Is Jewish Pluralism Dead? President of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America and co-editor of The New Jewish Canon By Yehuda Kurtzer, 15th September 2022 Yehuda is a leading thinker and author on the meaning of Israel, on Jewish history and Jewish memory, and on questions of leadership and change in Jewish life. He led the…...
The Fifteenth Annual Louis Jacobs Memorial Lecture
An Anglican Priests Jewish Quest By Giles Fraser on Sunday, 4th July 2021...
The Fourteenth Annual Louis Jacobs Memorial Lecture
Approaching the Torah with Honesty: Torah Min Hashamayim from Hertz to TheTorah.com By Professor Edward Breuer and Professor Marc Zvi Brettler As the notion of Mosaic authorship of the Torah as dogma remains central even within much of the Modern Orthodox world, this year’s memorial lecture brings together two outstanding scholars to survey some of…...
The Thirteenth Annual Louis Jacobs Memorial Lecture by Rabbi Shai Held
“Love Your Neighbour”: Jews, Christians and the Meaning of a (Very) Elusive Commandment Rabbi Shai Held Ph.D. from New York “The leader of Post Denominational Judaism and one of the most influential Rabbis in America.”President and Dean, The Hadar Institute – Combining the best of Yeshiva, The Jewish Theological Seminary and University Thought. Lecture Sunday,…...
The Twelveth Annual Louis Jacobs Memorial Lecture by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo
By Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo of Jerusalem Highly acclaimed internationally as one of the most thoughtful and challenging voices in contemporary Orthodox Judaism. A prophetic and profound teacher. “Radical, Brilliant, Controversial!” Lecture Sunday, July 15th 2018 Halachic Courage, Bold Ideas And Religious Authenticity How to Liberate Orthodox Judaism Horn Stagnation and Confinement Panel Monday,…...
The Eleventh Annual Louis Jacobs Memorial Lecture by Benjamin Sommer
What Really Happened At Sinai? By Professor Benjamin Sommer of JTS 16 July 2017 Professor Sommer focuses on the theologically significant ambiguities in Exodus 19-20 and how they give rise to an interpretive debate that begins in Deuteronomy 4-5 and continues through midrashic literature, the medieval commentators and into Hasidism and modern Jewish thought. This powerful…...
The Seventh Annual Louis Jacobs Memorial Lecture by Lawrence Kaplan
The Ninth Annual Louis Jacobs Memorial Lecture by Karen Armstrong
Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence By Karen Armstrong 21 June 2015 Quest were delighted that Karen Armstrong, one of the world’s leading commentators on religious affairs, made a return visit. She spent seven years as a Roman Catholic nun in the 1960s, and then read English at St Anne’s College, Oxford. Her books…...
The Eighth Annual Louis Jacobs Memorial Lecture and 50th Anniversary of the New London Synagogue
The Agenda of Masorti Judaism By Jeremy Gordon, New London Synagogue 17 June 2012 On the occasion of the New London Synagogue’s 50th anniversary and for the Louis Jacobs Memorial Lecture, Rabbi Jeremy Gordon delivers a superb address on the values espoused by Rabbi Dr. Louis Jacobs and which inspired the founding of Masorti Judaism and New…...
The Sixth Annual Louis Jacobs Memorial Lecture by Jonathan Wittenberg
An Agenda for the Masorti Movement By Jonathan Wittenberg, New North London Synagogue 6th Annual Louis Jacobs Memorial Lecture, delivered by Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg at the New London Synagogue in 2012. Rabbi Wittenberg presents an agenda for Masorti, through which adherents, originating within a modern outlook, could recreate and re-envisage traditional Judaism. He tackles this through…...
The Fourth Annual Louis Jacobs Memorial Lecture by Norman Solomon
Making Talmud Make Sense By Norman Solomon, University of Oxford 20th June 2010 4th Annual Louis Jacobs Memorial Lecture, delivered by Rabbi Dr. Norman Solomon at the New London Synagogue in 2010. Rabbi Solomon starts his lecture by sharing some personal memories about Louis Jacobs and the Affair, before delving into the nature of the Talmud…....
The Third Annual Louis Jacobs Memorial Lecture by Michael Melchior
Israel’s Future By Michael Melchior, Member of Knesset 28 June 2009 Rabbi Jeremy Gordon: I want to welcome Rabbi Melchior to New London Synagogue. Rabbi Melchior is the seventh generation to serve as Chief Rabbi in Scandinavia in his family. He received rabbinic ordination in 1980 at Yeshivat Hakotel and went back to Norway at…...
The Second Annual Louis Jacobs Memorial Lecture by Arnold Eisen
Taking Hold of Torah By Arnold Eisen, Chancellor, JTS, New York 6 July 2008 It is certainly a great privilege for me to be here. It would be so in any case but certainly to represent JTS at this synagogue on this evening in memory of Louis Jacobs. From what you just heard, if you read…...
The First Annual Louis Jacobs Memorial Lecture by Marc Saperstein
Jewish Preaching on Social Justice By Marc Saperstein, Principal, Leo Baeck College 20 June 2007 I am deeply honoured to have been asked to be giving this lecture at the first Yahrzeit of Morenu ve-Rabbenu. Our association goes back more than 25 years, when I discovered to my delight that he had written a very…...