Former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson addresses the state of national and international security (and insecurity) in today’s fragile world. In addition, as Co-chair of the Board of Trustees of Columbia University, the unprecedented challenges and threats facing our leading universities.
If you feel moved by Rabbi Broitman’s work, please consider making a gift to Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center in her honor to one of the following funds:
Music Fund: Donate Here
Jewish Learning and Programming Fund: Donate Here
General Fund: Donate Here
Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund: Donate Here
Rev. Cathlin Baker and Rabbi Caryn Broitman will be in conversation about Rabbi Broitman’s new book,
The Torah Is an Open Book: Radical Readings for the Seeker and the Skeptic.
The book reclaims holy text as a space for dialogue, transformation, and moral courage, where questioning, wrestling, and interpreting are not only allowed—they’re sacred.
Join Rev. Baker and Rabbi Broitman for a conversation about the ways our respective sacred – and sometimes problematic – texts can speak to the challenges we face today.
The conversation will be followed by a celebratory reception.
All are welcome, and there is no charge for the event, but an RSVP is required:
The book will be available for purchase at the event, as well as for pre-order here.
If you feel moved by Rabbi Broitman’s work, please consider making a gift to Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center in her honor Donate Here
Learn more about Rabbi Broitman and her book here: rabbicarynbroitman.com
Released in 1936, I Have Sinned (Al Khet) was the first Yiddish sound film made in Poland, and marks the film debut of the Polish-Jewish comedy team Dzigan and Schumacher ( known as the Yiddish Abbot and Costello). Unseen for generations until its new rescue and restoration by The National Center for Jewish Film, I Have Sinned (Al Khet) blends melodrama with a bissel of comedy and music.
Set in a small Jewish town during World War I, the film follows Esther (Rachel Holzer), a rabbi’s daughter who abandons her child after her lover dies in battle and the Russians invade. Complications unfold as Esther’s friends played by Dzigan and Schumacher attempt to reunite mother and daughter years later.
Runtime: 90 minutes.
Lisa Rivo, Co-Director of the National Center for Jewish Film, which spearheaded the digital restoration of I have Sinned, will introduce and discuss the film.
Social commentator/culture observer Van Jones, political analyst, lawyer, civil rights advocate, bestselling author, CNN host (Crossfire, Messy Truth, The Redemption Project), President Obama’s Special Advisor for Green Jobs, visiting fellow at Princeton University, founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Color of Change, and the Dream Corps, social justice accelerator, and more – takes on the daunting topic of growing anti-semitism, and the intersection of Jewish and Black bias in America.
Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse (2024) examines Spiegelman’s “irreverent” life, his artistic partnership with wife Françoise Mouly, and the development of his groundbreaking graphic novel Maus. Premiering at DOC NYC 2024, the film covers his underground comix roots, New Yorker covers, and 9/11 experiences as he emerges as a leading advocate for free speech in response to book bans and rising authoritarianism.
Runtime: 98 minutes.
Conversation Followed by Q&A and Reception
Rabbi Buchdahl has often felt like “the stranger” throughout her journey to becoming a rabbi, but rather than solely an isolating, painful experience, it has also been a source of growth and connection.
In a time when many minority groups in America have felt marginalized or outside the tent, she eventually concludes, “If we recognize that every one of us carries the heart of the stranger, maybe we’ll finally grasp that our need for belonging is the starting point for a common humanity.”
Rabbi Caryn Broitman will interview Rabbi Angela Buchdahl about her book, Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi’s Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging, followed by a Q&A and reception.
Angela Warnick Buchdahl serves as the senior rabbi of Central Synagogue in New York City, a flagship Reform synagogue, dubbed the first ‘mega-shul’ by the Wall Street Journal. Buchdahl is the first woman to lead Central in its 185-year history. Born in Seoul, Korea, Buchdahl graduated from Yale University and went on to become the first Asian American ordained as a cantor and first ordained as rabbi in North America. Rabbi Buchdahl has been nationally recognized for her innovations in leading worship, which draw large crowds in the congregation’s historic Sanctuary and a million live streamers in more than 100 countries. Rabbi Buchdahl was invited by President Barack Obama in 2014 and President Joe Biden in 2023 to share blessings and light the menorah for the White House Hanukkah Party, the first rabbi invited by two administrations. Rabbi Buchdahl serves on the boards of American Jewish Committee, The Asia Society, Yale University Presidents Council, and New York Board of Rabbis. She has been featured on the Today Show, NPR, PBS and Newsweek’s “America’s 50 Most Influential Rabbis.” Rabbi Buchdahl’s memoir, Heart of a Stranger, a New York Times Best Seller and Jewish Book Awards finalist, was published by Penguin/Random House in October 2025. Rabbi Buchdahl and her husband Jacob have three children.
The New York Times Puzzle-Makers: Joel Fagliano, who interned with Times crossword puzzle editor (and folk hero), Will Shortz, and is now the lead puzzle editor and creates the Mini-Puzzle (5×5), with Wyna Liu, who went with her mother, on a 7-night Times “crossword cruise,” and met Joel, who inspired her to create her own puzzles, and today creates/edits Connections (words connected by shared but sometimes obscure themes), and Sam Ezersky, another Shortz mentee, who convinced Will to talk puzzles at his house one evening, and now creates/edits Spelling Bee (how many words you can spell with 7 letters). They’ll explain how they do what they do, why games have taken us by storm, and even how to get better at them.
Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and New York Times Contributor E.J. Dionne will talk about the new “values voters,” who cut across secular-religious differences, and continue an American tradition that brings morality to issues of economic justice and the common good.
E.J. Dionne, Jr. is a distinguished university professor in the Foundations of Democracy and Culture at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, and a senior fellow and W. Averell Harriman Chair in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. He is also a contributing writer for the New York Times. He is the author or co-author of nine books including, most recently, 100% Democracy: The Case for Universal Voting, coauthored with Miles Rapoport. Others include New York Times Bestseller Why the Right Went Wrong, Our Divided Political Heart, and Why Americans Hate Politics. He has been a commentator on NPR and MSNBC and was a columnist for 32 years at the Washington Post.