Oakton Jewish Studies to host two upcoming riveting lectures

Mark your calendars for Thursday, Jan. 30 and Tuesday, Feb. 11 to learn more about Jewish history and culture during two thought-provoking lectures sponsored by Oakton Community College's Jewish Studies program. Both lectures take place at the college’s Skokie campus, 7701 N. Lincoln Ave., and are free and open to the public.

The first talk, “Exploring Judaism: Varieties of Judaism Today,” is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., in Room A145-152. Chicago native Rabbi Kenneth Berger will discuss the major streams in Jewish life today: Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and Jewish Renewal.

Berger served as a congregational rabbi for over 35 years in Kalamazoo, Michigan and Teaneck, New Jersey, where he is now Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Beth Sholom. He received his doctorate in the history and development of Jewish literature from the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he taught courses in liturgy at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Besides serving on the Executive Committee of the Chicago Board of Rabbis, he is the author of “Tradition, Interpretation and Change: Developments in the Liturgy of Medieval and Early Modern Ashkenaz.”

On Feb. 11, join Daniel Patrick Brown, professor emeritus from Moorpark College (California), for the lecture “American Business in the Third Reich: A Conducive Milieu” from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., in Room A145-152.

Learn about the lucrative U.S. business deals that led many American firms to choose profits over ethics during the prewar era and, in some cases, during the actual war with Nazi Germany.

Brown is the author of many historical works including “The Camp Women: The Female Auxiliaries who Assisted the SS in Running the Nazi Concentration Camp System.” He also served as an interviewer for the “Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Project.”

Both lectures are funded with generous support from the Oakton Educational Foundation.

Jewish Studies at Oakton offers an 18-credit-hour interdisciplinary academic concentration, as well as public lectures, symposia and events that educate and challenge all members of our community of learners to be informed, responsible and capable global citizens.

For more information, contact jewishstudies@oakton.edu.