SUMMER MINI-COURSES*

Open to the Entire Community

Great for Potential Melton Students

Sample the 1st class with no obligation

Tuition: $100 per 5 session course;

$90 early registration discount

*Minimum of 8 students needed to hold a class

CAJE is a beneficiary agency of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page / Location / Course Title / Day(s) / Time
3 / Beth Torah-Benny Rok Campus (North Dade) / Modern Living: Maintaining Balance -
Dr. Leon Weissberg / Mondays & Wednesdays / 7:00-
8:30 PM
4 / Aventura TurnberryJewish Center / What Do Jews Believe? --
Rabbi Shlomo Sprung / Thursdays / 9:30-
11:00 AM
5 / TempleSinai of
North Dade / From Mishnah to Talmud: Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi -- Rabbi Baruch Plotkin / Mondays & Wednesdays / 9:30-
11:00 AM
6 / TempleSinai of
North Dade / (Spanish) Tradicion Y Modernidad En El Cuento Israeli Contemporaneo –
Henie Hajdenberg / Wednesdays / 9:30-
11:00 AM
7 / TempleBeth Sholom / Isaac Bashevis Singer –
Rabbi Cheryl Weiner / Tuesdays / 7:30-
9:00 PM
8 / Bet Shira Congregation / Kabbalat Shabbat: Friday Night Service-- Rabbi David Auerbach / Tuesdays / 10:00–
11:30 AM
9 / TempleBeth Am / Jerusalem: A City & Its Secrets—
Dr. Marsha B. Cohen / Thursdays / 10:00 -11:30 AM
10 / TempleBeth Am / Modern Living: Maintaining Balance--
Rabbi Judith Kempler / Thursdays / 7:30-
9:00 PM

For More Information,

contact Carla Spector

Director of Administration

#305-576-4030 Ext. 128

or Etty BenArtzy Ext. 117

Visit

to download this catalogue & summer registration form

COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING A beneficiary agency of the

TOLL-FREE (800-435-7352) WITHIN THE STATE. REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL, OR RECOMMENDATION BY THE STATE. Reg. No. CH158 Greater Miami Jewish Federation

Modern Living: Maintaining Balance

A Melton Text Study Sampler

DR. LEON WEISSBERG

Center for the Advancement of Jewish Education

2 ½ Week Intensive:

Mondays & Wednesdays

June 13 & 15, 20 & 22, 27

7:00-8:30pm

@Beth Torah-Benny Rok Campus

Are you one of the 96% of survey respondents in the USwho felt it was very important to find a better work/life balance? Searching for ways to find balance in our lives is a recurring theme in modern living, and as always, Judaism has much to offer of value about the subject. Throughout this course, texts will be studied related to focusing on Family, Work & Community, Self, and the Concept of Balance. Together we’ll experience the joy and adventure of Jewish text-study, which will provide us with much food for thought in terms of prioritizing and balancing our lives.

Dr. Leon Weissberg is the Director of the Leo Martin March of the Living of Miami-Dade and teaches courses at NovaSoutheasternUniversity and LynnUniversity. A Master Teacher, Leon has served as the Executive Director of the Jewish Education Commission of South Palm Beach County and Head of School of the Donna Klein Jewish Academy in Boca Raton. He was instrumental in bringing the FlorenceMeltonAdultMini-school to South Florida in 1990 and has taught all of the core courses. Born in a Displaced Persons’ Camp in Germany, he is a graduate of the City College of New York, holding four advanced degrees including a Masters in Jewish Studies and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership.

What Do Jews Believe?

Purposes of Jewish Living Renewed

RABBI SHLOMO SPRUNG

TouroCollege South

Thursdays

June 23, 30; July 7, 14, 21

9:30-11:00am

@Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center

Why do Jews believe they way they do? How do Jewish sages and philosophers answer the big existential questions of life? This is the subject of Melton’s “Purposes of Jewish Living” curriculum. Topics to be studied: “The Meaning of Creation,” “Is Torah the Revealed Word of God?,” “Why Do People Suffer?” “What Do We Believe about the Messiah?” and “What Happens After We Die?” If you’ve never studied these before, enlightenment awaits. If you have, we’re sure to go deeper.

Rabbi Shlomo Sprung received his ordination from Rabbi Zalman Goldberg of Jerusalem’sRabbinical High Court and was the youngest person to be admitted to Jerusalem’s High Kollel for the certification/training of Yeshiva Deans. He served as the Executive Director of the Collegiate Learning Exchange at the University of Miami and as Rabbi at both UM and FIU in past years. He has guest lectured at a variety of locations around the United States and in Israel and teaches a popular Melton Foundations class at HillelCommunityDay School.

From Mishnah To Talmud: Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi & How Oral Law Got Written Down

RABBI BARUCH PLOTKIN

University of Miami Hillel

2 ½ Week Intensive:

Mondays & Wednesdays

July27;Aug 1 & 3, 8 & 10

9:30-11:00am

@TempleSinai of North Dade

Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi (a.k.a. “Rabbi Judah the Prince”) presided over the Jewish community during an exceptionally challenging time in Jewish history—following the unsuccessful Bar Kochba Revolt that had decimated Israel in 135 CE. During his leadershipin the latter half of the 2nd century, Oral Law and Tradition (Torah She’be’al Peh) was written down for the first time in a formal way, which began the process of what would become later known as the Mishnah. Together we will study his life, his teachings and this seminal time period, discovering how Judaism survived and thrived into the Talmudic era.

Rabbi Plotkin is the Rabbi of the University of Miami Hillel. He received his undergraduate training at EmersonCollege, his Master’s degree in Jewish Education from the HebrewUniversity of Jerusalem and ordination at Yeshivat Darchei Noam in Jerusalem. He was the founder of Isralight South Florida and Boca Tov enrichment centers and the Shul by the Grove inBoca Raton. He was chosen as a Melton Senior Educator Fellow at the Hebrew University 2007-2008 and the 2010 recipient of the Targum Shlishi Foundation Award for Teacher Excellence in the field of Adult Education.

Tradicion Y Modernidad

En El Cuento Israeli Contemporaneo

HENIE G. HAJDENBERG

University of Miami

Wednesdays

]une 22, 29;July6, 13, 20

9:30-11:00am

@TempleSinai of North Dade

~Class Taught In Spanish~

En este curso se abordara una seleccion de cuentos israelies contemporaneos, en su traduccion al espaniol. La lectura, analisis y discusion de los textos se hara en el transcurso de clases interactivas, con la guia de la instructora. La lengua hebrea, revitalizada, impulsa en Israel una pujante actividad literaria que rafleja los distintos aspectos de la nueva realidad. Agnon (1er Premio Nobel de la Literatura Hebrea), Amos Oz, David Grosman, A.B.Yehoshua y muchos otros autores trasponen las fronteras y son vastamente traducidos. Los cuentos adoptan estilos modernos, pero entre lineas asoman siempre nuestras fuentes tradicionales. Las situaciones y los personajes descriptos conmueven, asombran, entretienen, generan identificacion y nos proponen el desafio de la reflexion.

Henie G. Hajdenberg is currently a Lecturer of Hebrew Language at the University of Miami and the formerDean of Mijlelet Shazar, the Hebrew Teachers Collegeunder Tel Aviv University’s academic supervision in Buenos Aires, where she specialized in Hebrew Language and Literature. She has authored numerous publications, including Sifrut Iaffa: Hebrew Literature for High School, Keneged Kulam:Pedagogies of the Talmud, andThe Mystical World of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav.

Isaac Bashevis Singer:

Living Between Two Worlds

RABBI CHERYL WEINER, PhD

Jewish Museum of Florida

Tuesdays, 7:30-9:00pm

July 12, 19, 26; August 2

@TempleBeth Sholom

Sunday, August 7, 1:30-3:00pm

@The Jewish Museum of Florida

Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991) is a seminal figure in American Jewish life. Having won the Nobel Prize for Literature, he is considered to be one of the most famous Yiddish writer of the 20th century, and translations of his works have made him one of the most beloved in English. A prolific writer who vividly conjured up the annihilated Jewish world of Eastern Europe, he spoke to the fears, longings, and ambivalence of America's modern nation of immigrants. We will learn about his family and the world that Isaac Bashevis Singer emerged from and his prolific literary legacy that includes journalism from the Jewish Forward, fantastic tales, and family sagas. At our final class we will visit to the Jewish Museum of Florida’s engaging exhibit, Isaac Bashevis Singer and His Artists, which highlights Singer’s work through illustrations created by artists who were both inspired by and commissioned to illustrate his stories.

Rabbi Cheryl Weiner, PhD, is currently the Education Coordinator for the Jewish Museum of Florida and has created the educational and docent materials that accompany the exhibit, Isaac Bashevis Singer and His Artists. She has a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Oregon and was ordained in 2007 from the Academy for Jewish Religion,California. She is on the Board of Trustees for the Jewish Publication Society and has worked as a Vice President at McGraw Hill.

Kabbalat Shabbat:

The Friday Night Service

RABBI DAVID AUERBACH

Rabbi Emeritus,Bet Shira Congregation

Tuesdays

June 21, 28; July 5, 12, 19

10:00-11:30am

@Bet Shira Congregation

Kabbalat Shabbat was originally created in the 16th century as an introduction to the regular Ma’ariv (evening service) of Shabbat, but it eventually overshadowed the service it was meant to introduce! With its distinctive melodies and nusach (cantorial sound), special prayers and mystical ideas, it is a “liturgy without parallel in the Jewish tradition” according to scholars in the field. We’ll explore: What prompted its creation? What major ideas did it seek to express? How did it help transform mystical conceptsinto the mainstream?

Rabbi David H. Auerbach is the founding Rabbi of Bet Shira Congregation. He received his undergraduate training at McGillUniversity in Montreal and a Master’s degree in Hebrew Literature and Ordination at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Before coming to Miami in 1981, he served pulpits in Montreal and Atlanta.

Jerusalem:

A City and Its Secrets

DR. MARSHA B. COHEN

Dr. Cohen holds the Deborah and Michael Troner

Endowed Faculty Chair

Thursdays

June 16, 23, 30; July 7, 14

10:00-11:30am

@TempleBeth Am

Throughout its history, Jerusalem has served not only as a focal point of conflict between three major monotheistic religions but as a flashpoint of struggles within each of them. This multidimensionalmini-course will examine the complexities and conflicts within Jerusalem's fascinating history from the time of the TaNaKh to the ongoing expansion of its municipal borders today, through a variety of firsthand accounts and other textual resources, as well as other media from maps to music.

Dr. Marsha B. Cohen is an independent scholar, researcher and writer who holds Melton's Michael and Deborah Troner Endowed Faculty Chair. A FMAMS instructor since 1998, she taught International Relations at FloridaInternationalUniversity for over a decade and was a Lecturer at the University of Miami. She has presented papers at numerous academic conferences, among them "The Rivalry between Jerusalem and Mecca during the Umayyad Caliphate" at the University of Toronto's Center for Medieval Studies Conference on "Images of the Holy Land in the Middle Ages." Her articles are published in a variety of online venues.


Modern Living: Maintaining Balance

A Melton Text Study Sampler

RABBI JUDITH KEMPLER

TempleBeth Am

Thursdays

June 16, 23, 30; July 7, 14

7:30-9:00pm

@TempleBeth Am

Are you one of the 96% of survey respondents in the US who felt it was very important to find a better work/life balance? Searching for ways to find balance in our lives is a recurring theme in modern living, and as always, Judaism has much to offer of value about the subject. Throughout this course, texts will be studied related to focusing on Family, Work & Community, Self, and the Concept of Balance. Together we’ll experience the joy and adventure of Jewish text-study, which will provide us with much food for thought in terms of prioritizing and balancing our lives.

Rabbi Judith Kempler is TempleBeth Am’s Rabbinic Fellow, specializing in outreach and engagement with unaffiliated Jews in their 20s and 30s as well as young families and empty nesters. She received ordination in 2009 through the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City, and holds a Master of Arts in Hebrew Literature. Judy graduated from WashingtonUniversity in St. Louis in 2002 with a Bachelor of Arts in Women’s Studies and a concentration in Modern Dance. Previously she has been a Jewish Campus Service Corps Fellow (JCSC) and Youth Directorat Brooklyn Heights Synagogue, where she also taught adult Hebrew, led Torah study, and facilitated the URJ’s Introduction to Judaism course.

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