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Tag : jewish theological seminary
December 21, 2020 by Helene Meyers
7 Jewish Feminist Highlights of 2020
Let’s face it—2020 has been a clusterf**k of a year, and I can’t wait to see it recede in the distance of my rearview mirror. While most Jews have observed Passover, the High Holidays, and Chanukah virtually, the national COVID fallout from Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s is likely to be heartbreaking, even more so given that a vaccine for most of us is just months away. The murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor tragically reminded us that we must continue to fight to make the truth that Black Lives Matter self-evident. And among the many, many hits that democracy took this year was the ramrodding of Amy Coney Barrett into the Supreme Court seat that Ruth Bader Ginsburg honorably and notoriously held from 1993 until her death on erev Rosh Hashanah.
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July 27, 2020 by admin
First Woman Chancellor At JTS!
Shuly Rubin Schwartz, a groundbreaking scholar of American Jewish history, has just become the first woman to serve as chancellor of The Jewish Theological Seminary in its 134-year history. JTS is the flagship institution of Conservative Judaism. Chancellor Schwartz, who earned her Ph.D. at JTS, became one of the first women on its faculty and was instrumental in the addition of Jewish gender studies to the curriculum; her writing has brought to light previously overlooked contributions of women to the development of American Judaism.
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July 23, 2020 by admin
Elka Brandt
Elka Brandt is a senior at Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary.
When I write, I can shake off all my cares.—April 5, 1944. Anne Frank’s journal was a hiding place within a hiding place; she wrote to create a little personal space for herself. At the same time, she was preparing to be heard, as she wrote on March 29, 1944: Mr. Bolkestein, the Cabinet Minister, speaking on the Dutch broadcast from London, said that after the war a collection would be made of diaries and letters dealing with the war Of course, everyone [in the Annex] pounced on my diary. Anne used her journal as a place of her own, as a place not only to “shake off all cares” but to protect hope, belief, and humanity, all of which were threatened in German-occupied Europe. Anne’s story is hers, and she had the strength against all odds to let it out. Is it possible for words to be heard over the din of a demanding, chaotic, and tragic world? Anne’s diary answers yes, if one is willing to write them.
Elka dedicates these words to the memory of her brother Oren Jacob.
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November 4, 2019 by admin
Mourning in Public •
Shuly Rubin Schwartz, provost and dean of graduate and undergraduate studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary, some years ago experienced the death of a young adult son, and a few months later the death of her rabbi husband. In the hope that her words might help others who live each day with the heartache of grief, she agreed to speak about her grieving, including some of the creative ways she and her family learned to keep the memories of their loved ones alive. Sara Beth Berman of the Jewish Theological Seminary interviewed her for podcast series “What Now?”
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