Hiram College announces its Spring 2019 Lectures in Religion Series, featuring Danya Ruttenberg, distinguished rabbi, author, and educator. The lecture will be held on Wednesday, April 3 in Hayden Auditorium in the College’s Bates Hall beginning at 8 p.m.
Ruttenberg’s lecture, titled “Unrepentant: What America Needs to Learn About Repairing Harm” will dive deep into the Jewish model for interpersonal repair. The idea that those who have caused harm should do the work of repentance and amends is one that Rabbi Ruttenberg believes is positively countercultural in America today. Through the lecture, she will navigate through the steps of an apology and its intended impact, as well as answer questions around forgiveness and reconciliation for those who have been hurt. Not only will Rabbi Ruttenberg look at the idea from a personal level, but also how our county and culture engage around sexual abuse in the wake of #MeToo, the criminal justice system, Native American rights, racism, and the legacy of enslavement.
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg is the author of “Nurture the Wow: Finding Spirituality in the Frustration, Boredom, Tears, Poop, Desperation, Wonder, and Radical Amazement of Parenting,” a National Jewish Book Award finalist and PJ Library Parents’ Choice selection. She is also the author of six other books, including the Sami Rohr Prize-nominated “Surprised by God,” and has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, The Atlantic, and many other publications. Ruttenberg has been featured on NPR, Upworthy and in The Atlantic, and has been named by Newsweek as one of ten “Rabbis to Watch,” and the Forward as one of the top 50 most influential women rabbis. Currently she serves as Rabbi-in-Residence at Avodah.
In a separate conversation with a small group of clergy, Ruttenberg will offer an interactive text study, entitled “The Passionate Torah: Sex and Judaism.”
“Ruttenberg was selected to speak at Hiram College because of her mastery to bring forward the wisdom and grace from Midrash, Talmud, and Scripture to engage our contemporary conversation with integrity and depth,” said Reverend McCreight, chaplain at Hiram College. “In a season when words have lost meaning and religion has either bent to the whims of power or positioned itself in resistance with no direction other than opposition, we are blessed when clergy remind us of our inheritance and hold it before us that we may honor it in creation of the beloved community.”
Created with the intention to address the correlation between the pursuit of higher learning and the religious questions of life, the Lectures in Religion series has brought distinguished figures among the world’s religions to campus to engage in intimate and profound conversations with the Northeast Ohio community.
For additional information and questions about the event and lodging, please contact the College Chaplain, Reverend Chris McCreight at McCreightCJ@hiram.edu.
by Jenelle Bayus
