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BEIT Midrash

Thursday, January 24, 2019 18 Shevat 5779

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
5:30 to 6 pm    VTS Parents Discussion with Rabbi Libman
 
We invite VTS Parents to learn with our rabbis and stay for dinner or other BEIT experiences as desired. Students are welcome in study hall while their parents are learning.
 
6 to 7 pm        BEIT Café open for Dinner: Lasagna Night
Register for Dinner. $8 per person, in advance. $10 per person, at the door.
Plan on dining with us all semester? $65 per person for the semester.
 
Our BEIT theme is DIRECTING OUR HEARTS.
Experience personal meaning in a variety of learning experiences and settings. Our explorations touch on the arts, history, prayer, Torah study, and personal connections to Judaism and the heritage of the Jewish people.
 
Choose one from this list of many experiences and sessions. Participate in one, two, or all three parts of the evening. BEIT Café offers coffee and nosh all evening.
 
6:30 to 7:10 pm    BEIT Experience I
 
Appreciating Jewish Art
Marc Chagall – The Most Important 20th Century Jewish Artist
Guri Stark
A master of dreams and storytelling: come explore Chagall’s unique expressive and poetic paintings.
 
Renewing the Covenant Dr. Ray Fink
Join us for a discussion and analysis of the common values underlying the relationship between North American Jews and Israeli Jews. What are our mutual responsibilities? What are our common values? How do we deal with differences? Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has issued a call to action, please join us in this most important task.
 
Learning with the Lebowitzs Ian Merles
Study the weekly Torah portion with the commentaries of Yeshayahu and Nehama Lebowitz - a brother and sister pair of polymath geniuses, Torah scholars, and shapers of Israeli society.
 
Tikkun Talk
Discuss social justice concerns with synagogue friends. Hear from social service and human welfare providers. Understand the needs in the community around us. Learn about personal experiences at Tikkun projects. Help imagine how we at Congregation Beth El can continue to do the work helping, repairing, caring, and supporting work of Tikkun.
This week, Brandon McDonald, lead organizer at Western Service Workers Association, joins us to discuss the all-volunteer organization that supports low-income service workers in San Diego County.
 
Beginning Hebrew Reading Robin Shulman
Learn to decode the Hebrew alphabet and read basic prayer book blessings. This is a comfortable first step for discovering or rediscovering your ability to read Hebrew.
 
Intermediate Hebrew Reading Orli Moses 
Strengthen your Hebrew reading and comprehension skills to better participate in synagogue services and ritual celebrations.
 
Torah Reading Ran Anbar
Learn to read Torah or grow your Torah reading skills. If you wish, read Torah on occasional Shabbat mornings as member of our Torah reading squad. We meet on a regular basis to teach Torah trope to beginners, review trope with more experienced readers, and practice upcoming Torah readings.

7:20 to 8:00 pm    BEIT Learning
 
Believe It or Not Rabbi Ron Shulman
What does Judaism believe? What do we think about what Judaism teaches? Explore Jewish religious views about the meaning of life and death, ritual practice and personal ethics, beliefs about God, and how technology and personal choice challenge Jewish religious values.
 
Intro to Judaism – Part II Rabbi Avi Libman
Join us for an educational journey for Jews and non-Jews interested in gaining knowledge of Jewish history, life, and culture. In this course, we cover topics like Jewish history, theology, and philosophy, as well as holidays and life-cycle events, practices, and rituals. The course is geared to anyone who wants to learn more about Judaism, in addition to those considering conversion.


8:00            BEIT Experience II
            
BEIT Talks
Heard of Ted Talks? Welcome to Beth El Talks! Meet fascinating members of our synagogue community. Learn about their lives, their careers, and wisdom from their experiences. Each season we’ll feature a variety of individuals as we celebrate the diversity and achievements of our synagogue family.
 
BEIT Talks presents Dr. Andrew J. Viterbi
Dr. Andrew Viterbi, well known to us at Congregation Beth El for his devotion to our synagogue community, was born in 1935 in Bergamo, Italy. At age 4, following the anti-Semitic “Racial Laws,” with his parents he immigrated to America. Growing up in Boston he attended public schools, including the earliest High School founded in the U.S. After earning Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from MIT, he moved to California for a position at Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory just five months before the Soviet “Sputnik” signaled the launch of the Space Age. Over the next five years, while participating in the first successful U.S. satellite launch and pursuing research on the reception and tracking of extremely weak signals from satellites and planetary probes, he also earned a Ph.D. from USC. The following year he was offered a faculty position at UCLA, where he remained for ten years of teaching and research, which solidified his reputation in the field of wireless communication research.
Moving with his young family to San Diego in 1973, he participated full time in Linkabit Corporation, the first of two startups of which he was a co-founder. Through this and the second one, Qualcomm, with colleagues and a growing number of bright new engineering graduates he helped to turn several of his R&D concepts, originally applied only for Defense and Space communication, into large scale wireless networks for industrial and consumer uses. These included the first mobile satellite network for continent-wide transportation services and the first successful U.S. digital cellular network. During this time he also held a part-time position on the UCSD Engineering School faculty.
Retiring from Qualcomm in 2000, he remained active in support of new technological ventures. To a growing extent he also dedicated time and resources to causes to which he is deeply committed. Education at all levels has been a high priority, followed by the support of health and safety institutions as well as cultural activities in the humanities and arts; all these in the U.S., Israel and throughout the Jewish world.
Well above the recognition he has received from his profession, Andrew treasures the closeness of his family, children and grandchildren, for which he credits in many ways his beloved companion of almost six decades, Erna Finci Viterbi z”l.

Register

Gluten free option available upon request. 
We will accommodate requests when possible. 
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