Read & Listen

Rabbi Jonathan Kligler and The Reverend Matthew Wright continue and deepen our exploration of the intersections between Judaism and Christianity. In this class series we will study the Christian Gospels of the New Testament in their original context: Judaism of the 1st century C.E. We will learn about the latest historical research on the origins ... Read more

Dear Friends, This past week my wife Ellen and I participated in the Living Legacy Pilgrimage, a civil rights pilgrimage tour. Our dear friend Reggie Harris was one of the leaders of the trip. It was an intensive journey, as we visited key sites, memorials and museums throughout Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee, while meeting with ... Read more

This session brings our course to a close. Since the Six-Day War of 1967 the mantle of the Zionist “pioneering spirit” has gradually passed from the Socialist Zionism of the founders to the Religious Zionists and “Greater Israel” nationalist Zionists of the present. Meanwhile, in much of the international arena, “Zionism” has become an epithet, ... Read more

We discuss the emergence of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and debate the differing historical narratives that accompany these developments. Also, Rabbi Jonathan describes the holiday of Lag Ba’omer, which coincides with our class meeting, as a case study in how the success of Zionism has transformed Jewish observance.

In a wide-ranging discussion, we cover the Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate period; the beginnings of the Jewish-Arab conflict; the thinking of Vladimir Jabotinsky and Revisionist Zionism; the story of Rabbi Jonathan’s Grandfather, Professor I. J. Kligler, and his pioneering work eradicating malaria in Palestine; and background on the Jews from Arab-speaking countries.

Beginning in the 1880s some Jews despaired of ever being truly integrated into the life of Europe. A new idea emerged, to reconstitute the Jewish People as a modern nationalist movement, intent on creating a Jewish national home in our ancient homeland. With the publication of Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State) in 1896, and by convening the First World Zionist Congress, Theodore Herzl catapulted this far-fetched idea onto the global stage, and a movement was born.

We begin by discussing the recent Israeli elections. Then, we return to our historical survey: emancipated from the ghettos of Europe, Jews of the 19th century now had to choose which, if any, aspects of Judaism they could or should retain while trying to gain entry into European societies.

In our far-ranging introductory session, we define terms: What is “Zionism”? And, we discuss the antecedents of the emergence of this movement in the late 19th century: The history of the Jewish People’s relationship to the Land of Israel; the origin of the names Israel, Judea, and Palestine; the transition during the Enlightenment from medieval ... Read more

As the Tent of Meeting is constructed, a strange verse describes how “the women who served at the Tent of Meeting donated their mirrors to create the sacred wash basin in which the Kohanim would purify themselves.” Who were these women who served at the Sanctuary? What is the meaning of their mirrors? We take ... Read more