To our members and friends
It has been an incredibly productive spring with our Institute programs and classes. We continue to build bridges throughout the community and promote our vision in communities, college campuses, and schools.
Here are some upcoming highlights:
On Shabbat, June 1, I will be the scholar-in-residence at Congregation Bnai Yeshurun in Teaneck, New Jersey (641 West Englewood Avenue). Free and open to the public.
On Sunday, June 2, from 10:30-11:15 am, I will give a pre-Shavuot talk on Ezekiel and the Principles of Prophecy at CareOne Teaneck, 544 Teaneck Road. Free and open to the public.
On Monday, June 3, from 1:00-2:15 pm, I will give a pre-Shavuot talk on the Revelation at Sinai at Lamdeinu Teaneck, 950 Queen Anne Road. Tuition of $25.
On Sunday-Monday June 23-24, I will present four papers at the Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Yemei Iyun on Bible and Jewish Thought. The annual conference is co-sponsored by the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals, and I participate every year. For a complete schedule and registration information, see here https://www.yctorah.org/giving/yemeiiyun/
On Shabbat, July 12-13, I will be the scholar-in-residence for the Sephardic Community Alliance in Deal, New Jersey. More details to follow.
Our Campus Fellows of our University Network continue to run effective programming through the United States and Canada. Please see our latest report here https://www.jewishideas.org/article/campus-fellows-report-may-2019
If you know of eligible university students who would be good Campus Fellows for the 2019-2020 academic year, please have them contact me at [email protected], or have them go online here https://www.jewishideas.org/university-network/application. Applicants first must join the University Network, which is free, here https://www.jewishideas.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=9
I continue to serve as the Tanakh Education Scholar at Ben Porat Yosef Yeshiva Day School in Paramus, New Jersey. Ben Porat Yosef creates a complete feeling of what the Ashkenazic and Sephardic worlds of thought, halakhah, custom, and history can do to complement one another, very much in line with our vision at the Institute. We are currently developing an innovative Bible program for grades 1-8 that likewise reflects our deepest values at the Institute, which combine commitment to tradition with critical-mindedness, openness to ideas, and a rationalist, non-fundamentalist approach to sacred texts. It is a privilege partnering with this singular institution.
I also am the guest editor for Conversations 34, which will feature a collection of Rabbi Marc D. Angel’s essays in celebration of his fifty years in the rabbinate. We also plan on holding several events in honor of this momentous occasion in the coming year.
I also am working on a pamphlet on Tanakh and Sephardic Inclusion in the Yeshiva High School Curriculum, to be published and distributed through our Institute as part of our Sephardic Initiative. The goal of this pamphlet is to demonstrate how our drawing from the wisdom of the entire Jewish experience enriches our learning and brings unity to a diverse community. Additionally, the pamphlet calls attention to the need to bring Sephardic and Ashkenazic customs into the Tanakh classroom.
As always, thank you for all of your support, and we will continue to spread our vision to educators, university students, and the broader Jewish community.
Rabbi Hayyim Angel
National Scholar
Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals