Adult Learning

Adult Education at Congregation Rodeph Sholom

Welcome to our Adult Education program for 5773! If you are looking to engage with Jewish wisdom on anything from parenting to aging, history to spirituality, you’ve come to the right place. Our building is buzzing with learning at all times.

The Adult Education Committee wishes you and your family a peaceful and joy-filled 5773 and extends a warm invitation to you to join us in deepening our Jewish learning. Once again, we have a year filled with a wide variety of activities occurring throughout different times of the day, allowing participation from many of our diverse community who have time constraints in their busy lives. We hope you will join us as we learn together. We welcome Rabbi Sari Laufer as our new clergy liaison and know she will bring much to the conversation. As you will see in the brochure, the learning opportunities will engage us in discussions on sacred texts, the Hebrew language, Judaism and Social Action, and include classes devoted to learning about Jewish history and culture as well as reflective nurturing of one’s soul.

We are delighted to have Rabbi Levine teach a course again and look forward to his Fall series on 7 Texts that Changed the World. Provocative and challenging, he is sure to draw a crowd. Rabbi Jacqueline Ellenson will lead a session each month reflecting on personal and spiritual pathways through the Psalms. We will enjoy a Yiddish theatrical series with Jessica Kirzane, and other congregants will lead a Shabbat lunchtime series on the Festival Megillot. Our Shabbaton this year will honor Jewish milestones. The Fall Shabbaton will celebrate both the installation of Rabbi Rachel Grant Meyer and 40 years of women in the rabbinate with guest speaker Rabbi Carole Balin from HUC-JIR, while our Spring Shabbaton will celebrate Israel’s 65th birthday with guest speaker Professor Paul Liptz from Jerusalem. A noon time social action series led by Rabbi Rachel Grant Meyer promises to provide exciting and stimulating discussions on the link between Judaism and social justice. Throughout the year our regular activities continue with enthusiasm, including Brotherhood and Sisterhood Torah study, introductory and continuing Hebrew, and How to Raise a Mentsch with Rabbi Benjamin Spratt. We look forward to other visiting speakers coming throughout the year including A.B. Yehoshua and Rabbi Uri Regev who will speak on religious pluralism. We will learn some mindful and intentional preparation for Shabbat throughout the year and all our talented clergy will continue to teach and guide us each Shabbat as we learn together.

We hope you will join us in these great community opportunities and look forward to seeing you throughout the year. Don’t hesitate to inquire further if something interests you and please reach out and let us know if there are specific issues you would like to learn about. We also extend an invitation to join our Adult Education Committee to those who would like to participate. May 5773 be a year of health and happiness as we learn together.

Beverly Katz and Helen Towers, Adult Education Committee Co-Chairs

Highlights for this year include:

Give us 10 friends

Give us 10 friends, and we’ll give you Torah- or theology, history, poetry, and more- taught by one of our rabbis or cantors. We’ll work with you to decide on a topic, time, and location. Look for more information coming in the mail, but in the meantime—if you are interested in hosting or being a part of a small study group, please contact Rabbi Laufer’s study at gro.cynsrcnull@rehgallage or (646) 454-3026.

 

Continue your spiritual and intellectual growth • Strengthen your connection to your community

Join us in Jewish learning

The rabbis taught: “Do not say, when I have leisure, I will study, for you may never have leisure” (Pirkei Avot 2:4). In the midst of this busy city, hundreds of Rodeph Sholom congregants make time to study, and find it profoundly worthwhile. We hope that you join us.

Please see the Adult Education brochure for full listings. To register, contact gro.cynsrcnull@detluda or call (646) 454-3029. For more information, contact Rabbi Sari Laufer at gro.cynsrcnull@refualibbar, or (646) 454-3025.