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December 2020
“Come Light the Menorah”: Communal AC Candle Lighting
Let’s brighten up the Upper West Side as a community! We will gather together (masked and socially distanced, of course) on the steps of AC on West End Avenue between 100th and 101st for a communal Hanukkah candle lighting. The early bird gets the latke!
Find out more »Greeks and Jews In the Ancient World (it’s not just the story of Chanukah.)
The Greek general Alexander’s conquest of the Near East in the 4th century B.C.E. introduced Jews to Greeks, and Greeks to Jews. It was sometimes an uneasy and violent political confrontation (think of Judah Maccabeus and the story of Hanukah), but it just as often gave rise to a cultural interaction that forever changed the subsequent history of Jewish engagement with the intellectual traditions of the Greek world. The Jews living in Greek-ruled Palestine may have been waiting for the…
Find out more »February 2021
Purim’s Serious Sacred Silliness: Communal Study in memory of Solomon Fishman z’l, father of Eric Fishman
From the outside, Purim seems to be all ribald farce and dark humor. When you look deeper, you may find that the carnival encloses weightier religious reflections on God's absence and human suffering. Please join neighboring synagogues of Ansche Chesed and Ramat Orah to reflect on Purim with rabbis Aviad Bodner and Jeremy Kalmanofsky and with each other for Zoom-based learning. JOIN VIA ZOOM Meeting ID: 819 2027 5295 Passcode: purim
Find out more »Virtual Purim Carnival
Ansche Chesed invites you to our Virtual Purim Carnival! Games! Costume Parade! Fun! Costumes Encouraged JOIN VIA ZOOM Meeting ID: 856 4310 2436
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Learn To Bake Hamentashen with La Newyorkina’s Fany Gerson
It's time to get ready for Purim. Join La Newyorkina baker Fany Gerson as she teaches us her special twist on this Purim staple. Come ready to watch and learn as this professional baker measures and mixes, rolls out and shapes all while sharing how she infuses her recipes with her Mexican culture and background. These are not going to be your bubbe's sweet treats. Click here for the recipe that Fany will be showcasing JOIN VIA ZOOM Meeting ID:…
Find out more »Joy, Light and (slightly burnt) Hamantashen: Purim in Song with Cantor Hirschhorn
Leave your worries behind, and join us for an hour of lighthearted Purim songs - some old, some new, some new to you. BYOH - bring your own hamantashen (and anything else you don't mind spilling on your keyboard). JOIN VIA ZOOM
Find out more »March 2021
Hillel’s Burrito, the Spanish Pesach Bunny, and Pomegranates From the Sea: Seder Gems from Fruits of Freedom, the Torah Flora Hagadah
Much of the Pesach seder is rooted in the history of Jewish food and agriculture. Dr. Greenberg will present some of this forgotten Pesach lore that he recovered during his research for this unique and important new Hagadah. Come learn about the German rabbi who reversed the meaning of maror by replacing it with vermouth herbs; how ancient rabbis used botany, physics, and sophisticated culinary techniques to explain the Paschal lamb barbecue; and how the potential conflicts between Torah and…
Find out more »Singing Our Way Into Freedom With Cantor Hirschhorn and special musical guests
It is impossible to imagine celebrating Passover without a song. From The Song of the Sea to Dayeynu to Chad Gadya, this season is brimming with great tunes that link us to our shared history and invoke many joyous, and sometimes poignant, memories of seders past. On our second Pesach in isolation, we may be able to relate to our ancestor’s experience of pain and affliction much more easily than usual. Yet we also affirm our belief that we will…
Find out more »Who Knows Four?: Inclusion and Exclusion in the Passover Seder
Why is the number four so important in the Passover Seder? Join Rabbi Bill Plevan to study the passage of the four children from the Haggadah and similar Rabbinic texts. Are these texts inclusive or exclusive? What can we learn from these texts about the tension between maintaining standards of behavior (moral or religious) and achieving inclusive community? Rabbi Bill Plevan holds rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary and a doctorate in Religion from Princeton University where he wrote…
Find out more »Family Memoir Workshop: The Holiday Meal
Nothing says family like food. But how do you tell your family’s story when there are so many meals to choose from? The Family Memoir Workshop invites you and your family—wherever they are—to join us for a virtual class as we discover new ways to put our stories on the page. Within family clusters, you’ll decide on a shared holiday meal—Passover, Hanukkah, the break-fast following Yom Kippur—and then each of you will write it from your own individual perspective. Sharing…
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