Adult Education 

Fall 2021 Course Offerings

Talmud ZOOOM! with Rabbi Amy Scheinerman

Wednesday evenings at 6:30 p.m.

Come explore stories from the Talmud about courage, decency, deception, and fear. Everyone is invited to this weekly class, and you may join at any time. Rabbi Amy Scheinerman is the hospice rabbi in Howard County, Maryland. She serves on the Responsa Committee of the CCAR and as editor of the Torah Commentary column of the CCAR newsletter. She is the author of The Talmud of Relationships: Volume One: God, Self, and Family and Volume Two: Community and Beyond. (Available through Amazon Smile on www.beth-shalom.net).

Beginner's Hebrew Class with Hana Paisner

Mondays, beginning October 25 at 6:00 pm

This course is designed to give first time learners the opportunity to become familiar with the Hebrew language alphabet, its sound system and the vowels. Students will learn to read Hebrew in textbooks, and especially from the prayer book. Students will also learn basic conversation and learn grammatical rules, concepts and sentence structures. This class will be in-person at Beth Shalom Congregation.

Fees:  $45/members and $90/non-members

 Conversational Hebrew with Ora Fisch

Tuesdays, beginning October 5 at 2:00 p.m.

This intermediate level class, with emphasis on grammar, conversational Hebrew, and vocabulary acquisition, is led by master teacher and native Israeli Ora Fisch. This class continues previous classes, but newcomers are welcome.

Give My Shaloms to Broadway with Cantor Rebecca Apt

Tuesdays, October 12, 19 and 26 at 7:45 p.m.

Come join Cantor Apt as we discuss and listen to music highlighting the great contributions of Jews to musical theater.

Cantor Rebecca Apt received degrees in Music and Midrash from Columbia University and Albert A. List College, and her Master’s degree in Sacred Music from the H.L. Miller Cantorial School.  Prior to joining Beth Shalom, Cantor Apt served as Hazzan of Shaare Tefilah Congregation in Olney, MD.

Fees:  $15 members; $30 non-members

Women Who Dared: How Ancient Jewish Women Took on the Rabbinic Courts and Sometimes Won with Rabbi Grossman

Tuesdays, November 9, 23 and 30 at 7:45 p.m.

Over 15 centuries ago, a woman in ancient Babylonia sought court protection for what today is called marital rape. Another sought redress for malfeasance by a court high official. These are just two of dozens of unnamed women whose court cases are preserved in the Babylonian Talmud. Identified simply as “a certain woman,” each advocates for herself before a named male rabbinic judge, protesting seemingly unfair decisions and sometimes winning reversals in their favor. Rabbi Grossman will explore how a gendered reading of these cases within the context of ancient Babylonian rabbinic society and its legal system leads us to reevaluate women’s role and degree of agency in rabbinic society.      

Rabbi Grossman earned her doctorate in Ancient Judaism at Jewish Theological Seminary. She is co-editor of Daughters of the King: Women and the Synagogue and Etz Hayim Torah and Commentary and is the among the longest serving rabbis on the Committee of Jewish Law and Standards. This will be the last formal Adult Education class Rabbi Grossman will teach before she retires and transitions to Rabbi Emeritus.

Appropriate for all levels. No Hebrew necessary.

Fees:  $15 members; $30 non-members

Jews in the Supreme Court with Professor Mike Myerson, JD

Tuesdays, December 7 and 21 at 7:45 pm

This class will explore the special role of Jews in the history of the Supreme Court.  We will discuss the biographies and impact of Jewish Justices, from Louis Brandeis and Benjamin Cardozo, to Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Elana Kagan.   We will also discuss the impact of cases that involved discrimination against, or accommodations of, the Jewish religion have had on the development of Constitutional Law.

Professor Myerson is the  DLA Piper Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law and the cofounder and director of the Fannie Angelos Program for Academic Excellence.  I am the author of several books on the U.S. Constitution, including  Endowed By Our Creator: The Birth of Religious Freedom in America (Yale University Press 2012). 

Fees:  $15 members; $30 non-members