LIFELONG LEARNING
At BHS, we believe learning is a lifelong journey, and we’re proud to offer enriching opportunities for adult learners. Each season brings a selection of Hebrew and Jewish studies courses — spanning music, text study, history, theology, and more, all of which offer an opportunity to grow your Jewish catalog and knowledge!
Most classes are free and open to the public, though participants may be asked to purchase textbooks or other materials. *Please note that Rabbi Sue Oren’s Introduction to Judaism course requires a course fee.
Adult Education at BHS also goes beyond our core lifelong learning offerings. We host guest lectures, scholar-in-residence weekends, family workshops, book discussions, and other community-wide events throughout the year. We also share resources from Jewish learning institutions across NYC for anyone who wants to dive deeper. Stay tuned for more offerings to come.
For questions about the courses or registration, please contact Danielle Lund, at clergyassistant@bhsbrooklyn.org or (718) 522-2070 ext. 138.
Classes with Rabbi Bailey Romano
A Mixed Multitude: Medieval & Early Modern Jewish History in Europe, Asia, & North Africa
With Rabbi Romano
Classes will meet from 12:00-1:30pm (by Zoom) on December 4, 8, & 11 and January 15, 22, & 29.
Session 1 (Dec. 4): Crossing Continents: Early Jewish Diaspora Communities in Europe, Asia, and North Africa
Session 2 (Dec. 11): A Golden Age? 10th-12th Centuries
Session 3 (Dec. 18): Rabbis, Plagues, and Crusades in Western Europe 10th-13th Centuries
Session 4 (Jan. 15): Expulsion and Reinvention 1492-1700
Session 5 (Jan. 22): East and West: Jewish Emancipation and the Rise of Reform 1700-1880
Session 6 (Jan. 29): Making Sense of the Jew in the “Modern” World: 1880-1948
Moms & Margaritas
With Rabbi Romano
Meet-ups will be held from 7:30-9pm on Wednesday, January 7, March 4 and May 2 at Custom House on Montague Street.
Explore the joys and oys of being a Jewish mother or a mother to Jewish children. Margarita optional! Parents who identify as non-binary are always welcome to attend.
The American Jewish Experience
With Rabbi Romano
Classes will meet at 12pm-1:30pm (by Zoom) February 5, 12, 26, & March 5.
Session 1: Becoming “American” Jews 1654-1810’s
Session 2: Making America Home: 1820s-1890’s
Session 3: The Pre and Post War American Jewish Experience at Home and Abroad: 1900-1950’s
Session 4: American Jewish Life in the 20th and 21st Centuries
Drama, Intrigue, Prophecy and Death: A Close Reading of the Books of Samuel and Kings
With Rabbi Romano
Classes will meet (by Zoom) at 12pm-1:30pm on March 12, 19, April 16, 23, 30, May 7, 14, 21, 28, June 4.
Some of the most fascinating material in the Hebrew Bible come to us from “the historical books.” These books (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, & Kings) tell the story of our people after they reached the land of Israel. We only encounter texts from these books in our Haftarah readings on Shabbat and rarely read them in their entirety. Rabbi Romano invites you to join her in a close reading of the Books of Samuel and Kings exploring the depth and drama of our people’s earliest prophets and leaders.
Integrating Jewish Theology into Our Lives
With Rabbi Romano
Classes will meet at 6pm on Wednesdays, June 3, 10, 17, & 24 in-person at BHS.
Most Jews when asked, “Do you believe in God?” will hem and haw. We’re comfortable with ritual, but we have a hard time talking about the Divine. We have an easier time answering the question: “How do you experience God in your life?” This class applies the latter question to our experience of God through nature, tradition, relationships, our bodies, and meditation. Students should purchase Because My Soul Longs for You: Integrating Theology into Our Lives edited by Rabbi Edwin Goldberg and Rabbi Elaine Zecher. We will use this as our source text throughout our time together.
Classes with Cantor Ayelet Porzecanski
Cantor Ayelet Porzecanski will be hosting a three-part music series which will be presented by renown Musician and Educator, Robert Cohen, on March 9, 16, & April 23. Please register for and learn more about each class below!
About Robert Cohen: Robert has been lecturing on Jewish music and American folk and popular music for some 30 years — including at the Fifth Avenue New York Public Library (Jewish Division Lectures), the New England Conservatory of Music, New School University in New York and Hebrew College in Boston, the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Cantors Assembly, and Boston College's Center for Christian-Jewish Learning and School of Theology & Ministry, and at numerous libraries, JCCs. and synagogues — including, numerous times, at this Synagogue! (For some fifteen years, he was also one of the most sought-after presenters in the Speakers in the Humanities and Speakers in the Schools programs of the New York Council for the Humanities.) He has produced and hosted over 100 radio programs on Jewish identity and culture; wrote the NPR documentary "One People, Many Voices: American-Jewish Music Comes of Age" (now in the permanent collection of the Paley Center for Media in New York); and produced the compilation CD Open the Gates! New American-Jewish Music for Prayer.
Women in American-Jewish Music
This class will be held on 7-8:15pm on Monday, March 9 at BHS.
“Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion,” exhorts the prophet Zechariah, and the prophet’s injunction is one that today’s Jewish women are certainly heeding. We’ll listen to a rich sample of the distinctive contributions of women to American-Jewish music: from early 20th-century “hazzantes” to today’s synagogue cantors; from settings of relevant Biblical texts to new spiritual melodies (niggunim) for prayer — especially for the New Month and for contemporary healing services; and from new Yiddish and Ladino folk songs to exhilarating a cappella, klezmer, and fusion ensembles. How are the voices of Jewish women changing today's Jewish music?
The Music of Intimacy: Hasidic Melodies & Our Spiritual Journeys
This class will be held on 7-8:15pm on Monday, March 16 at BHS.
“In the highest heavens, there is a certain Temple with gates that can be opened only by the power of song” — So goes a characteristic Hasidic teaching about music. We'll learn and sing Hasidic melodies from various traditions, along with contemporary spiritual melodies (niggunim) — for prayer, meditation, and healing — inspired by Hasidic tradition. Devotional melodies, with and without words, in Hasidic philosophy and spiritual practice — and how such melodies can empower us spiritually.
Can a Song Change the World? Songs of Struggle, Protest, & Affirmation
This class will be held on 7-8:15pm on Thursday, April 23 at BHS.
Do songs have the power to change the world? Or do people — from participants in social change movements to people in power — believe they can? We’ll consider these questions as we listen to songs from Colonial America, the Abolition movement, and the Civil Rights struggle; anti- (and pro-) war songs; and songs from the labor and environmental movements — and, perhaps, songs from a few unexpected sources as well. Along the way: What makes a protest song "effective" — and what do we mean by that, anyway?
Intro to Judaism
Intro to Judaism
Led by Rabbi Sue Oren
Through a 20-session course, in a warm and open environment, explore Jewish thought, prayer and practice, learn about Jewish history and holidays, wrestle with inherited texts and contemporary issues, discuss Jewish views of God, ethics, life and death. Class is held with Zoom and in-person options (off-site from BHS, in Brooklyn).
This course is closed for the current fall-winter cycle. Stay tuned for announcements of open enrollment for the next session.