Guest Speaker

Nehemia Polen, professor of Jewish thought, director of the Hasidic Text Institute at Boston’s Hebrew College, and an ordained rabbi, is the author of The Holy Fire: The Teachings of Rabbi Kalonymus Shapira, the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto. He is a contributing commentator to My Peoples Prayer Book, a multivolume Siddur incorporating diverse perspectives on the liturgy. A recipient of the National Jewish Book Award, Nehemia has studied with and served as a teaching fellow for Elie Wiesel and was a visiting scholar at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. His most recent work, written with Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, is Filling Words with Light: Hasidic and Mystical Reflections on Jewish Prayer. His new soon-to-be published book, Stop, Look, Listen, reintroduces Shabbos as a totally immersive spiritual experience, based on the teachings of the great Chassidic masters.