Dr. Gillman, an eminent Rabbi and philosopher, was ordained by

the Jewish Theological Seminary and earned a PhD in Philosophy from

Columbia University. He is a faculty fellow at the Skirball Center for

Adult Jewish Learning at Congregation Emanu-El in New York City.

Prof. Gillman is the author of several books, one of which, “Death

of Death: Resurrection and Immortality in Jewish Thought” will impact

our discussion this evening with questions such as – Is death final and

what can we expect will happen to us after the grave? Every religion

develops a theology of some form of life after death. What is Judaism’s

philosphy and what can we modern Jews believe?
 

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2009, 8:40 P.M.
 

Marcia Haddad is a Judaic scholar and an acclaimed lecturer. She

is the director of the Kehila Kedosha Janina Museum in NewYork City.

In this lecture, she will discuss Persian Jews, the Jews of Iran, who have

a fascinating history of over 2700 years. Once again their ability to

survive is being challenged. She will review both the long history and

the present challenges and try to answer the most important question:

“Why do they continue to stay?”
 

This event is co-sponsored by the Holocaust

Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County in

Ms. Vromen is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Bard College

where she taught for 22 years. She and her family had lived in Belgium

in 1940 when the Nazis invaded the country. Fortunately, they escaped

and found refuge in the Belgium Congo.

In her deeply moving book, “Hidden Children of the Holocaust,”

Dr. Vromen reveals the hidden history not just of Jewish children

rescued during the Holocaust, but also of the courageous women,

priests and nuns–the Righteous Gentiles–who saved their lives.

Vromen’s insightful analysis of important questions of identity, inheritance,

faith and survival is illuminating and inspiring.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2009, 8:40 P.M.
 

Rabbi Tokayer’s warm, engaging smile has been the hallmark of his

varied and distinguished career starting with the summer he spent as a

comedian in the Borsht Belt, to his time as a chaplain in the US Air Force,

to the thirteen years he was Rabbi of the Jewish community in Japan, where

he also served as Vice President and Director of Culture, Religion and

education for the Jewish communities of the Far East, to the role of

principal and rabbi in the Great Neck community.

A prolific author, Rabbi Tokayer is best known for his first book (in

Japanese), “The Wisdom of the Talmud” which sold over half a million

copies and “The Fugu Plan: The Untold Story of the Japanese and the Jews

duringWorldWar II” – an eye-opening book!

Rabbi Tokayer currently leads tour groups through the Far East

expounding the incredible wealth of Jewish history that lies buried in these

remote places.
 

Prof. Rosenblum is an award-winning historian at Queens College

where he is also Director of the Center for Jewish Studies and the Center

for Ethnic and Racial Tolerance. He has been involved in numerous efforts

to facilitate Israeli-Palestinian co-existence by organizing six international

conferences with leaders of the PLO, the Palestinian Authority and Israeli

national figures. He has designed and taught a new curriculum at Queens

College, “America and the Middle East: A Clash of Civilizations or a

Meeting of the Minds?,” a program which aspires to create a “Learning

Community” that integrates Islamic, Jewish and Christian students with

community leaders and experts from the Middle East.

For all his innovative efforts, the FORWARD Newspaper selected

Prof. Rosenblum as one of the fifty most influential American Jews.
 

David Roskies, Professor of Jewish Literature at the Jewish

Theological Seminary and founder and former editor of “Prooftexts,” a

journal of Jewish literary history, will discuss his newest book,

“Yiddishlands,” a remarkable family saga.

Roskies’ home in Montreal was a salon for Yiddish writers, actors and

artists. Beginning with a flashback to his grandmother’s storybook wedding

in 1878, “Yiddishlands” brings to life the major debates, triumphs and

struggles of the modern Yiddish experience along with memorable portraits

of great Jewish writers, cultural leaders and educators.
 

Join us for an enchanting evening of beautiful voices. Under the

direction of Cantor Abby Sher, Cantor Gabi Arad, Cantor Ofer Barnoy, Reb

Irwin Huberman and Cantor Gustavo Gitlin, Cantor Yosef Karavani and

Parvaneh Sarraf will perform an exciting medley of Israeli, Yiddish,

Sephardic, and Persian melodies to make the final session of this year’s

Herbert Tarr Institute most memorable.