Speaker: Dr. Stephen Spector, Stony Brook University

Description: - Psychologists agree that there are four kinds of parenting, while survey evidence shows that there are four major perceptions of who God is. If we apply those findings to the book of Genesis, we find an extended study of how God and humans parent. Stony Brook Professor Emeritus Dr. Stephen Spector, the author of a forthcoming book on Genesis, examines how effective each approach is. Spoiler alert: it’s a story of dysfunctional families and human trauma, but also instructive lessons on how to heal them.

Virtual

Speaker: Dr. Daniel Fisher-Livgne, Hebrew Union College

Description: Well before Indiana Jones went looking, the Lost Ark has fascinated writers and interpreters of the Hebrew Bible. In its absence, the Ark has served as a center of gravity for cultural production and identification. This session will explore the Ark’s memory, as it has circulated and been reimagined in the construction of Biblical and ancient Jewish cultures.

Speaker: Eric Miller, Stony Brook University

Description: Enoch, one of the ancestors of Noah, is briefly mentioned in the book of Genesis, chapter 5. Though he was clearly a special figure who “walked with God” before “God took him,” the Biblical text does not explain these cryptic phrases, nor offer any other information. Frustrated Jewish readers in Antiquity, seeking to unlock this mystery, created an entire tradition about Enoch that became the origin of a Jewish mystic tradition. This session will explore how and why that tradition developed, as well as its implications that still impact religious thought today.

Speaker: Eric Miller, Stony Brook University

Description: They returned to Egypt and changed the course of Jewish history. The Jewish diaspora community of ancient Alexandria was among the most dynamic, prolific and creative in the ancient world. They were first to translate the Torah into another language and their interpretation of scriptures and their concept of Jewish identity opened the door for non-Jews to feel welcome within the world of Jewish thought, thereby changing the course of history both for Jews and the Western World.

Speaker: Margalit Fox, former NYT Journalist & Author

Description: In 1850, an impoverished twenty-five-year-old named Fredericka Mandelbaum came to New York in steerage and worked as a peddler on the streets of Lower Manhattan. By the 1870s, she was a fixture of high society and an admired philanthropist. How was she able to ascend from tenement poverty to vast wealth? In the intervening years, "Marm" Mandelbaum had become the country's most notorious "fence"--a receiver of stolen goods--and a criminal mastermind. The true story of a once-famous heroine whose life exemplifies America's cherished rags-to-riches narrative while simultaneously upending it entirely.

Speaker: Rabbi Jeremy Perlow, Stony Brook Hebrew Congregation

Description: This session will explore the significance of Olam Haba (the World to Come) and the Messianic Era, giving a bird's-eye view of life after life, an area that for the masses remains shrouded in mystery. What happens when we pass? Is there an “end” to the world as we know it? Why does the Torah omit any direct reference to these most fundamental and crucial topics? Are we encouraged (or perhaps even permitted) to study these areas of philosophy? Throughout the ages, many of the greatest Jewish minds have grappled with these key questions and more. This session will take us on a journey through the minds and writings of some of these great Jewish thinkers, examining classical texts beginning with the Torah and Talmud down to the medieval commentators and beyond.

Speaker: Dr. Susannah Heschel, Dartmouth College

Description: This session will explore how modern Jewish interest in Islam (and in Arabs) helped mediate Jewish understanding of the past two thousand years. “It was Islam that saved the Jewish people!” declared the distinguished medievalist S.D. Goitein in 1958. His declaration culminated a century of Jewish scholarship that not only proclaimed theological affinities between the two religions, including the uncanny appearance of rabbinic texts in the Qur’an, but affirmed Islam as Judaism’s medieval protector in contrast to Christianity. From the 1830s to the 1930s, European Jews published significant scholarship that identified Judaism with Islam’s rationalism, monotheism, and religious law. Some noted Jewish scholars became active creating Islamic institutions, while others brought Jewish scholarship to universities in the United States and Israel. By the early 20th century, with the rise of Yiddish and Hebrew literature and the Zionist movement, Jewish writing expanded to include the figure of the Arab as a model for a new kind of Jewish identity. Could this be a bridge to reconciliation and common understanding? Dr. Heschel also discusses the class she has co-taught on Arabs and Jews, and what her father, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, might say about the current situation in Israel and America.

Speaker: Panel led by Co-Chairs Dr. D'vora Richman & Ender Moran

Description: For the past several years, a group of Jewish and Muslim women in Suffolk County have met regularly as part of a nationwide network of Salaam-Shalom chapters designed to bridge differences, promote understanding, learn about their respective faiths and cultural practices, and fight hate. Meet the sisters of the Suffolk chapter, and hear how they have built trust, respect, and relationships.

Speaker: Panel

Description: New York State schools have had a mandate to teach Holocaust education for decades, but only now has a team of educators embarked on a major overhaul of the materials used in the classroom. This effort comes to the backdrop of a study that found of people ages 18-39, 58% cannot name a single concentration camp, 19% believe that Jews caused the Holocaust, and 28% believe the Holocaust is a myth or has been exaggerated. In each of these three metrics, New York had the worst score of any state in the US. Get a preview of the new materials, hear teachers describe their experiences and the views of LI Regent Roger Tilles who has been advocating for a more effective program.

Virtual

Speaker: Michael Mandelbaum, Johns Hopkins University

Description: As fast-pacing events unfold, foreign policy expert and author Michael Mandelbaum assesses the prospects for peace or ongoing war in the Mideast. Dr Mandelbaum is the Christian A. Herter Professor Emeritus of American Foreign Policy at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC. He serves on the Board of Advisors of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Washington-based organization sponsoring research and public discussion on American policy toward the Middle East.

Speaker: Rabbi Angela Buchdahl of Central Synagogue in conversation with journalist Abigail Pogrebin

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