with Andrew Stein
Sundays, October 18, 25; November 8, 15; December 6, 13; January 10, 17, 24, 31; February 7, 21, 28; March 7, 14, 21; April 11, 18, 25; May 2, 16, 23
In the Eleh Ezkerah on Yom Kippur, the prayer for martyrs, the machzor says, “we remember them as human beings defined by their moral choices, their sacrifices, their sense of responsibility.” And elsewhere in the liturgy, we have gratefully remembered “the Psalmists and Sages of Israel.” In this course, we will approach Jewish history from a different angle—via biographical profiles of about 20 key figures in the times of the Bible, antiquity, the middle ages, and then over the past roughly 250 years. We will look at the lives and legacies of religious leaders, statesmen and jurists, philosophers, poets, writers and linguists, journalists, scientists, military leaders, and philanthropists to tease out some broad themes in the study of Jewish history in the Land of Israel and the Diaspora, especially in Europe and the United States.
Click here to read a more in-depth description and click here to view the syllabus.
