Midreshet HaKerem is a joint project of Kehilat HaKerem and Midreshet Schechter, which is an affiliate of the Shechter Institute of Jewish Studies In Jerusalem.
Since the early 1990s, the Schechter Institute has offered courses in Jewish studies to immigrants from Russia. Today, Midreshet Schechter offers courses in Judaism to the general public in Israel and abroad.
These courses are based on study of the sources and an examination of the meanings and values implied by them, from a critical historical point of view.
Midreshet Hakerem
ENGLISH LECTURE PROGRAM -
How We Got Here:
The People of Israel confront Liberal Democrary and its Competitors in the Modern Age
with Rabbi Dr. Avi Kadish
November 2023 - January 2024
Lectures will begin at 18:15 and end at 20:30.
Courses will be held in Kehilat Hakerem, and on Zoom (surcharge for local residents - see below).
See below for details of how to register and pay
Course of 12 weekly meetings
Wednesdays starting on 1 November 2023
The State of Israel is thriving, a blessing far beyond the hopes and dreams of our ancestors. Yet at the very same time Israel (and by extension Am Yisrael as a whole) faces a grave ideo-logical crisis along with powerful external threats. How did we get here?
In this year-long course we will study how the People of Israel came face to face with the ideologies of modernity. Are they reflected in Jewish tradition? What are their effects on the Jewish people, and how have Jews learned – or failed to learn – the lessons of liberalism, democracy and their competitors?
FALL SEMESTER 2023
Lessons 1-3: Does the Jewish Tradition Reflect Liberalism, Democracy and Human Rights?
Lessons 4-12: Disintegration and the Search for New Meaning: From the Aftermath of Shabbetai Tzvi to the Russian Pogroms (1666-1882)
Lesson
Date
Subject
1.
1 November
The Sanctity of the Individual - is this liberalism?
2.
8 November
Rule by Consent of the People - is this democracy?
15 November
A Tradition of Dialogue with Multiple Voices - is this freedom of conscience?
4.
22 November
Collapse of the Kehila
5.
29 November
The Rise of Hasidut
6.
6 December
The Gaon of Vilna
7.
20 December
Barukh Spinoza
8.
27 December
Moses Mendelsohn
9.
3 January
Solomon Maimon
10.
10 January
Reform, Orthodoxy and Assimilationism in Germany and Hungary
11.
17 January
Emancipation, Enlightenment and Wissenchaft des Judentums
12.
24 January
The Jews of the East, Hebrew Haskalah and the Lovers of Zion
For further details and registration midrasha@hakerem.net
Telephone/WhatsApp: 052-2693758
The full lesson schedule for the Spring Semester will be published in the period leading to the start of classes.
Course titles and content are subject to change.
Course Pricing 2023
Members - 1 semester
125
Members - 2 semesters
250
Members - single class
30
Single class – non-members
60
Non-members - 1 semester
250
Non-members - 2 semesters
500
Non-members - single class
60
DISCOUNTS
Full year in advance (register bt 16/10/23)
25%
Second course in same semester
25%
Spouse as second registrant
25%
Friend brings a friend1
25%
|Note: Up to two discounts may be chosen per semester/course
For registration and further information by email or phone