CONGREGATION SHA'AR ZAHAV

Event Description:

Fall Scholar-in-Residence: Rabbi J.B. Sacks presents SHINING A LIGHT

We are very fortunate to welcome Rabbi Sacks as our Jeffrey A. Miller Scholar-in-Residence for Fall 2008.  Please join us for a unique opportunity to learn from a gay Jewish pioneer. 

Rabbi Sacks will be offering several learning opportunities this weekend, including: 

Friday Evening Sevices, November 7, 8:15 pm:  Reflections on our Times

Saturday Morning Services, November. 8, 10:15 am:  The Model of Leo Baeck
Saturday Lunch 'n' Learn, November 8 (following services): A New Light on Leviticus:  LGBTQ Jews and the Conservative Movement

Saturday Havdallah, November 8, 6:00 pm:  Homoerotic Poetry in the Middle Ages

Rabbi Sacks will also speak about the seventieth anniversary of Kristallnacht, which is commemorated on this weekend.  He will be teaching us at Friday evening Shabbat services (8:15 p.m.) and morning services (10:15 a.m.), and we will have further opportunities to learn with him at Shabbat lunch (immediately following services) and a Havdalah program Saturday evening (6:00 pm).  All are welcome.

Rabbi J.B. Sacks was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America,and is one of few openly gay rabbis in the Conservative movement.  He currently serves on the faculty of the Academy for the Jewish Religion (AJR) in Los Angeles, an alternative seminary that embraces all four branches of Judaism.  Rabbi Sacks has also taught at the University of Judaism and Hebrew Union College as a Visiting Professor, usually in Bible.  Rabbi Sacks descends from 17 generations of rabbis on his mother's side.  He received his A.B. degree in Spanish in 1978, his B.Lit. in Jewish Studies from the University of Judaism in 1982, and has been honored with awards in Talmudic studies.  He recently completed his coursework toward his Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible at Claremont Graduate University.As a rabbi, Rabbi Sacks has long worked with issues of inclusion within the Conservative Movement, and on issues of poverty and social justice.  He also has worked in areas of liturgical change. He has been active within the Jewish community on HIV/AIDS, and founded the Interfaith Network of New Jersey, the oldest interfaith organization involved in supporting people with AIDS as well as their families and friends.  He helped to establish the annual World Aids Day observance at the Jewish Museum in New York City, and has also worked with support groups for rabbis living with HIV.

Rabbi Sacks is active in Jews for Marriage Equality, currently helping to get his rabbinic colleagues to join in support of marriage equality and to help defeat Proposition 8 on this November's ballot.

Rabbi Sacks lives with his life partner, Steven Karash and their son Evan in Los Angeles.