October 7th and its aftermath has shaken the foundations of the American Jewish community, posing untold challenges, both individually and communally. What aspects of the American Jewish identity will change as a result of these events? What does this shock to the system portend for the relationships American Jews have both within and outside of their community? How will the Jewish people heal?
Join us on Thursday, February 29 at 2:30 pm EST for a timely and important one-hour conversation with Jewish thought leaders as they discuss proactive responses to these pressing issues, framed by the recent publication by Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin of Tikkun Ha’am/Repairing Our People: Israel and the Crisis of Liberal Judaism.
The event is free. However, advanced registration is required at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_bKOzJOdhRSazc4o3DrCj8A.
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Program Details
Jane Eisner, former editor-in-chief of The Forward, will moderate this one-hour conversation with Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin, Dr. Yehuda Kurtzer, and Rabbi Michelle Dardashti.
Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin is one of American Judaism’s most prolific rabbis — described as “courageous,” “always relevant,” and “one of American Judaism’s true public intellectuals.” He is the co-founder of “Wisdom Without Walls: an online salon for Jewish ideas,” a new venture that engages Jews in conversation with significant Jewish thinkers about American Judaism, post-October 7. His column, “Martini Judaism: for those who want to be shaken and stirred,” published by the Religion News Service, has won several Wilbur awards for best religion column of the year. “Martini Judaism” also appears as a podcast. He delivered the keynote on spirituality at the Chautauqua Institution, and has participated in interreligious dialogue with Christian and Muslim religious leaders. He is the author of eleven books. His essays have appeared in the Washington Post, Commentary, the Wall Street Journal, Tablet, Forward, and JTA. He has discussed the American political scene on CNN and the BBC.
Rabbi Michelle Dardashti, prior to joining Kane Street Synagogue In Brooklyn, New York in 2023, spent nine years in Providence, RI, where she served as Associate University Chaplain for the Jewish Community at Brown University and Rabbi at Brown RISD Hillel. Rabbi Dardashti was ordained and received an MA in Jewish Education from the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS). During her time at JTS, she was trained in Congregation-Based Community Organizing through JOIN for Justice and in Clinical Pastoral Education at Bellevue Hospital; she was also an educator for Interfaith Community and Director of Youth and Family Education at Congregation Shaare Zedek. She came to Brown University in 2013 after serving as the Marshall T. Meyer Fellow at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in Manhattan and Director of Community Engagement at Temple Beth El in Stamford, CT. Rabbi Dardashti spent time living and working in the Jewish community of Montevideo, Uruguay as well as four years in Jerusalem, where she was a student at Hebrew University, a Dorot Fellow, and a volunteer and staff member at a number of NGOs working in the realms of democracy, dialogue and cross-cultural exchange. Her writings have appeared in Sh’ma Journal, Jewschool and Siddur Lev Shalem (2016), and in three recent books, One Nation, Indivisible: Seeking Liberty and Justice from the Pulpit to the Streets (2019), Chaver Up: Allyship Through A Modern Jewish Lens (2021), and Jewish Theological Grace: Drashot In Honor of Chancellor Arnold M. Eisen (2022).
Dr. Yehuda Kurtzer is president of the Shalom Hartman Institute. Yehuda is a leading thinker and author on the meaning of Israel to American Jews, on Jewish history and Jewish memory, and on questions of leadership and change in American Jewish life. Yehuda led the creation of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America in 2010 as a pioneering research and educational center for the leadership of the North American Jewish community, and teaches in its many platforms for rabbis, lay leaders, Jewish professionals, and leaders of other faith communities. He is the co-creator of the Shalom Hartman Institute’s iEngage Project, which seeks to bridge between Israel and world Jewry through content, curriculum, and cutting-edge educational programs. Additionally, he is the host of Hartman’s Identity/Crisis podcast which can be found at identitycrisispod.com. He is the author of Shuva: The Future of the Jewish Past, which offers new thinking to contemporary Jews on navigating the tensions between history and memory; and the co-editor of The New Jewish Canon, a collection of the most significant Jewish ideas and debates of the past two generations.
Jane Eisner is an accomplished writer, editor, educator, nonprofit leader, and public speaker. For more than a decade, she was editor-in-chief of The Forward, the legendary national Jewish news organization. Most recently, she was director of academic affairs and an adjunct professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She is known for her interviews with such notables as President Barack Obama, Associate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, among others. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, AARP Magazine, Religion and Politics, and many other publications. She has deep roots in academe, and has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Wesleyan University, and Columbia Journalism School, and was a visiting fellow at Bryn Mawr College. Her first book, “Taking Back the Vote: Getting American Youth Involved in Our Democracy,” was published by Beacon Press. She is currently writing an interpretative biography of Carole King for the Jewish Lives series published by Yale University Press.
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