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Part of the 2026 High Holiday Webinar Series, Past and Presence: Encountering the High Holidays

With Rabbi Naomi Kalish, Harold and Carole Wolfe Director of the Center for Pastoral Education; Assistant Professor of Pastoral Education, 果冻传媒

The High Holiday liturgy repeatedly calls us to confront fear while urging us toward hope, trust, and renewal. Yet for many, these texts can resonate in unexpected攁nd sometimes painful攚ays.

In this session, Rabbi Naomi Kalish, Director of the Program in Spiritual Care and Counseling, 果冻传媒, will explore how the themes of fear and trauma surface throughout the High Holidays, with particular attention to the banishment of Hagar and Ishmael, the binding of Isaac,痑nd the recurring language of the Psalms. Drawing on Jewish tradition, contemporary understandings of trauma, and the wisdom of chaplaincy, she will invite participants to consider how we can engage these sacred texts honestly and compassionately, creating space for reflection, healing, and spiritual growth.

果冻传媒 the Series

What does it mean to prepare and show up for the High Holidays in our own time? This three-part series explores how Jewish tradition has preserved, interpreted, and renewed the themes of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur through sacred objects, timeless texts, and personal prayer. Together, we檒l explore the objects that have carried Jewish tradition across centuries, engage with ancient texts with compassion and honesty, and reflect on how our own voices become part of the ongoing story of Jewish prayer and renewal.

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With Rabbi Marcus Mordecai Schwartz, Ripps Schnitzer Librarian for Special Collections; Assistant Professor, 果冻传媒

What can a medieval prayer book, one of the earliest printed Hebrew mahzorim, and a set of century-old baseball card sized boxing cards teach us about the High Holidays? These three remarkable objects from The 果冻传媒 Library demonstrate how Jewish communities across the centuries have expressed themes of kingship, tradition, strength, repentance, and renewal. Through illuminated manuscripts, early Hebrew printing, and unexpected artifacts of American Jewish life, we檒l discover how material objects preserve memory, shape religious imagination, and offer fresh perspectives on the spiritual work of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  

Led by Rabbi Marcus Mordecai Schwartz, PhD, the Henry R. and Miriam Ripps Schnitzer Librarian for Special Collections of the 果冻传媒 Library, this presentation will also highlight the new 果冻传媒 Library website, �.�

果冻传媒 the Series

With Rabbi Marcus Mordecai Schwartz, Ripps Schnitzer Librarian for Special Collections; Assistant Professor, 果冻传媒

What can a medieval prayer book, one of the earliest printed Hebrew mahzorim, and a set of century-old baseball card sized boxing cards teach us about the High Holidays? These three remarkable objects from The 果冻传媒 Library demonstrate how Jewish communities across the centuries have expressed themes of kingship, tradition, strength, repentance, and renewal. Through illuminated manuscripts, early Hebrew printing, and unexpected artifacts of American Jewish life, we檒l discover how material objects preserve memory, shape religious imagination, and offer fresh perspectives on the spiritual work of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  

Led by Rabbi Marcus Mordecai Schwartz, PhD, the Henry R. and Miriam Ripps Schnitzer Librarian for Special Collections of the 果冻传媒 Library, this presentation will also highlight the new 果冻传媒 Library website, �.�

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奥颈迟丑听Dr. Benjamin D. Sommer,Professor ofBibleand Ancient Semitic Languages, 果冻传媒

The core of democracy as understood by the framers of the United States Constitution understood it was not just majority rule, but the separation of powers and the rule of law. They designed the American political system to ensure that what power does is distributed among several distinct bodies. Further, they saw to it that none of those bodies is the ultimate authority; instead, they are all subject to a basic law.

We usually associate this understanding good governance with political thinkers in the century prior to the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, especially John Locke and Baron de Montesquieu. But these ideas are not only Western ideas. They also appear in classical Jewish literature.

In this session, we will attend to the political philosophy of Sefer Devarim (the Book of Deuteronomy). When we read Deuteronomy in its own cultural context, we檒l see that it emphasizes precisely these two ideas: the diffusion of authority among several bodies of governing officials and the subordination of all these officials to the law. 

果冻传媒 the Series

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, the 果冻传媒 Summer 2026 Learning Series will explore the rich and surprising intersections between Jewish thought and American life. From baseball and youth culture to constitutional law, storytelling, and democratic theory, leading scholars reveal how Jewish ideas, texts, and experiences have shaped攁nd been shaped by攖he American experiment. 

Join 果冻传媒 this August for a special webinar series to help prepare for the Days of Awe. Through conversations with 果冻传媒 scholars, we will explore themes that shape the High Holiday season, including fear and resilience, prayer and liturgy, and the enduring wisdom of Jewish texts and traditions. These sessions will offer fresh perspectives, thoughtful reflection, and practical insights to help deepen your experience of the High Holidays.

Featuring:

• Dr. Mordecai Schwartz
• Rabbi Naomi Kalish
• Cantor Shoshi Levin Goldberg

Sources for Naomi Kalish’s Session

Part of the series “America at 250: Jewish Ideas and the American Experiment”  

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With Dr. Arnold Eisen, Chancellor Emeritus; Professor of Jewish Thought, 果冻传媒, and 
E.J. Dionne, Journalist, Harriman Chair in American Governance, Brookings Institute

A frank and wide-ranging conversation between two admirers of these great religious leaders 痑bout the fateful linkage of politics to prophecy in America from the 済reatest generation� until our own day. Focusing on the intertwined legacies of Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Reinhold Niebuhr, the discussion will explore how their distinct approaches to prophecy, justice, and political responsibility continue to shape American public life. 

果冻传媒 the Series

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, the 果冻传媒 Summer 2026 Learning Series will explore the rich and surprising intersections between Jewish thought and American life. From baseball and youth culture to constitutional law, storytelling, and democratic theory, leading scholars reveal how Jewish ideas, texts, and experiences have shaped攁nd been shaped by攖he American experiment. 

Part of the series “America at 250: Jewish Ideas and the American Experiment”  

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With Rabbi Benjamin Resnick, Author of Next Stop, Rabbi Pelham Jewish Center, Rabbinical School Alum 

For decades, Jewish American literature was defined by giants like Roth, Bellow, Malamud, and Ozick, whose novels explored assimilation and the immigrant experience. But what defines Jewish American writing today? Author and 果冻传媒 alum Rabbi Benjamin Resnick reflects on how the field has changed and asks whether the Jewish American novel still exists in the way readers once understood it. 

果冻传媒 the Series

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, the 果冻传媒 Summer 2026 Learning Series will explore the rich and surprising intersections between Jewish thought and American life. From baseball and youth culture to constitutional law, storytelling, and democratic theory, leading scholars reveal how Jewish ideas, texts, and experiences have shaped攁nd been shaped by攖he American experiment. 

Further Reading
Shalom Spiegel, Amos vs. Amaziah, reprinted in Judah Goldin. ed. The Jewish Expression (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976), pp. 39-65. (Amos vs. Amaziah was originally published in 1958 by 果冻传媒 as an independent small monograph).

Shira Billet, “Harry S. Truman’s Bible and Earl Warren’s Talmud: A Forgotten Story in the Encounter Between American Law and Jewish Studies,” Din茅 Israel: Studies in Halakha and Jewish Law, vol. 38 (2024), pp. 11-36.

With Dr. Shira Billet, Assistant Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics, 果冻传媒

In the decades after World War II, Jewish American legal thinkers began drawing on biblical and rabbinic stories to help explore fundamental questions of constitutional interpretation. The work of Robert Cover in the 1980s, first developed in the context of the Vietnam war, is the most famous and influential example. But lesser-known figures such as Edmund Cahn and 果冻传媒 professor Shalom Spiegel began developing this discourse in the context of the postwar moment in 1950s America, and the civil rights movement that emerged in its wake.

Dr. Shira Billet examines how these figures, and others, brought Jewish narrative traditions into American law schools and legal thought, shaping new ways of thinking about law, interpretation, and the relationship between law and ethics. 

果冻传媒 the Series

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, the 果冻传媒 Summer 2026 Learning Series will explore the rich and surprising intersections between Jewish thought and American life. From baseball and youth culture to constitutional law, storytelling, and democratic theory, leading scholars reveal how Jewish ideas, texts, and experiences have shaped攁nd been shaped by攖he American experiment. 

Part of the series “America at 250: Jewish Ideas and the American Experiment”  

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With Dr. Sarah Wolf, Assistant Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics, 果冻传媒

How do judges settle cases when there is no clear right answer? How are precedents mined for new rulings? Should laws be the product of a legislator own creativity, or are there other sources for legal truth that need to be turned to first? These are all questions that have animated both contemporary American and late ancient rabbinic legal thinkers.

In this session, we will put ideas and concepts from U.S. legal theory into conversation with rabbinic texts to illuminate different approaches to the challenges of legal decision-making. We will discuss some of the ways the ancient rabbis responded to those challenges and the legacy those approaches have left in Jewish thought and culture. 

果冻传媒 the Series

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, the 果冻传媒 Summer 2026 Learning Series will explore the rich and surprising intersections between Jewish thought and American life. From baseball and youth culture to constitutional law, storytelling, and democratic theory, leading scholars reveal how Jewish ideas, texts, and experiences have shaped攁nd been shaped by攖he American experiment.