Limmud Conference 2010 - Webcasts
17 sessions from Limmud Conference 2010 that you can see here online. See below for the full list .
The 30th Anniversary Lecture: What we wanted - What we got
Clive Lawton
In at the beginning, still here now, Clive will reminisce about Limmud's original intentions and dreams and set those against what's actually happened. What was the world like then and in what ways has Limmud helped to change it?
Unresolvable Problems - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4
Deep within Jewish teachings and traditions are ideas that seem pretty well impossible to make clear sense of. Each day Clive will examine one (1) The story of the Tower of Babel. Does this suggest that attempts to get people to work together are against God's wishes? (3) The story of the binding of Isaac. What are we supposed to learn from it? That God wants blind obedience? That being ready to sacrifice your son is admirable?
A History of the Jewish World in 30 Objects (3 of 5)
Join us for an amazing Limmud experience – 30 different presenters talking about 30 different objects which together tell the history of the Jewish people. In each session a variety of guest presenters from around the world will introduce the objects they have brought to speak about, creating a unique and vibrant picture of Jewish life. In this session our objects and presenters will explore ritual and medieval life.
Session 3: Mekella Broomberg, Miri Eisin, Alastair Falk, Brian Klug, Yehudah Mirsky, Jonathan Sarna, Marc Shoffren
Session 4: Jaclyn Chernett, Francis Nataf, Amy Philip, Marc Shoffren, Tina Wasserman, Chaim Weiner, Debbie Weissman
Session 5: Carolyn Bogush, Jonathan Boyd, Polly Bronstein, Maureen Kendler, Shlomit Naor, Marc Shoffren, Ian Vellins .
'At the beginning of God's creating…' - Really Reading Genesis
Marc Michael Epstein
Guided by the classical interpreters, but also inspired by poets and philosophers, we will embark on a reconsideration of the very first chapters of the Hebrew Bible. How can they be understood in a manner that avoids viewing them as either completely metaphoric or completely literal?
Maureen Kendler
Mass-Observation - a 1930s project attempting to capture the everyday life of ordinary people - made some extraordinary notes about Jews in London, Rosh Hashana in Blackpool 1937, the arrival of refugees in Hampstead and the size of Jewish hat-brims in Limehouse. Investigators find 'unsemitism' rather than 'antisemitism'. This session will explore a remarkable, neglected archive of social history. Warning: 'unsemitism' may be even more worrying than 'antisemitism'.....
Israel and the Media: An Insider's Account
Simcha Jacobovici
The mobilization of anti-Israel bias has reached epidemic proportions. This lecture deals with reporting on Israel from the point of view of someone who has produced programming for most of the world's major networks. Simcha Jacobovici is a three time Emmy winner in Investigative Journalism
Israeli Politics for Beginners
Daniel Needlestone
Come and find out about how Israeli politics works (or doesn't). Who are the 12ish parties in the parliament? Why were there over 30 parties standing in the last election? Who are the movers and shakers? There will be videos and discussion included. All levels welcome but the session is aimed at beginners!
Are You Really What You’re Worth?
Yitzchak Schochet
Why NATO Enlargement was Good for the Jews
Andrew Baker
After the fall of Communism the new democracies of Eastern Europe sought to link themselves to the West for political, economic and security reasons. Their first goal was membership in NATO. But those who determined 'readiness' for NATO added one additional requirement: deal with the unfinished business of your Holocaust-era past. This is the story of how this came to be, what it meant on the ground, and what is still left undone.
New Antisemitism Theory and its Critics
Robert Fine
A discriminatory logic has taken hold of sections of public opinion. Israel is depicted as a uniquely illegitimate state, Zionism as a uniquely noxious ideology, references to the Holocaust as uniquely self-serving. This 'critique of Israel' recycles old antisemitic motifs. Surprisingly, perhaps, this way of thinking about antisemitism has been most strongly criticised in liberal-left currents committed to antiracism and anti-antisemitism. Why has the antisemitism question become the shibboleth whereby political allies become firm
enemies?
Raphael Zarum
Starting off on the right foot can stop you from stumbling subsequently... The first sidra in Exodus (just as in Genesis) ends in tragic failure. The initial endeavours of Moses to save his people were unsuccessful and the hardship of slavery just intensified. Why? It took Moses five chapters to understand what God was doing in the Exodus story - we have just over an hour…
Who is a Rabbi? The Politics of Religion (Including Conversion) in Israel
Gerald Steinberg
After 2000 years, the restoration of Jewish sovereignty and the ingathering of the Exiles also created intense conflicts over the role of religious institutions and authority in the modern state. In this session, we will focus on the conflict over the role of rabbis in Israeli politics, how this spills
over into the conversion debate, and possible scenarios for resolving this.
