Video Courses

Available Monday, November 24. Pre-enroll now!

The great writers of the modern Jewish literary canon captured the struggles, questions, and aspirations of a people entering a new world. Confronted by the promises and perils of religion, Communism, liberty, assimilation, and capitalism, Jews turned to literature to understand—and to confront—the challenges of modern life. What emerged was a rich body of writing, a treasure to which Jews and all thoughtful readers can turn for insight, experience, and moral understanding.

In this nine-part series, Professor Ruth R. Wisse—one of the world’s foremost interpreters of Jewish fiction—guides you through the masterpieces of modern Jewish literature. Through stories by the greatest Jewish writers of the age, you'll see how they wrestled with God and man, tradition and change, suffering and joy—and how their words continue to illuminate both the Jewish and human conditions.

This course, and all of Ruth Wisse's work at Tikvah, is supported by the generosity of Robert L. Friedman.

Rabbi Soloveichik explores the history and hidden depths of Jewish ritual through the extraordinary art of Moritz Daniel Oppenheim. Oppenheim brought Jewish ritual to life as no other modern artist has. In this course, Rabbi Soloveichik will study his paintings to uncover the spiritual meaning, historical context, and enduring relevance of the Jewish practices and people he depicts.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Jews flooded into the United States. Large numbers settled in New York, fashioning an intellectual community that became the basis of American Jewish culture today.

Through essays, poems, novels, and short stories—in Yiddish and English—the writers who formed this “concentrated explosion of intellectual talent” sought to understand what this new country was about, and what it ought to be about. In doing so, they also prompted important changes in America itself.

In this course, the distinguished literary critic Dr. Ruth R. Wisse will explore the writing and ideas of the women and men who made up the first generation of the New York Intellectuals.

Sandwiched between the rabbinic period and the Enlightenment, the medieval period of Jewish history is often an afterthought. It shouldn’t be.

In this online course, the distinguished historian Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter will bring you on a journey through the events, debates, trends, and formative figures of medieval Jewish history. Over ten fascinating lectures, he’ll show you how the medieval period was a dramatic, vibrant, and significant time in the story of the Jews.

Dr. Micah Goodman provides a groundbreaking interpretation of one of the most perplexing texts in the Hebrew Bible. He shows how Job approaches the critical theological question of why bad things happen to good people and transforms how we think about the broader moral vision of the Hebrew Bible.

From late antiquity through the modern era, the West’s most brilliant creative minds have been inspired by the stories of the Bible. Great Jewish and Christian artists—from Michelangelo to Chagall, from the architects of ancient synagogues to the sculptors of papal tombs—regularly depicted the towering leaders, great prophets, and dramatic scenes that make up Hebrew Scripture. In Tikvah’s newest online course—which will be released on Tuesday, July 30—you’ll be able to join Yeshiva University art historian Dr. Jacob Wisse for a sweeping exploration of The Artistic Legacy of the Hebrew Bible.

There is no other writer like Shmuel Yosef Agnon. Born in Polish Galicia, he moved to the land of Israel in 1908 and emerged as the Hebrew writer par excellence. His novels and stories are renowned for their power, sophistication, and thematic richness. And, unlike any other writer of his time and perhaps since, Agnon mixed rabbinic language and Jewish dilemmas with modern 20th century concerns in a deft and unique style, one that Saks calls a "modern midrash of literary art."

For the first time in many decades, the debate between Zionism and anti-Zionism seems to be at the center of public discourse throughout America and the West. But what are the fundamental beliefs, assumptions, and narratives behind these two opposing ideas?

In this series, join Dr. Einat Wilf, a former member of Israel’s parliament and a scholar of Zionist thought for a comprehensive look at the history of Zionism—political, social, and religious—and the schools of anti-Zionism that have opposed it.

If you are interested in hosting a screening of this course in your community or in hosting Dr. Wilf and Ms. Zeigherman, please click here for more information.

Where can modern Jews, both young and old and across the spectrum of observance, turn for guidance on timely and timeless questions, on the most urgent and most perennial issues?

For nearly two millennia, Jews from all around the world have dedicated the six Sabbaths between Passover and Shavuot to the regular study of Pirkei Avot, the Ethics (or Chapters) of the Fathers. Pirkei Avot—or Avot, for short—is a section of the Mishna, the first formal codification of the Jewish Oral Law, which portrays the moral-ethical universe of Judaism in all its fullness. These teachings, culled from the sayings of almost sixty sages, stretching over some five centuries, are the building blocks of a Jewish life well-lived. In short, Avot is the foundational text for any authentic transmission of Jewish values and virtues.

In his teaching and writing, Rabbi Soloveichik frequently draws on the full range of popular culture, including enduring television shows and films. He does this both because of his great love for humor and dramatic storytelling, and because of his belief that stories depicted on screen can provide powerful examples of faith, leadership, perseverance, and more.

Great lessons can be learned from books of every kind, and in Rabbi Soloveichik’s view, a great many Jewish lessons can be found in works that, on their surface, have little relation to Judaism at all. In this series, he’ll introduce subscribers to eight of his own favorite modern books, placing a special focus on those works that most impacted him and his worldview.

The Yom Kippur War was one of the most harrowing moments in Israeli history. In this seminal course, released in time for the 50th anniversary of the conflict, Dr. Michael Doran offers a comprehensive look at war, analyzing what happened, how it happened, and the ways it changed the future of the Middle East.