Oxford University Chabad Society
SUMMER TERMCARD 2025
Welcome to Oxford University Chabad Society Summer Termcard '25! 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 and lunch weekly, 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
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Weekly Friday Night SHABBAT DINNER & LUNCH
Oxford Chabad is delighted to offer Jewish students and community weekly delicious Shabbat Dinners and Lunch every Shabbat throughout the year
Friday Night Shabbat dinner
Every Friday, Kabbalat Shabbat service at 7.30pm, Shabbat dinner at 8pm
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
Shabbat Lunch at 1.30pm
At Chabad House, 75 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1HR
All are welcome!
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Week 0
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Holocaust Remembrance Day
Professor Paul Weindling
'Nazi research on brains taken from Polish Jews (and others), and postwar issues 1945-2026'
Candle lighting, followed by lecture
Paul Weindling is Professor of the History of Medicine at Oxford Brookes University and formally part of the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine at the University of Oxford. He was from 1999-2004 a member of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft President’s Committee for the History of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft under National Socialism, and was on the Advisory Boards of the AHRC project on German-Jewish refugees, and on the history of the Robert Koch-Institute. He is currently on the advisory board of the project of the German Society for Psychiatry project on psychiatrists in Nazi Germany, and a member of the project on the history of the German Foundation for Memory, Responsibility and the Future.
Thursday (week 0), 24 April, 8pm
Buffet reception 7pm
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George Street, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/
Meeting ID: 882 2888 5679
Passcode: 461121
All are welcome!
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Week 1
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Friday Night Shabbat Dinner
The Rt Hon. Member of Parliament Anneliese Dodds
Hosted together with the Oxford Israel Society
Anneliese J. Dodds is a British Labour and Co-operative politician and public policy analyst who served as Minister of State for Development and Minister of State for Women and Equalities from July 2024 to February 2025. She previously served as Chair of the Labour Party from 2021 to 2024. She was Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from April 2020 to May 2021, the first woman to hold the position, and Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities from 2021 to 2024. She has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Oxford East since 2017 and was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South East England from 2014 to 2017.
Friday, 2 May, 7.30pm
At the Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
RSVP: click here.
All are welcome!
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Week 2
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Walking Tour of Medieval Jewish Oxford
Visit the site of the first and second medieval Jewish cemeteries on the site of Magdalen College and Botanic Garden, Jewish history of Dead Man's Walk, Copin of Worcester's synagogue on the site of Christ Church, house of Moses of Oxford (part of Pembroke College), home of David of Oxford (Town Hall), the first Oxford college, bought from a Jewish landowner (Merton College), the home of Moses of Walllingford and his son Deulecresse (Keperham Lane), England's first Coffee House opened by Jacob the Jew, the site of the burning of a Deacon who converted to Judaism in 1222 (Osney Abbey), amongst other fascinating sites of Jewish heritage.
Sunday, 4 May, 12-2pm
Meet at Botanic Garden
RSVP: [email protected]
All welcome!
Inscription: 'Near this stone in Osney Abbey, Robert of Reading, otherwise Haggai of Oxford, suffered for his (Jewish) faith on Sunday 17 April 1222 AD, corresponding to 4 IYYAR 4982 AM'
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Professor Golda Akhiezer
'Hebrew medieval manuscripts: Historical overview'
Golda Akhiezer is currently a member of the academic staff of the Department of Jewish History at Ariel University and the director of the Center for Research on Jewish Communities of the Caucasus and Central Asia at the same institution. The primary focus of her research is Jewish historical thought, Jewish-Christian and Karaite-Rabbanite polemics and the study of Jewish manuscripts. She earned her PhD in Jewish History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with a dissertation on Karaite historical thought (2008), after which she attended post-doctoral studies at Boston University. Her academic career began with involvement in research at the Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East. Subsequently, she held a teaching position at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The theme of her project at the OCHJS (Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies) is ‘Jewish intellectual life in the Black Sea region – history and textual exchanges’. This research aims to provide a reconstructed account of the intellectual life of Jewish communities in that area, focusing on the 14 th to early 16 th centuries and such locales as Byzantium and the Golden Horde.
Tuesday, 6 May, 8pm
At the Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
All are welcome!
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Week 3
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Oxford University Chabad Society is delighted to invite you to join us for the
12th Annual OXFORD JEWISH FAIR - Lag B'omer @ Broad Street
Friday, 16 May, 12-5pm
* Formal opening by The Lord Mayor of Oxford - at 1pm
* London's Jewish Music Band 'SHIR' - Ivor Goldberg and Maurice Chernick - Klezmer, Israeli, Sephardi, Mizrahi, Ladino and Simcha music
* Oxford Musician Matthew Faulk - Yiddish Folk music
* Chazan Elliot Alderman
* Kosher Hot Food Stand
* Petting Farm
* Jewish Books and Art, including Oxford glass Judaica
* Jewish History of England Exhibition
* Kosher cooking - Pickle making and Challah Baking
* Kosher and Israeli wine tasting - sponsored by Kedem Europe and Mamou Family
* Scribal Art by expert scribe Arieh Freeman, including display of 17th c. Kaifeng and Pusey House Torah Scrolls
* Soft Archery
* Petting Farm
To volunteer at the fair, help with set up and/or run a stall, please email: [email protected]
This event is supported by Oxford City Council, the Community Security trust (CST), Kedem Europe, Mamou Family, JTrails - the National Anglo-Jewish Heritage Trail, Oxford JSoc, Oxford Jewish Chaplaincy, Oxford Jewish Congregation, Kaifeng Glatt Kosher Chinese Restaurant, London, Aisenthal Judaica.
Looking forward to seeing you.
All welcome!
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Shabbat Dinner
Hosted together with the Oxford Israel Society
The Rt Hon. Member of Parliament Jon Pearce
Jonathan Pearce is a British Labour Party politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for High Peak since the 2024 general election. On 17 September 2024, Pearce was announced as the new chair of Labour Friends of Israel, replacing Steve McCabe who had stepped down at the 2024 election. In December 2024, he replaced Josh Simons on the Science, Innovation and Technology Select Committee.
Friday, 16 May, 7.30pm
At the Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
All are welcome!
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Week 4
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Delia Del Prete
'The Anatomy of the Sacred: Divine Anthropomorphism from Shiʿur Qomah to Christian Kabbalah'
Delia is currently a PhD student at La Sapienza, University of Rome. Her project aims to delineate the figure of Solomon within the work of Yoḥanan ben Yiṣhaq Alemanno. To this end, she is preparing a critical edition, with a translation and a study on the sources and reception of his work Ḥesheq Shelomo (‘The Passion of Solomon’), a mystical commentary on the Song of Songs commissioned by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. She holds a Masters degree from La Sapienza University. Additionally, she received a Master’s degree in Jewish Studies and Jewish-Christian Relations from the Gregorian University in Rome. Her research interests focus on medieval and Renaissance Jewish texts and Jewish mysticism, particularly the Kabbalah current and Christian Kabbalah. In this regard, her previous research has investigated the Kabbalistic sources of ritual and performative theses in Pico della Mirandola’s 900 Theses and the reception of Judah Abravanel’s work, ‘Dialogues of Love’.
Tuesday, 20 May, 8pm
At the Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
All are welcome!
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Shabbat Dinner
Professor Andrei Zorin
‘Jews in Late Soviet Union according to the jokes of the period’
Andrei Zorin is Professor of Russian at the University of Oxford and fellow of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. His research includes Russian Literature and Cultural History of XVIII to early XIX centuries in European Context, Russian Literature and Ideology, Cultural History of Emotions and Late Soviet and Post Soviet Literature.
Friday, 23 May, 7.30pm
At the Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
All are welcome!
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Week 5
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Professor Mark Harris
'Is There Any Intersection Between Science and Theology?'
Mark Harris is the Andreos Idreos Chair in Science and Religion at the University of Oxford; Director of the Ian Ramsey Centre in Science and Religion, Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford. Active in physics for many years, he is known (with Steve Bramwell of University College London) as the discoverer of 'spin ice', currently a major research area in the physics of magnetism. By the end of 2020, more than 6,000 journal articles had been published on the topic since its original discovery in 1997. A little after this original breakthrough, he also discovered theology, and began to broaden his interests beyond magnetism. He moved to the University of Edinburgh in 2012 to establish its Science and Religion programme. In 2023 he moved to Oxford to take up the Andreas Idreos Chair in Science and Religion, and to direct the Ian Ramsey Centre
Tues, 27 May, 8pm
At the Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
All are welcome!
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Cheesecake in a Jar
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Sir Walter Bodmer
Walter Bodmer, former Principal of Hertford College, Oxford, and world-leading geneticist who has made major contributions to the study of the genetics of human populations, gene mapping and cancer genetics and to our understanding of the human tissue typing system. He is currently Head of the Cancer and Immunogenetics Laboratory, Cancer and Immunogenetics Laboratory, Department of Oncology, University of Oxford. Sir Walter fled Nazi Germany in 1938 as a young child.
Friday, 30 May, 7.30pm (tbc)
At the Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
All are welcome!
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Week 6
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We warmly invite you to celebrate the
FESTIVAL OF SHAVUOT
Shavuot Cheesecake and Blintzes Buffet, Tikkun Leyl Shavuot Lectures and Festival Dinner
Commemorating the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai around 3300 years ago
Sunday, 1 June, 7pm
6.30pm Shavuot Cheesecake and Blintzes Buffet
8pm Tikkun Leyl Shavuot I
Prof. Martin Goodman
Dr. Ros Abramsky
Rabbi Eli Brackman
Dr. Peter Bergamin
Professor Josh Getzler
Sam Zahn
Solomon Summer
Dr. Menashe Anzi
Juda Groenewoudt
10pm Festival evening service and Shavuot dinner
11pm Tikkun Leyl Shavuot II
Late night study
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
If you wish to present a talk at the Tikkun Leyl Shavuot, please email: [email protected]
For more info about the holiday visit: www.oxfordchabad.org/
The evening is kindly sponsored by the Reich Family in honour of their daughter's Bat Mitzvah.
All are welcome!
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2nd Night Shavuot Festival Dinner
Monday, 2 June, 10.30pm
At Chabad House, 75 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1HR
All are welcome!
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Shavuot Festival Lunch
Monday and Tuesday, 2-3 June, 1.30pm
At Chabad House, 75 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1HR
All are welcome!
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The Rt Hon Lord Pickles
Baron Pickles, PC is a British Conservative Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Brentwood and Ongar from 1992 to 2017. He served in David Cameron's Cabinet as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government from 2010 to 2015. He previously served as Chairman of the Conservative Party from 2009 to 2010 and was later the United Kingdom Anti-Corruption Champion from 2015 to 2017. Pickles was appointed the UK Special Envoy for Post-Holocaust issues in 2015. He stood down as an MP at the 2017 general election, but continued in his role as Special Envoy under Prime Ministers Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. He is the chairman of Conservative Friends of Israel in the House of Lords as of 2023.
Thursday, 5 June, 8pm
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
To be confirmed.
All are welcome!
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Baroness Susan Greenfield
‘The Neuroscience of Creativity’
Baroness Greenfield, Founder and CEO of Neuro-Bio Ltd (www.neuro-bio.com) is a neuroscientist, writer and broadcaster. She has published over 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals, based mainly at Oxford University but has held research fellowships at the College de France Paris, NYU Medical Center New York and Melbourne University. She holds 32 honorary degrees from UK and foreign universities, has received numerous honours including the Legion d’Honneur from the French Government, an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal College of Physicians, The American Academy of Achievement Golden Plate Award, and The Australian Medical Research Society Medal. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Friday, 6 June, 8pm
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
All are welcome!
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Week 7
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Professor Michele Deitch
Michele Deitch is a distinguished senior lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin, holding a joint appointment at both the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs (LBJ) and the Law School. She directs LBJ's Prison and Jail Innovation Lab (PJIL), a policy resource center focused on the safe and humane treatment of people in custody.
Tuesday, 10 June, 8pm
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
All are welcome!
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Friday Night Shabbat Dinner
Professor Michael F. Sturley
‘US Supreme Court’
Michael Sturley is an expert on maritime law and US Supreme Court practice. He teaches courses and conducts research in the areas of admiralty, property, and commercial law while serving as co-director of the Texas Law Supreme Court Clinic. Since joining the Texas Law faculty in 1984, Professor Sturley has authored and co-authored various publications on admiralty law, including his book “Admiralty and Maritime Law in the United States,” now in its fourth edition.
Friday, 13 June, 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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Professor Hindy Najman
Hindy Najman is the Oriel and Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at Oriel College, University of Oxford. Her research interests encompass Composition and Author Function; Construction and Imitation of Biblical Figures; Practices of Pseudepigraphy and Pseudonymous Attribution; Revelation, Divine Encounter and Prophecy; Idealized Sage and Perfectionism; Philology and Philological Practices; Diaspora and Exile; Authority and Tradition; Allegorical Interpretation and Midrash; Destruction and Recovery; Collection and Canon; the History of Biblical Interpretation; and Scholarly Practices of Reading the Bible and Biblical Traditions. She has written on the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Rabbinic Literature and Pseudepigrapha. Her publications include Losing the Temple and Recovering the Future: An Analysis of 4 Ezra, Past Renewals: Interpretive Authority, Renewed Revelation and the Quest for Perfection, Seconding Sinai: The Development of Mosaic Discourse in Second Temple Judaism, and a recent essay entitled “Ethical Reading: The Transformation of Text and Self.” She is currently working on a new book entitled: Reading Practices and the Vitality of Scripture (Oxford University Press).
Introduction by
Dr Cian Power
Lecturer in Ancient Hebrew Language, Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford
Tuesday, 17 June, 5.30pm
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
All are welcome!
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Future events
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Professor Sir Richard Trainor KBE FRHistS
New Warden of Rhodes House
A graduate of Brown University, Professor Sir Rick Trainor, Rector of Exeter College, was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, completing a second undergraduate degree at Merton College; a research student at Nuffield College; a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College; and a lecturer at Balliol College. He took his doctorate in Victorian social history. Born and raised in the United States, Sir Rick’s career as a historian and academic leader has been in the UK. In 1979 he became a lecturer in the Department of Economic History at the University of Glasgow where he later became Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and then Vice Principal. At Glasgow he taught the economic and social history of modern Britain and continental Europe and published on the social history of British elites, especially on the origins and impact of the leaders of industrial towns and cities. In 2000 he became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Greenwich, and four years later was appointed Principal and Professor of Social History at King’s College London. Between 2007 and 2009 Sir Rick was also President of Universities UK, the representative organisation for the heads of all UK universities. He remains active in research and is President of the leading learned society in his field, the Economic History Society.
Friday, 24 October, 7.30pm
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Chancellor of the University of Oxford
Lord Hague
William J. Hague, Baron Hague of Richmond is a British politician and life peer who was Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1997 to 2001 and Deputy Leader from 2005 to 2010. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Richmond (Yorks) in North Yorkshire from 1989 to 2015. He was in the Cameron government as First Secretary of State from 2010 to 2015, Foreign Secretary from 2010 to 2014, and Leader of the House of Commons from 2014 to 2015. He has been Chancellor of the University of Oxford since February 2025.
Michaelmas Term '25
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Dr. Dean Irwin
Dean Irwin is a Visiting Fellow of the University of Lincoln. Before joining the institution he completed his PhD at Canterbury Christ Church University, under the supervision of Professor Louise Wilkinson and Dr Leonie Hicks. His thesis examined the extant acknowledgements of debt, or records generated by Jewish moneylending activities, which were produced between 1194 and 1276. He has also published a series of articles on both those records, and the administrative processes which underpinned their production, use, storage, and preservation. The medieval Lincoln Jewry played an important part in his study, with a chapter being dedicated to debtors at the Lincoln archa.
Tuesday, 11 November, 8pm
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John Bowers
John Bowers QC is the Principal of Brasenose College, University of Oxford, and a leading human rights and employment lawyer. He sits as a Deputy High Court Judge. He is an approved counsel for the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and has written numerous books on human rights and employment law, including standard texts on whistleblowing and industrial action.
Friday, 1 May, 2026
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CLASSES AND COURSES
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Jewish Philosophy Classes
Dr. Israel Sandman
Thursday, 22 May, 5.30pm
'Kabbalah: The Divine Realm, bridging the Divine Essence and Creation, part 1'
Thursday, 29 May, 5.30pm
'Kabbalah: The Divine Realm, bridging the Divine Essence and Creation, part 2'
Thursday, 5 June, 5.30pm
'Hasidism: Divine Monism and the Creation'
Thursday, 12 June, 5.30pm
'Hasidism: The Individual's Union with the Divine'
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
Brasenose College, LRVII
RSVP for lunch: [email protected]
All are welcome!
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Tanya class with Freidy
Monday, 6.30pm
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St
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Lunch & Learn at Brookes University
Every Wednesday, 12pm
The Forum
RSVP: [email protected]
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Parsha class
Join us for an in-depth study of the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Eli via Zoom
Wednesdays, 7pm
All are welcome!
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End of Shabbat Ethics of the Fathers with Chana
Sat, 7pm
At Chabad House, 75 Cowley Road
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Hebrew for Beginners Course
For 6 consecutive weeks
Starting: Wednesday, 8 May, 5.30pm - for 5 consecutive Wednesdays
Taught by Netanel Plavnik
At Slager Jewish student centre, 61 George St, Oxford, OX1 2BQ
Course: £36 for the course / non students £40: send payment to Chabad of Oxford: www.oxfordchabad.org/donate
Booking: click here to fill out the booking form.
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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: 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 University Chabad Society Committee 2024-5
Freddie Assor (Pembroke) - President, Jake Masters (St John's) - Secretary, Effi Dahlen (Keble) - Vice President/Treasurer, Aviad Sadeh (Brookes Chabad Society President), Marshall Gould (Genomics), Carli Cooperstein (Corpus), Alexandre Bismuth (St Annes), Hannah Brosh (St Annes), Emanuel Bor (St Peter's), Joelle Solowiejczyk (St Peter's), Zach Berkowitz, Jordan Rothschild, Max Pushkin (Trinity), Roy Rosman (St Hugh's), Luc Cazanave, Kyle Feinstein.
Senior Member: Prof. 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