The JCCSF welcomes Harvard law professor and public intellectual Noah Feldman for a discussion of his timely new book To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People. In conversation with Sheryl Sandberg.

What does it mean to be a Jew? At a time of worldwide crisis, venerable answers to this question have become unsettled. In To Be a Jew Today, Noah Feldman draws on a lifelong engagement with his religion to offer a wide-ranging interpretation of Judaism in all its contemporary varieties. How do Jews today understand their relationship to God, to Israel, and to each other—and live their lives accordingly?

Writing sympathetically but incisively about diverse outlooks, Feldman clarifies what’s at stake in the choice of how to be a Jew and discusses the shared “theology of struggle” that Jews engage in as they wrestle with who God is, what God wants, or whether God exists. He shows how the founding of Israel has transformed Judaism itself over the last century—and explores the ongoing consequences of that transformation for all Jews, who find the meaning of their Jewishness and their views about Israel intertwined, no matter what those views are. And he examines the analogies between being Jewish and belonging to a large, messy family—a family that often makes its members crazy, but a family all the same. Written with learning, empathy and clarity, To Be a Jew Today is a critical resource for readers of all faiths.

Noah Feldman is Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and founding director of the Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law at Harvard University. He specializes in constitutional studies, with particular emphasis on power and ethics, design of innovative governance solutions, law and religion, and the history of legal ideas. A policy & public affairs columnist for Bloomberg Opinion, he is the author of ten books including The Broken Constitution and Divided by God. Through his consultancy, Ethical Compass Advisors, Feldman advises on how to improve ethical decision-making by creating and implementing new governance solutions. In this capacity, he conceived and helped architect the Oversight Board for Meta.

Sheryl Sandberg is the former COO of Meta and the Founder and Board Chair of The Sandberg Goldberg Bernthal Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to build a more equal and resilient world through four key initiatives: LeanIn.Org, LeanInGirls.Org, OptionB.Org, and the Dave Goldberg Scholarship Program. She is the co-author of Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy with Adam Grant, and the bestselling author of Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. A longtime advocate for women and girls, she recently spoke at the United Nations highlighting the sexual and gender-based violence committed by Hamas during its attacks on Israel on Oct. 7.

“To Be a Jew Today is a beautiful book, a necessary and important book. Written with learning, insight, and anguish, it is a provocation to be argued over (I certainly did) and wrestled with, but it cannot be ignored.” —David Wolpe, rabbi emeritus of Sinai Temple, Los Angeles, and author of David: The Divided Heart and Why Faith Matters

“More than with any book I’ve read in years, Jewish readers will draw new insights into their own Judaism from Noah Feldman’s fresh, fascinating, and compelling analyses of contemporary Jewish life. Feldman exhibits the gift of all great teachers and influential public intellectuals: the ability to take even the most complex ideas and convey them with clarity, context, and honesty.” —Rabbi David Saperstein, director emeritus of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom

“In this exciting and passionately argued new book, Noah Feldman offers us a lifetime of thinking and struggling with being a Jew, and thinking with Judaism, in America today. Broad in scope, sparkling with new insights, often provocative and daring, and deeply rooted in the Jewish textual tradition, Feldman deftly weaves memoir, philosophy, legal theory, and sociological analysis to paint a complex yet accessible portrait of being a Jew and taking Judaism seriously in this crucial time of transition. Highly recommended.” —Shaul Magid, professor of Jewish studies at Dartmouth College and author of The Necessity of Exile: Essays from a Distance

“To Be a Jew Today is a field guide to a richer, more meaningful spiritual life—and not just for Jews. Feldman’s answers to the question of ‘What’s the point of being a Jew?’ offer a whole new paradigm for how to think about Jewishness, one that will change how you walk through the world, whether you’re Jewish or not.” —Rabbi Benay Lappe, president and Rosh Yeshiva of SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva

All seating is first come, first served.

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