Oxford University Chabad Society
MICHAELMAS TERM CARD 2026
Welcome to Oxford University Chabad Society Michaelmas Termcard '26! 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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Weekly Friday Night Shabbat Dinner
Every Friday, at 7.30pm
Kabbalat Shabbat Service, followed by dinner
At Slager Jewish Student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
All are welcome!
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Weekly Shabbat Lunch
Every Saturday, 1.30pm
At Chabad House, 75 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1HR
RSVP: [email protected]
All are welcome!
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Week 1
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Professor Alan Dershowitz
'Why has the hard left focused on the Palestinian cause, to the exclusion of others?'
Alan Dershowitz is one of America’s most prominent and controversial lawyers, who has defended clients including O.J. Simpson, Julian Assange and Donald Trump. The youngest professor in Harvard Law School’s history, he taught there for five decades and is now the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Emeritus.
Tuesday, 13 Oct, 8pm
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
All are welcome!
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Week 2
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Professor Seamus Perry
"W.H. Auden and Jewishness'
My interests are in the fields of English Romantic poetry and thought, especially Coleridge and Wordsworth, and in post-Romantic English poetry, especially Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, Eliot, Auden, Larkin, and their circles. I am interested in the relationship between political thought and poetry in the nineteenth century which has borne fruit in an edition of the poetry and prose of Matthew Arnold for Oxford University Press (2020). I also have an interest in the modern history of criticism, reflected in articles on A.C. Bradley, F.W. Bateson, and M.H. Abrams, and an edition of Empson's Some Versions of Pastoral (2020). I am co-editor, with Christopher Ricks and Freya Johnston, of the journal Essays in Criticism: A Quarterly Journal of Literary Criticism (OUP), the general editor of the Oxford edition of the works of William Empson, and also the general editor of the series, 21st-Century Oxford Authors. I write for the London Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, and the Literary Review, and elsewhere; and I am a contributor, with Mark Ford, to the LRB podcast series Close Readings. I am Fellow Librarian of Balliol College, where I am also Fellow for Charity Matters. I am currently working on an intellectual biography of W.H Auden for Bloomsbury, and a volume of essays about poetry for Princeton University Press entitled Turning Verses.
Date to be confirmed.
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Robert Hannigan CMG
Warden of Wadham College, University of Oxford
Robert is a cyber security specialist who spent much of his career in government service. He was Director, GCHQ, the UK’s largest intelligence and cyber agency, and established the National Cyber Security Centre. Previously he was the Prime Minister’s Security Adviser, and Tony Blair’s principal civil service adviser on the Northern Ireland peace process, on which he worked for many years. Robert is a Senior Fellow of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard, a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, and Distinguished Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute. He was awarded the US National Intelligence Distinguished Public Service Medal and was made CMG by Queen Elizabeth.
Friday, 23 October, 7.30pm
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
All are welcome!
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Week 3
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Israeli elections event / lecture
Award-winning author Yoav Avni
‘Time Clocks: A Time-Travel Novel About the Present’
Yoav Avni is an award-winning Israeli novelist whose fiction blends speculative ideas, humour, mystery and the uncanny with an interest in ordinary human lives. He is the author of nine books, a two-time winner of the Geffen Award for Best Israeli Speculative Novel, and the author of the national bestseller Three Things for a Desert Island. His novel Time Clocks, a story of time travel, memory, AI and learning to be present, is published in English by Roundfire Books in September 2026. Crossing a River Twice will follow from Roundfire Books in 2027. Avni's work moves between literary fiction, speculative fiction and magical realism, often using the fantastic as a way of looking more closely at memory, identity, relationships and the systems people build around themselves.
Tuesday, 27 Oct, 8pm
Reception 7pm
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
All are welcome!
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The Rector of Exeter College
Dr. Andrew Roe
Much of my professional career has been centred on the defence and security sector, with a particular focus, during recent years, on higher education management. In a wide-ranging 33-year career, I have been privileged to lead at multiple levels, often under challenging conditions, dealing with pressing, fast-paced and complex issues, and worked in Kenya, Oman, Northern Ireland, Germany, Bosnia-Herzegovina, USA, Cyprus, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Friday, 30 Oct, 7.30pm
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 Norman Lipman
'The Future of the World's Energy'
Past Head of SERC’s Energy Research Centre, Secretary of the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) for it's first 10 years, where he served also as Vice-President, and former Chairman of British Wind Energy Association (BWEA).
Date to be confirmed
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Ancient Jewish Coin Handling Session
Dr. Volker Heuchert
Volker Heuchert is curator of Greek and Roman Provincial Coins, Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford
Coins on display will include from the period of John Hyrcinus I (Yochanan Kohen Gadol), Late Hellenistic / early Roman Provincial Jewish coins, coins from the two Jewish Wars and Roman Imperial coins relating to the Jews e.g. Nerva abolishing the Fiscus Judaicus of Vespasian and his sons celebrating victory in the First Jewish War. In addition, a Persian (gold) Daric will be displayed, as relevant to the Jewish holiday of Purim.
At the Coin Study Room, Ashmolean Museum
Meet at entrance to Ashmolean Museum
Date to be confirmed.
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Week 5
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Professor Richard Susskind
Professor Richard Susskind CBE KC (Hon) is the world’s most cited author on the future of legal services and a leading expert on the impact of AI on society. He is President of the Society for Computers and Law and, from 1998 to 2023, he served as Technology Adviser to the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales. In 2024, Richard was appointed Special Envoy for Justice and AI to the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth. Richard specialises in three fields – in the future of professional services, in the future of courts and dispute resolution, and in the impact of AI on society, business, and humanity. He advises leading professional firms, in-house legal departments, and governments and judiciaries around the world. In the 1980s, he wrote his doctorate on AI and the law at Balliol College, Oxford. Richard’s work has been translated into 18 languages and he has been invited to speak in over 60 countries. He has written eleven books, including The Future of Law (1996), Tomorrow’s Lawyers (2013, 2017, 2023), The Future of the Professions (with D Susskind, 2015, 2022), Online Courts and the Future of Justice (2019, 2021) and How to Think About AI (2025). He has also contributed more than 150 columns to The Times. In 2000, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Her Majesty the Queen. In 2023, Richard was appointed an Honorary King’s Counsel. He was promoted to CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the King's New Year Honours List 2025.
Date to be confirmed
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
All are welcome!
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Week 6
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Kate Thompson
Kate Thompson is a Top Ten Sunday Times and internationally bestselling author, journalist and social historian. She has dedicated her work to unearthing lost voices and untold social histories. Kate has written 15 books for the Big Five publishers, 4 of which have been Top Ten Sunday Times bestsellers, as well as making the bestseller lists in Spain, Australia, Canada and South Africa. Uncovering hidden stories is at the heart of everything she writes and Kate employs assiduous research to bring these stories to life. Her 2018 narrative non-fiction, The Stepney Doorstep Society – about the secret matriarchal societies of wartime East London published by Penguin (Michael Joseph) – was critically acclaimed and led to her being invited to deliver a lecture to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington. Kate’s 2022 novel based on the true story of a forgotten underground library, The Little Wartime Library, uncovered through years of interviews with working-class wartime women, helped to reverse the decision to close Bethnal Green Library in its centenary year. The discovery of a Holocaust survivor’s father’s grave after 80 years gave an emotional depth to A Mother’s Promise, which Bel Mooney described in the Mail on Sunday as ‘an excellent, beautifully written historical narrative’.
Date to be confirmed
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
All are welcome!
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Week 7
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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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Pre Chanukah - Seminar in Jewish Studies - Yom Limmud
Exploring Jewish philosophy, history, law and mysticism
Sunday, 29 Nov, 12-5pm
If you wish to present a topic for 20 min on the subject of your choice, please email: [email protected]
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
All are welcome!
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Chanukah Shabbat Dinner
Friday, 4 Dec, 7.30pm
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
All are welcome!
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GRAND 12ft MENORAH LIGHTING @ Broad St, Oxford
The Lord Mayor of Oxford
* Light & Fire Show * Doughnuts * Latkes * Hot chocolate * Music
Sunday, 6 December, 5pm
At Broad St, Oxford
All are welcome!
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Followed by Chanukah party @ Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
The lighting of the Menorah is supported by Oxford City Council and dedicated to the memory of the late Oxford City Councillor and Fellow of Balliol College, Dr. Mike Woodin, who was instrumental in establishing this tradition at Oxford.
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CLASSES AND COURSES
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Jewish Philosophy Course
Dr. Israel Sandman
'An introduction to Hasidic thought: the quest of the "Wise Child"'
Using primary texts in English translation, we shall explore several moments in the Jewish development of the intertwined conceptions of G‑d, the human, the world, and the purpose of our existence. We shall begin with various medieval synthesis of biblical and Greek philosophical conceptions, then consider their relation to Kabbalah and Hasidism. Background texts include short selections from the Hebrew Bible (Genesis, Isaiah, Chronicles, Proverbs, and Job), Greek philosophical sources (including Plato's Timaeus, Aristotle's De Anima and Metaphysics, Plotinus' Enneads), and Persian / Arabic Islamic philosophers (Al-Farabi and Avicenna). The Jewish philosophers upon whom we shall focus include, in addition to Moses Maimonides (Aristotelianism with Neoplatonism), Solomon Ibn Gabirol and Judah Ha-Levi (Neoplatonism), Levi Gersonides (Aristotelianism), and Hasdai Crescas (philosophical critique of philosophy). The works of Kabbalah from which we shall examine short selections include the Zoharic literature, and the writings of Meir Ibn Gabbai, Moses Cordovero, and Isaac Luria (as recorded by disciples). As far as Ḥasidic sources, in addition to select teachings of the Baal Shem Tov, the Maggid of Mezritch, and ḤaBaD (= Chabad) works, we shall look at teachings of Rabbi Levi Isaac of Berditchev and Rabbi Naḥman of Breslov.
Dates of the course: Thursdays, 5.30pm
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
All are welcome!
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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
Platnauer Room, Brasenose College
All welcome!
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Lunch & Learn at Brookes University
Every Wednesday, 12pm
The Forum
RSVP: [email protected]
All welcome!
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Parsha class
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 and on ZOOM
All are welcome!
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Hebrew for Beginners Course
For 6 consecutive weeks
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
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 (Monday-Thursday): 12pm-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 2026-7
Solomon Summer (Exeter) - President, Grace Steinberg (LMH), Omer Kazarnovsky (Brookes - President), Boruch Hadari (Magdalen), Marshall Gould (Genomics), Carli Cooperstein (Corpus), Alexandre Bismuth (St Annes), Hannah Brosh (St Annes), Emanuel Bor (St Peter's), Jordan Rothschild, Max Pushkin (Trinity), Roy Rosman (St Hugh's), Luc Cazanave, Kyle Geinstein.
Senior Member: Dr. Nir Vulkan (Worcester)
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