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July 24, 2020 | 3 Av 5780
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Hebrew College Plans for the Fall Semester
Hebrew College has worked to develop a fall plan that prioritizes public health and safety, while striving to create as many opportunities as possible for in-person community, connection, and learning. At the same time, building on the experience we gained last semester, we are committed to enhancing the learning experience for students in those classes that will continue on Zoom, and we are dedicating time and resources this summer to ensure that faculty are well supported as they prepare courses for virtual and hybrid settings.
We are grateful to be part of such a caring community, and confident that, together, we will be able to take on this challenge in a spirit of mutual responsibility and support.
Health & Safety Guidelines
Our partial return to campus this fall will require a deep commitment on the part of each and every member of our community to abide by health and safety protocols, both on and off campus. Preliminary information about the health and safety precautions for those coming to campus include:
- Wear masks at all times in the building.
- Practice social distancing at all times in the building.
- Stay home with any warning signs of COVID. Everyone entering the building will be required to answer a series of health questions to ensure that people who are experiencing any symptoms return home.
- All eating will be limited to designated areas with socially distanced seating.
- Daily cleaning of frequented common areas such as bathrooms and classrooms will be enhanced.
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Hebrew College Launches Racial Justice Initiative
A Message from President Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld
Dear Hebrew College community,
I hope this finds you and your loved ones well. I am writing today because I want you all to know about a significant area of work that we are undertaking as a College community.
This summer, we are launching a college-wide racial justice working group including faculty, staff, students, alumni, and board members. The group's mandate is to begin to look at how Hebrew College can engage in anti-racist work in a more serious and sustained way in the coming year, and beyond.
As I said in my graduation remarks this year, it feels like we are in a moment of reckoning around race and racism in this country—in a way that is different from any time I can remember. I hope and pray that we do not retreat from this reckoning, even when it means that we have to look at things in ourselves, in our communities, and in our society as a whole that are painful, shameful, and heartbreaking....
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Learning Hebrew to Explore Israel
By Charles Lin, Hebrew College Ulpan student
I started Hebrew College Ulpan because I wanted to become more familiar with how to read the Hebrew alphabet. I had visited Israel quite a few times for work or to visit friends, and while everyone speaks English there, I always feel it’s a visitor’s responsibility to know the basics. I also work in high tech, and there are a lot of startups in Tel Aviv, so I thought it might be useful to know the language.
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Our summer online community learning classes are in full swing! We are grateful to our generous anonymous donors for their support of these summer courses and to CJP for their continued support for community learning at Hebrew College. Deepen your Jewish learning this fall by taking a Hebrew College Community Learning course. Watch for our fall course offerings soon.
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PsalmSeason: Responding to COVID-19 with Poetry
In July, the Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leaership, Interfaith Youth Core, and Jewish Women's Archive hosted the PsalmSeason event "Poetry in a Time of Peril: Four Women's Voices" with poets Alondra Bobadilla, Marilyn Nelson, Alicia Ostriker, and Alicia Jo Rabins. These poets' words offered anger, warning, pain, hope and, as Alicia Ostriker said, "beauty out of bitterness" to help us respond to the current crisis of COVID-19 and the national reckoning with racial injustice.
Pictured top l-r: Dr. Judith Rosenbaum (Jewish Women's Archive), Alicia Jo Rabins, Rabbi Or Rose (Miller Center). Middle l-r: Rev. Paul Raushenbush (Interfaith Youth Core); Marilyn Nelson; Alicia Ostriker. Bottom: Alondra Bobadilla.
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Rabbi Or Rose on Chagigah Radio
Rabbi Or Rose, Director of the Miller Center, talks about the PsalmSeason project on Chagigah radio. In this segment, he also introduces "Psalm 114 He-harim," written and composed by Rabbi Micah Shapiro`17.
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Torah Godly Play
Rabbi Dr. Michael Shire, Director of Hebrew College's Master of Jewish Education program ran a virtual Torah Godly Play session on July 22 for Jewish educators. Torah Godly Play is a method of educating for shlemut (wholeness).
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The Persistence of Sinat Hinam (Baseless Hatred)Parashat Devarim (Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22) and Tisha B'av
By Rabbi Jim Morgan`08
Community Rabbi and Chaplain for Hebrew SeniorLife in MA
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Alas, she has become a harlot, The faithful city that was filled with justice, Where righteousness dwelt—but now murderers. (Isaiah 1:21; JPS)
Every year, we read Parashat D’varim as we approach Tisha B’Av, the saddest day of our liturgical calendar and the one on which we are reminded that our Temple—the symbol of our unity and our access to God’s presence—was destroyed on account of our baseless hatred for one another. This year, I can’t help but think about the baseless hatred that still suffuses our American scene: racism, antisemitism, misogyny, and economic exploitation, to mention only a few....
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Rabbi Bryan Mann`18 was featured in the July 14 Mid-Hudson News article entitled, "Rabbi Bryan Mann named Director of Jewish Student Life at Vassar College."
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