Humanistic Jews Bible/Tanakh Study Group

This monthly meeting group studies and discusses original text in the Jewish Study Bible along with companion readings. Readings are made available to attendees via scans of the original material. The sessions are independent and attendees are welcome to join whether they have attended previous sessions or not. Sessions are online.

While Maimonides claimed that every word of the Torah was the word of God, it turns out that the Bible is much more complex in its origins. Humanistic Jews do not believe the Bible is supernatural in origin or has supernatural authority, and yet it is a work that deeply informs our people, ethics, culture and history. It is worth knowing about.

The Bible/Tanakh consists of the Five Books of Moses (the Torah) and more than 30 other books, such as Judges, Isaiah,Proverbs, Psalms, Ruth, Esther and Ezra

Obviously the Bible has been the basis an immense amount of academic scholarship. One doesn’t have to work at that level to learn much about the Bible. It is a fascinating insight into our origins and ancestors. Members are welcome to join this group.

Readings for the study group are available online. Contact info@kolshalom.org for more information.

Yiddish Group

Begun in 1998 by Selma Zack, our group is now led by our engaging Yiddish speaker and teacher, Benson Schaeffer . We meet once per month. It's been a delightful experience of freylach (joy, pleasure), sometimes speaking a zerbrochene (broken) Yiddish, having a gut gelechter (good laugh) many times during a meeting, singing Yiddish songs, and becoming a close-knit group of chaverim (friends, comrades). We translated some stories from English to Yiddish in the form of short plays. In so doing we honored one of the richest contributions of Jewish secular-humanistic culture, the brilliant Yiddish theater of 19th and 20th century Eastern Europe and the United States.