In celebration of the upcoming Tu B’Shevat holiday four days later, the Sisterhood of the Highland Park Conservative Temple-Congregation Anshe Emeth will host a virtual program, The Jewish Perspective on the Environment, Sunday, Jan. 21 at 7 p.m. Tu B’ Shevat, the New Year of the Trees, has come to be known as “the Jewish Earth Day.”
Speaking will be Rabbi Miriam Midlarsky Lichtenfeld, director of youth education at Temple Shaaray Tefila in Manhattan and a seasoned Jewish educator who has taught at camps, day schools, run religious schools and educated adults. She always tries to weave environmental education into all her programming.
As an environmental activist, Lichtenfeld will discuss how the Torah commands us to be shomrei adama, stewards of the Earth, in order to protect and keep it for future generations. Using Jewish texts, she will engage participants in why the Jewish community needs to be concerned about the environment and the ways changes can be made in homes, synagogues and the community to promote environmental stewardship.
The program is free, but registration is required at https://tinyurl.com/ydbjs73r. For questions, contact Helene Knee at kneenote@gmail.com.
Want to trace your family’s roots? Temple Shaari Emeth in Manalapan is hosting a virtual program, European Jewish Genealogy, on Sunday, Jan. 21, at 11:30 a.m. featuring Rabbi Scott Kalmikoff, a genealogist who has spent 17 years exploring his family’s past. His work has allowed him to not only build his family tree, but also to meet relatives from around the world. Kalmikoff, the director of community engagement at the Riverdale Y in the Bronx, will explore the methodology of searching for records and documents and how to analyze that information. He will also present an overview of Jewish genealogical resources for those attending to use in their search. Kalmikoff has facilitated Jewish genealogy workshops for synagogues, JCCs, Hillels and other Jewish organizations across North America, teaching workshop participants how to conduct genealogical research on their own.
The program is free. Register at shaariemeth.org.
Temple Emanu-El in Edison will host two sessions on consecutive Thursdays, Jan. 18 and 25that 7 p.m. on the complicated issues surrounding the Israel-Hamas War.
The first will feature as speaker Dan Rozett, the director of community relations and Israel engagement at the Jewish Federation in the Heart of New Jersey, discussing the war. Rozett had moved to Israel to serve in the Israel Defense Forces, serving in Lebanon and participating in numerous defense tactics to prevent attacks on Israelis, returning to the United States 20 years later.
The second will have Brandi Katz Rubin, senior associate director of the New York/ New Jersey Region of the Anti-Defamation League, speaking about how the hostilities have contributed to a sharp rise in antisemitism.
Registration is required to attend using the following link:
https://www.edisontemple.org/event/Israel-Its-Complicated. Following registration, attendees will receive the location of each of the programs.
For questions and information, contact synagogue Executive Director Dana Shectman, executivedirector@edisontemple.org, or Rabbi Vicki L. Axe, rabbiaxe@edisontemple.org.
Rabbi Abraham Issac Kook was the first chief Ashkenazi rabbi of Israel, whose openness to new ideas while strictly adhering to the precepts of Torah and Jewish law, continues to have a profound effect on Israeli politics and society. He was an important theologian and a foundational thinker of religious Zionism, whose unconventional Zionism sprang from decades of meditation on questions of metaphysics, ethics and the distinctive spiritual challenges of modernity.
On Wednesday, Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. Rutgers University’s Allen and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life will host a virtual program, Mystical Zionism’s Surprising Origins: Rav Kook’s Early Decades, featuring Yehuda Mirsky, professor of near eastern and Judaic studies and faculty member of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University. He is author of the book, “Rav Kook: Mystic in a Time of Revolution,” which won the Jewish Book Council’s Choice Prize. It appeared in 2021 in a revised Hebrew edition as “Rav Kook: Mabat Hadash.”
Mirsky teaches courses on Zionism and Israel, Jewish intellectual and religious history and human rights.
The program is free but registration is required at: https://bildnercenter.rutgers.edu/events/upcoming-events/range.listevents/-.
