Senior Seminar Reflections: What Our Students Taught Us

Standing at Sinai Again – Rabbi Scott Gellman

Recorded live on Friday, May 23, 2026. What would Jewish life look like if every one of us — born Jewish, bagels-and-lox Jewish, high-holidays-only Jewish — woke up one morning and chose it? On purpose? On Shavuot, Rabbi Gellman traces a line from Ruth's declaration on a dusty road to the daily recitation of the Shema, asking what it truly means to be a Jew by Choice — and why that question has never mattered more. He also pauses before Shabbat to hold the tragedy in San Diego, and why Jews, of all people, cannot look away when a house of worship is attacked. Are you still in?

Is Judaism an Insurance Policy? – Beyond the Bimah

Grief can make us feel lost. Judaism cannot prevent heartbreak, but it may offer something else: a framework for surviving it. In this special Beyond the Bimah episode, Rabbi Conover, Cantor Ben-David, Rabbi Gellman, and Rabbi Antman reflect on grief, ritual, and the power of community following the recent loss of Cantor Ben David’s mother, Batya Ben-David z”l. Through stories both tender and unexpectedly funny, they explore whether Judaism functions as an “insurance policy”—not protecting us from pain, but preparing us for it. Together they examine why Jewish rituals endure: not because they remove grief, but because they help us carry it.

Who Gets to Count in Today’s World? – Rabbi Shoshanah Conover

Recorded live on May 15, 2026. In this sermon, Rabbi Conover explores this week’s Torah portion, Bamidbar, through the lens of migration, community, and collective responsibility. Drawing connections between the Israelites’ carefully ordered journey through the wilderness and patterns found in nature—from sandhill cranes to wildebeest—she reflects on what it means to organize a society around shared values and mutual care. Rabbi Conover examines the Torah’s vision of a community built around access, responsibility, and participation, and connects those ideas to contemporary questions about democracy, voting rights, civic engagement, and the moral responsibility to protect systems that allow every person to count. As the Jewish people begin their journey through the wilderness in Bamidbar, this sermon asks a timely question: Who gets included in the formation of society—and what happens when access, participation, and representation begin to erode?

The Art of Inventing Hope: Howard Reich, Elie Wiesel, and The Dialogue of Memories

In this special episode, Rabbi Conover sits down with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Howard Reich to discuss his extraordinary friendship and years-long collaboration with Holocaust survivor, Nobel Laureate, and author Elie Wiesel. What began as a single interview assignment for the Chicago Tribune became four years of intimate conversations about trauma, memory, faith, survival, and the responsibility to bear witness. Reich reflects on how those conversations shaped his acclaimed book The Art of Inventing Hope: Intimate Conversations with Elie Wiesel—and how they ultimately inspired a brand-new opera premiering in Chicago this May. On MAY 23 at 7:30 PM and MAY 24 at 3:00 PM, Music of Remembrance presents the world premiere of The Dialogue of Memories at the Studebaker Theater in Chicago. Featuring music by acclaimed composer Tom Cipullo and a libretto by Howard Reich and Tom Cipullo, the opera explores the relationship between Reich, his Holocaust survivor mother, and Elie Wiesel in a moving meditation on grief, memory, hope, and intergenerational understanding. In this conversation, Reich shares deeply personal stories about uncovering his mother’s Holocaust trauma, the lessons Elie Wiesel taught him about hope and resistance, and why storytelling remains essential in moments of rising antisemitism and uncertainty. Tickets and information: Music of Remembrance – The Dialogue of Memories [https://musicofremembrance.org/show-details/memorieschi?utm_source=chatgpt.com]

Senior Seminar Reflections: What Our Students Taught Us

Recorded live on May 8, 2026. In this special Shabbat service, Temple Sholom honors the graduating seniors of Crown Family High School and participants in Senior Seminar—students who spent the year wrestling with life’s biggest questions through the lens of Jewish learning, community, and personal growth. Throughout the evening, these students step onto the bimah not just as learners, but as teachers. Through deeply personal reflections, they explore faith, identity, happiness, resilience, disagreement, belonging, and what it means to carry Jewish values into the next chapter of their lives. From conversations about the Talmud and Rabbi Hillel to stories about madrichim, Sunday school classrooms, summer camp, friendship, and finding confidence in uncertain moments, each speaker offers a unique window into what Jewish community has meant to them during some of the most formative years of their lives. This episode is both a celebration of graduating seniors and a reminder that some of the most meaningful Torah comes from listening to the next generation.