Scholar in Residence - Feb. 19-21, 2021

The CEEBJ Rabbi Dudley Weinberg Memorial Scholar-in-Residence Weekend
Featuring Dr. Gary P. Zola, Scholar-in-Residence
The American Jewish Experience, February 19-21, 2021

Dr. Gary P. Zola will be joining us as our Scholar-in-Residence for a weekend of exciting presentations, all offered through Zoom and on all of our platforms. Rabbi Gary P. Zola, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, and he is the Edward M. Ackerman Family Distinguished Professor of the American Jewish Experience and Reform Jewish History of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio.

At our Kabbalat Shabbat Eve service on Friday, February 19, at 7:00 pm (note special start time), Dr. Zola’s topic will be Profiles in American Jewish Courage. The unfolding legacy of any North American congregation, organization, or association, offers the opportunity to reflect on the meaning of historical milestones and significant anniversaries.

Dr. Zola will illustrate how the American Jewish past invariably shapes our contemporary circumstances. He will focus on the biographies of three little known but genuinely fascinating American Jews. These “case studies” constitute genuine examples of American Jewish courage. Dr. Zola will transform these biographies into an inspiring lesson that sheds light not only on the significance of local Jewish history but also on the lofty meaning of the American Jewish experience itself.

On Saturday, February 20, join CEEBJ’s Shabbat Morning Study Minyan beginning with the service at 9:00 am. Dr. Zola will be our guest teacher as we continue to study Song of Songs. He will offer What an American Hebraist Can Teach Us About Song of Songs: Reflections on Gershon Rosenzweig (1861-1914).

Following the Shabbat Morning Study Minyan, Dr. Zola’s formal presentation will be Fascinating Documents from the American Jewish Archives beginning at 11:15 am. The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives (AJA) is the world’s largest catalogued collection of documentary evidence on the history of North American Jewry. It is an archive composed of more than 20 million individual records. Dr. Zola will show us a few of the AJA’s most fascinating and historically significant documents and explain why.

Finally, on Sunday, February 21, at 12:30 pm Dr. Zola will discuss American Exceptionalism: Past, Present and Future. As he offers a deeper examination of the historical significance of the American Jewish experience.