Sunday, March 25, 6 pM - The Toronto Heschel School

Jews, Civil
Rights and
Torah: A.J.
Heschel and
Martin Luther
King Jr.
Rabbi Joe Kanofsky
Rabbi and Scholar
Martin Luther King Jr. is a household name, but how
many of us understand the legacy of Abraham Joshua
Heschel? Join Rabbi Joe Kanofsky to learn about how
Rabbi Heschel’s embodiment of Jewish values inspired
Martin Luther King Jr. on his march for civil rights.
Rabbi Joe Kanofsky earned his Ph.D. in Comparative
Literature at Boston University under the direction of Elie
Wiesel. His Master’s degree in Comparative Religion
focused on the study of Christian reception of
Abraham Joshua Heschel. Rabbi Kanofsky was
ordained at the Rabbinical College of America,
where he was also a Wexner Graduate Fellow.
From 2001-2004, Rabbi Kanofsky was the director of the
Ronald S. Lauder Foundation in Warsaw, an organization
committed to rebuilding Jewish life in Eastern Europe.
Rabbi Kanofsky travelled around Poland to learn with
Jews of all ages and backgrounds, devastated by the
Holocaust and stifled by decades of Communism, yet
determined to embrace their faith and heritage.
Rabbi Kanofsky has published scholarly and popular
articles in several languages, and contributed to
The Comparative Religious Ideas Project, a multivolume
series published by SUNY Press. He has served as a
scholar-in-residence at synagogues in the US and
Canada, and consults with major Jewish educational
institutions on curriculum and policy. Rabbi Kanofsky is
currently the rabbi at Kihellat Shaarei Torah in Toronto.
The politics of food production and consumption have dominated
headlines in North America for nearly a decade. Bestselling books
and films and government interest in these issues have created a
lively public discussion about the sustainability of North American
eating practices. Religious groups have always been deeply
involved in the regulation of food. Over the past decade, ethical
and theological concerns about climate change, environmental
degradation, hunger, and the broad goals of the contemporary
food movement have led many religious groups to re-consider their
food practices and to pursue strategies to bring communal eating
into line with other religious values. Join Andrea Most for a fascinating
look into the unique relationship between Judaism and the issues of
food and sustainability
Andrea Most is Associate Professor of American Literature and Jewish
Studies in the Department of English at the University of Toronto. Her
book Making Americans: Jews and the Broadway Musical (Harvard
UP) won the 2005 Kurt Weill Prize for distinguished scholarship on
music theatre. Her second book, Theatrical Liberalism: Jews and
Popular Entertainment in America, is forthcoming from NYU Press
in 2012. Most’s new research project, Holy Lands, focuses on food,
agriculture, and religion in Canada and the United States.
She began this project by organizing a conference and multi-faith
community workshop on Food, Religion and Sustainability for the
Religion in the Public Sphere initiative at the University of Toronto.
Andrea has been working in the Jewish food movement for
more than five years, serving as the Site Coordinator for the
Narayever – Everdale CSA, the co-Chair of the Food Committee
at the first Narayever Congregation, a founding Board member
for Shoresh and for Bela Farm, and a member of the Hazon
Food Council. She will be spending the coming year conducting
research on the Jewish food movement under the auspices of the
Jackman Humanities Institute Fellowship on Food Studies.
The Politics
of Food
Andrea Most
Associate Professor of
American Literature and
Jewish Studies
Serving:
CHICKEN
Serving:
RAINBOW tRouT
Hosted by,
Tova Moscoe and Jason Mausberg
Hosted by,
Rhonda and David Newman
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