Advanced Learning Institute

With Chaplain Fran Chalin, BCC/MSW

Monday - 9:30 am PT | 12:30 am ET
February 3, 2025

The Los Angeles fires that destroyed entire communities in January of 2025 are not run-of-the-mill. Impacted families lost their homes, schools, houses of worship and centers of commerce in a matter of hours, and the ramifications of this shocking devastation on an unprecedented massive scale are impossible to calculate for victims of all ages.

As a seasoned grief counselor and chaplain, Fran will help us begin to understand what Los Angelians may expect to feel in the weeks, months and years to come and the best ways for others to be supportive. Extreme natural disasters are the new normal, and we will need one another to face the future with courage and sensitivity.

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Register for Grief and Trauma in the Wake of Natural Disaster

with Matthew R. Hartman, PhD and Julia R. Lupton, PhD

Monday, February 10, 2025
9:30 am PT | 12:30 am ET

Drs. Lupton and Hartman will present current challenges posed by climate change denial and offer an overview of WUICAN (Wildland-Urban Interface Climate Action Network) - a consortium of community-based organizations, California Native American Tribes, land managers and universities in SoCal working together to address the climate crisis. WUICAN’s goal is to create new models for co-governance and design of climate solutions centering on the needs of impacted communities.

This presentation anticipates a gathering of faith leaders and scientists for WUICAN’s third Elemental Climate Conversation - Fire: An Interfaith Exchange on Wednesday, February 12 at 6:30pm hosted at at Temple Beth El of South OC. More information can be found on the ALI webpage.

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Register for Climate Denial, Climate Change and Collaborative Solutions

With Rabbi Sarah Bracha Gershuny

Mondays - 9:00 am PT | 12:00 pm ET
January 6, 13, 20 and 27, 2025

A foundational aspect of living a Jewish life is moving according to the Jewish rhythm of time - holidays, fast days, new moons and sabbaths. The Jewish calendar is a composite of many different cycles accrued over millennia with roots reaching back to our pagan past, forward into a messianic future while embracing existential questions and modern nationalism along the way.

January 6 | Many New Years
An overview of the multiple interlocking cycles of the Jewish year and their development through time.

January 13 | Pagan Roots
Investigating the Canaanite influences woven into Judaism’s fixation upon harvests, elements and cycles of the moon. Where did Rabbinic Judaism preserve the past, and where did it try to occlude it?

January 20 | Days of Awe, Days of Joy
The High Holy Days’ themes of mortality bring us into contact with questions of life’s meaning transmission across time. Meanwhile, Chanukah, Purim and Tisha b’Av wrestle with historicity, assimilation, cultural adaptation and an evolving diasporic identity.

January 27 | Features of the Future
The calendar has continued to evolve and adapt over the past several hundred years - with increasing interest in periods for personal growth and introspection, and several new holidays enshrining the last century of our history. How have these added to our lives? And what holidays might we need now - and in the future?

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