Secular Jewish Community and School

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Adult Education

On most of the Sundays that SJCS meets, the adult members gather for approximately one and one-half hours to discuss a wide range of Jewish cultural, historical, and ethical issues. Brief readings are sometimes distributed prior to the discussions, but others require no advance preparation. Presenters include outside experts, volunteer adult members, and the B’nai Mitzvah students.

Here are some of the highlights of our 2007-08 programs:

• Jonathan Miller, the Artistic Director of Chicago a cappella, gave a presentation on Jewish liturgical music.

• Mike Karsen presented an Introduction to Jewish Genealogy.

• We read and discussed a number of short stories by Leonard Michaels, comparing some of his early works with his final set of Nachman stories.

• We listened to and discussed an audiotape lecture on the Book of Job.

• We viewed a DVD of a moving film called Forgiving Dr. Mengele.

• We discussed the duty to rescue under Jewish and American law.

• Ben Peck led a discussion of the history and philosophy of Secular Judaism.

• We viewed and discussed a DVD on Humanistic Judaism.

• The B’nai Mitzvah students and their parents led a discussion of varieties of Judaism (Conservative, Reformed, Reconstructionist, and Humanistic).

• The B’nai Mitzvah students presented their research on:

o Yiddish
o Jews in the American Film Industry
o Jews and Magic
o The Birds of Israel
o Klezmer Music