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Prof. Tova Hartman Leads Study Session of Ethiopian Beit Midrash

The 13th meeting of the Beit Midrash for the Study of Ethiopian Jewish Religious Texts at Ono Academic College took place at the home of Professor Tova Hartman who generously hosted the learning. After introductions, Prof. Hartman discussed her social activism, including the founding of the religiously pluralistic Shira Hadasha Congregation which focused on inclusion and empowering women. She shared her academic trajectory and founding programs at Ono in education and multicultural Judaism that also attempted to build new models.

After a dinner break, Hartman reviewed a selection from Gilligan’s book “Joining the Resistance” and pointed out three important lessons that were drawn from the work of Viriginia Wolfe about the need to maintain intellectual integrity and create frameworks for honest self-expression. She led a discussion of how these lessons might apply to the Beta Israel community and how the participants might incorporate them in their writing.  

Hartman brought the example of the Revised Critical Edition of the Diary of Anne Frank showing how the writer censored herself in order to make her work more palatable to her imagined audience.  Prof. Hartman shared the work of Psychologist/Sociologist Michael Kimmel which generated a conversation about privilege which she defined as “having the wind at your back.” Privilege is not stealing from someone else but something for which one must be grateful.