Sunday, April 27, 2025 | 2:00 – 3:30 PM EST
Who Are the Jews—And Who Can We Become? Reflections on a Post-October 7th World
With Donniel Hartman
Presented by Wisdom Without Walls in partnership with JPS
The Jewish identity meta-narrative has been a living synthesis of two competing religious covenants: Genesis Judaism, which defines Jewishness in terms of who one is and the group to which one belongs, independent of what one does or believes; and Exodus Judaism, which grounds identity in terms of one’s relationship with an aspirational system of values, ideals, beliefs, commandments, and behaviors.
Exclusive 25% discount for JPS readers using our registration link below.
Program registration: $18 (instead of $25)
Wednesday, April 2, 2025 | 7:00 – 8:30 PM EST
Exile and Empathy
With Nancy Berg
Presented by Wisdom Without Walls in partnership with JPS
Since Adam and Eve’s banishment from the Garden of Eden, exile has been a major theme in Jewish literature and history. Most of the history of the Jewish people takes place outside of the land of Israel, as does much of its most creative expression. Most of the process of becoming a nation is due to leaving home and/or being sent into exile.
Exclusive 25% discount for JPS readers using our registration link below.
Program registration: $18 (instead of $25)
Wednesday, March 19, 2025 | 7:00 – 8:30 PM EST
Jewish Ethics In Complicated Times
With Rabbi Elliot Dorff
Presented by Wisdom Without Walls in partnership with JPS
Jews prize our Jewish identity for many reasons, but central among them for many Jews is the moral guidance and motivation it gives us. This session, and the book on which it is based – Ethics at the Center: Jewish Theory and Practice for Living a Moral Life – explores the foundational concepts that are the basis for Jewish moral thinking and action and how they differ from American secular and Christian concepts. Some specific topics will be used to illustrate those differences.
Exclusive 25% discount for JPS readers using our registration link below.
Program registration: $18 (instead of $25)
Wednesday, March 2, 2025 | 3:00 – 4:30 PM EST
A Spiritual Response to Crisis: Inviting God into the Conversation
With Yiscah Smith
Presented by Wisdom Without Walls in partnership with JPS
As Jews—and even as simple human beings— living in such a troubling and unexpected global cultural climate as now, with all the uncertainty, anxiety, pain, despair and fear it brings, we may need to begin questioning, “What is being asked of me now?” To everyone, Yiscah suggests that a rare and unique perspective awaits our consideration when answering this important question. What an opportune time to bring God into the conversation. This may not provide all the answers we seek, but it will support our basic human need to feel more connected with our deeper selves—our souls— and each other, and less lonely and distant.
Yiscah’s forthcoming JPS book, Planting Seeds of the Divine: Torah Commentaries to Cultivate Your Spiritual Practice (June 2024), adopts this essential idea inherent in Judaism that we need to reclaim, restore and renew God talk— cultivating a God consciousness as part of our daily living as Jews.
Exclusive 25% discount for JPS readers using our registration link below.
Program registration: $18 (instead of $25)
Wednesday, February 19, 2025 | 7:00 – 8:30 PM EST
Getting Off Your Soapboxes: Rabban Yochanan and the Power of the Pragmatic Compromise
With Rabbi Marc Katz
Presented by Wisdom Without Walls in partnership with JPS
Rabban Yochanan Ben Zakkai is known as the father of Rabbinic Judaism. According to legend, he single handedly saved Judaism after the Second Temple was destroyed. However, his methods were not without controversy. He was crafty, practical, and pragmatic and history has questioned his behavior ever since. Come study who he was, why he was effective, and how he birthed the most pragmatic movement in Jewish history.
Exclusive 25% discount for JPS readers using our registration link below.
Program registration: $18 (instead of $25)
Wednesday, February 5, 2025 | 7:00 – 8:30 PM EST
Musar for a Divided Jewish Community
With Geoffrey Claussen
Presented by Wisdom Without Walls in partnership with JPS
What does it mean to be honest, courageous, and compassionate? What does it mean to act with justice and to show appropriate solidarity and forgiveness to others? In recent months, Jewish communal disagreements about musar—about what constitutes virtue and moral character—have been on public display. How can the study of musar traditions help us to understand and respond to these disagreements?
Exclusive 25% discount for JPS readers using our registration link below.
Program registration: $18 (instead of $25)
Wednesday, January 22, 2025 | 7:00 – 8:30 PM EST
The Eternal War Against The Jews
With Rafael Medoff
Presented by Wisdom Without Walls in partnership with JPS
The October 7 attack on Israel was part and parcel of two thousand years of violent antisemitism around the world. What can history teach us about the Hamas assault and the international community’s response to it? How have those events reshaped perceptions of antisemitism and anti-Zionism? And how have they impacted Israel-Diaspora relations?
Exclusive 25% discount for JPS readers using our registration link below.
Program registration: $18 (instead of $25)
December 6, 2024
Contemporary Humanistic Judaism: Beliefs, Values, Practices
With co-editors Rabbi Adam Chalom and Rabbi Jodi Kornfeld
Presented by the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism
The arrival of Contemporary Humanistic Judaism: Beliefs, Values, Practices (JPS, 2025) marks an important milestone in the movement of Secular Humanistic Judaism. IISHJ’s Cantor Jonathan Friedmann speaks with the co-editors of this important volume. Watch the recording here.
October 7, 2024
Saying No to Hate: Overcoming Antisemitism in America
With Rabbi Barry L. Schwartz, JPS Director Emeritus
Presented by the Levis JCC, Boca Raton, Florida
Explore Saying No To Hate: Overcoming Antisemitism in America by the late Norman H. Finkelstein, with Rabbi Barry Schwartz in conversation with Rabbi Dan Levin. Watch the recording here.
September 11, 2024
Open Judaism: Finding Your Place in the Jewniverse
With Rabbi Barry L. Schwartz, JPS Director Emeritus
Presented by Wisdom Without Walls in partnership with JPS
In our post 9-11 and post Oct. 7 world, what does it mean to be a pluralistic Jew? What are the possibilities and what are the parameters? In the eternal debate of Athens vs. Jerusalem, why do we need both? Jewish theology has never been more challenging….and more relevant! (Program available to Wisdom Without Walls subscribers).
Three sessions | September 5, 12, and 19, 2024
Profiles in Courage: How Jews Have Combated Antisemitism From the 17th Century to Today
With Rabbi Barry L. Schwartz, JPS Director Emeritus
A 3-part online course presented by My Jewish Learning in partnership with JPS
To advocate we must first educate. To fight for our future we must first know our past. The late master educator Norman H. Finkelstein’s compelling new book, Saying No to Hate: Overcoming Antisemitism in America, takes us on a lightning tour of 370 years of American Jewish history.
In this three-part course, Rabbi Barry Schwartz illuminates the history and lessons from the book. From New Amsterdam to Oct. 7, flashpoints became turning points when American Jews raised their voices. Watch the three program recordings here.
May 20, 2024
Gender, the Bible, and the Art of Translation
Presented in partnership with The Jewish Theological Seminary as part of their Timely Insights, Timeless Wisdom series.
A conversation with Elias Sacks, former Director of The Jewish Publication Society, exploring the following questions: How should English translators of the Hebrew Bible approach questions relating to gender? When should gender-inclusive language (such as “God” or “person”) be used for references to God and human beings, and when is gendered terminology (such as “King” and “man”) called for historically and linguistically? What does it mean to faithfully render biblical Hebrew into contemporary English, and how can translators share their methodologies and choices with readers and communities? The session examined these topics, focusing on the newest Bible translation released by The Jewish Publication Society, THE JPS TANAKH: Gender-Sensitive Edition. The source sheet for this session is available here.
Watch the program recording here.
March 17, 2024
Turning Points in Jewish History: A Polish Translation
Presented by the Friends of Jewish Renewal in Poland as part of their series, Freighted Legacies (Dziedzictwa obarczone): The Culture and History of Jewish Interactions in Poland.
A roundtable discussion with Rabbis Marc Rosenstein, Barry Schwartz, Menachem Mirski, Mati Kirschenbaum, Drs. Miroslaw Patalon, and Dominika Zakrzewska, exploring the Polish translation of this historical volume, which makes accessible over thirty pivotal moments from biblical times to the near present to provide the reader with “the big picture.” Its teachers will augment and embellish the Polish version using text and online sources as a core.
Watch the program recording here.
February 7, 2024
The Jewish Catalog Turns 50: Revolutionary Manifesto of DIY Judaism
Produced by the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in partnership with the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Brandeis Library, Brandeis University, Penn’s Jewish Studies Program, and The Jewish Publication Society.
A conversation with Rabbi Michael Strassfeld, Joshua Teplitsky, and Beth Wenger, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Jewish Catalog – a bestseller whose success led to second and third Jewish Catalog editions – a groundbreaking publication that revolutionized Judaism.
Watch the program recording here.
February 6, 2024
AJS Conversation Series: God, Gender, and Bible Translation
With David E.S. Stein; Beth Lieberman, HUC-JIR (Los Angeles); Everett Fox, Clark University; Hanne Loeland Levinson, University of Minnesota; Elias Sacks, The Jewish Publication Society. Presented by the Association for Jewish Studies.
January 21, 2024
Who Are the Jews—And Who Can We Become?
Presented as part of the Shalom Hartman Institute’s Ideas for Today series, in partnership with The Jewish Publication Society.
In his new JPS book, Who Are the Jews—And Who Can We Become?, Donniel Hartman posits that we need a new shared story to replace the one that is currently putting our collective identity at risk. In this session, Donniel was joined by author and journalist Abigail Pogrebin for a conversation about the impact of the October 7 attacks on the possibilities for a new Jewish story built on collective Jewish meaning, moral rigor, and a courageous commitment to each other, one that gives us a language for understanding and addressing today’s core Jewish challenges in Israel and in the Diaspora.
Watch the webinar recording here.
December 10, 2023
Judaism as a Civilization: The Hanukkah Gift to the Jewish People and World that Keeps on Giving
Presented in partnership with The Kaplan Center for Jewish Peoplehood, Reconstructing Judaism, and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association.
Lecture by Dr. Deborah Waxman of Reconstructing Judaism and response from Dr. Elias Sacks of The Jewish Publication Society marking the 90th anniversary of Mordecai Kaplan’s JPS classic, Judaism as a Civilization. Moderated by Dr. Jeffrey Schein.
Watch the webinar recording here.
February 1, 2021
The Jews Should Keep Quiet: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, and the Holocaust by Rafael Medoff
Watch the webinar recording here.
January 25, 2021
Stolen Words: The Nazi Plunder of Jewish Books by Rabbi Mark Glickman
Watch the webinar recording here.
October 21, 2020
Abraham’s Astonishing Legacy with JPS authors Rabbis Amy Scheinerman, Jeffrey Salkin, and Barry Schwartz (JPS Director Emeritus).
Watch the webinar recording here.
