There are so many adult learning opportunities, online and/or in person. What will you choose?
Next term at LSJS (London School of Jewish Studies) features courses, tours and special events, as well as ulpan across 11 levels. Highlights include Rabbi Dr Harvey Belovski looking at the life of Professor David Weiss Halevi; Sally Berkovic sharing her experience of joining the Chevra Kadisha and looking at Jewish mourning rites, Rabbi Shlomo Levin in conversation with Rabbi Dr Raphael Zarum to mark the second yahrzeit of Rabbi Lord Sacks and the Chief Rabbi of Poland speaking about the new reality for Jews in Poland as they welcome Ukrainian Jewish refugees into their community.
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Visit the British Museum on a special tour with LSJS
There are also courses exploring the book of Daniel, modern Jewish literature, Israeli elections, halachah and Jewish approaches to abortion in the wake of Roe vs Wade, as well as the very popular weekly free course exploring and developing Rabbi Sacks’s thoughts on the parashah.
And LSJS is offering tours at the Museum of London and the British Museum and an online tour looking at the Jewish influences on the Sistine Chapel.
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Museum of London: Another illuminating destination for LSJS students
At JW3, Judy Trotter, head of adult education, says: “Our centre grows from strength to strength, building on the ‘new normal’ that the pandemic has led us into.”
For the new academic year at JW3, she says, “We have reached out broader and wider than ever to provide a rich variety [of courses] to choose from. Mainly these are multi-access — you can choose — come into the building or join us from wherever in the world you reside. We now have regular students from Glasgow, Cape Town and New York with other visitors and presenters from the four corners of the UK and across the world.”
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Unsung heroes of the Kindertransport are highlighted in an event at JW3
JW3 is hosting both new and continuing presenters, offering subjects from history to Israel to literature to Hollywood.
You can choose lecture-style events to listen to, or participatory workshop-style courses, in-person only, on Zoom only — or the majority offer both.
Courses this autumn include: First Nations: Story of Indigenous Americans; Critical Turning Points in Jewish History, Ukrainian history and Sephardi history.
Evenings cover, among other topics, Menches in the Trenches: Unsung Jewish Heroes; Jews by the Sea; Truus Children; Jews of Cape Town; White Debt (about Britain’s legacy of slavery) and the Gordon Riots.
Presenters include Hagai Segal, Gavin Morris, Daniel Herskowitz; Thomas Harding; Mike Levy; George McGhee; Jonathan Paris; Elon Perry; Gillian Walnes Perry; Chaim Feder, Gaby Glassman, William Tyler and many more.
JW3’s Holocaust education programme features the annual commemoration of Kristallnacht on November 9 with survivor Elsa Shamash and music by City of Sinfonia, an evening about forgotten war heroine Truus Wijsmuller and another on the unsung heroes of the Kindertransport, entitled Get the Children Out.
“As always there is something for everyone and we hope to see you often,” says Trotter.
Lehrhaus, the adult learning programme at Leo Baeck College, continues to grow and break new ground.
This coming academic year will see the college-run beginner courses in Yiddish and Targumic Aramaic.
These join an already flourishing group of language offerings including biblical and modern Hebrew and classical Greek.
There are also a series of interactive online Jewish studies courses set for the new term. So far these include David Becomes King with Rabbi Professor Jonathan Magonet; The Jewish God: Who, What and Where? with Professor Melissa Raphael; The Transition to Ivrit as a Modern Vernacular and Hebraization of Israeli Society with Norman Berdichevsky; The History of the Pale of Settlement with Rabbi Tanya Sakhnovich and Back to ‘Back to the Sources’ with Rabbi Fred Morgan.
In addition, several free talks are being offered as part of Lehrhaus. These will include Rabbi Tanya Sakhnovich recounting her harrowing escape from Ukraine, and pre and post Israeli election analysis by Rabbi Lea Mühlstein, the international chair of Arzenu.
Dr Jo-Ann Myers, director of Jewish education at Leo Baeck College, says: “Our online learning bridges give participants the opportunity to study with our outstanding teachers from the comfort of their own homes and to connect with people from all over the world. Lehrhaus is truly a uniting force of worldwide learning.
“We will also soon be launching a library of free Lehrhaus learning opportunities to be accessed whenever and wherever, which will include videos, pod casts and writings.”
Lehrhaus offers all adults, whatever their background, faith or level of learning, the opportunity to study with the College’s world-renowned faculty and specialist teachers on a range of Jewish subjects.
A returning student explained why they keep coming back, saying: “When I found that the LBC Lehrhaus programme was offering weekly online classes in Hebrew for beginners, I had to give it a go — especially as I have had such a positive experience with previous online Lehrhaus courses. First of all, the fact these courses are available online is very important for me. Secondly, as always with these things, the teacher is the vital element — and Leo Baeck College’s teachers are fabulous, offering encouragement and support while always staying focused. I also enjoy the sense of ‘group-ness’ that is created. Within a few weeks, our Hebrew class felt like a safe, supportive space in which to get things wrong and try things out.”
Another recent student added: “I have enjoyed every moment of Lehrhaus and feel that I have learned a great deal from every session. I particularly valued the opportunity for participants to ask questions on all aspects of what we were learning — and that if the teacher didn’t know the answer, they made sure to come back with it the next week”.
LSJS: lsjs.ac.uk, 020 8203 6427
JW3: jw3.org.uk, 020 7433 8988, info@jw3.org.uk
Leo Baeck College: lbc.ac.uk/lehrhaus
