The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute
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Chabad Palo Alto
Location 3070 Louis Rd, Palo Alto, CA 94303 USA
Phone650-424-9800
Endorsements Endorsements, Reviews and Comments of JLI's Courses and Programs.
Professor Judea Pearl (Father of Daniel Pearl) Director, Cognitive Systems Laboratory, University of California, Los Angeles

It is history that gives humans the sense of immortality and a bond that transcends passing differences. I applaud JLI for launching this worldwide study of Jewish history, a unique opportunity to rediscover our collective identity.

Natan Sharansky Noted Soviet dissident, Former Member of Israeli Knesset

In these tumultuous times, strengthening our identity is critical. JLI's course, The Land and the Spirit, provides an intriguing opportunity to connect to our roots, to be empowered by a personal link with our people and history, and to understand our bond to Israel. It is only by drawing a clear line from the past to the present that each of us can chart a course for a creative, constructive, and fulfilling future as part of the Jewish People.

Professor Alan M. Dershowitz Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

I found the Rohr JLI course You Be The Judge fascinating. If my first-year students had been exposed to this material before starting law school, they would be better prepared for the rigors of the Socratic method.

Elyakim Rubinstein Israeli Supreme Court Justice, Former Attorney General of Israel

Many thanks for sharing with me the exciting Rohr JLI curriculum of You Be The Judge and for the excellent idea of bringing the treasure of Jewish law, a major point of Jewish life and Jewish ethos, to the attention of interested people.

Ellen Langer, PhD Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, Bestselling Author of eleven books including Mindfulness, Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and The Power of Possibility, Cambridge, MA

On the level of the individual to the level of culture, the ills we experience, by and large, result from mindlessness. The wisdom discussed in Toward a Meaningful Life should be widely read to help provoke a reversal of this trend and lead us to mindful lives full of everyday meaning.

Professor Jonathan D. Sarna Director, Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program, Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University

I am delighted to learn that the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute has created the course entitled Flashbacks in Jewish History. The great encounters between Judaism and its surrounding civilizations are of paramount importance for anyone seeking to understand Jewish life in the past as well as in the present.

Sir Martin Gilbert Leading Historian Official Biographer of Sir Winston Churchill

The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute and Rabbi Aaron Herman are to be congratulated for their challenging course, The Land and The Spirit, in which the spiritual values and centrality of the Land of Israel are expounded through a fascinating range of religious and secular texts. These texts span a remarkably wide range of opinions, from Moses to Herzl, from Rashi to Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, from Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson to Natan Sharansky (There is No Zionism Without Judaism), from the Talmud to the opinion writers of the Jerusalem Post. These texts, like the course itself, will serve a noble cause in stimulating thought and encouraging understanding.

Marlene Post President, Hadassah International, Chair for North America, Birthright Israel (Taglit)

The story of our people is filled with tales of leadership and vision, kindness and compassion. These are the gifts that enriched our own communities, and they are gifts we have shared with others around the world. The past provides us the inspiration to continue to work for the betterment of society.

Past Courses

Judaism's Gifts to the World

January 2020
Judaism's Gifts to the World

By most indications, modern society is a model of moral progress. Yet when it comes to everyday values, we still grapple with the big ones…

   - What are our responsibilities toward the less fortunate?
   - How do we fashion a more moral and equal society?
   - How can we make a move toward more cohesive family living?

Join us to unpack six of the world’s most cherished values and how they were delivered to humankind by the Torah. By tracing their fascinating journey to the mainstream, we’ll discover a timeless core of purpose, integrity, and clarity in each value—a powerful gift of guidance as we navigate our own daily choices.

Secrets of the Bible

November 2020
Secrets of the Bible

A lush garden...a snake...forbidden fruit...temptation...the sin of knowledge...shame...mortality...
What is really going on?

Revisit six seemingly absurd stories you likely remember from Hebrew school. Uncover their hidden themes and eye-opening insights into the mysteries of life.
~ What is the deeper meaning behind these stories?
~ How did they shape the Jewish worldview?
~ What wisdom do they hold for you today?

Sign up for a thought-provoking experience, sure to deepen your understanding of Judaism and enrich your life!

My G-d

November 2022
My G-d

Nothing is off-limits as this refreshingly open course asks piercing questions about G-d and delivers profound, insightful answers. An enlightening study into G-d’s nature, G-d’s goal for creation, human experiences of G-d, the role of religion, and the function of miracles and prayer, this course promises to satisfy your questions, including those you didn't know you had.

 

The World of Kabbalah

November 2023
The World of Kabbalah

Discover the core mystical and spiritual teachings of Kabbalah and their relevance to everyday life. You’ll learn to think like a Jewish mystic and gain powerful insights to fuel deeper self-understanding and personal growth. Curious why there’s so much buzz around Kabbalah? Discover it for yourself by attending The World of Kabbalah.

Worrier to Warrior

November 2019
Worrier to Warrior

We yearn to feel happy, self-assured, and enthusiastic, yet we’re consumed by feelings of doubt, regret, insecurity, and suffering. Do our delicate positive emotions have a fighting chance at being in control? This course explores negative emotions in a completely new light, offering spiritual mechanisms that allow us to remain upbeat no matter what life brings.

Crime and Consequence

February 2019
Crime and Consequence

When innocent people are wrongly convicted...
When "correctional facilities" turn first-time offenders into hardened criminals...
When known murderers walk free on a technicality …
Fairness in justice simply cannot be left to chance.

In Crime and Consequence, we explore 3000 years of Jewish wisdom concerning criminal convictions, sentencing, crime prevention, and rehabilitation. We challenge our thinking, pondering the application of Talmudic principles to real and complex, modern-day cases, and we get to the heart of questions such as:

Should we consider testimonies given in exchange for a reduced sentence as reliable evidence?
What is the goal of punishing criminals? is it to gain retribution for the victim, keep criminals off the streets and safeguard from future crime, set an example and instill the fear of law, or to rehabilitate the criminal and reintroduce him to society?
Is life-without-parole a justifiable penalty? Is it within our right to sentence a man to death? When would these be warranted? Is there a better way?

Great Debates

November 2017
Great Debates

Debate is not only encouraged within Judaism but resides at the very heart of our history and theology. Great Debates in Jewish History explores six fundamental conflicts that pitted the greatest Jewish minds against each other—six instances of divergent perspectives, including several that are still debated today.

Discover stirring and surprising accounts that span two millennia of Jewish disputation, reflecting the panorama of Jewish history and its monumental political, ethical, and spiritual challenges. Encounter the gripping narratives of six fascinating eras, the intellectual tension and points of view they unearth, and the light they shed on the most fundamental of Jewish beliefs.

What Is?

April 2018
What Is?

Imagine that you were able to rethink everything you knew about the universe, the laws of nature, your own consciousness, and the very idea of existence and reality. Imagine the new insights you will gain, the fresh perspective with which you will embark on the journey of life each morning.

What is? does exactly that. Drawing on the wisdom of Chassidic teaching, the most basic building blocks of existence are reexamined from the bottom up, revolutionizing our understanding of life, reality, and our place in the world.

Wrestling with Faith

October 2018
Wrestling with Faith

Most people, even the devout, struggle with beliefs about G-d. It is easy, for example, to affirm the basic tenets of Judaism during a prayer service, but when it comes to trusting G-d with our daily decisions, many share a secret, painful fear that G-d isn’t really looking out for them. Many of us have been brought up under the assumption that mainstream science is incompatible with our Jewish faith. So when we see compelling evidence for biological evolution, for example, we feel forced to choose between science and our faith. Wrestling with Faith was created to tackle questions like these—the “big issues” that keep people from an intimate relationship with G-d. The course acknowledges the often unspoken doubts and fears that all people share, and seizes their invitation for us to dig deeper for the answers.

Paradigm Shift

May 2014
Paradigm Shift

Paradigm Shift is an elevator ride to the heights of what is possible. Synchronize yourself with the mission for which you were placed on earth, and learn to recognize the inherent goodness and perfection in yourself, in others, and in every circumstance of your life.

Distilled into six succinct lessons, this empowering course offers a revolutionary outlook on life, culled from the wisdom of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory.

This course is offered in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Rebbe’s passing.