We are a Warm and Welcoming Conservative Congregation In Pepper Pike, Ohio
STAND TOGETHER COMBATING ANTISEMITISM AND HATE
Empowering through education, awareness and action
Friday, November 1 - Saturday, November 2, 2024
An educational and informational weekend workshop
for the Greater Cleveland Jewish and non-Jewish communities and beyond
REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED!
FEATURED SPEAKERS
(Click names below for bios)
Dr. Rachel Fish co-founded the nonprofit Boundless, a think-action tank partnering with community leaders across North America to revitalize Israel education and take bold collective action to combat Jew-hatred. Dr. Fish also serves as Special Advisor to The Brandeis University Presidential Initiative to Counter Antisemitism in Higher Education. She is also an associate research professor at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies. In addition, Dr. Fish teaches Israeli history and society at The George Washington University as Visiting Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership in the Graduate School of Education and Human Development.
Previously, Dr. Fish was the executive director of the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism. Rachel also served as Senior Advisor and Resident Scholar at the Paul E. Singer Foundation in New York City and Executive Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, where she trained the next generation of academics in the field of Israel Studies.
Tanya Gersh, a Jewish real estate agent, was targeted by followers of The Daily Stormer, a far-right neo-Nazi online publication calling for the genocide of Jews. The site’s founder, Andrew Anglin, incited his followers to harass Gersh, her husband, and their young son after accusing Gersh of extortion.
In April 2017, the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit on Gersh’s behalf against Anglin, alleging that he had intentionally inflicted emotional distress. In November 2017, a federal judge ruled that Anglin’s harassment campaign was not protected as free speech and Anglin was ordered to pay $14 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
Rabbi Noah Bickart, was appointed in 2022 as the inaugural holder of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Chair in Jewish Studies. He holds a BA in English Literature from the University of Chicago. After a brief stint in the Jazz recording industry in New York, he studied Talmud at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. Returning to America, he enrolled at the Harvard Divinity School, earning a MA in Hebrew Bible in 2003. The Following year he entered Rabbinical School at The Jewish Theological Seminary as a Wexner Graduate Fellow. After being ordained as a Conservative Rabbi in 2008, he remained at JTS for Doctoral work and received his PhD in 2015. After directing the Prozdor High School, directing the Eisenfeld/Duker Beit Midrash, and teaching Talmud in the Rabbinical School for a few years, he became Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Postdoctoral Fellow in the Program of Judaic Studies at Yale University. In the Fall of 2018, he moved to University heights to join the faculty of the Theology and Religious Studies department at John Carroll University.
Rachel Felber, joined the Kent Hillel team as the executive director in 2023. She began her Jewish communal career at Kent Hillel in 2004, when she served as the Jewish Campus Service Corps (JCSC) fellow after college. Prior to returning to Kent Hillel, Rachel spent more than 15 years working in Jewish Community Centers: most notably serving as the Mandel JCC’s Camp Wise Assistant Director and Director from 2012-2022.
Rachel has a B.A in Sociology with a minor in Jewish Studies from Clark University and a master’s degree from the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University. Rachel lives in Cleveland and loves getting to know students at both Kent State and the University of Akron, especially during Shabbat. When she isn’t working, you’ll find Rachel playing with her puppy Golda Meir, reading a book, or discussing all things travel-associated (especially Israel travel).
Mind-Full Shabbat - Kick-Off to our Combating Antisemitism Weekend
(Mind-Full Shabbat is an exciting way to connect with congregants, the community and meaningful Jewish and community topics. Shabbat services are followed by a catered dinner by Café 56, fine wine and interactive adult conversation with a dynamic speaker.)
6 pm • Shabbat Service led by our Zamir Children's Choir
David J. & Ruth A. Moskowitz Sanctuary (Stream & Zoom)
7 pm • Dinner catered by Cafe 56
(The Mind-full Shabbat dinner is the only fee for the entire program)
Earlybird through October 25
$36 per person/ $40 after October 25
Registration will close on October 27.
8 pm • Speaker with Q&A featuring Dr. Rachel Fish
How Worried Should American Jewry Be about Its Future
Mind-full Shabbat is supported by the Rabbi Rudolph M. Rosenthal Memorial Fund
9:00 AM - NOON • SHABBAT SERVICE
David J. & Ruth A. Moskowitz Sanctuary (Stream & Zoom)
(Alternate options from 9:00 am - 11:30 am)
SESSION 1: 9:00-10:00 AM
Rabbi Noah Bickart - Torah Café
Rabbi Noah Bickart, along with colleagues from Tuohy Center for Interreligious Understanding at John Carroll University, will focus on different religious interpretations of the story of Noah, the week's Torah parsha. Multiple interpretations of the parsha and understanding of where 'the other' is coming from is perhaps the best way to combat antisemitism and hate of any kind. Click here for the source sheet
Halpern Hall (Zoom)
SESSION 2: 10:00-10:45 AM
Dr. Rachel Fish, What is Jew-Hatred? How Does It Exist Today?: Examining Antisemitism America
This presentation examines how Jew-hatred has transformed over time, and the ways in which it is expressed today. Why are the Jews hated? This lecture traces the many transformations and mutations of Jew-hatred from a hatred that was focused on our religious tradition, beliefs, and practices; to a hatred that was racialized resulting in the murder of 6 million Jews; to the current prevalence of hate toward the collective identity of the Jewish people expressed in the liberation movement for self-determination and the creation of the State of Israel.
CLICK HERE FOR THE SOURCE SHEET.
Halpern Hall (Zoom)
SESSION 3: 10:45-11:30 AM
(2 options)
Rachel Felber & Dr. Rachel Fish, Antisemitism in Higher Education: What Does It Look Like? How Does It Manifest? And What Do I Do about It?
(Directed towards students and parents)
Depending on the institution of higher education one attends it is possible to encounter a variety of forms of antisemitism ranging from traditional expressions of antisemitic incidents to those that are more challenging for students, faculty, and administrators to label, define and directly confront. This presentation explores the ways in which antisemitism presents itself within the campus environment and the intellectual factors that cultivate a hostility towards the collective Jewish identity.
Halpern Hall (Zoom)
Debby Perl Chudakoff, Testimony of the Holocaust by the Child of a Survivor
Gottlieb Auditorium
11:30 AM • SERMON
Tanya Gersh, How Has a Mom from Montana Become a Leader in Fighting Antisemitism?
David J. & Ruth A. Moskowitz Sanctuary (Stream & Zoom)
NOON-1:00 PM • KIDDUSH LUNCHEON
When registering, you will have an option to choose to sit at one of our discussion tables during lunch led by presenters.
SESSION 4: 1:00-1:45 PM
Dr. Rachel Fish, The Transformation of North American Jewry's Relationship with Israel
This session explores some of the intellectual ideas circulating within academic circles and influencing the ways in which meaning-making institutions function in Western society. These ideas have impacted how Jews are perceived, particularly the Jewish collective political identity. Through a historical retrospective, this session examines the North American Jewish community's relationship to Israel and the pressure points that challenge this relationship, including delegitimization efforts. How might we imagine the future orientation of Jews' relationship with Israel, given rising Jew-hatred and the cultural climate in North America today?
CLICK HERE FOR THE SOURCE SHEET.
David J. & Ruth A. Moskowitz Sanctuary (Stream)
SESSION 5: 1:45-2:30 PM
Black-Jewish Relations Panel Discussion
Participants of the Rekindle Fellowship will lead a panel discussion.
Rekindle's mission is to drive meaningful social change by fostering collaboration between Black and Jewish American leaders through open dialogue and face-to-face conversation. Today's panel of Black and Jewish Rekindle fellows will share what they learned through the Fellowship about these important collaborations between our communities.
Halpern Hall (Zoom)
SESSION 6: 2:30-3:15 PM
Summary Panel: Interfaith Relations Post October 7
Rabbi Hal Rudin-Luria from B’nai Jeshurun Congregation, and Rev. Jessie MacMillan from Church of the Covenant, will join together to lead a panel discussion on what we can do now to work together.
Halpern Hall (Zoom)
7:30 PM - TROLL STORM (FREE) MOVIE SCREENING
Tanya Gersh - Q&A Following the Screening
A successful realtor and soccer mom's life is turned upside down when Neo-Nazis unleash a troll storm against Tanya and her family. In the face of an alarming growth of American fascism, she finds solidarity with her community by standing up, fighting back and ultimately filing a landmark case for the First Amendment, setting a precedent that could shape America's future.
The Gottlieb Family Fund for Holocaust Education
The Brenda Zimm Oscar Memorial Lecture Fund
The Bernice and Mannie Rabovsky Religious School Enrichment Fund
The Dobres-Berkowitz Israel Programming Fund
The Rabbi Rudolph M. Rosenthal Memorial Fund (Mind-Full Shabbat)
B'nai Jeshurun Men's Club
B'nai Jeshurun Sisterhood
Cohen & Co.