Thanks to the Westchester Jewish Council for sending this news. It's easy to upload your announcements to Patch.
This fall Westchester Adult Jewish Education (WAJE), a program of the Westchester Jewish Council, will celebrate its 7th year of operation by offering Jewish adults a learning experience of unprecedented scope: an 18-session Introduction to Judaism course at each of five separate locations across the county, showcasing the combined teaching skills of thirty-five Westchester Jewish clergymen and women.
Intro to Judaism is a countywide collaborative effort: the Westchester Board of Rabbis; the Mid-Westchester, Rosenthal and Hudson JCC’s; the Westchester Jewish Council and WAJE; UJA-Federation; and Hadassah, plus MAXX Properties in Harrison, have joined forces to provide welcoming classrooms for Jews, non-Jews, prospective Jews and folks related to Jews – any and all who are looking for an introduction (or re-introduction) to essential Judaism.
In Tarrytown the class is scheduled on Thursday evenings (7:30pm-9:30pm) at the JCC on the Hudson, 371 South Broadway and will open on October 25th.
Six dynamic Jewish clergymen and women will share teaching responsibility: Rabbi Billy Dreskin, Woodlands Community Temple; Cantor Margot Goldberg, Temple Beth Abraham; Cantor Jonathan Gordon, Woodlands Community Temple; Rabbi David Holtz, Temple Beth Abraham; Rabbi Barry Kenter, Greenburgh Hebrew Center; and Rabbi Mara Young, Woodlands Community Temple. Cost of the Tarrytown class: $180 per person.
Alternative Intro to Judaism locations are Harrison, Pleasantville, Yorktown Heights and Scarsdale. Like Tarrytown’s, each venue’s teaching faculty has been drawn from that community’s local clergy.
Come January WAJE will continue to celebrate its 7th year of operation when a similarly unprecedented collaboration of Westchester cantors begins teaching Jewish Music at Temple Israel Center in White Plains. Over the course of ten class sessions, a different cantor will help illuminate the world of Jewish music - the sacred, the secular, the uniquely American, and the very personal. Jewish Music was jointly developed by WAJE and Kol Hazzanim, Westchester’s community of cantors, as a detailed follow-up to a much anticipated single Night of Jewish Music at Temple Israel Center on Saturday evening, November 17th. The single Night of Jewish Music, a community-wide celebration of Jewish music and the people who create it, is sponsored by the Westchester Jewish Council.
Introduction to Judaism and Jewish Music are among the two dozen WAJE courses offered in 2012-13. WAJE classes include studies in Jewish sacred texts, contemporary literature, history, ritual and spirituality, Israel, ethics, the Jewish family, Judaism and the Brain, and more. Courses of varying length begin in mid- October, after the High Holidays, and open throughout the year. Local clergy and scholars of all denominations teach the subjects that interest them most to Jewish adults of all backgrounds. Whatever a student’s level of Jewish education, knowledge or observance, WAJE strives mightily to offer a class that interests, intrigues and illuminates.
The Westchester Adult Jewish Education 2012-13 catalogue will be available in synagogues, JCC’s and on line in mid-September. For further details about WAJE, email Director Nina Luban at waje@wjcouncil.org or call the WAJE office at 914-328-7001.
