Spotlight on CLAL
Welcome to Spotlight on CLAL. Here you will find stories about what is
happening at CLAL and about the work that CLAL is doing across North America. Sometimes we
will focus on a program, or a special event, or upon a CLAL faculty member's work and
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Life And Death Of God In The 21st Century:
Acclaimed Films Explore our Notions of God, and of Religion and Violence
-- Free Screenings at the Aspen Institute
By Judy Epstein, Director of Public Affairs
Challenging our ideas about the sacred and religion’s
place in the world today, two short documentaries will be screened in the
Paepcke Auditorium at the Aspen Institute. The screenings will be free and
open to the public. The first, Time for a New God, shown on
August 3, presents religion as a “giant tool box,” at a time when nothing is
simply what it appears. Filmed along the beaches, sites and sounds of New
York’s Coney Island, and featuring Rabbi Irwin Kula, distinguished public
television host and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for
Learning and Leadership, it offers fresh thinking about faith, spirituality
and the sacredness of everyday life. At a time when we are “masters of our
universe,” Time for a New God asks: What kind of God do we need?
The second, Freaks Like Me, will be shown
on August 4. It was filmed at the 2004 Parliament of the World’s Religions
in Barcelona, the pre-eminent interreligious forum in which over 8,000
participants representing a diversity of religious traditions gathered to
explore how religion, often a cause of terrorism, can be a catalyst for
building a better world. Featuring CLAL Vice President Rabbi Brad
Hirschfield, a leader in interfaith dialogue and noted Parliament speaker,
the film examines the tension between faith and violence and looks at how
“the faithful” see themselves and other devouts. Through conversations with
swamis, imams, priests, monks, yogis, and rabbis, Freaks Like Me asks
us to look at the traditions we love, our fears of other religious
communities, and our many understandings of violence, justice, faith, and
doubt.
Doors will open at 10:00 am for screenings that will
take place at 10:15 am on August 3rd and 4th.
Following each of the screenings, Rabbi Kula and Rabbi Hirschfield will lead
discussions about the issues generated by the films.
The Paepcke Auditorium is located at the Aspen Meadows
Resort, “Home of the Aspen Institute.” The Paepcke Auditorium parking lot
is located at the end of Third Street (take Main Street to Third Street and
turn right).
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