Limmud Oz as a community health check 

How do you evaluate a community’s wellbeing? Measures might include an inclusive thriving community, connected cultural experiences, active healthy people, and a strong sense of mission. For the Jewish community, a proxy for such indicia might be formal opportunities to learn from, and with, each other.

Jewish communities, so diverse in geography, belief, practices, and politics, have a common denominator – their commitment to learning. The international Limmud movement developed as immersive Jewish “teach-ins” to bind communities by sharing knowledge.  

This year’s Limmud Oz implicitly ticks all the community wellbeing boxes, even in trying times. 

Limmud Oz 2025 will be held from June 7 to 9 in Melbourne. 

There are eight parallel sessions every hour over the two main days of the event, as well as a smaller Shabbat program. Highlights include presentations by eight international experts in Jewish history, music, theology, and politics from the UK, USA, Canada and Israel. 

The program has seven themes: Mind, Body and Soul; Arts and Culture; Everything Israel; Society and Politics; History and Memory; The Modern Jewish World; and Text and Philosophy.

Music has been artfully woven throughout the program. 

The Saturday night gala opens with a special Havdalah morphing into vocalists performing their own choice of song, plus one composed or performed by a Jewish artist. On Sunday night, instrumentalists reimagine Jewish music including Klezmer, pop, and liturgical melodies.  

The concluding concert on Monday evening is a triptych beginning with emerging young Jewish performers, interspersed with a Tisch – a participatory Nigun session led by Rabbi Noam Sendor backed by a jazz band. Rachel Moshel and her band, The 5^th of Nisan, close the night.  

Music and performance are also very present in the main sessions, which include a performance of Yiddish protest songs; an Israeli singalong; a romp through 4,000 years of Jewish humour, from the Kotsk Rebbe to Lenny Bruce; a session on Bob Dylan; and two on Leonard Cohen.  

The inaugural Katz Chair in Jewish Music at UCLA, Professor Mark Kligman, will present on “Yiddish Theatre and American Pop Music” and on “Jews and Musical Theatre in America”.

Professor Kligman will also discuss his research on the tight-knit Syrian Jewish community of Brooklyn. Now 70,000 strong, they arrived in America after the opening of the Suez Canal in the 1870s when trading opportunities diminished. Their Shabbat liturgical service features Egyptian pop tunes of the 1920s and 30s.

Experiential workshops include active laughter designed to reclaim laughter as resistance; Jewish meditation and Kabbalah wellbeing; and a psychodrama exploration of the meaning of forgiveness.

Food is a centrepiece of Jewish cultural and religious life. Linda Gradstein, a political journalist who has a side gig as a restaurant reviewer for the Jerusalem Post, will present on new trends in food and wine in Israel. 

Jews may love food, but they also have problems with it. A panel discussion will explore The Jewish Independent’s Every Body series documenting the cultural complexities of body image for many Jews.  

The more curious sessions include explorations of obscure Jewish communities and remarkable individuals.  

Professor Alan Verskin, the Zacks Chair of Jewish History at the University of Toronto, takes us on a 19^th century road trip through Yemen. A Jewish professor and his Yemenite guide crossed mountains and deserts, and recorded their encounters with “otherness” across diverse Jewish and Muslim communities.  

In another session, Professor Verskin introduces us to David Reubeni, a charismatic 16^th century Black Jewish warrior who lobbied for political independence for the Jews of Venice. His diary records the surprisingly positive reception to his plan from kings, bishops, rabbis, and bankers.  

Those less than glued to social media might have missed young Jewish women’s obsession with the Golem. “Golem girls of the 21^st Century” explores this craze and ponders why Jewish women might like the idea of a pet monster as their mystical champion.  

A performance piece explores how a gay man went from, “The Closet to the Chuppah” – a Kabbalistic journey through the divine masculine and feminine.

Unsurprisingly, a good proportion of the program deals with October 7 and its aftermath. There is a strong focus on societal implications, both in the Diaspora and in Israel.  

You can get the facts with a review of the hard evidence of antisemitism in contemporary Australia; or explore the psychological implications with a panel of three Jewish therapists who will reflect on the emotional, ethical, and political dilemmas that have surfaced in their therapy rooms post October 7.  

Hebrew University Jewish education specialist Alex Sinclair will explore both Israeli and Diaspora identity including a session confronting "the elephant in the room": Israel in the age of Smotrich and Ben-Gvir..  

American Jewish historian Joshua Shanes will deliver a series of sessions on Diaspora issues including the politics of antisemitism, the voting habits of Orthodox Americans and the relationship of American Jews with Israel, as well as taking a longer view in a session on the innovations and impact of Kabbalah

Journalists Linda Gradstein and Dina Kraft will look at the future in Israel with sessions on where we go from here and why "what happens in the West Bank never stays in the West Bank”. 

For those looking to engage with more traditional Jewish learning, “Talmud in a Nutshell” may be a good place to start. Jeffrey Rubenstein, Professor of Talmud at New York University, moves us beyond traditional interpretation to look at “The Narrative Art of the Talmud” and the “Story-Cycle in the Talmud”. 

Lindsay Simmonds, from the London School of Jewish Studies, looks at Shavuot from the perspective of “The intimacies of friendship”. This session should pair well with the story behind the New York Times best-seller, “My Friend Anne Frank”, to be presented by Dina Kraft, the opinions editor of Haaretz English. 

Many Torah sessions are decidedly edgy: “The Radical Potential of Traditional Judaism”; “Jewish Spiritual Ecology or the Torah of the Earth”; and "Speak Truth to Power". Lindsay Simmonds, from the London School of Jewish Studies, looks at “Emotional Men and Proactive Women – How women shape Jewish history”. There is also a Torah study session on queerness and another on re-reading the Torah passages about homosexuality.

Claims of Jewish particularism can be problematic. But this Limmud Oz program exudes the pride of Australia’s Jewish community in being able to marshal so much talent and knowledge.  

The expectation is that Jews of all persuasions and viewpoints will actively participate in learning together – a strong signifier of our community’s resilience.  

The Jewish Independent is a supporter of Limmud Oz 2025. See the full program and register here.