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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Archive of Previous Talks
Weekly Parsha Class
CBI Cafe: Winter/Spring '25 Schedule
Sign up for the Adult Education email list
Questions about our Adult Education offerings? Please reach out to our Engagement Coordinator Amy Stein.
The Adult Education Committee is comprised of Penina Glazer, Phyllis Eckstein, Larry Fine, Joshua Roth, Laura Katznelson, Dave Gorin, and Steffi Schamess.
Winter- Spring 2024/2025 Offerings
Weekly Parsha Class with Rabbi Ariella and Rabbi Jacob
Fridays 12:00-1:00 pm in the CBI Library
In person only. Drop in; no registration required.
Join Rabbi Ariella and Rabbi Jacob for a discussion of the weekly Torah portion. All are welcome, no prior knowledge or experience required. Each session will stand alone, feel free to come whenever it works for you. And please feel free to bring your own lunch!
Shabbat Morning Talmund Study with Rabbi Jacob
Mayim (Water) Building upstairs room (farm office) Shabbat Mornings 9:45-11:00
Nov 23, Dec 7, Dec 21, Jan 4, Jan 18, March 15
After a long hiatus, Rabbi Jacob's longstanding and beloved Talmud class is back! The Talmud is the central text of rabbinic Judaism; you could say that the Talmud, more than the Torah, has shaped what it means to be Jewish today. The Talmud is a vast ocean. Within its 5,422 pages, it provides us with an extraordinary compendium of Jewish wisdom in the form of law, ethics, philosophy, history, and stories. During these Shabbat study sessions, we will look at a variety of the most important, fascinating, and evocative Talmudic selections.
This class is intended for a wide audience, including both people who have never studied Talmud before as well as those who have. Absolutely no prior knowledge is required.
Creating Shabbat at Home
POSTPONED - New Dates Coming Soon!
If you have wanted to celebrate Shabbat on Friday evening but do not feel confident leading on your own this class is for you. Sessions will include candle-lighting, kiddush, the “motzi” for blessing hallah, and the blessing after meals. The ability to read Hebrew is not needed. We will use a resource that has Hebrew along with transliterations and translations. If time allows, the fourth session will include prayers and rituals for Havdalah
Jane Myers is a member of CBI and co-chair of the Ritual Committee. She has been a cantor, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah tutor for many dozens of students of all ages, a Hebrew school director, a teacher of children in public and non-profit settings, and an editor.
This is a continuation of our fall semester class, learning the function, structure and major patterns of the biblical cantillation system. This class is intended for those who participated last semester, plus anyone who has chanted Torah in the past and is looking for a refresher course. We will continue with the same text (see below), which is clear and concise, and includes audio recordings of all the teaching examples. Our model will again be active participation in a supportive learning environment. The text will be: The Art of Torah Cantillation, Vol. 1 by Cantors Marshall Portnoy and Josée Wolff.
Bill Gertzog has been a member and Torah reader at CBI since 2020. He is a part-time ESL teacher for adults, and a mostly self-taught Torah reader with 25 years experience.
Moroccan Seder Dishes: This class is full, registration is closed
Tuesdays, March 25, April 1, 6:30-8:30 In Person Only Registration Required and limited to 8 participants
Participants will learn about my family Moroccan seders, and the foods we enjoy the first night. You'll also get a few recipes.. For this course, you will prepare Moroccan Fish For the Seder Table as well as vegetable courses including our family's famous Moroccan Carrot Salad!
I'm Veronica Darmon, and I'll be leading this course. As a Moroccan Jew, I love to share family recipes that we have prepared over the generations. I was born in Rabat, and emigrated to the US in the mid 60's. With my grandmother's love and wisdom, I learned to cook these dishes, that I eventually also shared as part of my Northampton business--Cuisine Du Soleil. I also love to make Moroccan favorites for CBI kiddushim when I can!
In this two-part course, Nina Sitron will provide an overview of Jewish genealogy and Paula Ressler will offer a personal account of her genealogical research. They also will introduce the audience to CBI’s new Genealogy Havurah as well as the Western Massachusetts Jewish Genealogical Society.
April 8: “Climbing Your Family Tree”
Nina will introduce the audience to what’s possible to discover when exploring one’s family history, including an array of resources available for doing genealogical research, what is unique in the field of Jewish genealogical research, the myths that people believe about researching their families, obstacles people might encounter, and how to break through what might appear to be “brick walls.”
Nina Sitron is President of the Western MA Jewish Genealogical Society. She has actively engaged in researching her family history for over 30 years, and is committed to supporting the research of people who are curious about their families’ histories. As a Genetic Counselor for Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York, Nina helped people use their medical family history to deal with health issues.
April 15: “Genealogy Matters!”
Paula will present her research about her maternal family, particularly her uncle, a working-class adult who escaped from Vienna to the United States in 1935. Extended family were killed there in 1942. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum will be digitizing and archiving the audio tape, Paula’s introduction, and original documents because “they provide a window into the experiences of Austrian Jews who were able to emigrate before the Anschluss.”
Paula Ressler is author of Dramatic Changes: Talking About Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity through Drama; and co-author, with Becca Chase, of Meaningful Encounters: Preparing Educators to Teach Holocaust Literature. She is a former director of English Education and associate professor emerita of English, Illinois State University.
The Jewish tradition offers a variety of rituals and traditions aimed at supporting meaningful and deliberate dying, death and mourning experiences. We have two primary goals with this 4-part series. 1) We aim to help participants deepen their knowledge of Jewish death and mourning rituals and customs so that they feel better equipped to engage with these traditions in their own lives. 2) We hope to promote greater discourse and engagement in our community around the topics of death and dying.
Rabbi Jacob Fine has been part of the CBI community for the past 13 years. While he remains scared of dying, he is working to become more comfortable with the inevitable. He is drawn to the question of how we integrate awareness of death into our daily lives as a spiritual practice and feels that one of the most important features of community is how well we support one another through the stages of dying, death and mourning. Becky Tucker: Becky (she/her) is a registered nurse working in elder care and hospice, a student in ALEPH’s Rabbinic Pastor Program, and a member of the wonderful CBI community. She is grateful for the humbling gift of supporting individuals and their loved ones throughout the aging and dying process. Through her work and ongoing learning, she strives to embrace a more intimate, spiritual, and even joyful relationship with death and its lessons about life, both personally and communally.
The Mysterious Healing Power of the Mourner's Kaddish
Thursdays, May 1, 8, 15 7:00-8:30 pm in person & on Zoom in person and on Zoom Registration Required
Nothing brings us together in community like the tug to say Mourner's Kaddish. We scramble to get a minyan for those who need to say it; never are we so reverent. Yet, how well do we understand not just the meaning of the words of kaddish but also what it is meant to be doing, what is its action? In this mini-course, we will explore the text of kaddish, its historical development, and what it means to the heart. Expect surprises!
Rabbi Andrew Hahn, Ph.D. holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Philosophy from the Jewish Theological Seminary and ordination from the HUC-JIR. He has taught widely in the adult Jewish learning setting, at rabbinical schools and in the academic world. He was resident faculty at Clal: The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership in New York.
Bread and Roses: How Jewish Women Shaped Early 20th Century Activism
Tuesdays, May 6, 13, 20, 27, 7:00-8:30 pm on Zoom Only (link included in registration confirmation) Registration Required
This four-session course will focus on Jewish women's political organizing that grew out of women-led grassroots neighborhood movements in immigrant, working-class New York City in the early 1900s. Using primary sources in English, short readings, and other multimedia resources drawn from the archives, we will trace the arc of Jewish women's political organizing from the kosher meat boycott of 1902 to the "Uprising of the 20,000" in 1909, the largest strike by women to date in American history; and Jewish women's activism in the Communist movement during the Great Depression. We'll learn the life stories of women such as Clara Lemlich Shavelson, Rose Pastor Stokes, and June Croll Gordon, and examine the ways in which Jewish women understood their political commitments, and their own privilege, in relation to other ethnic and racial groups.
Jennifer Young is an educator, writer, and historian. She has worked at the Tenement Museum, the New-York Historical Society, and the YIVO Institute, and currently works at the Yiddish Book Center.
Dan Bolles of SevenDaysVT describes Lewis Franco as a central Vermont musician who has kept the spirit of swing alive for nearly two decades with swagger and cool. Inspired by Jewish songwriters like Berlin, Gershwin, and Rodgers & Hart, Franco sees their music as shaped by Jewish values and a search for belonging. This perspective drives his YouTube series, Franco the ReJewvenator, and his 2023 album, On the Sidelines. Through titles like "Say, Don't You Remember Yip Harburg?" and "Just Pretend I Wasn't Lorenz Hart," Franco connects their experiences of cultural outsiderhood with his own upbringing in Atlanta during the Civil Rights era. His concerts blend music, storytelling, and humor to explore these themes.
Sundays, in person in the CBI Social Hall and on Livestream
10:30-11:00 am: Coffee and nosh
11:00-12:00 pm: Presentation and discussion
No registration required
January 26: Once subterranean and now no longer hidden LGBTQ+ Orthodox community with Miryam Kabakov
Miryam will discuss the odyssey she has taken in finding the hidden communities of Orthodox and LGBTQ+ people, starting with Maimonides account of women in his midst.
Miryam is Founder and Executive Director of Eshel, a national organization that supports LGBTQ+ Orthodox individuals and their families. Miryam is the editor of Keep Your Wives Away From Them: Orthodox Women, Unorthodox Desires (North Atlantic Books, May 2010) a collection of writings about the challenges and joys of LGBTQ+ Orthodox Jews. Previously, she was the national program director of AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps, Coordinator of LGBT programming at the JCC Manhattan, and the first social worker at Footsteps.
February 23: Abraham v. Joshua: The Torah of the stranger v. the Torah of genocide with Rabbi David Seidenberg
The intra-Jewish culture wars of today go all the way back to the Bible, where the Torah of kindness to the stranger--Abraham's Torah--directly conflicts with the laws to wipe out the Canaanite nations--Joshua's Torah. But this is not a battle between two equal camps: there is evidence that the Torah of kindness to the stranger is the original Torah, and the Torah of ethnic cleansing is a revanchist effort to change or subvert the purpose of the covenant itself. We will wrestle the conflict as it appears in Scripture and learn about evidence of its historicity.
Rabbi David Seidenberg is the creator of neohasid.org, the author of Kabbalah and Ecology: God's Image in the More-Than-Human World, and the organizer and facilitator of Torah Foragers weekly Torah study, and the Prayground Minyan.
March 2: From Generation to Generation/I Carry My Mother, I Wish My Father with Lesléa Newman
Lesléa Newman had the honor and privilege of being the primary caretaker for each of her parents as they made their separate journeys from this world into the world to come. In this presentation, she will read and discuss both her memoirs-in-verse, "I Carry My Mother" and "I Wish My Father." A book sale and book signing will follow.
Lesléa Newman has created 87 books for readers of all ages including the dual memoir-in-verse, "I Carry My Mother" and "I Wish My Father" and the children's books, "Ketzel, the Cat who Composed," "GIttel's Journey: An Ellis Island Story," "The Babka Sisters," and "Joyful Song: A Naming Story." She has received two National Jewish Book Awards, two American Library Association Stonewall Honors, the Association of Jewish Libraries Sydney Taylor Body-of-Work Award and the Massachusetts Book Award. She is a former poet laureate of Northampton, MA.
March 9: A Modern Jewish Odyssey from Egypt with Marlene Lesley
Marlene Lesey was born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt. In her youth, there were many thousand Jews there. Now there are only a very few. Her story started in comfort and affluence, and ended in leaving, stripped of their Egyptian citizenship and all their money. Join us for a very special CBI Cafe to hear about a modern experience Coming Out of Egypt.
March 23: The Origins of the American Jewish Left with Jennifer Young
At the turn of the 20th century, New York City was the largest Jewish community in the world. Men, women, and children, working in the sweatshops of the rapidly industrializing garment industry, began laying the foundations of the modern labor movement. Working-class immigrant Jews also established mutual aid organizations, schools, summer camps, and Yiddish and Ladino daily newspapers, nurturing a multi-faceted Jewish civic identity grounded in secular humanism, culture, and language. We’ll explore how this unique moment in American history became what one historian has called the "largest, most creative upsurge in American Jewish history," and how this cultural and political phenomenon still impacts our world today.
Jennifer Young is an educator, writer, and historian. She has worked at the Tenement Museum, the New-York Historical Society, and the YIVO Institute, and currently works at the Yiddish Book Center.
April 27: Maimonides' Ever-Relevant Message: Why Do We Need Reason In Our Religion? with Lois Dubin
We will examine Maimonides' s ever-relevant message of religious rationalism -- that religion needs reason, philosophy, and science in order to provide a pathway to truth and to ethical living. We will read a few texts from his law-code, Mishneh Torah, Bk. 1: The Book of Knowledge.
Lois Dubin is Professor Emerita of Religion and Jewish Studies at Smith College, She has taught a wide variety of courses in Jewish history and thought, world religions, and women and religion.
May 18: Book Talk - Here There Is No Why with Philip Graubart
Here There Is No Why is a mystery novel set mostly in Jerusalem. A famous Holocaust survivor and writer dies mysteriously. A journalist and former student travels to Israel to investigate.
Philip Graubart was rabbi at Congregation B'nai Israel for eleven years. He's published six novels, including his latest, Here There Is No Why. He teaches Biblical History and Jewish Thought at the Academy for Jewish Religion.
Archive of Previous Talks
Professor Mark Auslander
"Mourning across borders: honoring the voices of the lost" --- Read the transcript of this talk here.
January 14, 2024
Professor Omar Bartov
"Weaponizing Language: Misuses of Holocaust Memory and the Never Again Syndrome" --- Fill out this form to receive the recording link.
February 28, 2024
Laurie Sanders
"History of the Northampton Alms House" --- Watch the Zoom presentation here.
February 4, 2024
Rabbi David Seidenberg
"Jews and Indigenousness" --- Watch the livestream recording here.
March 11, 2024
