Stephen Wise Temple’s Center for Jewish Life has announced our spring CJL and Melton class series. Led by experienced faculty, these weekly offerings range from quick four-week classes to a more in-depth 10-week course.

Below, find descriptions of each class, along with pricing and links to sign up. While we provide adult Jewish learning year-round, this Spring series begins April 26, so register today!

We hope you will join us this spring and later in the fall for more exciting offerings in the world of adult Jewish learning.

Melton Course: Exploring a Forgotten World: A Social History of Medieval Jewry as Revealed in the Cairo Genizah (10 weeks)
Meets: Tuesday mornings, 10-11:30 a.m.
Dates: April 26-June 28
Teacher: Rabbi Leslie Alexander
Description: Enjoy a front-row seat to the drama, gossip, legal transactions, and other daily intrigues of Jewish life—in the Middle Ages. This 10-session course brings to life an exotic era in Jewish history, revealing the inner thoughts of real-life characters through the Cairo Genizah, a collection of 400,000 worn-out scraps, text fragments, and documents buried for centuries. Interpreting textual evidence yields new insights into the daily interactions and behaviors of Jewish men, women, and families living along the Mediterranean more than 1,000 years ago—and at root, how similar they are to our own family dynamics, business ventures, and communal concerns today. Join us for a historical journey of intrigue and adventure!
Price: $295 for Stephen Wise Temple Members; $345 for general public
REGISTER

CJL Course: Israel Current Events (6 weeks)
Meets: Tuesday mornings, 9:30-11 a.m.
Dates: May 3, May 10, May 17, May 24, May 31, June 7
Teacher: Rabbi Adam Schaffer
Description: This course is designed to help students engage in dialogue about current events in Israel. Some conversations will be about Israel-specific matters and some conversations will be about how global current events are impacting Israel. As our source material for this course, we will use the Daily Alert, which is a project of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. It does not have a political agenda but rather seeks to provide the reader multiple perspectives on currently relevant issues. Please register for this course with an open heart and mind, remembering the Jewish value of d’var acher—valuing perspectives that are different than our own. Our goal is to name important issues and to provide historical background to help better contextualize the current news in Israel. We hope that by the end of this course, you will have a more nuanced perspective about current events in Israel.
Price: $175 for Stephen Wise Temple members; $205 for general public
REGISTER

Melton Course: Jewish Answers to Life’s Most Challenging Questions (4 weeks)
Meets: Tuesday evenings, 7-8:30 p.m.
Dates: May 3, 10, 17, 24
Teacher: Rabbi Leslie Alexander
Description: Roll up your sleeves as we grapple with life’s toughest questions, like “Why do good people suffer?”, “Is everything that happens pre-ordained?”, and “Can’t God make a miracle for me?” In just four short weeks, we’ll attempt a philosophical understanding of these timeless questions through the eyes of the rabbinic sages as well as those of modern thinkers—including ourselves. The course is based on “Where’s My Miracle: Jewish Traditions for Dealing with Tragedy,” by Rabbi Dr. Morey Schwartz, Melton’s International Director.
Price: $118 for Stephen Wise Temple Members; $136 for general public
REGISTER

Melton Course: We Are What We Remember: The Ever-Evolving Transmission of Jewish History (4 weeks)
Meets: Wednesday mornings, 10-11:30 a.m.
Dates: May 4, 11, 18, 25
Teacher: Mr. Benzy Kogen
Description: Recollections from our past define not only who we are as individuals but who we are as a people and a community. Discover the meaning of memory and how it has impacted the Jewish experience in this four-session survey course. Travel from the Golden Age of Jewry in Spain to the tales of the Polish shtetls, up to the modern State of Israel. We will also take a fresh look at the call to Never Forget and its power as a key to Jewish survival.
May 4 Lesson 1:  Never Forget: Exploring Our Collective Jewish Memory
May 11 Lesson 2: Sepharad: Voices of Recollection
May 18 Lesson 3: Poland: What to Remember, What to Forget
May 25 Lesson 4: Israel: National Memory Evolving
Price: $118 for Stephen Wise Temple Members; $136 for general public
REGISTER