Friday-Night Program: Judaism as Counterculture

(Adult Education)

Judaism as Counterculture: How Jewish Thought Differs from the American Mainstream
(A presentation by Lawrence Bush, author and editor of Jewish Currents)

Lawrence Bush is the author of several books of Jewish fiction and non-fiction including Waiting for God: The Spiritual Explorations of a Reluctant Atheist and Bessie: A Novel of Love and Revolution. He currently edits Jewish Currents, an independent, progressive magazine founded in 1946 that promotes Jewish identity as “a counterculture…in many ways antithetical to what drives the the country today.” He is also editor of the daily blog Jewdayo, discussing events from Jewish life and history on the anniversary of their occurrence. He is the former editor of Reconstruction Today, the quarterly magazine of the Jewish Reconstructionist movement. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Tikkun, Moment, Reform Judaism and Mad Magazine. He provided commentary for the Leo Roston classic The Joys of Yiddish. Bush served for more than a decade as speechwriter for Rabbi Alexander Schindler, late leader of Reformed Judaism in America.  In addition to writing and editing, he has worked as a puppeteer and school music teacher.

We will meet as usual in the Parlor, where we have coffee, tea, and snacks. There is free parking on the street and in the lot behind the church, reached from Magnolia Street.  The talk is open to Peretz members and the community at large.  Due to the expense of bringing in this speaker, there will be attendance fees of $5 (Peretz members) and $10 (non-members).

The IL Peretz Secular Jewish Community’s Adult Education Programs educate our members in engaging ways about Jewish heritage and the world around us.