The Marlene and Herb Levin
Adult University

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Our 2022-2023 Season will include both virtual and in person programs. Virtual programs will be streamed via Zoom and in person programs will be presented at the Levis JCC Sandler Center (unless otherwise noted) with masks for participants strongly recommended, and social distancing implemented whenever possible. Outside venues, individual instructors, lecturers and performers reserve the right to require masks in any of their events.

Authors, educators, and experts in their field on a wide variety of topics from politics, current events, and historical figures to health and wellness, and entertainment; numerous lectures will be offered.

Please note all times listed are Eastern time; register for all programs using the link below unless otherwise noted in the program description. All programs subject to change. All opinions and ideas expressed by the authors, lecturers, performers or instructors are solely their own and do not represent the Levis JCC, its leadership, staff, sponsoring organizations or individuals.

Individual in person lectures: $18, Gold & Gold Plus Members: $12, Platinum Members: Free (unless noted)
Pick 6 in person programs: $90, Gold & Gold Plus Members: $60, Platinum Members: Free
Virtual programs are free for all virtual members, $10 for non-virtual members (unless noted)


If you need assistance purchasing tickets or membership, call the Box Office at 561-558-2520.

LEVIS JCC SANDLER CENTER | 21050 95th Avenue S., Boca Raton, FL | 561-558-2520

*Important: please note that when arriving to our campus for evening and Sunday events, you must use the 95th Avenue S. entrance
(off of Glades Road between Lyons Road and 441).


Lectures

In person at the Levis JCC Sandler Center

Robert Watson, Ph.D.

Tuesday, April 18, 3:00 pm
The Legacy of the Nuremberg Trials
On October 18, 1945, twenty-two of Nazi Germany’s political, military, and economic leaders were brought to trial in Nuremberg for crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. For the first time in history an international tribunal composed of the Allied countries and representatives of Nazi-occupied countries would punish the leaders of a regime and an army who were responsible for crimes committed.

Each lecture: $25, Gold & Gold Plus Members: $20, Platinum Members: Free

Robert Watson is a professor, author, historian, media commentator and community activist. He joined the faculty of Lynn in 2007 after spending 15 years teaching at universities around the country. He has published over 40 books and approximately 200 scholarly articles, essays and chapters on topics in history and politics and is a frequent media commentator.

Wednesday, January 4, 3:00 pm
Tell me Another: Introduction to Personal Storytelling with Terry Wolfisch Cole (Winner of the Moth Grand Slam)

Ira Glass of This American Life says, “Great stories happen to people who know how to tell them.” Do you want to get better at captivating listeners? Whether you want to tell your story on stage, in a business meeting or college interview, or at the family table, professional storyteller Terry Wolfisch Cole of Tell Me Another will teach you everything you need to know to engage any audience. The session will include an opportunity to hear Terry tell a story as well as tips and techniques for effective storytelling.

Terry Wolfisch Cole is the founder and host of Tell Me Another, a live storytelling show in the Hartford area. She is a Moth GrandSLAM champion whose story of running away from home was featured on the Moth Radio Hour and in Readers Digest. She will share this story with us LIVE. She regularly shares her stories on stage, offers workshops and trainings for a wide range of purposes including fundraising and professional development, and provides one-on-one coaching to speakers.

Monday, January 9, 7:30 pm (Israel 75)
Artists Under Fire: The BDS War against Celebrities, Jews, and Israel with Lana Melman

Hundreds of international entertainers sign up to perform in Israel every year and nearly all are besieged with calls to boycott the Jewish homeland in social and main-stream media. Each of these boycott campaigns spreads vicious lies about Israel to their hundreds of millions of fans and traffics in antisemitic lies stirring up Jew hatred across the globe. Behind it all is the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, an anti-Jewish conspiracy network masquerading as a human rights movement.
Entertainment industry insider, Lana Melman, puts BDS on trial and shares the stories of artists, like Scar-lett Johansson, Alicia Keys, Bon Jovi, Justin Timberlake, and The Rolling Stones, who are being used as pawns in this destructive crusade. In Artists Under Fire: The BDS War against Celebrities, Jews, and Israel, Melman provides Israel supporters with an action plan to stand up to the cultural boycott campaign and will cause its followers to question the motives of their leaders, the company they are keeping, and the consequences of their actions.

Lana Melman is an attorney, a 20-year veteran of the entertainment industry and the CEO of Liberate Art Inc. Since 2011, she has been a leader in combating the cultural boycott (BDS) campaign against Israel working both behind the scenes with the people artists trust the most – their representatives – and in the public discourse.

Tuesday, January 24, 3:00 pm
Cosmetic Queens; Helena Rubinstein & Estee Lauder with Rose Feinberg, Ed.D.

Monday, January 30, 3:00 pm
Cosmic Judaism with Rabbi Barry Silver

Wednesday, February 1, 3:00 pm
Celebrity Chefs with Rose Feinberg, Ed.D.

Rose Feinberg, Ed.D., earned her doctoral degree in education from Boston University. She was a school principal in Massachusetts, as well as a respected lecturer. Feinberg served as an adjunct faculty member at FAU for eight years, teaching graduate courses in curriculum and school administration. She is a well-known lecturer in South Florida Her lectures are extensively researched and her theater training and personality make her a dynamic presenter.

Thursday, February 16, 3:00 pm
Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age with Debby Applegate

Madam is the biography of Polly Adler (1900−1962), the most infamous and influential madam in Jazz Age New York. Her 1953 memoir, A House is Not A Home, sold 2 million books and became a 1963 movie starring Shelley Winters. More than a biography, this is a colorful and unusual history of Jewish life told through the perspective of a “good Jewish girl” from a Russian shtetl who immigrated to Brooklyn, and rose to become “the Female Al Capone” and one of the most renowned Jewish-American women in the 20th century.

Debby Applegate is a historian whose first book, The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher, won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Book Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. She holds a Ph.D. from Yale University.

Tuesday, February 21, 3:00 pm
Black History Month: Abraham Joshua Heschel and Martin Luther King Jr. with Rabbi Barry Silver

Tuesday, March 14, 3:00 pm
Great Ukrainian Jews with Leah Polin

Leah Polin is a frequent lecturer in the Chicago and South Florida on wide variety of topics including Jewish women, biographies of major Jewish figures, Jewish history, Israel and current events. She has organized Jewish Heritage Tours to many interesting and exotic countries and is a frequent traveler to Israel.

Thursday, March 23, 3:00 pm
How Hatikvah Became the Israeli National Anthem with Ira Epstein (Israel 75)

Ira Epstein, Ph.D., co-author of “The Proficient Reader,” served as professor and chairperson of the Communication Skills Department at LaGuardia Community College, C.U.N.Y. and directed the college’s Technology Learning Center. In addition to his academic life, he worked as a musician performing in the Catskills, recorded with Tayku, a Hebrew jazz/rock ensemble, taught music to children in summer camps, and toured with Theodore Bikel and Herschel Bernardi in the ’70s as part of a UJA program. Most recently, he has been lecturing to adults on comedy, music and the music of Israel. He continues to speak at synagogues, senior centers, JCCs, libraries and elderhostels and at meetings of national organizations such as The National Council of Jewish Women, Hadassah and B’nai B’rith. He earned his B.A. and M.A. from Brooklyn College, C.U.N.Y. and his Ph.D. from Fordham University.

Tuesday, March 28, 3:00 pm
From Start Up to Scale Up Nation: Israel Saves the Planet with Leah Polin (Israel 75)

Thursday, April 20, 7:30 pm
Fighting Back: Stan Andrews and the Birth of the Israeli Air Force with Jeffrey Weiss

Fighting Back is about Stan Andrews, an assimilated American Jew and World War II veteran who in 1948 became one of the first fighter pilots in the Israeli air force. The book follows Stan’s short but dazzling life, including his transition from a brilliant student and talented artist into a daring bomber pilot in the Pacific during WWII, his post-war studies and romance in Los Angeles, and then his dramatic and unexpected decision to fight for a Jewish state. In Israel Stan served in the country’s first fighter squadron, performed high level liaison work under an assumed name, and then served in a bomber squadron before disappearing in a dramatic bombing raid. Along the way we experience. Stan’s inner turmoil and journey – from a highly assimilated Jew whose identity was rekindled by 1940s antisemitism into the person who made the dramatic and fateful decision to fight for a Jewish state. The book has received advance praise from, among others, Dan Senor (co-author of Start-Up Nation) and Yossi Klein Halevi (author of Like Dreamers). Fighting Back is Jeff Weiss’s second book. He is also the co-author of I Am My Brother’s Keeper (Schiffer Military History, 1998), which tells the story of American and Canadian volunteers in all branches of the Israel Defense Forces during the 1948 War of Independence. He is featured in the 2014 Nancy Spielberg documentary Above and Beyond. Jeff is passionate about fitness and is an Ironman and ultramarathoner.

Monday, April 24, 3:00 pm
Women on the Front Lines: Inside the Combat Units of the IDF with Debbie Zimelman (Israel 75)

"Women on the Front Lines" is a full-color photography book exploring the lives of women who serve in the Israeli army’s combat units. "Women on the Front Lines" is the first and only book offering an insiders’ view, sharing an intimate glimpse of these young women’s lives. The photographs are accompanied by descriptions – in the soldiers’ own words – of their fears, challenges, and accomplishments. The book is a culmination of five years of photographing and interviewing female soldiers from over 20 IDF units. Debbie has been a portrait photographer in Israel for 25 years, where she resides.

Monday, April 24, 7:30 pm
The Israeli Declaration of Independence; A Behind the Scenes Analysis with Jack Rosenbaum (Israel 75)

Jack Rosenbaum M.Ed has been educating students and adults in South Florida since the 1980's. He directed the local March of the Living for many years. He has educated thousands of Jewish learners between the ages of 1 and 100, as a teacher and administrator, including six years as the camp director at our own Levis JCC in the 90's.

Lectures

Virtual via Zoom

Monday, January 23, 3:00 pm
Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World’s Most Contested City with Andrew Lawler (Israel 75)

Jerusalem is a city of endless beauty and fascination for residents, visitors, and historians. It is also a political tinderbox with conflicting ethnic, religious, and societal claims to its many glories. Archaeology has been a focal point of Jerusalem study as layer after layer of its history is revealed, adding fact, nuance, detail, and drama to its story. Under Jerusalem is an intriguing resource for those interested in learning what lies beneath the modern city and how those findings affect today’s political and social landscape.

Andrew Lawler is author of the bestselling The Secret Token and the acclaimed Why Did the Chicken Cross the World?. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and Best of Science and Nature Writing. He is a contributing writer for Science and a contributing editor for Archaeology.

Monday, February 6, 3:00 pm
#anti¬semitism: Coming of Age During the Resurgence of Hate with Samantha A. Vinokor-Meinrath

#anti¬semitism: Coming of Age During the Resurgence of Hate is a deep dive into how the rise in antisemitism from both the political Left and the Right is impacting the identity development of Jewish Generation Z ers. With glimpses into the minds of teens, parents, and educators from across the United States, it explores issues from presenting as Jewish to social media activism, anti-Israel sentiments, and intersectional identities. #antisemitism is a snapshot in time, with long-reaching implications: How will being shaped in a climate of unprecedented antisemitism create a new Jewish future?

Dr. Samantha Vinokor-Meinrath is a lifelong Jewish educator and learner. She currently serves as the Senior Director of Knowledge, Ideas, and Learning at the Jewish Education Project. An award-winning educator, Samantha has lived and taught in Israel, Washington, DC, and Cleveland, Ohio. She currently lives in Westchester, New York with her husband and two beloved rescue dogs.

Monday, March 6, 3 :00 pm
Violins & Hope: From the Holocaust to Symphony Hall with Daniel Levin, Moderated by Aaron Kula

Documentary and conceptual art photographer Daniel Levin traveled to the workshop of Israeli luthier Amnon Weinstein, the founder of the renowned Violins of Hope program, to explore this great man’s life’s mission. In doing so, he uncovered not only beautiful photographic representations of Amnon’s processes of restoration of delicate violins that miraculously survived the Holocaust, but his intimate workshop as well. With Violins and Hope From the Holocaust to Symphony Hall, Levin has brought the workshop out of itself, to be seen by the world for the very first time. Levin’s research led to extraordinary stories that include figures such as Bronislaw Huberman, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Joshua Bell, Shlomo Minz, Arturo Toscanini, Johannes Brahms, and even actors Daniel Craig, and Adrien Brody, each whose lives are inextricably intertwined with Weinstein’s.

Daniel Levin is a contemporary artist, photographer, professor, and author. He holds an MFA in Visual Art from the Vermont College of Fine Art, and a BFA in Documentary Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology. No matter the medium, his works primarily address his societal concerns, his interest in how history relates to today, and his search for kindness.

Friday, March 17, 10:00 am
Baking with Cara Zimmerman: Braided Dinner Yeast Rolls

Monday, April 3, 3:00 pm
History of Storytelling with Bobby Klau

South Florida JCC's present

Virtual via Zoom

Monday, January 9, 1:00 pm
The Gospel of Wellness: Gyms, Gurus, Goop, and the False Promise of Self-Care with Rina Raphael

The desire to be healthy is anything but new. But what we’re witnessing today is completely unlike its predecessors. Wellness, in its current form, is almost an obsession for the American woman. What’s the reason everyone is guzzling kombucha and taking to aromatherapy now? Why, in this moment, do we find ourselves at what seems to be the peak of alternative health practices? The Gospel of Wellness examines how and why American women were led down this costly kale-covered path. Part investigative report, part sociological analysis, part personal account, this book will dive deep into this booming movement, bringing the reader inside the sprawling landscape of wellness and introducing them to its many trends and blind spots.

Rina Raphael is a features contributor for Fast Company magazine who specializes in health, wellness, and women’s issues. She has contributed to the New York Times, LA Times, CBS, NBC News, Medium’s Elemental, among others.

Thursday, February 2, 7:30 pm
Just Human: The Quest for Disability Wisdom, Respect, and Inclusion with Arielle Silverman

Judaism calls upon us to continually improve our world. Just Human tells the story of a blind Jewish woman’s journey toward building inclusion for all. Born without sight, Dr. Arielle Silverman has spent a lifetime exploring ways to foster respect and inclusion for all of us whose bodies or minds differ from the norm.

Arielle is a disabled activist and a social scientist who is passionate about improving public understandings of life with disabilities. Professionally, she has spent fifteen years conducting research on the social psychology of disability. Personally, she has spent a lifetime learning and teaching with fellow members of the disability community.

Monday, February 13, 1:00 pm
Lost & Found: A Memoir with Kathryn Schulz

One spring morning, Kathryn Schulz went to lunch with a stranger and fell in love. Having spent years looking for the right relationship, she was dazzled by how swiftly everything changed when she finally met her future wife. But as the two of them began building a life together, Schulz’s beloved father—a charming, brilliant, absentminded Jewish refugee—went into the hospital with a minor heart condition and never came out. Newly in love yet also newly bereft, Schulz was left contending simultaneously with wild joy and terrible grief. Those twin experiences form the heart of Lost & Found, a profound meditation on the families that make us and the families we make.

Kathryn Schulz is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of Being Wrong. She won a National Magazine Award and a Pulitzer Prize for The Really Big One, her article about seismic risk in the Pacific Northwest. Lost & Found grew out of Losing Streak, a New Yorker story that was anthologized in The Best American Essays.

Thursday, March 2, 7:30 pm
Howard Blum The Spy Who Knew Too Much: An Ex-CIA Officer's Quest Through a Legacy of Betrayal

A retired spy gets back into the game to solve a perplexing case—and reconcile with his daughter, a CIA officer who married into the very family that derailed his own CIA career—in this compulsive true-life tale of vindication and redemption, filled with drama, intrigue, and mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of The Last Goodnight, It’s a real-life thriller whose stunning conclusion will make headline news.

Howard Blum is a New York Times bestseller author. Blum is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. While at the New York Times, he was twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting.

Art History Lecture Series

Virtual via Zoom

Carol Salus, Professor Emerita, Kent State University

Carol Salus, Ph.D is Professor Emerita at Kent State University where she taught courses in twentieth-century American and European art history. She received her Ph.D. from the Ohio State University.

Thursday, January 26, 3:00 pm
Art of the 60’s Part 2: Art of the Land

Thursday, February 23, 3:00 pm
Black History Month: African American Artists

Thursday, March 30, 3:00 pm
American Expatriate Artists, Part 1

Thursday, April 27, 3:00 pm
American Expatriate Artists, Part 2

Ronnit Vasserman, founder of Art Connect Group

Ronnit Vasserman is the founder of Art Connect Group. ACG is a full-service art advisory firm specializing in Contemporary art. She has a degree in Fine Arts and Art History. After a successful career in investment banking she now dedicates her time to her favorite asset class, art.

Friday, January 13, 1:00 pm
Venice Biennale with Ronnit Vasserman, founder of Art Connect Group

Friday, February 10, 1:00 pm
Tu B'shevat: The Art of Trees

Friday, March 24, 1:00 pm
Modigliani

Friday, April 21, 1:00 pm
An Exploration of Israel's Museums (Israel 75)

Cultural Council Discover The Palm Beaches