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Part of the 2026 High Holiday Webinar Series, Past and Presence: Encountering the High Holidays

With Cantor Rabbi Shoshi Levin Goldberg, Director, H.L. Miller Cantorial School, JTS

The High Holiday liturgy offers a rich tapestry of words handed down through generations, yet it also leaves room for something deeply personal: the prayers of our own hearts. In this session, Cantor Rabbi Shoshi Levin Goldberg, Director of the H. L. Miller Cantorial School, will explore the quiet prayer recited at the conclusion of the Amidah—a passage traditionally associated with the personal supplications of the sages—and consider what it teaches us about bringing our authentic selves into prayer. How did the rabbis weave their own hopes, fears, and longings into the liturgy, and what might that model offer us today? About the Series What does it mean to prepare and show up for the High Holidays in our own time? This three-part series explores how Jewish tradition has preserved, interpreted, and renewed the themes of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur through sacred objects, timeless texts, and personal prayer. Together, we’ll explore the objects that have carried Jewish tradition across centuries, engage with ancient texts with compassion and honesty, and reflect on how our own voices become part of the ongoing story of Jewish prayer and renewal.

About the Series

About the Series What does it mean to prepare and show up for the High Holidays in our own time? This three-part series explores how Jewish tradition has preserved, interpreted, and renewed the themes of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur through sacred objects, timeless texts, and personal prayer. Together, we’ll explore the objects that have carried Jewish tradition across centuries, engage with ancient texts with compassion and honesty, and reflect on how our own voices become part of the ongoing story of Jewish prayer and renewal.

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Part of the 2026 High Holiday Webinar Series, Past and Presence: Encountering the High Holidays

With Rabbi Naomi Kalish, Harold and Carole Wolfe Director of the Center for Pastoral Education; Assistant Professor of Pastoral Education, JTS

The High Holiday liturgy repeatedly calls us to confront fear while urging us toward hope, trust, and renewal. Yet for many, these texts can resonate in unexpected—and sometimes painful—ways.

In this session, Rabbi Naomi Kalish, Director of the Program in Spiritual Care and Counseling, JTS, will explore how the themes of fear and trauma surface throughout the High Holidays, with particular attention to the banishment of Hagar and Ishmael, the binding of Isaac, and the recurring language of the Psalms. Drawing on Jewish tradition, contemporary understandings of trauma, and the wisdom of chaplaincy, she will invite participants to consider how we can engage these sacred texts honestly and compassionately, creating space for reflection, healing, and spiritual growth.

About the Series

What does it mean to prepare and show up for the High Holidays in our own time? This three-part series explores how Jewish tradition has preserved, interpreted, and renewed the themes of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur through sacred objects, timeless texts, and personal prayer. Together, we’ll explore the objects that have carried Jewish tradition across centuries, engage with ancient texts with compassion and honesty, and reflect on how our own voices become part of the ongoing story of Jewish prayer and renewal.

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With Rabbi Marcus Mordecai Schwartz, Ripps Schnitzer Librarian for Special Collections; Assistant Professor, JTS

What can a medieval prayer book, one of the earliest printed Hebrew mahzorim, and a set of century-old baseball card sized boxing cards teach us about the High Holidays? These three remarkable objects from The JTS Library demonstrate how Jewish communities across the centuries have expressed themes of kingship, tradition, strength, repentance, and renewal. Through illuminated manuscripts, early Hebrew printing, and unexpected artifacts of American Jewish life, we’ll discover how material objects preserve memory, shape religious imagination, and offer fresh perspectives on the spiritual work of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  

Led by Rabbi Marcus Mordecai Schwartz, PhD, the Henry R. and Miriam Ripps Schnitzer Librarian for Special Collections of the JTS Library, this presentation will also highlight the new JTS Library website, “.”

About the Series

With Rabbi Marcus Mordecai Schwartz, Ripps Schnitzer Librarian for Special Collections; Assistant Professor, JTS

What can a medieval prayer book, one of the earliest printed Hebrew mahzorim, and a set of century-old baseball card sized boxing cards teach us about the High Holidays? These three remarkable objects from The JTS Library demonstrate how Jewish communities across the centuries have expressed themes of kingship, tradition, strength, repentance, and renewal. Through illuminated manuscripts, early Hebrew printing, and unexpected artifacts of American Jewish life, we’ll discover how material objects preserve memory, shape religious imagination, and offer fresh perspectives on the spiritual work of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  

Led by Rabbi Marcus Mordecai Schwartz, PhD, the Henry R. and Miriam Ripps Schnitzer Librarian for Special Collections of the JTS Library, this presentation will also highlight the new JTS Library website, “.”

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�¾��ٳ���Dr. Benjamin D. Sommer, Professor of Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages, JTS

The core of democracy as understood by the framers of the United States Constitution understood it was not just majority rule, but the separation of powers and the rule of law. They designed the American political system to ensure that what power does is distributed among several distinct bodies. Further, they saw to it that none of those bodies is the ultimate authority; instead, they are all subject to a basic law.

We usually associate this understanding good governance with political thinkers in the century prior to the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, especially John Locke and Baron de Montesquieu. But these ideas are not only Western ideas. They also appear in classical Jewish literature.

In this session, we will attend to the political philosophy of Sefer Devarim (the Book of Deuteronomy). When we read Deuteronomy in its own cultural context, we’ll see that it emphasizes precisely these two ideas: the diffusion of authority among several bodies of governing officials and the subordination of all these officials to the law. 

About the Series

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, the JTS Summer 2026 Learning Series will explore the rich and surprising intersections between Jewish thought and American life. From baseball and youth culture to constitutional law, storytelling, and democratic theory, leading scholars reveal how Jewish ideas, texts, and experiences have shaped—and been shaped by—the American experiment. 

Join ���ij�Ʒ this August for a special webinar series to help prepare for the Days of Awe. Through conversations with JTS scholars, we will explore themes that shape the High Holiday season, including fear and resilience, prayer and liturgy, and the enduring wisdom of Jewish texts and traditions. These sessions will offer fresh perspectives, thoughtful reflection, and practical insights to help deepen your experience of the High Holidays.

Featuring:

• Dr. Mordecai Schwartz
• Rabbi Naomi Kalish
• Cantor Shoshi Levin Goldberg

Thank you for joining us. Explore the JTS High Holiday Reader here.

Part of the series “America at 250: Jewish Ideas and the American Experiment”  

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With Dr. Arnold Eisen, Chancellor Emeritus; Professor of Jewish Thought, JTS, and 
E.J. Dionne, Journalist, Harriman Chair in American Governance, Brookings Institute

A frank and wide-ranging conversation between two admirers of these great religious leaders  about the fateful linkage of politics to prophecy in America from the “greatest generation” until our own day. Focusing on the intertwined legacies of Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Reinhold Niebuhr, the discussion will explore how their distinct approaches to prophecy, justice, and political responsibility continue to shape American public life. 

About the Series

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, the JTS Summer 2026 Learning Series will explore the rich and surprising intersections between Jewish thought and American life. From baseball and youth culture to constitutional law, storytelling, and democratic theory, leading scholars reveal how Jewish ideas, texts, and experiences have shaped—and been shaped by—the American experiment. 

Part of the series “America at 250: Jewish Ideas and the American Experiment”  

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With Rabbi Benjamin Resnick, Author of Next Stop, Rabbi Pelham Jewish Center, Rabbinical School Alum 

For decades, Jewish American literature was defined by giants like Roth, Bellow, Malamud, and Ozick, whose novels explored assimilation and the immigrant experience. But what defines Jewish American writing today? Author and JTS alum Rabbi Benjamin Resnick reflects on how the field has changed and asks whether the Jewish American novel still exists in the way readers once understood it. 

About the Series

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, the JTS Summer 2026 Learning Series will explore the rich and surprising intersections between Jewish thought and American life. From baseball and youth culture to constitutional law, storytelling, and democratic theory, leading scholars reveal how Jewish ideas, texts, and experiences have shaped—and been shaped by—the American experiment. 

Further Reading
Shalom Spiegel, Amos vs. Amaziah, reprinted in Judah Goldin. ed. The Jewish Expression (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976), pp. 39-65. (Amos vs. Amaziah  was originally published in 1958 by JTS as an independent small monograph).

Shira Billet, “Harry S. Truman’s Bible and Earl Warren’s Talmud: A Forgotten Story in the Encounter Between American Law and Jewish Studies,” Diné Israel: Studies in Halakha and Jewish Law, vol. 38 (2024), pp. 11-36.

With Dr. Shira Billet, Assistant Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics, JTS

In the decades after World War II, Jewish American legal thinkers began drawing on biblical and rabbinic stories to help explore fundamental questions of constitutional interpretation. The work of Robert Cover in the 1980s, first developed in the context of the Vietnam war, is the most famous and influential example. But lesser-known figures such as Edmund Cahn and JTS professor Shalom Spiegel began developing this discourse in the context of the postwar moment in 1950s America, and the civil rights movement that emerged in its wake.

Dr. Shira Billet examines how these figures, and others, brought Jewish narrative traditions into American law schools and legal thought, shaping new ways of thinking about law, interpretation, and the relationship between law and ethics. 

About the Series

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, the JTS Summer 2026 Learning Series will explore the rich and surprising intersections between Jewish thought and American life. From baseball and youth culture to constitutional law, storytelling, and democratic theory, leading scholars reveal how Jewish ideas, texts, and experiences have shaped—and been shaped by—the American experiment.