Six years ago, the Kol Shalom community began a series known as Tikkun Talks, bringing members’ expertise into the synagogue for presentations on a number of different topics.
“We have quite a number of retired people in our congregation, and there’s just a wealth of incredible experience and expertise and impressive careers and knowledge,” said Barbara Leiner, a board member at Kol Shalom who organizes Tikkun Talks.
The Rockville synagogue has hosted talks related to art, science, medicine and various social issues.
“We learn from each other,” said Rabbi Fabián Werbin of Kol Shalom.
The next Tikkun Talk, postponed to Feb. 22 due to inclement weather, will focus on Latin American Jewish literature, featuring Saúl Sosnowski, professor of Latin American literature and culture at the University of Maryland and a member of Kol Shalom.
Sosnowski said he’ll talk about defining features of a group of Latin American Jewish writers that combine both the Latin American perspective and their Jewish interests, with a particular focus on authors from the 20th and 21st centuries.
These writers hailed from Argentina, Mexico and Peru, the countries with the most Jewish writers in Latin America, according to Sosnowski.
In one of his many books, “Borges y la Cabala,” Sosnowski explored the influence of Jewish mysticism on the works of Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges.
The program is especially meaningful to Werbin, who is originally from Argentina.
“It’s very exciting because it’s very likely that I may be familiar with some of the authors that Saúl is going to [discuss], so I will feel very acquainted with hopefully many of the authors,” Werbin said. “But I’m sure there are many that I don’t know, and I look forward to discovering new authors and learning from those I already know.”
He added that Argentina was home to many Jews who wrote in Yiddish when they arrived, as well as “many accomplished authors” who penned their works in Spanish. “There are many, many aspects that Saúl can teach,” Werbin said.
Sosnowski will also discuss how Latin American Jewish literature “weaves Jewish historical memory, the Diaspora, exile and religious tradition into the specifically Latin American experiences of migration, nation-building, political upheaval, antisemitism and cultural hybridity,” according to Leiner.
Leiner is responsible for selecting five different speakers from the congregation to give Tikkun Talks between September and June. She chose Sosnowski as soon as she learned that he taught at UMD, thinking, “No one else can offer this [learning opportunity].”
“It’s an area of knowledge that’s interesting and relevant,” Leiner said. “It’s something to learn how all of this relates to the Diaspora. … It all connects. So, we’re not just American Jews who read American Jewish literature. There is the international scene of Jewish literature, and how does it all bridge who we are as a people?”
Leiner added that, unlike Werbin, she’s not as familiar with Latin American Jewish literature.
“I’m interested to learn,” she said. “I’m open to learning a new aspect of Jewish literature, and it will open up new horizons for me. It will expand my view of literature and Jewish literature.”
What does Sosnowski hope his audience walks away with? “Hopefully, a list of books that they’re going to go and purchase immediately and start enriching their lives,” he said.
