It all started with a weekly shiur.
This informal shiur, led by Rabbi Chaim Miller, began at the start of the year 5770 and kept on going, as more and more people showed up each week. The shiur brought together young women from in and out of Crown Heights, with varying occupations, educations, backgrounds and interests. What they shared was their desire for an honest encounter with the depth and breadth of Torah and Chasidus. After involved discussions, rigorous research, questioning and discovery, scores of women came away from the weekly shiur with a new kind of learning experience – an intellectual and personal process, no shortcuts taken.
This success revealed the opportunity for more. Study of Torah and Chassidus does not have to remain for life at the seminary level, and rigorous thinking and engaging discussion need not be relegated to the university classroom. Hence a new school for women in Crown Heights, opening up with its pilot program this summer.
Courses are designed to lead us out of the box of how learning is often approached, and face to face with the richness, rigor and relevance of Jewish thinking. A text as basic as the Siddur, for instance, will be re-opened as a theological roadmap – “Finding G-d,” and a course in the History of Jewish Thought will discuss the subtle streams of theology and ideology that defined Jewish thought as we know it. “Chabad off the Bookshelf” will feature frank discussion of how Lubavitch ideals translate into Lubavitch identity, and Halacha will be studied from the sources, re-tracing the Halachic process.
Instructors at the JMS are all scholars and thinkers, ready to engage the contemporary student. Rabbi Yossi Paltiel, Rabbi Yisroel Fried, Mrs. Bronya Shaffer and resident scholar Rabbi Chaim Miller will each be teaching from their respective angles and expertise.
This school is brought to you both by and for Crown Heights women, organized by Chanah Poltorak and Rivky Blumberger. Hosted by the new “Bayit for Women,” a center for women’s programming developed by Mrs. Sara Labkowski, the JMS is partially subsidized by generous sponsors.
The JMS summer program will be running from July 11th through August 19th, featuring weekly classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and guest lecturers on Sundays, all during evening hours. To inquire, register or donate, email [email protected] , and see the JMS website: www.journeyofmindandsoul.wordpress.com.
Let this summer be just the beginning.
Rivky,
you are doing so much for Crown Heights women! May you be rewarded many times over!
Wonderful, thank you!
You are the best!! Keep up the good work 🙂
Online would be great for us Australians who unfortunately can’t make it to Crown Heights. Topics sound great.
could you make it available onlline? I can’t be there, but would love tpo participate.
You are the best! So proud of you!
Your online student.