Adult Education Upcoming Programs and Events
For more information on programs and events click on the links below.
For more information about Adult Education scroll down the page.
Bring your friends!
Book Club (Author visit June 22!)
Build a richer understanding of the chosen book read by sharing and listening to member's perspectives and insights.
Culture and Cream Cheese
Discuss all the interesting Jewish themed genres, including art exhibitions, authors, books, cultural happenings and more.
Click HERE for a summary of books discussed at meetings this year.
Weekly Class: Thinking About God
What does Judaism actually have to say about God? If we believe, what exactly are we supposed to be believing in?
Weekly Torah Study
Join Rabbi Cantor and Congregation Beth El member Saturday mornings (9:00am) to discuss the Parashat of the week. No prior knowledge needed. Scroll down the page for more information.
Learning has no age limit. Something for Everyone!
Check out our weekly, monthly and special classes/programs below.
We’re starting the new year with a range of educational programs to fit your interests and schedule. There’s something for everyone! Check out the listings below and join us!
The Adult Education Committee welcomes your feedback and help as we continue to plan our 2024-2025 season. All volunteers warmly welcomed!
- Is there a topic you’d like to learn about or teach?
- Are you good with social media?
- Do you have art, photography or writing skills?
- Do you enjoy
Helene Geiger & Arleen Barisa
Adult Education
Committee Chairs
For more information contact:
adulted@bethelyardley.org
Weekly Classes
torah study
Torah Study with Rabbi Cantor
Every Saturday, 9:00am
Join Rabbi Cantor and Congregation Beth El member Saturday mornings to discuss the Parasha of the week. No prior knowledge needed.
Exile and the jews
Exile and the Jews
Every Wednesdays 10:00amProfessor Harriet Freidenreich & Rabbi David Cantor
Wednesdays, November 6, 2024 - January 29, 2025
This 10-week discussion course, facilitated by Rabbi Cantor and Harriet Freidenreich, is based on a new book, Exile and the Jews: Literature, History, and Identity, edited by Nancy Berg and Marc Saperstein (JPS, 2024), that is described as follows:
“This first comprehensive anthology examining Jewish responses to exile from the biblical period to our modern day gathers texts from all genres of Jewish creativity to explore how the realities and interpretations of exile have shaped Judaism, Jewish politics, and individual Jewish identity for millennia.”
Participants are encouraged to read one chapter per week (or at least the brief introductions) in order to fully engage in class.
Click HERE for details about each class.
purim for grown ups
Purim for Grown Ups
Sundays, beginning January 26, 2025 at 9:00am
Discussion Leader: Rabbi David Cantor
“And these days of Purim shall never cease among the Jews, and the memory of them shall never perish among their descendants.” (Esther 9:28) In Jewish mystical thought, only two holidays will be celebrated in the world to come: Purim and Yom Kippur. And the reason Yom Kippur is included in the list is because it is a “day” (yom) “like” (k’) “Purim” (pur). Given how seriously we take Yom Kippur, it stands to reason that – as adults – we should pay just a bit more attention to Purim.
In this set of classes, we will take a deep dive into the text of Esther, the observances of Purim, so that when the holiday falls upon us (may it be for a blessing) we can truly enjoy our libations.
Click HERE for dates.
Thinking about God
Thinking About God
Wednesdays, beginning February 5, 2025 at 10:00am
Discussion Leader: Rabbi David Cantor
In the Encyclopaedia Judaica “God” takes up twenty-one pages. Perhaps uniquely in world religions, belief in God is not necessarily a precondition for being Jewish: obeying God is the measure by which many consider themselves to be – or not to be – a “good Jew.”
But what does Judaism actually have to say about God? If we believe, what exactly are we supposed to be believing in?
In Thinking About God we will explore the following broad areas of inquiry:
- Is God the Creator and Source of All Being—Including Evil?
- Does God Have a Personality—or Is God an Impersonal Force?
- Does God Intervene in Our Lives? Does God Intervene in History?
- Is God a Covenantal Partner and Lawgiver – or Might These Roles Be Rethought in the Modern Age?
Every blessing and prayer we make is addressed to God – it may be worthwhile to get to know God better.
Click HERE for dates.
Monthly Classes
Book club
Beth El Book Club
Sundays, 10:30am
Check calendar for dates.
Calling all readers! Beth El’s new book club is open to all adults. Whether it’s fiction, current events or memoirs, you’ll find something of interest to read and discuss.
Culture & Cream cheese
Culture & Cream Cheese (Formerly known as Book Nosh)
Sundays, 10:30am - 12:00noon
Check calendar for dates.
Session Leader: Alex Geiger
Join us in person to discuss all the interesting books, movies, TV shows, art exhibitions, Broadway shows, operas, and any other cultural happenings that have a Jewish theme, a Jewish author, or Jewish characters that you have run across since our last meeting.
Click HERE for a summary of books discussed at meetings this year.
Special Classes, Events & Programs
teshuvah and criminal justice class
Teshuvah & Criminal Justice
Wednesday Mornings, 10:00 – 11:30 AM
September 11, 18, & 25
Instructor: Rabbi Cantor
What do Jewish sources say about starting anew after breaking the law, and how can that inform our understanding of modern-day criminal justice?
In this course, we’ll do a deep dive into teshuvah (repentance) and the rehabilitation process after one has committed various types of offenses. We will ask whether it is ever too late to turn over a new leaf, and what the consequences should be for a communal leader who speaks or acts inappropriately.
Rooting ourselves in Jewish texts, we will explore complex real-life cases together. In doing so, we will see firsthand how approaching these moral questions through a lens of Jewish tradition can offer unique insights
Click HERE for recordings.
Film festival
Film Festival
Saturday Nights
November 9, 16, and 23, 7:30pm
Save the dates for movie night! More information will follow.
bRISTOL RIVERSIDE THEATER TRIP
Bristol Riverside Theater Trip
Sunday, February 23
Special Director's Cut conversation with Amy Kaissar
Sunday, December 15
"Fires in the Mirror" by Anna Devear Smith, directed by Amy Kaissar, Congregation Beth El Member.
Click here for more information.
ADULT EDUCATION ARCHIVES
Did you know that recordings of many Adult Education classes and programs are available on the Congregation Beth El website? Click here to access our archives or visit the menu bar at the top of the page; click Learn or click on the Archives tab (at the end of the menu bar).