This dynamic program of public lectures brings world-renowned authors, scholars, political leaders, policy experts, and theologians to WHC to share their perspectives on timely issues or their research into Jewish culture and history.
We are pleased to present prominent writers of the nation's newest works on topics of Jewish interest, often in cooperation with the Jewish Book Council.
Date: Sunday, March 1
Time: 10:30 am
Location: Washington Hebrew Congregation
Cost: Free and open to the community
Please click here to RSVP for this lecture
At a time when immigration, assimilation, and anti-Semitism are at the forefront of our minds, the Amram Scholar Series will present a lecture on the history of Jewish name changing in America.
Join us to hear Professor Kirsten Fermaglich, who teaches history and Jewish Studies at Michigan State University, discuss her book, A Rosenberg by Any Other Name. In a lively presentation, she describes how name changing has had a lasting impact on American Jewish culture.
Presented in cooperation with the Jewish Book Council.
Date: Sunday, April 19
Time: 10:30 am
Location: Washington Hebrew Congregation
Cost: Free and open to the community
RSVP preferred: Click here to RSVP
WHC is pleased to welcome author Robert Mnookin to discuss his book, The Jewish American Paradox: Embracing Choice in a Changing World.
American Jews have achieved unprecedented integration, influence, and esteem in virtually every facet of American life. But we now also face four often-divisive challenges: widespread intermarriage, weak religious observance, diminished cohesion, and deeply conflicting views on Israel. The Jewish American Paradox that is the subject of Robert Mnookin’s new book will be the focus of his Amram Scholar Series lecture. He boldly examines how the American Jewish community can collectively sustain and pass on to the next generation a sufficient sense of Jewish identity in light of these challenges.
A Harvard Law School professor, he is also the director of the Harvard Negotiation Research project.
This author comes to Washington Hebrew through a partnership with the Jewish Book Council.
Date: Sunday, June 7
Time: 5:00 pm
Location: Washington Hebrew Congregation
Cost: Free and open to the community
RSVP preferred: Click here to RSVP
Our Amram lecture season closes with the author of the first major biography in English in over 30 years to focus on the seminal modern Jewish thinker Martin Buber (1878-1965). Professor Mendes-Flohr’s new book, Martin Buber: A Life of Faith and Dissent, is part of Yale University’s prizewinning Jewish Lives series, accessible biographies designed to explore the many facets of Jewish identity. A renowned authority on Buber’s life and thought, as well as on the cultural and intellectual life of German Jewry, Dr. Mendes-Flohr is professor emeritus of the University of Chicago Divinity School and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
This afternoon lecture will include a festive reception in celebration of our yearlong program.
This Amram lecture is sponsored by the Everett & Marian Gordon Scholar Series Fund.
Deborah Lipstadt - Antisemitism: Here and Now
Professor Lipstadt teaches Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University; she was portrayed by Rachel Weisz in the film Denial, based on her legal battle with Holocaust denier David Irving.
David Harris - "Facing Challenges: American and World Jewry"
The CEO of the American Jewish Committee since 1990, Mr. Harris was described by the late Israeli President Shimon Peres as the "foreign minister of the Jewish people."
Jodi Kantor - "'#MeToo,' She Said: Documenting Kolot Isha (Women’s Voices)"
Ms. Kantor is a Pulitzer-prize winning New York Times investigative reporter and co-author of She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement.
Michael Dobbs - The Unwanted: America, Auschwitz, and a Village Caught In Between
Mr. Dobbs, a former foreign correspondent for the Washington Post, is a scholar and writer at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Presented in partnership with the Jewish Book Council.
Jamie Bernstein - Famous Father Girl: A Memoir of Growing Up Bernstein
The daughter of the late composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein, Ms. Bernstein is an author and filmmaker.
Presented in partnership with the Jewish Book Council.
Robert Klitzman & Jamie Metzl - "Recreating Humanity: Moral Choices and Genetic Engineering"
Dr. Klitzman, a professor of psychiatry and bioethics at Columbia University, is the author of Designing Babies: How Technology is Changing the Ways We Create Children. Mr. Metzl -- a prominent futurist who has served in the White House, State Department, and United Nations -- is the author of Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity.
Presented in partnership with the Jewish Book Council.
Kirsten Fermaglich - A Rosenberg by Any Other Name: A History of Jewish Name Changing in America
Professor Fermaglich teaches history and Jewish studies at Michigan State University.
Presented in partnership with the Jewish Book Council.
Robert Mnookin - The Jewish American Paradox: Embracing Choice in a Changing World
A leading scholar in the field of conflict resolution, Professor Mnookin teaches at the Harvard Law School and directs Harvard's Negotiation Research Project.
Presented in partnership with the Jewish Book Council.
Paul Mendes-Flohr - Martin Buber: A Life of Faith and Dissent
Professor Mendes-Flohr, an eminent scholar of modern Jewish thought, teaches at the University of Chicago and is an emeritus professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Author, and daughter of famous conductor and composer, Leonard Bernstein, joined WHC's Amram Scholar Series on Sunday, January 5, 2020 to discuss her book, Famous Father Girl.
On Wednesday, November 6, Michael Dobbs of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum addressed the Congregation as part of our Kristallnacht Commemoration.
David Harris
The American Jewish community is confronting fundamental questions about the responsibilities and difficulties of being Jewish in today’s world.
On Sunday, October 27, 2019, AJC CEO David Harris shared his unique perspective on the widespread increase of antisemitism, the relationship between the American Jewish community and the pro-BDS movement taking hold in some quarters of the Democratic Party, and the way that, on both sides of the aisle, support for Israel is being used as a divisive political cudgel.
This Amram Scholar Series lecture was generously supported by the Leo and Elizabeth Goodman Public Issues Endowment Fund.
Re-watch and re-experience the dynamic lectures from previous years of the Amram Scholar Series.
