Rabbis, Academics, and Binaries

This week, the Katz Center welcomed a cohort of rabbis to begin a year-long collaboration. They are participating in the LEAP program, a partnership now in its fourth productive year with Clal, the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. This remarkable, interdenominational group will visit the Center three times this year and learn from a variety of fellows and colleagues to explore the depth of research being carried out in the area of our current fellowship theme, Jewish culture in modern Islamic contexts. 

Participating rabbis come from all over the country, and after each visit return to their congregations and constituencies to interpret and extend what they have learned. This session, featuring seminars with current fellow Yuval Evri, Penn professor (and shaper of the theme) Heather Sharkey, and Katz Center director Steven Weitzman, exploded any preconceived notions we may have had about Jewish history in the Near and Middle East, relations with Muslim neighbors there, and ripples of that history today.