Limmud Oz returns to Melbourne
Tickets are now on sale for Limmud Oz, Australia’s festival of Jewish learning and culture, which is back in Melbourne this year and returns to its traditional date over the Queen’s birthday weekend, June 9-11.
Co-Chairs Annette Charak and Nomi Blum said this year’s Limmud shapes as one of the biggest and best ever and have invited the community to immerse themselves in what continues to be the most diverse, comprehensive and best attended Jewish learning and cultural event in Melbourne
Yair Rosenberg is a senior writer at Tablet Magazine, where he covers the intersection of politics, culture, and religion. His work has also appeared in theNew York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and The Guardian, and his writings have received awards from the Religion Newswriters Association and the Harvard Center for Jewish Studies. In his spare time, he creates bots that troll anti-Semites on Twitter
“It brings together people across political, religious and social divides for outstanding three days of Jewish learning and community,” they said.
In 2016 the festival introduced a Shabbat afternoon program, held at the Theodor Herzl Club in the heart of Caulfield, and after a bumper afternoon and with the venue close to capacity, that component will be repeated in 2018 with a full array of sessions, followed by a musical havdala.
Limmud Oz continues on Saturday night through to late Monday afternoon at Monash University, Caulfield and will feature an outstanding array of local and international presenters on a huge range of social, political, communal and religious issues relevant to Jewish life, and a strong Jewish learning component.
Haaretz journalist and regular on the very popular podcast The Promised Allison Kaplan Sommer will be part of a strong line up of Israel experts, also including Calev Ben Dor, of the BICOM institute, UK-based organisation that acts to promote awareness of Israel and the Middle East. Mishy Harman, the voice and idea behind the podcast phenomenon Israel Story will bring a different perspective on Israel to the event.
Emily is Chair and Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies at Earlham College, where she teaches modern philosophy and ethics alongside the Jewish textual tradition. A PhD from the University of Virginia, she is particularly interested in the possibility that “troubling texts” – violent or otherwise ethically challenging biblical and rabbinic passages – can be good philosophical, ethical, and political tools. She is co-editor of the Journal of Jewish Ethics and directs the Sacred Texts and Ethics Group at the American Academy of Religion.
Other confirmed presenters include Tablet journalist Yair Rosenberg who covers the Jewish world, Shalom Hartman fellow Haroon Moghul who is an expert on Jewish-Muslim relations, historian of English speaking Jewish communities Adam Mendelsohn, Yiddishist Eve Yochnowitz and renowned Talmud teacher and head of Pardes Institute of Jewish learning in the US, Yaffa Epstein.
The local line up is being created by a team of committed and enthusiastic volunteers and will be as broad and eclectic as always.
Presentations are sought from the broader community to give the festival its grass roots feel, and registration to present remains open until April 13.
Early Bird tickets are available now at $170 ($90 for concessions) which is less than $7 per session and are their cheapest for eight years. This reflects the organisers’ commitment to keep the event as affordable as possible. Discounted tickets are available to people willing to volunteer at the event for a few hours.
Please visit limmudoz.com.au for further details.
