Speaker: Dr. Bernard Dov Cooperman, Louis L. Kaplan Chair and Associate Professor of Jewish History at the University of Maryland

Location: Magen David Sephardic Congregation; Rockville, MD

The Venice ghetto, like the city itself, is now largely the property of tourists. Just as picturesque Venice seems to travelers to float miraculously on islands surrounded by the sea, so too the ghetto seems a Jewish world of elegance and piety, flourishing remarkably behind locked gates in a hostile world. But tourist images can be deceiving. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Venice was a living port, a thriving metropolis, a city devoted above all to trade, commerce, and making money. And like all commercial ports, alongside its wealthy powerbrokers and scholarly humanists, there were inevitably also sailors and thieves, hustlers and con men. The Jews who flocked to the city reflected that same diversity as they competed and interacted with each other and with everyone else amid the bustle on the Rialto. During this lecture we "meet" some of Venice's Jews in those centuries and get a feel for the range of Jewish culture and the possibilities of Jewish life in the crowded streets of the world's most famous ghetto.

Speaker: Dr. Deborah Dash Moore, Frederick G. L. Huetwell Professor of History at the University of Michigan and Director of the Jean and Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies

Location: Temple Sinai; Washington, DC

This lecture reveals the importance of gender in interpreting the modern Jewish past. It highlights the profound influence of feminist scholarship by considering the impact of gender on Jewish religious practices and political behavior, educational accomplishments and communal structures, patterns of acculturation, and choice of occupations. The lecture aims to stimulate conversations on Jewish women's creativity and spirituality, as well as explore such difficult issues as violence against women and Jews' reactions to persecution in the Holocaust.

This program is sponsored by Gary and Bernice Lebbin in honor of their family

Speaker: Dr. Robert Eisen, Professor of Religion and Judaic Studies and Chair of the Department of Religion at George Washington University in Washington, DC

Location: Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington; Rockville, MD

In modern times, religious Zionism is often perceived as the most violent branch of Zionism on account of its association with the settler movement on the West Bank and its extremist elements. This lecture examines the veracity of this perception. While religious Zionism can certainly be violent, the reality is more complex. Professor Eisen explores that complexity and analyzes religious Zionism within the context of recent research on the relationship between religion and violence in general.

Speaker: Dr. Michael A. Meyer, Adolph S. Ochs Professor of Jewish History Emeritus at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati and international president of the Leo Baeck Institute, a scholarly organization devoted to the historical study of German Jewry

Location: Temple Shalom; Chevy Chase, MD

How did the Jews of Germany respond to the rise of Hitler, which put an end to their dreams of political equality in a liberal state and cultural integration into a civilized society? This lecture deals with the radically changed circumstances and the remarkable moral resistance that rabbis and laity displayed in the face of ever increasing oppression.

Supported by Gary and Bernice Lebbin as part of a series on German-Jewish Cultural Heritage

Speaker: Dr. Eitan Fishbane, Assistant Professor of Jewish Thought at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York

Location: Congregation Olam Tikvah; Fairfax, VA

Explore the spiritual texture of Shabbat and its meaning for our lives today through the writings of mystical masters from the history of Hasidism. In this lecture, Dr. Eitan Fishbane speaks about the ways in which Sabbath holiness has been understood in the history of Jewish mysticism, with special attention to the core rituals and symbols of the Sabbath day. Reflecting on his recently published book, The Sabbath Soul (Jewish Lights), Dr. Fishbane will present these sources as inspiration for our contemporary experience of Shabbat.

In honor of Dorothy G. and Robert H. Rumizen - Endowed by Dr. Bruce and Joy Ammerman through the Ammerman Foundation

Also co-sponsored by Agudas Achim Congregation, Beth El Hebrew Congregation, Congregation Etz Hayim, and Temple Rodef Shalom