Apr

13 2016

Three Rabbi Panel: Politics in the Pulpit

7:30PM - 9:00PM  

Stern Student Center Ballroom

Contact Mark Swick
swickmn@cofc.edu

What, if any, is the appropriate role of politics within the synagogue? Should our rabbis speak on contemporary issues such as Israel, health care, economic justice, the poor, minorities, or civil rights? Or, should the pulpit be used for “Jewish” motifs, areas of specialization to which rabbinic education is addressed and topics about which rabbis have special training and expertise?

In this election year, the news media will focus on the Iran nuclear deal, the Affordable Care Act, the declining middle class, Syrian immigration, and the discriminatory ways in which African Americans are treated by the police. So too, politicians will address ISIS, Al Qaeda, and the threat of radical Islam. How might these issues be discussed from the pulpit , if they are discussed at all?

Join us as Rabbis Stephanie Alexander (KKBE), Adam Rosenbaum (Emanu-El) and Michael Davies (Dor Tikvah) reflect on the ways in which the political landscape plays a role in their denominations, their own sermons and teaching, and within their specific congregations.

The Three Rabbi Panel is supported by the Stanley and Charlot Karesh Family Fund, an endowment, given by the Karesh family in support of Jewish Studies’ community outreach programming. Stanley obm and Charlot have been lifelong pillars of the Charleston Jewish community, and of Jewish Studies.