Talks & Lectures

Each year Or Zarua hosts several talks and lectures. In the fall, there is a Tshuva lecture between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and the Annual Lucy Dawidowicz lecture celebrating Congregation Or Zarua’s birthday is held at the end of January or beginning of February. Past speakers have included Professors David Roskies, Ruth Wisse, and Sharon Lieberman Mintz. The lecture series is named in memory of Lucy Dawidowicz, noted author and early member of Or Zarua.

Past talks and lectures at Or Zarua include:
Click the links to read more and listen to the talks.

2024 Annual Lucy S. Dawidowitz Lecture
Dr. William Plevan, “Finding God in the Everyday: Martin Buber on the Life of Dialogue”

Isaiah’s Vision of Peace
With Rabbi Harlan J. Wechsler for OZ’s 35th Birthday, Jan. 2023

Guns and Society – Still Aiming For a Solution
Summer Talmud Torah with Rabbi Scott Bolton, 2023

Lucy Dawidowicz Lecture Series: “People of the Book: from Canaan to Cairo to La Coruna”
With Prof. Gary A. Rendsburg, Jan.-Feb. 2023

T’shuvah as Spiritual and Moral Transformation in Jewish Mysticism
T’shuvah Talk with Dr. Eitan Fishbane, Aug. 31, 2022

Jewish Law Seminar: Abortion and Privacy in Halakhah
Summer Learning with Rabbi Scott Bolton, 2022

Why Do We Believe We Can Prevent Genocide?
An Evening with the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities
Monday, March 7, 2022

The 2022 Annual Lucy S. Dawidowicz Lecture
Featuring Joshua Teplitsky, PhD

Illuminating the Account of Creation
Tu B’Shevat Lecture featuring Prof. Sara Offenberg, January, 2022

Landmark Books, Places & Moments in Jewish History
with Barry Feldman, Jan-Feb 2021
Jan. 10: Click HERE to view (partial recording) “The Second Great Migration: Moving out of the Lower East Side to Greater New York”; Feb. 7: Click HERE to view “South Carolina is the New Zion: Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, an American Synagogue in Transition”; Feb. 21: Click HERE to view “An-Sky’s Expedition, ‘The Dark Continent’: An Exploration into the Past Folklore of Eastern Europe”

Stargazing In the Atomic Age 
Author’s Night with Anne Goldman, July 2021

Miraculous Medicine: Vaccinations, Midrash & Jewish Law
Rabbi Scott N. Bolton, January, 2021

The 2021 Annual Lucy S. Dawidowicz Lecture
Featuring Beth Berkowitz, PhD

The Annual Yom Kippur Talk, 2020
Featuring Francine Klagsbrun

Wired for Inspiration: Three Days of High Holy Days at Or Zarua 5781
Rabbi Scott N. Bolton, September, 2020

The 2020 Annual Tshuvah Lecture
Featuring Dr. Daniel Gordis

A Letter to My Grandchildren, 2020
Featuring Dr. Barry Coller

The 2020 Summer Scholar-in-Residence
Featuring Dr. Ronnie Perelis, PhD.

The 2020 Annual Lucy S. Dawidowicz Lecture
Featuring Leora Batnitzky, PhD.

The 2019 Annual Tshuvah Lecture
Featuring Benjamin D. Sommer, PhD.

The 2019 Annual Lucy S. Dawidowicz Lecture
Featuring Christine Hayes, PhD.