“His insight is unique and his ability to deliver difficult information thorough and moving. He takes his watch off, begins with a story or joke and engages his audience from the start. He can focus on Holocaust, on Holocaust Education, on European Anti-Semitism Today, or teach a biblical or Talmudic text and present with depth and compassion."
— Rabbi Karen L. Fox, Wilshire Boulevard Temple
Scholar-in-Residence
Weekend Shabbaton – or choose one lecture out of these for a single evening presentation:
Four Modern Masters of Judaism: Buber and Rosenzweig, Heschel and Soloveitchik
- Martin Buber and the Language of Spiritual Intimacy
- Franz Rosenzweig: The Path of Return and the Double Covenant
- Abraham Joshua Heschel and the Tension between Prophet and Priest, Philosopher and Activist, Scholar and Social Revolutionary
- Joseph B. Soloveitchik: The Inner Life of a Mitnaged
Hollywood and the Holocaust: The Holocaust in Film over the Past 75 Years with Clips
Given by a Holocaust scholar who is also an Emmy Award and Cable Ace Award Winner and who has been a consultant, co-producer and Executive Producer of three Academy Award winning films and who has been featured in more than 20 films on the Holocaust.
The Holocaust and Contemporary Jewish Ethics
The Holocaust has become the “negative absolute” of contemporary ethical discourse. We may not be certain what is good but we are all too certain of what is absolutely evil for the Holocaust has become the defining evil of 20th century humanity. It implications are vast for ethical discourse and even greater for our understanding of contemporary Jewish ethics. Issues such as medical ethics, legal ethics, interreligious and intra-religious as well as the ethics of power are transformed by an understanding of the Holocaust.
The Challenge is Not Holocaust Denial, but Vulgarization, Trivialization, Minimization and Falsification by Friend and Foe Alike
When Holocaust denial first began in the early 1980, people were fearful of its consequences. Increased and improved scholarship, the self-destruction of David Irving in 2000 and the departure of Iranian President Ahmadinejad have diminished the challenge of denial. Yet important new challenges to our understanding of the Holocaust and its role in public discourse are now more pressing and potentially more dangerous.
How Do We Speak of God/How Do We Speak to God After Auschwitz
The Holocaust is a challenge to Jewish beliefs in God and in humanity. We must ask “where was God?” Equally importantly, we must ask “where was humanity? This presentation explores Jewish beliefs in God and in humanity and the language that we use to speak of God and to God after the Shoah.
Not Your Father’s Antisemitism
Why antisemitism in the 21st century is different than Nazi Antisemitism or traditional antisemitism and why the American Jewish community is fighting the wrong battles. Those who refight the last war often lose the next one.
Jewish Power
“Be Proud of It and Not Embarrassed by It”: why the perception of Jewish power changes everything. In the 1970s we feared that power was in control of natural resources and that the enemies of Israel would therefore become major powers. We have learned that power in the 21st century is in the ability to manage and master information and in this Jews have become empowered. Israel is now a regional military superpower and a potential economic power and American Jews are empowered as never before. This power imposes responsibilities as it creates opportunities.
Divorce is the Only Option
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict makes sense and can be solved if we stop talking about peace and the affection and cooperation that should accompany it. We should use the language of divorce, the separation of Israelis and Palestinians, and facilitate their ability to live independently from each other. The right wing is wrong: Israel cannot indefinitely control, dominate and humiliate a hostile Palestinian population. The left wing is wrong: there can be no peace now but there is a third way — divorce — Israelis and Palestinians living apart from each other, independent of each other and secured from each other. That is the best we can do in this generation. But if we do it, peace can follow.
Holocaust Fatigue
Why the American Jewish community has grown tired of hearing about the Holocaust, at least when it is presented as the whole world wants to destroy the Jews, all our enemies are Hitler and the world continues to betray us. And how a different memory of the Holocaust, as a tool for teaching democracy and pluralism, human dignity and decency, resilience and empowerment, is liberating and invigorating.
The Holocaust and the Establishment of the State of Israel – the Arabs, the Mufti, Iran and the Holocaust
Recent statements by Representative Rhashida Tlaib have called into the question the relationship between the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel. This lecture will trace the history of Zionism and the role of the Holocaust in the creation of the State. Prime Minister Netanyahu has also blamed the Mufti of Jerusalem for convincing Hitler to gas the Jews. This lecture will also examine the role of the Mufti in the Final Solution and the attitude of the Arab States and Iran to the Holocaust as it was happening.