Jewish Learning Institute grows with each new class

Although Portland has long been home to a vital and always growing Chabad Lubavitch organization, this has been the first year that Chabad’s seven-year-old Rohr Jewish Learning Institute has offered classes in Portland.

Every 12 months, JLI offers a new series of three courses in more than 150 cities around the world. The study year begins with a course focusing on basic aspects of Judaism. That is followed by a course on kabbalah, and then a course addressing a contemporary issue

According to Portland Chabad Rabbi Moshe Wilhelm, the adult study program attracted immediate interest among Portland area Jews and only has grown with each new class.

Last fall the program began here with a course called “Beyond Never Again: The Holocaust—a View From the Soul.” That course attracted 15 students.

Over the winter, the recently concluded second course, “The Kabbalah of Time,” attracted 50 students, and it was necessary to divide the course into two weekly sessions to accommodate all who signed up.

Now, with the third course, “From Sinai to Cyberspace,” about to begin, Wilhelm has expanded the program to include weekly sessions in four key parts of the Portland area: close-in southwest near Hillsdale, Lake Oswego, the Pearl District and the east side.

Sandra Orzen signed up for “The Kabbalah of Time.”

“Every session stretched your mind in ways that I have never experienced before,” said Orzen, who, as a graduate of the highly regarded Florence Melton Adult Mini-School, among other Jewish education programs, is no stranger to serious Jewish study.

“I was stunned,” she said. “It taught me so much about Judaism from a spiritual perspective and yet in a concrete way. …I walked away with an appreciation of Hashem’s gift of time that I have never understood before. … Nor have I ever had such an appreciation for the poetry of Judaism.”

Orzen said she would be there for the next course too.

“From Sinai to Cyberspace: How Ancient Wisdom Guides a Modern World” is offered as an updated version of an earlier JLI course that remains its most popular.

While much has changed in the 3,000-year history of Judaism, the elemental questions about Jewish tradition remain the same, according to JLI course materials.

“How do we know what G-d wants of us in this world?” asks the course prospectus. “Do we have any evidence that the Bible text is divine and true? How can we understand its cryptic passages?”

These and other equally elemental questions are taken up in the course, which will run for eight consecutive weeks beginning in the first week of May. See the box above for dates, times and locations.

The cost of the course is $100. Study materials and texts are provided.

While the JLI courses include text materials, they alone are not what distinguish the course, according to Orzen, who thought her teacher, Wilhelm, played a key role in illuminating the subject matter.

“He was excellent,” said Orzen. “When he would answer questions, he would draw on the readings provided, plus he would embellish and elaborate well beyond any kind of teacher’s manual that he had. And he was very patient in answering questions.”

All JLI teachers attend Chabad seminars to prepare them for teaching the course.

Wilhelm points out that the course is attractive to Jewish learners who travel a lot, because almost any large city they go to, they can find the same course being taught in the same week.

Persons interested in signing up for JLI’s next course, should visit the local Chabad Web site www.chabadoregon.com.