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Wisdom in Winter: Rabbi Geoff Mitelman

Past Sessions
Thursday, March 12, 2026 • 23 Adar 5786 - 7:30 PM - 8:30 PM - Zoom
Thursday, March 5, 2026 • 16 Adar 5786 - 7:30 PM - 8:30 PM - Zoom
Thursday, February 19, 2026 • 2 Adar 5786 - 7:30 PM - 8:30 PM - In Person
Thursday Evenings at 7:30pm
with Rabbi Geoff Mitelman
 
Session One - February 19 in person at BSBI
 

Has Science Replaced God?
For centuries, religion provided answers for our ancestors to all of life’s questions. But as modern Jews, we usually look to science to tell us where we came from, who we are, or even how we should act. So how should we look at, think about and talk about the relationship between science and religion in today’s world?

 
Session Two - March 5 on Zoom Only
 

There Are Places I Remember — How Memory Works, and How It Doesn’t
As Jews, we constantly recall the past and seek to bring it into the present. So what do current scientific findings say about the way memory works? Why do we remember some things and not others? Is memory an accurate record of the past — and how does that question shape who we are?

 
Session Three - March 12 on Zoom Only
 

Is Neuroscience Undercutting Moral Responsibility?
As we discover more and more about the brain, will neuroscientific “explanations” about moral behavior become “excuses”? How “free” are we, and how would we even know?

 
Rabbi Geoffrey A. Mitelman is the Founding Director of Sinai and Synapses, an organization that bridges the scientific and religious worlds, and is being incubated at Clal – The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership.
 
His work has been supported by multiple grants from the John Templeton Foundation and Templeton Religion Trust, and he was co-editor of the Fall 2025 Issue of the CCAR Journal on “AI and the Rabbinate.” His writings about the intersection of religion and science have been published in the books Striving to Be Human, Seven Days, Many Voices and A Life of Meaning, (all published by the CCAR press) and These Truths We Hold (published by HUC Press) as well as on The Huffington Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, My Jewish Learning, Nautilus, The Wisdom Daily, and Orbiter. He has been an adjunct professor at both the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion and the Academy for Jewish Religion, as well an ambassador to the Island of Knowledge, and is an internationally sought-out teacher, presenter, and scholar-in-residence.
 
From 2007 to 2014, he served as Assistant and then Associate Rabbi of Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester, and he appeared on Jeopardy! in March 2016. He lives in Westchester County with his wife Heather Stoltz, a fiber artist, with their two children.
 
 
$18 per session or $50 for all three!

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Sat, March 14 2026 25 Adar 5786