virtual event presentation by Dr. Jonnie Schnytzer Event Co-Hosted by BMH-BJ About the Event: Is evil manmade or divine? Do evil things happen due to our own faulty actions or are there forces of evil constantly trying to disrupt the divine plan? This class does not attempt to answer these questions. Rather, we shall go on a textual journey through the bustling port city of Alexandria through to...

A virtual event presentation by Professor Ari Kelman Event Co-Hosted by Hebrew Education Alliance About the Event: The place of American Jews in higher education is a complicated story.  It is at once a story that is central to American Jewish class mobility, yet it is also undercut by evidence of antisemitism at some of the United States’ most revered institutions.  The story of antisemitic exclu...