Great Courses of Jewish Interest
Abq Jew is pleased to inform you that
OASIS Albuquerque has just announced
their Fall 2026 line-up of classes!
Registration opens on
Wednesday September 2
but you can Wish List your selections now.
OASIS Albuquerque Executive Director Scott Sharp and his staff continue to bring you new and interesting class offerings, and continue to make sure there are courses of Jewish interest.
This session's courses and instructors include,
but are by no means limited to:
The Season of The Great Ingathering
Monday September 28 @ 2:00 - #185
Instructor: Paul Citrin
What It Is: Sukkot, sometimes referred to as Tabernacles, is the season of the most varied and abundant harvest in the Land of Israel. Over the centuries, it has been a celebration of the material rewards of hard work, a time for renewing community, studying sacred texts, caring for the poor, and reaffirming deeply held values. The class includes biblical and Talmudic texts, explores Ethical Wills as a form of personal harvest from ancient times to today, and offers hands-on engagement with key ceremonial objects used in the holiday. Note: This talk is given at Congregation Albert, inside the congregation’s Sukkah.
Antisemitism and Anti-Science
A Deadly Overlap
A Deadly Overlap
Monday October 26 @ 10:00 - #200
Instructor: Jack Shlachter
What It Is: The anti-science movement involves the “rejection of mainstream scientific views and methods or their replacement with unproven or deliberately misleading theories, often for nefarious and political gains.” It has appeared in the guise of climate change denialism and anti-immunization, and it can be seen historically in opposition to advances in psychology and physics. This class examines five modern examples of the deadly convergence of antisemitism and anti-science.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Notorious RBG
Tuesday October 27 @ 12:30 - #158
Instructor: Dianne R Layden
What It Is: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died in September 2020, is celebrated for her work as an attorney, federal judge, and Supreme Court justice, notably on behalf of gender equality. Through narrative, handouts, and slides, this lecture reviews Ginsburg’s early life, family, friendship with Justice Antonin Scalia, love of opera, and visits to the Santa Fe Opera in 1995-2018, which she called the finest summer opera company in the world.
What Our Fathers Did
Friday November 20 @ 12:30 - #131
Friday November 20 @ 12:30 - #131
Friday At The Movies
What It Is: A bracingly rigorous examination of inherited guilt and pain, What Our Fathers Did explores the relationship between two men, each of whom are the children of very high-ranking Nazi officials but possess starkly contrasting attitudes toward their fathers. The film was written and is hosted by eminent human rights lawyer Philippe Sands, who became fascinated by its central figures, Niklas Frank and Horst von Wächter, while researching the Nuremberg trials. The film comes to a climax when they travel to Lviv in Ukraine, where it becomes clear that Frank and von Wächter’s Nazi fathers were responsible for the annihilation of Sands’ own Jewish grandfather’s entire family. What Our Fathers Did is a compelling examination of brutality, self-deception, guilt and the nature of justice.
Synchronous Sin & Synesthesia at Sinai
Monday November 23 @ 10:00 - #188
Instructor: Jack Shlachter
What It Is: The Biblical text describing the revelation at Mount Sinai can be literally translated as “The entire people saw the thunder and the flames and the sound of the shofar…” People with synesthesia experience involuntary stimulation of one sensory pathway when another is triggered. We explore synesthesia, learn about a few famous synesthetes, and examine this verse from a range of sources in Jewish texts.
