Rabbi Yosef Baruch Frommer

LECTURES

"The Romaniotes" - The Story of Greek Jews
Jews who spoke Greek lived in the Hellenistic region since the fourth century BCE. Archaeological evidence from the Greek islands, the Greek mainland, and the small Asian islands testify to the existence of Greek-Jewish synagogues for about 2000 years. In ancient times, Greek was the language of many Jews in the Hellenistic region, from Egypt through Antioch, Sicily, modern-day Turkey, Macedonia, and of course Greece - communities of Jews existed whose everyday language was Greek (similarly to how Aramaic was the everyday language in the Babylonian region).

With the decline of the Hellenistic Empire and its fall to the Byzantine Empire, the spaces where Greek-speaking Jews existed also shrank, until in the early 20th century these communities were mainly limited to mainland Greece. These Greek Jews, known as "Romaniotes," are neither Sephardic nor Ashkenazi. Their Talmud is the Jerusalem Talmud and not the Babylonian Talmud. Their prayer text is ancient and unique, from which a small number of piyutim survived. Romaniotes have folk traditions, such as the celebration of children on the first day of Adar, where they recite special songs for Purim and collect bags of sweets. Most Romaniote Jews were annihilated in the Holocaust, and Greek communities today are struggling with a difficult problem of assimilation. As a Romaniote Jew and Greek speaker, I feel committed to bringing a taste of this history and tradition to the knowledge of the Israeli public.

The lecture presents a conceptual framework for honest, incisive, and contemporary engagement with the Holocaust industry. It examines how to move from a discourse of blame and guilt to a discourse of reconciliation, recognition, repair, and shared responsibility towards the diverse and colorful Israeli future. Within this framework, a series of spiritual keys to building a multi-ethnic Israeli community are presented.

Ancient Keys to New Repair
The public discourse on the challenges of Israeli society is rooted in academic and Western thought infrastructures. Concepts such as "capitalism," "communism," "social democracy," "freedom," and "pluralism" are all products of Western philosophical thought over the past 200 years. When we look at Israeli society, there is a wide public whose values and philosophy differ from the educational tradition of Western Europe. Within the realm of Jewish thought, there are human keys that can help us deal with modern challenges. Attitudes towards the poor, environmental preservation, community organization - these are all issues that the Jewish world has dealt with, deliberated upon, and sometimes even provided clear answers to. Therefore, for modern problems of Israeli society, there exists a realm of ancient solutions based on a spiritual approach with thousands of years of experience. The claim is not that all solutions to all Israeli problems are contained within Jewish history. However, within our sources and our national accumulated experience, there are refreshing and sometimes revolutionary approaches to the challenges of life today.

Judaism and Democracy - Two Sides of the Same Coin
There is a seemingly rational argument that Judaism contradicts the democracy of the State of Israel. This claim is far from beliefs, practices, and fundamental assumptions of the Jewish tradition, and it represents a narrow and inaccurate view of "democracy." With the birth of modern democracy, it was embraced and celebrated by Jews worldwide, and for good reason. Democracy is a broad humanistic concept that recognizes the uniqueness of every individual, much like Judaism. On these and other parallels, this lecture will elaborate.

Study Workshops in Chevruta
The Jewish learning tradition is in chevruta, in partnership. The term "chevruta" implies the quality of shared learning, different from the qualities of individual, solitary learning. I believe that the more pairs of eyes examining the text, the richer, more diverse, and more colorful the learning becomes. In more "religious" settings, some identify learning in chevruta as studying with a study partner over one text. Such learning is deep and intimate, but it is not the meaning or the only way to study in chevruta.

What does a chevruta study workshop include?
Each workshop includes theoretical and analytical background, a central text or several central texts for deepening, and collaborative examination of the texts and their meanings.
Each workshop is customized (custom-made) to the group's needs, meaning it can range from a single two-hour "exposure" session to a 6-8 hour "study day" and can culminate in a comprehensive 12-session course of one and a half hours each. It is important for me to tailor the framework and content to the relevant group so that the learning is precise and focused.

I invite you to study in chevruta, in one of the joint study workshops:

1. The Figure of the Poor and Attitude Towards Them in the Jewish Tradition
Together we will study from a variety of Jewish sources - the Bible, the Talmud, the Midrash, and the Responsa - about the poor of Israel, their communal commitment, their place in communal organization, and more. Together we will debate their relevance and whether there are different approaches and definitions that we encounter for life here and now in the State of Israel.

2. Training for Mission and Community Messengers
We will explore together the structure and order of receiving Shabbat, the evening and morning services of Shabbat. We will practice prayer leading techniques and listening in prayer. We will examine the role of the community messenger and address the dilemmas it raises. We will try to understand the inner work required of a community messenger. We will sing songs from the East and West and get to know the digital toolbox available to the modern community messenger.

3. From Adam to the Omer - A Journey to the Jewish Bookshelf
We will stroll together among the central literary genres of the Jewish Bookshelf (Midrash, Halakha, Poetry, Questions and Answers) and fascinating topics within it. We will get to know the Jewish time axis, try to peek beyond the text to life, values, and perceptions reflected from it. We will also sample Torah and Judaism in modern Hebrew poetry.

4. Management of Volunteers and Tasks in Small and Distributed Teams in the Community
Based on my rich experience in managing teams and tasks in the high-tech world and my familiarity with the community volunteering world, I offer a unique workshop on organization and management of teams, tasks, and volunteers in a distributed and asynchronous community environment. The workshop includes experience and practice in democratic time management techniques, task distribution, and result-oriented cyclical planning.

5. Group Critical Reading Workshop in the Weekly Torah Portion
The weekly Torah reading team ("two read and one translates") is one of the central axes of the Jewish learning world. In the workshops, we

 will engage in a group reading of the Torah portion, try to understand the assumptions and questions that arise from the text, and take a critical look at the choices made in the various translations. We will use digital tools to enhance the learning experience and to approach the text through new angles.

Join us for a study workshop in chevruta and experience Jewish learning in its traditional and updated formats!