Guest Speakers

Tuesday, September 10 • 7pm

Rabbi Dennis Weiss

Rambam Hilchot Teshuva

Wednesday, September 11 • 7:30pm

Inaugural Jewish Communal 9/11 Observance with Keynote speaker Mr. Richard Frankel

FBI Special Agent in Charge of Counterterrorism for New York. With JCRC and UJA-Federation of NY, co-sponsored by the JCC in Manhattan and local synagogues.

Tuesday, October 8 • 7pm

Book Talk with Matt Levitt

Hezbollah - The Global Footprint of Lebanon's Party of GodMatthew Levitt is a senior fellow and director of The Washington Institute's Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence. Dr. Levitt has served as an expert witness in several criminal and civil cases, lectured on international terrorism on behalf of the Departments of State, Justice, Defense, and Homeland Security, consulted for various U.S. government agencies and private industry, and testified before the Senate and House on matters relating to international terrorism. 

Shabbat, October 26

Scholar in Residence Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

A global religious leader, philosopher, author and moral voice for our time, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks has been Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth since September 1991. He is due to step down from his role in September 2013. the Chief Rabbi has been described by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair as "truly a towering figure in the intellectual life...he relates the insights of religion to the modern world and retells the story of faith in a compelling way, and that is a rare and remarkable achievement."

Tuesday, November 12, 7:00 pm

Rabbi Shalom Hammer: Pure Ammunition

$10 in advance/$15 at the door (percentage of proceeds to IDF). Rabbi Hammer tells the inspirational story of how his having served under the Rabbinate of the IDF changed his life. He shares the most vital criterion for serving in the Israeli army and how ignoring these fundamentals could compromise the physical and spiritual strength of the Jewish nation.

You can Sign-up by clicking here

Sunday, November 17

Global Day of Jewish Learning

The Limits and Potential of Jewish Pluralism. Sponsored by Chavie Kahn and Heshy Kofman for in memory of Rabbi Solomon Kahn, Z”L

Shabbat, December 6

Dr. Rachel Levmore

As an active Rabbinical Court Advocate since 1995, Dr. Rachel Levmore has specialized in cases of Iggun (being locked into a marriage) and Get-Refusal heard by the Israeli Rabbinical Courts. In January 2000 she became the first woman to join the “Agunot Unit” in the Directorate of the Israeli Rabbinical Courts. She is the Coordinator for Matters of Iggun and Get-Refusal, a joint project of the Council of Young Israel Rabbis in Israel and the Jewish Agency for Israel. She was recently appointed as a member of the State Committee for the Appointment of Rabbinic Court Judges in Israel

Wednesday, December 25 9am -12pm

Book Talk with Yossi Klein Halevi

Like Dreamers: The Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation.

Yossi Klein Halevi is a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, a member of the Institute’s iEngage Project, and a contributing editor to The New Republic. His first book, Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist, was published in 1995. In 2001 he published, At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden: A Jew’s Search for God with Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land. Yossi is a frequent contributor to the op-ed pages of leading North American newspapers. He is active in reconciliation efforts between Muslims and Jews and serves as Chairman of Open House, an Arab-Jewish coexistence center in the town of Ramle, near Tel Aviv.

Tuesdays, January 14, 21, 28, February 4,  • 6:30pm

CLE Class with Rabbi Dr. Daniel Sinclair LL.B., LL.M., Ph.D.

"Jewish Law - Legal Sources and Categories, Contemporary Issues and the Judicial System"

Rabbi Dr. Sinclair is Wolff Fellow in Jewish law and Visiting Professor of Law at Fordham University Law School. He is also Professor of Jewish Law and Comparative Biomedical Law at the Law School of the CMAS Law School, Rishon Lezion, and Adjunct Professor of Comparative Biomedical Law at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Rabbi Dr. Sinclair has published extensively in the fields of comparative biomedical law, Jewish law, the jurisprudence of Jewish law and the relationship between halakhah and ethics and the influence of Jewish law on the legal system of the State of Israel.

You can sign up by clicking here.

Shabbat, January 18

Annual Jonathan H. Spanbock Memorial Lecture

Given by Ms. Judy Klitsner: Inside-Outside: Biblical Leaders and Their Non-Jewish Mentors

Sunday, January 26 · 10:00am

The Challenge of Dinosaurs by "Zoo Rabbi", Natan Slifkin

A unique presentation on Judaism, Dinosaurs and the Age of the Universe by the renowned "Zoo Rabbi", Natan Slifkin.  For adults, teens and preteens.

Made possible by the generous sponsorship of our members Hertzie and Lolly Bak. 

Rabbi Natan Slifkin is an internationally renowned educator, writer and lecturer on the topic of Judaism and the natural sciences.  Ordained at Ohr Somayach Institutions, he is currently pursuing a PhD at Bar Ilan University, writing a dissertation on Rabbinic Encounters with Zoology.  He teaches classes on Judaism, Science and Zoology at Yeshivah Lev Hatorah in Ramat Bet Shemesh and maintains a popular blog Rationalist Judaism.  Rabbi Sliflin is currently developing a Biblical Museum of Natural History.

Refreshments will be served.

Shabbat, February 15

Rabbi Swap: Rabbi Elazar Muskin

Rabbi, Young Israel of Century City, Los Angeles, CA

Rabbi Elazar Muskin will deliver the Most-musaf Drasha in the Nathaniel Richman Cohen Main Sanctuary as well as the Pre-Mincha shiur at 4:20pm.

"Religious Heroism in the Holocaust: Fact and Fiction."

This lecture addresses two very famous cases from the Holocause literature.  We demonstrate that both were not factual.  This is all about the ethics of projecting history incorrectly and the price we pay when this happens.

Monday, February 24th • 7:15pm

"An Upside-Down World: the Western Loss of Reason Over Isarel"

with UK Media Personality, Melanie Phillips.

Melanie Phillips is a British journalist, author and broadcaster. She is best known for her polemical column about political and social issues, and has written for the Guardian, Observer, Sunday Times and Daily Mail. She is a regular panellist on BBC Radio's The Moral Maze, appears frequently on BBC TV’s Question Time and Daily Politics shows, and her blog, which can be found at www.embooks.com, has gained a significant following around the world.

Her best-selling book Londonistan, about the British establishment's capitulation to Islamic aggression, was published in 2006. She followed this in 2010 with The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth and Power, which is now in paperback with a foreword by David Mamet. Guardian Angel, the memoir of her personal and political journey, was published in 2013 by her own electronic imprint emBooks.

Copies of Ms. Phillips' book, The World Turned Upside Down, will be available for purchase at the event.

Thursday, February 27th • 7:15pm

Please join visiting scholar, Rabbi Jeffrey Saks for

An Introduction to Agnon's Novels

S.Y. Agnon once quipped "any book not worth reading twice probably wasn't worth reading the first time." Join the LSS Agnon Chug for a meeting with visiting scholar R. Jeffrey Saks for an overview of the Nobel laureate's novels, a great introduction to the "modern midrash" which is Agnon's Hebrew writing whether it's your first read or second.

Rabbi Jeffrey Saks is the founding Director of ATID in Jerusalem and its WebYeshiva.org program. He lectures regularly at the Agnon House and is Series Editor of The Toby Press S.Y. Agnon Library.

Shabbat, Spring 2014

Rabbi Moshe Lichtenstein

Rabbanit Esti Rosenberg

Scholars-in-Residence

Rabbi Moshe Lichtenstein is a Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion (Gush), and Rabbanit Esti Rosenberg is the Rosh Beit Midrash of Migdal Oz. They are the children of Rabbi Aharon and Dr. Tova Lichtenstein and grandchildren of Rabbi Joseph Dov Soloveitchik