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Release
Panel on Rabbinic Perspectives
on Secular Jewish Life and Culture Convenes
at UAlbany
Contact: Karl Luntta (518) 437-4980
ALBANY, N.Y. (November 17, 2004) - The University
at Albany�s Center for Jewish Studies will host
a panel on "Rabbinic Perspectives on Secular
Jewish Life and Culture� on Thursday, November
18, from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Lecture Center
19, on the University�s uptown campus.
The November 18 panel will feature rabbis from
the Capital District representing the spectrum
of American Judaism. The panelists include Rabbi
Moshe Bomzer of Beth Abraham-Jacob (Orthodox),
Rabbi Don Cashman of Bnai Shalom (Reform), Rabbi
Debora Gordon of Berith Sholom (Reform), Rabbi
Bev Magidson, chaplain at the V.A. hospital
and Daughters of Sarah Senior Community (Conservative),
and Rabbi Ben Shull of UAlbany Hillel. The panel
will be moderated by Prof. Mark A. Raider, director
of the Center for Jewish Studies, and will include
audience discussion.
�Judaism,� Raider said, �is both a venerable
tradition of ideas and values as well as a social
and communal bond manifest in the form of Jewish
peoplehood.� Raider mentioned a recent study
conducted by the Center for Cultural Judaism
indicates that roughly half of the American
Jewish population is irreligious (American Jewish
Identity Survey, 2001). �In other words,� Raider
said, �much of contemporary Jewish life is in
fact shaped by a distinctive secular sensibility.�
Raider said the panelists will present their
attitudes on secular Jewish life and culture.
They will be asked to reflect on their rabbinic
role vis-à-vis the secular Jewish world
as well as recent demographic changes in American
and world Jewry. They will also address the
issue of the secular-religious divide in Israeli
society.
The panel is being held in the framework of
a new class offered by the Department of Judaic
Studies. The Center for Jewish Studies recently
received a $50,000 Posen Foundation Grant to
support the development of new courses in the
Department of Judaic Studies related to the
study of secular Jewish life and culture.
The panel is free and open to the public. For
more information and directions to the UAlbany
campus, contact Yoel Hirschfeld in the Center
for Jewish Studies at 591-8514, or send an e-mail
to [email protected].
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