“Two Are Better Than One:” Friendship in Jewish Text and Tradition  

By :  The Jewish Theological Seminary Posted On Oct 23, 2023 / 5784 | Friendship in Jewish Text and Tradition Monday Webinar

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Friendship is a critical component of our daily lives, our mental health, and our Jewish communal experiences. Ecclesiastes (4:9) posits, “Two are better than one,” underscoring the significance of companionship and partnership in Jewish tradition and the role they play in a life well-lived. In this series, JTS scholars explore the concept of friendship through Jewish texts, history, and thought. They consider friendship in times of joy and times of crisis, both with those in our inner circles and with our neighbors and fellow citizens more broadly. They also offer several important paradigms for friendship and discuss the values we can distill from these models of friendship. 


A Friendship in the Ghetto, the Forest and Beyond: The Story of Two Yiddish Poets During the Holocaust
with Dr. David Fishman
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Across the Atlantic:
Lifesaving Friendships during the Holocaust  
with Dr. Edna Friedberg
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Be My Galentine?
Female Friendship in the Hebrew Bible
with Dr. Yael Landman
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Friendship and Interfaith Engagement 
with Dr. Benedicte Sere
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Do Good Fences Make Good Neighbors?
A Talmudic Teaching
with Dr. Aaron Koller
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Friendship During Crisis:
Learning from the Book of Job  
with Rabbi Mychal Springer
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Paradigms of Friendship:
What Philosophers and Rabbis can Teach Us
with Rabbi Eliezer Diamond
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Civic Friendship in Times of Crisis and War: Jewish Thought, Political Theory, and the Story of Hanukkah
with Dr. Shira Billet
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