Anticipatory Memory: Remembering the Future
Date: Nov 23, 2026
Time: 1:00 pm - 2:10 pm
Category: Back to the Future: Jewish Perspectives on What Comes Next Online Learning
Anticipatory Memory: Remembering the Future
Part of Our Fall 2026 Learning Series, Back to the Future: Jewish Perspectives on What Comes Next
November 23, 2026
Online
1:00–2:10 p.m. ET
With Rabbi Gordon Tucker, Vice Chancellor for Religious Life, JTS
We usually think of the past as fixed and knowable and the future as uncertain—something we can only predict. Part of being human is not knowing what is coming, while constantly striving to not only know, but also to control the future. Jewish texts offer a surprising possibility: that we can, and perhaps must, “remember” the future.
Drawing on Lamentations, an extraordinary Targumic account of the pascal sacrifice preceding the Exodus, and ideas about the nature of time from Jewish theology to modern physics, Rabbi Gordon Tucker will explore how a vision of the future can shape our choices in the present. What changes when the future is not simply something that happens to us, but something we actively envision—and work toward?
If you have previously registered for another session in this series, your registration admits you to all sessions in the series, and you may attend as many as you’d like.
About the Speaker
Rabbi Gordon Tucker is the Vice Chancellor for Religious Life and Engagement at JTS. As vice chancellor, Rabbi Gordon Tucker focuses on enhancing Jewish life at JTS, enriching our study of Judaism with the joy and deep understanding that only lived experience can provide. A leading scholar and interpreter of Conservative Judaism, he also articulates the enduring power of JTS’s compelling approach to Jewish law and Jewish life, while strengthening JTS’s religious leadership through partnerships with organizations in the Conservative Movement and beyond.
About the Series
Preoccupation with what comes next, especially in periods of uncertainty, is hardly a new phenomenon. Looking ahead—to what might change, what might endure, and what might be possible—runs throughout Jewish text and tradition.
In this series, JTS scholars and alumni look backward and forward, exploring how Jews across centuries have imagined what comes next, prepared for the unknown, and established what they hoped would endure. From biblical visions and rabbinic ideas about the world to come to preservation, artificial intelligence, and the future of Jewish life, we’ll ask not only what the future might hold, but how we can help shape it.
