Rabbi Bruce Aft has generously offered to lead a weekly lunchtime Torah study, focusing on the commentaries of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.  Starting on January 5 as we begin the book of Exodus, the group will meet on Zoom at lunchtime — tentatively set for noon to 1:00.

No prior Torah knowledge is necessary — come as you are!

Our adult education series covers a range of topics and presenters.  Here’s a list of our events:

— December 6, 2020, 10 am:  A virtual tour of the Jews in Space exhibit at the Jewish Museum of Maryland, organized by Jason Weiss.

— December 20, 2020, 11 am:  Book/Brunch/Bingo with Kol Ami’s Mike Jawer.  Bring your own brunch and gain insight from Mike into his latest book, Sensitive Soul – an exploration of how emotion ‘seeds’ people’s personalities and quite extraordinary abilities.  And, we’ll have an impromptu bingo game…whoever gets bingo first will win a copy of Mike’s book, inscribed by the author.

—  January 2, 2021, 7 pm:  Jews and Science Fiction, led by Herb Levy.  Bring in the new year and celebrate Science Fiction Day on Jan. 2, the birthday of Isaac Asimov, perhaps the best known Jewish science fiction writer.  We’ll look at the major contribution Jewish writers have made to Science Fiction, but also look at the seminal role Jews have played in comics. We’ll also touch on the role Jews have played in stories by non-Jewish writers.

—  January 16, 2021, 10 am to Noon: On the Shabbat of Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend, please come to a joint Kol Ami -Shirat HaNefesh service led by Rabbi Gilah, with guest speaker Dr. Marc Dollinger, who teaches at San Francisco State University.  Dr. Dollinger is author of the book Black Power, Jewish Politics, and his topic will be “1619, 1654, 2020: Jews and Racism.”  Dr. Dollinger will walk us through primary sources in American history to get to the heart of American Jewish support, complicity, and benefit from institutional racism.  Not for the faint of heart, Dr. Dollinger’s material will ask us to look honestly and unflinchingly at our past, present, and future.

— March 14, 2021:   Kol Ami is pleased to co-sponsor a lecture by Dr. Marc Brettler via the Haberman Institute for Jewish Studies, entitled Biblical and Modern Perspectives on the Haggadah. 

— April 14, 21, 28, 2021:  Kol Ami is spearheading a three-part discussion group with the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, Rock Spring United Church of Christ, and Arlington Church of the Brethren.  We’ll be reading and discussing the new book by Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler, The Bible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently.  Clergy from the participating congregations will serve as panelists and will facilitate small, interactive breakout sessions.

–May 23, 2021, 11 am-12:30 pm: Kol Ami is thrilled to welcome Rabbi Sarah Tasman for a workshop entitled Creating New Rituals for Life Transitions. Our lives revolve around transitions. Some are tied to ritual, but many significant transitions, however, are not: retirement, becoming a grandparent, completing a time of healing or recovery, marking the anniversary of a loved ones passing, becoming an empty nester, graduation, job changes, a milestone birthday, weaning a child, or even making an important decision. Some transitions are about letting go or moving through a challenging time, some are about celebrating a milestone, and some are about personal preparation for what is yet to come. The workshop will include time for grounding guided meditation, text study and an interactive ritual creation activity.

— June 13, 11 am – 12:15 pm:  Join us for a brunch discussion on the Future for  Jews in America with guest speaker Ron Kampeas, Washington Bureau Chief, Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA).  After a brief look at the recent Pew data, Ron will talk about trends in Jewish voting. The Democratic-Republican split in the community for decades has been 75 percent voting Democratic and 25 percent voting Republican, with some variations. Democrats are endeavoring to keep the majority of what they see as a key voting bloc, and Republicans want to make inroads. How might those numbers change in coming years?