Our Five College trips are run by Oranim, you can sign up on their website or through the website of UMASS Hillel.
We have two sets of dates, one in June and one later in the summer.
Register now. Bring your friends.
Showing posts with label Five College Hillel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Five College Hillel. Show all posts
1/06/2008
Jerusalem Diary - Sunday
After a slow morning, I arrived at the Conservative Yeshiva at around 9:30. After I walked in, I saw Josh Kulp and went to give him a hug and catch up. A few of the other Kollel members and faculty came to say hello (Shlomo Zacharow who worked at Ramah and others). Also, I recognized a number of the students from dinner Friday and Kedem on Shabbat morning. After schmoozing with Josh, I started to go over the Talmud passage he would be teaching and then joined his shiur. They are studying a long section on muktzeh in the third chapter of Shabbat.
I left Josh's class at noon to meet with Clare Goldwater who was visiting the Yeshiva after I reached out to her. After time with Clare and Daniel Goldfarb (Director of the Yeshiva), I joined Clare for lunch at Masrik (great pasta). We talked about how I could return to Israel for a year with my family. Don't worry, it won't happen soon. Clare and I talked about some of my plans for Smith-Amherst Hillel (not ready for publication) and other developments. I always enjoy talking with her but can never get more than a few minutes at Hillel conferences.
I spent the afternoon shopping--getting nature material at SPNI for Deborah, a stamp book for Zev, gifts for the girls (they will remain surprises for them), and a few other items (also surprises but they come from Yirmiyahu's, Dahab, and a CD store). I then went to the Conservative Yeshiva for ma'ariv and some more schmoozing. At 7, I went to the apartment of a friend from Pardes (Craig Preston). Matt Berkowitz had been staying there and I said goodbye to him. Craig then took me to a great place for Israeli food--stekiat bibi in the industrial zone of Talpiot (near Pardes).
Craig drove me back to the apartment in Givat Mordechai to pack and post on the blog.
I walked a lot today, ate great food, learned some Talmud, and talked to amazing people--a typical day for me in Jerusalem. This will probably end my Jerusalem diaries as I meet the two Five College birthright Israel busses tomorrow afternoon and will have little computer access.
Tomorrow's plans: learning Talmud in the morning, dropping off my luggage at the hotel, meeting my group at the airport, and then heading back to Jerusalem for dinner and the start of their program.
I left Josh's class at noon to meet with Clare Goldwater who was visiting the Yeshiva after I reached out to her. After time with Clare and Daniel Goldfarb (Director of the Yeshiva), I joined Clare for lunch at Masrik (great pasta). We talked about how I could return to Israel for a year with my family. Don't worry, it won't happen soon. Clare and I talked about some of my plans for Smith-Amherst Hillel (not ready for publication) and other developments. I always enjoy talking with her but can never get more than a few minutes at Hillel conferences.
I spent the afternoon shopping--getting nature material at SPNI for Deborah, a stamp book for Zev, gifts for the girls (they will remain surprises for them), and a few other items (also surprises but they come from Yirmiyahu's, Dahab, and a CD store). I then went to the Conservative Yeshiva for ma'ariv and some more schmoozing. At 7, I went to the apartment of a friend from Pardes (Craig Preston). Matt Berkowitz had been staying there and I said goodbye to him. Craig then took me to a great place for Israeli food--stekiat bibi in the industrial zone of Talpiot (near Pardes).
Craig drove me back to the apartment in Givat Mordechai to pack and post on the blog.
I walked a lot today, ate great food, learned some Talmud, and talked to amazing people--a typical day for me in Jerusalem. This will probably end my Jerusalem diaries as I meet the two Five College birthright Israel busses tomorrow afternoon and will have little computer access.
Tomorrow's plans: learning Talmud in the morning, dropping off my luggage at the hotel, meeting my group at the airport, and then heading back to Jerusalem for dinner and the start of their program.
4/18/2007
Virginia Tech: Senseless Tragedy and Selfless Herorism
The tragedy at Virginia Tech is almost beyond words. It shows the devastating consequences of complicated modern communication, ineffective gun control, and senseless violence.
My first thoughts were for Sue Kurtz, my Hillel colleague at Virginia Tech, and her family. Thankfully, they are safe--at least physically. I remember a conversation we had at a conference in November about how to bring Kosher food to their university located far from a Jewish community. Beyond her, my only connection to Virginia Tech is an alumna, Mara Seidel--a fellow Wilmingtonian and UMASS Hillel's JCSC Fellow.
Virginia Tech Hillel Director Sue Kurtz's speech at yesterday's Virginia Tech convocation.
Message from Hillel about Virginia Tech
Now, we are organizing a memorial vigil/service at Smith for this afternoon. For campuses around the country, it has brought disaster and crisis planning to its rightful place of attention (most campuses have been working on this because of an expected flu pandemic). At our Amherst staff meeting, we discussed how to balance the needs of Religious Advisors who only work at Amherst 1/3 time (and share the rest with Smith).
Below is the story of one courageous professor--survivor of the Holocaust and Soviet labor camp who lost his life after saving those of his students.
He demonstrates that the human capacity for evil (or sickness) allows for emergence of heroic acts of kindness. Let us follow Liviu Librescu's example and fill the world with acts of loving kindness.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the community of Virginia Tech (students, staff, faculty, parents, neighbors, alumnae, and more). May the memories of those whose lives were destroyed be for a blessing.
Rabbi Bruce
From the Times of London:
Liviu Librescu
One victim of the Virginia massacre left an incomparable legacy
The last person to see Professor Liviu Librescu alive appears to have been
Alec Calhoun, a student at Virginia Tech who turned as he prepared to leap
from a high classroom window to see the elderly academic holding shut the
classroom door. The student jumped, and lived. Minutes later, the professor
was shot dead.
There is no meaningful distinction between one relative's grief and
another's sorrow as the bereaved converge on Blacksburg from as near as
Roanoke and as far as India. But it is worth reflecting on the significance
of Professor Librescu's life of quiet heroism, which encompassed the
Holocaust, a career of internationally admired teaching and research, and a
final act of sacrifice that saved at least nine other lives.
The son of Romanian Jewish parents, he was sent to a Soviet labour camp as a
boy after his father was deported by the Nazis. He was repatriated to
communist Romania only to be forced out of academia there for his Israeli
sympathies. A personal intervention by Menachem Begin enabled him to
emigrate with his wife to Israel, from where he visited the US on a
sabbatical in 1986, and chose to stay. The appalling ironies of his murder
by a crazed student after a life of such fortitude and generosity will not
be lost on anyone who hears his story.
Yet neither should those who mourn him forget the role that America played
in his life. As for so many other survivors of the mid-20th century's
genocidal convulsions, the US was for this inspiring teacher both a beacon
of hope and a welcoming new home. Founded on the idea of liberty, it also
made, for him, a reality of that idea. Let those he saved now make the most
of it.
My first thoughts were for Sue Kurtz, my Hillel colleague at Virginia Tech, and her family. Thankfully, they are safe--at least physically. I remember a conversation we had at a conference in November about how to bring Kosher food to their university located far from a Jewish community. Beyond her, my only connection to Virginia Tech is an alumna, Mara Seidel--a fellow Wilmingtonian and UMASS Hillel's JCSC Fellow.
Virginia Tech Hillel Director Sue Kurtz's speech at yesterday's Virginia Tech convocation.
Message from Hillel about Virginia Tech
Now, we are organizing a memorial vigil/service at Smith for this afternoon. For campuses around the country, it has brought disaster and crisis planning to its rightful place of attention (most campuses have been working on this because of an expected flu pandemic). At our Amherst staff meeting, we discussed how to balance the needs of Religious Advisors who only work at Amherst 1/3 time (and share the rest with Smith).
Below is the story of one courageous professor--survivor of the Holocaust and Soviet labor camp who lost his life after saving those of his students.
He demonstrates that the human capacity for evil (or sickness) allows for emergence of heroic acts of kindness. Let us follow Liviu Librescu's example and fill the world with acts of loving kindness.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the community of Virginia Tech (students, staff, faculty, parents, neighbors, alumnae, and more). May the memories of those whose lives were destroyed be for a blessing.
Rabbi Bruce
From the Times of London:
Liviu Librescu
One victim of the Virginia massacre left an incomparable legacy
The last person to see Professor Liviu Librescu alive appears to have been
Alec Calhoun, a student at Virginia Tech who turned as he prepared to leap
from a high classroom window to see the elderly academic holding shut the
classroom door. The student jumped, and lived. Minutes later, the professor
was shot dead.
There is no meaningful distinction between one relative's grief and
another's sorrow as the bereaved converge on Blacksburg from as near as
Roanoke and as far as India. But it is worth reflecting on the significance
of Professor Librescu's life of quiet heroism, which encompassed the
Holocaust, a career of internationally admired teaching and research, and a
final act of sacrifice that saved at least nine other lives.
The son of Romanian Jewish parents, he was sent to a Soviet labour camp as a
boy after his father was deported by the Nazis. He was repatriated to
communist Romania only to be forced out of academia there for his Israeli
sympathies. A personal intervention by Menachem Begin enabled him to
emigrate with his wife to Israel, from where he visited the US on a
sabbatical in 1986, and chose to stay. The appalling ironies of his murder
by a crazed student after a life of such fortitude and generosity will not
be lost on anyone who hears his story.
Yet neither should those who mourn him forget the role that America played
in his life. As for so many other survivors of the mid-20th century's
genocidal convulsions, the US was for this inspiring teacher both a beacon
of hope and a welcoming new home. Founded on the idea of liberty, it also
made, for him, a reality of that idea. Let those he saved now make the most
of it.
3/01/2007
Purim This Weekend
The Five College Megillah Reading and Purim Celebration will occur Saturday night at Amherst College's Alumni House at 7:30pm.
In addition to Megillah reading in Hebrew, there will be Purim Shpiels (humorous skits about the Book of Esther), mask making, food, drink, song and the opportunity to make mishloach manot (portions of food given to friends on Purim).
Come in costume!
see you there,
Rabbi Bruce
In addition to Megillah reading in Hebrew, there will be Purim Shpiels (humorous skits about the Book of Esther), mask making, food, drink, song and the opportunity to make mishloach manot (portions of food given to friends on Purim).
Come in costume!
see you there,
Rabbi Bruce
4/18/2006
Former Hillel Director, Jewish Leader, & Scholar Died 4/17
“We pray for the scholars and teachers associated with the study of Torah … who spread learning among the people, the leaders of the community, world leaders and those who exercise authority in the courts of sacred law.” (Prayer book).
The Jewish community of the Five Colleges and Upper Valley joins the rest of the Jewish community in mourning the death 4/17 of our esteemed former Jewish Chaplain/Hillel Director Dr. Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, z”l, a scholar and American Jewish leader involved in many of the most important Jewish events of the last sixty years. He was 84.
Dr. Rabbi Hertzberg (then studying for his PhD from Harvard) was Hillel Director of UMASS, Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, and Smith during a few years of World War II. He describes this experience in one chapter of his autobiography.
You can get a sense of his personality and interests here at the NY Review of Books.
“May his disciples … and all who apply themselves in the study of Torah be granted heavenly salvation.” May his life and memory act as inspiration for us to create a better world using our ancient tradition.
Hag Sameach,
Rabbi Bruce
_____________________________________________________________
Additional Biography Taken from Wikipedia:
"His love of Judaism and the Jewish texts was at the core of his controversial life as a rabbi, scholar, educator and Jewish communal leader. Over the course of his 50 plus year career, Rabbi Hertzberg served as a congregational rabbi, president of both the American Jewish Policy Foundation and the American Jewish Congress, vice president of the World Jewish CongressCatholic-Jewish dialogue that commenced during the papacy of Pope John XXIII. As a major public figure in the world of Jewish organizational life, Hertzberg was at the center of the crucial events shaping American Jewish life since the end of World War II. He walked with Martin Luther King, Jr., in the 1963March to Washington and Bloody Sunday at the height of the American civil rights movement, and Henry Kissinger. Hertzberg played a major role in some of the most significant issues the world Jewish community faced in the decades following World War II, including discussions with the Catholic Church over the still unresolved conflict over the Vatican's release of documents pertaining to Pius XII and the Holocaust, as well as his outspoken criticism of the policies of Israel toward the Palestinians.
Arthur Hertzberg received rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1943 and a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University in 1966. He has taught at Princeton, Rutgers, Columbia, and Dartmouth. He was the Bronfman Visiting Professor of the Humanities at New York University from 1991 until his death in 2006. and a leading representative of world Jewry in the historic
The Jewish community of the Five Colleges and Upper Valley joins the rest of the Jewish community in mourning the death 4/17 of our esteemed former Jewish Chaplain/Hillel Director Dr. Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, z”l, a scholar and American Jewish leader involved in many of the most important Jewish events of the last sixty years. He was 84.
Dr. Rabbi Hertzberg (then studying for his PhD from Harvard) was Hillel Director of UMASS, Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, and Smith during a few years of World War II. He describes this experience in one chapter of his autobiography.
You can get a sense of his personality and interests here at the NY Review of Books.
“May his disciples … and all who apply themselves in the study of Torah be granted heavenly salvation.” May his life and memory act as inspiration for us to create a better world using our ancient tradition.
Hag Sameach,
Rabbi Bruce
_____________________________________________________________
Additional Biography Taken from Wikipedia:
"His love of Judaism and the Jewish texts was at the core of his controversial life as a rabbi, scholar, educator and Jewish communal leader. Over the course of his 50 plus year career, Rabbi Hertzberg served as a congregational rabbi, president of both the American Jewish Policy Foundation and the American Jewish Congress, vice president of the World Jewish CongressCatholic-Jewish dialogue that commenced during the papacy of Pope John XXIII. As a major public figure in the world of Jewish organizational life, Hertzberg was at the center of the crucial events shaping American Jewish life since the end of World War II. He walked with Martin Luther King, Jr., in the 1963March to Washington and Bloody Sunday at the height of the American civil rights movement, and Henry Kissinger. Hertzberg played a major role in some of the most significant issues the world Jewish community faced in the decades following World War II, including discussions with the Catholic Church over the still unresolved conflict over the Vatican's release of documents pertaining to Pius XII and the Holocaust, as well as his outspoken criticism of the policies of Israel toward the Palestinians.
Arthur Hertzberg received rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1943 and a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University in 1966. He has taught at Princeton, Rutgers, Columbia, and Dartmouth. He was the Bronfman Visiting Professor of the Humanities at New York University from 1991 until his death in 2006. and a leading representative of world Jewry in the historic
In addition to his academic posts, Rabbi Hertzberg served as a chaplain in the United States Air Force from 1951 to '53 and rabbi of Temple Emanu-El in Englewood, New Jersey, from 1956 to 1985, where he remained as rabbi emeritus until his death. He also served as president of the American Jewish Policy Foundation since 1978, president of the American Jewish Congress from 1972 to '78, and vice president of the World Jewish Congress from 1975 to 1991.
Rabbi Hertzberg was a co-editor of Essays on Jewish Life and Thought (1959) and the author of The Zionist Idea (1959), The Outbursts That Await Us (1963), The French Enlightenment and the Jews (1968), which won the first Amran Award as the best work of nonfiction in the Jewish field, Judaism (1961), Being Jewish in America (1978), The Jews in America (1989), Jewish Polemics (1992), At Home Only with God (1993), The Zionist Idea (1997), and, with Aron Hirt-Manheimer, Jews: The Essence and Character of a People (1998)."
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