Adult Education

Increase Your Ritual Skills with Cantor Rosenberg

Want to learn to lead a portion of the davening in a Shabbat service? Want to learn to chant Torah or Haftarah or increase your fluency in those skills? Want to serve as a Torah gabbai when the Torah is read?  Join Cantor Rachel Rosenberg for this kickoff gathering to craft your plan for gaining new ritual skills in this new year. 

Email Cantor Rosenberg directly to sign up! 

Advanced Judaism for Beginners

Rabbi Minkus is currently offering a course called Advanced Judaism for Beginners! Do you know what all of the 613 Mitzvot are (do you know what mitzvot means??)? Do you know what Shemini Atzeret is? What to cook for a friend who keeps kosher? There are so many rules, so many texts and so many holidays, but so few people to ask without feeling embarrassed. In this course we will look to better understand Judaism and its rituals, asking why we do X but not Y or always Y and never X. We will look at biblical and rabbinic texts and move through the calendar and life cycles to better understand Judaism and help us figure out how we want to be Jewish and how Judaism can add meaning to our lives. And, hopefully figure out what Shemini Atzeret is.

Email Rabbi Minkus directly to sign up!

Sunday Morning Parsha Study

Weekly on Sundays at 10am

Join CRZ member Sheila Jelen each Sunday morning over Zoom at 10am for a discussion of the weekly Parsha with attention to close readings of the biblical text as well as rabbinic and contemporary interpretations. This class started on Zoom during COVID, and draws participants from as far away as California, and from as nearby as Chicago. No previous experience is required. It is a lively and engaged group! Sheila sends out the sources that the group will be discussing on Saturday night for those who want a sneak peek, but advanced preparation is not necessary. 

To join, email Sheila directly! 

About Sheila 

Sheila E. Jelen is a professor of the History of Judaism and Religion, Literature and Visual Culture in the Divinity School at the University of Chicago, where she is also an affiliate of the Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies. She is the author, most recently, of Testimonial Montage: A Family of Israeli Holocaust Testimonies from the Cracow Ghetto Resistance (2024) and Israeli Salvage Poetics (2023). Forthcoming in March is a co-authored volume titled Olga Lengyel, Auschwitz Survivor: An Interdisciplinary Exploration. Jelen's teaching and scholarship has focused on gender in Judaism, the Holocaust, Modern Hebrew and Yiddish literature, and Post-Holocaust American Jewish culture.

Our weekly Shabbat morning Masorti Minyan includes a full member-led Torah reading.  Sign up to learn part of the Torah or haftarah reading for upcoming weeks by emailing Cantor Rachel Rosenberg and Shirley Holbrook.

Want to learn how to read Torah or Haftarah?  Need help learning your reading?  Contact Cantor Rachel Rosenberg and Shirley Holbrook and they'll connect you with a seasoned Torah reader who will be happy to help.

One Book, One Rodfei Zedek

Our One Book, One Rodfei Zedek program is meant to stimulate conversations, both formal and informal.  Each fall the congregation votes on a book to read and learn from together for the year.

Additional Resources

Jewish Book Council | Book Clubs | National Jewish Book Award Winners