Guest Speakers - New Synagogue

In Partnership with Yeshiva University Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought
Previous Speakers

In Partnership with Yeshiva University Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought

Baruch-Lev Kelman

Sunday, April 02, 2023
6:00PM EST -The Virtual Roundtable Seminar – “I Saw Jewish Kings Beyond the Sambatyon! – Preserving Majesty in the Diaspora”

Baruch-Lev Kelman is the Yeshiva University Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought programming officer. He is a graduate student at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University. He served on the Premio Sarano Commitee of the San Paolo Vatican Press and as the Glatt Research Associate at the Center for Israel Studies, contributing to the exhibit Samaritans: A Biblical People (Museum of the Bible, 2022).

To Be Announced

Previous Speakers

Baruch-Lev Kelman

Sunday, February 05, 2023
6:00PM EST -The Virtual Roundtable Seminar – “Separation of Synagogue & State in Jewish Law”

Yehuda Goldberg

Sunday, March 05, 2023
6:00PM EST -The Virtual Roundtable Seminar – “Jewish Laws for the Jewish State?”

Sunday, January 15, 2023
6:00PM EST -The Virtual Roundtable Seminar – “The Rights Way”

Yehuda Goldberg is the Yeshiva University Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought rabbinic intern. He is a rabbinical student at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) and a graduate student at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University. In his research, Yehuda looks at Jewish thought and the intersection of theology and political philosophy.

Edward Douglas

Tuesday, August 16, 2022
7:00PM EST -Student Film Screening

Edward Douglas is an award-winning filmmaker and video game storyteller. His credits range from major gaming franchises such as Mass Effect and Need for Speed, to the classic animated Edd, Edd’n Eddy cartoon, to throwbacks like straight-to-video Steven Segal movies. His most recent short films Swiped and Dearly Beloved have premiered in Florida at the Miami International Science Fiction Film Festival and been nominated for Best Science Fiction at the Sunscreen Film Festival in Saint Petersburg, FL. He’s taught and spoken at schools in Vancouver and internationally, including the Vancouver Institute of Media Arts, Vancouver Film School, and the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema in Brooklyn, NY. Edward comes from a German Jewish family that fled the Holocaust, and through teaching film at New Synagogue has reconnected with his Jewish heritage.

Paul Shaviv

Saturday, June 04, 2022
8:00PM EST -On the Yahrzeit of the Ba’al Shem Tov: Questions Around the Origins of Hasidism

Monday, January 18, 2021
8:00PM EST -Six Jewish Thinkers Respond to Modernity – Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson: Chasidic Teachings for a New World

Monday, January 11, 2021
8:00PM EST -Six Jewish Thinkers Respond to Modernity -The Chofetz Chaim: Life, Legacy, and Influence

Monday, January 04, 2021
8:00PM EST -Six Jewish Thinkers Respond to Modernity – Rabbi J.B. Soloveitchik: Philosophy with Halachah

Monday, December 28, 2020
8:00PM EST -Six Jewish Thinkers Respond to Modernity – Rav Kook: A Twentieth Century Tug-of-War

Monday, December 21, 2020
8:00PM EST -Six Jewish Thinkers Respond to Modernity – Rabbi Shimshon Rafael Hirsch: ‘Modern’ and ‘Orthodox’?

Monday, December 14, 2020
8:00PM EST -Six Jewish Thinkers Respond to Modernity – Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks: His Life and Legacy

Wednesday, April 22, 2020
4:00PM EST -Puzzles & Scandals in Jewish History- The Mystery of the Yemenite Babies in Israel

Tuesday, April 14, 2020
4:00PM EST -Puzzles & Scandals in Jewish History- The Rebbe’s Son Became a Catholic

Wednesday, April 01, 2020
4:00PM EST -Puzzles & Scandals in Jewish History- New Research on the Besht (Ba’al Shem Tov)

Saturday, March 07, 2020
11:45AM EST -Puzzles & Scandals in Jewish History- Shabbetai Zvi and Jacob Frank

Saturday, February 22, 2020
11:45AM EST -Puzzles & Scandals in Jewish History- Where did Rashi learn Rashi?

Saturday, February 15, 2020
11:45AM EST -Puzzles & Scandals in Jewish History- The Dead Sea Scrolls

Paul Shaviv was educated at both Cambridge (BA/MA) and Oxford (MPhil) universities in the UK. His masters degree from Oxford was in Medieval Jewish History. For fourteen years he served as the Head of School at TanenbaumCHAT in Toronto (then the largest Jewish High School in North America) and served as a transitional Head at Ramaz in New York. In 2010 he was awarded the Max M. Fisher Award for Excellence in Jewish Education by the WZO/JA. He has educated adults in the field of Jewish history at many prominent synagogues for decades.

Dr. Alan Kadish

Saturday, February 15, 2020
10:15AM EST -Why Jethro?

Dr. Alan Kadish is the President and CEO of Touro, the largest Jewish-sponsored educational institution in the United States. Before becoming Touro’s second president in March 2010, Dr. Kadish distinguished himself as a prominent cardiologist, dedicated researcher, and experienced administrator.

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin

Saturday, February 01, 2020
10:15AM EST -We are Not Alone: Friends of Jews in the Bible & Throughout History
4:30PM EST -Five Jewish Values that have Changed the World

Saturday, March 24, 2018
10:15AM EST -Torah Message

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, a world-renowned author, has inspired State Resolutions and Hollywood television series and films. Rabbi Telushkin was ordained at Yeshiva University and studied Jewish history at Columbia University. He currently resides in New York City with his wife Dvorah and their four children.