LimmudFest January 2023
Welcome to LimmudBoston
PLEASE SAVE THE DATE!
12:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Via Zoom
NEW YEAR
NEW RABBIS
NEW IDEAS
from the comfort of your home.
LimmudFest January 2023
LimmudFest is online once again! Join us on January 22, 2023 , from 12:30 to 3:00 pm for a day of learning, music, laughter and connection.
Festival Location - Online!
LimmudBoston’s annual festival of Jewish learning will be held online as an eFestival.
Please join us from the comfort of your own home, safe and warm in sweats and slippers! Bring your favorite beverage and come learn at our LimmudFest January 2023 on Sunday, January 22, 2023!
About this event
12:30 Welcome and Keynote by Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld
1:00 First session
- Rabbi Dr. Michael Shire and friends: Progressive Judaism is a Changing-- a panel discussion Details below
- Rabbi Jeremy Fineberg: A Stranger and a Resident Details below
- Rabbi Jonah Rank: Signs and Wonders: Sign Language Viewed through the Rabbis Details below
- Rabbi Elie Lehmann: The Righteous Women of Exodus Details below
2:10 Second session
- Rabbi Jessica Dell'era: Nice Jewish Atheists: Doubt and Rejection of God in Jewish Thought Details below
- Rabbi Leah Nussbaum: Beit Ishah Zonah--Jewish Dwelling in the House of the Harlot: Judaism and Sex Work Details below
- Rabbi Emily Goldberg Winer: Navigating Divisive Jewish Communities Details below
- Rabbi Dr. Raysh Weiss: Cannabis and Jewish Law Details below
Attendance is FREE!
To receive the Zoom links, Registration is required
After clicking on "REGISTER NOW," click on the red box labeled reserve a spot.
CLICK HERE to register for LimmudFest January 2023.
SESSION DETAILS
Signs and Wonders: Sign Language Viewed Through the Rabbis
What did our rabbinic forebears believe about deaf people? Were our spiritual ancestors familiar with signing as a form of communication? How has Jewish discourse evolved in relating to Deaf culture today? We will explore a few classic and modern rabbinic texts together to gain insight into rabbinic attitudes towards a world without sound. An American Sign Language interpreter will be joining us.
Rabbi Jonah Rank
Rabbi Jonah Rank is the President and Rosh Yeshivah of Hebrew Seminary: A Rabbinical School for Deaf & Hearing. Rabbi Rank holds a BA in Music from Columbia University and a BA in Jewish Music from the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he was later ordained and earned an MA in Jewish Thought. When directing the Shul School at Kehilat HaNahar in New Hope, PA, Rabbi Rank was appointed to his local Environmental Advisory Council
Beit Ishah Zonah
Jewish Dwelling in the House of the Harlot: Judaism and Sex Work
The rabbis of the Talmud, and classical commentators, were overall unafraid to engage with the topic of sex work and prostitution. Despite views that may seem bigoted, their frank discussion remains a resource, and they present as a counter to the silencing taboo when it comes to discussing sex work in modern Western society. We’ll explore texts and discuss why they’re relevant to us, and to the inclusion of sex workers in Jewish communities today.
Rabbi Leah Nussbaum
Rabbi Leah Nussbaum is a staff chaplain at Hebrew SeniorLife in Roslindale, a Jewish long term care community. They were ordained in May from HUC-JIR in New York, and have returned to the Boston area, having grown up in Framingham. They love embracing intergenerational pastoral learning and connection, building community, exploring nature and farming, and playing board games-- especially mah jongg. They live in Medford with their spouse Rabbi Jess, and senior dog named Raizy.
A Stranger and a Resident
Are we strangers or are we residents? From the days of Abraham and Sarah, Jews have been trying to answer the question: "Do we belong here?" Together we'll explore some attempts to answer that question and how our complicated relationship with belonging informs our Jewish lives.
Rabbi Jeremy Fineberg
Jeremy Fineberg moved to Sharon, Massachusetts in 2022 to serve as the Senior Rabbi of Temple Israel. Previously, Rabbi Fineberg was the assistant Rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in Closter, NJ. He was ordained by The Jewish Theological Seminary in 2019, where he also earned a Master’s Degree in Midrash. A graduate of Brandeis University, Rabbi Fineberg is glad to get back to his Boston roots.
Progressive Judaism is a Changing: A Panel Discussion
There are numerous Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist and other progressive Judaisms: There is Classical Reform, Mainstream Reform, New-Hasidic Reform, Renewal Reform, etc. What is the difference between them all and what is the direction synagogues in Boston are taking to define their Reform Judaism?
This panel will be facilitated by Rabbi Dr. Michael Shire (Hebrew College and Central Reform Temple, Boston) and will also feature Rabbi Marcia Plumb (Congregation Mishkan Tefila, Brookline), and Rabbi Devon Lerner (UAHC).
Rabbi Deborah Lerner
Rabbi Marcia Plumb
Women of the Exodus
Our ancient sources are clear that women paved the way to redemption from slavery in Egypt. As we are currently reading this great narrative in our Torah cycle, let's look deeper together at these heroines of the Exodus and the way our tradition celebrates them.
Rabbi Elie Lehmann
Rabbi Elie Lehmann is the Director of Hadar Boston. He has called the Boston Jewish community home for over 20 years, having graduated from Gann Academy and Hebrew College Rabbinical School. Prior to his work at Hadar, Elie most recently served for 5 years as Campus Rabbi and University Chaplain at Boston University Hillel. While in rabbinical school, Elie founded the Kulanu Global Teaching Fellows, with whom he taught and built curricula for Jewish communities in Kenya, Ghana, India and beyond. He was Rabbinic Intern at Tufts Hillel and Temple Reyim, and was a Wexner Graduate Fellow. Elie, his wife, Anya, and their three children, Razi, Shalev and Ziv live in Cambridge.
Nice Jewish Atheists: Doubt and Rejection of God in Jewish Thought
Rabbi Jessica Dell'Era
Is it Jewish not to believe in God?
Can one be a good Jew without faith?
Discover the deep and surprising intellectual history of atheism, agnosticism, and apostasy in Jewish tradition, from the Tanakh and Talmud to the present day.
Rabbi Jessica Dell’Era (she/they) is the spiritual leader of Temple Shalom in Medford, MA. Before becoming a rabbi, she was a Spanish bilingual public school teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she grew up. She graduated from the Jewish Theological Seminary with ordination from the Rabbinical School and a Master’s in Sacred Music from the Cantorial School. She also holds a Master’s in Education from the University of California, Berkeley.
Navigating Divisive Jewish Communities
Rabbi Emily Goldberg Winer
We live in times during which the boundaries of communities are constantly being navigated and contested. We see these tensions everywhere from college campuses to social movements to synagogue communities. What orientations toward Jewish life, Israel and American politics are considered within or outside the bounds? When we think about our Jewish community, what is the value of having communal boundaries? What constitutes “membership” in any given Jewish community and what makes staying “in” compelling despite differences of opinion, perspective, or identity? What happens when disagreement threatens to destroy a community? How does a community maintain diversity even as it aspires to some shared values and norms and are there limits to this diversity?
Rabbi Emily Goldberg Winer is the Manager of Boston for Shalom Hartman Institute of North America and Director of Spiritual Engagement at Beth Sholom of Providence, Rhode Island. She received her ordination from Yeshivat Maharat in Riverdale, NY. Emily lives in Boston with her husband Jonah, campus rabbi at Tufts, and their extroverted Golden Retriever, Barley.
Cannabis & Jewish Texts
In this session, we will explore the scientific, medical, historical, sociocultural, and ethical dimensions of cannabis usage, with an eye to the halakhic ramifications for medical and recreational usages, respectively. Special attention will be paid to practical applications that may arise within Jewish communal life and appropriate parameters for said use.
Rabbi Raysh Weiss
Rabbi Raysh Weiss, Ph.D. is the Senior Co-Rabbi of Temple Israel of Natick. Rabbi Weiss is passionate about promoting widespread Jewish literacy and has written and published many pieces in a variety of publications aimed at the Jewish community at large.
The session Rabbi Weiss will be teaching comes from a responsum (a Jewish legal position paper) of hers currently under consideration by the Rabbinical Assembly’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards.
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