Join Amanda Mbuvi, Ph.D. for “Reading Torah as Family Stories” on Sunday, Nov. 17 at 2:30 p.m. EST as part of the Global Day of Jewish Learning.
Stories are central to forging a family’s sense of identity and connection. In this session, we will explore biblical texts through this lens, engaging them as a means of defining and transmitting the identity of a people understood as a family writ large.
About Amanda Mbuvi, Ph.D.
Amanda Beckenstein Mbuvi, Ph.D., is a scholar of Hebrew Bible, author and teacher with a wellspring of academic, administrative and nonprofit leadership experience. Mbuvi subscribes to a holistic approach to rabbinic education — one that equips students to bring about new possibilities for the world.
As a scholar and teacher of the Hebrew Bible, she recalls being drawn to its vivid stories, rich language and the ways ancient texts connected with various streams of her identity. In addition to numerous scholarly articles, Mbuvi is author of the 2016 book, Belonging in Genesis: Biblical Israel and the Politics of Identity Formation, published by Baylor University Press. In the book, she observes that family storytelling taps into the profound way that stories about ancestors shape identity, allowing each successive generation to draw upon the resources of the past to navigate its own distinct challenges.
Mbuvi takes an interdisciplinary approach to biblical studies, engaging questions of identity and community that are as present in the biblical text as they are in contemporary society.
About The Global Day of Jewish Learning
Hundreds of communities, large and small, join together for one day of intercontinental Jewish learning, powered by Limmud. Held annually since 2010, the Global Day of Jewish Learning is inspired by the vision of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz z”l.
This year’s study theme is “One People” – the connections that bind Jews together in common memory and destiny.
