A virtual event presentation with Dr. Shulamit Reinharz

About The Event:
In her book, Hiding in Holland: A Resistance Memoir, Dr. Reinharz offers a unique narrative by collaborating with her father, Max Rothschild, to share personal stories of survival and resistance during the Holocaust. Her insights offer an enriched understanding of history's impact on contemporary Jewish identity.

About The Speaker:
Shulamit Reinharz was born in Amsterdam and grew up in New Jersey. She has also lived in Israel for numerous one-year stays as well as in Utrecht and Oxford for research appointments. She earned her undergraduate degree at Barnard College and her graduate degrees at Brandeis University, followed by a faculty appointment at the University of Michigan from 1972 to 1982, when she returned to Brandeis as a professor of sociology. Hebrew College has conferred on her an honorary doctorate. Dr. Reinharz has published widely. Among her 17 books are the prize-winning Feminist Methods in Social Research (1992); American Jewish Women and the Zionist Enterprise (with Mark Raider, 2005); The JGirl's Guide (with Penina Adelman and Ali Feldman, 2005); Jewish Intermarriage around the World (with Sergio Della Pergola, 2009); One Hundred Years of Kibbutz Life (with Michal Palgi, 2011); Today I am a Woman: Stories of Bat Mitzvah around the World (with Barbara Vinick, 2011); One Hundred Jewish Brides (with Barbara Vinick, 2022); and Hiding in Holland: A Resistance Memoir (2024). The Jewish Review of Books invited her to write a piece about Hiding in Holland after it won the prize of a finalist in the category of Holocaust Memoirs. A sought-after lecturer, Shulamit Reinharz is currently working on a book about "gender and the holocaust," focusing on her mother's survival.

A virtual event presented by Rabbi Marc Gitler

About The Event:
Anti-semitism has seemingly been around forever. In this lecture, we will explore its earliest expressions through stories in the Book of Genesis, focusing on the figure of the Ivri—the “Hebrew” who stands apart. By examining these foundational narratives, we’ll uncover how difference, otherness, and moral challenge can provoke hostility. Together, we’ll consider how these ancient dynamics continue to shape anti-Jewish hatred today and what insights they offer for understanding—and responding to—anti-semitism in the 21st century.

About The Speaker:
Rabbi Marc Gitler serves as the Senior Jewish Educator at Valley Beit Midrash and is the visiting Rabbi of Aish SanDiego. A recipient of the Wexner Fellowship, he was ordained at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. The founder of Fast for Feast, he lives in Denver, Colorado with his wife Sarah and their four children.

A virtual event presentation by Rabbi Dr. Elliot Dorff

About The Event:

Drawing from Chapter 3 of the book, Ethics at the Center: Jewish Theory and Practice for Living a Moral Life, this session will explore how Western, Christian, and Jewish traditions understand the nature of the human being, and how these differing perspectives shape a wide range of moral issues.

*Source Sheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R8ev3vsjgm5n7wSKE9ekiLRtwHDVR_vM/view?usp=sharing

About The Speaker:

Elliot Dorff, Rabbi (Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1970), Ph.D. in philosophy (Columbia University, 1971), is Rector and Distinguished Service Professor of Philosophy at American Jewish University. From 1974 to 2020, he taught a course on Jewish law at UCLA School of Law. He has served on three United States federal government commissions — on access to health care, on reducing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, and on research on human subjects — and he currently serves on the State of California’s commission to govern stem cell research within the state. He has chaired four scholarly organizations: the Academy of Jewish Philosophy, the Jewish Law Association, the Society of Jewish Ethics, and the Academy of Judaic, Christian, and Muslim Studies. He has served as a member of the Conservative Movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards since December 1984, as its Vice Chair from 1997 to 2007, and as its Chair from 2007 to 2022, writing 30 responsa approved by the committee and several concurring opinions. In Los Angeles, he is a Past President of Jewish Family Service and remains on its Board, and he is a former member of the Board of the Jewish Federation Council. He has been a member of the Priest-Rabbi Dialogue sponsored by the Board of Rabbis of Southern California and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles since its inception in 1973 and has co-chaired it since 1990. In addition to awards given by several communal organizations in Los Angeles, he was awarded four honorary doctoral degrees, the Leve Award of the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies, and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Journal of Law and Religion. H has published over 200 articles on Jewish thought, law, and ethics, and has written fifteen books on those topics and edited or co-edited fourteen more. Since 1966, he has been married to Marlynn, and they have four children and eight grandchildren, who, he thinks, are more important than anything listed above.