Next Week In Chicago: Why Do Jews Answer Questions With Questions?
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
The Spertus Institute is one of Chicago’s foremost centers for Jewish learning. They take this mission extremely seriously and go to extraordinary lengths to explain all the great mysteries of Judaism. But this Sunday, they are going above and beyond with the public lecture “Why Do Jews Answer Questions With Questions?”
Why do Jews answer questions with questions? Why do you want to know? Who wouldn’t want to know?
Who is this Dr. Menahem Blondheim who has the audacity to try to understand and explain this unique and annoying part of our culture? What can you learn from a professor of communications at the Hebrew University that you haven’t already learned from a lifetime of being a Jew?
Have you bothered to study patterns of Jewish discursive styles from the days of the Talmud to Israeli startup culture? Do you have anything better to do this Sunday, May 7, at 2 p.m.? (Buy tickets from the Spertus website for a very Jewish $18.)
If you’re not up to sitting and listening to Professor Blondheim, Sunday afternoon also happens to be the annual JUF Israel Solidarity Day, which means the annual Walk With Israel at Ravinia Park. As always, there will be a regular three-mile walk and a one-mile family walk, followed by music. This year’s headliner is Idan Raichel. Sign up here. An $18 donation gets you the t-shirt. Chag sameach, Israel.
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
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