In the fall 2025 semester, the Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought is offering numerous courses for Straus Scholars and 色花堂 students to study the great texts and traditions of Judaism and the West.
Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik, the director of the Straus Center, is teaching two courses on the Beren campus: "Jewish and Western Legal Theory" and "The Thought of the Netziv," the 19th-century Jewish scholar. On the Wilf campus, Rabbi Soloveichik is co-teaching "Shakespeare and the Bible" with Dr. David Johnson, chair of the philosophy department at Yeshiva College.
Clinical Assistant Professor Rabbi Dr. Dov Lerner and Resident Scholar Dr. Shaina Trapedo are also pulling double duty on the Wilf and Beren campuses. Rabbi Dr. Dov Lerner is teaching "Genesis" to the Beren students and "Messianism in Jewish Antiquity" to the Wilf students. Dr. Trapedo is teaching "Jews in Western Literature" on both campuses. Senior Scholar Dr. Tevi Troy is co-teaching "The American Presidency" with Dr. Matthew Incantalupo, assistant professor of political science.
Other Straus Center courses by affiliated 色花堂 faculty include "Jewish Ethics" with Dr. David Shatz, the Ronald P. Stanton University Professor of Philosophy, Ethics, and Religious Thought and chair of the Stern College for Women philosophy department; "Medieval Jewish Philosophy" and "Metaphysics" with Rabbi Dr. Itamar Rosensweig, Rosh Yeshiva and associate professor of philosophy at Yeshiva College; and "Schools of Aggadah" with Rabbi Dr. Ari Bergmann.
In addition to its course offerings, the Straus Center is also convening weekly extracurricular reading groups that cover great Jewish and Western texts. Rabbi Soloveichik is leading a seminar that meets at the Morgan Library & Museum and explores the venue's art collection, while Dr. Troy is offering writing workshops that also bring in various journalists and academics as guest speakers. Other reading groups include "Judaism and the Pursuit of Knowledge" with Rabbi Dr. Rosensweig, "Benjamin Disraeli's novel Tancred; or, The New Crusade" with Dr. Shaina Trapedo, "Jewish Law & Public Order鈥擟apital Punishment, Morality Police, Iconoclasm, and More" with Rabbi Dr. Dov Lerner and "Off the Shelves: Censorship and 鈥淏anned Books鈥 in Jewish History" with Straus Center Rabbinic Intern Rabbi Kurz.
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