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The Seven Questions You’re Asked in Heaven

Study text, share stories, and explore potential questions you’ll be asked in heaven.

We are delighted to offer this class for free. But to ensure we can keep making Jewish education accessible at no charge, will you make the suggested donation of $36 (or more, if you are so moved)? Thank you for your generosity!

When you get to heaven, what questions do you think you’ll be asked about how you lived your life on earth? In the Talmud and through the centuries, rabbis have imagined what these questions might be. In this challenging, poignant, and humorous four-session course, we’ll study text, share stories, and explore the concept of cheshbon ha-nefesh, a spiritual accounting of the soul.

This class meets the following Mondays at noon:

January 22, Session 1:
Question 1: What Will You Be Asked? The concept of cheshbon ha-nefesh and the first question you’ll be asked in heaven (it’s a surprise!)

January 29, Session 2:
Question 2: The Immortality of Influence
Question 3: Turn It…and Turn It

February 5, Session 3:
Question 4: The Hope of God
Question 5: What Matters Most

February 12, Session 4:
Question 6: Living to Do
Question 7: Perfecting You

Nakam: The Holocaust Survivors Who Sought Full-Scale Revenge

Author Dina Porat discusses the true story of a vigilante group of Holocaust survivors who conspired to kill six million Germans.

Author Dina Porat and AJU’s Michael Berenbaum discuss Porat’s new book, Nakam (Hebrew for “vengeance”) which tells the story of “the Avengers” (Nokmim), a group of young Holocaust survivors led by poet and resistance fighter Abba Kovner, who undertook a mission of revenge against Germany following the crimes of the Holocaust. Drawing on rich archival sources and in-depth interviews with the Avengers in their later years, Porat examines the formation of the group and the clash between the formative humanistic values held by its members and their unrealized plans for violent retribution.

Exclusive AJU Interview: Inside “You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah”

Behind the scenes of the bat mitzvah book of the century, featuring author Fiona Rosenbloom.

Young adult author Carolyn Mackler, and Fiona Rosenbloom, the creative mind behind the beloved book You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, explore Rosenbloom’s upbringing, the absence of her own bat mitzvah experience, her decision to use a pen name for her young adult books, updating the book for a 2023 audience, and so much more.