College Commons

For Rabbi Ed Feinstein meaning-making is story-telling, and the rabbi’s business.Biography: Rabbi Ed Feinstein came to Valley Beth Shalom in 1993 at the invitation of the renowned Rabbi Harold Schulweis z"l, and succeeded Rabbi Schulweis as the congregation’s senior rabbi in 2005. He now serves on the faculty of the Ziegler Rabbinical School of the American Jewish University, the Wexner Heritage Program, the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and lectures widely across the United States. He is the author of several books, and he enjoys a well-earned reputation as wonderfully engaging lecturer and storyteller, and one of this generation’s great sermonizers.

A second generation of Holocaust survivors re-examine their lives through the lens of their parents.Aron Hirt-Manheimer (he/him) is the Union for Reform Judaism's former editor-at-large, the former editor of Reform Judaism magazine (1976-2014) and founding editor of Davka magazine (1970-1976), a West Coast Jewish quarterly. His books include Jagendorf’s Foundry: A Memoir of the Romanian Holocaust (HarperCollins, 1991) and Jews: The Essence and Character of a People (HarperCollins, 1998) with Arthur Hertzberg. (Photo credit: Rose Eichenbaum)

Description: Spiritual and political dynamics that motivate and shape the pulpit of Rabbi Rachel Timoner.Biography: Rabbi Rachel Timoner is grateful and proud to serve as Senior Rabbi of Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope, Brooklyn. She is honored to stand with families at the moments of greatest joy and deepest sorrow in their lives, and she is delighted to be part of a flowering of creativity, community, learning, spirituality, and action at CBE.Her initiatives in recent years include a weekly class designed to get to the heart and meaning of the prayer experience, a rabbinic conversation on antisemitism, a study series on systemic racism in America, a weekly class about peoplehood and nationalism, a sukkah about the refugee experience, a dialogue and study series on Israel, a revival of CBE’s youth group, a partnership with Antioch Baptist Church to address racism and antisemitism in Brooklyn, and a Dismantling Racism Team which was part of the successful campaigns to Raise the Age of criminal responsi

When it comes to pigs, however, maybe you are what you don’t eat… Maybe…Jordan D. Rosenblum is the Belzer Professor of Classical Judaism and Director of Religious Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His most recent book, Forbidden: A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig (New York University Press, 2024), won a 2024 National Jewish Book Award. According to The Wall Street Journal, “’Forbidden’ is an engaging and surprisingly cheerful study of that odd couple of the religious imagination, the Jew and the pig.” In addition, he is the author of Rabbinic Drinking: What Beverages Teach Us About Rabbinic Literature (University of California Press, 2020); The Jewish Dietary Laws in the Ancient World (Cambridge University Press, 2016); and Food and Identity in Early Rabbinic Judaism (Cambridge University Press, 2010), as well as the co-editor of four volumes: Feasting and Fasting: The History and Ethics of Jewish Food (New York Univers

Description: Hannah Pollin-Galay reveals the Yiddish of destruction, and its capacity to bring life and meaning.Biography: Hannah Pollin-Galay is a scholar of East European Jewish culture, with a focus on the Holocaust. Drawing on both historical and literary methods, her work explores themes such as cultural production under catastrophic conditions, space, gender, interethnic relations and language identity. Her first book, Ecologies of Witnessing: Language, Place, and Holocaust Testimony (Yale University Press, 2018), challenges the assumption of a universal vocabulary for describing and healing human pain. Her second, Occupied Words: What the Holocaust Did to Yiddish (U Penn Press, 2024) explores the metamorphosis of speech in ghettos and camps and won the 2024 National Jewish Book Award in the Holocaust category, in memory of Ernest W. Michel. She is currently working on a new project investigating Jewish perceptions of nonhuman nature during the Holocaust. Pollin-Galay

Description: Complicated contours and tortuous fissures emerge as a picture of the American Jewish experience in Tablets Shattered.Biography: Joshua Leifer is a journalist and historian. He is a columnist for Haaretz. His essays and reporting have also appeared in The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Guardian, and elsewhere. His first book, Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life (2024), won a National Jewish Book Award. He is currently a doctoral candidate in history at Yale University, where his research sits at the nexus of modern intellectual history, modern Jewish politics, U.S. foreign policy, and Holocaust memory. His dissertation project examines the politics of antisemitism and the crisis of the liberal order.

Love of family, culture, and home, set to the music of Yemenite Jews in Songs for the Brokenhearted: A Novel.Ayelet Tsabari is the author of Songs for the Brokenhearted, winner of a National Jewish Book Award for Fiction and the Association of Jewish Libraries Fiction Award and A Globe and Mail Best Book of 2024. Her memoir in essays The Art of Leaving, was a finalist for the Writer’s Trust Hilary Weston Prize and The Vine Awards, winner of the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for memoir, and an Apple Books and Kirkus Review Best Book of 2019.Her first book, the story collection The Best Place on Earth, won the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, and the Edward Lewis Wallant Award for Jewish Fiction. The book was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, and was nominated for The Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award.She’s the co-editor of the award-winning anthology Tongues: On Longing and Belonging Through Language. Ayelet teaches creative

Novelist Howard Langer transplants a fictional Hasidic Dynasty to the heart of segregated America, to discover a truly New World.Biography: Howard Langer was born in New York and brought up on the west side of Manhattan. His father served on the U.S.S. Missouri and was present at the Japanese surrender in 1945. His mother taught reading in Spanish Harlem for over thirty years. Howard attended the City College of New York when its English faculty included, among others, William Gaddis and Joseph Heller. He obtained a teacher’s degree from the Greenberg Institute in Jerusalem where he had the opportunity to study under Yehuda Amichai and Aharon Appelfeld. He holds an M.A.in English from the University of Toronto, where he studied Shakespeare with the great scholar-poet Sheldon Zitner, who first published his remarkable books of poetry at age 75, decades after Howard graduated.Howard won awards for his fiction as an undergraduate. He ultimately attended law school at the University of Pennsylvania where he has

Rabbi Yitz Greenberg takes us on a majestic odyssey of religious purpose and Covenant.Biography: Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg serves as the President of the J.J. Greenberg Institute for the Advancement of Jewish Life (JJGI) and as Senior Scholar in Residence at Hadar. Rabbi Greenberg was ordained by Beth Joseph Rabbinical Seminary of Brooklyn, New York and has a PhD in history from Harvard University. He has had a long and notable career in the service of the Jewish people. He served in the rabbinate, notably at the Riverdale Jewish Center in the 1960s. He served as professor and chairman of the Department of Jewish Studies of City College of the City University of New York in the 1970s. Together with Elie Wiesel, he founded CLAL: The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership and served as its president until 1997.CLAL offered pluralistic Jewish learning for Jewish communal leadership and programs of intra-faith dialogue for rabbis of every denominational background. From 1997 to 2008, he served as

Author Danielle Sharkan finds cultural identity in multicultural community, in her picture book Sharing Shalom.Biography: Danielle grew up in the sub­urbs of Chica­go and has sincehad the priv­i­lege of liv­ing in Cana­da, Israel, and Argenti­na. As an edu­ca­tor and a proud moth­er of two won­der­ful chil­dren, she is deeply com­mit­ted to both per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al growth. Danielle is pas­sion­ate about nature, yoga, and all things Israel — espe­cial­lyits vibrant culi­nary cul­ture. She cur­rent­ly resides in Boul­der, Col­orado, where she enjoys spend­ing time with her fam­i­ly, explor­ing the out­doors, and embrac­ing the beau­ty of life in the Rockies.

Rabbi Angela Buchdahl disentangles the power of the pulpit from the stature of its holder, by sharing the vulnerability, musicality and ethical of sermons.Biography: Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl serves as the Senior Rabbi of Central Synagogue in New York City and is the first woman to lead Central’s Reform congregation in its 180-year history. Rabbi Buchdahl first joined Central Synagogue as Senior Cantor in 2006. In 2014, she was chosen by the congregation to be Senior Rabbi. Rabbi Buchdahl was invested as a cantor in 1999 and also ordained as a rabbi in 2001 by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York where she was a Wexner Graduate Fellow. She earned a bachelor of arts in religious studies from Yale University in 1994. Born in Korea to a Jewish American father and a Korean Buddhist mother, Rabbi Buchdahl is the first Asian American to be ordained as a cantor or rabbi in North America. Prior to her service at Central Synagogue, Rabbi Buchdahl served as Associate Rabbi/Cantor at W

Author and activist Lihi Lapid follows characters who yearn for each other across space, time and even cognition.Biography:Lihi Lapid is a writer, journalist, lecturer and performer, symbolizing the voice of the contemporary Israeli woman. Her activity in various media has earned her a following that sweeps through social media with thousands of shares and comments.Her books have been on the bestseller lists for weeks, led by the book "A Soldier's Wife," which is a milestone in personal female writing in Hebrew.Lapid has published two novels, in addition to a book intended for mothers who enlist their children, two children's books, and a recipe book.She used to be a photojournalist and is now a writer, lecturer, and performer.Lapid is active in social issues, with an emphasis on two areas: women's rights and parenting children with special needs. She is the president of the "Shekel - Community Services for People with Disabilities" association.

Author Lee Yaron resists the simplification of politics, people, and, most of all, of October 7th — in favor of nuance and humanity.Biography:Lee Yaron is an award-winning Israeli journalist.Her new book, "10/7: 100 Human Stories," won the 2024 National Jewish Book Award  Book of the Year — and the 2025 Natan Notable Books award.At 30, Yaron is the youngest Book of the Year recipient in the award's history. She joins distinguished past winners including Philip Roth, Elie Wiesel, David Grossman and Amos Oz.She was selected for the prestigious 2025 Forbes 30 Under 30 list.Her investigative journalism on corruption, social issues, and environmental concerns has prompted the establishment of state-level commissions and driven changes in Israeli policy and law. This work earned her the 2022 Yitzhak Livni "Knight" Award for Free Speech in Media. She currently serves as an elected member-representative on the Executive Committee of the Union of Israeli Journalists.Website: https://www.leeyaron.com/

Rabbi Marc Katz uses the historical imagination to plumb the depths of Judaism’s greatest choice for survival.

Rabbi Elliot asks us to approach difficult times with depth of mind and spirit.

Rabbi Joshua Weinberg tackles both the complexity and the clarity of vision embedded in the idea of Liberal Zionism.

Poet Menachem Rosensaft transforms the Psalms into a search for God who permitted the Holocaust.

Who are we and where is home? Author Yariv Inbar investigates through the mental tightrope of espionage.

Aryeh Ben David plumbs the diaries of the epochal thinker Rav Kook. He finds the imperative of love.

Author Mari Lowe explores adolescence through the lens of the Orthodox experience – both unique and common to all.