JTS in the Berkshires: Summer 2022

Date: Jul 29, 2022

Time: 11:00 am - 12:30 pm

Sponsor: JTS Learning in Your Community

Location: Massachusetts

Category: Community Courses JTS in the Berkshires

Inspiring Learning with JTS Scholars

Friday July 29, 2022 and Friday August 12, 2022 
11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Shakespeare & Company 
Elayne P. Bernstein Theater 
70 Kemble Street 
Lenox, Massachusetts 

Tickets: $15 per session

Session I
“Get Thee to a Nunnery”: Shakespeare and the Talmudic Rabbis in Conversation

Friday July 29, 2022

How can Hamlet’s famous words to Ophelia help us think about the Rabbis use of the term zonah (harlot)? Join Dr. Marjorie Lehman, JTS professor of Talmud and Rabbinics, to explore which women the rabbis considered to be “harlots” and how the legal framework they developed relates to anxiety about the integrity of the rabbinic household and the Jewish community in a post-Temple era. 

Session II
Spiritual Leadership for a New Era

Friday August 12, 2022 

WIn a rapidly shifting American-Jewish landscape, we need Jewish leaders who are prepared to meet the challenges of our time. Each of us has our own sense of the kind of leaders who appeal to us: inspiring, accessible, intellectual, comforting. Through an exploration of classical and contemporary texts, Rabbi Ayelet S. Cohen, JTS’s newly appointed dean of the Rabbinical School and Division of Religious Leadership, will share her vision for the future of Jewish leadership.

For more information: contact Lynn Feinman at (212) 678-8821 or lyfeinman@jtsa.edu 

JTS in the Berkshires is presented in partnership with Knesset Israel and in cooperation with the Jewish Federation of the Berkshires. Supported in part by a grant from the Harold Grinspoon Foundation.  

About Dr. Marjorie Lehman

Dr. Marjorie Lehman is professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at The Jewish Theological Seminary and the Area Coordinator of Rabbinic Literatures and Cultures. She teaches a wide range of courses in Rabbinics, including courses on gender in Talmudic literature, aggadah, halakhah, the history of the Jewish book, and pedagogy. Her scholarly journey reflects a commitment to balancing the historical and intellectual aspects of Jewish texts while also focusing on the ways they speak to and help us to understand our place in the contemporary moment. Read more

About Rabbi Ayelet S. Cohen

Rabbi Ayelet S. Cohen Bio

With more than two decades of leadership experience at world-class Jewish institutions, Rabbi Ayelet S. Cohen brings extensive qualifications to her role as Pearl Resnick Dean of The Rabbinical School. For a decade, she provided spiritual leadership at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, the world’s largest LGBTQ synagogue, serving Jews of all sexual orientations and gender identities. Most recently, Rabbi Cohen was the senior director for the New York/Tri-State Region at the New Israel Fund. Prior to that role she was director of the Center for Jewish Living and the David H. Sonabend Center for Israel at the Marlene Meyerson Jewish Community Center in Manhattan. 

Rabbi Cohen earned her rabbinical ordination at JTS and her BA with honors from Brown University. She is the author of Changing Lives, Making History: Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, the First Forty Years, and co-editor of Siddur B’chol L’vavcha. She is also on the board of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights and Plaza Jewish Community Chapels.