UPCOMING SCHEDULE

Shabbat Climate Series

October 29, December 3, January 28, and March 25
Join us for a year-long speaker series on the critical realities of climate change. Join us on Shabbat afternoons as we hear from Naama Sadan, Adam Berman, Rabbi Ariel Mayse, and Dr. Joel Gerwein. Our first session will take place this Shabbat, October 29. 

Saturday October 29 // After Shabbat Mincha, 5:40PM @ CBI
Naama Sadan
Why Problem-Solving is a Problem and How the Torah Can Help Us

The most prominent approach to the climate crisis is a policy-scientific-based approach that looks for problems and solutions. What if we look for problems and solutions in part because of the anxiety the crisis provokes and our need for control? What happens when we understand that this might be beyond our control? In this talk, we will ask: Why should Jews bring climate change into shuls? We will discuss how a spiritual-religious framing can provide support.
Naama Sadan is in her last year of a doctoral program in environmental policy and organizational behavior at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In the last two years, she has been teaching climate change and Jewish spirituality at the Einayech Yonim Fellowship. She also runs an intentional flowers studio, where you can learn about Jewish color theory and flower arrangement, and teaches generative spiritual writing for well-being inspired by the Yemima Avital method.

 

Abortion and Halachah Zoom Series

Thursdays // November 3, 10, and 17 // 12:00pm on CBI Zoom

Thursday, November 3 // 12:00pm via CBI Zoom
Rabbanit Leah Sarna 
Foundational Halachic Sources on Abortion

Rabbanit Leah Sarna is faculty and the Director of Teen Programs at Drisha. She previously served as Director of Religious Engagement at Anshe Sholom B’nai Israel Congregation in Chicago. She was ordained at Yeshivat Maharat, and holds a BA from Yale. She has been awarded the Pomegranate Prize in Jewish Education by the Covenant Foundation and was a Wexner Graduate Fellow. Rabbanit Sarna’s published works have appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Lehrhaus, and The Jewish Review of Books.

Thursday, November 10 // 12:00pm
A Conversation with Journalist Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt and Rabbanit Meira Wolkenfeld
Reporting on Abortions in the Orthodox Community

Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt is a writer whose work has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, and elsewhere. Her 2018 article “My Dark Secret,” which appeared in The Forward, shared the stories of Orthodox women who have undergone abortions.

Thursday, November 17 // 12:00pm
Rabbi Jeffrey Fox
Abortio
n in Modern Responsa: Rav Moshe and the Tzitz Eliezer
Rabbi Jeffrey S. Fox is Rosh HaYeshiva and Dean of Faculty at Yeshivat Maharat. He was the first graduate of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. Upon graduation he served as the Rabbi of Kehilat Kesher: The Community Synagogue of Tenafly and Englewood. Rabbi Fox is a Senior Rabbinic Fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute and has also been a member of the faculty of the Drisha Institute, the Florence Melton Adult Education School, and Hadar.

Shabbat Scholar-In-Residence

November 11-12
Rabbi Yair Silverman

Rabbi Yair Silverman is co-founder and Rabbi of Moed in Zichron Yaakov, Israel. Moed brings together secular and religious Israelis in the Carmel region in study and social action to reimagine and generate passionate and shared Jewish life in modern Israel. He also serves as a judge on the Rabbinic court of Giyur K’halacha for conversions. R. Yair is an active member of the Rabbinic organizations Beit Hillel, Tzohar, International Rabbinic Fellowship, and Rabbinical Council of America, and serves on the Rabbinic Advisory Board of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. Before making aliyah in 2006, R. Yair served as the Rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel. R. Yair is ordained by Rabbainu Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University, studied at Yeshivat Birkat Moshe, and served in a combat unit of the IDF. He holds an M.A. in Jewish Philosophy and B.A. in Western Thought from Yeshiva University. R. Yair is looking forward to spending time with friends new and old in the CBI community.