Rabbi Matt Rutta
Director of Community Learning
Theresa Hurt
Executive Assistant to Rabbi Ari Sunshine & Rabbi Avi Mitzner
Community Learning offers a wide range of opportunities for people of all ages and interests to engage with Jewish ideas, texts, and traditions.
Through classes, discussions, and group learning, participants explore topics such as philosophy, theology, Jewish history, Israel, antisemitism, and Jewish literature, often connecting these themes to modern life.
Learning takes place in many settings – from Shabbat study sessions and adult education courses to youth programs that build synagogue skills and prepare students for B’nai Mitzvah.
Community Learning also supports participant-driven initiatives like book clubs, history groups, and Israel-focused discussions. At its core, our Community Learning fosters curiosity, meaningful conversation, and a deeper connection to Jewish life, both individually and as a community.
Whether you’re brand new to Jewish learning or have been studying for years, we’ll help you find a class or conversation that’s right for you.
Rabbi Adam Roffman & Mark Kreditor
Our class featuring insightful and engaging analysis of American musicals alongside relevant lessons from our Jewish tradition returns this fall. We’ll survey the powerful socially conscious and sometimes bitingly cynical and satirical musicals written in response to the upheaval and massive change brought about by the protest movements of ‘60 and ‘70s. Featuring classics like West Side Story, Chicago, Cabaret, and more. Join us as we sing our way through more musical theater history!
A Shalom Hartman Institute iEngage Curriculum
Rabbi Ari Sunshine
For American Jews, the past two and a half years have raised urgent, complex, and painfully divisive questions when it comes to how they see themselves relating to the State of Israel. In this eight-unit course, Hartman scholars engage the central critiques of Israel and Zionism in a post-October 7 world and, with their help, together will explore frameworks for holding moral complexity and charting a course through these difficult times to a more hopeful future. RSVP by 10/12
Rabbi Matt Rutta
This year-long class provides an opportunity for Jews and those considering conversion to learn about Judaism’s important concepts and practices. Topics include sacred texts, holidays, lifecycle events, Israel, the Holocaust, and basic Hebrew reading. The class is taught in rotation with and meets at our partner Conservative synagogues, Anshai Torah and Beth Torah, as well as in Fonberg Family Chapel.
Rabbi Avi Mitzner
Take a deep dive into the formation of our liturgy and the siddur, tracing the biblical and rabbinic sources of our prayers and their structure. Together, we will explore their intended meanings and consider how we can make them more meaningful in our own lives.
Rabbi Shira Wallach
This year, we will enjoy deep dives into the characters of our matriarchs and role models: as they are depicted in the Torah, explored in the Midrash, and how their stories continue to guide and inspire us in new approaches to scholarship and exegesis.
