Thursdays 8:00-9:00am at Beth Am beginning January 5. The class will be available both in person & virtually.
The class is free for all, but registration is required. Register by following this link. Join by Zoom join us here.
Questions? Contact Zack Berger at zackarysholemberger@gmail.com or Melissa Gerr at gerrmelissa@gmail.com.
Jan 5: Rajani Gudlavalleti | Baltimore Harm Reduction Coalition, Director of Mobilization
Harm reduction is built on a belief in, and respect for, the rights of people who use substances. How does harm reduction fit into the greater social justice movement?
Jan 19: Dr. Zackary Berger | Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Berman Institute of Bioethics
US healthcare is in crisis. How can Jews collaborate with non-Jews to make it just?
Feb. 2: Dr. Janaki Kuruppu | National Institutes for Health
How do faith and healthcare work hand in hand? Dr. Kuruppu has set up HIV clinics within Kenyan faith-based communities; worked with the Jewish Abayudaya community in Uganda, and served in Sierra Leone during the Ebola crisis of 2014-15.
Feb. 16: Sandy Winters | Educator
Tzedakah or Charity or Justice? Yes! Join Sandy Winters for text study drawing from the classic rabbinic text Yoreh Deah, and linguistic analysis of the Hebrew words “tzedakah” and “shekel” and English words “charity” and “Lady Bountiful.” You will be surprised!
Mar 2: Justin Fair | Jews of Color Mishpacha Project
How can spirituality combat anti-semitism and racism? Fair draws on the experiences of how Jews of Color express their spirituality as a means to fight against anti-Semitism and colonial vestiges like caste, racism and homophobia.
March 16: Rav Tyler Dratch | Beth Am Synagogue
How do the Torah and later Rabbinic texts understand economic justice, and how might those ideas be useful in our own communal activism? Join Rav Tyler’s discussion: There Will Never Cease to Be Needy Ones: What the Rabbis Really Think about Economic Justice. Exploring Deuteronomy 15.
March 30: Rav Daniel Burg | Beth Am Synagogue
Just is. Just us. Justice. Most of us want justice, but where do we start? With Rav Daniel explore sources that offer a path from the is to the ought, the me to the we, the us to the all of us.
Apr. 20: Dr. Ben Sax | The Institute for Islamic, Christian, Jewish Studies
How do we make room for justice in interreligious spaces? Ben Sax discusses the importance of holding a place for everyone.
May 4: (NOON, this session only) Prof. Shira Robinson | George Washington University
How do we make sense of the far-right shift in Israeli politics? Prof. Robinson explores the ruptures and continuities since 1948.
