Adult Education

At Temple Emanu-El, our Adult Education program offers members access to a wide variety of stimulating programs and challenging lectures. Most of the programs are free and open to the public and are sponsored by community grants and generous donations from temple members. So please join us and energize your mind!

Here is a look at the programs we offer:

Monthly Speakers - Our speakers come from a wide variety of backgrounds. They are scholars, professors, doctors, cinematographers, artists and people with interesting information to share with us. Recent topics have included "Jewish Identity and the Land of Israel: What the Bible Tells Us" with Professor Rachel Zohar Dulin; "Rock & Roll Jews" with "Radio Dave" Milberg; and "Just for the Health of It" with Stephen Hiller, M.D.  

Classes with the Rabbis - Rabbis Brenner Glickman and Michael Shefrin share their knowledge, insight and delightful humor on a wide range of Jewish learning.  Their classses recently have included:  Rabbi Glickman in a five part series "Final Preparations - Jewish Choices for the End of Life" and Rabbi Shefrin examining "The Book of Jonah" in a three part series.  Rabbi Richard Klein also held 3 classes of "Judaism 101" for all of us who would like a refresher course and/or a beginner's introduction to how Reform Jews observe Jewish practices.  Rabbi Elaine Glickman shared her knowledge about the Temple Mount, its history and attachment to the Jewish people.

Hebrew Classes: Classes include Beginning Hebrew I and II.  These classes are for people who would like to learn to read Hebrew, with no previous training, and for students who want to be able to follow the service in the prayerbook.  We also offer Conversational Hebrew I and II.  Conversation I is for those who know almost no Hebrew and, Conversation II is for those who are more advanced in speaking Hebrew. 

Film Series - Sunday Afternoon at the Movies:  Recent films include: "Theodore Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem"; "Remember"; and "Sabena Hijacking/My Version." We offer a wide range of dramas, award-winning documentaries and classic favorites such as "The Zookeeper's Wife."  A speaker is at each film to lead a discussion about the movie. Our 2019-2020 schedule is below.

Shabbat Torah Study - Usually on the first Shabbat of each month, one of the Rabbis will lead a discussion of the Torah portion for that time.  There is a brief service at 10:30 am, followed at 11:00 am by the study of Torah. For specific times and Torah portion, please consult the Adult Education Catalog.

Scholar-in-Residence - Generous funding allows Temple Emanu-El to bring a pre-eminent scholar or author to our area for a weekend of stimulating insight.  Recent participants have included Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center in Washington, D.C.; Dr. Steven Windmueller, Dean of the Los Angeles campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion; and Dr. Lance Sussman, Senior Rabbi of Congregation Keneseth Israel in Philadelphia, and a nationally renowned historian and professor.

For a more detailed description of all of our activities, please click on the link to the Adult Education Catalog.

ADULT EDUCATION COMMITTEE MEMBERS