Kids and teens will be heading back to both Hebrew and secular school soon. But education doesn’t necessarily end when a person graduates from high school or college — educational programs geared at adults are common at synagogues. And Beth El Congregation, which recently announced its slate of 2024-2025 programs, has some of the most extensive offerings for congregants looking to expand their knowledge.
Running the gamut from Torah study to mahjong to even a class on classic sitcoms, there’s sure to be something for everyone at Beth El, whether they’re a congregant or not.
The board of the Rabbi Mark G. Loeb Center for Lifelong Learning aims to curate a schedule of programs that engages not only Beth El congregants, but people both inside and outside of Baltimore’s Jewish community.
The planning process for the board is ongoing throughout the year, though it can sometimes take up to two years for a year’s book of programming to be fully completed. This is due in part to the fact that many of these classes involve guest lecturers and instructors, many of whom are from outside of Beth El’s membership.
“We’re talking about a year-long process. Look at how many people we have to engage — musicians, professors, filmmakers and actors,” said Eyal Bor, the director of the Rabbi Mark G. Loeb Center. “It’s an institution, like a mini university or college within a synagogue. It’s year-long work that never stops.”
The eponymous Loeb was Bor’s mentor, so he continues his work through the center’s offerings. Bor is largely responsible for shifting the education program’s focus to include more arts-based activities, like film screenings and concerts, which have brought in people from all over the area.
One of the most successful recent experiments has been the synagogue’s 1st Wednesdays concert series, which sees Beth El hosting musicians in a variety of genres for free concerts. Past performers have included the Hotel Paradise Orchestra, Leigh Pilzer’s Seven Pointed Star and even Bor himself, who performed on the clarinet last year with two other congregants during a High Holidays concert.
“Between the flicks and the 1st Wednesdays, we draw between 100 and 200 people,” explained Roz Kurman, one of the co-chairs of adult education at Beth El. “They’re free, so a lot of people come out. Recently, we also introduced movie nights at actual movie theaters, where we take a whole theater and rent it out. We did ‘Golda’ and ‘The Boys in the Boat’ last year, and then we had discussions after.”
Bor noted that an arts-related program that he is particularly excited for is “The Recovery of the Goudstikker Collection,” an upcoming lecture by Johns Hopkins University lecturer Nora Hamerman about a Jewish-owned art collection stolen by the Nazis and ongoing attempts to recover it.
“We will talk about Nazis who stole Jewish art. Nazi looting was the greatest crime in the history of art,” he added.
Another factor that Beth El’s adult education board has to consider when planning programming is how they can keep congregants engaged and involved. To that end, they have created a series of lectures called “My Story,” which give congregants with unique backgrounds and careers the stage to discuss their accomplishments.
Some of the upcoming congregants in this series include an artist with paintings on display at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, an auctioneer from a four-generation-long line of auctioneers and a few past presidents of Beth El.
“We recently interviewed a congregant who developed prosthetics, and we had no idea he did until he reached out to be part of the My Story series,” Kurman said. “He was really instrumental in getting it started.”
Like with many other things in the Jewish community, Oct. 7 has also affected the slate of programs that Beth El will be offering for the coming year. The synagogue is no stranger to classes about Israeli history and culture, but some of its classes and lectures will also focus on current events, relating to the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East.
Bor mentioned that they are planning a weekly program that summarizes and discusses the past week’s Israel-related news, in order to make it more digestible and accessible.
Part of why Beth El’s adult education lineup is so important is not only because of the learning opportunities it provides, but also the chance for adults and seniors to create long-lasting friendships and relationships.
“I hope that people come to Beth El not just for services, but to connect more with our culture, our history and our people, and to create lasting relationships amongst themselves,” Bor said. “Once or twice a month, I’ll go to the parshah study class. That group of 25-30 people have become like family. Whenever there’s sadness, God forbid, they all come together.”
