COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Speaker: Sherwin Gluck

Description: This presentation explores the Holocaust through the intimate, day-to-day experiences of one Jewish family from Polyán, Czechoslovakia, preserved in a unique private archive now housed at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as The Gluck Family Collection. The archive includes 1,823 letters and v-mails, 287 documents, 294 postcards, dozens of artifacts, and nearly 700 pages of material. Drawing on these materials, this presentation traces how ordinary life unraveled under anti-Jewish laws through blocked immigration efforts, forced labor, ghettoization, deportations, and family separation. Witness a family struggling to survive as they are deported to Auschwitz, even as the speaker’s father served as a combat infantryman in the United States Army, fighting for the country he had only recently adopted.

Speaker: Rabbi Phil Kaplan, SBHC & Stony Brook Hillel

Description: We’ve all heard the phrase “toxic masculinity,” which entered mainstream discourse over the past decade. The term itself implies something important: that there must also be a healthy, constructive form of masculinity - one that channels strength, power, and ambition toward something good. But what does that actually look like? This session explores a deeply Jewish answer through the remarkable life of Reish Lakish, one of the great sages of the Talmud. Reish Lakish did not begin his life as a scholar. According to the Talmud, he started out as a bandit. Through Torah, discipline, and community, he transformed himself into a towering rabbinic authority - a man known for both physical strength and moral courage. Living in Judea in the third century, Reish Lakish emerges in the rabbinic texts as a model of masculinity that is powerful yet restrained, forceful yet principled, confident yet deeply respectful of others. Through close reading of Talmudic sources, this session will examine how Reish Lakish protects the vulnerable, defies expectations, and raises a wise and thoughtful son.

Speaker: Eric Miller, Stony Brook University

Description: The seventeenth-century messianic movement surrounding Shabbatai Zevi was perhaps the greatest response to a messianic figure in Judaism while that figure was still alive. This self-proclaimed “Messiah,” appearing in the Ottoman Empire, drew a massive following all over Europe, the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East. In 1666, massive numbers of Jews from near and far appeared in Smyrna to follow this “Messiah” on a march to the Holy Land to set up the Messianic kingdom. Within a few months his movement fell apart, and the majority viewed him as a False Messiah, leaving the Jewish world in shambles and Jews everywhere beset by questions of faith and deep spiritual depression. Yet, what happened in the aftermath was even more bewildering and remarkable. What caused so many to follow him, and how was this near fatal blow to Judaism overcome?

Speaker: Mark Oppenheimer

Description: Judy Blume is probably the best-selling Jewish, female fiction author in history. With about 90 million copies of her books sold, the legendary author of young people’s literature has a place in the American canon. Less discussed is her place in the Jewish canon. Raised in a Jewish family in New Jersey, Blume has put Judaism, and Jewish characters, at the heart of several of her most famous books, including Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret and Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself. Mark Oppenheimer, author of a new, definitive biography of Blume, will discuss the role Judaism played in Blume’s life and work.

Speaker: Dr. Sarah Bunin Benor, Hebrew Union College

Description: How do Jews around the world select names for their babies? What makes a family name Jewish? Did immigrants change their names at Ellis Island? This session answers these and many more questions about Jewish first and last names. Learn about patronymic (father-based) surnames like Abramovitch, Isaacs, and Yaghoubian; geographic names like Ashkenazi, Dardashti, and Shapiro; and profession names like Hakim, Melamed, and Fingerhut. Attendees will also be introduced to changes in American Jewish baby names throughout the 20th century and beyond. And they will hear about names Jews select for their dogs, cats, and other pets.

Speaker: Dr. Pam Nadell and Sarah Hurwitz

Description: Noted Jewish historian Dr. Pamela Nadell and former Obama speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz discuss the historical roots and current impact of antisemitism in America. Dr. Nadell is the author of the recent book, Antisemitism: An American Tradition, which places today’s developments in the context of 350 years of Jewish-American history. Sarah Hurwitz is author of the recent book, As A Jew: Reclaiming Our Story from Those Who Blame, Shame and Try to Erase Us.

Speaker: Rabbi Lisa Rubin, Central Synagogue

Description: The events of Oct,7 not only spawned a rise in antisemitism, but a spike in Jewish conversion.  Who is converting and why? How does the conversion process differ among the three major denominations? Why won’t they accept each other’s converts? What is Israel’s current position on conversion? Rabbi Lisa Rubin, the director of the largest conversion center in the United States, the New York- based Center for Exploring Judaism, addresses these questions and the larger implications of welcoming newcomers.

Panelists: Dr. Charlotte Jacobs, Stanford University and Salk biographer and Dr. Sharon Nachman, Stony Brook University Chief of Pediatric Infectious Disease.

Description: To Jews born in the 20th century, Dr. Jonas Salk was an iconic Jewish hero, a source of pride and a symbol of the wondrous promise of modern medicine. But Salk, who developed the first effective polio vaccine that saved millions of lives, faced intense criticism from fellow scientists, and spent years of his life unsuccessfully struggling to find vaccines for cancer, MS and AIDS. Thirty years after his death at 81, this session looks backward and forwards. Presenters examine Salk’s life and legacy, but also the rise of vaccine hesitancy and the denigration of medical expertise.

Speaker: Rabbi Joshua Gray & Meghan Gray, Temple Isaiah

Description: An exploration--and performance--of the most popular Jewish melodies and songs from our tradition. Join Rabbi Joshua Gray and his wife Meghan as they lead us, via song, through the cycle of the Jewish year and the most memorable traditional and popular songs that enrich it.