"Hacking Jewish Tradition" Seminar to be Held in Berkeley

The Jewish Federation of the East Bay has announced the next event in their three-part Ideas of Late seminar series, a new public conversation program about Jewish learning, art and culture. The second conversation, called “Hacking Jewish Tradition,” will be held at 7 pm on Thursday, January 15 at the Magnes Auditorium on Allston Way. This seminar will bring together a dynamic panel of speakers to discuss what the Jewish world can learn from “hacking,” in its larger context of self-empowerment and making information freely available to all. Each program is designed to bring together thought leaders from UC Berkeley, the world of arts & culture, and the field of Jewish education,

“We are thrilled to invite the general public back to the Magnes Auditorium to join this dynamic conversation to consider how ‘hacking tradition’ is the key to a robust Jewish life in the 21st century,” said Rabbi James Brandt, CEO, Jewish Federation of the East Bay and the Jewish Community Foundation. “We have a terrific group of panelists who will bring depth and knowledge about the impact of digital media on learning and sharing information.”

The speakers for Hacking Jewish Tradition include:

Sarah Lefton is Executive Director and Producer of G-dcast, a new media production company providing Jewish children and adults the chance to learn the basics with zero barriers to entry. Sarah began her career in educational digital media at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, and went on to produce projects for The New York Times on the Web, the Village Voice, Princess Cruises, and several robotics companies. After leaving the tech media scene, she served as JCCA Camp Tawonga’s Marketing and Outreach Director; started the clothing brand JewishFashionConspiracy.com, and blogged about Jewish and secular arts and culture for Jewschool and the San Francisco Chronicle. Sarah has served on the boards of the JCC of San Francisco and the independent, pluralist Mission Minyan. She was named one of the Forward 50 most influential Jews, and is a recipient of the Joshua Venture Group fellowship for Jewish social entrepreneurs. Sarah was named a 2012 recipient of the Pomegranate Prize for exceptional young Jewish educators.

Sara Bamberger is Founder and Executive Director for Kevah, whose mission is to empower individuals and organizations to build Jewish learning communities. Prior to her work at Kevah, Sara was the founder and director of the Religion, Politics and Globalization Program at the University of California in Berkeley, and the founding director of The Curriculum Initiative, an organization that supports Jewish students in private schools around the country. She was a founding staff member of Gann Academy, a pluralistic Jewish high school in the Boston area. Sara, born and bred in Colorado, now lives in Berkeley with her husband, Ken, a law professor at UC Berkeley School of Law, and their five children.

Professor Ken Goldberg, Director of UC Berkeley’s Automation Science Lab, teaches and supervises research in Robotics, Automation, and New Media. Ken has published over 150 peer-reviewed technical papers on algorithms for robotics, automation, and social information filtering; his inventions have been awarded eight US Patents. He is Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering (T-ASE), Co-Founder of the Berkeley Center for New Media, Co-Founder and CTO of Hybrid Wisdom Labs, Co-Founder of the Moxie Institute, and Founding Director of UC Berkeley’s Art, Technology, and Culture Lecture Series. He is craigslist Distinguished Professor of New Media. Ken also holds an appointment in the UC San Francisco Medical School where he pursues research in medical robotics.

Dan Schifrin, producer and moderator of Ideas of Late, is a columnist for J: Jewish News Weekly of Northern California. Formerly Director of Public Programs and Curator of Interpretation at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, he has also been a visiting scholar at Stanford University. His articles and essays have appeared in The Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and McSweeney’s.

The first conversation, held on October 2nd, featured a panel speaking on Food Rituals and the Biblical Sabbatical Year. Click here to view a video from the event. The Ideas of Late series is co-sponsored by the Magnes Museum Foundation, hosted by the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, presented in partnership with the J.Weekly, and generously funded in part by the Helen & Albert Colen Endowment for Jewish Culture.

The Jewish Federation of the East Bay and The Jewish Community Foundation are dedicated to building and sustaining a vibrant and inclusive local Jewish community and supporting Jewish life in the East Bay, Israel, and throughout the world. The Federation and Foundation work together with East Bay Jewish donors to create a rich and supportive community guided by the Jewish values of tzedakah (righteous giving), chesed (loving kindness) and tikkun olam (repairing the world). For more information call 510.809.4953 or visit www.jfed.org

--Information from The Jewish Federation of the East Bay

--Image via Morgue File