Adult Jewish Education Program
Adult Jewish Education at the Jewish Community Centre is a program of interactive, seminar-style Adult Jewish learning. Topics include the full range of Jewish experience: belief, philosophy, arts, culture, history, Israel, and the interface between Judaism and the rest of the world. The courses are pluralistic in nature and provide a comfortable and stimulating environment for Jews from all different backgrounds.
Widowhood and the Halachic Stages of a Woman’s Life
Tuesdays 9:30am-11:00am: January 28th and February 4th, 11th & 18th, 2020
Early Bird Special: Register early and save! Please note that places are limited and will be reserved on a ‘first pay, first served basis’. All reservations received and accepted by January 21, 2020 will get a $10 discount. The Early Bird fee for this 4-week course is $75/student (regular fee $85).
Rabbi Debra Stahlberg Dressler has been the spiritual leader of Temple Israel since 2010 and has particularly enjoyed studying and teaching about the development of Reform Judaism and women in the rabbinate. In addition to her work at Temple Israel, Rabbi Dressler has been deeply involved in the London interfaith community, establishing such programs as the London Interfaith Peace Camp. She was the recipient of the 2016 London Diversity, Race Relations and Inclusivity Award (Youth Category). Originally a native of Lansing, Michigan, Rabbi Dressler began her career in the Jewish community in 1997. She has thoroughly enjoyed settling in London with her two younger daughters, Lucy and Maya, and is pleased to announce that they have just received their Canadian citizenship. Her eldest, Casey, recently left Manhattan to continue her studies at the University of Michigan where she has entered law school.
Widowhood and the Halachic Stages of a Woman’s Life
In Jewish law and tradition, a woman’s status was defined according to her stage of life. We will explore the various halachic stages in the lives of women – daughter, maiden, betrothed, wife, divorcee, and widow – as we consider questions of agency such as employment, property ownership, and as a legal witness. We will trace the various historical examples as women moved into and out of marriage, including Ketubot, Gittin, Levirate marriage, and widowhood. From the Bible to modern-day Israel, the legal status of a woman vis à vis her father, brother, husband, or son, has been a critical challenge to balancing rights and protections for women of every economic, ethnic, and religious stratum. One fundamental question is: ‘Are we moving forward, or falling back, in Judaism’s treatment of women?’
The Shtetl: the Real, the Imagined and the Nostalgic
Tuesdays 9:30am-11:45am: March 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th and 31st, 2020 (with a short break mid-class)
Early Bird Special: Register early and save! Please note that places are limited and will be reserved on a ‘first pay, first served basis’. All reservations received and accepted by February 25, 2020 will get a $10 discount. The Early Bird fee for this 5-week course is $99/student (regular fee $109).
Joe Gilbert is a retired physician. In recent years he has pursued his interest in classical music and opera, combining these with study of Jewish History in Europe. As an auto-didact, he has lectured on topics such as: Shostakovich; Stalin and Russian Jews; The Shtetl: The Real, the Imaginary and the Nostalgic; and The Portrayal of Jews in Opera and Music Banned by the Nazis during the Third Reich.
Joe continues his interest in medicine and science by Chairing the Western University Health Sciences Research Ethics Board.
The Shtetl: the Real, the Imagined and the Nostalgic
The concept of the shtetl is imbedded in Jewish history. How did the shtetl come about? How did it evolve over 500 hundred years in Eastern Europe? What was the Golden Age of the Shtetl? The shtetls were attacked by pogroms, state wars and industrialization. What was the impact of the rise of Chasidism and Jewish Enlightenment (the Haskala)?
In this course we will try to answer these questions as well as considering how late 19th Century Yiddish authors affected our thinking about the shtetl.
You Should Never Know from Suffering:
Jewish Artists, Creativity, and Illness
Tuesdays 9:30am-11:45am: April 28th and May 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th and June 2nd, 2020 (with a short break mid-class)
Early Bird Special: Register early and save! Please note that places are limited and will be reserved on a ‘first pay, first served basis’. All reservations received and accepted by April 21, 2020 will get a $15 discount. The Early Bird fee for this 6-week course is $130/student (regular fee $145).
Sonia Halpern is an Art Historian and a multi-award winning professor at Western University. Along with publishing academic articles, two collections of poetry, and a book of original music compositions, she has appeared in many local theatrical productions, and is a regular contributor to Jewish educational programs in London. Sonia has taught courses for AJE since its inception, and has a passion for offering the Jewish perspective on a variety of art historical periods and styles.
You Should Never Know from Suffering: Jewish Artists, Creativity, and Illness
The perception has long-existed that pain and suffering is a prerequisite of creativity, but is it? We will explore the biographies of Jewish artists specifically, in order to uncover how physical and/or emotional suffering has affected their lives and works, and, significantly, how it has overlapped with their Jewish identities and experiences.