Monday January 6
"WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT"?
A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE ON "THE SONG OF SONGS"
Asher Zeiger

Monday January 13
SELF, IDENTITY, AND CHOICE:
MODERN REFLECTIONS THROUGH AN ANCIENT TEXT
Rabbi Brad Artson, Dean of the Zeigler School of Rabbinic Studies,
The University of Judaism

Monday January 20
PLANTING IDEAS FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS:
THE ART OF JEWISH STORY TELLING
Rabbi Daniel Rosenberg, a fellow in the Melton Senior Educators' program
at Hebrew University, where he researches the uses of traditional stories
in Jewish moral and cultural education.

Monday January 27
TRANSGRESSION FOR THE SAKE OF HEAVEN:
A RADICAL HASIDIC APPROACH TO HALACHA
Rabbi Mordechai Goldberg, Jewish Educator & teacher of Hasidut

PROGRAM FOR FEBRUARY

Monday Feb. 3
ELECTION PROMISES AND COALITIONS:
A LOOK AT THE ISRAELI ELECTION RESULTS
Jim Lederman, political and economic analyst

Monday Feb. 10
THE KOTEL: ITS MEANING TO THE JEWISH PEOPLE THROUGHOUT THE AGES
Mechael Osband, M.A. candidate Land of Israel Studies, Bar Ilan University,
Licensed tour guide, works with Yad Ben Zvi

Monday Feb. 17
THE WAR ON TERROR: HALACHIC DIMENSIONS
Rabbi Joel Roth, Rosh Yeshiva, Conservative Yeshiva

Monday Feb. 24
THE HALACHIC IMPLICATIONS OF ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION
Rabbi Mordecai Silverstein, senior lecturer,
Project Oded and the Conservative Yeshiva

PROGRAM FOR MARCH

Monday March 3
WHY PURIM IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN PESACH: BE HAPPY IT'S ADAR!
Rabbi Jim Lebeau, Director, The United Synagogue Fuchsberg Center in Jerusalem

Monday March 10
WHAT'S A NICE JEWISH GIRL DOING IN A PALACE LIKE THIS:A LOOK AT MEGILLAT ESTHER
Asher Zeiger, Jewish Educator, Faculty of Project Oded

Monday March 17
No forum - Purim Vacation

Monday March 24
HOW DO ISRAELI ARABS FIT INTO THE CURRENT EQUATION?
Jessica Steinberg, Journalist, staff correspondent for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, has written articles for the New York Times, The Jerusalem Post, and other publications.

Monday March 31
THE BEHAVIOR OF THE BELGIAN POPULATION DURING THE SHOAH
Rabbi Pesach Schindler, Rosh Yeshiva of the Conservative Yeshiva

PROGRAM FOR APRIL

Monday April 7
KOSHER SLAUGHTER AND CRUELTY TO ANIMALS:
A NEW LOOK AT AN OLD ISSUE
Rabbi Adam Frank, researcher and sponsor of the CJLS responsum.

Monday April 14
ADD SOME SPICE TO YOUR PASSOVER SEDER THIS YEAR:
IDEAS FROM THE HAGGADAH
Rabbi Mordecai Silverstein, senior lecturer, the Conservative Yeshiva & Project Oded

Monday April 21
No forum (Hol Hamoed)

Monday April 28
YOM HASHOAH PRESENTATION:
THE SILENT RESPONSE OF THE AMERICAN JEWISH LEADERSHIP
In 1942 first word of the Shoah started to come out.
A Committee of JTS students attempted to get the news out to the American Jewish community.
Jewish leaders at that time declined to cooperate claiming that it would
interfere with the war effort. Rabbi Moshe Sachs,
one of the members of that student committee,
shares with us his personal memories of that time period.

PROGRAM FOR MAY

Monday May 5
ISRAEL REMEMBRANCE DAY:
THE IMPACT OF WAR ON OUR SOCIETY AND HOPES FOR THE FUTURE
Mechael Osband shares with us the dilemmas, questions and challenges
of the current young generation of Israelis.

Monday May 12
WEDDING WISDOM - SUGAR AND SALT IN JEWISH STORIES
Rabbi Daniel Rosenberg will show us some of our tradition's lessons
about love and marriage (in preparation for Lag B'Omer).
Rabbi Rosenberg, a fellow in the Melton Senior Educators program at the
Hebrew University, studies the uses of traditional storytelling
in moral education and community building.

Monday May 19
BETWEEN PESACH AND SHAVUOT IN THE ZOHAR -
A LAG B' OMER REFLECTION: DOES MYSTICISM MAKE RATIONAL SENSE?
Shaya Rothberg, a Doctoral candidate at the Hebrew University in Jewish Thought.

Monday May 26
MORDECHAI ARDON: A POET OF COLOR
Maxine Blendis, art historian (with slides).

PROGRAM FOR JUNE

Monday June 2
JUDAISM AND VEGETARIANISM
Cantor Zvi Slotki, an avowed vegetarian!

Monday June 9
LIFE ALONG THE SEAM:
A LOOK AT JERUSALEM DEMOGRAPHY
David Keren, Educator, Land of Israel Studies

Monday June 16
ERETZ HEMDAH -THE GOOD LAND:
explore through the Biblical story of the Spies:
Pro and Anti-Zionist Religious polemics.
Rabbi Mordecai Goldberg, Educator

Monday June 23
ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION AND JEWISH LAW
Rabbi Mordecai Silverstein, Senior Faculty
The Conservative Yeshiva and Project Oded

Monday June 30
IRAQ: GARDEN OF CIVILIZATION
Prof. Ailon Shiloh, Anthropologist

PROGRAM FOR JULY

Monday July 7
"THE TEN LOST TRIBES: HISTORY OR FOKLORE?"
Rabbi Dr. Pamela Barmash, Prof. of Hebrew Bible and Biblical Hebrew,
Washington University in St. Louis

Monday July 14
THE POLITICAL SITUATION TODAY: AN UP-DATE
Jim Lederman, political and economic analyst

Monday July 21
THE THREE WEEKS COUNTDOWN:
A HISTORICAL LOOK AT THE EVENTS LEADING UP TO
THE DESTRUCTION OF THE SECOND TEMPLE:
Mechal Osband, Land of Israel Studies.

Monday July 28
AUTHORITY AND UTILITY IN RELIGION
Rabbi Jacob Chinitz, noted Jerusalem educator

PROGRAM FOR AUGUST

Monday August 4
WHEN WAS THE TEMPLE REALLY DESTROYED?
AN HISTORIC LOOK AT THE 9TH OF AV.
Mechal Osband, M.A. candidate Land of Israel Studies,
Bar Ilan University, Licensed tour guide, works with Yad Ben Zvi

Monday August 11
BIBLICAL LAW AND THE LAWS OF HAMMURAPI
Rabbi Dr. Pamela Barmash, Prof. of Hebrew Bible and Biblical Hebrew,
Washington University in St. Louis

Monday August 18
CONTROVERSIES BETWEEN KARAITE AND RABBANITE JUDAISM:
IN MEDIEVAL TIMES AND TODAY
Miriam Goldstein, Doctoral candidate in Arabic literature, Hebrew University,
cataloger of a medieval collection of Karaite manuscripts for the Ben Zvi Institute,
and studies Karaite exegesis in light of contemporaneous
Muslim and Christian approaches to scripture.

Monday August 25
NEW EXPLORATIONS IN JEWISH ICONOGRAPHY:
PROBING THE INNER MEANINGS OF TRADITIONAL JEWISH SYMBOLS
Dr. Joseph Shadur, historian with special interests on the history of Jewish art,
co-author of two books on Jewish paper cuts.

PROGRAM FOR SEPTEMBER

Monday Sept 1
THE STATE OF ISRAEL TODAY:
MYTHS, REALITIES AND MAKING AMENDS
Jim Lederman, political and economic analyst

Monday Sept 8
"LADIES & GENTLEMAN…"
HOW TO TALK SO PEOPLE WILL LISTEN
Judy Montague, Letters Editor of the Jerusalem Post

Monday Sept 15
"SCULPTURE IN AND AROUND JERUSALEM"
Maxine Blendis, Art historian

Monday Sept 22
THE STORY OF THE BINDING OF ISAAC
FROM JEWISH, CHRISTIAN AND MOSLEM PERSPECTIVES:
WHO IS THE FAVORITE SON?
Rabbi Dr. Arnold Goodman

Monday Sept 29
"ELEH EZKARAH" WHY DO WE RECITE
THE "MARTYROLOGY" ON YOM KIPPUR?
Rabbi Mordecai Silverstein, The Conservative Yeshiva & Project Oded

PROGRAM FOR OCTOBER

Monday October 6
No forum

Monday October 13
No Forum

Monday October 20
IS ZIONISM A SUPPLEMENT TO JUDAISM?
Rabbi Jacob Chinitz, author & Jewish educator

Monday October 27
"A BURIAL IN GINON TWO THOUSAND YEARS AGO"
Dr. Azriel Gorski , forensic scientist,
Science and Antiquities group at the Kuvin Centre, Hebrew University

PROGRAM FOR NOVEMBER

Monday Nov. 3
COMBATING THE NEW ANTI-SEMITISM
Martin Peled-Flax, Minister-Counsellor for Anti-Semitism and Shoah Remembrance,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, State of Israel.
Formerly Ambassador of Israel to the Republic of Belarus.

Monday Nov. 10
JEWISH COMPOSERS OF BROADWAY
Cantor Mordecai Goldstein

Monday Nov. 17
ISRAEL, ANTI-SEMITISM AND JEWISH IDENTITY:
A LOOK AT NORTH AMERICAN COLLEGE CAMPUS LIFE TODAY
Mr. Richard Moline, director of KOACH College Outreach,
The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

Monday Nov. 24
SUKENIK & THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS:
A LITTLE KNOWN STORY FOR KAF TET B' NOVEMBER
Mechael Osband, Land of Israel Studies.

PROGRAM FOR DECEMBER

Monday December 1
EARLY 20TH CENTURY ERETZ ISRAELI ARTISTS:
ABEL PANN AND OTHERS REDISCOVERED
Maxine Blendis, art historian (with slides).

Monday December 8
THE DISCOVERY OF MARANNOS ACROSS THE WORLD
Gloria Mound, The Institute for Marrano-Anusim Studies

Monday December 15
POLITICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC UNREST IN ISRAEL
Jim Lederman, political & economic analyst

Monday December 22
DID ADAM KEEP SHABBAT? DID NOAH KEEP KASHRUTH?
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE INFLUENCE OF
MUSLIM POLEMIC ON MEDIEVAL JEWISH CONCEPTIONS OF HALAKHA.
Miriam Goldstein, Doctoral candidate in Arabic literature, Hebrew University,
cataloger of a medieval collection of Karaite manuscripts
for the Ben Zvi Institute, and studies Karaite exegesis
in light of contemporaneous Muslim and Christian approaches to scripture.

Monday December 29
KLEZMER MUSIC TODAY
with Bruce Brill of the New Country Klezmers