Sixteen new “inspired Jewish ideas” are set to be filmed this June at WTTW11 in Chicago. ELI Talks is thrilled to have such a talented, diverse group of speakers for this round of production. Artists, scientists, teachers, and community activists will share thoughts on everything from the neuroscience of ritual to race relations, from the moral imagination of the Talmud to Ladino proverbs, from death to dance. It’s our pleasure to introduce you to them here (please note all titles are subject to change):

Speaking on June 16th as part of a night entitled “Jewish Life and Learning:”

• Rabbi, educator, and technologist Charlie Schwartz: “Listening to the God You Don’t Believe In”
• Rabbi and Gratz College Professor of Education Joshua Gutoff: “Talmud and the Moral Imagination”
• Rabbi and psychotherapist Arielle Hanien: “This is Your Brain on Ritual”
• Doctor of emergency medicine and communal leader Michael Slater: “Living Jewishly Means Dying Jewishly”
• Game designer and avocational geneticist Shmuel Glassenberg: “The Jewish (Genetic) Story”
• Comedian and Jewish teen professional Pamela Schuller: “Comedy, Disability, and the Inclusive Synagogue”

Speaking on June 17th as part of the “Resilient Jewish Communities” night:

• Author Allison Fine: “Your Values are Showing: Aligning Jewish Organizations for the Social Age”
• Congregational educator Nancy Parkes: “Igniting Change in Congregational Learning”
• Jewish professional and educator Ilana Kaufman: “Who Counts? Race and the Jewish Future”
• University student and founder of Knock Knock Give a Sock Adina Lichtman: “The Circle of Light: Doing Good Jewishly”
• Rabbi and communal leader Jessy Gross: “The New Wanderers: God, Millennials, and Jewish Engagement”

Speaking on June 18th for a night of “New Jewish Culture:”

• Dancer, choreographer, and educator Lin Batsheva Kahn: “Attach to the Divine and Leap: Creativity and the Yetzer Tov”
• Poet and communal leader David Silverman: “Abraham and Isaac: Parenting and Poetry in a Dangerous World”
• Singer-songwriter and educator Sarah Aroeste: “Sephardic Culture is Jewish Culture”
• Rabbi and author Simcha Weinstein: “Super in Spandex (And Not): The Jewish Lives of Comic Book Heroes”
• Actor, educator, and chef Simon Feil: “Eating Meat?: Empathy as the Foundation of a Moral World”

Tickets are available for individuals and groups to join the studio audience. Organizations and media outlets interested in partnering on the event and/or the videos should contact Miriam Brosseau, ELI Talks Program Director: miriam at see3 dot com.

The first videos from this round of talks are slated for release in August, 2015.