Keruv and More

In 1997, the Valley Beth Shalom Keruv Center opened its doors to the community of Los Angeles to share millennia of Jewish wisdom and principles of living a Jewish life.

According to its founders, Rabbis Harold M. Schulweis, z”l, and Edward Feinstein, with coordinator, Rabbi Nina Bieber Feinstein, the premise was that Judaism has something important to say about the human condition – to the unsynagogued, the unchurched, to unaffiliated or disaffected Jews, and to seekers in general.  KERUV offered what became years of high-level instruction by rabbis of all traditions on Jewish theology, observance, wisdom and ethics.

“KERUV… and More,” an exhibit in the VBS Ellie and Mark Lainer Beit Midrash, drawing on the vast resources of www.hmsi.info and the Schulweis rabbinic files, recreates the inaugural programs of this revolutionary outreach program. This includes talks on the pathways to Judaism, Jewish observance and wisdom, the uniqueness of Judaism, as well as 3 rabbis speaking on “The God I Believe In.”  Capping off this educational vignette are the lectures from “Conversation of the Learned,” a symposium celebrating the 80th birthday of Rabbi Schulweis. Featured are Rabbis David Ellenson z”l , Irving “Yitz” Greenberg, David Hartman z”l, Harold Kushner z”l, speaking on Jewish history and the future of the Jewish people.

In the words of Rabbi Schulweis, “God and Torah are meant for humanity…I want all of us to again fall in love with Judaism.”

In KERUV, the display and audios/videos available at hmsi.info, the Harold M. Schulweis Institute invites all to embark on a journey of rediscovery, embracing the uniqueness and excitement of Judaism.