Jewish Federation of St. Louis’ Sh’ma: Listen! Speaker Series will continue with a talk by Rabbi Marc Rosenstein on “Toward a Vision of a Jewish State” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 31 at the Jewish Federation building, 12 Millstone Campus Drive. 

A Chicago native, Rosenstein made aliyah in 1990, settling with his family in the Shorashim, a small community in the Galilee where he served for 20 years as the director of the Galilee Foundation for Value Education, an NGO employing the methods of informal education to generate social change.

Rosenstein’s talk will explore what an ideal Jewish State might look like. 

“Israeli and Diaspora Jews often express disappointment or even anger at Israel’s deficiencies — somehow, it is never democratic enough, or Jewish enough. It’s easy to complain,” he said. “The real challenge is, if we had a magic wand, just what would our ideal Jewish State look like? That’s where the discussion needs to start.”

Rosenstein began the Galilee Circus, which brings together young Jews and Arabs to learn, practice and perform circus arts. The Galilee Circus has a rich relationship with St Louis’ Circus Harmony group. 

The event is free and open to the community. For more information or to RSVP, contact Barbara Levin at [email protected] or 314-442-3752. Learn more about the Sh’ma: Listen! Speaker Series at JFedSTL.org/SpeakerSeries.

The event is co-sponsored by Sh’ma: Listen! Speaker Series and the Center for Jewish Learning. 

Sh’ma: Listen! is supported by the Lubin-Green Foundation, a supporting foundation of Jewish Federation of St. Louis, and Hank Webber and Chris Jacobs.