Part of the series “America at 250: Jewish Ideas and the American Experiment”  

With Dr. Jack Wertheimer, Joseph and Martha Mendelson Emeritus Professor of American Jewish History, 91¶¶Ňő

Within the first decade of his 91¶¶Ňő presidency, Rabbi Louis Finkelstein energetically launched a broad range of new initiatives.  His efforts garnered widespread attention and even an adulatory cover story in Time magazine. They also prompted sharp public challenges from some of his closest colleagues.

This session examines his distinctive leadership style, the debates he provoked, and the reasons his legacy might be ripe for reconsideration. Dr. Jack Wertheimer, Emeritus Professor of American Jewish History, will present research from his forthcoming biography of Finkelstein. 

About the Series

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, the 91¶¶Ňő Summer 2026 Learning Series will explore the rich and surprising intersections between Jewish thought and American life. From baseball and youth culture to constitutional law, storytelling, and democratic theory, leading scholars reveal how Jewish ideas, texts, and experiences have shaped—and been shaped by—the American experiment. 

Part of the series “America at 250: Jewish Ideas and the American Experiment”  

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With Dr. Robert A. Harris, Professor of Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages, 91¶¶Ňő

Baseball has long been called America’s pastime—but what happens when we read the game through the lens of philosophy, theology, halacha and aggadah? This session explores the striking parallels between rabbinic interpretation and the rules, debates, and evolving traditions that shape baseball—from classic arguments over judgment calls to today’s introduction of the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) system, which raises new questions about authority, precision, and the role of human interpretation.

Through stories of Jewish players, fans, and cultural figures—and with insights from Rabbi Robbie Harris, known as the “rabbi of the right field bleachers” for the New York Yankees—we’ll uncover how meaning is constructed both on the field and in the beit midrash. Expect a lively conversation that brings together sport, text, and the enduring Jewish love of argument. 

About the Series

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, the 91¶¶Ňő Summer 2026 Learning Series will explore the rich and surprising intersections between Jewish thought and American life. From baseball and youth culture to constitutional law, storytelling, and democratic theory, leading scholars reveal how Jewish ideas, texts, and experiences have shaped—and been shaped by—the American experiment. 

Part of the Learning Series,Seasons of Responsibility: InterreligiousConversationson Environmental Justice and Repair

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With Rabbi Laura Bellows, Director of Spiritual Activism & Education, Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action, and Joe Blumberg, Rabbinical Student, 91¶¶Ňő

At the heart of Passover is a question that feels urgent today: how do we move forward when the future feels uncertain and frightening? This session explores the Crossing of the Sea through midrash and contemporary thought, treating imagination as a muscle that must be strengthened in times of crisis. As we conclude Seasons of Responsibility, we’ll shift focus from individual anxiety to collective responsibility, inviting participants to consider how shared storytelling, community, and action help bring the world we long for into being.

About the Speakers

Rabbi Laura Bellows works to build climate-resilient, spiritually-rooted, justice-seeking communities centered in Jewish wisdom. She has served as a curriculum and ritual designer, outdoor experiential educator, program manager, artist, and facilitator in Jewish and inter-religious spaces. Laura studied Environmental Studies at Oberlin College and was ordained at Hebrew College, where she recently lead Prozdor and Teen Learning programs. She moonlights as a soferet (scribe) and freelance rabbi for couples and communities throughout the Boston area. 

Joe Blumberg is a fourth-year rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and the Senior Rabbinic Fellow at B’nai Jeshurun on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He previously worked as an educator at Brown RISD Hillel and spent a year as a Fulbright scholar in Jerusalem, where he also studied at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies. Joe was a 2022-2023 rabbinical student fellow at Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action, where he advised Jewish communities on their climate justice work. He has served as a teacher and prayer leader around the country, most recently as a rabbinic intern at Congregation Shearith Israel in Dallas, Texas, and Beth Israel Congregation in Bath, Maine. Joe holds a B.A. in American History from Yale. 

About the Series

Across Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Hindu traditions, spring is a season of reflection, renewal, and ethical commitment. Grounded in holidays from Tu Bishvat and Lent to Ramadan, Holi, and Passover, this interreligious series explores responsibility, repair, and leadership in the face of urgent ecological challenges. Together, participants consider how religious wisdom can inspire ethical action and collective hope. 

Part of the Learning Series, Seasons of Responsibility: Interreligious Conversations on Environmental Justice and Repair

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There are ways to exist in harmony with all of creation that cultivate the soul and a relationship with the Divine. Hussein Rashid and Rabbi Gordon Tucker bring Muslim and Jewish texts into dialogue to explore how religious traditions resist transactional relationships with the earth and with one another. Drawing on the sabbatical vision from Leviticus and a Muslim sources on overtaxation, they reflect on restraint, renewal, and the dangers of extraction. Timed with converging sacred moments—the beginning of the Jewish calendar, Persian New Year, and the close of Ramadan—this session offers a shared language for ethical living in a fragile world.

About the Speakers

Hussein Rashid, PhD, is a free range academic, currently affiliated with Union Theological Seminary. He is a board member of the Interfaith Center of New York. He specializes in working on Muslims in US popular culture and Shi’i theologies of justice. He has served in various academic and culturally creative capacities, most recently as Project Director of The Arts of Devotion at the Smithsonian’s National Muslim of Asian Art. He has taught at Virginia Theological Seminary and Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. He is also a producer of the PBS Digital Series American Muslim Stories and of the award-winning New York Times op-doc The Secret of Muslims in the US.

As vice chancellor for Religious Life and Engagement, Rabbi Gordon Tucker focuses on enhancing Jewish life at 91¶¶Ňő, enriching our study of Judaism with the joy and deep understanding that only lived experience can provide. A leading scholar and interpreter of Conservative Judaism, he also articulates the enduring power of 91¶¶Ňő’s compelling approach to Jewish law and Jewish life, while strengthening 91¶¶Ňő’s religious leadership through partnerships with organizations in the Conservative Movement and beyond.

About the Series

Across Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Hindu traditions, spring is a season of reflection, renewal, and ethical commitment. Grounded in holidays from Tu Bishvat and Lent to Ramadan, Holi, and Passover, this interreligious series explores responsibility, repair, and leadership in the face of urgent ecological challenges. Together, participants consider how religious wisdom can inspire ethical action and collective hope. 

Sources for each session will be shared during the session.

Sources | Presentation

From our Learning Series: Seasons of Responsibility
Join us for a timely conversation co-sponsored by the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary. Featuring Karenna Gore and Rabbi Burton L. Visotzky, this program explores how traditions of moral reflection can guide us.
In partnership with the Center for Earth Ethics

About the Speaker

Karenna Gore is the founder and executive director of the Center for Earth Ethics and teaching professor of practice of earth ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Karenna formed CEE in 2015 to address the moral and spiritual dimensions of the climate crisis. Working at the intersection of faith, ethics, and ecology, she guides the Center’s public programs, educational initiatives, and movement-building. She is an adjunct faculty member at the Columbia Climate School.

Rabbi Burton L. Visotzky, PhD, serves as Appleman Professor Emiritus of Midrash and Interreligious Studies at 91¶¶Ňő, where he joined the faculty upon his ordination in 1977. Visotzky served as a dean of the Kekst Graduate School and founding rabbi of the egalitarian Women’s League Seminary Synagogue.
He currently serves as the Louis Stein Director of the Finkelstein Institute for Religious and Social Studies at 91¶¶Ňő, programming on public policy. Visotzky also directs 91¶¶Ňő’s Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue. He serves on the Steering Committee of “The Plan of Action for Religious Leaders … to Prevent Incitement to Atrocity Crimes,” for the UN Under-Secretary General for Genocide Prevention. In addition, Visotzky serves on the United Nations Inter-Agency Task-Force’s Multi-Faith Advisory Council. He is a life-member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Rabbi Visotzky participates in interreligious engagement in places as diverse as Washington, Jerusalem, Rome, Warsaw, Vienna, Madrid, Cairo, Doha, Marrakech, Fez, and Abu Dhabi.

About the Series

Across Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Hindu traditions, spring is a season of reflection, renewal, and ethical commitment. Grounded in holidays from Tu Bishvat and Lent to Ramadan, Holi, and Passover, this interreligious series explores responsibility, repair, and leadership in the face of urgent ecological challenges. Together, participants consider how religious wisdom can inspire ethical action and collective hope.

Part of the series, Seasons of Responsibility: Interreligious Conversations on Environmental Justice and Repair

What does it mean to act responsibly when there is no guarantee of results? Jewish and Hindu traditions both turn to fasting as a practice of restraint and agency. Focusing on the Fast of Esther, alongside Hindu fasting traditions, this session explores how intentional self-restraint—held in tension with celebration—can shape ethical responses to the climate crisis. 

About the Speakers

Gopal Patelleads FutureFaith as Co-Founder and Board President, mobilizing faith communities for environmental action through innovative multi-sectoral partnerships. He has advised multiple UN bodies and partnered with a range of organizations, includingthe Bloomberg Ocean Fund, the World Economic Forum and WWF International. Through his work, he has engaged faith leaders and communities representing over 1 billion people worldwide.

Benjamin Kamine holds a joint appointment as Lecturer in Rabbinic Literatures and Cultures at the Jewish Theological Seminary and Assistant Teaching Faculty in Interreligious Engagement at Union Theological Seminary.  In this role, he also works as Associate Director of the Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue at 91¶¶Ňő and as a Special Advisor in the Office of the President at Columbia University.  He is a PhD candidate in Midrash at 91¶¶Ňő.  Kamine serves as 2nd Vice President of the Executive Board of the International Council of Christians and Jews and Jewish Co-Chair of the International Abrahamic Forum. 

About the Series

Across Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Hindu traditions, spring is a season of reflection, renewal, and ethical commitment. Grounded in holidays from Tu Bishvat and Lent to Ramadan, Holi, and Passover, this interreligious series explores responsibility, repair, and leadership in the face of urgent ecological challenges. Together, participants consider how religious wisdom can inspire ethical action and collective hope. 

Part of the Learning Series,Seasons of Responsibility: InterreligiousConversationson Environmental Justice and Repair

What does it mean to act responsibly when power is uneven, harm is systemic, and silence can feel safer than action? Drawing on the Book of Esther, this Catholic–Jewish conversation reflects on moral agency, ecological responsibility, and the challenges of ethical decision-making within contemporary legal and institutional systems.

About the Speakers

Endy Moraes, Director of the Institute on Religion, Law and Lawyer’s Work at Fordham Law School and Adjunct Professor of Law, is a Brazilian lawyer with extensive experience in interreligious and intercultural dialogue. At Fordham, she works closely with students to foster opportunities for multifaith and multicultural engagement. 

Endy holds both an S.J.D. and an LL.M., cum laude, from Fordham Law School, where her research focused on the intersection of law, technology, and religious values. A member of the Focolare Movement within the Catholic Church, Endy lives in community and brings a deeply rooted commitment to dialogue and service to her academic and professional work. 

Rabbi Jan Uhrbach is founding director of the Block / Kolker Center for Spiritual Arts. She brings her passion for prayer and teaching to the 91¶¶Ňő community. Through her work as director of the Block / Kolker Center for Spiritual Arts, she has developed and overseen programs and discussions, as well as prayer services on Shabbat and festivals, for the 91¶¶Ňő community and the general public.

About the Series

Across Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Hindu traditions, spring is a season of reflection, renewal, and ethical commitment. Grounded in holidays from Tu Bishvat and Lent to Ramadan, Holi, and Passover, this interreligious series explores responsibility, repair, and leadership in the face of urgent ecological challenges. Together, participants consider how religious wisdom can inspire ethical action and collective hope.