Rivkah Slonim’s Candle-Lit Talk

By COLlive reporter

Over 100 women in Los Angeles attended the second lecture, in what has been dubbed the “Anash Lecture Series”, this past Wednesday night, May 24th, 2017.

The lecture series is an undertaking by a group local Anash members in an endeavor to bring some of the top speakers in Chabad to lecture live for the local community. All the events are free to the public.

This second lecture was a women’s only event, headlined by Shlucha Mrs. Rivkah Slonim, education director at the Chabad Center for Jewish Student Life at Binghamton University in New York.

The event went on for three and half hours, as Mrs. Slonim held the audience spellbound with her insights and erudition on the topic of “Raising Kids and Sholom Bayis in an Ever-Evolving World.”

The lecture was held outdoors at the home of Yehuda and Sarah Zavdi, with a gorgeous view of the Los Angeles night lights, and was followed by an interactive question and answer period. The food was provided by Leider’s Catering.

As self described “Chassidic feminist” and author of Total Immersion: A Mikva Anthology,” Mrs. Slonim later went indoors and sat surrounded by about 50 women, as more introspective and personal haskafah questions were raised.

“As with any free event where there are no RSVP’s, there is no way to know how many people will attend,” said Sruli Schochet, one of the event coordinators.

“To get a turnout of over 100 women on a random Wednesday night, is a testament to the need for such events. To get them to stay for 3.5 hours, is a testament to Mrs. Slonim’s amazing talent and ability to connect with her audience.”

“I have never encountered a speaking event, where the people that attended were pushing me for when the video will be available, as they wanted to watch it again! One women emailed me to please post the video ASAP as she wants to watch it over and over again,” said Schochet.

VIDEO: Full lecture

There are two more lecture events left for this year’s lecture series. British Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet will be lecturing on July 19, 2017 on “The Pursuit of Happiness.”

Another event titled Crossfire will be taking place on September 7, 2017, with Rabbis Yosef Shusterman, Avraham Zajac and Shlomo Bistritzky and moderated by Rabbi Abba Perelmuter.