Spring Shabbaton | Scholar in Residence Weekend with Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller
April 23 - 25, 2026
Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller joins us as our Scholar in Residence for our Spring Shabbaton. Join us Thursday evening, April 23, Friday evening, April 24 & again on Saturday morning, April 25, to learn with our esteemed guest.
The current antagonistic political climate has all but shut down any constructive engagement with Zionist ideology and its redemptive possibilities. By referencing a range of foundational texts promulgated by Zionist thinkers such as Ahad Ha’am, Martin Buber, Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv(1935-46), Moshe Avigdor Amiel and, an influential contemporary rabbinic thinker, R. Yehuda Amital, we will attempt to frame a Zionism of values that has the potential to inspire a new generation. Our ambitious task is to return to and reclaim the humanistic spirit of the Zionist revolution that has been eclipsed by political interests and formulate an inclusive and principled Jewish national vision.
Chaim Seidler-Feller has been associated with Hillel for over 50 years and has celebrated forty years of working with students and faculty as the Executive Director of the Yitzhak Rabin Hillel Center for Jewish Life at UCLA. He is currently Director Emeritus. Chaim
completed a Masters in Rabbinic Literature and was ordained in
1971 at Yeshiva University where he was a student of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik. He has been a lecturer in the Departments of Sociology and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA and in the Department of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University. He is the founding director of the Hartman Fellowship for Campus Professionals and currently serves as a faculty member of the Shalom Hartman Institute and of the Wexner Heritage Federation.
In addition,Chaim is an organizer for A Land for All and S’mol Emuni in the US. In 2014 he initiated a fact finding mission for non-Jewish student leaders to Israel and the Palestine Authority which is now offered on ninety campuses. He is the author most recently of, “The God of Possibilities: From Being to Becoming”, ‘Twas the Best of Times, ‘Twas the Worst of Times: Antisemitism, Israel and the Politics of Resentment on the Campus Today”. and “A Return to a Zionism for the Future.”
The International Hillel Center granted Chaim the Hillel Professional Recognition Award “for blending the love of Jewish tradition with the modern intellectual approach of the university.” In 2020 he was presented with a Festschrift entitled Swimming Against the Current: Reimagining Jewish Tradition in the 21st Century-Essays in Honor of Chaim Seidler-Feller. Chaim was a rabbinic consultant to Barbra Streisand during the making of the film Yentl.
Friday Evening, April 26 | 6:15 PM
Shabbat Dinner: The Dangers of Nationalism and Messianic Politics
6:15 PM: Kabbalat Shabbat in the Stone Family Sanctuary
7:15 PM: Dinner & Presentation in the Jacobs Family Community Hall
We continue to learn with Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller over Shabbat, following Kabbalat Shabbat & Dinner.