Author, educator and scholar Dr. Elana Stein Hain will serve as keynote speaker at the annual Shoshana S. Cardin Leadership Symposium, which will be held Thursday, Sept. 7, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Pikesville’s Chizuk Amuno Congregation, 8100 Stevenson Rd.
Founded in 2019, the symposium is presented by Na’aleh: The Hub for Leadership Learning, an agency of The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore.
Dr. Hain is the rosh beit midrash (head of study hall) and a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, where she serves as lead faculty engaging in research and curriculum development and consulting on the content of lay and professional leadership programming.
This year’s symposium’s theme is “Together and Apart: Living in Diverse Communities,” exploring the obstacles and opportunities of fostering connections among individuals from different backgrounds. Dr. Hain will speak about strategies to overcome these challenges and sustain the vibrancy of diverse Jewish communities.
The Cardin Symposium was established to honor the life and legacy of Shoshana S. Cardin, a Baltimore-based international Jewish communal leader and philanthropist who passed away in May of 2018.
A resident of Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Dr. Hain is the author of “Circumventing the Law: Rabbinic Perspectives on Legal Loopholes and Integrity” (University of Pennsylvania Press). In addition, she created Talmud from the Balcony, a learning seminar exposing the major ideas, questions and issues motivating rabbinic discussions.
She also co-hosts For Heaven’s Sake, a bi-weekly podcast with Rabbi Donniel Hartman and author/journalist Yossi Klein Halevi, exploring contemporary issues related to Israel and the Jewish world.
Dr. Hain earned her doctorate in religion at Columbia University and is an alumna of the Yeshiva University Graduate Program in Advanced Talmudic Studies, as well as the Consortium in Jewish Studies and Legal Theory Graduate Fellowship at Cardozo School of Law.
She served for eight years as a clergy member at Manhattan’s Lincoln Square Synagogue and The Jewish Center, has taught at the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University, and sits on the board of the online source Sefaria: A Living Library of Jewish Texts.
All individuals are welcome to participate in the Cardin Symposium. Registration is now open. For inquiries or special accommodations, contact Rachel Plotkin at rlplotkin@naalehbaltimore.org.
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