Oxford University Chabad Society Lectures 2020-21

Seminar of 13 lectures on the teachings of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks & Chanukah

In honour of the first anniversary of his passing

At Oxford University Chabad Society

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Dr. Volker Heuchert

'Ancient Jewish coins viewing at the Ashmolean Museum'

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Egyptologist Raphael Epand

' Understanding the Biblical Narrative of the Jews in Ancient Egypt'

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Professor Ritchie Robertson

'The German-Jewish Dialogue: Mendelssohn, Heine, Schnitzler'

Introduction by Jules Samson

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Professor Roger Griffin

'Maxing out your credit? The Mosleys (and Oxford’s beautiful laundrette)'

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Dr. Daniel M. Herskowitz

'New Perspectives on the Jewish Reception of Martin Heidegger'

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Professor Peter (P.M.S.) Hacker

'Reflections on good and evil'

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Dr. Kim Treiger Bar-Am

'Freedom and Respect in Jewish Ethics'

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Dr. Jaclyn Granick

'International Jewish Humanitarianism in the Age of the Great War'

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Prof. Tova Forti

“Beware! Of making many books there is no end” (Qohelet 12:12): From the Workshop of a Commentator’

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Prof. Alison Salvesen

'Vanity of vanities and flies in the ointment: what’s the point of Qohelet?'

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Professor Shalom Sabar

'Rembrandt, the Bible and Hebrew Script'

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	Sir Walter Bodmer 'What happened to a young refugee from Nazi Germany?' Click here to view the lecture.
	Dr. Naftali Loewenthal 'Rosh Hashana, The Land of Israel and the World in Habad Hasidic Thought' Click here to view the lecture (chabad.org). * 'Exploring a Chassidic Discourse on the Meaning of the Shofar' Click here to view the lecture. * ‘The concept of Torah from Heaven’ Click here to view the lecture. * ‘Leaving Egypt Every Day-A Classic Chabad Teaching’ Click here to view the lecture. * ‘1000 years of Jewish history in one hour’ Click here to view the lecture. * 'Chabad and the Essence of Socialism' Click here to view the lecture. * 'Purim and Reaching for the Infinite' Click here to view the lecture. *** ' When Israel said we will do before we will hear, 1912'
	Professor Lawrence Schiffman 'Jewish Religious Life in England on the Eve of the Expulsion' Click here to view the lecture. *** 'Between the Particular and the Universal: The Rebbe and the Non-Jew' Click here to view the lecture.
	Edward Biddulph 'Finding Oxford's Medieval Jewry' Click here to view the lecture.
	Dr. Israel Sandman 'Two Faces of Man and their Integration' Click here to view the lecture (chabad.org). * 'Receptivity to the Infinite' Click here to view the lecture. * ‘Embracing the Challenge of “Jewish Carnality”’ Click here to view the lecture. * ‘The fence around Mount Sinai: An invitation?’ Click here to view the lecture. * ‘Individuality and Oneness’ Click here to view the lecture. * 'The Forward-Looking Theology of Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson' Click here to view the lecture. * 'Three Modes of Leadership' Click here to view the lecture.
	Prof. Hindy Najman ‘The poetics of the book of Ruth and the Ethics of Supererogation - Lifnim Meshurat Haddin’ Click here to view the lecture. *** 'The Importance of Writing in the Book of Esther' Click here to view the lecture.
	Pammy Brenner 'The story of U'nesaneh Tokef' Click here to view the lecture (chabad.org). * 'Shavuot as Chag HaBikkurim Festival of the First Fruits’ Click here to view the lecture. ‘Haggadah in Yiddish Translation’ Click here to view the lecture.
	Prof. Joshua Getzler 'Naomi's Enigmatic Silence Click here to view the lecture. *** 'Regime change and the Torah' Click here to view the lecture.
	David Frisch 'Ecclesiastes and Human Freedom' Click here to view the lecture. *** ‘Obeying a Statement: What Makes the First Commandment a Commandment’ Click here to view the lecture.
	Rabbi Eli Brackman 'As the Hart that panteth after the water brooks (Psalm 42:1): Jewish New Year reflections on an Oxford college coat of arms' Click here to view the lecture. * 'Rashi on the Book of Ruth in the super-commentary of Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson' Click here to view the lecture. * 'Maimonides’ Manuscript Huntington 80' Click here to view the lecture. * ‘Rashi on the Haggadah in the supercommentary of Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson’ Click here to view the lecture. * ‘Rosh Hashana in Medieval England’ Click here to view the lecture. * ‘Remembering the Exodus daily according to Hebrew manuscripts at Oxford and the British Library’ Click here to view the lecture. * 'Maimonides on Equality and the Problem of Expensive Tastes' Click here to view the lecture. *** 'Rashi's Commentary on Esther in the Supercommentary of Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson' Click here to view the lecture.
	Dr. Peter Bergamin 'Abba Ahimeir and his singular conception of Jewish history' Click here to view the lecture.
	Dr. Ros Abramsky 'Not calling a spade a spade: the power of allusion' Click here to view the lecture. * ‘The body in question’ Click here to view the lecture. * ‘Strait is the Gate’ Click here to view the lecture. * 'Hiding the Light' Click here to view the lecture. * 'Justified misbehaviour' Click here to view the lecture.
	Meir Wachs ‘Chad Gadya: its origins and interpretations’ Click here to view the lecture. * Tikkun Leil Shavuot Click here to view the lecture. * ‘Purim or Yom Kipurim?’ Click here to view the lecture. *** ‘Importance of the last week of the year’ Click here to view the lecture.
	Dr. Akiva Bogdanov ‘How the laws of korban Pesach are related to the laws of the seder in its present form’ Click here to view the lecture.
	Brian Deutsch ‘The role of women in Passover’ Click here to view the lecture. *** ‘The Day of Atonement does not excuse sins against your fellow beings’ Click here to view the lecture.
	Irvin Ungar ‘Arthur Szyk and the Art of the Haggadah’ Click here to view the lecture.
	Dr. Gabriel Sapir ‘What we didn’t see at Sinai’ Click here to view the lecture.
	Professor Lewis Glinert Click here to view the lecture.
	Prof. Lawrence Kaplan ‘Image of King David in Maimonides’ Click here to view the lecture.
	Professor William Beinart ‘Cecil Rhodes’ Legacy & Implications for Oxford’ Click here to view the lecture.
	Michael Kushner ‘Bletchley Park & The Jewish Contribution' Click here to view the lecture.
	Ruth Bourne 'Codebreaker at Bletchley Park' Click here to view the lecture.
	Rabbi Mendy Chitrik 'Jewish History of Turkey' Click here to view the lecture.
	Rebecca Blumenfeld 'Akdamot: A prayer of inclusion at a time of exclusion’ Click here to view the lecture.
	Zara Bamberg 'Working in a Covid ICU ward' Click here to view the lecture.
	Daniel Kolsky ‘Between Shavuot & Purim: Coercion & free will’ Click here to view the lecture.
	Prof. Benjamin Sommer ‘What Does It Mean That G‑d Speaks: A Close Look at an Important verse at Numbers 7:89’ Click here to view the lecture.
	Avi Blumgart 'The power of repentance' Click here to view the lecture. * ‘Shavuot: The Day an Entire Nation Overslept for their Wedding’ Click here to view the lecture. * ‘Book of Ruth: Goliath & his mother go into therapy’ Click here to view the lecture. *** 'Why Purim Will Last Forever' Click here to view the lecture.
	Israeli Archeologist Yosef Stepansky ‘History of Meron in the Upper Galilee, in Israel: why does it attract 2 million people a year?’ Click here to view the lecture.
	Prof. Robert Aumann ‘Modern economic theory in the Talmud' Click here to view the lecture.
	Dr. Hallel Baitner ‘The Haggadah: Between the Exodus and the Paschal Sacrifice’ Click here to view the lecture.
	Dr. Kinga Devenyi ‘The Kaufmann Hebraica collection of Budapest- The 14th c. Kaufmann Haggadah’ Click here to view the lecture.
	Dr. Paul Mandel ‘The seder night according to early Mishnah manuscripts’ Click here to view the lecture.
	Professor Karen Lang ‘Holocaust Memory and American Experience in the Art of Philip Guston’ Click here to view the lecture. Launch of new collection of books on Jewish Art at the Samson Judaica Library
	Professor Jon Levenson ‘Is G‑d mentioned in the Megillah?’ Click here to view the lecture.
	Dr. Jamie Metzl ‘Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity’ Click here to view the lecture.
	Prof. Robert Klitzman ‘Designing Babies: How Technology is Changing the Ways We Create Children’ Click here to view the lecture.
	Daisy Abboudi ‘Tales of Jewish Sudan’ Click here to view the lecture.
	Professor Don Seeman ‘The Religious Renaissance of Ethiopian Jewry’ Click here to view the lecture.
	Holocaust Survivor Mindu Hornick MBE Click here to view the lecture.
	Matthew Faulk Yiddish Songs Click here to view the presentation.
	Rabbi Dr. Shimon Cowen 'Rosh Hashana: A holiday for the whole humanity’ Click here to view the lecture.
	Rabbi Naftali Rothenberg ‘The essence of Teshuva: to appreciate every human being’ Click here to view the lecture.
	Professor Ora Schwartzwald ‘The functions of rosh (head) and its uses in Hebrew’ Click here to view the lecture.
	Rabbi Francis Nataf ‘The Rebuke of Simplicity’ Click here to view the lecture.
	Prof. Sacha Stern 'The timing of Shabbat: Individual, Communal, and Universal' Click here to view the lecture.
	Prof David Katz ‘Organ donation & Jewish ethics’ Click here to view the lecture.
	Norman Lebrecht ‘Genius & Anxiety: How Jews changed the world 1847 - 1947’ Click here to view the lecture.
	Dr. Ben Outhwaite 'The Cairo Genizah - A thousand years of Jewish history' Click here to view the lecture.
	Dame Margaret Hodge MP 'Being Jewish in the Labour Party' Click here to view the lecture.
	Holocaust Survivor Kenneth Appel Click here to view the lecture.
	Prof. Catherine Green ‘Coronavirus Vaccine Research at the University of Oxford’ Click here to view the lecture.
	Dr. Netanel Dagan 'Do Prisoners Deserve Visits and Furloughs?' Click here to view the lecture.
	Professor Paul Franks 'Tzimtzum as the Ground for Fichte's Account of Justice' Click here to view the lecture.
	Prof. Chaim I Waxman 'Chabad's American Era: Modern People in Hasidic Garb?' Click here to view the lecture.
	Eli Rubin 'The Hasidic Ethos as an Alternative Social Paradigm' Click here to view the lecture.
	Prof. Frances Stewart 'Why Worry About Horizontal Inequalities and What To Do About Them?' Click here to view the lecture.
	Perl Grunzweig Memorial Lecture Natan Sharansky 'Never alone' In conversation with Rabbi Eli Brackman and Prof. Gil Troy Click here to view the lecture.
	Isaac Meyers Memorial Lecture Professor Oded Borowski '"Man Does Not Live by Bread Alone": Biblical Archaeology and Daily Life in Biblical Times' Click here to view the lecture.

Dr. Christophe Stener

'The Book of Esther: A Religious & Political Exegesis Through Pictures'

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Professor Adele Berlin

'Comedy in Esther'

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Vice Chancellor, Prof. Louise Richardson

'Oxford in 2020'

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	Prof. Shimon Glick 'Jewish Medical Ethics: historic roots & current directions' Click here to view the lecture.
	Prof. George Schwab Latvian Holocaust Survivor Click here to view the lecture.
	Former President of Latvia, Dr. Vaira Vike-Freiberga Schwab 'Holocaust memory, memory of wrongs and suffering and the paths to reconciliation' Click here to view the lecture.
	Prof. Alan Jotkowitz ‘Jewish ethical approach to end of life care and triage during Covid’ Click here to view the lecture.

Evy Cohen

Granddaughter of Haimki and Rachel Cohen, who were rescued during the Holocaust by Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh’s mother, Princess Alice of Greece.

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