Jewish Peoplehood: Models, Challenges and Opportunities
Guest Lecturer: Dr. Sara Labaton of The Shalom Hartman Institute
March 16, 2023 | 7 pm to 8:30 pm
Jewish Federation of St. Louis
12 Millstone Campus Dr, St. Louis, MO 63146
Jewish Peoplehood: Models, Challenges and Opportunities
The Jewish tradition – stretching from ancient texts to modern thought – uses an array of models and metaphors to describe the project of Jewish peoplehood and collectivity. Each one of these models carries different implications when it comes to issues such as the scope of responsibility and loyalty that peoplehood entails and how one enters and exits the Jewish people. This session will explore some of these models along with the challenges and opportunities they carry for us today.
Dr. Sara Labaton
Dr. Sara Labaton is the Director of Teaching and Learning at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, where she serves as a conduit between the Kogod Research Center and program directors, overseeing programmatic excellence and ensuring that research topics and content are informed by the realities of the field and experience of program participants.
She was a member of the inaugural cohort of North American David Hartman Center Fellows. Sara received a B.A. in Religious Studies from Columbia University and a doctorate in Medieval Jewish Thought from the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at NYU.
She has taught in a variety of Jewish settings, most recently as a history instructor at the Frisch School. Her research interests include the intersection of ritual and relevance, ritual experimentation, and overcoming the binary of halakhic–non-halakhic/insider-outsider in Jewish ritual practice.
These programs are generously sponsored by the Lubin-Green Foundation and the Chris Jacobs and Hank Webber Ideas and Culture Fund.
