JLI’s FEATURED SEMINARS

Special Feature 1
The Fine Print: Remarkable Stories of the Jewish Printing Press
The introduction of moveable type to Europe in the fifteenth century was a literary revolution that shook the entire world. This multimedia class features fifteen fascinating tales, each anchored in a priceless ancient book that will be shown and analyzed during this class. We will witness how Jews rushed to adopt the printing press in its earliest iterations, and how they ingeniously overcame the bigots who tried to halt Jewish printing. We will observe how Jews set up new printing houses soon after traumatic expulsions, and how the economics of the early Jewish book market influenced the gentile world of printing.
(This completely new class was created by JLI in collaboration with the curator of the library of Agudas Chasidei Chabad, Rabbi Sholom Ber Levine. The exhibits in this lesson are from this library, and many of the color photographs are being made available to a wider audience here for the very first time.)
Date: Winter

Special Feature 2
Mystery at Masada: An Archaeological Exploration of an Ancient Mikveh
In the 1960s, the second chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces, Yigael Yadin, conducted excavations at the summit of Masada, whereupon he discovered an ancient mikveh used by the Jewish rebels while they held out against Rome in 66–73 CE. How did Yadin know that he had chanced upon a ritual mikveh rather than a regular pool or water cistern? This class will examine the basic laws of mikveh construction, which will clarify how a mikveh is built today and how they were built two thousand years ago. As we will see, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Date: Spring

Special Feature 3
Pen of the Soul: The Rich World of Chasidic Music
Soul stirring song has been an integral part of the Chasidic movement since its inception. The Chasidic masters taught that while the spoken word is the pen of the heart, music is the pen of the soul, expressing the innermost emotions that cannot be conveyed by words. In recent years, the depth and beauty of Chasidic melodies have attracted universal interest. In this class, participants will experience a taste of notable Chasidic music performed by expert musicians, while learning about various meditative spiritual narratives that are expressed through nigunim.
Date: Summer

Included with each lesson:
• A Teacher’s Manual that we will mail to you.
• PowerPoint with highly relevant images (and, when relevant, audio/video files) that will be front and center during the presentation.
• Marketing materials.

Pricing (includes all 3 seminars):
For non-Flagship members: $360
Flagship Affiliates: $180
For any questions in this regard, please message [email protected]