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Our annual Max Ticktin Memorial Latke-Hamentashen Debate is always a very popular event! Watch our humorous moderator and distinguished panelists conduct a scholarly, but absurdist, symposium that addresses the eternal conundrum: “Which are better, latkes or hamentashen?”

The Catskills resort area, aka the Borscht Belt, was the most popular Jewish vacation site in the mid-20th century and the training ground for many of America’s favorite entertainers. Phil Brown founded The Catskill Institute and has written or edited 3 books about the Catskills. He will discuss the Jewish experience in the Catskills, from the first Jewish boarding house just before the turn of the 20th century, through the decline and current transformation. With hundreds of slides, he will show the hotels and bungalow colonies, the people who stayed and worked there, and the food and entertainment that sustained them.

Amy Schwartz in conversation with Mindy Reiser will discuss the book "Can Robots Be Jewish? And Other Pressing Questions of Modern Life." Amy edited the book and will discuss her adventures editing it and the Moment Magazine "Ask the Rabbis" column that the book is based on, including what it means to get ten answers to every question and to emerge with more questions than you started.

Brazil has a rich Jewish history, organizational structure and institutions. Recife has the oldest synagogue in the Americas and refugees from there became the first Jews to arrive in New York. We expect to learn about Brazil’s current Jewish community, its religious life and Jewish education, and its relations with Israel and the Jewish diaspora.

The Jewish community in Argentina is the largest in Latin America. With a rabbinical seminary, a cadre of Yiddish and Spanish writers, and political activists, Argentina's Jews have played a particularly influential role in Jewish life in the Spanish-speaking world.