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Back to JTS Torah Online's Main pageAll the Horrors of War
Apr 6, 2021 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video
All the Horrors of War follows Hugh Llewelyn Glyn Hughes, a high-ranking British officer, and Rachel Genuth, a Jewish teenager from the Hungarian provinces, as they navigate the final, brutal year of World War II. Their stories converge before the war’s end, in Bergen-Belsen, where Hughes finds himself responsible for an unprecedented situation: thousands of war-ravaged inmates are in need of immediate hospitalization, including Genuth.
Read MoreConversion, Circumcision, and Ritual Murder in Medieval Europe
Mar 17, 2021 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video
Author and professor Paola Tartakoff of Rutgers University discusses her new book, Conversion, Circumcision, and Ritual Murder in Medieval Europe, which explores the “Norwich Circumcision Case” from multiple perspectives.
Read MoreA 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 MoreA Tour of Medieval Cairo
Feb 9, 2021 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video
Medieval Fustat-Cairo was a burgeoning metropolis that sat strategically astride the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean and trans-Saharan trade routes, its fabulous wealth due in part to the Fatimid caliphs having founded their capital there in 969. But what was daily life like for its middling inhabitants? Marina Rustow discusses this question using fragments of the Cairo Genizah found in our collection at The JTS Library.
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 MoreSpeaking Out Against Hate
Jan 19, 2021 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video
Acclaimed Polish poet and musician Grzegorz Kwiatkowski speaks to the Library’s Dr. David Kraemer about his public condemnation of Holocaust denial, genocide, and the rise of populism, xenophobia, and nationalism in Poland and beyond.
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 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 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 Poet’s Hand
Jun 29, 2018 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Commentary
Beginning with Siddur Sim Shalom, Conservative prayer books began including a slightly different version of the much-loved Sabbath evening hymn Yedid Nefesh. The changes, though mostly slight, caused—and sometimes still cause—confusion, disrupting those who learned the traditionally printed version of this hymn with different grammatical forms and a few different words. What caused the change and why was it deemed sufficiently important that it should supersede the better-known version?
Read MoreThe Beauty of the Word
Jun 1, 2018 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Commentary
Take a look at these pages from a volume in our collection that includes the Pentateuch and Psalms, along with Masoretic notes and a grammatical introduction. It will not surprise you to learn that it was written in Yemen in 1325. Locating the manuscript in this time and place doesn’t surprise, because, stylistically speaking, it is so similar to Islamic art of the same period. As you may know, Muslims overwhelmingly avoided representation of living creatures in their art (the same cannot be said of Jews, who habitually ignored the second commandment), preferring to create their “images” with the words of scripture (in their case, the Quran).
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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