We are opening Paideia’s doors for the 7th annual Project-Incubator. Read more about the program – and apply before May 5th – here.

The Project-Incubator is Paideia’s summer program for social innovation and project development. Since 2006, over 100 projects have gone through the program, from 30 different countries.

The program is funded through The European Jewish Fund and Natan, and will be running from August 2nd until August 10.

Mordy Cohen, Paideia Scholar-in-Residence

The Mitzvot of Shmitta (seventh year sabbatical) and Yovel (Jubilee), the banning of interest and others, form a unique economical system required in a Jewish state. In comparing the fundamental values behind that system and those of the modern ways of life, we will ask: Can these Mitzvot be practiced today in a modern industrialized country?

Time: Tuesday March 13, 2012 at 18:00-19:00 
Place: Paideia, Nybrogatan 21, Stockholm
Admission: Free
Registration to info@paideia-eu.org  

In 2010, Paideia commissioned a follow-up study of our graduates by the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute in Jerusalem. The report has now been published.

The study addresses five major questions:

1. What are the graduates’ social-demographic characteristics and what is their present employment and educational status?

2. To what extent do the graduates continue to be involved in their countries of residence in Jewish-related activities: in Jewish community life and/or in professional life/career?

3. How do graduates perceive the impact of the one-year program on their present involvement in Jewish-related activities?

4. To what extent are there professional contacts among graduates?

5. How do the graduates assess in retrospect the contributions and implementation of the one-year program

Among the findings:

Proportion of graduates active in Jewish cultural / communal activities: 66 %

Proportion of graduates volunteering in Jewish related activities: 78 %

Proportion of graduates working in organization related to Jewish issues: 51 %

Proportion of graduates involved in Jewish studies: 51 %

Proportion simultaneously involved in at least two of the above activities: 78 %

Proportion simultaneously involved in at least three of these activities: 45%

Proportion of graduates who are at the PhD level: 30 %

66 %              of graduates say the program increased their involvement in Jewish life and culture

57 %              say the program had a great impact on their professional career

84 %              say the program had a great impact on their involvement in Jewish studies

82 % reported an impact on at least one of these areas.

For a look at the complete report, please take a look here.

The study is also on-line at the Brookdale Institute, and was funded by Irv and Carol Smokler.

Ambassador Eliasson, who serves on Paideia’s Board of Trustees and who together with former Prime Minister Göran Persson held a key position in the creation of Paideia in 2000, has been appointed Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Eliasson is no stranger to the United Nations, having served as the President of the 60th session of the General Assembly, the first Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and as Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Darfur.

“The appointment is a great honor,” says Eliasson, who every year tries to meet with the Paideia fellows.

- I have had the joy and privilege to meet with at least half of the Alumni of Paideia during the last 10 years. These encounters have been a great inspiration for me, an exciting interaction with remarkable groups of students.

At the Paideia Decennial Conference in Uppsala, Sweden in August 2011, Eliasson emphasized the importance of Paideia in the realities of migration and integration in Europe today.

-Globalization is basically positive and beneficial for our continent. However, there are reactions among many that it is evolving too fast. The outside world, “otherness” and foreign cultural or religious influences are by many seen as problems and perils – not as possibilities and potential for positive change. In such a political climate, xenophobic and racist forces are sadly thriving, fishing in murky waters.

In today’s Europe, Paideia is more important than ever.

Välkommen till ett Paideia-studentprojekt!
Plats: TeaterStudio Lederman, Gästrikegatan 13, Stockholm

Tid: Lördag 25 februari kl 17:00-23:00 
Biljettpris: 100 kronor (studentpris: 50 kronor)

Stockholms första israeliska dokumentärfilmfestival ger ett smakprov på israelisk kultur och den israeliska vardagen. Dokumentärerna Dancing Alfonso och Paper Dolls visar på möten mellan minoritets- och majoritetskulturer och hur de samspelar i dagens Israel.

Program: 
17:00 Dörrarna öppnas 
18:30 Dancing Alfonso (50 min., regissör Barak Heymann) 
20:00 Paper Dolls (80 min., regissör Tomer Heymann) 
21:30 Samtal med Barak Heymann, regissör

Information: israfilmsthlm@gmail.com  
För att boka biljett, skicka ett mail till teater.lederman@tele2.se eller ring 08-303094
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Israeli-Documentary-Film-Festival-in-Stockholm/310434449007335

Länkar: 
http://heymannfilms.com/ 
http://heymannfilms.com/film/dancing-alfonso/ 
http://heymannfilms.com/film/paper-dolls/ 
http://heymannfilms.com/about/barak-heymann/ 
http://www.teaterlederman.com/

Evenemanget stöds av Hermele Stiftelsen, Israels ambassad, World Zionist Organization och Paideia – The European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden.

Dr Nicham Ross (Ben Gurion University)

We will engage in joint reading of a Hassidic tale regarding the midnight lamentation (‘Tikkun Hatzot’) of the Rebbe of Sassov.  This text will serve as the basis for discussing the conflicting responses that a traditional, pre-modern, Jewish text evokes in the hearts and minds of  modern Jewish readers, by comparing two contrary versions of this tale: the original traditional version and its subsequent adaptation by the modern secular Yiddish writer I.L. Peretz

Nicham Ross is a lecturer in the Department of Jewish Thought at Ben Gurion University specializing in researching identity and tradition in Jewish literature from the beginning of the 20th century. He is also the Director of the Gandel Institute for Adult Jewish Learning

Time: February 21, 2012 at 18:00-19:00 
Place: Paideia, Nybrogatan 21, Stockholm
Admission: Free
Registration to info@paideia-eu.org  
A cooperation between Paideia and the Great Synagogue in Stockholm. 

PhD candidate Assaf Tamari (Ben Gurion University) 

One can hardly question the importance of the appearance of the Hasidic movement, in 18th century Eastern Europe, for the shaping of Jewish life and thought ever since. Its immense influence was not limited to the numerous, varied and ever changing Hasidic communities; whether as a source of inspiration or as an object of criticism, the Hasidic print is well felt in all realms of Jewish thought. While earlier scholarship had focused on the writings of the first generation of Chassidic masters – such as the Ba’al Shem Tov and the Maggid of mezeritch, sometimes seeing the next generations as a deterioration of authentic Chassidism – the present lecture wishes to introduce you to the fascinating writings and thought of the second rebbe of Gur Hasidism, R. Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter (1847–1905).

In the course of the lecture we shall explore one of the fundamental concepts of Hasidic thought, that of Bittul – the annulment or abnegation of the self and of the world as separate, proud, beings, imagining themselves as self-sufficient, and their re-inclusion in God, allowing the divine affluence to reach this world, or rather to be uncovered in it. We shall do so using the character of Abraham, the father of the believers, as it is depicted by the Gur Rebbe, which will allow us an acquaintance with his artful homiletic style, for which he is renowned.

Assaf Tamari is a PhD Candidate at the department for Jewish thought in Ben-Gurion University. His main field of expertise is sixteenth-century Lurianic Kabbalah, and his research is focused on the Lurianic Body Discourse.

Time: Janaury 31, 2012 at 18:00-19:00 
Place: Paideia, Nybrogatan 21, Stockholm
Admission: Free
Registration to info@paideia-eu.org  
A cooperation between Paideia and the Great Synagogue in Stockholm. 

PhD Candidate Rani Jaeger (Bar-Ilan University)

Rani Jaeger is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Bar Ilan University at the department of Hermeneutics and Cultural Studies. He is also the Director of the Shalom Hartman Institute School for Teacher Education.

Time: Janaury 10, 2012 at 18:00-19:00 
Place: Paideia, Nybrogatan 21, Stockholm
Admission: Free
Registration to info@paideia-eu.org  
A cooperation between Paideia and the Great Synagogue in Stockholm. 

Rachel Furst, Hebrew University 

Time: November 15 at 18:00-19:00 
Place: Paideia, Nybrogatan 21, Stockholm
Admission: Free
Registration to info@paideia-eu.org  
A cooperation between Paideia and the Great Synagogue in Stockholm. 

Medieval German and French scholars devoted much of their legal activity to the writing of responsa.  Practical questions on a range of matters in civil and ritual law were submitted to the authorities of each generation by individuals and communities throughout the Diaspora, and their responses established the basis of halakhic observance and set precedent for future generations.  In this talk, we will examine one group of responsa, authored by R. Yitzhak Or Zaru’a and his contemporaries, that relate to the violent destruction of Frankfurt’s Jewish community in May 1241.  We will consider how the responsa genre of halakhic literature internalizes and gives expression to sociological phenomena and what a legal ruling can tell us about the way in which its author construed Jewish communal identity.

Rachel Furst is a Ph.D. candidate in Jewish History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where she is working on a dissertation entitled, “Claiming Credibility: The Makings and Meanings of Gender in the Legal Literature of Medieval Ashkenaz.” She received a B.A. in Medieval Studies from Barnard College and an M.A. in Jewish History from the Hebrew University. Rachel is a lecturer at Matan, Jerusalem and has taught at various institutions in Israel and abroad.

The Krister Stendahl Memorial Lecture by Susannah Heschel  

Nov 7 at 15-17 at Ersta Konferens, Bringsalen, Erstagatan 1K, Stockholm 

”From Rabbi to Nazi: The Vicissitudes of Jesus in Modern Theology”

Both Christian and Jewish theologies developed in the modern period within a European context, shaped by intellectual currents of Enlightenment, romanticisim, and historicism, but also by political movements of imperialism, racism, and nationalism. These two theological movements – and here I will focus primarily on the Protestantism and Judaism of Germany from the late 18th century through World War II – developed with careful attention to each other. Indeed, each was shaped by the claims and concerns of the other: reforms of the synagogue, for example, followed traditions of the church (organ, weekly sermon, music), while Protestants wrestled with the (non)distinctiveness of Jesus from first-century Judaism. Demonstrating the independence and autonomy of each religion, and preserving its “unique” message became increasingly difficult in light of the blurred boundaries between the two religions. Interestingly, Jewish thinkers turned to Islam as a template for defending Judaism’s ethical monotheism, while Christians in Germany turned to India to discover the original “Aryan” soul, and increasingly in the early twentieth century found affinities with racial theory.

My talk will outline the history of these developments in order to demonstrate the roots of our contemporary conflicts over religious tolerance. I will not propose a constructive theology for the future, but I will instead demonstrate some of the pitfalls of several approaches, ranging from liberal to Orthodox. The goal is not simply to seek paths of coexistence and tolerance of several religious faiths in one society, but to find ways in which the existence of other faiths not only influence, but enhance and deepen our own.

Susannah Heschel is Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, USA and Fellow at Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.

Free of charge.
The lecture is given in English.

A cooperation between the Centre for Inter Faith Dialogue, Diocese of Stockholm
and Paideia – The European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden

More info on: http://www.svenskakyrkan.se/default.aspx?id=816454