Learning Together

I love teaching and learning. These two can’t really be separated.

A good class is a true encounter around a text, an idea or a question. I bring what I have learned over the years. The people studying with me bring their own knowledge, experience, doubts and ways of seeing. If the learning is alive, all of us leave with something we did not have when we entered.

Jewish texts are not fossils. They have travelled with us through countries, languages, arguments, disasters, revolutions and new beginnings. Every generation has read them again and asked what they mean now.

That is what I try to do when I teach: understand what a text meant in its own world, listen to what earlier generations heard in it, and then ask what it is saying to us.

What Can We Study?

The Jewish bookshelf is vast, and I have spent most of my life wandering through it.

Among the subjects I teach are:

• The Hebrew Bible and its interpretation
• Jewish history and civilisation
• Midrash, Mishnah and Talmud
• Jewish thought, theology and philosophy
• Mysticism, Kabbalah and Hasidism
• Prayer, liturgy and spiritual practice
• Jewish ethics and business ethics
• Interfaith relations and the Abrahamic traditions
• Israel/Palestine, Jewish peoplehood and contemporary identity
• Homiletics, community building and religious leadership

The list is not final. Some studies begin with a curriculum. Others begin with a question presented by one of those who walk the path with me.
“So said Rabbi Khaninah: “Much had I learned from my rabbis. From my fellows I’ve learned even more. From my disciples I’ve learned the most” (Bavli, Ta’anit 7a)

How We Can Learn

Private Learning

One-to-one learning allows us to move at your pace and stay with the questions that matter to you.

You may want to build a basic Jewish education, return to learning after many years, prepare for a life transition, explore your identity, or study one subject seriously. We begin where you are.

Courses and Study Groups

I teach courses, seminars and regular study groups, in person and online. Some are introductory, some advanced. Some are academic, while others are more spiritual or practical.

The character of each group matters. No two groups learn in exactly the same way.

Talks and Workshops

I am also available for lectures, sermons, workshops, conferences and facilitated conversations in communities, schools, universities, religious institutions and other organisations.

Midreshet Africa

Much of my teaching now comes together through Midreshet Africa – Academy of Judaism, which I established as a home for Jewish learning, culture and community rooted here in Africa.

The academy welcomes anyone prepared to meet Jewish civilization with seriousness, curiosity and respect. It is NOT aimed for Jews alone.

Its work brings Jewish tradition into conversation with African experience, contemporary scholarship and the questions we are carrying into the future.

Where Do We Begin?

You do not need to arrive with a complete programme in mind.

Perhaps there is a book you have always wanted to understand. Perhaps you are looking for a teacher. Perhaps you have a theological problem, an inherited belief you can no longer accept, or a part of your identity you want to know more deeply.

Or perhaps you simply miss learning.

Tell me what brings you. We will begin there.