Torah Study
Every Saturday at 9:30am
January 2: Vayechi
January 9: Shemot
January 16: Va’era
January 23: Bo
January 30: Beshalach
February 6: Yitro
February 13: Mishpatim
February 20: Terumah
February 27: Tetzaveh
Talmud Study
Every Wednesday at noon
Join Rabbi Michael Pincus to explore a bit of Talmud together. Discover questions you never thought to ask and the beauty of rabbinic thinking.
No experience or homework required!
Shining Lights with Rabbi Fliegel (Fridays at 11am)
These winter months can feel dark and lonely. Join Rabbi Fliegel every Friday in January and February at 11:00am to shine a little light into the dark spaces and give ourselves a chance to find some Shabbat peace.
Short Story Coffee Break (First and third Thursdays at 11am)
Join Learning Center Director Karen Beyard and a lively group of readers who discuss short stories by Jewish authors. When there is a fifth Thursday, we enjoy an “extra cup” of reading, conversation, and connection.
Currently, all programs are virtual unless otherwise noted. Go to cbict.org/calendar for Zoom codes.
Dinner in Paris–A Virtual Tour of Jewish Paris with Karen Reb Rudel
Sunday, January 10 at 6:30pm
Participants will experience the history of the Jewish community in Paris with stories from Holocaust survivors and their families, rabbis, and Jewish friends in Paris. Among the sites to be visited are: Le Marais (a main Jewish neighborhood), Place de Vosges, Hotel de Sully, Synagogue Hector Guimard (the oldest synagogue in Paris), Musee Carnavalet, SHOAH Holocaust Memorial Museum and much more!
Click HERE to register.
In the Footsteps of…David and Goliath–A Virtual Israel Tour with Yoram Preminger
Sunday, February 7 at 1pm
This virtual tour will take us to the Elah Valley, the site of the battle between David and Goliath. The biblical text will help us explore the geographical setting for the battle as we take a look at some of the sites mentioned such as Azekah and Sha’arayim. The story opens a window for us into the important historical period of the early days of the Kingdom of Israel..
Click HERE to register.
Bridge to the Balkans: A Jewish Shelter from the Storm with Robyn Helzner
Sunday, February 21 at 7pm
Explore this wildly popular destination through a Jewish lens. Robyn Helzner introduces this region of spectacular beauty and historic heartbreak through captivating stories, expressive Ladino and Yiddish songs, compelling video, and striking images. Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal found safe haven in the cities of Dubrovnik, Split, and Sarajevo. The later arrival of Ashkenazi Jews created a vibrant meeting place between the cultures of east and west.
Click HERE to register.
Sunday, March 7 at 1pm and Sunday, April 11 at 1pm
Budapest and Vienna: In the Footsteps of Theodor Herzl (Two Sessions) with Mike Hollander
These two capitals of the Austro-Hungarian Empire boasted thriving, creative, successful, and influential Jewish communities, which reached unprecedented heights during the Fin de Siecle era. This two-part session will explore the incredible achievements of the Jewish community in these two beautiful cities, explore the complex search for identity in the 50 years leading up to World War II, will grapple with two very different stories of how anti-Jewish policies and the Shoah developed, and will discuss Jewish life post-1945. The themes will be explored by focusing on a number of key personalities, including Theodor Herzl, Hanna Szenes, Raul Wallenberg, Sigmund Freud, Stefan Zweig and Viktor Frankl.
Registration information coming soon.
Anat Hoffman, Executive Director, Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC)
Does the Jewish State Treat All Jews Equally? The Legal Status of the Reform Movement in Israel
Sunday, January 31 at 11am
This webinar will reflect on the current legal status of the Reform Movement in Israel. She will address the challenges of having Reform conversions and weddings recognized, equal governmental funding, and the challenges facing Reform congregations.
Click HERE to register.
Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin, Author, Scholar, Teacher
Author of Looking for God in All the Right Places
Sunday, February 28 at 4pm
Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin is one of American Judaism’s most prolific and most-quoted rabbis and thought leaders. Ever since his first book, Putting God on the Guest List: How to Reclaim The Spiritual Meaning of Your Child’s Bar or Bat Mitzvah (Jewish Lights Publishing), Rabbi Salkin has been known for his writing, teaching and activism. His books are on such subjects as ritual, masculinity, Zionism, inter-religious affairs, and how Jews can change the world. He has written or edited three Torah commentaries–two of which are for teens. Several of his books have won national awards.
Rabbi Salkin’s award-winning blog, Martini Judaism: for those who want to be shaken and stirred, is published by the Religion News Service. He is currently the Rabbi of Temple Israel in West Palm Beach, FL.
Click HERE to register
Book Discussion with Michelle Cameron, Author of Beyond the Ghetto Gates
Thursday, February 18 at 7pm
Beyond the Ghetto Gates is set in 1796-97, a rare happy epoch in Jewish life when Napoleon marched into Italy and demolished the ghetto gates, freeing the Jews who had long been trapped behind them. Based on history unfamiliar to most readers, the novel raises issues that remain pertinent today, including antisemitism, the conflict between assimilation and religious tradition, intermarriage, and the struggle between love and familial duty.
Click HERE to register
Dr. Joe Kraus, Author
The Kosher Capones: A History of Chicago’s Jewish Gangsters
Sunday, March 21 at 7pm
The Kosher Capones tells the fascinating story of Chicago’s Jewish gangsters from Prohibition into the 1980s. Author Joe Kraus traces these gangsters through the lives, criminal careers, and conflicts of Benjamin “Zuckie the Bookie” Zuckerman, last of the independent West Side Jewish bosses, and Lenny Patrick, eventual head of the Syndicate’s “Jewish wing.” With an eye for the dramatic, The Kosher Capones takes us deep inside a hidden society and offers glimpses of the men who ran the Jewish criminal community in Chicago for more than sixty years.
Registration information coming soon.
Hava Nagila – Documentary Film Screening
Thursday, April 22 at 7pm
The award-winning documentary Hava Nagila explores the fascinating journey of a song that has transcended its origins to become known worldwide. Follow the story of this infectious party song from the shtetls of Eastern Europe to the cul-de‐sacs of America in this hilarious and surprisingly deep film. Featuring interviews with Harry Belafonte, Connie Francis, Glen Campbell, Leonard Nimoy, Regina Spektor and more, HAVA NAGILA takes viewers from Ukraine and Israel to the Catskills, Greenwich Village, Hollywood – and even Bollywood – using the song as a springboard to explore Jewish history and identity and to spotlight the cross-cultural connections that can only be achieved through music.
Click HERE to register.
