Beth Jacob Weekly Ongoing Classes
A community engaged in congregational learning is one in which all of its members, children and adults, are actively and collaboratively learning about and becoming more deeply enriched by our Jewish traditions. Our vision includes a commitment to study Jewish texts, Jewish arts, and Jewish living. Beth Jacob offers opportunities and experiences imbued with intellectual, experiential, and hands on engagement for individuals and groups.
Beth Jacob Mussar Va’ad
Twice a month on Thursdays 10am-noon, beginning Jan. 9th, 2025
Facilitated by Rabbi Tamar Magill-Grimm
Cost: $360, scholarship available, cost is not a barrier to participation
Registration: beth-jacob.org/
In collaboration with Twin Cities Mussar and Center for Contemporary Mussar, Beth Jacob is excited to offer a Mussar Va’ad this year. A Va’ad is a group of people working together to cultivate Mussar practices, Jewish mindfulness practices, in their lives.
Mussar refers to a spiritual perspective, a discipline of transformative practices, and a popular movement that developed primarily in Lithuania in the second half of the nineteenth century, under the leadership of Rabbi Yisrael Lipkin Salanter. The word mussar means “correction” or instruction, and it is the modern Hebrew word for “ethics.” Mussar practice can be thought of as a way of life designed to help us reach our highest spiritual potential. It can also be described as a way of helping us to become mensches, decent human beings. According to Alan Morinis, by refining and elevating your inner life and nourishing the soul, you clarify your inner lights and thus become a lamp shedding light into the world.
In our Va’ad we will be using Alan Morinis’ book Everyday Holiness to guide us through developing a mussar practice in our own lives. The Va’ad will meet twice a month on Thursdays, 11am-1pm, January 9th through June 12th, 2025. Participants will also meet with a chevrutah (study partner) on the intervening weeks.
Please feel free to contact rabbitamar@beth-jacob.org with any questions.
Registration Deadline: December 1, 2024
Jew In The Pew with Rabbi Lynn Liberman
9:15-10:00 am in the chapel on Shabbat
1st, 3rd and the occasional 5th Shabbat of each month
Our exploration of the Psalms, largely as found in our siddur, will continue for the coming year! We will explore the Psalms that are widely used throughout the Shabbat service considering their meaning and wondering why and how these words are still part of our liturgy today. After completing texts found in the siddur, we will then continue to encounter the remaining texts of the full Book of Psalms! No prior experience needed. Texts are provided in Hebrew and English.
Talmud with Rabbi Justin Held
Mondays at 7:00 pm
Online at: Beth-Jacob.org/Talmud
Tablet Magazine Editor Liel Leibovitz recently wrote about the Talmud, “to the extent that the Talmud can even be called a book—it’s more accurately described as “a drift net for catching God”—it’s a truly magnificent one. Because in touching on virtually every human experience, from passing wind to losing a loved one, the Talmud is, arguably, humanity’s first, greatest, and still most astonishing self-help book.” Join Rabbi Justin Monday nights as we use Tractate Ta’anit as one of our vessels for “catching God.” Tractate Ta’anit (fasts) discusses fixed public fast days, facts decreed to avoid calamity, and individual fast days. No Talmud background or Hebrew fluency is required to join, and texts will always be provided in English and Hebrew. Come weekly or pop in and pop out. Your presence is always welcome. Reach out to Rabbi Justin with any questions: rabbijustinheld@beth-jacob.org.
Learn to Read Hebrew with Lydia Schultz
Tuesdays at 6:30 -7:30 pm
November 12 – January 14
This course is designed to help you decode Hebrew and to become more comfortable in reading the Hebrew in the prayer book.
Lydia has been a member of Beth Jacob since its beginning and has done much of her Hebrew learning through the synagogue. She spent her working years teaching students ranging in age from preschool through adults. She taught college level writing and English/American literature for 20 years and then worked at the Talmud Torah of St. Paul as an elementary school librarian and homeroom teacher. She has also taught adult Hebrew classes at TTSP and at Beth Jacob in the past.
Foundations of Judaism – offered jointly with Temple of Aaron
Mondays at Beth Jacob and Tuesdays at Temple of Aaron 7pm
See schedule below.
Register at: Beth-Jacob.org/Foundations
Join on Zoom: Beth-Jacob.org/FoundationsZoom
Join us for one, or for all of these 3-Course mini-units, exploring a wide variety of essential aspects of living and being Jewish. The course is intended both for Jews interested in deepening their knowledge of the foundations of Judaism and those who are interested in becoming Jewish and seeking a pathway toward conversion. Classes are in person and on zoom.
Upcoming Classes & Dates:
Mondays, 7pm at Beth Jacob
- Prayer with Rabbi Tamar Magill-Grimm: November 4, 11, 18, 2024
- History with Rabbi Justin Held: Part 1: January 6, 13, 27, 2025 AND Part 2: May 5, 12, 19, 2025
- Lifecycles with Rabbi Tamar Magill-Grimm: March 3, 10, 17, 2025
-
Denominations/Conservative Judaism with Rabbi Tamar Magill-Grimm: July 14, 21, 28, 2025
- Israel with Rabbi Justin Held: August 25, September 8, 15, 2025
- Tanakh with Rabbi Justin Held: December 8, 15, 22, 2025
Tuesdays, 7pm at Temple of Aaron with Rabbi Marcus Rubinstein
- Shabbat: December 3rd, 10th, 17th, 2024
- Kashrut: February 4th, 11th, 18th, 2025
- Jewish Law: April 1st, 8th, 15th, 2025
- Holidays of History: June 10th, 17th, 24th, 2025
- Biblical Holidays: August 5th, 12th, 19th, 2025
- Tallit/Tefillin/Mezuzah/Kippah: November 18th, 25th, December 2nd, 2025
- Theology: January 6th, 13th, 20th, 2026
- Rabbinic Literature: February 3rd, 10th, 17th, 2026
Morning Mishnah with Rabbi Tamar Magill-Grimm
Wednesdays at approx. 8 am (after minyan) in the chapel
Online at: beth-Jacob.org/minyan
The Mishnah is an edited record of the complex body of halachic material transmitted in the aftermath of the destruction of the Second Temple. Its intention was to train the sages in thinking through the legal issues that inform Halacha. In encountering these texts together, we gain access to the conversations out of which developed the foundational principles that shaped Jewish law as we know it today. Classes are in the chapel at Beth Jacob and on Zoom at beth-Jacob.org/minyan (or just stay on Zoom after Morning Minyan.
Dirshuni: Contemporary Women’s Midrash with Rabbi Tamar Magill-Grimm
Thursdays at 11 am in the Beth Jacob chapel
Online at: beth-jacob.org/Dirshuni
Using the recently published English translation of Dirshuni as our main text, we will explore the sections of the Tanakh through the lens of contemporary midrash. Employing classical forms developed by the ancient rabbis, the writers of these contemporary midrashim connect Scripture and contemporary issues in audacious and innovative ways. This historic collection of midrashim composed by Israeli scholars has long been anticipated and is now available in English translation. Purchase of the book is not required for participation in the class.
Community Offerings
Check out classes being offered through Talmud Torah St. Paul and Hineni
Hineni offers an array of adult Jewish learning opportunities and contemplative practice experiences, many in collaboration with Twin Cities area synagogues and agencies.
For more information about Hineni or to offer programming suggestions, please contact Rabbi Debra Rappaport.
2024-2025 Lecture Descriptions
Eric Alterman
America’s Fight Over Israel: Where Did It Come From? Where is it Going?”
Wednesday, Oct. 30
Description: American views and especially American Jewish views of Israel are in a period of transformation. This has happened before. The Zionist movement founded by Theodore Herzl was initially opposed by most American Jews but supported by many Christians. This changed in the 1920s and was completely transformed by the Holocaust and the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. It changed again in 1967 when Israel became the focal point of American Jewish identity and a key issue in US politics. As Israel became an occupying power, and most recently with its battles with the Palestinians in the West Bank and especially Gaza, the intensity of the fight over Israel has increased, especially on America’s campuses. This lecture will give historical context for the arguments we have over Israel and offer some tentative suggestions about where they may go in the future.
Bio: Eric Alterman is Distinguished Professor of English, Brooklyn College, CUNY. He has served as a senior fellow of the Center for American Progress, the World Policy Institute, and The Nation Institute, and a Media Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, a Schusterman Foundation Fellow at Brandeis University, and a Fellow of the Society of American Historians. A regular columnist and contributor to the most prominent media outlets, Alterman is the author of twelve books, including We Are Not One: A History of America’s Fight Over Israel (Basic Books, 2022).
Noah Tamarkin
Jewish Identity, Genetics, and Indigeneity: Remapping Jewish Histories and Futures
Wednesday, Nov. 13
Description: This talk explores questions about Jewish identity through ethnographic research with Lemba people, a group of Black South Africans who in the 1980s and 1990s participated in genetic studies that aimed to demonstrate their Jewishness. The studies sparked international interest among Jewish people about the possibilities of connecting with Lemba people based on a shared Jewishness. At the same time, the studies offered Lemba people new ways to frame their Jewish identity that instead centered their simultaneous identities as Black indigenous South Africans. This talk shows how Lemba Black Jewish indigenous identity can provide openings through which we might rethink and ultimately remap Jewish histories and futures.
Bio: Noah Tamarkin is an associate professor of Anthropology and Science & Technology Studies at Cornell University and a research associate at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER) at University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. His book Genetic Afterlives: Black Jewish Indigeneity in South Africa (Duke University Press, 2020) received the 2022 Jordan Schnitzer Prize in Social Science, Anthropology, and Folklore from the Association for Jewish Studies.
Natan Paradise
Jewface, Secret Handshakes, and Everything in Between: Performing Jews Performing Jewish
Tuesday, Dec. 10
Description: Jews in America have routinely, even reflexively, turned to humor in navigating their identity. This talk explores how Jewish comedians have done so on stage, screen, and in print, publicly enacting but also modeling—for Jewish and non-Jewish audiences—the varying strategies Jews have turned to in figuring out how to be both Jewish and American. Those strategies have varied considerably from the earliest decades of the twentieth century until today, ranging from openly performing “Jewish” and all the complicated relationships to stereotypes that implies, to trying to hide Jewish identity from everyone except other Jews. This lecture will survey that history, with plenty of comic examples, and with particular attention to gendered differences in strategy as Jews in America tried to negotiate the complicated identity we call “Jewish.”
Bio: Natan Paradise directs the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Minnesota. He teaches courses in Jewish history and cultures, Jewish American literature, and Jewish humor, in addition to his research and writing on the American Jewish experience, antisemitism, and strategies for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion that are both effective and truly inclusive. He regularly serves as an invited speaker to local, national, and international audiences on antisemitism and DEI.
Samira Mehta
Jews of Color: One Term and Many Communities
Thursday, January 30
Description: Jews of color are much in the Jewish news. We hear about how there are a lot of Jews of color—more than we knew! We hear about how that is wrong—there are not so many Jews of color after all! We hear that politically, they are to the left of the Jewish community. We hear that they experience racism within the Jewish community. But who are Jews of color? This talk explains the history of the term Jews of color; the wide array of racial, cultural, and life experiences of the people we call Jews of color; and touches on some criticisms with the term Jews of color. After the talk, we will have a conversation about how to make Jewish spaces more welcoming to a diverse range of Jewish experiences.
Bio: Samira K. Mehta is the Director of Jewish Studies and an Associate Professor of Women and Gender Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is the author of the National Jewish Book Award finalist Beyond Chrismukkah: The Christian-Jewish Interfaith Family in the United States (University of North Carolina Press, 2018); a book of personal essays, The Racism of People Who Love You (Beacon Press, 2023); and God Bless the Pill: Contraception and Sexuality in American Religion (under contract with University of North Carolina Press). She is the primary investigator on a research project called Jews of Color: Histories and Futures and is working on a history of Jews of color in the United States over the past 100 years for Princeton University Press.
Maurice Samuels
The Dreyfus Affair and the Transformation of Jewish Identity
Sunday, Feb. 9
Description: In 1894, Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army, was falsely accused of selling military secrets to Germany. After a hasty court martial and humiliating degradation ceremony, he was sent to Devil’s Island to serve a brutal life sentence. Over the next twelve years, the Dreyfus Affair transformed French society, leading to an outpouring of antisemitism. The Affair also transformed the nature of Jewish identity, changing how Jews saw their place in the world and their relation to other Jews. This talk explores Jewish reactions to the Affair in different national contexts, with particular attention to the effect of the Affair on Jewish political ideologies. With antisemitism once again on the rise, the Dreyfus Affair has much to teach us about the causes of antisemitic hatred, but also about the ways that antisemitism can be resisted.
Bio: Maurice Samuels is the Betty Jane Anlyan Professor of French at Yale University, where he chairs the French Department and directs the Yale Program for the Study of Antisemitism. A recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship and the Cullman Center Fellowship at the New York Public Library, he is the author of five books, including most recently Alfred Dreyfus: The Man at the Center of the Affair, published by Yale University Press in 2024.
Orit Avishai
Queer Jews: The Struggle for Judaism’s Straight Soul
Thursday, March 27
Description:In times of social upheaval, how do observant Jewish communities decide who’s in and who’s out? What happens when rules of belonging are challenged by marginalized groups of Jews? This talk considers these questions through the experiences of queer orthodox Jews in Israel. Until recently, LGBTQ+ Orthodox Jews could not imagine embracing their sexual or gender identity and staying within the Orthodox fold. But within the span of about two decades, Orthodox LGBTQ+ people forged social circles and communities and became visible. This talk offers the compelling story of how they created an effective social movement and rewrote what it means to be Orthodox, pointing to broader lessons about Jewish identity and community to be drawn from their struggles.
Bio: Orit Avishai is a Professor of Sociology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Fordham University, where she is affiliated with the Center for Jewish Studies. The author of Queer Judaism: LGBT Activism and the Remaking of Jewish Orthodoxy in Israel (2023), she studies how Orthodox Jews negotiate with Jewish frameworks that regulate gender, sexuality, and desire. As part of a study of religious freedom as a locus of 21st-century culture wars, she is now writing about Yeshiva University students’ attempts to start a pride club on their campus.