Jewish Lectures

Internationally acclaimed Israeli writer Meir Shalev "creates a world that has the richness of invention and the obsessiveness of dreams," wrote The New York Times Book Review of his novel A Pigeon and a Boy. Don’t miss this discussion with one of Israel's foremost literary figures.

Presented in partnership with the Israel Center of the Jewish Federation and the Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest.

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With Jeffrey Solomon

Moderated by Amy Rabbino, Director of Philanthropic Services, Jewish Community Endowment Fund

Renowned philanthropist and founder of Birthright Israel Charles Bronfman offers fresh insights into creating a business plan that works, regardless of income level, and why one needs to understand philanthropy as a business undertaking as well as a deeply personal, reflective process. In a post-Madoff world, Bronfman's words of wisdom are all the more instructive. Jeffrey Solomon is president of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, a global family of charitable foundations that actively connects young Jews with their communities, culture and each other.

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Award-winning novelist and MacArthur "genius" Rebecca Goldstein (The Mind-Body Problem, Mazel, Betraying Spinoza) is a writer whose work wrestles with affairs of the mind, heart, and soul. A philosopher by training, Goldstein helps us understand the almost erotic power that ideas can impart. Her latest book, Thirty-Six Arguments for the Existence of God, dives into the great debate between faith and reason, and gives us "a hilarious novel about people's existential agonies and the intellectual mysteries that obsess them." (Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything is Illuminated).

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With Aaron David Miller and NPR's Linda Gradstein

For nearly twenty years, Aaron David Miller (The Much Too Promised Land) has played a central role in U.S. efforts to broker Arab-Israeli peace as an advisor to presidents, secretaries of state, and national security advisors.  NPR's Israel Correspondent Linda Gradstein joins him for an in-depth, critical discussion of attempts to mediate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and an insider's behind-the scenes look at the minds and personalities of the major players in the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations. 

Presented in partnership with the Israel Center of the Jewish Community Federation

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With Rabbis David Weiss-Halivni and Michael Berenbaum

Rabbi David Weiss-Halivni is a survivor of Auschwitz and one of the greatest Talmudic scholars of the past century.  He contends that the unprecedented horrors of the Shoah defy explication; rather the cause of suffering was "cosmic," as in God's actual, ontological withdrawal from human history.  Rabbi Michael Berenbaum, leading scholar of the Holocaust, joins Weiss-Halivni for a conversation about Jewish theology after Auschwitz, the memorialization of the Shoah, and why remembering is an "act of defiance."

Presented in partnership with the Holocaust Center of Northern California.  The Alfred Manovill Memorial Lecture is made possible through the generosity of the Ingrid Tauber Philanthropic Fund of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund.

Join us for a special study session with Jerusalem-based educator, Torah scholar, and philosopher Dr. Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg (The Murmuring Deep, The Beginning of Desire, The Particulars of Rapture). Her lectures, like her books, are a sophisticated mix of traditional Jewish exegesis, Hasidic texts, Western philosophy, and poetry and appeal to students of all backgrounds and denominations. A not to be missed opportunity to study with a master.