How Wondrous Are Thy Works?

Celebrate Kabbalat Shabbat with dinner and davening and … Lift up your eyes to majestic images of the cosmos; hear Jewish text combined with science and music; and welcome the Shabbat.

Sing the psalmist's words: "Mah Gadlu! How Great are God's words, how deep God's thoughts!"

Hazzan Rachel Hersh Epstein, Pianist Michael Gottlieb and Taste of Shabbat musicians unite with the Institute for Science and Judaism's Rabbi George B. Driesen and Steve Brody to present a unique evening at Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation.

Candle lighting, Kiddush and a delicious catered fish/veg dinner 6:45 PM. Services at 7:45 PM; program at 8:15 PM. The services and program are free. The dinner is $18 adults/teens, under 12 free. Reserve by Tuesday, March 17, either at www.adatshalolm.net, click Taste of Shabbat; or call 301/767-3333 ext 561, leave a message, do not wait for a return call, then send check to Adat Shalom Recon. Cong., 7727 Persimmon Tree Lane, Bethesda, MD, 20817, or email reservation to TasteOfShabbat@AdatShalom.net and send check to address above. For more information about the Institute for Science and Judaism, please visit scienceandjudiasm.blogspot.com.

Despair, Ecstasy and Religious Experience

Join Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison, Professor of Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins University as she presents a talk on Despair, Ecstasy and Religious Experience. Dr. Jamison is Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Medical School and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Mood Disorders Center. She is also Honorary Professor of English at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Highly respected as a researcher and clinician by her medical and scientific peers, she co-authored of the standard medical textbook on bipolar illness. However, it is her four critically acclaimed books for lay audiences that have touched the hearts of countless people world-wide. These books include her candid and brave memoir An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness. The outpouring of stories from the readers prompted her to address the difficult, almost taboo, subject of suicide in Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide. Dr. Jamison is the recipient of numerous scientific awards, including the prestigious MacArthur Award.

Sunday, March 22, 2009
Breakfast: 9:30AM
Presentation: 10:00AM

Congregation Beth El
Free – no reservations required
8215 Old Georgetown Road
Bethesda, Maryland

Near both the Bethesda and Medical Center Red Line Metro Stations
Directions available at http://www.bethelmc.org/ 301-652-2606

The War Between Science and Religion

Approximately 100 people heard Dr. Alan Leshner's fascinating and provocative talk recent talk entitled "The War Between Science and Religion: A Report from the Front Lines" at Adas Israel in Washington, D.C., in January.

Pictured here are Adas Israel Rabbi Feinberg, Dr. Leshner and Rabbi Driesen, the President of the Institute for Science and Judiasm which co-sponsored the event with Adas.

The Conflict between Science and Religion: A Report from the Front Lines

On Sunday morning, January 11, 2009, at Adas Israel's Gewirz Hall, Dr. Alan I. Leshner, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science will present on the topic "The Conflict between Science and Religion: A Report from the Front Lines." Dr. Leshner has been a leading spokesperson in responding to the efforts to bring “Creation Science” into the public school science curriculum. Dr. Leshner will speak about his experience in this struggle and its implications. His presentation will be followed by a discussion.

Dr. Alan Leshner is the Chief Executive Officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS, "triple A-S") and Executive Publisher of the journal Science. Before coming to AAAS, Dr. Leshner was Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 1994 until 2001. Previously, he had been the Deputy Director and Acting Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Dr. Leshner is a member (and on the governing Council) of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science. President Bush appointed Dr. Leshner to the National Science Board in 2004.

The Institute for Science and Judaism is committed to expanding our understanding of the interface between science and Judaism, including how science can expand our spiritual horizons and its philosophical and educational implications.. For more information, visit scienceandjudaism.blogspot.com.

The program, which is free of charge, begins at 10:30 a.m., and is preceded by brunch at 10:00 a.m. The brunch is $10 per person. RSVP by Wednesday, January 7, to Marcia Miller, marcia.miller@adasisrael.org or 202-362-4433 ext. 112.

About the Institute

Established by Rabbi George Driesen, the Institute For Science and Judaism is committed to expanding our understanding of the interface between science and Judaism, including how science can expand our spiritual horizons and its philosophical and educational implications. The Institute’s mission is to educate and inspire the community through lectures, workshops and conferences and by developing and distributing educational materials for use in Jewish institutions. Beyond expanding knowledge and awareness, the Institute hopes to inspire poets and lay people to create Jewish liturgical materials that embrace science.

Past speakers have included
- Dr. Francis Collins, former Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, NIH, the group that first mapped the Human Genome; discoverer of genetic variants associated with type 2 diabetes and genes responsible for cystic fibrosis, neurofibromatosis and Huntington’s disease; author of The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief; winner of numerous scientific awards and prizes.

- Professor Daniel Matt, author of God And The Big Bang, is a writer and professor of Jewish mysticism at the Center for Jewish Studies, Graduate Theological Union (Berkeley, CA). Dr. Matt earned his Ph.D. at Brandeis University, and has taught at the Graduate Theological Union for nearly 20 years. Other published works include three volumes of a multi-volume translation and commentary on the Zohar The Essential Kabbalah and Varieties of Mystical Nothingness: Jewish, Christian, and Buddhist. (Scholar In Residence).

- Dr. David M. Reiss, Vivian Gill Distinguished Research Professor at George Washington University. Dr. Reiss’ international research team is the first to provide comprehensive, scientific data on the complex subject of whether and precisely how children’s genes affect parents’ behavior towards them and towards each other, and how all three influence children's temperaments and behavior in adolescence and adulthood.

Dr. Reiss is the author of 140 scientific papers and six books, including The Relationship Code: Deciphering the Genetic and Social Determinants of Adolescent Development (Harvard, 2000). In addition to his biological research and lectures, Dr. Reiss is an experienced family therapist who practices and teaches psychoanalysis.

- Dr. Elliot Dorff, Rector and Co-Chair of the Bioethics Department and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, University of Judaism; Vice-Chair, Committee on Law and Standards, Rabbinical Assembly; Formerly instructor in Jewish Law, UCLA Law School. Dr. Dorff is the author of numerous books, including Matters of Life and Death: A Jewish Approach to Modern Medical Ethics, How To Do The Right and the Good, and has served on Numerous Prestigious Public Boards and Commissions.

- Dr. Jonathan H. Pincus, Chief of Neurology at Veterans Administration Medical Center; and Professor of Neurology, Georgetown University School of Medicine. Author of Base Instincts: What Makes Killers Kill and Behavioral Neurology (Oxford University Press)

- Dr. Stephen M. Barr, Professor of Physics, Bartol Institute, University of Delaware. Author of Modern Physics and Ancient Faiths, University of Notre Dame Press (2003).

- Rabbi David W. Nelson, author of Judaism, Physics and God: Searching for Sacred Metaphors In A Post-Einstein World (Jewish Lights Publishing 2005).

- Dr. Julie Forman-Kay, Senior Scientist, Research Institute, Hospital for Sick Children, Professor of Biochemistry, University of Toronto Member of Darchei Noam Reconstructionist Congregation: "How A Reconstructionist and Molecular Science Researcher Thinks About Cells Science and Judaism."

Contact us at the Institute for Science and Judiasm, 7962 Old Georgetown Road, Bethesda, MD, 20814. The Institute is a non-profit organization; donations are welcome.