Global Day of Jewish Learning at Emory

On a cold Sunday afternoon on November 7, students across Atlanta gathered at the Marcus Hillel Center for the Global Day of Jewish Learning. An event unprecedented in scale—with over 250 communities participating world-wide—the Global Day united Jewish communities from Sao Paulo to Seattle, from Azerbaijan to Atlanta.

Erica Morris (C‘13) and Ethan Sobol (C‘13) organized the day and were featured as guest teachers. Erica led a session on miracles and Ethan taught Jewish perspectives on the environment. According to Erica:

“The best part of the day was the knowledge that every one of us was connecting with the texts and each other in a deep and truly wonderful way.”

The Global Day celebrated the completion of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz’s 45-volume Talmud translation and commentary in Hebrew. His commentary is also being translated and published in French, Russian and English; a Spanish edition is being prepared. The translation took 45 years, and the accomplishment has been called “one of the great egalitarian projects of modern Judaism.”

Ethan was motivated by the idea of inspiring meaningful discussion at Emory in concert with this global communal project:

"The Global Day of Jewish learning appealed to me as a way to provide a framework for thought-provoking discussion and debate about Jewish ideas and ideals. In bringing this program to Emory, the hope was to engage in meaningful dialogue that acknowledges the importance of not only what we do, but what we believe. Such a gesture solidifies our role as unified community, and as a vital constituent of a network of Jewish communities around the world."

Other guest teachers included Rabbi Ellen Nemhauser on “Anything Goes…. Or Does It? Prayer for the 21st Century.” Dr. Edward Queen, Coordinator of Undergraduate Studies at Emory University’s Center for Ethics, led a session on “From Pe’ah to Kabbalah: Tzedakah and Chesed in Jewish Life and Thought.” Michael Rabkin, Director of Hillel at Emory, led an interactive, multimedia session entitled “The Talmudic Tradition in Dialogue with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”

Rabkin showed a video clip of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, and highlighted King’s many biblical references. He then led the group to explore each of the biblical references to understand their meaning in the original biblical context and their implication in the context of the Civil Rights Movement. Rabkin likened King’s sense of the “fierce urgency of now” to our sage Hillel’s famous aphorism, “If not now, when?”

Rabkin encouraged the group to explore Dr. King’s legacy. Emory students are now organizing an Atlanta civil rights field trip, where students can visit the MLK Center (including King’s birth site and Ebenezer Baptist Church) and Leo Franks’ pencil factory, and other sites to explore the history of Civil Rights in Atlanta and the Jewish role in the movement.