Speaker Series, Courses, Book Group, and Havurot

We host speaker series, offer course, run book groups, and facilitate cohort groups (havurot). See below for details. We provide opportunities to engage in community, ask questions, and learn in a safe and welcoming environment.

Speaker Series

Learning opportunities on Israel/Palestine led by rabbis, professors and journalists from North America, Palestine and Israel. Recent talks include:

  • Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza (Peter Beinart)

  • Israeli Politics and Public Culture in the Wake of October 7 and Mass Slaughter in Gaza and Lebanon (Dr. Sonia Boulos & Dr. Lior Sternfeld)

  • Beyond Zionism and Anti-Zionism: On the Possibilities of a New Diasporism (Rabbi Prof. Shaul Magid)

    Click here to access recordings of previous talks

What people are saying about our Speaker Series: "Last night's presentation was amazing.  I can't believe my attention was kept focused for 90+ minutes of a zoom meeting!” - Rahel Smith, Or Zarua Reconstructionist Havurah, Albany, CA

Courses

Multi-session classes taught by Joel Beinin, Professor of History and Professor of Middle East History, Emeritus at Stanford University. Previous courses include:

  • Zionism, Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism

  • Occupation 101

  • A History of Israel/Palestine

    Click here to access recordings of previous courses

    What people are saying about our courses: “Over the course of a number of classes I have re-learned the history of Palestine/Israel. This has been a journey to understand that my childhood Zionist education was not the true picture of the history of Palestine/Israel.” - Dale Norma Oller, Congregation Havurah Shalom, Portland OR

Book Group

We have mainly read fiction by Palestinian and Israeli authors. We meet about once every 4-6 weeks at 8pm Eastern/ 7pm Central/ 6pm Mountain/ 5pm Pacific time. Recent selections include:

Facilitators Joel Beinin (beinin@stanford.edu) or Sue Lanser (lanser@brandeis.edu) to join.

Havurot (Cohort Groups)

We invite Jewish progressives to come together to connect with one another, share concerns, and build community. These groups are for people who identify as Jewish and fit into the particular cohort. See below for our active havurot and email the facilitators for meeting dates and Zoom links. We are happy to create additional groups if there is interest.

What people are saying about our Havurot: “[The academic havurah] has not only been a safe space to build a personal community, but also a place that has created professional collaboration. Thanks to the knowledge and activism of members of the group, we learned of some alarming legislation being pushed in California and were prompted by other group members to use our expertise to write an op-ed. Were it not for the havurah, we would never have met, much less co-authored and published a piece together.” - Professors Shira Klein, Chapman University, and Julia Shatz, California State University, Fresno