Open House – Monday, June 30, 2025

Learn more about our programs of study, curriculum, distance learning, and the AJR application process.

Meet with current students.

Please feel free to use this time to enjoy your lunch during these conversations.

Pluralism at AJR and Pluralistic Leadership in Today’s Jewish Community, Dr. Ora Horn Prouser

3:30 – 3:50 pm

Experience our spirited tefillot.

1. Sha’at HaDahak: Jewish Responses to Exceptional Circumstances, Rabbi Matthew Goldstone, PhD
2. After Faith Breaks, Rabbi Menachem Creditor

5:00 – 6:00 pm
Let Us Help You Find Your Place at AJR:

1. Questions About Taking Classes This Fall? Rabbinic, MA, and Kol-Bo, Rabbi Matthew Goldstone, PhD
   
2. AJR’s Cantorial Program and Your Place In It, Cantorial and Kol-Bo, Cantor Michael Kasper

Have a great day !

Course Descriptions

Laynie Soloman

We’ll learn key sugyot from Masekhet Yoma (82a-85b) that explore the concepts of pikuah nefesh/sefek nefashot, principles that prioritize saving a life over almost all religious obligations. Attention will be paid to how sugyot—and these concepts—are constructed. Through tracing the textual evolution of these concepts, students will (further) develop their ability to analyze a sugya with attention to historical layers, critically engage with parallel texts, and attentively surface the stamma’s agenda. Over the trimester students will also increase their facility with navigating an unlocalized page of Talmud, and with utilizing the tools on the daf to enhance their learning.

Rabbi Jef Segelman

Together we will explore some of the wisdom of our early Talmudic rabbis to glean the depth of their wisdom and how it makes us better spiritual leaders and teachers.

Rabbi Hazzan Luis Cattan

In this course, we will explore, study, and get inspired by contemporary and timely expressions of prayer that can inspire us personally and be useful in various praying and teaching settings. We will cover the Israeli state’s founding poets, musical legends, and newcomers alike, who help us connect not only to the individual artists but also to liturgy in a more expansive way, and to Israel’s history (both in wartime and peacetime), her resilience, her beauty, and her personal and collective stories.

Rabbi Lisa Sacks

Meaningful tefillah is more than knowing the liturgy and nusah. In this course, students will gain skills and confidence in leading prayer by developing a richer understanding of their own relationship to prayer, as well as various tools and sources of inspiration to enhance the experience for themselves and others. They will emerge from the class with specific strategies for designing and facilitating enriching and even transformative prayer experiences.

Laynie Soloman

This course will introduce students to the study of Mishnah and its place in rabbinic literature. Combining an overview of the Mishnah with in-depth study of a sampling of mishnayot from each of the Mishnah’s six orders (shisha sedarim), we will gain a deeper understanding of this unique text’s structure and the various literary styles it contains. and the various literary styles reflected within it. Additionally, we will explore the historical context that gave rise to this foundational rabbinic text, and its reception history as part of the classical rabbinic corpus.

Rabbi Rob Scheinberg, PhD

This course focuses on the liturgy for the High Holy Days of Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, with an emphasis on the portions of the liturgy that are most likely to be included by non-Orthodox communities. We will explore the history and theology of the liturgy for these days, including the earlier Biblical and Rabbinic material that is incorporated into the liturgy. We will gain facility with a range of High Holy Day prayer books as we spark creative thinking on how to use the liturgy and its themes to help Jewish communities to experience the Yammim Noraim in a meaningful way.

Rabbi Matthew Goldstone, PhD

Traditional Judaism has a special category for how Jewish law adjusts in unusual moments of exceptional circumstances: Sha’at HaDahak. In this session we’ll learn a bit about the history of this idea, the underlying values that it expresses, and how it might apply today. No prior knowledge of Hebrew or rabbinic texts necessary.

Rabbi Menachem Creditor

Faith is often imagined as unshakable, but what is faith? And what happens when it is challenged, fractured, or even lost? This course explores the ruptures in faith through Jewish texts, theological reflections, and contemporary voices. Through selections from Tanakh, Midrash, and Talmud, alongside Hebrew Poets and the writings of figures such as Gershom Scholem, Viktor Frankl, James Fowler, Jill Hammer, David Hartman, Hayim Soloveitchik, Shalom Auslander, Paul Tillich, Louis Ginzberg, and Mara Benjamin, we will examine personal and communal confrontations with and crises of faith. All Hebrew texts will be available in English translation.