9:45 am-10:15 am Brunch
10:15 am - 11:30 am Swarsensky Lecture: Antisemitism Today
The oldest continual hatred rears its head all over the world and it has been unleashed in our own country and community. This is a wake-up call.
Hannah Rosenthal, our scholar-in-residence, will address this important topic, emphasizing what we can do to make a difference today and how we can honor the memory and lessons of Temple Beth El’s founding rabbi by taking action.
Hannah Rosenthal will be our scholar-in-residence for the Swarsensky Memorial Weekend. She is a former Temple Beth El member and Education Director who served in the late 70’s. Her relationship with Rabbi Swarsensky started as a child and the fondness continues today.
Hannah is the daughter of a rabbi and Holocaust survivor and a strong-feminist mother. She graduated from UW-Madison with a degree in religion and studied for the rabbinate at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem and Los Angeles. She is a strong voice for social justice and was the founding executive director for the Wisconsin Women’s Council. In 1995, Rosenthal was appointed by President Clinton as the Midwest regional director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She also served as the executive director for the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, where she worked on domestic and international policy for the Jewish community in North America. Under President Obama, Rosenthal served the U.S. State Department as a special envoy, heading the Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism and was a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. In 2012, she became CEO and president of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation from which she retired in 2018.