KAYITZ BABAYIT: CY SUMMER - AT HOME!
The CY is bringing our signature CY Summer in Jerusalem experience to the comfort of your own home.
Sunday June 21 - Friday July 10, 2020
Our program includes:
- Choice of Hebrew Ulpan or Talmud Intensive
- In-depth Biblical Text Studies
- Explorations in Rabbinic Literature, Mysticism, and Israeli society
- Liturgical Traditions and Trainings with Musical Masters
- Informal Virtual Community Gatherings
Understanding the challenges of this time, we have endeavored to preserve maximum quality at minimum cost to you.
Registration has been extended! Ulpan registration ends on June 7Reserve Your Spot!All Access Pass to Music, Prayer, Artistry™️— Joey Weisenberg's Master Class Collection
Music, Prayer, Artistry™ All Access Pass to Joey Weisenberg's Master Class Videos
with Joey Weisenberg LIVE Summer Check-ins
This exclusive "independent study" package grants you access for 1 FULL YEAR to Joey Weisenberg's collection of 500+ video Master Classes in Jewish Song.
The video library covers nigunim (Jewish melodies), nusach (traditional prayer chants), and davening (prayer) artistry - giving you the opportunity to develop your knowledge and skills at your own pace. Learn how to build singing communities, sing and teach nigunim, and lead traditional Jewish prayer.
Joey will show you how!
With this package, you get a discounted subscription rate + the bonus of getting started this summer with LIVE virtual check-ins with Joey during Kayitz BaBayit.
Joey Weisenberg is the Founder and Co-Director of Hadar’s Rising Song Institute and is the author of Building Singing Communities and The Torah of Music, winner of a 2017 National Jewish Book Award. A devoted student and teacher of traditional Jewish melodies, Joey also composes new nigunim that have moved and inspired Jews around the world.
Morning Classes
Immersive Ulpan 5 levels
with Meira Glick and colleagues
The Conservative Yeshiva Summer Hebrew Ulpan, is an opportunity to study Hebrew intensively for a short period of time in a small, congenial class with students of all ages from around the world. The top-notch Hebrew Ulpan teachers motivated fellow students, combine to make this a premier Hebrew language experience.
Five levels of modern Hebrew study are offered, including reading, writing, speaking, and grammar.Summer Hebrew Ulpan Director, Nitza Shalitin
Nitza has taught Hebrew to overseas students at the Hebrew University One Year Program, the Melton Educators Program and Mechina program, and at Hebrew Union College, all in Jerusalem, Israel. She teaches Hebrew and coordinates the Conservative Yeshiva’s Ulpan programs..
Talmud I: Integrating without Assimilating
with Dr. Joshua Kulp
Tractate Avodah Zarah envisions a world in which Jews live among idol worshippers, interact with them, engage in business with them and at the same time do not assiduously shun idol worship. As such, the Tractate addresses some of the same questions faced by Jews today. We will study Mishnah Avodah Zarah, passages in the Talmud, and perhaps even a few medieval writings on how Jews managed to live among non-Jews and yet maintain their distinct identity.
Dr. Joshua Kulp is the Rosh Yeshiva of the Conservative Yeshiva. He is the author of The Schechter Haggadah and Reconstructing the Talmud, v. 1, and v. 2. He is also the author of the Mishnah Yomit and Daf Shevui projects.
Talmud II Sukkah
with Rabbi Miriam-Simma Walfish
The second chapter of tractate Sukkah discusses key questions that reverberate well beyond the obligation to dwell in a sukkah on the holiday of sukkot. We will delve into two sets of such questions. The first asks how to navigate conflicting obligations. Should newlyweds be exempt from certain ritual obligations? What about those taking care of the sick? The second asks: How do we define home? What makes your house a home? As we explore these questions, we will build our rabbinic text skills, becoming more proficient in the study of a Talmudic sugiya (discussion).
Rabbi Miriam-Simma Walfish Rabbi Miriam-Simma Walfish is pursuing a doctorate in Talmud at Harvard University and directs Boston’s Teen Beit Midrash. A graduate of the Pardes Educators Program, she has taught Tanakh, Talmud, and Jewish Law in numerous settings including the Conservative Yeshiva, Yeshivat Hadar, Harvard University, Hebrew College, and the National Havurah Committee's summer institute.
Piyyut: Hebrew Liturgical Poetry
with Yahala Lachmish
Piyyutim are invitations to communal prayer. Join us for an uplifting journey through diverse Jewish liturgical traditions and learn the tunes of Piyyutim from communities all over the world! 9 musical meetings with Israeli Paytanit and Chazanit.
Yahala Lachmish is a Musician, Cantor and Paytanit, Singer, Conductor and Actress. She holds a B.A in composition from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and accompanies the Sephardic track of the Ashira Tehilot program for musicians and cantors at the Schechter Institute. Yahala has been performing for 25 years as a solo artist, in various ensembles (Tandu, Voca Shabbat and more) and orchestras. She is the musical director and conductor for the National Singing Communities organization (Kehilot Sharot), and teaches Biblical trope and sessions on Jewish liturgical poems.
The Life and Work of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev
with Rabbi Daniel Silverstein
R' Levi Yitzchak was a key leader in the third generation of Hasidic rebbes, who brought the radical spiritual revival of their revolutionary movement to hundreds of thousands of people across Eastern Europe. He was famous even during his lifetime for his impassioned love of, and his tremendous self-sacrifice for, his beloved people. His teachings offer us some of the most powerful articulations of a Hasidism strongly centered around the cultivation and expression of love. Rabbi Daniel Silverstein teaches Hasidut at the Conservative Yeshiva. Daniel is past Director of Jewish Life & Learning for Hillel at Stanford University and Director of the UJS-Hillel Culanu Centre for Cambridge University. As an artist-educator, he has performed and facilitated across the world and his songs have garnered tens of thousands of plays online. He is an accredited meditation teacher and teaches on meditation, spirituality, prayer and Hasidut for Or HaLev and the Romemu Yeshiva. He is the founder of appliedjewishspirituality.org, an online platform for the exploration of Jewish spirituality.
The Twenty Political Tribes of Israel
with Mikhael Kesher
This mini-course uses short video clips to illuminate the myriad political factions in Israel and the populations that they represent, exploring over three sessions: the battle for the Prime Minister’s office; power scrambles on the Zionist left and right; and the end of political ambivalence in the Arab and ultra-Orthodox parties. Together we’ll learn more about recent developments in their historical contexts, laughing and raising our eyebrows along the way. All materials presented in translation – no Hebrew knowledge necessary.
Mikhael Kesher is Director of Israel Programs at Harvard Hillel, and a former Lishma Fellow at the Conservative Yeshiva. He holds Master’s degrees from Brandeis University in Near Eastern & Judaic Studies and from the University of Cambridge in Philosophy. When not fueling his addiction to Israeli political commentary, Mikhael can be found swooning over his newborn baby son, Ezra, or napping.
Weekly Parasha
with Bex Stern Rosenblatt
Bex Stern Rosenblatt Is the CY's Faculty-in-Residence for the Mid-Atlantic Region of the U.S. She earned an M.A. in Tanakh from Bar Ilan University. She is the founder of Havruta Tel Aviv, an organization that facilitates guided pair-learning of the Tanakh. At the Yeshiva, Bex taught Tanakh, using the techniques of close-reading, theater, feminist readings, and traditional commentators. After finishing her B.A. in History and German at Williams College, Bex received a Fulbright Grant to Austria. She has studied at the Conservative Yeshiva and Bina Jerusalem.
Afternoon Classes
Images of the Torah in the Zohar
with Rabbi David Greenstein
What, when and Who is the Torah? Is She a text, an activity, a concept, a living being? Is the Torah eternal or does it have a history? The Zohar, one of the greatest expressions of Torah in all of Judaism, and the centerpiece of our mystical tradition asks these and other questions and offers responses that are moving, illuminating, inspiring and troubling, all at once. Come learn! All our texts will be from the Pritzker Edition, translated into English, edited and annotated by Danny Matt. (Please also bring a TaNaKh to class.). Rabbi David Greenstein serves as rabbi of Congregation Shomrei Emunah, Montclair, NJ. He has taught Talmud and Zohar in rabbinical seminaries in North America as well as at the Conservative Yeshiva and at Neve Schechter in Tel Aviv. His book, Roads to Utopia: The Walking Stories of the Zohar, was published by Stanford University Press in 2014. He has been chosen as the Daniel Jeremy Silver Fellow at Harvard University for the academic year 2018 - 2019.
Grief and Righteous Anger in Lamentations
with Bex Stern Rosenblatt
How do we respond to the unimaginable? In this course, we'll do a close reading of the Book of Lamentations, written in the wake of the total destruction of Jerusalem. Confronting truly gruesome texts, we will examine how we process trauma and what God's role is in the creation of trauma. Bex Stern Rosenblatt Is the CY's Faculty-in-Residence for the Mid-Atlantic Region of the U.S. She earned an M.A. in Tanakh from Bar Ilan University. She is the founder of Havruta Tel Aviv, an organization that facilitates guided pair-learning of the Tanakh. At the Yeshiva, Bex taught Tanakh, using the techniques of close-reading, theater, feminist readings, and traditional commentators. After finishing her B.A. in History and German at Williams College, Bex received a Fulbright Grant to Austria. She has studied at the Conservative Yeshiva and Bina Jerusalem.
Social Distancing in the Talmud
with Ilana Kurshan
Ilana Kurshan teaches Talmud at the CY. She is the author of If All the Seas Were Ink (St. Martin's Press, 2017) and Why is This Night Different From All Other Nights (Schocken, 2005). She has a degree in History of Science from Harvard and in English literature from Cambridge, and she has worked in literary publishing both in New York and in Jerusalem. As a translator, a foreign rights agent, and as the Books Editor of Lilith Magazine. She has translated books of Jewish studies by Ruth Calderon, Benjamin Lau, and Micah Goodman, as well as novels, short stories, and children's picture books.
Reading Bat Sheva as Woman, Wife, and Warrior
with Bex Stern Rosenblatt
In this class, we will read the story of the other founder of the Davidic dynasty, the story of Bat Sheva. Paying close attention to textual details, we will uncover a complex Biblical character with an agenda of her own. We'll trace her story from her exchange of husbands, through plotting with a prophet, and finally to her ruthlessness in protecting the kingdom. As we construct her character, we will grapple with questions of power, legacy, and the importance of narrative.Bex Stern Rosenblatt Is the CY's Faculty-in-Residence for the Mid-Atlantic Region of the U.S. She earned an M.A. in Tanakh from Bar Ilan University. She is the founder of Havruta Tel Aviv, an organization that facilitates guided pair-learning of the Tanakh. At the Yeshiva, Bex taught Tanakh, using the techniques of close-reading, theater, feminist readings, and traditional commentators. After finishing her B.A. in History and German at Williams College, Bex received a Fulbright Grant to Austria. She has studied at the Conservative Yeshiva and Bina Jerusalem.
Bonus Evening Classes
Lives of Jews Around the World
with Dr. Michelle Shain
We will explore the lives of Jews around the world using the tools of social science. We will discuss population trends in migration, marriage, and fertility; realities of education, income, occupation, and race; religious behaviors and attitudes; and antisemitism. Special attention will be paid to assessing the evidence behind popular narratives. Dr. Michelle Shain is a social scientist and the Assistant Director of the Orthodox Union's Center for Communal Research. Her primary area of expertise is the intersection of religion, gender, and family formation. Her published work also includes numerous explorations of young adult Jewish identity, Israel education, and antisemitism. She holds a Ph.D. in Social Policy from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University and an MA from the Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Jewish Medical Ethics in the Time of Pandemic
with Rabbi Alan Iser
What do Jewish sources have to say about some of the most pressing issues facing patients and caregivers today? To what extent are medical workers obligated to endanger themselves? Among the issues we will discuss: personal autonomy; end of life issues; organ transplants and allocation of scarce medical resources; abortion and new reproductive technologies.Rabbi Alan Iser received his rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary and has a Masters degree in Near Eastern Civilizations and Languages from Harvard. He is a former pulpit rabbi and Hillel director. He currently is an Adjunct Professor of Theology at St. Joseph’s University, Villanova University and St. Charles Borromeo Seminary.
Calendar of Online Events (click here to see Google Calendar)
*Exact hours are subject to change
Kayitz Babayit Schedule
