The Center for Jewish Leadership and Ideas aims to open the world of Jewish thought to a broad array of Jews around the world
Through the Center for Jewish Leadership and Ideas, directed by Rabbi Shai Held, Mechon Hadar teaches growing numbers of Jewish adults, both lay and professional, about finding meaning and inspiration in Jewish texts and tradition. The Center's public events and published writing offer both spiritual nourishment and intellectual challenge. The Center's work is guided by the conviction that Jewish tradition can offer crucial insight into key questions facing the Jewish community and the broader world.
The Center for Jewish Leadership and Ideas disseminates ideas in four major ways:
- Books and Torah Online: Rabbi Shai Held's weekly essays on the Torah are read by thousands and his book, Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence, published in 2013, has been hailed as a "watershed" by scholars in Jewish thought.
- Evenings of Learning include lectures, classes, and dialogues with influential Jewish leaders and thinkers.
- Yemei Iyun: All-day learning events in New York and around the country. Recent topics include Between Children and Parents: Legal, Ethical, and Theological Perspectives and Between Israel and the Diaspora: Where Do Jews Belong?
- Week-long educational intensives for professionals and laypeople, including a Rabbis' Yeshiva Intensive each winter and an Executive Seminar each summer. Both programs draw participants from across the country and the denominational spectrum. To sample the work of Mechon Hadar’s Center for Jewish Leadership & Ideas, subscribe to our podcast here, or sign up to receive Rabbi Held’s weekly Dvar Torah via email here.
You can also listen to the sessions at a previous Yom Iyun, Israel and the Diaspora: Where Do Jews Belong?.
Learn about Mechon Hadar’s other Centers of learning here:
➢ Center for Jewish Law and Values
➢ Center for Jewish Communal Music
