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Back to JTS Torah Online's Main pageA Single Life
Feb 18, 2021 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video
A discussion with author, rabbi, and scholar Daniel Ross Goodman about his novel, A Single Life, which blends a literary style and a Talmudic sensibility with the romance tradition.
Read MoreLegacy of Blood: Jews, Pogroms, and Ritual Murder in the Land of the Soviets
Feb 1, 2021 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video
A discussion with author and historian Elissa Bemporad about her book, Legacy of Blood: Jews, Pogroms, and Ritual Murder in the Lands of the Soviets.
Read MoreWhat a Manuscript Can Teach Us about the Jews of Medieval France
Dec 7, 2020 By David C. Kraemer | Short Video
Dr. David Kraemer explains what we can learn about the everyday lives of medieval French Jews from the text—and the margins—of a manuscript from the JTS Library collection.
Read MoreCommunings of the Spirit, Vol. III
Dec 7, 2020 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video
A discussion with Dr. Mel Scult: Mordecai M. Kaplan, the founder of Reconstructionism, and the rabbi who initiated the first Bat Mitzvah, also produced the longest Jewish diary on record. In 27 volumes, running from 1913 to 1978, Kaplan shares with us not only his reaction to the great events of his time, but also his very personal thoughts on every aspect of religion and Jewish life. In this volume, editor and Kaplan biographer Mel Scult presents Kaplan contemplating the momentous events of the 1940s.
Read MoreBound in the Bond of Life
Dec 1, 2020 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video
A discussion with author Dr. Beth Kissileff: On October 27, 2018, three congregations were holding their morning Shabbat services at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood when a lone gunman entered the building and opened fire. He killed 11 people and injured six more in the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in American history. The story made international headlines for weeks following the shooting, but Pittsburgh and the local Jewish community could not simply move on when the news cycle did.
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Tales of the Holy Mysticat
Nov 12, 2020 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video
In Tales of the Holy Mysticat, Rabbi Adler, a professor of Modern Jewish Thought and one of our generation’s most profoundly creative scholars, uses a collection of whimsical stories, interspersed with cleverly drawn black-and-white illustrations, to provide unique insights into Jewish mysticism. And it’s all portrayed through the life of her cat. In this online conversation, Rabbi Adler discusses how, just as the Holy Mysticat became Adler’s teacher, so too can the Holy Mysticat teach us all.
Read MoreRemix Judaism
Nov 9, 2020 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video
Relying on modern Jewish sociology, in addition to narratives running the gamut from the Talmud to timely interviews and personal stories, Remix Judaism shows how a Jewish tradition open to personal meaning can substantially deepen one’s connection to Jewish tradition.
Read MoreJudaism (Religions of Humanity series)
Oct 26, 2020 By Burton L. Visotzky | Public Event video
How do you portray 2,000 years of Judaism in only three volumes? That’s what co-editors Dr. Burton L. Visotzky of JTS and Professor Dr. Michael Tilly of Tübingen University discuss at this celebration of Judaism. Their new three-volume compendium offers a global view of Jewish history, an overview of Jewish literature, and insight into Jewish culture and modernity.
Read MoreThe Art of the Jewish Family: A History Of Women In Early New York In Five Objects
Jun 22, 2020 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video
An online discussion with Dr. Laura Arnold Leibman about her recent book.
Read MoreA History of the Talmud
Feb 25, 2020 By David C. Kraemer | Public Event video
A discussion with JTS’s Dr. David Kraemer about his new book, which offers a sophisticated but accessible introduction to the Talmud, its origins, and its status through history.
Read MoreVoices from the Warsaw Ghetto: Writing Our History
Jan 22, 2020 By David G. Roskies | Public Event audio
A discussion with JTS’s Dr. David G. Roskies about his powerful new collection of writings from the Warsaw Ghetto, recording the Holocaust from the perspective of its first interpreters, the victims themselves.
Read MoreAbraham Joshua Heschel: Mind, Heart, Soul
Dec 10, 2019 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
A discussion with author Edward K. Kaplan about his biography of one of the most outstanding Jewish thinkers of the 20th century.
Read MoreTranslating the Book of Job
Nov 14, 2019 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
A discussion with renowned scholar Dr. Edward Greenstein about his revelatory new translation of the Book of Job.
Read MoreConfronting Hate
Oct 24, 2019 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
A discussion about the social justice work of the late Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum, with his widow Dr. Georgette Bennett, a humanitarian and philanthropist.
Read MoreFour Rabbis at Lunch: Candid Conversations Among American Clergy
May 28, 2019 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
Four rabbis from a local community—one Orthodox, two Conservative, and one Reform—meet each week at a local kosher deli to discuss Jewish law, theology, and synagogue business. This new work of fiction from Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins is an opportunity to be the proverbial fly on the wall and find out what rabbis talk about when no one else is listening.
Read MoreThe Paris Photo
Mar 14, 2019 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
A discussion with author Dr. Jane S. Gabin about her historical novel.
Movies and Midrash
Dec 4, 2018 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
Dr. Wendy Zierler’s Movies and Midrash pioneers the use of cinema as a springboard to discuss central Jewish texts and matters of belief.
Read MoreThe Art of Mystical Narrative: A Zohar Symposium
Nov 27, 2018 By Eitan Fishbane | Public Event video
In The Art of Mystical Narrative: A Poetics of the Zohar, Dr. Eitan Fishbane reveals the Zohar as an extraordinary narrative—the tale of a wandering kabbalist sage seeking wisdom in ancient Galilee. Along with experts in Kabbalah, medieval Jewish culture, and Jewish literature, he discusses the narrative and poetic features of the Zohar in the context of comparative literature and spirituality.
Read MoreThe Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective
Nov 20, 2018 By Joy Ladin | Public Event audio
Reading some of the best-known Torah stories through the lens of transgender experience, Joy Ladin explores fundamental questions about how religious texts, traditions, and the understanding of God can be enriched by transgender perspectives, and how the Torah and trans lives can illuminate one another.
Read MoreWaking Lions
Apr 24, 2018 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio
Important next-generation Israeli author Ayelet Gundar-Goshen’s gripping novel narrates the aftermath of an Israeli neurosurgeon’s accidental killing of an Eritrean migrant. Newly translated from Hebrew, this tightly crafted story is as timely as it is riveting.
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