A virtual event with Rabbi Marc Gitler

About The Event:
In this class, we'll explore the deeper layers of the Purim story that often go unnoticed. Together, we’ll look beyond the costumes, noise, and celebration to uncover subtle themes woven into the Megillah—hidden miracles, quiet acts of courage, and the power of human choice when God seems absent. Through close reading and reflection, this class will reveal how Purim speaks not only to ancient Persia but to our own lives, offering timeless insights about resilience, faith, and finding meaning beneath the surface.

*Source Sheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1epMazCRxkJyPlebCqapWPUOxnBSQPRET/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=118303465191084699356&rtpof=true&sd=true

About The Speaker:
Rabbi Marc Gitler serves as the Senior Jewish Educator at Valley Beit Midrash and is the visiting Rabbi of Aish SanDiego. A recipient of the Wexner Fellowship, he was ordained at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. The founder of Fast for Feast, he lives in Denver, Colorado, with his wife, Sarah, and their four children.

A virtual event with Rabbi Marc Gitler

About The Event:
Judaism contains 613 mitzvot, each shaping Jewish life in its own way. But are some more central than others? In this lecture, we’ll explore how the Torah and later Jewish thinkers have grappled with the idea of prioritizing commandments. By examining key biblical passages and rabbinic teachings, we’ll ask what it might mean to identify a “most important” mitzvah, or a core set of values that anchor them all. Along the way, we’ll consider how these debates can help us clarify what Judaism asks of us—and how those priorities might guide Jewish life today.

*Source Sheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qNx5xPcV0qQwQwWtoCny4EPT2PBNw-gc/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=118303465191084699356&rtpof=true&sd=true

About The Speaker:
Rabbi Marc Gitler serves as the Senior Jewish Educator at Valley Beit Midrash and is the visiting Rabbi of Aish SanDiego. A recipient of the Wexner Fellowship, he was ordained at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. The founder of Fast for Feast, he lives in Denver, Colorado, with his wife, Sarah, and their four children.

A virtual event presentation by Melanie Gruenwald

About The Event:

In this session, we will take a psycho-spiritual, kabbalistic exploration of our multiple masks and identities, and explore the themes connected to the upcoming holiday of Purim.

*Source Sheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DccDFTg4zbdz7e-SC_wusZRtcEy7NIoH/view?usp=sharing

About The Speaker:

Melanie Gruenwald, Executive Director of Kabbalah Experience, brings over 30 years of non-profit leadership and community-organizing to her position. Engaged with senior citizens, families, college students, and teens, Melanie has extensive professional experience with communal leadership and informal Jewish education.

Melanie is energized by building relationships, understanding people’s needs, and finding ways to connect them. She loves the balance of organizational leadership and teaching, on a daily basis at Kabbalah Experience.

She earned her B.S. in Psychology from Binghamton University (S.U.N.Y), and Masters in Social Work and Certificate in Jewish Communal Service from the Wurzweiler School of Social Work at Yeshiva University. Melanie has pursued additional Judaic and spiritual studies at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, the Conservative Yeshiva, and, most recently, Kabbalah Experience.

Melanie is married to Rabbi Salomon Gruenwald and is mom to three children, Koby (z”l), Hannah, and Micah.

A virtual event presentation by Rabbi Sarah Mulhern

About The Event:

When we say we want to work for justice, what do we actually mean? In this class, we will dive into the question of whether a truly just outcome is about equity, equality, or is revolutionary in nature, and try to understand what the strengths and weaknesses of each approach to changemaking are. Through discussion and the study of rabbinic texts that advocate for each of these approaches in relation to economic justice, we will explore how each of us can best focus our work to change the world in our areas of passion.

*Source Sheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ASFEXkmGB5dWVF50i9g0OFZxdGwC7zXH/view?usp=sharing

About The Speaker:

Rav Sarah Mulhern is a Rabbi, educator, and community builder. She serves as the Rabbi of Silverstein Base Lincoln Park, opening her home and her heart to young adults in Chicago. She passionately believes that Torah matters and that Judaism can enrich human life and better society. Rav Sarah is also a nationally-regarded Torah educator, frequently teaching in a wide variety of Jewish adult education settings, particularly on topics of ethics, gender, and Jewish practice. As a rabbi, some of her areas of focus include grief support, feminist and queer niddah education, and crafting joyful halachic egalitarian life cycle rituals. She is deeply committed to inspiring traditional prayer and is a passionate shaliach tzibur. Rav Sarah was ordained by the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College, where she also earned a Master's in Jewish Education, and received private rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Daniel Landes. She is an alumna of Brandeis University, Yeshivat Hadar, Pardes Institute, Drisha Institute, Beit Midrash Har El, the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, and the David Hartman Center Fellowship.

A hybrid event presentation (in-person and virtual) with Shira Milgrom and David M. Elcott

The event was co-sponsored by Congregation Beth Israel

About The Event:
In this traveler’s guide to spiritual practice, Milgrom and Elcott bring the reader to many paths that seekers of the sacred walk. What is the universal sevenfold path? Recognizing a spark of the divine; honoring the covenant with all living things; engaging in healing and growth; opening our lives to the divine presence; seeing where we are as a sacred place; seeking and pursuing justice; and taking time to enjoy a sabbath. They illuminate these paths through inspiring stories, both inherited and personal, drawn from a richly lived Jewish life and encounters with faith communities around the world. For while the universe emerged from one pinpoint of energy and life, it is only in its infinite diversitthatre God can be found. Indeed, “there is no place devoid of the Presence,” even in everyday.

About The Speakers:
Shira Milgrom served as Rabbi of Congregation Kol Ami in White Plains for thirty-seven years and is the editor of a unique prayer book used in Jewish settings across the continent.

David M. Elcott, retired as the Taub Professor of Practice at NYU Wagner, is a Senior Fellow at Columbia’s Center for Justice and works with Hudson Link to teach classes to incarcerated individuals. He is the author of Faith, Nationalism, and the Future of Liberal Democracy.

A hybrid event presentation (in-person and virtual) by Rabbi Dalia Marx

The event was co-sponsored by Beth El Phoenix

About The Event:

Rabbi Dalia Marx, one of the most respected voices in contemporary Jewish thought and liturgy, will talk about how October 7 and the war since have brought profound and rapid changes to the world of Jewish prayer: the language, the focus, even the urgency. Rabbi Marx will also share her reflections on the Jewish responsibility to bring our hostages home, and the prayers—old and new—that have sustained her through this challenging time.

Sources:

• Powerpoint: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qO5KjL6DBJvIauNX-mB3g0-Z9fkb5IqI/view?usp=sharing
• Source Sheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15df5BuTZIKE_jebc4Ko4NbJZ3BtSfvwW/view?usp=sharing

About The Speaker:

Rabbi Marx is the Rabbi Aaron D. Panken Professor of Liturgy and Midrash at the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem. She is the first woman in Israel to hold a professorship in liturgy and is a trailblazer in both academic and spiritual circles. Her work bridges scholarship and lived practice, and she is the author of several books, including When I Sleep and When I Wake: On Prayers Between Dusk and Dawn. She’s also a contributor to the new Israeli Reform prayerbook and a leading voice in shaping how prayer responds to collective trauma, grief, and hope.

Purchase Rabbi Dalia Marx's book here: http://time.ccarpress.org

A hybrid event presentation by Rabbi Ben Greenfield

About The Event:
Did God lust after the Matriarchs? Did Jacob think he was Divine? Did Mordechai breastfeed Esther? The Midrash (the rabbinic expansion on Biblical stories) is too often read as a set of fables or children's stories. But in truth, the Midrash contains some of the most radical, imaginative, and philosophically astute readings of the Bible in our Tradition. Together we will explore five midrashim that have yet to enter the popular Jewish conscience, but probably should.

About The Speaker:
Rabbi Ben Greenfield serves as Scholar in Residence, VBM Las Vegas and as the Director of Jewish Learning at The Adelson Upper School, in Las Vegas. Ben trained at Gush, Yeshiva University, Johns Hopkins, and Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, where he was a Wexner Graduate Fellow. His original studies in Jewish thought have received several national prizes and can be found on Tablet and the Lehrhaus.

A virtual event presentation by Rabbanit Sharona Halickman

About The Event:
You may think that reduce, reuse, and recycle are modern concepts for saving the environment, but when we delve into the Talmud's insights into the Seven Species of Israel, we will find that these ideas are intrinsic in these Biblical fruits.

*Source Sheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PJE9haKXAMUditgC1dczIVprxD-61sMo/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=118303465191084699356&rtpof=true&sd=true

About The Speaker:
Rabbanit Sharona Halickman holds a BA in Judaic Studies from Stern College and an MS in Jewish Education from Azrieli Graduate School, Yeshiva University. Sharona was the first Orthodox woman to serve as a clergy member as the first Congregational Intern and first Madricha Ruchanit at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, NY. After making aliya in 2004, Sharona founded Torat Reva Yerushalayim, a nonprofit organization based in Jerusalem that provides Torah study groups for students of all ages and backgrounds.