Pardes Live and Mini-Series

In the final part of his lecture series on Jews and American Politics: From Outsiders to Insiders, Professor Jonathan D. Sarna discussed The FDR Coalition: How Jews became Democrats and whether that is what they will remain.

The American Jewish community threw its political weight behind Franklin D. Roosevelt four different times between 1932 and 1944, with majorities that reached 90 percent. This established a pattern of Jewish support for Democratic candidates that has endured (with ups and downs) to the present day. Will the Jewish vote remain important? Will Jews continue to vote overwhelmingly for Democrats? We will draw lessons from recent elections.

This lecture was held for the inaugural Sidney and Miriam Brettler Memorial Series 5777, sponsored by their children.

Click here for the other parts in this series.

In part 3 of his lecture series on Jews and American Politics: From Outsiders to Insiders, Professor Jonathan D. Sarna discussed Teddy Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson: Jewish Politics Enters the Mainstream. The early twentieth century witnessed the rapid growth of America’s Jewish population and the emergence of political issues, such as immigration restriction and US policy toward Russia, that shaped Jewish voting patterns more than ever before. As ethnic politics became normative in America, politicians on both sides of the political spectrum came to court Jewish voters. The “Jewish vote” became a factor of growing importance in American politics, with implications both for Jews and for America.

This lecture was held for the inaugural Sidney and Miriam Brettler Memorial Series 5777, sponsored by their children.

Click here for the other parts in this series.

In part 2 of his lecture series on Jews and American Politics: From Outsiders to Insiders, Professor Jonathan D. Sarna discussed Ulysses S. Grant and the election of 1868. On December 17, 1862, as the Civil War entered its second winter, General Ulysses S. Grant issued a sweeping order, General Orders #11, expelling “Jews as a class” from his war zone. The order came back to haunt Grant in 1868 when he ran for president. Never before had Jews been so widely noticed in a presidential contest, and never before had they been confronted so publicly with the question of how to balance their “American” and “Jewish” interests. The debate over whether to vote for a party that one considered bad for America just to avoid voting for a man who had been bad to the Jews raised complex questions that would arise time and again in American presidential contests, down to contemporary times.

This lecture was held for the inaugural Sidney and Miriam Brettler Memorial Series 5777, sponsored by their children.

Click here for other parts in this series.

Pardes was honored to host Professor Jonathan D. Sarna who began the first lecture in his 4-part series on Jews and American Politics, focusing on Abraham Lincoln and the Jewish Vote. The first US President who actively sought to attract support from Jewish voters was none other than Abraham Lincoln. Using recently discovered documents, this live podcast shows how he did so, why he did so, how Jews responded both publicly and privately, and what his campaign revealed about Civil War era politics and the Jews of that time.

This lecture was held for the inaugural Sidney and Miriam Brettler Memorial Series 5777, sponsored by their children. The live podcast is preceded by an introduction from Dena Ordan, their daughter.

Click here for other episodes in this series.

Hear Yossi Klein Halevi discuss “The Vision and the Reality,” what has happened to the dream and vision of Israel prior to 1967 and does our contemporary reality live up to those dreams.

Klein Halevi’s celebrated book, “Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation” follows the compelling life-stories of seven paratroopers who liberated the Kotel. Through their biographies, he examines the privatization of Israel’s national economy, Messianic Religious Zionism, The crumbling of the Kibbutz movement, the music of Meir Ariel, and many other facets of Israel’s developing society. “Like Dreamers” has become essential reading to understand the transitions and ideologies of modern Israel.

In the final part of this 4-part series given at Pardes Jerusalem, Gila Fine discusses The Ministering Women’s Mirrors: What makes the Bible so afraid of love? Why does Moses seek to punish to ministering women? And how do bronze mirrors come to save the Jewish People? A reading of Midrash Tanhuma, Pekudei 9, through Ovid and Maharal, the Brothers Grimm and Jacques Lacan, George Orwell and Erich Fromm.

Click here for part 1 in this series – Rebbe’s Jar

Click here for part 2 in this series – R. Yehoshua b. Levi’s Knife

Click here for part 3 in this series –  R. Meir’s Candle

Michael Hattin gives a personal account of his friend, neighbor and fellow educator Yaacov Don who was murdered alongside American teen Ezra Schwartz and a Palestinian from Hebron, Shadi Arafa, in a terrorist attack in Gush Etzion on Thursday, November 19, 2015.

In this special Yom Yerushalyim class held at Pardes, David Bernstein brings us back to the Spring of 1967.

This is the interview of Yossi Klein HaLevi from February 2014 at Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem.