JOIN US FOR A NEW, FOUR-WEEK COURSE:

Colorful Personalities

Not long ago, we thought we were living in Jewish history’s happy ending. But then October 7th hit. History is back.

Hostage negotiations, antisemitism... It’s everything our grandparents warned us about.

We’ve never been here before. But our grandparents knew how to navigate this.

Our past is full of men and women who lived astonishing lives of achievement, influence, and moral courage despite living through Jewish history’s messy, tangled hardships.

Let’s hear their stories. They have a lot to teach you and me.

That’s why we are excited to lead a new four-session course from the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute called Colorful Profiles. Join me, and you’ll hear twelve incredible stories of hostages and converts, heroes and heroines—ordinary Jews and high achievers alike.

To be clear, this isn’t a course about current events. It’s purely a fascinating look into our past. But every one of these stories can teach us about the courage, clarity, and conviction we’ll need as a Jew in 2025.  

Join us as we let history’s most extraordinary Jews show us what we need when Jewish history starts to rhyme.

Enrollment Below

COURSE COST

$89, including a student textbook (couples $139, including one textbook)

CLASS DATES

Option 1: Six Tuesdays, starting May 6th at 7 PM

Option 2: Six Wednesdays, Starting May 7th at 11 AM

@ The Pensacola Chabad Jewish Center

Scroll below to register

Lesson One
Courageous Converts

A Roman prince outwits his uncle to study Torah, an Italian priest studies his way to a new life, and a Polish noble meets an old Jew studying Talmud on a Paris park bench—see their journey to Judaism and what came next.



Lesson Two
Influential Jews

Spain’s top Torah scholar leads a Muslim Army, an Amsterdam rabbi with a printshop talks England into readmitting Jews, and a rabbi teaches a Catholic scholar and saves Central Europe’s Jewish books—how did they integrate Judaism into their influence?



Lesson Three
Unsung Heroines

A businesswoman saves thousands from the Inquisition and rebuilds Jewish life across the Mediterranean, and a female Torah scholar shapes Halachic discourse while raising a family, feeding students, and caring for the sick—see the secret ways women shaped Jewish history.



Lesson Four
Heroes and Hostages

Four rabbis are captured by 10th-century pirates, Germany’s foremost Jewish leader is held for ransom, and thousands of East European Jews languish in Ottoman slave markets—how did Jewish communities respond?


Enrollment