Many of us have been struggling to make sense of the events of October 7, 2023, and the associated horror and the despair. Some of us have sought support in community, some of us have devoted our time to solidarity with those in need, but Jewish history and culture has much to say about how we might respond to these events religiously, spiritually, and theologically. Together, in this evening, we will gain strength from the ideas and traditions of our ancestors, so that we might bear the grief of recent days and the uncertain future with renewed strength. 

Rabbi Joseph A. Skloot, Ph.D. is the Rabbi Aaron D. Panken Assistant Professor of Modern Jewish Intellectual History at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR). He is a historian of Jewish culture and religious thought and the author of First Impressions: Sefer Ḥasidim and Early Modern Hebrew Printing (Brandeis University Press, 2023), which received the Jordan Schnitzer First Book Award from the Association for Jewish Studies in 2023. He teaches courses on Jewish history, philosophy and theology, books and reading, and interfaith relations, and is a much sought after lecturer and teacher at universities and synagogues across the US and internationally. He earned his A.B. from Princeton, his rabbinical ordination from HUC-JIR, and his Ph.D. from Columbia.