Oxford University Chabad Society
MICHAELMAS TERMCARD 2020
Welcome to Oxford University Chabad Society Michaelmas Termcard '20! This term promises to be an exciting programme at the OU Chabad Society offering a wide variety of high profile and stimulating events, including world renowned speakers, delicious Friday night Shabbat dinners, stimulating classes, seminars and plenty of opportunities to meet other students and make new friends. Whether you’re looking for challenging discussions, classes in Judaism or a warm environment to hang out with friends, the Oxford University Chabad Society has something to offer everyone. Looking forward to meeting you over the coming term!
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Week 0
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We're delighted to invite you to join us with friends for a welcome (back)
Welcome Chill & Grill BBQ in the Sukkah
Join us for a delicious chill and grill BBQ in the Sukkah with live music by Matthew Faulk, a sumptuous range of meats, salads and plenty of drinks, while chilling with old and new friends, socially distanced at the Chabad House Sukkah.
Wed, 7 Oct, 7pm-10pm
At Chabad House Sukkah, 75 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1HR
All are welcome!
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Friday Night Shabbat and Shmini Atzeret (8th night of the Sukkot festival) Dinner
Delicious festival dinner with homemade challah, dips, traditional shabbat cuisine - chicken soup with kneidlach, plum sauce chicken and sumptuous desserts and drinks, l'chaim, followed by Hakafot - as celebrated also in Israel.
Friday, 9 October, 7pm
At Chabad House Sukkah, 75 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1HR
Click here to book.
All are welcome!
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Grand Simchat Torah Celebration
Join us for a socially distanced Simchat Torah celebration with a
buffet dinner with all the traditional Simchat Torah cuisine
* Hakafot (following Covid guidelines)
* L'chaim!
Saturday night, 10 Oct, 7pm - 10pm
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George Street, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
To book, click here .
Drinks kindly sponsored by David Abramson
All are welcome!
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Week 1
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Walking Tour of Medieval Jewish Oxford
Many of the historic sites in Oxford are connected with the Jewish medieval history in Oxford. Join this special walking tour and get to see the part of the little known Jewish medieval tunnels and quarter, the site of the medieval cemetery, synagogue, the oldest College that was bought from a Jewish property owner, and the route of the Jewish funeral processions (Dead Man's Walk).
Tues, 13 Oct, 11am-12pm
Meet at Botanic Garden
RSVP: [email protected]
All are welcome!
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Professor Joachim Behar
'Digital biomarkers for COVID-19 monitoring'
Joachim is heading the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Laboratory ( AIMLab.) at the Technion faculty of Biomedical Engineering in Israel. The lab focuses on the usage of AI in medicine within the context of physiological time series analysis with a specific focus in sleep medicine and fetal monitoring. Joachim is twice winner of the MIT-PhysioNet/Computing in Cardiology competition. He has authored and co-authored over 33 journal papers in leading engineering, physiology and medical journals and contributed many open access databases of physiological waveform and open source code (e.g. PhysioZoo, fecgsyn). He is editor for the journal Physiological Measurement and has been on the program committee of the Computing in Cardiology international conference since 2013. Joachim holds a PhD in biosignals processing and machine learning from the university of Oxford which was completed under the supervision of Prof. Gari D. Clifford and Dr. Julien Oster. Joachim holds a MEng from l'Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines de Saint-Etienne in France in General Engineering. He completed his postdoctoral study in computational physiology under Prof. Yael Yaniv at the Technion where he worked on mathematical modelling of sinoatrial node cells.
Tuesday, 13 October, 8pm
Lecture will be held via ZOOM
All are welcome!
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Friday Night Shabbat Dinner
Friday, 16 Oct, 7pm
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George Street, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
All welcome!
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Week 2
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Vice Chancellor of Oxford University
Professor Louise Richardson
'Oxford in 2020'
Professor Louise Richardson became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford on 1 January 2016, having previously served as Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of St Andrews, Scotland, for seven years. A political scientist by training, Professor Richardson received a BA in History from Trinity College Dublin in her native Ireland. She then studied in the USA, graduating with an MA in Political Science from UCLA, and subsequently an MA and PhD in Government from Harvard University. Professor Richardson’s research specialises in international security with a particular emphasis on terrorist movements. She has written widely on international terrorism, British foreign and defence policy, security institutions, and international relations. Her publications include Democracy and Counterterrorism: Lessons from the Past (2007), What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Enemy, Containing the Threat (2006), The Roots of Terrorism (2006), and When Allies Differ (1996).
Tuesday, 20 Oct, 6-7pm
Lecture will be held via ZOOM
All are welcome!
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CHINESE Friday Night Shabbat Dinner
Friday, 23 Oct, 7pm
At Slager Jewish student centre,
61 George Street, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
All are welcome!
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Week 3
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Jewish Treasures in Oxford
There are many rare, beautiful and scholarly valuable Hebrew and Jewish manuscripts in the Bodleian Library and the libraries of the colleges of the University of Oxford. What is less known is how these collections of manuscripts were originally assembled, who the collectors were and how their possessions ended up in the Bodleian and in Oxford. The stories behind the collectors and their collections are full of politics, religion, ambition and scholarly passions. This is a chance to see how a library of libraries combined to form one of the world’s richest collections of Hebrew manuscripts as brought to light in the Bodleian’s recently published Jewish Treasures from Oxford Libraries. This talk is supported by the Friends of the Bodleian.
Tues, 27 Oct, 1-2pm
https://visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/event/cesar-merchan-hamann-jewish-treasures-in-oxford
Bookings: [email protected]
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Hebrew Course for Beginners
Learn how to read, write and speak Hebrew at a beginner's level in just six weeks.
Qualified Hebrew teacher
Beginning Wed, 28 Oct, 5.30pm-7pm
Followed by 5 consecutive Wednesdays, 5.30pm
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
RSVP: [email protected]
All are welcome!
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Friday Night Shabbat Dinner
Friday, 30 Oct, 7pm
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
All are welcome!
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Week 4
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Professor of Medicine Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Professor Alan Jatkowitz
‘Jewish ethical approach to end of life care and triage during Covid’
Alan Jotkowitz graduated from Yeshiva University and received his M.D. from Yale School of Medicine. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital and prior to moving to Israel in 2001 was an attending physician and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Currently he is a Professor of Medicine, Director of the Jakobovits Center for Jewish Medical Ethics, Associate Director for Academic Affairs Medical School for International Health and Medicine, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and a Senior Physician at Soroka University Medical Center, both in Beer-Sheva, Israel. His main academic interest is in the field of medical ethics and has published more than a 100 peer reviewed papers in such prestigious journals as the American Journal of Medicine, The European Journal of Medicine, The Journal of Medical Ethics, The American Journal of Bioethics and others. He also serves as the Associate Editor of The European Journal of Internal Medicine.
Tues, 3 Nov, 8pm
Lecture will be held via ZOOM
All are welcome!
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Sephardic Cuisine Shabbat Dinner
Friday, 6 Nov 7pm
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
All are welcome!
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Week 5
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Nobel Prize Laureate Professor Robert Aumann
Robert John Aumann is an Israeli-American mathematician, who shared the 2005 Nobel Prize for Economics with Thomas C. Schelling, and a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences. Aumann’s primary contribution to economics involved the analysis of repeated noncooperative encounters, a subject in the mathematical discipline of game theory. He is a professor at the Center for the Study of Rationality in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel.
‘Modern Economic Theory in the Talmud’
Tues, 10 Nov, 8pm
Lecture will be held via ZOOM
All are welcome!
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Friday Night Shabbat Dinner
Friday, 13 Nov, 8pm
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
Click here to book.
All are welcome!
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Week 6
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Professor Shimon Glick MD
'Bioethics: historic roots and current directions'
Professor Shimon Glick was born in Brooklyn in 1932 and received his medical training in the United States, specializing in internal medicine and endocrinology. He immigrated to Israel in 1974 to become a founding member of the FOHS, as well as head of the Internal Medicine Department at Soroka Medical Center. He then became chair of Israel's first Internal Medicine Division. Professor Glick served as Dean of the FOHS between 1986 and 1990. During his tenure, he played a key role in formulating the admissions process for medical students - a process based not only on achievements but also the candidates’ character. Professor Glick headed the Prywes Center for Medical Education and the Jakobovits Center for Jewish Medical Ethics, two domains that were assigned a central role in the professional education of students in the Faculty. He was also instrumental in the instruction on doctor-patient communications for first year medical students. In addition, Professor Glick has served as ombudsman for Israel's Ministry of Health. He is widely recognized as an expert in medical ethics, with a particular focus on Jewish medical ethics, and is at the forefront of the efforts to bring a Jewish perspective to bear on the most important issues of modern bioethics.
Tues, 17 Nov, 8pm
The lecture will be held via Zoom
All are welcome!
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Friday Night Shabbat Dinner
Friday, 20 Nov, 7pm
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
Click here to book.
All are welcome!
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Week 7
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Seminar in Jewish Studies - Yom Limmud - 'Social Vision: A Spiritual Transformative Paradigm for the World'
Exploring Jewish philosophy, history, law and mysticism in the context of a new book (2019) by Philip Wexler and Eli Rubin outlining the Lubavitcher Rebbe's Transformative Paradigm for the World.
Sunday, 22 Nov, 1.30pm-5pm
Rabbi Eli Brackman, Oxford University Chabad Society
Dr. Naftali Loewenthal, University College London
Dr. Israel Sandman, University College London
Eli Rubin , University College London, co-author of 'Social Vision: A Spiritual Transformative Paradigm for the World'
More speakers to be confirmed
The seminar will be held via Zoom
All are welcome!
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Former President of Latvia
Dr. Vaira Vike-Freiberga
'Human Rights and Holocaust Memory'
Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga is a Latvian politician who served as the sixth President of Latvia from 1999 to 2007. She is the first woman to hold the post. Dr. Vike-Freiberga was born in 1937 in Riga, Latvia. In order to escape the Soviet occupation, her family fled the country in 1945 and became refugees. She began her schooling in refugee camps in Germany and continued in French Morocco. After arriving in Canada in 1954, she worked for a year in a bank, and then entered the University of Toronto, obtaining a B.A. (1958) and an M.A. (1960) in Psychology. Resuming her education at McGill University in Montreal, she earned a doctorate in experimental psychology in 1965. From 1965 to 1998 Dr. Vike-Freiberga pursued a professorial career at the Department of Psychology of the University of Montreal, writing seven books and about 160 articles, essays or book chapters. On returning to Latvia in 1998, Dr. Vike-Freiberga was appointed Director of the newly founded Latvian Institute, an organization devoted to promoting Latvian awareness abroad. A year later, in June 1999, she was elected President of Latvia. Since the end of her presidency, Dr. Vike-Freiberga has remained active in the international arena and continues to speak up in defence of liberty, equality and social justice. She was the only female candidate for the first President of the European Council and between 2008 and 2010 she was Vice Chair of the European Council’s Reflection Group on the Future of Europe 2020-2030. In 2009 Dr. Vike-Freiberga chaired the European Commission’s European Research Council Review Panel, and is currently a member of the Commission’s European Research Council Taskforce on the ERC’s Future. A Founding Member of the Club de Madrid, Dr. Vike-Freiberga was Mission Leader of the Club’s 2008 high-level mission to Uganda and its 2009 high-level mission to Colombia. She joined the Club de Madrid’s Assessment mission to Kyrgyzstan in 2010 and was a Member of the Club’s Taskforce on Political Leadership for Democratic Transition in Kyrgyzstan. Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga has been a Member of the Global Leadership Foundation since 2010.
Introduction by
Professor George Schwab
George D. Schwab is a Holocaust survivor from Latvia and founder and president of the non-partisan think tank National Committee on American Foreign Policy. For the past thirty seven years he has been the editor of American Foreign Policy Interests, and in 2001 the National Committee received a private endowment designed to honor the work of Professor Schwab which led to the creation of the George D. Schwab Foreign Policy Briefings. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Professor Schwab received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in May 1998. In 2002 he received the Order of the Three Stars, Latvia’s highest honor, in a ceremony held in Riga.
Tues, 24 Nov, 8pm
The seminar will be held via Zoom
All are welcome!
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THANKSGIVING Friday Night Shabbat Dinner
Friday, 27 Nov, 7.30pm
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
All are welcome!
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Week 8
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Dr. Ilana Tahan OBE
Lead Curator Hebrew and Christian Orient Collections - The British Library
'Hebrew Manuscripts at the British Library: Journeys of the Written Word'
Journey beyond the Bible to discover the history, culture and traditions of Jewish people from all corners of the world through the ages. Through rarely-seen treasures from as far back as the 10th century, this exhibition takes you from Europe and North Africa, through to the Middle East and China to explore the relationships between Jews and their neighbours in the communities that they lived in. How much knowledge and culture was exchanged between these groups? Fascinating works displayed on music, science and philosophy by famous Jewish scholars suggest there was more than we might think. Witness both the high points and the lows of these relationships. An Italian rabbi’s reply to Henry VIII, who sought advice on divorcing his first wife. A 13th-century Anglo-Jewish charter showing the passing of property between people of different faiths. And the signs of conflict as we encounter Christian censorship in Jewish texts. Along the way, meet the sages versed in magic, Kabbalah and alchemy, and even learn a love potion or two, as we discover the power of the written word.
Tues, 1 Dec, 8pm
The lecture will be held via Zoom
All are welcome!
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United Arab Emirates Rabbi Levi Duchman
At just 27 years old, Rabbi Levi Duchman is the Brooklyn-born rabbi, serving the Jewish community in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He has been instrumental in helping build a Jewish community in Dubai, which recently was able to emerge from its shadows. In a suburb of Dubai, local Jews have congregated in the small villa that serves as their synagogue on Shabbat and festivals. That remained a closely guarded secret until the recent historic normalization of relations between Israel and the UAE.
'The historic emergence of Jewish life in the UAE'
Date to be confirmed
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Chief Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar
Rabbi Berel Lazar was elected Chief Rabbi of Russia by the presidents of 87 Jewish communities in Russia and 26 Russia-based Rabbis in 2000. Since then, he has worked tirelessly to further Jewish causes in Russia and in the rest of the former Soviet Union. In January 2001, Rabbi Lazar was appointed to a Kremlin advisory panel composed of major religious leaders. As Chairman of the Rabbinical Alliance of the CIS, Rabbi Lazar represents more than 150 rabbis throughout the former Soviet Union and has also trained and posted numerous Russian-born Rabbis. As the foremost leader in rebuilding Jewish life in Russia, Rabbi Lazar was instrumental in founding the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS (FJC) which first took official shape in November 1999. Under the ministrations of Rabbi Lazar and the FJC’s President, Lev Leviev, the FJC has become the leading umbrella organization for furthering Jewish causes in the former Soviet Union. It has member communities in over 456 cities, 175 of which are in Russia alone.
Date to be confirmed
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End of Term Shabbat Dinner
Friday, 4 Dec, 7.30pm
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George Street, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
Click here to book.
All are welcome!
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CLASSES AND COURSES
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Sinai Scholars Course – ‘Think Jewish: Jewish Wisdom for Modern Life’
Explore the foundations of Judaism in 8 interactive sessions
Stipend offered by Sinai Scholars Society: $350 / £260
To apply: click here.
For more info, email [email protected]
The course covers the following topics: 1. Perspectives on Jewish Identity in the Modern World, 2. Foundational Elements of the Jewish Ethos, 3. Significance and Meaning of Jewish Observances, 4. An Oasis in Time: The Gift of Shabbat, 5. The Jewish secrets of Love and Marriage, 6. Jewish Ethics: Ancient System, Modern Applications, 7. An Overview of Jewish Mysticism, Kabbalah, and Chasidism, and 8. Forward Thinking: Examining Our Past to Forge Our Personal and Collective Future.
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Talmud Class
Join us to study subjects in Judaism's all-important 6th century legal work of the Talmud that shapes Jewish law and thought up until today.
Every Sunday, 7pm
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George Street, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
All are welcome!
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Lunch 'n' Learn
Join us for a weekly delicious Lunch & Learn on a variety of contemporary stimulating topics in ethics and philosophy.
Every Monday, 1pm
Brasenose College, Platnauer Room
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Lunch & Learn at Brookes University
Every Wednesday, 12pm
The Forum
RSVP: [email protected]
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Pizza and Parsha
Join us for an in-depth study of the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Eli while enjoying some delicious fresh home-baked Pizza.
Wednesdays, 7pm
At Chabad House, 75 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1HR
All are welcome!
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Hebrew for Beginners Course
Qualified Hebrew teacher Nitzan Winograd
Thursday, 28 Oct, 5.30-7pm
For 6 consecutive weeks
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
Course: £36 for the course / non students £40
Booking: [email protected]
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The Tajtelbaum Jewish Study Hall
The Tajtelbaum Jewish Study Hall is open daily for you to study with a fully stocked Judaica library, wireless internet and FREE coffee and refreshments on offer.
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
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Oxford Kosher Cafe
Enjoy a full menu of delicious Kosher food, which is situated in our spacious lounge with internet wireless connection, Wii, Jewish newspaper and satellite TV, in addition to our well stocked and diverse Judaica library with over 2000 interesting titles. Drop by for soups, deluxe sandwiches, bagels, salads, schnitzel, soft drinks and a range of delicious pastries.
OPEN daily: 12.30pm-2pm
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
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Sign Up
If you or a friend would like to sign up to the Chabad Society, please email:
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Oxford Chabad Society Committee
Michelle Rapoport (University) - President, Uri Shine (University) - Treasurer, Isabella Heinmann (St Hildas) - Secretary, Jozef Kosc (Green Templeton), Marthe Goudsmit (Law), Avi Blumgart (St John's), Jonathan Sheinman (Queens), Dario Val Nure (Brookes).
Senior Member: Prof. Abigail Green (Brasenose)
To join the committee, email: [email protected]
Directors
Rabbi Eli & Freidy Brackman
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Looking forward to seeing you soon!
Www.oxfordchabad.org