Counting the Omer is well underway, which means Shavuot is coming up soon! See our full Shavuot schedule below, including Tikkun LIL programming for families and youth, as well as a vibrant schedule of learning, praying, connecting, and noshing for our whole community. Just as the entire Israelite community stood together at Sinai to receive the Torah, we are excited to gather as one large and diverse community and to offer opportunities for engagement for all ages and stages.
Interested in teaching a learning session during our Tikkun Leil Shavuot night of learning? Submit your session proposal here to teach during one of 11:30PM-4AM time slots!
If you’re interested in teaching and would like to know more about what this entails or have other questions, please contact Rabbi Benjy Forester.
Since we are the People of the Book, it’s only fitting that we will offer a “Leave-a-Book & Take-a-Book” Shavuot book swap. Please bring Jewishly thematic books that want a new home and check out what others have brought. Tables for book drop off and browsing will be available in Cummings throughout the holiday. We will NOT be accepting books ahead of Shavuot – they must only be brought on Thursday evening – Saturday morning.
If you are able to help remove and donate all remaining books after the holiday, please reach out to Chaim Tempesco.
* — Registration is required to attend.
Tikkun LIL YF Program & Dinner – This year’s theme will be:
“Sinai and the 5 Senses” *
5PM-7:15PM
Community Dinner *
7:30PM-8:15PM
AES Maariv followed by remarks from members of our
Jews by Choice program
8:15PM-9:45PM
Community-Wide Clergy Session
10PM-11PM
Dessert Reception
11PM-11:30PM
Tikkun Leil Shavuot
Learning Sessions
Submit Teaching Proposal Here!
11:30PM-4AM
Sunrise Service / Shacharit
4:20AM
Sanctuary Service (Rose Crown Minyan joins Sanctuary service)
In-Person & Via Livestream
9:30AM-12PM
Babysitting
10AM-12PM
Youth Program for 0-5 year olds
10:15AM-11AM
Youth Program for 1st – 5th graders
11AM-12PM
Kiddush Lunch
12PM-2PM
Friday Night Shabbat Service
In-Person & Via Livestream
6PM
Oneg
7:15PM
Parsha Class
Join via Zoom
Meeting ID: 831 5501 3416
Passcode: 060613
9AM-10AM
Babysitting
10AM
Sanctuary Service
(Yizkor approx. 11:30AM)
In-Person & Via Livestream
9:30AM-12PM
Rose Crown Minyan Service
(Yizkor approx. 11AM)
9:30AM-12PM
Shalom Shabbat
10:15AM-11AM
Shachar & Shabbat HaNoar (combined)
11AM-12PM
Kiddush Lunch
12PM-2PM
Shavuot is Awesome
with a Community Kickball Game!
1PM-4PM
| Name | Session Title | Session Description | Session | Session Time |
| Eduardo Frajman | Gabbaim class | This session is designed to instruct members of the community on how to act as gabbai sheni, or second gabbai. We will go over the responsibilities of this position, and then practice some gabbai-ing as much as time permits. | Session 1 | 11:30pm-12:20am |
| Rav Jonathan Posner | Choosing Again, and Again: A Spiritual Meditation on the Book of Ruth, Covenant, and Finding HaShem. | Join Rav Jonathan for a lively, soul-nourishing, cup-filling exploration into the power of choice and its essential role in Judaism’s and the Jewish People’s thriving. Together, we will uncover and discover the beautiful Torah that resides in each of us! | Session 1 | 11:30pm-12:20am |
| David Schwartzx | Is It a Mitzvah to Vote? | You’re a good American if you vote, but does that make you a good Jew? With the midterm elections approaching, come explore this question! | Session 1 | 11:30pm-12:20am |
| Rabbi Michael Siegel | “Auschwitz or Sinai?” Reflecting on Rabbi David Hartman’s Seminal Essay 44 Years Later | Written in 1982 in the wake of the Lebanon War, David Hartman’s essay posed one of the defining questions of modern Jewish life: What orienting category shapes our identity as a people — the trauma of Auschwitz or the covenant of Sinai? Forty-four years later, with October 7th, the war in Gaza, surging antisemitism, and fractures within the Jewish world, that question has never been more urgent or more contested. This session invites our community to read Hartman’s own words, wrestle with his argument, and ask honestly: What choices are we — as individuals and as a community — making today? What choices should we be making? | Session 1 | 11:30pm-12:20am |
| Rabbi D’ror Chankin-Gould | S’hma Koleinu: The Halacha of People with Communication Disabilities Taking on Prayer Leadership | In this session, Rabbi D’ror will teach the newly released teshuvah (legal responsa) penned by Rabbi Dr. Pamela Barmash, chairperson of the Committee on Jewish Laws and Standards (the decision making body of the Conservative Movement) regarding the manner in which those with the inability to vocalize, unclear speech, involuntary verbal ticks, or who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)devices can perform vocal roles, receive honors, and lead prayers. | Session 1 | 11:30pm-12:20am |
| Rabbi Brandon Bernstein | From Sinai to Stage: Improv & Oral Torah | Our beloved Second City has a reputation for being the improv* capital of the world… but what does that have to do with Torah? Find out by joining the silliest text study of all time for a one-of-a-kind session that blends shortform improv games with teachings from our tradition! No stage experience required—just bring yourself and a “yes and” attitude so you can play well with others. *Improv is a playful type of theater that requires no preparation, just improvisation in the moment. | Session 2 | 12:30am-1:20am |
| Cantor Elizabeth Berke | Textual Immersion | Using text as a point of a departure, we will explore movement that helps us bring the text into our bodies, deepening our connection to and understanding of our tradition. | Session 2 | 12:30am-1:20am |
| Ben Bennett | Prayer Beyond Belief, or Must We Mean What We Pray? | Prayer is central to Jewish life, but do we all believe, or believe in, every word we say while praying? If not, how do we make sense of our choice to pray how we pray? Using philosopher Tamar Gendler’s concept of “alief”, a complement to “belief,” I propose a way of making sense of the choice to pray even if one doesn’t “believe” everything they say. | Session 2 | 12:30am-1:20am |
| Shaily Hakimian-Armstrong | Debate/Discuss: Is Jewish safety helped or hurt by guns in a Time of Hate? Continuation from 2025 “Is Being Jewish Out Loud Powerful or Dangerous in a Time of Hate?” | After last years discussion, we left at a tense place around guns. Gun violence is terrible but also guns have also been used as a tool by some Jews for safety. Where is the line? This is the 11th Anshe Emet Tikkun a variation of this session has been offered. The session is well attended with an average of 20-40 people in attendance yearly. Some choose to come back year over year for a whole new experience. Everyone has a chance to share. Your Voice matters. | Session 2 | 12:30am-1:20am |
| Nia Crosley | Treatment Not Trauma: Jewish Ethics on Mental Health and Community Safety | Treatment Not Trauma (TNT) is described by the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (JCUA) as a “common-sense solution” to getting appropriate and effective help to those who experience mental health crises. It is a powerful example of coalition building between Chicago police forces, mental health professionals, local government, and our community to demand better care for our neighborhoods, our family members, and our friends. Join representatives from Temple Sholom’s Advocacy Committee to learn about the history of the TNT campaign, including its implementation in our neighborhood, and to explore how Jewish texts can inform our advocacy for the campaign. | Session 3 | 1:30am-2:20am |
| Aaron Finkelstein | Change Your Mind: Rabbi Akiva, The Talmud’s Ultimate Optimist | In this session, we will explore the background, life, and stories about Rabbi Akiva, one of the greatest figure in the Talmud. | Session 3 | 1:30am-2:20am |
| Jacob Cytryn | Tanach’s awesome and pride-inspiring Liberal agenda: The argument from literature and Biblical scholarship/criticism of Jacob Wright’s *Why The Bible Began* | We’ll be looking at Biblical texts, research about the Hebrew Bible (much of it archaeological/historical), and Jacob Wright’s incisive reading of the Tanach as a document who’s timelessness betrays its inherent and shocking modern-ness. He presents an argument – compelling as a d’var Torah if not, perhaps ultimately, as 100% coherent and true – that the Torah is as much an Enlightenment-esque-era (Capital L) Liberal statement that can inform much that is great about today’s (and tomorrow’s!) Judaism. | Session 3 | 1:30am-2:20am |
| Rabbi Benjy Forester | Talmud Toilet: A Jewish Exploration of Going to the Bathroom | Session 3 | 1:30am-2:20am | |
| Dr. Eve Pinsker | Challenges of Being a Jew on University Campuses Today: Chicago and Beyond – A Discussion | Eve Pinsker (faculty) and Ally Frank (student, see ) will share their recent experiences of being openly Jewish at the University of Illinois at Chicago, invite participants to share their own experiences and those of family members on university campuses, and, with dialogue facilitator Daniel Wolk, discuss where we go from here: what choices do we have about how we negotiate the current environment on university campuses? Dr Pinsker currently serves on the Chancellor’s Committee for the Status of the Jewish community on the UIC campus. Ally Frank recently published a blog on her experiences at UIC’s school of social work https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/being-jewish-shouldnt-feel-like-this-the-truth-about-being-jewish-at-uic/ | Session 4 | 2:30am-3:20am |
| Joshua Stadlan | Can You Bank on It? Market Incentives, Self-Interest, and Trust in Jewish Law | When should we trust a professional service? Sometimes our sages presume personal integrity, but elsewhere they focus on financial incentives and reputational risk. When can we rely on well-aligned incentives, and when do we require regulation and oversight? In this class, we will look at rabbinic case studies in kashrut, medicine, and the telegraph to see how Jewish law evaluates trust in the marketplace—and what we might learn about navigating trustworthiness in policy, organizations, and AI systems today. | Session 4 | 2:30am-3:20am |
| Charles Shalman | When God appears, either announced or unannounced | God’s nighttime appearance to Jacob (Genesis 28) is unexpected; Jacob wakes up exclaiming how unprepared he was for the encounter, and he scurries to respond appropriately. By contrast, before the revelation at Sinai, Exodus 19 presents detailed instructions both from God and from Moses to prepare the people for what they will experience, but can they be ready for an event that will overwhelm their senses? When we pray that we could hear a voice from God to direct or reassure us, have we any idea of the dangers intrinsic to what we are requesting? This session will also refer to other Biblical texts in which God is either summoned (Elijah on Mount Carmel – 1Kings 18) or appears in a flash (Nadav and Avihu – Lev 10.) Time permitting, we may even wade into an unsettling Rabbinic text on hearing a voice from Heaven. | Session 5 | 3:30am-4:20am |
| Joey Becker | Improv Singing and the Soundscape of Sinai | Inspired by our texts about Sinai and Revelation, we’ll explore improv singing. Come ready to move, play, and sing. This session will keep you awake! | Session 5 | 3:30am-4:20am |
Temple Sholom of Chicago
Anshe Sholom B’nai Israel Congregation
Emanuel Congregation
JCC Chicago
Chicago Sinai Congregation
Mishkan Chicago
Silverstein Base Lincoln Park
Base Andersonville
