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August 27, 2020 | 7 Elul 5780
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Welcome Dr. Susie Tanchel
Dr. Susie Tanchel has joined Hebrew College as Vice President of Community Education, overseeing adult, teen, and professional development programs. Dr. Tanchel comes to Hebrew College from Boston’s Jewish Community Day School (JCDS), where she served as head of school from 2011 through 2020. Originally from Cape Town, South Africa, she moved to Boston in 1988 to attend Brandeis University. Before working at JCDS, she was a founding faculty member and associate head of school at Gann Academy.
Why are you excited to work at Hebrew College?
I am inspired by the mission of Hebrew College, and I’m thrilled to be working with talented educators and dedicated professionals to enact it. I love that Hebrew College is committed both to digging deeply into the study of Judaism, Jewish texts, and Jewish education, and to connecting with all who want to learn. I appreciate its placing value on the learning and on the community building. Hebrew College touches different segments of the community—adult community members, teens, future Jewish professional leaders, and the larger interfaith community. I’m excited to contribute to serving and teaching these diverse groups. In addition, Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld inspires me, and I’m excited to partner with her in enacting her vision for the college. . . .
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Community Education this Fall
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Learning Together From a Distance
As we prepare for this unprecedented academic year, we look back on our transition online last spring. Our graduate and community education faculty quickly adapted lesson plans for a Zoom environment while also supporting students from afar. Ordination students formed virtual havrutot (study pairs) and tefillah (prayer) groups, and volunteered pastoral care for the community. And, thanks to generous donors and our ongoing partnership with CJP, we were able to offer special online community education opportunities.
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Judaism for the World: Reflections on God, Life, and Love
“How do you pray to God?” asks Hebrew College Rector Rabbi Arthur Green in a blog post about his newest book, Judaism for the World: Reflections on God, Life, and Love, which was recently published by Yale University Press. His answer:
"You don’t. You just need to be present, to let the prayer blow through you. The words and tunes are mere background to that sacred process. You are just the shofar, the ram’s horn, through which the prayer is blown. God is the pray-er, the pray-ee, and the prayer itself. ‘People think you pray to God,' said one of the Hasidic masters, ‘but that is not the case. Prayer is God.’"
Rabbi Green says his newest work is a book about two journeys—that of the growth of Jewish mysticism during the 18th Century through the Hasidic movement, of God’s presence everywhere, of seeking the magnificent within the everyday, of doing all things with love and joy, of uplifting all of life to become a vehicle of God’s service; and that of taking this Hasidic mystical Judaism, conceived in the closed society of the late medieval world, and turning into a living faith for the 21st century seeker.
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Week One: We're in it together!
We invite you to join us for Elul Together: Preparing for the High Holidays in a Time of Upheaval. To bring us together during Elul, Hebrew College is posting short videos each Monday that feature our faculty, alumni, and students blowing the shofar, offering teachings, and singing melodies to Psalm 27, the psalm for the Days of Awe. Week one offerings include teachings by President Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, Rabbi Mónica Gomery (above left), Rabbi Jordan Schuster (above middle), Rabbi Shoshana Friedman (above right), Rabbi Suzanne Offit, and Rabbi Steven Lewis.
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Psalms 90 & 92
This week, we highlight two PsalmSeason works: "Ps. 90: A Pandemic Poem" by Dwight Wilson (above, left), author and former general secretary of Friends General Conference, and "Ps. 92: Shabbat Practice in a Time of Pandemic" by Dr. Judith Rosenbaum (above, right), CEO of the Jewish Women’s Archive. The Miller Center and the Interfaith Youth Core launched the 18-week digital PsalmSeason project in response to the unfolding global pandemic and upheaval over racial injustice.
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Reconnecting to Israel through Hebrew College Ulpan
By Chana Kutin, Hebrew College Ulpan student
I grew up going to day school, where I learned Hebrew every day. But I didn’t realize until recently, on a family trip to Israel, how much I still had to learn.
I could open up the siddur and sit through a class or service, but given the challenge to order something off a menu, I was at a complete loss for the vocabulary and confidence to speak in Modern Hebrew. That bothered me. It made me feel like I was less connected to Israel, less connected to Israeli culture. And I knew that I needed to find a way to start learning Hebrew again. . . .
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Coming Down from the RooftopParashat Ki Tetzei (Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19)
By Tyler Dratch, Rabbinical student
Much can change in only one year. When we read Parasha Ki Teitzei last year, I had just, days earlier, stood under the chuppah (wedding canopy) and married my wife. It was the happiest day of my life; it was a moment overflowing with possibility. That week, a hurricane had been projected to travel up the East Coast, and yet New England was experiencing the clearest, sunniest day of the entire summer. Surrounded by friends and family, we exchanged rings and prepared spiritually to build a home of love and warmth together. We knew the path of our lives together would be unpredictable, but on that day, our world felt as clear and open as the sky above.
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Hebrew College offers Jewish learning and leadership opportunities within a pluralistic environment of open inquiry, intellectual rigor, personal engagement, and spiritual creativity. Our diverse educational and cultural programs invigorate Jewish life and bring Jewish values to bear on the critical issues of our time. We do it with your support! Please make your fully-deductible investment to empower our thriving and welcoming community.
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