Florence Melton Adult Mini-School

Registration now open for the 2011-12 school year!

Join the Great Jewish Conversation and embark on a fascinating 27-week journey as you explore classic Jewish sources, investigate issues of Jewish thought, practice and ethics, and advance our knowledge of Jewish history. For more information, phone or email Noah Hadas (858) 362-1327 or noah@lfjcc.com.

4 Sessions Offered:

• TUES, 1:30-3:45pm at Seacrest Village, Encinitas
• WED, 7:00-9:15pm at Temple Solel, Cardiff by the Sea
• THURS, 9:30-11:45am at Lawrence Family JCC
• THURS, 7:00-9:15pm at Lawrence Family JCC

Class Begins: TUESDAY Classes - October 4, 2011; WEDNESDAY Classes - October 5, 2011; THURSDAY Classes - October 6, 2011. No Classes on October 11/12/13 and October 18/19/20 due to Sukkot. Classes resume October 25/26/27.

Tuition: $545 per person for the program plus $48 per person registration and materials fee. Scholarships are available. Couples and groups registering together receive a discount. JCC member price is significantly less.

• Register online at lfjcc.org/register
• To register by mail, print and complete the following PDF Registration Form.pdf.
• Download a copy of the Melton Brochure
  

The Florence Melton Adult Mini-School, a project of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is an innovative concept for Jewish learners from all backgrounds, aimed at enabling Jewish adults to learn seriously about our heritage and culture in a challenging and inspiring course of study.

Melton's sophisticated, sequential curriculum was written by a team of scholars and educators at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It introduces the student to the classical heritage of the Jewish people and demonstrates its development into contemporary forms of Judaism while maintaining a pluralistic balance.

This is your opportunity to explore classic Jewish sources, investigate issues of Jewish thought, practice and ethics, and advance your knowledge of Jewish history.

The San Diego Center for Jewish Culture is proud to sponsor the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School in San Diego County. We invite you to join the nearly 20,000 adults in more than 60 Mini-Schools throughout the Jewish world, whose lives have been changed by this internationally acclaimed school of study.

Melton is endorsed by San Diego Rabbinical Association and supported by the Jewish Federation of San Diego and Jewish Community Foundation.

Melton students say...

"Melton strengthened and gave definition to my Jewish identity...I obtained personal insights as to what Judaism is and is not about...Melton has given us a way to renew our Judaism and share countless discussions together that have helped us grow as individuals and as a couple..."

Course Outlines

NOTE: Each course pair is independent of the other. They may be taken in either order.

Some of the Topics Discussed at Melton ...

The Purposes of Jewish Living

• The Chosen People - Why Us?
• What Happens After We Die?
• Why Do People Suffer?

The Rhythms of Jewish Living

• The Jewish Calendar and its Meaning
• Significance of Bar/Bat Mitzvah
• Conversion

• The Worth of Human Life
• Kosher Money
• Euthanasia

• Development of Judaism in Diaspora
• Formation of Askenazic Jewery
• Evolution from sacrifice to prayer and ritual

COURSE PAIR 1

Purposes of Jewish Living

Explore the meaning and purpose of life from a Jewish perspective. We present essential Jewish theological concepts as they unfold in the Bible, the Talmud and other sacred texts.

Rhythms of Jewish Living

Examine the elements making up the Jewish calendar as well as lifecycle events. Students study the central ideas, beliefs and practices that define Jewish life.

COURSE PAIR 2

Dramas of Jewish Living

This course looks at the dramatic developments, experiences and issues from different periods in Jewish history, as reflected in historical texts.

Ethics of Jewish Living

This course addresses the relationship between Jewish life and ethical behavior. It presents a text-based approach to Jewish ethical foundations dealing with issues such as justice, life and death, sexuality and community.

Israel Seminars (optional)

Explore and study Israel with the Mini-School! The narrative of the land of Israel enriches all that the Mini-School curriculum addresses. Seminars are available in winter, spring and summer.

Purim Message 

Dr Jonathan Mirvis

Last Shabbat, the Shabbat before Purim, was Shabbat Zechor.  On Shabbat we read the imperative to remember what "Amalek did to you when you went out of Egypt".  This section is read annually on the Shabbat before Purim.  In the wilderness Amalek attacked the Jewish People without their having any political or financial motives.  They were not interested in conquering Jewish land or dispossessing them of their wealth.  Their motivation was one of hatred, the central motivation behind all anti-Semitism.  This section is read before Purim because of the tradition that Haman was a descendant of Amalek (he is described as an Agogyte and Agag was the King of Amalek) and his motivation to decimate the Jews in Persia was a continuation of Amalek's dream to destroy the Jews in the wilderness. 

This imperative to remember, marks the beginning of the "season" in which Jewish memory is the focal aspect of the Jewish experience.  We encounter it again at Pesach when we are commanded to remember that we were slaves in Egypt. 

The common denominator between these two imperatives to remember is that this memory relates to something that happened to us as a Jewish People.  In both verses referring to the imperative to remember we are not told to remember something that happened to them; rather the imperative assumes that we were the victims even though these events took place thousands of years ago.  Thus there are two central themes, the first is memory as has been mentioned and the second is peoplehood, which is based on mutual identification which stands generations.    

These two concepts are personal.  Memory is not an objective recollection of historical data, but is rather a recollection of significant events which are contextualized for everybody in their own personal manner.  Similarly, feelings of identification and peoplehood are personal feelings which are aroused on certain occasions and situations which have a different significance for each and every one of us. 

Jewish memory and peoplehood identification is the glue of the Jewish People.  It is these two characteristics which have given us the strength to survive for thousands of years through the Exile, Spanish Inquisition, pogroms in Eastern Europe and more recently the Holocaust. 

This season of memory and peoplehood has received two added dimensions in the modern era.  The commemoration of the Holocaust, in which Zechor is a central theme, and the celebration of Israel's Independence, which marks the climax of thousands of years of memory and yearning for our Return to Zion. 

It is a small wonder that these two characteristics are the key goals of the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School.  Through our success we continue to enrich Jewish memory and strengthen peoplehood. 

Purim sameach

Yonatan