Summer Learning Series
A Wandering People: Jewish Journeys, Real and Imagined
Mondays starting June 7, 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET
As the pandemic surged and forced us into our homes, many of us dreamed with new intensity of being elsewhere. For Jews throughout the ages, the promises and perils of travel have been central to shaping the individual and collective experience. Notions of home and homeland have been redefined by Jewish wandering. Drawing on literary, spiritual, and historical sources and responses, JTS scholars will explore what happens when Jews—whether by force or voluntarily, whether in reality or in the imagination—travel from one place to another.
The opening session, entitled “If I forget Thee, O Jerusalem”: The Idea of the Return to Zion in Jewish History, will be taught by Dr. Shuly Rubin Schwartz, JTS Chancellor and Irving Lehrman Research Professor of American Jewish History. Explore the implications of living in a state of longing to return to Zion, how Jews attempted to reconcile the dream of return with the reality of Jewish exile, and how this dream was adapted and transformed with the emergence of modern Zionism.
The series will take place each Monday from June 7 to August 23, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET. (Please note that there will be no session on July 5.)
Sessions and Faculty
June 7:
“If I Forget Thee, O Jerusalem”: The Idea of the Return to Zion in Jewish History
With Dr. Shuly Rubin Schwartz, Chancellor and Irving Lehrman Research Professor of American Jewish History
June 14:
Home and Exile, Center and Periphery: Ambivalent Journeys in the Torah
With Dr. Benjamin Sommer, Professor of Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages
June 21:
Preparing for the Final Journey: The Tahara Ritual and its Significance
With Rabbi Eliezer Diamond, Rabbi Judah Nadich Associate Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics
June 28:
“Jewish Travel”: Yehuda Amichai on Memory, Place, and Identity
With Dr. Barbara Mann, Chana Kekst Professor of Jewish Literature
July 12:
Flight, Return, and Emigration: The Wanderings of a Yiddish Writer During and After the Holocaust
With Dr. David Fishman, Professor of Jewish History
July 19:
Finding Hijar: A Scholar’s Quest to Uncover the History of Her Jewish Community Through the Journey of Its Books
With Dr. Marjorie Lehman, Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics, and Dr. Lucia Conte Aguilar, Adjunct lecturer, Humanities Department, Universitat Pompeu Fabra
July 26:
The Global Journey of a Jewish Stage Play: The Spectacular Story of Sh. Anski’s The Dybbuk and How it Transformed American Jewish Theatre
With Dr. Edna Nahshon, Professor of Jewish Theater and Drama
August 2:
The Early Modern Travel Pass: Controlling the Plague and Jewish Mobility in 16th Century Tuscany
With Dr. Stefanie Siegmund, Women’s League Chair in Jewish Gender and Women’s Studies
August 9:
Work-Life Balance in Ancient Times: Why the Rabbis Left Their Homes to Study Torah
With Dr. Rachel Rosenthal, Assistant Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics
August 16:
Judah Halevi: Poet and Pilgrim
With Dr. Raymond Scheindlin, Professor Emeritus of Medieval Hebrew Literature
August 23:
Travelling to Babylon—For Good
With Dr. David Kraemer, Joseph J. and Dora Abbell Librarian and Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics
SPONSOR A SESSION
Did you know that you can sponsor a learning session to honor a loved one, celebrate an occasion, or commemorate a yahrzeit? To learn more, contact learninglives@jtsa.edu.
