Community Education

The Community Education Committee provides a range of exciting Jewish educational experiences for teens, adults, and the general community. Check out our Calendar (below) for a current schedule of classes.

General Information:

• Registration: please check individual class listings for details.
• Make checks payable to Temple Beth Israel.
• Programs scheduled on Shabbat: Fees and donations for programs scheduled on Shabbat must be paid in advance or after the programs. We will not be collecting money on Shabbat.
• No refunds will be given to participants who drop classes after the registration deadline. If classes or events are cancelled due to lack of enrollment or other unforeseen circumstances, full refunds will be given to pre-paid registrants.

Classes are open to all learners, and we welcome students from within TBI and from the larger community as well. All classes meet at Temple Beth Israel, 1175 E. 29th Ave., Eugene unless otherwise noted. Childcare is not available at this time. For more information or to register for a class, please call the TBI office at (541) 485-7218.

If you are interested in joining the Community Education Committee, or have ideas for teaching or a class offering, please contact Rabbi Maurice.

Community Education & Cultural Arts Program

Winter 2010

Foundations of Judaism
The Foundations of Judaism series is designed for those exploring Judaism for the first time and those seeking to rediscover some of the basic elements of Jewish life.

Foundations of Judaism: Journey through the Torah

with Rabbi Maurice Harris
Saturdays, February 6-March 13, 3-5 pm (no class Feb. 27)
Members $36, Non-Members $54
Registration/payment deadline: January 29. Register online

What best-selling book has amazing stories; complex legal materials; commandments and complaints; sex and death; violence and reconciliation; prayers and poems; hope, despair, and even songs? The Torah!

Join us for five sessions of Shabbat afternoon learning as we study the arc of the Torah’s stories and structure from beginning to end. This is a chance to gain a foundational understanding of what’s in the Torah, our most sacred text. The class is ideal for people studying Judaism for the first time or as a refresher, but it also is designed for people with more Jewish background and experience who would like a more systematic understanding of what the Torah contains and how it is organized.

Ongoing

Torah Study
Saturday mornings, 9-10 am (8:30-9:30 am if a b’nai mitzvah is being celebrated at Shabbat morning services – check TBI calendar) FREE.

All are welcome to join a lively exploration of the weekly Torah portion. Torah study is sometimes rabbi-facilitated and sometimes lay-led. All levels of experience welcome. Text study is done in English, with occasional close examination of the Hebrew text in an inclusive manner.

Jewish Book Group
2nd Tuesday of each month (January 13, February 10, March 10),

7 pm. FREE.

The Jewish Literature Group meets monthly to discuss classic and contemporary books by Jewish writers from the U.S. and across the world. We focus on fiction and memoirs of literary merit. Discussion is guided by questions prepared by the facilitator to open up the political, cultural, and literary dimensions of the book.

For more information, contact Martha Ravits through the Temple office, 541.485.7218.

January

Learn Hebrew at TBI!
with Cara Abrams-Simonton

NOTE: Registration/payment deadline for any of the Hebrew classes extended to January 14th.

Level Alef: Learn To Read Hebrew
Wednesdays, January 6-March 17, 7:30-8:30 pm
TBI Members $40; Non-members $80; plus $13 for course materials. Register online

Students with no previous Hebrew exposure, or those who just need a quick review, will learn phonetic Hebrew reading, script writing, and a basic Hebrew vocabulary of 100 words.

Level Bet: Modern Hebrew
Thursdays, January 7-March 18, 6-7:30 pm
TBI Members $50; Non-members $100; plus $18 for course materials

Register online

Hebrew language made easy for adults! Varied reading selections that range from contemporary stories to Hasidic tales, midrashim, and biblical narratives; lessons that train students to read confidently both with and without vowels; grammatical concepts explored through comparison to English structure. This class requires the ability to read Hebrew comfortably. Please contact Cara directly – caraloveshebrew(@gmail.com) – if you did not take the Alef level class this fall.

A Tribute to
Rabbi Aryeh Hirschfield z'l
Saturday, January 23, 7 pm
FREE

Our congregation has for many years enjoyed the beautiful music of Rabbi Aryeh, whose first yahrzeit was recently commemorated.

Join us as we honor Reb Aryeh's memory with singing his music, stories of his time in Eugene and co-leading the community with Rabbi Yitzhak, and listening to some of the recordings that he produced.

Prospects for Peace: American Diplomacy in the Middle East – An Evening with Charles Kirschner
Sunday, January 31, 7 pm
FREE – donations gratefully accepted to help defray travel expenses

Charlie Kirschner is the Pacific Northwest Deputy Director of AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Charlie works with communities from Central California to Alaska, organizing the political and grassroots efforts of pro-Israel activists. His portfolio includes community organizing, strategic planning, Congressional lobbying, fundraising and leadership development.
      Please join us as Charlie shares his perspectives with us about the current political situation in the Middle East and the challenges facing Israel in these times. Questions and discussion will follow his presentation.

February

“In the Beginning” – Close Readings of Genesis with Rabbi Maurice Harris
Sundays, February 7-March 14, 9-10 am
(no class Feb. 14)
FREE – donations gratefully accepted
Registration deadline: February 2. Class will only meet if minimum number of students register. Register online

Join Rabbi Maurice for close textual readings of some of the essential stories of first book of the Torah, Bereshit (Genesis). We’ll discover how the text’s language and imagery draw us in to the lives of the matriarchs and patriarchs. You don’t need to read Hebrew to participate and enjoy this class, but if you do have some Hebrew skill you’ll have the chance to enjoy it in this way too.

500 Years of Ladino Literature: An Overview
with David Wacks, Associate Professor of Spanish, Dept. Romance Languages, University of Oregon
Sunday, February 21, 6:30 pm. FREE

Ladino (or Judeo-Spanish) is the literary language of the descendents of the Jews expelled from Spain in 1492. Many of us are familiar with the Sephardic song tradition, but there is also a vast literature in Ladino that ranges from medieval religious texts to modern novels. This literature was produced by a diverse spectrum of Sephardic communities, from very assimilated converts writing in Italy and Holland who fled Spain to return to Judaism in the 1500s and 1600s, to Ottoman Jews who still preserved a sense of ‘Spanish-ness’ hundreds of years after the expulsion, to Sephardic immigrants to New York who published newspapers and humor magazines in Ladino between the wars. In this talk David Wacks will give an overview of Ladino literature from 1492 to the twentieth century in light of its historical and social contexts.

Jewish Songs of the Spirit with Beth Miriam Rose, MA
Wednesdays, February 24-March 24, 7 pm
Sliding scale $5-15 per session. All donations gratefully accepted. Drop-ins welcome.

Special Focus on Passover Music. Learn music to share at your seder and more! Join us in learning to sing beautiful traditional and contemporary Jewish folk and liturgical melodies & rounds in an informal, supportive environment. Open to all with no prior knowledge of Hebrew required. Instruments welcome with prior arrangement. Participants may also have opportunities to sing as a group at a Shabbat or Interfaith Service or small informal concert setting. For more information contact Beth, 541.342.7191.

March

Jewish-American Responses to Japanese-American Internment During WWII with Dr. Ellen Eisenberg
Sunday, March 7, 6:30pm
Members FREE; Non-members $5

Ellen Eisenberg has extensively researched the responses Jewish-Americans presented to FDR’s executive order number 9066 leading to the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Her talk will be drawn from her 2008 book, The First to Cry Down Injustice? Western Jews and Japanese Removal during WWII, a National Jewish Book Award finalist. Time for for questions and discussion will follow her talk.

Ellen Eisenberg is the Dwight and Margaret Lear Professor of American History at Willamette University. She is the author of a number of books and articles on American Jewish history. Her new book, Jews of the Pacific Coast: Reinventing Community on America’s Edge, co-authored with Ava F. Kahn and Bill Toll, will be released by the University of Washington Press in early 2010.

Women of the Exodus with Nitzan Deborah Stein-Kokin
Thursdays, March 11,18, 25, 7-8:30pm
$5-$10 per class suggested donation

Registration/payment deadline: March 4. Register online

“As the reward for the righteous women who lived in that generation were the Israelites delivered from Egypt” (Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sotah 11b)

Join us as we explore the characters of Miriam, Jocheved, Shifra and Puah as they are portrayed in the Bible and the Babylonian Talmud. Through close text study we will uncover how the early Rabbis elaborate and transform these women for their contemporary audience. We will also seek to regain these characters as female role models for our own “Exodus” at this year’s Seder table.

Nitzan Deborah Stein-Kokin holds an MA in Jewish Civilization from Hebrew University with a focus on early rabbinic literature. She is also a graduate of the Moshe Green Beit Midrash for Women’s Leadership in Jerusalem where she studied Talmud and early Midrash. Since moving to the U.S. in 2002, she has been actively involved in Jewish Education in a wide variety of settings. She has taught at Maimonides High school in Brookline, MA, at Prozdor Hebrew High at Hebrew College in Newton, MA, and at Congregation Beth El-Kesser Israel Hebrew School in New Haven, CT where she also was involved in youth programming. In addition, both in Israel and in America, she has presented for adult audiences on the legacy and interpretation of biblical women characters.

Jewish Film Discussion Series

Films will be introduced by a facilitator, and a guided discussion will follow each film. Suggested donation: $5. All donations gratefully accepted.

Saturday, January 9, 6 pm
Walk on Water
(Israel 2004 – 104 min.)
American-born Israeli director Eytan Fox lenses this contemporary road movie, taking its Israeli characters to Berlin as they attempt to understand the role that the past still plays in the lives of young Israeli and German people. Rated R for some language including sexual references, and for brief nudity.

Walk on Water was featured in Rabbi Maurice’s sermon at Kol Nidre services this year. University of Oregon Judaic Studies Professor Daniel Stein Kokin will introduce the film and present a brief lecture following the screening entitled “Walking through Walk on Water.” His lecture will explore the symbolic structure of the film and the theological resonances of the films characters (and their names). Professor Kokin will then lead a guided discussion of the film, a most poignant and timely consideration of German-Jewish, as well as Christian-Jewish, relations.
     Daniel Stein Kokin is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies at the University of Oregon. Daniel specializes in Medieval and Early Modern Jewish history and Jewish-Christian relations, and is currently writing a book on Christian attitudes towards the Hebrew language during the Renaissance period.

Saturday, March 13, 2010, 7 pm
Yossi and Jagger (Israel 2002 – 67 minutes)
Two Israeli soldiers try to find solace from the constant grind of war in this moving romantic drama. While preparing for a daring moonlit ambush in the snowy mountains of Lebanon, company commander Yossi (Ohad Knoller) and his platoon leader, Jagger (Yehuda Levi), fall in love, carefully hiding their relationship from their comrades. But will the tragedy of war ultimately intrude upon the men's clandestine affair? Rated R for language and some sexual content.

Judaic Studies Events at University

Our members at the University of Oregon have forwarded notices of some exciting Judaic Studies events over the next few months.

Take a look!