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What's New
The Boston Jewish Experience: Reconnect to the Tapestry
The Boston Jewish Experience: Reconnect to the Tapestry, is an exhibit that is now open to the public and receiving acclaimed reviews. The exhibit focuses on Boston Jewish life on the West Side and elsewhere between 1850 and 1950 when Boston’s Jewish population grew and flourished in primarily seven neighborhoods that evolved over time. Before World War I, immigrants arrived in multiple waves and settled first in the South End, then in the North End, West End, and East Boston. They moved on to new, less crowded neighborhoods when they could afford to do so. Boston’s Jewish population reached its height of 115,000 people with over 50 synagogues in the 1930s. Boston’s Jews defined a new American identity that balanced older traditions with new world expectations and opportunities. Together they wove a tapestry of religious, educational, and community activities based upon historical values, dreams, and resources of the new world. They left a legacy of education, philanthropy, and culture that continues to thrive and renew itself today. Exhibit hours are Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 11 AM - 5 PM and Sunday from 1 - 5 PM.
Group tours are welcome. Please call Maxine Goldberg at 617-859-0796 to schedule.
Kabbalat Shabbat with Havurah on the Hill - May 18th
Our speaker this month is Dr. Ron Eisenberg. Ron Eisenberg recently moved to Boston with his wife, concert violinist Zina Schiff, to join the radiology department at the Beth Israel Medical Center. The author of 20 textbooks in radiology and a non-practicing attorney, he has pursued graduate courses in Jewish Studies and will soon be awarded a Doctor of Science in Jewish Studies from the Spertus Institute in Chicago. He has published five books in Judaica – the full-color Jewish World in Stamps, the Jewish Publication Society Guide to Jewish Traditions, The 613 Mitzvot, The Streets of Jerusalem, and the just-released Dictionary of Jewish Terms: A Guide to the Language of Judaism. Tonight’s talk will be taken from his doctoral project, which details how the narrative, law, and customs of the Bible are similar to those of other ancient Near Eastern religions, but stresses how in Israel they were transformed ito a unique belief system and civilization.
Additional information and registration can be found here.
Vilna Shul Speakers’ Series: EnerTech Panel
Tuesday, May 20, 2008: This panel discussion will be moderated by Bill Aulet, Senior Lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and Entrepreneur in Residence, and include three leading Venture Capitalists and three leading Entrepreneurs.
The Vilna Shul Speakers Series
“The Vilna Shul Speakers Series” features leading voices from Boston and beyond, including voices from journalism, technology, law, finance, biotechnology and life sciences, arts and culture, and other fields. Speakers have included Scott Kirsner, Columnist for the Boston Globe; Ken Novak, vice chairman of America Online (AOL) / Time Warner, and special advisor to General Catalyst Partners; Irving Wladawsky-Berger – Chairman Emeritus, IBM Academy of Technology and Visiting Professor of Engineering Systems at MIT; Jonathan Kraft, the president and chief operating officer of the Kraft Group and also the president of the three-time Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots, and other featured speakers, and Bob Lessin is Vice Chairman of Jefferies & Company, Inc., a full-service investment bank and institutional securities firm based in New York, and others.
The Vilna Shul on YouTube
The historic Vilna Shul on Beacon Hill in Boston, MA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFqFdjF6r2g