(Press Release) To build more vibrant, practicing, and egalitarian communities of Torah, Avodah, and Hesed, the Hadar Institute is expanding to the West Coast. “Hadar West Coast” will be led by Rabbi David Kasher with new programming offered in LA and the Bay Area.
“I’m thrilled to bring more of Hadar’s meaningful Torah and community experiences to California,” says Rabbi David Kasher, Director of Hadar West Coast. “Over 17 years, Hadar has built thriving communities of learning and practice based on Judaism’s rich texts and deeply held values. We’re ready to combine this model with the dynamism and experimentation of West Coast Jewish life.”
Many West Coast Jews, particularly during the pandemic, engaged with Hadar programming virtually and accessed its learning resources and magazines. Kasher will build on these efforts by leading in person learning and community-building opportunities, in partnership with local Jewish organizations, synagogues, and schools.
Hadar is a national organization with a $10+ million budget that engages more than 30,000 people each year through both classes and multi-day, immersive learning opportunities, concerts, and other events. Tens of thousands more access Hadar’s content via its online library, podcasts, publications and other resources. Hadar West Coast is a significant investment for the organization, which also has full-time faculty in New York, Jerusalem, Boston, Chicago, and Washington, DC.
“People are craving rich, meaningful Jewish experiences that inspire them, open their eyes, and help them better understand the world around them,” says Rabbi Elie Kaunfer. “We know that West Coast Jewish life is different from that on the East Coast. We’re excited for Rabbi Kasher to build Hadar West Coast with unique opportunities that reflect the nature of these communities.”
About David Kasher
Rabbi David Kasher grew up bouncing back and forth between Berkeley and Brooklyn, hippies and Hassidim – and has been trying to synthesize these two worlds ever since. After graduating from college at Wesleyan University in 1998, he studied for several years in yeshivot in Israel before heading off to rabbinical school at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. He was ordained there in 2007, and returned to Northern California, where he became the Senior Jewish Educator at Berkeley Hillel. While there, he completed a doctoral degree at Berkeley Law, focusing on the comparative study of religious and secular legal cultures. He then became part of the founding team at Kevah, a non-profit specializing in Adult Jewish Education, where he worked from 2012 to 2018, and developed the Kevah Teaching Fellowship. He has served on the faculty of Berkeley Law, the Wexner Heritage Program, Reboot, and the BINA Secular Yeshiva, and also taught courses at Pardes, SVARA, The Hartman Institute, AJR and HUC. Rabbi Kasher is a teacher of nearly all forms of classical Jewish literature, but his greatest passion is Torah commentary, and he spent five years producing the weekly ParshaNut blog and podcast exploring the riches of the genre.
In 2018, he began work as an Associate Rabbi at IKAR, a non-denominational spiritual community in Los Angeles, where he teaches a weekly parsha class and has a new parsha podcast called, Best Book Ever. He published an essay, ‘Eating Our Way from Justice to Holiness,’ in Kashrut and Jewish Food Ethics (Academic Studies Press, 2019), completed a translation of Avot d’Rabbi Natan for Sefaria, and is the author of ParshaNut: 54 Journeys into the World of Torah Commentary.
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Preceding provided by the Hadar Institute