Congregation Beth Adam has announced the establishment of an annual lecture series honoring Rabbi Robert Barr and Dr. Terri Barr.
Since its founding in 1980, Beth Adam has occupied a distinctive place in Cincinnati’s Jewish community, combining a strong connection to Jewish identity with a commitment to reshaping Jewish community, education, and worship for an evolving world. As Rabbi Barr explained, “Parroting our ancestors is a recipe for failure. The future of the Jewish people is dependent on creativity, integrity, and vision.”
The new lecture series builds on these values by bringing major voices in Progressive American Judaism into conversation with the congregation and the wider community. Topics will vary, but all will be grounded in several core ideas: that each individual shapes their own relationship with Jewish belief and practice; that Judaism is strongest when it is inclusive; and that learning, dialogue, and reflection strengthen both individual Jewish identity and the Jewish community as a whole.
These principles guide Beth Adam itself. The congregation writes its own liturgy, welcomes interfaith families as full members, developed an online engagement model long before COVID, and includes members with a wide range of beliefs and non-beliefs about G-d.
The Robert and Terri Barr Lecture Series grows out of that same spirit. It honors the Barrs, who founded Congregation Beth Adam and helped establish Humanistic Judaism as a serious, influential voice in contemporary Jewish life. The series carries their legacy forward by inviting the larger community into thoughtful conversation about the questions shaping Jewish life today.
The lecture series has drawn support from individuals and Jewish communal organizations who share an interest in sustaining thoughtful, public Jewish conversation.
The inaugural lecture will feature Rabbi Dr. Gary Zola, a longtime friend of Beth Adam and a leading scholar, community leader, and bridge-builder in Cincinnati’s Jewish and interfaith communities. Dr. Zola will speak on “The Ballot Box Debate: Should We Vote as Jewish Americans or American Jews?” His teaching makes an especially fitting beginning for a series devoted to the intersection of Jewish identity, ideas, and contemporary life.
