Learning at Der Nister

Recordings of teachings on Zoom regarding a variety of Jewish topics.

Philosophy on the Parshah: Emor, Ecclesiastes and Yehuda Amichai

Rabbi Ye'ela Rosenfeld, speaking from Der Nister, looks at how we view time, as a way to mix experiences or keep them separate, through a debate between Kohelet (Ecclesiastes and Yehuda Amichai). The debate is inspired by Parshah Emor. This video is a supplement to Rabbi Rosenfeld's parshah column, which you can find on https://www.dernister.org/newsletter-... or in our newsletter.

05-17
09:57

Philosophy on the Parshah: Behar and Rainer Maria Rilke

Rabbi Ye'ela Rosenfeld, speaking from Der Nister, looks at how the Shmitah year, the year of letting fields stay fallow, is related to Rilke's advice on how to be courageous in uncertainty. This video is a supplement to Rabbi Rosenfeld's parshah column, which you can find on https://www.dernister.org/newsletter-columns or in our newsletter.#rilke #jewish #philosophy #parshah

05-24
11:37

How Ashkenazic Jews Got Their Names and the Troubles They Have Caused Them

Professor Kalman Weiser (York University) talks with Miri Koral (UCLA) about the origins of Ashkenazic names and interesting stories about how difficult those names could be for their bearers in Eastern Europe. This talk was co-sponsored by the Toronto UJA Committee for Yiddish, California Institute for Yiddish Language and Culture, and Der Nister, and is the first of three in this series.

02-10
01:04:51

The Jews of Mexico: A History Revealed

Josh Kogan, author of The Story of the Jews of Mexico, takes us on a tour of Mexican Jewish history. Spanning five centuries, Mexican-Jewish history stretches from Jews escaping the Inquisition, joining the conquest of Cortes, to the establishment of four different Jewish communities at the turn-of-the-century, who had to learn to unite. 

11-23
01:14:17

Spiritual Justice: Observations of Buddhist China, Shamanist Colombia, and Kabbalistic Israel

Yvonne Winer teaches about the spiritual visions of justice in three completely different religions traditions that she immersed herself in: Mahayana Buddhism in China, Shamanism in the Amazon of Colombia, and Kabbalistic Midrashot in Israel. Each of these traditions, in their own ways, stands firmly against the normal conceptions of Western thought.

11-16
01:00:11

Solomon ibn Gabirol: Cartographer of the Universe

Rabbi Zach Golden discusses the medieval Andalusian poet and philosopher Solomon ibn Gabirol, and how he took the intellectual speculation of the cosmos and made it become a spiritual discipline.

09-16
53:05

Albert Memmi: The Jews as Colonizer/Colonized

Leon Kraiem teaches us about the life and work of the late Tunisian-Jewish philosopher Albert Memmi, and what he has to say about the discourse surrounding oppression through colonization, and where the Jews are in all of it.

09-06
01:20:12

Saba: The Father of the Na Nach Movement

Brett Kopin teaches us about Saba, Rabbi Yisroel Dov Ber Odesser, who took the relatively unknown teachings of Rabbi Nachman and popularized them the world over.

09-03
01:26:28

Philosophy on the Parshah: Beha'alotcha and Dante

Rabbi Ye'ela Rosenfeld, speaking from Der Nister, weighs Dante Alighieri's dim view of lust againstthat of the Sefat Emet, in relation to parshah Beha'alotcha. This video is a supplement to Rabbi Rosenfeld's parshah column, which you can find on https://www.dernister.org/newsletter-columns or in our newsletter.#dante #jewish #philosophy #parshah

06-14
12:03

Philosophy on the Parshah: Bamidbar and Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Rabbi Ye'ela Rosenfeld, speaking from Der Nister, breaks down the idea of Rousseau's General Will and suggests an improvement to it in the form of the Ben Ish Chai's insight on the parshah Bamidbar. This video is a supplement to Rabbi Rosenfeld's parshah column, which you can find on https://www.dernister.org/newsletter-columns or in our newsletter.#rousseau #jewish #philosophy #parshah

06-07
12:43

Philosophy on the Parshah: Naso and Emile Durkheim

Rabbi Ye'ela Rosenfeld, speaking from Der Nister, connects the observations of sociologist Emile Durkheim on religion to parshah Naso. This video is a supplement to Rabbi Rosenfeld's parshah column, which you can find on https://www.dernister.org/newsletter-columns or in our newsletter.#durkheim #jewish #philosophy #sociology #parshah

06-07
13:03

The Primordium

Panui's Rabbi Aubrey Glazer and Dr. Elyssa Wortzman and Der Nister's Rabbi Zach Golden speak with translator Dr. Nathan Wolski, artist Tunni Kraus, and members of the band The Bashevis Singers — Evie Gawenda, Husky Gawenda and Gideon Preiss on the occasion of the online launch of Dr. Wolski's translation of Der Nister's epic poem.

01-17
01:28:21

Why is Yiddish Popular?

Zach Golden and Kultur Mercado founder Aaron Castillo-White discuss the big-picture cultural theories that explain how the descendants of immigrants become attracted to languages and cultures that their ancestors abandoned to order to explain the resurgence of Yiddish.

07-13
53:52

Double Consciousness of Two Prayers

Readers of our newsletter may be familiar with Joelle Milman, our poet-in-residence of 2022. She wrote a weekly poem in response to the weekly haftarah (prophetic) portion as an ongoing epic. In these poems, she transports us to a surreal world where the character she creates struggles with, for, and against God in direct thematic conversation with the language and story of the weeks’ reading. Joelle reads selections of her work, explains her writing process, and explores her inspirations for it with Rabbi Zach Golden, followed by a Q and A.  Joelle is from LA and lives in Tel Aviv, where she is writing her MA thesis on the mystic element in Mina Loy’s poetry at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She is joining the team at Breaking the Silence, an Israeli peace advocacy organization.

01-10
01:02:47

Justice in the City with Rabbi Aryeh Cohen

Henry Hollander speaks with Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies Talmud professor Rabbi Dr. Aryeh Cohen about his book Justice in the City. The wide-ranging conversation touches on Rabbi Cohen's intellectual and political development in New York, Israel, Boston and Los Angeles, and then turns towards social problems in Los Angeles and socially just strategies to address them.

11-08
01:31:42

Interview with Jana Mazurkiewicz Meisarosh

Jana Mazurkiewicz is a scholar of Yiddish theater and founder of Yiddishland California in La Jolla. She joins Rabbi Zach Golden at Der Nister for an interview about her life and work in his capacity as Deputy Yiddish Editor at the Forward, for an upcoming article.

08-19
46:53

HINDCAST/FORECAST: How the YIVO Vilna Digitization Project Helps Us Grasp Our Present and Future

Director of the YIVO Archives Stefanie Halpern shares the harrowing journey of YIVO’s pre-war collections and the cutting-edge technologies used to digitize them, in conversation with Miri Koral (UCLA). This talk was co-sponsored by the Toronto UJA Committee for Yiddish, California Institute for Yiddish Language and Culture, and Der Nister.

05-22
01:13:42

The Astonishing History (and Future) of Yiddish In Universities

Professor Kalman Weiser (York University) talks with Miri Koral (UCLA) about Yiddish reaching the university and what it means for Yiddish. This talk was co-sponsored by the Toronto UJA Committee for Yiddish, California Institute for Yiddish Language and Culture, and Der Nister, and is the third of three in this series.

05-22
01:25:38

New and Old Theories About the Origins of Yiddish and the Origins of Ashkenazic Jews

Professor Kalman Weiser (York University) talks with Miri Koral (UCLA) about the theories of the origins of Yiddish and their political undertones. This talk was co-sponsored by the Toronto UJA Committee for Yiddish, California Institute for Yiddish Language and Culture, and Der Nister, and is the second of three in this series.

02-16
01:18:40

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