This dynamic program of free 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, October 21
Time: 10:30 am
Location: Washington Hebrew Congregation
Cost: Free and open to the community
RSVP preferred: Click here for our form
Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will open the 2018-2019 Amram Scholar Series with a personal and urgent examination of fascism in the 20th century and how its legacy is shaping today’s world.
The past century was defined by the clash between democracy and fascism, a struggle that created uncertainty about the survival of human freedom and left millions dead. Given the horrors of that experience, one might expect the world to reject the spiritual successors to Hitler and Mussolini, should they arise in our era. Ms. Albright’s experiences as a child in war-torn Europe and her distinguished career as a diplomat have caused her to question that assumption.
Madeleine Albright is the author of Fascism: A Warning and will hold a book signing after her lecture. Copies of her book can be purchased at the event.
Presented in cooperation with the Jewish Book Council / Photo: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Date: Sunday, November 4
Time: 10:30 am
Location: Washington Hebrew Congregation
Cost: Free and open to the community
RSVP preferred: Click here for our form
Norman Eisen is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a CNN commentator on ethics and government, and chairman of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. He served as U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic from 2011 to 2014, and as President Obama’s ethics czar from 2009 to 2011.
His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic among others. The Last Palace, about the American ambassador’s residence in Czechoslovakia — the country his mother fled in the Holocaust — chronicles the upheavals that transformed the European continent over the past century.
Norman Eisen is the author of The Last Palace: Europe's Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House and will hold a book signing after his lecture. Copies of his book can be purchased at the event.
Presented in cooperation with the Jewish Book Council
Unless specified, all lectures are held at Temple on Sundays at 10:30 am.
Madeleine Albright, author of Fascism: A Warning
Norman L. Eisen, author of The Last Palace: Europe's Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House
Stuart E. Eizenstat, author of President Carter: The White House Years
Wendy Sherman, author of Not for the Faint of Heart: Lessons in Courage
Jonathan Weisman, author of (((Semitism))): Being Jewish in America in the Age of Trump
James Loeffler, author of Rooted Cosmopolitans: Jews and Human Rights in the Twentieth Century
Steven R. Weisman, author of The Chosen Wars: How Judaism Became an American Religion
Tal Keinan, author of God is in the Crowd: Twenty-First Century Judaism
Nadine Epstein, author of Elie Wiesel: An Extraordinary Life and Legacy, and Ariel Burger, author of Witness: Lessons From Elie Wiesel's Classroom
Sally Kohn, author of The Opposite of Hate: A Field Guide to Repairing Our Humanity
Comic archetypes took center stage at Temple on Sunday, May 6 when the Amram Scholar Series concluded its year with an analysis of the special nature of the Jewish sense of humor through the ages.
Jeremy Dauber, Professor of Yiddish language and culture at Columbia University, and Michael Krasny, literature scholar and National Public Radio host, came together to discuss their latest books, which both explore the range of Jewish comedy — a genre fueled by persecution, suffering, and self-awareness.
