As the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America’s oldest and most established regional hub, Hartman Bay Area engages our community leaders in both the lay and professional realm in areas of thought leadership that relate to the complexities of the North American Jewish community. We bring people together to engage in conversations about the relationship between the North American Jewish community and Israel through deep learning opportunities with renowned scholars from across North America and Israel. Our goals include strengthening Jewish peoplehood, identity, and pluralism; enhancing the Jewish and democratic character of Israel; and ensuring that Judaism is a compelling force for good in the 21st century. Our work in the Bay Area focuses on:
Watch this short video about our work building a stronger, better informed Jewish community in the Bay Area.
Major funding for our work in the Bay Area provided by:
Additional operational and programmatic support provided by:
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This fellowship aims to strengthen the pipeline for Jewish leadership by providing a high-level study experience rooted in Jewish texts that addresses the key challenges of East Bay Jewish life.
We bring together a select group of leaders from across the East Bay to study the key challenges impacting our Jewish community today. Drawing from the Shalom Hartman Institute’s Foundations for a Thoughtful Judaism curriculum, fellows explore the underlying ideologies of the Jewish faith and how they impact Israel, American political partisanship, and navigating the future post COVID-19.
Mon
oct 3
2020
Sep 26, 2023
Strengthening the pipeline for Jewish leadership through high-level study addressing the key challenges of Bay Area Jewish life.
Courageous Leadership is an initiative that strives to ensure a healthy Jewish communal ecosystem. This work has been particularly fruitful in the Bay Area. Courageous Leadership gatherings offer Jewish leadership an opportunity to create supportive networks for open discourse, pluralism, and healthy disagreement.
Sep 26, 2023
Understanding the economies of power and ideas in organized North American Jewish life.
We regularly convene executive directors and senior leadership of the major Jewish organizations serving the Bay Area Jewish community for ongoing conversation about the key challenges they face as community leaders.
The Bay Area Scholars’ Circle is a select group of academics and Jewish thought leaders who tackle big questions about Jewish life. This program links our robust presence in the Bay Area to our network of scholars around the globe. As a local branch of our Kogod Research Center, the scholarship that emerges from this program contributes a Bay Area approach to the Torah produced by the Institute. Our scholars include faculty at UC Berkeley, the Graduate Theological Union, and Stanford University.
This year, the Scholars’ Circle is focusing on questions of Nationalism and Modern Judaism. The 20th century saw the development of two centers of Jewish life. One, in Israel, is wrapped up in a vision for Jewish nationalism while the other, in the US, is tied to a notion of liberal democracy. Both of these centers project notions of Judaism and Jewish sovereignty that are challenged in our current environment. We are living in a moment of global tensions around nationalism: the fundamental morality of borders and boundaries, the relationship between solidarity and violence, the role of ethnicity in shaping national identity, and the parameters of criticism within a framework of loyalty. This begs questions such as:
As the central address for Jewish thought leadership, SHI NA has been engaged as the key content provider for LABA East Bay: A Laboratory for Jewish Culture housed at the JCC of the East Bay. LABA Fellows are leaders in the production of Jewish culture and include faculty at SF State, California College of the Arts and Stanford. Their work has been shown at SFMOMA, the Contemporary Jewish Museum and the Brooklyn Museum of Art.
A central component of our work is supporting local organizations as they navigate the range of questions related to Judaism and modernity, Jewish Peoplehood, and Pluralism. We are excited to have been able to work with a range of vibrant organizations including the Jewish Family and Children’s Services of San Francisco, the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto, The Contemporary Jewish Museum, The Jewish Community Relations Council, Congregation Emanu-El, Berkeley Hillel, Hillel at Stanford, and many others.
Aug 31, 2023
Aug 24, 2023
What’s it like to be a kid living through the tumult and angst of Israel in 2023.
Aug 24, 2023
Aug 17, 2023
Aug 7, 2023
What makes American Jewish life so complex isn't far off from Israel's own fraught existence.
Aug 1, 2023
Jul 20, 2023
Jul 20, 2023
Director of Strategic Partnerships and Philanthropic Initiatives, West Coast
Director of Education
Bay Area Scholar in Residence
Program Coordinator