From the Artistic Director, Hayley Finn

Dear Friends of Theater J,

Welcome to José Rivera’s Your Name Means Dream. I was first introduced to José’s work when I read Marisol in college. The year after graduation, I was in New York working at Playwrights’ Horizons, and it was a true honor to get to know him as he premiered his gorgeous play Cloud Tectonics.

Watching a José Rivera play is a deep dive into exploring what it means to have a soul. Over his long and impressive career as a writer, José tackles this question with profound depth, sensitivity, humor, and imagination. He investigates this essential question as a dramatist committed to rendering nuanced and surprising characters who defy expectations and encourage us to confront our understanding of humanity.

This play is set in the near future, but this future might be closer than we think. We live in a world where we are increasingly dependent on AI. We have technological devices that serve as companions for people who live alone, and just weeks ago, an article in The New York Times revealed that many spiritual leaders rely on AI to assist them in writing their sermons. As AI becomes more integrated into our lives, the question of what defines “human” and what roles are appropriate for AI to take on becomes more pressing.

Part of our mission at Theater J is to examine the ethical questions of our time. How we use AI will reveal how we develop as a society. Throughout the run of the play, we will have several post-show conversations with rabbis, illuminating how we might see the play through a Jewish lens. If you have a ticket to a show where there isn’t a post-show conversation, you are welcome to return for a post-show conversation at any time. I also invite you to read David Zvi Kalman’s article in the program, which discusses the implications of AI for our sense of personhood.

I want to thank José Rivera for joining us in Washington to direct his beautiful play and to Naomi Jacobson and Sara Koviak, two stellar actors who embody these characters with complexity and compelling force. Thank you for being here, and I hope you enjoy the performance.

With gratitude,

Hayley Finn, Theater J Artistic Director

CREATIVE CONNECTIONS

Join us for powerful pre and post show discussions! These conversations are free and open to the public. Discussions take place in the Goldman Theater unless otherwise noted.

A CONVERSATION WITH JOSÉ RIVERA: Sunday, March 16 after the matinee

ENGAGE THE EXPERTS: A CONVERSATION WITH DR. DAVID ZVI KALMAN: Sunday, March 23 after the matinee

The progress of technology moves faster than religion, but some of the questions central to AI ethics have been considered by Judaism for centuries. For example, what makes us uniquely human? A scholar of both Jewish law and the history of technology, David Zvi Kalman has written extensively on the relationship between Judasim and AI and joins us onstage to respond to the play and share his expertise.

A RABBI RESPONDS: A CONVERSATION WITH RABBI EMMANUEL CANTOR: Thursday, March 27 after the 7:30 PM show

Jewish wisdom and values can be a powerful tool to unpack the challenges and possibilities of AI. Join us for a thought provoking conversation at the intersection of faith and technology with the Den Collective's, Rabbi Emmanuel Cantor.

ENGAGE THE EXPERTS: A CONVERSATION WITH STACEY PELIKA: Saturday, March 29 after the matinee

In this conversation, we'll connect the themes of Rivera's play to another sector that benefits from AI: education. How can educators embrace AI's potential, but also manage risk? Stacey Pelika, a lead on the National Education Association's Taskforce for AI in Education, joins us onstage to respond to the play and share her expertise.

PRE SHOW CONVERSATION: LED BY THEATER J'S EDUCATION PROGRAMS MANAGER, HESTER KAMIN: Sunday, March 30, 1:15 PM in Kay Community hall

Join us to discuss the themes of our plays and how they relate to our own experiences and the issues of our times.

CREATIVES IN CONVERSATION: A POST SHOW DISCUSSION WITH NAOMI JACOBSON AND SARA KOVIAK: Sunday, March 30 after the matinee

A RABBI RESPONDS: A CONVERSATION WITH RABBI TZVI HAMETZ: Friday, April 4 after the matinee

A RABBI RESPONDS: A CONVERSATION WITH RABBI HEALY SHIR SLAKMAN: Sunday, April 6 after the matinee

Jewish wisdom and values can be a powerful tool to unpack the challenges and possibilities of AI. Join us for a thought-provoking conversation at the intersection of faith and technology with Rabbi Healy Shir Slakman, Assistant Rabbi and Director of Spiritual Arts at Temple Micah.

Thank You to Theater J's 2024/2025 Season Sponsors

LEADING PRODUCER

Covenant FoundationDC Commission on the Arts and HumanitiesRobert M. Fisher Memorial FoundationArlene and Robert Kogod, The Robert and Arlene Kogod Family Foundation

SPONSORING PRODUCER

Cathy BernardNorbert Hornstein and Amy WeinbergSari R. HornsteinThe Marinus and Minna B. Koster FoundationDianne and Herb LernerAlfred Munzer and Joel WindPatricia PayneRevada Foundation of the Logan FamilyKay Richman and Daniel KaplanHank Schlosberg*Shapiro Family Foundation, Inc.Share FundThe Shubert FoundationGeorge VradenburgHelaine Zinaman and Roselyn Abitbol*

SUPPORTING PRODUCER

The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz FoundationBruce A. Cohen*Patti and Mitchell HermanThe Morgan Fund at the Seattle Foundation ◦Nussdorf Family FoundationHelene and Robert Schlossberg

PRODUCTION ANGELS

Mara Bralove and Ari FisherDr. Kathryn VealEllen and Gary MalaskySusan and Dixon ButlerSandra and Stephen LachterMichele and Allan Berman

This production is supported in part by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, an agency supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Theater J gratefully acknowledges these donors who have supported Theater J since January 2024 through February 2025. *of blessed memory

THEATER J

Hayley Finn, Artistic Director David Lloyd Olson, Managing Director

YOUR NAME MEANS DREAM

Written and Directed by José RiveraMarch 12 – April 6, 2025

Director.............................................José RiveraSet Design........................................Misha Kachman+Costume Design.............................Risa AndoLighting Design...............................Alberto Segarra+Sound Design..................................David Remedios+Props Design....................................Pamela WeinerChoreographer...............................Sara KoviakProduction Stage Manager.........Miranda Korieth*Assistant Stage Manager............Sara GehlAssistant Stage Manager............Illeana Blustein

CAST ( IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)

Aislin..................................................Naomi Jacobson*Stacy..................................................Sara Koviak*

Video or audio recording of this performance by any means is strictly prohibited.

Your Name Means Dream runs 2 hours with an intermission.

Your Name Means Dream had its world premiere at the Contemporary American Theater Festival in West Virginia in 2023.

*Appearing through an Agreement between this theater, Theater J, and Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States

+Member of United Scenic Artists Local 829

Actors’ Equity Association (AEA) was founded in 1913 as the first of the American actor unions. Equity’s mission is to advance, promote and foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of our society. Today, Equity represents more than 40,000 actors, singers, dancers and stage managers working in hundreds of theatres across the United States. Equity members are dedicated to working in the theatre as a profession, upholding the highest artistic standards. Equity negotiates wages and working conditions and provides a wide range of benefits including health and pension plans for its members. Through its agreement with Equity, this theatre has committed to the fair treatment of the actors and stage managers employed in this production. AEA is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. For more information, visit actorsequity.org.

About the Artists

Naomi Jacobson* (Aislin) Theater J: Mad Dancers (2003), Another Way Home, The Disputation (with Theo Bikel), premieres of Life Sucks, G-D’s Honest Truth, Seagull on 16th Street, and a unique staging of Becoming Dr. Ruth, which she’s taken to four cities. A Woolly Mammoth company member, and Affiliated Artist at Shakespeare Theatre, she’s worked at most DC theatres, one off-Broadway gig, and traveled regionally to the Guthrie, the Goodman, and many other states. Naomi’s received three Helen Hayes Awards, the LuntFontanne Fellowship, Anderson-Hopkins Award, and a DC Individual Artist grant. Film/TV: A few. Voice-over: NPR, PBS, Discovery Channel, the Smithsonian. Resume at NaomiJacobson.com. Special thanks to Dr. Randall Wagner.

Sara Koviak* (Stacy) created the role of Stacy in Your Name Means Dream: CATF (World Premiere), NJ Rep; workshops: Sundance, Goodman, Rattlestick, NYTW; upcoming: TheaterWorks, Luna Stages. Other: Rivera’s The Hours Are Feminine (World Premiere Off-Broadway) and Lovesong: Imperfect, Paula Vogel’s Bard at the Gate for McCarter Theater, and T41 for Signature Theatre. Classical dancer in four World Premieres at The Metropolitan Opera, in Peter And The Wolf and Cinderella at Lincoln Center, and aerial soloist in Pippin for Goodspeed and Nat’l Tour. TV/Film: The Civet, Reverie: a Dream, The Fall of a Sparrow, Flying, A Possession, The Undoing (HBO). Sara is an accomplished choreographer and dance educator. SaraKoviak.com

José Rivera (Playwright/Director) José Rivera’s Obie Award-winning plays Marisol and References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot, have been produced around the country and translated into a dozen languages. Other plays include Cloud Tectonics, Massacre (Sing to Your Children), Boleros for the Disenchanted, Another Word for Beauty at the Goodman Theatre Sueño, Sonnets for an Old Century, School of the Americas, Brainpeople, Adoration of the Old Woman, The House of Ramon Iglesia, Each Day Dies with Sleep, Lovesong (Imperfect), The Hours are Feminine, and A Lunar Rhapsody. Your Name Means Dream received its world premiere at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival. His “The Motorcycle Diaries” screenplay was nominated for 2005 Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar, a BAFTA and Writers Guild Award, and took top screenwriting prizes in Argentina and Spain (Goya Award). His film “On the Road” premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and “Trade” was the first film to premiere at the United Nations. Other films include “The 33” and “Letters to Juliet.” Rivera wrote and directed the award-winning short films “The Fall of a Sparrow” and “The Civet.” Rivera co-created and produced “Eerie, Indiana,” (NBC) and was a consultant and staff writer on “Penny Dreadful: City of Angels” (Showtime) 2019. He was the head writer of the Netflix series based on One Hundred Years of Solitude, which the London Telegraph called “a spellbinding adaptation of an unfilmable novel.

Misha Kachman+ (Set Designer) has worked at Arena Stage, Asolo Rep, Baltimore Center Stage, Berkeley Rep, Children’s Theatre Company of Minneapolis, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Cleveland Playhouse, Court Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Olney Theatre Center, Opera Royal Versailles, Pasadena Playhouse, Portland Center Stage, Round House Theatre, Seattle Opera, Seattle Rep, Signature Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Theatre for a New Audience, The Wilma Theater, Woolly Mammoth, 59E59 Theaters and many other companies in the United States and abroad. Misha’s previous Theater J credits include Prayer for the French Republic, The Odd Couple, The New Jerusalem, Lost in Yonkers, Race, Our Class and This Much I Know, among many others. Mr. Kachman is a Helen Hayes Award recipient and a Company Member at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. Misha serves as Professor and Head of MFA in Design at University of Maryland. For more information, visit MishaKachman.com.

Risa Ando (Costume Designer) is a costume designer, born and raised in Japan, and she has worked in various theater communities internationally including Japan and Ireland. Selected design credits include: The Niceties (Collective Consciousness Theatre); Draupadi (Rattlestick Theater); A View from the Bridge (Long Wharf Theatre); The Salvagers (Yale Repertory Theatre); Mamma Mia! (Forestburgh Playhouse); Switch No Otoko (Éclo, Tokyo); Dracula (Gekidan IjinButai, Tokyo); The Best Place For Love (Fire & Ice Production, Dublin); Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles (Wonderland Productions, Dublin). She holds an MFA from David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. RisaAndo.com

Alberto Segarra+ (Lighting Designer) Recent DC credits: Romeo & Juliet at Folger Theatre, Garbologist at Theatre Alliance, Constellation at Constellation Theatre, and The Scenarios at Studio Theatre. Other credits include: The Honey Trap (Helen Hayes Award) at Solas Nua, Lend Me a Soprano, and The Joy That Carries You (Helen Hayes nomination) at Olney Theatre Center, Passing Strange at Signature Theatre, Blood at the Root (Helen Hayes Award) at Theatre Alliance, and Look Both Ways Kennedy Center/Theatre Alliance TYA (Helen Hayes nomination), The Three Musketeers and What the Constitution Means to Me at Cleveland Play House, The Lehman Trilogy at Maltz Jupiter Theatre, Camelot at Village Theatre, and Jane Eyre at Alley Theatre.

David Remedios+ (Sound Designer) Theater J: Debut. DC: Invisible Man (Studio Theatre, Helen Hayes Award nomination). Recent: Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill and The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life... (Merrimack Rep); A Christmas Carol, The Winter’s Tale, Macbeth (Elliot Norton Award, Commonwealth Shakespeare); Redeemed (59E59); Tornado Tastes Like Aluminum Sting (Contemporary American Theater Festival); The Hours Are Feminine (INTAR); Dinner for One and We Had a Girl Before You (Norton Award, Greater Boston Stage). Regional: Northern Stage, Arizona Theatre Company, Everyman, Huntington, Portland Stage; City Theatre, Alley Theatre, Trinity Rep, Geva, American Repertory Theatre, Theatre for a New Audience, among many others. RemediosSound.com.

Miranda Korieth* (Production Stage Manager) is a Ohio University Alumni 2020 BFA in Stage Management. She is excited to return to Theater J in her new role as PSM. Her other Theater J credits include The Hatmaker's Wife (ASM). Some additional credits include: Signature Theatre: Job (ASM), Arena Stage: Data (Deck Crew), Studio Theatre: At the Wedding (ASM), Fat Ham (Wardrobe), Fun Home (Youth Supervisor), Woolly Mammoth Theater: My Mama and the Full-Scale Invasion (ASM). Other theater's to mention are: Great Lakes Center for the Arts, and Tantrum Theater. When not pursuing her passion of stage management she is crafting, reading, hiking, watching TV, or playing with her pets.

Pamela Weiner (Resident Properties Artisan): is an area native and local prop designer. Selected Theater J credits include: Prayer for the French Republic, This Much I Know, Two Jews Walk Into a War, Intimate Apparel, Tuesdays with Morrie, The Occupant, and The Jewish Queen Lear. She is the Associate Properties Director at Signature Theatre.

TheaterWorks Hartford: Led by Artistic Director Rob Ruggiero and Managing Director Jeff Griffin, produces engaging contemporary theater and is committed to the power of storytelling in creating community at their historic Pearl Street home. Founded in 1985, TWH has produced over 200 plays including world premieres of Mathew Lombardo's High (with Kathleen Turner), Mark St Germain’s Relativity (with Richard Dreyfuss) and William Finn’s Make Me A Song among others. Visit us at twhartford.org.

Theater J Leadership

Hayley Finn (Theater J Artistic Director) (she/her/hers) is an accomplished director and producer with over twenty-five years of experience in professional theatre across all aspects of the profession, including producing, directing, casting, education, fundraising, and has been instrumental in creating national partnerships for theatres across the country. Prior to joining Theater J, she was the Associate Artistic Director at the Playwrights’ Center, where worked with some of the nation’s leading playwrights and, in her tenure, produced over 1,000 workshops. She also served as a Co-Artistic Director of Red Eye Theater from 2019-2023 where she co-produced and curated the New Works 4 Weeks Festival—an annual four-week festival that commissions 11 artists each year to make new performance works—and co-led the fundraising and development of a new 150-seat black box theater in Minneapolis.

She has directed nationally and internationally, including at Cherry Lane Theatre (New York, NY), Curious Theatre Company (Denver, CO), the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (Edinburgh, Scotland), Ellis Island (New York), Guthrie Theatre (Minneapolis, MN), HERE Arts Center (New York, NY), History Theatre (St. Paul, MN), Flea Theater (New York, NY), The Kitchen (New York, NY), LAByrinth Theater Company (New York, NY), Marin Theater Company (Mill Valley, CA), New Dramatists (New York, NY), O’Neill Theater Center (Waterford, CT), Pillsbury House (Minneapolis, MN), People’s Light (Malvern, PA), Public Theater (New York, NY), Playwrights’ Horizons (New York, NY), Red Eye Theater (Minneapolis, MN), Six Point Theater (St. Paul, MN), South Coast Repertory Theater (Costa Mesa, CA), and the Nine Gates Festival in Prague. Finn was Assistant Director on several Broadway productions, including the Tony Award-winning production of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge. Most recently at Theater J she directed the regional premieres of Jonathan Spector's This Much I Know and Joshua Harmon's Prayer For the French Republic.

Finn is an Alumna of the Drama League Director’s Program, recipient of the Ruth Easton Fellowship, TCG Future Leader Grant, National Endowment for the Arts support, and a Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant. She received her BA and MA from Brown University.

David Lloyd Olson (Theater J Managing Director) made his stage debut at age five at the Marcus JCC of Atlanta preschool and is now proud to be one of the leaders of the nation’s largest professional Jewish theater. He most recently served as managing director of Quintessence Theatre Group in Philadelphia where he oversaw the organization’s largest ever fundraising campaign and the doubling of their annual foundation support. He was manager of the executive office and board engagement at the Shakespeare Theatre Company where he supported the transition of the theater’s artistic directorship from Michael Kahn to Simon Godwin. He has also held positions at Arena Stage, GALA Hispanic Theatre, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and Pointless Theatre. He was an Allen Lee Hughes management fellow at Arena Stage, a Fulbright English teaching assistant in Valmiera, Latvia, and the recipient of two DC Commission on Arts and Humanities Fellowship program grants. He proudly serves on the board of the Alliance for Jewish Theatre (alljewishtheatre.org) and the board of Adas Israel Congregation.

About Theater J

THE MOST INFLUENTIAL JEWISH THEATER COMPANY IN THE NATION.

– THE WASHINGTON POST

Theater J is a nationally-renowned, professional theater that celebrates, explores, and struggles with the complexities and nuances of both the Jewish experience and the universal human condition. Our work illuminates and examines ethical questions of our time, intercultural experiences that parallel our own, and the changing landscape of Jewish identities.

As the nation’s largest and most prominent Jewish theater, we aim to preserve and expand a rich Jewish theatrical tradition and to create community and commonality through theater-going experiences.

The Edlavitch DCJCC embraces inclusion in all its programs and activities. We welcome and encourage the participation of all people, regardless of their background, sexual orientation, abilities, or religion, including interfaith couples and families.

All of the programs at the Edlavitch DCJCC are supported in part by a generous gift from the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington.

DEEPEN YOUR IMPACT

Theater J is dedicated to producing work that illuminates ethical questions of our time, examines the changing landscape of Jewish identities, and celebrates inter-cultural experiences. Less than half of Theater J’s budget comes from ticket revenue. We are reliant on generous gifts from audience members like you, who see the value of having a thriving Jewish cultural center in the heart of the city.

We invite you to join your friends and neighbors in supporting our work. With your gift, you’ll be recognizing the vital role Theater J plays in our community–a place where the stories of immigrants are proudly told, where we ask that theater engage both the head and the heart, and where we produce art that reminds you of who you are.

WAYS TO GIVE

Theater J accepts contributions by mail, phone, online, or through stock donation. Checks can be made payable to Theater J and mailed to 1529 Sixteenth Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036.

For more information or to make a donation, visit theaterj.org/donate or contact Emma Wesslund at ewesslund@theaterj.org or call 202.777.3225.

EDLAVITCH DCJCC LEADERSHIP

Edlavitch DCJCCChief Executive Officer: Jennifer ZwillingChief Finance and Administrative Officer: Charlie WintersChief Experience Officer: Jesse BordwinSenior Director of Institutional Advancement: Emily Jillson

THEATER J STAFFArtistic Director: Hayley FinnManaging Director: David Lloyd Olson

Production

Production Manager: Mark T. BerryTechnical Director: Tom HowleyAssociate Producer: Charlotte La NasaTechnical Coordinator: Willow McFatterCompany Management Associate: Grace CarterHead Electrician: Garth DolanResident Properties Artisan: Pamela WeinerProperties Assistant: Aiden GalbraithSet Design Assistant: Sofía Olivar

External Affairs

EDCJCC Arts Marketing Manager: Jill GershensonDirector of Donor Engagement: Emma WesslundTicket Office and Front of House Manager: Nino PorterAssistant Ticket Office Manager: Lauren McNealMarketing Consultants: Rachel Hewitt, Adriana Cisneros EmersonPublicist: Kendra Rubinfeld and Travis Hare, Kendra Rubinfeld PRGraphic Design: Molly WinstonHouse Managers and Ticket Office Associates: Sophia Bonde, Steve Chazanow, Emily Eason, Allen Eldridge, Lily Goldberg, Sarah Moosadzeh, Robert Reeg, Hadiya Rice, Kaneeka Rice, Sam Rollin, Alia Schreiber-Goldstein, and Mary-Margaret Walsh.

Education & New Play Development

Education Programs Manager: Hester KaminExpanding the Canon Rosh Beit: Sabrina SojournerExpanding the Canon Commissioned Writers: Harley Elias, Zachariah Ezer, Caroliva Herron, Jesse Jae Hoon, MJ Kang, and Kendell PinkeyTeaching Artists: Becca Berman, Erin Cleary, Nikki Crawford, Noah Israel, Jen Jacobs, Caraid O'Brien, Aaron Posner, Lynette Talya Rathnam, Sharyn Rothstein, Howard Shalwitz, Jamie Steinman, Holly Twyford, and Erin Weaver.

YOUR NAME MEANS DREAM STAFF

Head Electrician: Garth DolanLight Board Programmer: Ben HarveyAudio Engineer: Kaitlyn SappAssociate Audio Engineer: Levi MannersLight Board Operator: Willow McFatterSound Board Operator: Taylor StewartWig Consultant: Frank LabovitzLoad-in Crew: Barrett Doyle, Matty Griffiths, David Higgins, Josh Lucas, Willow McFatter, Taylor StewartScenic Charge Artist: Danielle HarrisSpecial thanks to our voiceover artists: Rebecca Ballinger, Zach Brewster-Geisz and Jared Graham

Optical Human Illusions

– By David Zvi Kalman

Can an AI have a soul? Would we even want it to? And why does the question itself bother so many people?

In the Jewish tradition, human beings are said to have been created in the image of God, and it is by virtue of that single fact that their value is effectively unlimited. “Whoever destroys one life is as though they had destroyed the entire world,” says the Mishnah, an early rabbinic text. Other beings are valuable, but humans are permanently set apart. The Qur’ān says something similar. The vast majority of humans recognize that other humans have a value unmatched by any other being.

But why might that be? For most of our history, the answer has been straightforward: Humans are valuable because we are unique. We are toolmakers; we have speech; we have culture; we can organize; we can dream. Even when discoveries in the animal world or previous homo species made us qualify some of these claims, the sheer bulk of our uniqueness was never in doubt. To be human is to be unique; to be unique is to have value.

But it’s not so simple anymore, is it? In the space of decades the Land of Human Uniqueness has been submerged under AI’s rising sea levels, transforming it into mere islands. We are no longer the only ones who can calculate, or play chess, or speak, or paint. Perhaps AI does these things differently than we do—but functionally, it doesn’t matter. Our own human architecture encourages us to take AI’s human mimicry at its word. Much as science forced faith into a “God of the gaps,” AI has forced our self-understanding into a “humanity of the gaps,” forced to reside in whatever crannies AI has not (yet) reached. We have grown to begrudge AI its abilities—because we rightly worry that a loss of uniqueness will lead to a loss of human value. This is not a stray anxiety. It is deadly serious.

In José Rivera’s remarkable and moving play, Your Name Means Dream, this dynamic literally takes center stage. Robots are designed to be human companions, and humans resent that they are not important enough to merit flesh and blood. In expecting that they should treat robots like humans, humans are ultimately treated like robots: machines to be serviced, and nothing more. Perhaps the humans have souls—but functionally, it doesn’t matter.

There is another way. When the Torah says that humans were created in the image of God, it provides no explanation. Our value does not require us to dance or write plays or go to Mars; it simply is. In fact, the axiomatic nature of our value allowed the rabbis to extend worth to others: to fetuses, to animals, even to the angels and demons that occupied their world. Human AIs cannot diminish our value because human value cannot be diminished.

In asserting our own value, we replicate the very image-of-God story that has held us for so long. Humanity’s resemblance to its Creator does not diminish the latter; so too, the manufacture of AI in our own image recognizes us humans as the very reason it matters at all.

We should probably tell our AIs this story. If we do we might hope that our creations will see in us something divine in turn.

David Zvi Kalman is the host of Belief in the Future, a podcast about religion and technology. He is a fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute and a senior advisor at Sinai and Synapses. He writes at jellomenorah.com

Coming Next

THE BERLIN DIARIESBy Andrea StolowitzDirected by Elizabeth Dinkova

June 4 – 22, 2025

Oregon Book Award-winning playwright Andrea Stolowitz opens the pages of her great-grandfather’s journal to discover a previously unknown genealogy in The Berlin Diaries. How do you find home when a family history is scattered like the torn pages of a journal entry released to the wind? Two performers become generations of characters in an attempt to stitch together clues and restore memories formerly lost to time.

How do people become verschollen, lost, like library books, leaving only the dusty outline – a life reduced to negative space? Stolowitz searches for clues that propel her forward and backward in time, pursuing a family history formerly lost to war. In a breathtaking journey around the world, what will remain lost and what will be found at the intersection of national history and private lives?