2015 participants Eric (Shachar) Shamay, Jamie Merriman-Cohen, and Miriam Meister discuss the readings at an evening session.
Michael Taylor-Judd (left) listens as Prof. Hamza Zafer explains Muslim and Jewish intellectual synergy.
Community Learning Fellowship
T
he Stroum Center launched the Community Learning Fellowship (CLF) last year as yet another way to share our academic resources with the broader community. The pilot program provided an opportunity for a group of emerging Seattle Jewish leaders to engage in pluralistic conversations. From January through March 2015, the fellows met six times with different Jewish Studies faculty members to learn about “A Brief History of God in Jewish Sources.” The instructors included Sarah Stroup, Mika Ahuvia, Hamza Zafer, Devin Naar, Noam Pianko, and Michael Rosenthal. Community engagement through public scholarship is core to the Stroum Center’s mission. For four decades, we have offered high-quality, innovative public lectures from experts in diverse disciplines within Jewish Studies. Following this tradition, the CLF offered an academic lens to explore Judaism in a supportive learning community. Sessions focused on relationship-building among fellows from diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and affiliations. Participant Joy Maimon said, “The Community Learning Fellowship provided a wonderful opportunity to engage in textual learning with a diverse group of passionate and committed Jewish community members. I appreciated the opportunity to meet new friends and form connections with people outside of my community.” The Stroum Center would like to thank the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle for providing an Ignition Grant to support the Community Learning Fellowship. We would also like to thank our Advisory Board members for hosting the meetings.
2015 CLF PARTICIPANTS Leah Almo Dana Azose Rena and Dana Behar Tamar Benzikry* Kevin Britt Michael Danto Jeremy Derfner* Deirdre Gabbay Aaron Levine Joy Maimon Miriam Meister Jamie* and Jeff Merriman-Cohen Rabbi Yehudah Rapoport Melissa and David Rivkin/Cohanim Rabbi Avi Rosenfeld David Sabban John Schochet Eric Shachar Shamay Michael Taylor-Judd Alan Waldbaum * Joined the sessions as representatives ofthe Jewish Studies Advisory Board Fellowship Plan-
Visit jewishstudies.washington.edu/community-learning-fellowship to see more photos and to read session overviews by each faculty participant. 8 | Stroum Center for Jewish Studies