Launched in 2025, our new speaker series was designed to spark bold thinking about the future of Jewish life. Through stimulating, inspiring, and challenging sessions with nationally renowned thought leaders, we explored pressing questions of identity, peoplehood, spirituality, and leadership, while engaging in deep and meaningful Jewish reflection. Learn more and watch or listen to the sessions, below.
Jewish ideas offer a framework for thinking deeply and living purposefully. But in a world flooded with content and opinion, what does Judaism offer that is distinctive and worth sustaining? This conversation explores what gives Jewish ideas their enduring relevance and why they’re worth learning from and living by today.
Rabbi Elka Abrahamson, President, Wexner Foundation
Sarah Hurwitz, Author, Former White House Speechwriter
Bret Stephens, Op-ed Columnist, The New York Times
Moderated by AJC Board Member Hilary Cohen
For decades, American Jews enjoyed unprecedented safety, success, and cultural influence. But beneath that prosperity, many became disconnected from Jewish tradition and meaning Was that truly a golden age, or just the foundation for what could come next? This session reckons with the story of Jewish life in America and asks what a deeper, more meaningful era might look like.
Mijal Bitton, Spiritual Leader, The Downtown Minyan
Franklin Foer, Staff Writer, The Atlantic
Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, Senior Rabbi, Stephen Wise Free Synagogue
Moderated by AJC Senior Rabbi Shira Stutman
The Jewish experience has always been bigger than survival. Yet too often, the public stories we tell center on trauma and loss. This explores how we might reclaim stories of resilience, creativity, and contribution, and how new narratives could help us build a future rooted in strength.
Dara Horn, Author, Founder & President, Mosaic Persuasion
Dasi Fruchter, Founder & Spiritual Leader, South Philadelphia Shtiebel
Mark Oppenheimer, Creator & Host, Unorthodox podcast
Moderated by AJC Board Member Hilary Cohen
In a time of deep division, questions of who’s in and who’s out feel more urgent than ever. What does it really mean to belong to the Jewish people? And with all our differences, what still holds the American Jewish community together? This session wrestles with the boundaries of belonging and the future of Jewish peoplehood itself.
Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, President, Hebrew College
Yehuda Kurtzer, President, Shalom Hartman Institute
Jason Rubenstein, Executive Director, Harvard Hillel
Moderated by AJC Senior Rabbi Shira Stutman
In addition to our four Aspen Jewish Conversations sessions, this summer we were honored to host an evening with New York City Central Synagogue Senior Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, who sat down with AJC Senior Rabbi Shira Stutman to discuss her forthcoming memoir, Heart of a Stranger, and the Jewish moment we’re living in.
