Watch the video of Yael Valier in conversation with Rabbi Herzl Hefter and Dr. Erica Brown about the ideal and the reality of religious change. Is religion designed to respond to current events or is it playing a longer game? What is the job of a religious leader and are our religious leaders doing their job?
To Play the video below, click here.
Dr. Erica Brown
Director, Mayberg Center for Jewish Education and Leadership
Dr. Erica Brown is the director of the Mayberg Center for Jewish Education and Leadership and an associate professor of curriculum and pedagogy at The George Washington University. Erica was a Jerusalem Fellow, is a faculty member of the Wexner Foundation, an Avi Chai Fellow and the recipient of the 2009 Covenant Award for her work in education. She is the author of twelve books on leadership, the Hebrew Bible and spirituality; her newest book is The Book of Esther: Power, Fate and Fragility in Exile (Koren). She has been published in the New York Times, The Atlantic, Tablet, First Things, and The Jewish Review of Books and wrote a monthly column for the New York Jewish Week. She has blogged for Psychology Today, Newsweek/Washington Post’s “On Faith” and JTA and tweeted on one page of Talmud study a day @DrEricaBrown. Read more about Dr. Brown here.
Rabbi Herzl Hefter
Rosh Beit Midrash Har'el
Rabbi Herzl Hefter is the founder and Rosh Beit Midrash Har’el in memory of Belda Kaufman Lindenbaum, in Jerusalem. Har'el is a beit midrash for advanced rabbinic studies for men and women. Rabbi Hefter studied under the tutelege of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik at Yeshiva University, and received smikha from Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein at Yeshivat Har Etzion. He taught Yoreh De'ah at the Gruss Kollel of Yeshiva University and served as the head of the Bruria Scholars Program at Midreshet Lindenbaum. Rabbi Hefter has written numerous articles related to modernity and Hasidic thought. His Torah essays and online shiurim can be accessed here.