Adult Education

Adult ed programs for 2007-08 reflect members' interests and requests. The initial list includes:

• Jewish Film Festival: a discussion with Kaj Wilson, Artistic Director, about the films chosen for this year, and attending one film.
• Torah study with Rabbi Audrey Marcus-Berkman.
• Extending Shabbat to after-lunch discussions at members' homes
• A study of Psalms, with Rabbi Audrey Marcus-Berkman.
• "In Berlin, On Broadway: A Kurt Weill Cabaret" with the Cantata Singers Chamber Ensemble, a production of the Jewish Theatre of New England.
• Several study sessions, including one on Jews and Muslims in the Arab World. Speakers and additional topics will be announced.
• A Jewish Book Club, with Rabbi Audrey Marcus-Berkman and members choosing books and leading the discussions.

Additional topics will be chosen later.
Members are always available to teach Hebrew and liturgical skills.

Past programs have included:

• Discussion groups on Reconstructionism
• Talmud study
• Participation in the Hebrew College Meah program.
• Study sessions on Jewish ethics, Jewish history and on Jewish cultural practices world-wide
• Visits to the Yiddish Book Center, to the McMullen Museum exhibit on "Jewish Women and Their Salons" and to the Jewish Historical Society exhibit, "From Haven to Home."

Guest speakers at Shabbat services and other programs have included:

• Yevgenia Albats, Russian journalist and lecturer on politics at Yale University
• Rabbi Herman Blumberg, Reform rabbi, Temple Shir Tikvah
• Rabbi Elizabeth Bolton, Director, Liturgy and Music, Jewish Reconstructionist Federation
• Professor Marc Brettler, Near Eastern and Jewish Studies, Brandeis University
• Richard Fein, poet
• Ross Feldberg, professor, Tufts University (and Shir Hadash member)
• Professor Barbara Geller, Department of Religion, Wellesley College
• Dr. Muriel Gillick, author and physician, Hebrew Rehabilitation Center for the Aged (and Shir Hadash member)
• Osvaldo Golijov, composer
• Professor Cyrus Gordon (z"l), scholar and professor emeritus, Brandeis University
• Rabbi Shai Held, lecturer and Meah instructor
• Zvi Ish-Shalom, educator, student of Hasidism
• Joshua Jacobson, Director of Zamir Chorale
• Norman Janis, cantor
• Dr. Judith Kates, Professor of Women's Studies, Hebrew College
• David Kertzer, Professor of Anthropology, Brown University
• Joyce Lazarus, professor, Framingham State College (and Shir Hadash member)
• Rabbi Michael Luckens (RRC)
• Henry Morris, Shir Hadash member
• Khaleel Muhammed, post-doctoral fellow in NEJS, Brandeis University
• Reverend Glenn Prospere, Full Life Gospel Center, Dorchester
• Todd Rakoff, author and Byrne Professor of Administrative Law, Harvard Law School (and Shir Hadash member)
• Charles Radin, former Jerusalem Bureau Chief, Boston Globe
• Rabbi Sheila Shulman, London, England
• Reverend John Stendahl, Lutheran Church of the Newtons
• Shirley Waxman, artist and teacher