The plot in Genesis is often driven by relationships between brothers and sisters. What appears on the surface is only the first layer of many deeper layers that can be uncovered through close reading and careful observation. This study sheds new light on the heroes and heroines of the text and offers new ways of understanding both them and ourselves.

Together, we combine the reading of biblical texts with traditional and modern interpretations, as well as comparisons with other cultures. By analyzing different characters, we can better understand the forces that shaped the people in the Bible. Each session will also include personal reflection: what can we learn about ourselves through these figures?

The course is given in collaboration with Paideia – The European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden.

Course Structure

In this course, we will engage in close reading of the Book of Genesis, as well as examine external monotheistic sources such as the Apocrypha, the Quran, and other relevant texts. Participants can expect lively discussion in class, and group work is an integral part of the course format.

Participants are expected to devote approximately 30 minutes to one hour to independent reading between sessions.

Prior Knowledge 

The course is given in English.

No prior knowledge about the subject is needed. 

To apply for this course, you need basic computer skills and knowledge of how to use the digital platform Zoom.

Course Material

Course material is included in the cost for this course.

About the Teacher

Tally (Revital) Batami Zahor has over 20 years of experience teaching Bible studies. She has also served as a principal. Tally holds a Master’s degree in Peace and Conflict Management from Haifa University and a BA in Biblical Studies and Education from Oranim Seminary. 

Photo: Esau Meeting Jacob, from Dalziels’ Bible Gallery (1881).

KABBALAH – JEWISH MYSTICISM AND PERSONAL GROWTH 3 (ONLINE)

There are many ways to deepen and widen Jewish learning, Jewish wisdom and Jewish way of life – for personal growth. Some like to study, some to find ways of engaging with and caring for our community. Some like to practice religious and traditional rituals including prayer, song, dance, and celebrations. And some of us search for deeper, more spiritual meaning – supported with study and practice in our life. 

Kabbalah offers us a way to study both modern and ancient mystical texts and philosophy. And it guides us to test and apply many beautiful concepts, models, rituals and meditations in our own lives, to help us deepen our own spiritual journey.  

The Hebrew word Kabbalah means to receive. Kabbalah supports and guides us to study and reflect deeply, to meditate and to explore their meaning and practice together. When we study Kabbalah, we carve out a time and place to develop our awareness, understanding and readiness to receive insights from the mysteries of the universe and the mysteries in the Jewish mystical tradition – and to share them together. 

The expected learning outcomes of the course are:

• To learn and to get insights in the history of Kabbalah, who the various leaders, scholars and mystics were, to to explore the key literary sources of Kabbalah.
• To explore the Tree of Life and its dynamics, The 10 Sephirot, the 4 worlds, and the 5 modes of the soul. 
• To apply kabbalistic sources and philosophy to Jewish holidays.

This course is a continuation from the fall term of 2025 and the spring term of 2026. 

The course is organized by the Jewish Community of Gothenburg and Paideia folkhögskola, in collaboration with Paideia – The European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden.

Course Structure

Kabbalah is both a theoretical philosophy and a practice. The course follows a participative approach to learning. Each session usually follows a similar process: it begins with reviewing the goals and intentions, followed by a guided meditation to help us arrive together. Participants then share insights in small groups, after which we work through the course PowerPoint slides prepared by the teacher. Sessions also include discussions, reflections, and exploration, and conclude with closing reflections.

Throughout the year, we integrate the meanings and Kabbalistic perspectives of Jewish holidays into our work.

Prior Knowledge

The course is given in English. The teacher understands both English and Swedish. Participants are welcome to speak in Swedish in the smaller group meetings if all members of the group speak Swedish.

This course is a continuation from the fall term of 2025 and spring term of 2026 and is primarily aimed at previous participants.

New applicants that are curious, motivated, have some experience and are eager to learn about the Sephirot and to apply and integrate Kabbalistic awareness, knowledge, insights, and practice in their own lives and development are also welcome to apply. Include your previous experience and relevant information about yourself in the application form.

To apply for this course, you need basic computer skills and knowledge of how to use the digital platform Zoom. 

Course Material

All course material is not included in the cost for this course. Participants need to acquire the course book on their own.

Course book: 

• Adam and the Kabbalistic Tree (Simon ben Zev Halevi). 

About the Teacher

Sari Scheinberg was born and raised in New York City where she attended Yeshivat Ramaz for 13 years (learning Hebrew, Torah, Talmud and so on) and continued her education and development as a gestalt and organisation psychologist. Sari moved to Sweden in 1990 for love and has been working as a teacher and action researcher in Sweden and around the world. In Sweden she has been dedicated to developing and leading programs to work with issues concerning well-being, human rights and integration. And she has been working with Swedish and European AID programs for over 40 years – designing and leading research, development and innovation programs around the world.

Sari has always been very active in living and developing her Jewish life. In Sweden she has been part of the team developing and now leading the Egalitarian – Masorti Section of the Jewish community. Sari has been fascinated by Kabbalah since she was young – reading and studying Kabbalah with various teachers. Sari designed and started teaching her own Kabbalah classes in Göteborg – leading one group for nearly 18 years. After a break, she resumed teaching, exploring, and guiding a Kabbalah group in the autumn of 2025.

Photo: Pixabay/Canva.

This page is not available in English as this course is given in Swedish.

For information about the course, we refer to the Swedish course page.

Photo: Privat collage, Thomas Fürth.

This page is not available in English as this course is given in Swedish.
For information about the course, we refer to the Swedish course page.

Photo: Paideia folkhögskola

SHARED WORLDS: JEWISH LITERATURE(S) IN 20TH-CENTURY EUROPE: MANY LANGUAGES, SHARED WORLDS

This course explores modern European Jewish literature of the twentieth century in its linguistic plurality both in Jewish languages (Hebrew, Yiddish, and Ladino) and in European national languages (German, French, Russian, Italian, Polish, and more). Attention will be given to the spaces where Jewish life took place—from the Eastern-European ‘shtetl’ to the yeshiva, from the bustling, secular metropolis like Vienna to the post-Holocaust ruins of Jewish Europe—as well as to the literary and cultural geography of Jewish Europe, i.e. the main literary hubs and cultures where Jewish literatures flourished. Each lecture will focus on one or two major figures of European Jewish literary history, such as Franz Kafka, S.Y. Agnon, I.B. Singer, Giorgio Bassani, and Anna Seghers.

We will read mostly short fiction and poetry by European Jewish writers, together with some multimedia materials, in order to explore how literary texts represent or problematize the Jewish experience across time and geography. We will consider how Jewish writers responded to issues such as modernity, technology, Gentile culture, integration and/or assimilation, migration, and persecution. Recurring themes include exile and belonging, religious tradition and secularism, memory and trauma, gender difference and women’s voices, and, most importantly, the role of language(s) in shaping Jewish identity across national borders, in or out of Jewish culture or of specific national cultures.

By the end of the course, participants will have developed a broad introductory understanding of major European Jewish writers, their works, and their historical contexts. They will also gain insight into the formal features, recurring themes, and genres of Jewish literature, and into the ways literary texts both reflect and shape the modern Jewish experience within and beyond European culture.

The course is given in collaboration with Paideia – the European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden.

Course Structure

Each meeting will entail a mix of lectures and group discussions of the reading assignments. Occasionally, the teacher will offer brief excerpts during class time for discussion.

Reading of assignments before lectures/discussions is always expected. Materials will be between 10 to 50 pages.

Prior Knowledge

The course is given in English.

No prior knowledge is expected. The participants should be just ready to read the assigned materials in order to familiarize themselves with the authors discussed in class. Interest in and curiosity for the various historical and cultural aspects of the European Jewish experience, as they arise from the literary texts discussed, is the main requirement.

To apply for this course, you need basic computer skills and knowledge of how to use the digital platform Zoom.

Course Material

Course material is included in the cost for this course.

About the Teacher

Dr Giacomo Loi is an Azrieli International Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of Haifa and visiting scholar at Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris. He is particularly interested in the complex entanglements between Greco-Roman antiquity and modern Jewish culture. In the past, he has worked at the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah, Paris, taught Classics and Jewish studies at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and is among the initiators and leaders of the project Gentile Antiquity: The Reception of Antiquity in Modern Italian Jewish Literature. He has received the Kingdon Award for New Perspectives in Jewish Studies from Columbia University and has lectured at several universities in the US, Israel, France, the UK, Italy, Switzerland, and Sweden. He has previously taught Jewish literature in the Paideia One-Year Program.

Photo: A collage featuring book covers by Franz Kafka, S. Y. Agnon, I. B. Singer, Giorgio Bassani, and Anna Seghers.

This course explores the pluralism of Jewish identity in cinema from the global diaspora outside of Israel. Core questions guiding our analysis of these movies include: What does it mean to be Jewish? Is Judaism a religious, ethnic, or cultural identity? How do Jews navigate their dual Jewish and national identities? Are there political associations with Jewish identity? How are Jewish gender identities or stereotypes similar or different across the diaspora? Are these Jewish films?  

This class complements a previous class on Jewish identity in American and European cinema, and will similarly begin with The Jazz Singer (1927) to ground the conversation on Jewish identity in film. However, we will then move into new material from North America, Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America.  

The course is given in collaboration with Paideia – The European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden. 

Course Structure

Each class will begin with an introduction by the teacher, followed by a film screening and class discussion. 

Prior Knowledge

The course is given in English.

No prior knowledge about the subject is needed.

To apply for this course, you need basic computer skills and knowledge of how to use the digital platform Zoom. 

Course Material

Course material is included in the cost for this course.

About the Teacher

Zoe Kelly-Nacht holds a Ph.D. in Religious Thought from Boston University, an M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School, and a B.A. from Barnard College, Columbia University. She specializes in the intersections of religion, literature, and film. Her dissertation examines the life, films, and manuscript Devotional Cinema by American Jewish Buddhist experimental filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky. Zoe grew up in New York City and, prior to moving to Stockholm, taught religious studies courses at Hunter College, City University of New York, and Marymount Manhattan College. She now lives in Stockholm with her partner and two small children. 

Photo: From Movies: Chalom (elcinema.com), A Summer i La Goulette (Prime Video), Mazal Tov (courtesy of Cinecolor and Rollingstone Espanol). 

Jewish history isn’t just a subject—it’s a key to unlocking universal history. This course breaks away from rigid national narratives to explore a global Jewish experience that has spanned continents and centuries since 1700. While our core lies in the historic landscapes of Europe—from Poland-Lithuania to the Holy Roman Empire—our scope is global, reaching into the Ottoman Empire, Palestine/Eretz Israel, and the Americas. We will examine internal traditions (Sephardic and Ashkenazic Judaism), religious currents (rationalism, mysticism, messianism, Hasidism, Haskalah), and autonomous institutions (the Jewish community, the Council of the Four Lands), as well as the interaction between Jews and non-Jews across different contexts.

The aim is to challenge unilateral explanations and break down the schematic dichotomy that perceives the Jewish experience as oscillating between an autonomous Jewish space and an external space determined by others.

The course is given in collaboration with the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg and Paideia – The European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden.

Course Structure

The course consists of lectures, close reading and discussions. 

Participants need to calculate for approximately 30 minutes to one hour of preparation work at home before each class. 

Prior Knowledge

The course is given in English.

No prior knowledge about the subject is needed. All who are interested in Jewish history are welcome to apply.

To apply for this course, you need basic computer skills and knowledge of how to use the digital platform Zoom. 

Course Material

Course material is included in the cost for this course.

About the Teacher

PD Dr Louise Hecht is a historian and senior lecturer in Jewish history. She was promoted doctor of Jewish History summa cum laude at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and habilitated in Jewish Cultural History at Paris Lodron University Salzburg. She is currently working at Heidelberg University of Jewish Studies.

Image: BBC, A History of the World, ”Philip Pollecoff’s Passport”, accessed 2026-05-12. Collage made in Canva.

JEWISH DIASPORA, IDENTITY, AND SURVIVAL ON THE ASIAN CONTINENT (ONLINE)

This course invites participants to explore the rich yet often overlooked histories of Jewish communities across Asia. From antiquity to the present, Jews have lived in regions stretching from India to China and Southeast Asia, forming distinctive identities shaped by deep engagement with surrounding cultures and, in many cases, relatively low levels of antisemitism. By examining these communities, the course highlights how Jewish life evolved on the geographic and cultural peripheries of the Diaspora.

Focusing on key themes rather than a single regional narrative, the course examines the origins and early development of Jewish communities in India and China, with particular attention to processes of acculturation within Hindu, Confucian, and other cultural frameworks. It also explores the transformative impact of European colonialism and imperialism, especially through the expansion of the Baghdadi Jewish diaspora and its role in commercial and social networks across Asia.

The course further considers the experiences of Jews in Asia during the Holocaust, including the arrival of European refugees in Shanghai and the internment of Jewish populations in Japanese camps throughout Southeast Asia. These histories position Asia as a critical, though often overlooked, arena of wartime refuge and survival.

Finally, the course addresses the consequences of decolonization, tracing patterns of migration to Israel and examining the complex struggles of Asian Jewish communities for recognition by the Israeli Rabbinate. Through these interconnected themes, participants will engage with broader questions of identity, legitimacy, and belonging that continue to shape the global Jewish experience today.

The course is given in collaboration with Paideia – the European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden.

Course Structure

The course consists of a mixture of lectures and in-depth discussions of primary sources. Participants are expected to spend 30 minutes to an hour reading prior to each class.

Prior Knowledge

The course is given in English.

No prior knowledge about the subject is needed.

To apply for this course, you need basic computer skills and knowledge of how to use the digital platform Zoom. 

Course Material

Course material is included in the cost for this course.

About the Teacher

Dr. Geraldine Gudefin is a French-born modern Jewish historian specializing in Jewish migration, family life, and legal pluralism. She holds an MA from Yale University and a PhD in History from Brandeis University. Her work has been published in American Jewish History and Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies & Gender Issues. She has received fellowships from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, the Posen Foundation, and the Center for Jewish History. Dr. Gudefin’s earlier research examined Jewish marriage and family law in France and the United States. Now based in Southeast Asia, she is currently researching Baghdadi Jewish family life across Asia.

Photo: Photograph by Maurice Laserson (Juifs noirs, Mattancheri, Cochin, Inde, December 1936), currently held at the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme, Paris.

MODERN HEBREW: HEADLINES AND BEYOND – EXPLORING THE NEWS (ONLINE)

This course is designed for those who are already fluent in spoken and written Hebrew, and who wish to maintain and deepen their knowledge of the language by reading and discussing news articles and current events. During the course, we use material from various Hebrew-language newspapers, as well as TV reports and news programs.

We read texts on topics such as politics, society, culture and global events, and discuss the content together in the group. Active participation is important, as is the willingness and ability to engage in conversations in Hebrew about what we read. The classes are taught in Hebrew and welcome participants who speak both English and Swedish in addition to Hebrew.

The course is given in collaboration with Paideia – the European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden.

Bruchim habaim – Welcome!

Course Structure

Participants are expected to have regular attendance at the course sessions and participate in discussions and exercises with other participants. Your active presence is important, as well as the willingness and ability to participate in conversations in Hebrew about what we read. Homework between sessions is part of the course structure.

Prior Knowledge

The course is taught in Hebrew and welcomes participants who speak both English and Swedish in addition to Hebrew.

The course is aimed at those who are already fluent in spoken and written Hebrew, and who want to maintain and deepen their knowledge of the language. You need to be able to read a newspaper article in Hebrew (for sample please see below), understand the content you read and be able to discuss the article in the group.

Please indicate prior knowledge in your application. You can test your level by reading a sample article in Simanim magazine.

To apply for this course, you need basic computer skills and knowledge of how to use the digital platform Zoom. 

Course Material

Course material in the form of digital material is included in the cost. The teacher will provide digital copies of articles. You can choose to take out your own subscription (not included in the course cost) to the digital magazine Simanim, which you will then purchase yourself. You will receive more information if you are accepted to the course.

About the Teacher

Anat Samuelson was born and raised in Jerusalem, where she studied vocal studies at the Academy of Music and pedagogy at David Yelin College. She has been teaching Hebrew to adults, youth and children for over 10 years. Anat has a passion for the Hebrew language and a special interest in the origins and roots of Hebrew. Anat sings and performs in various ensembles and studies Kabbalah at Mishkan Hakavana in Israel.

Photo: Pixabay.

This page is not available in English as this course is given in Swedish.

For information about the course, we refer to the Swedish course page.

Photo: Canva/Paideia Folkhögskola