MEET

Achinoam Aldouby

I'm a theater scholar and Jewish educator originally from Israel, currently living in Berkeley, CA.

I have 15 years of experience teaching, learning, and facilitating Jewish text study groups and Performative Beit Midrash across diverse organizations. My specialization lies in Jewish and Israeli theater, where I explore the staging of Jewish history, rituals, and texts as a way of tracking the ongoing formation of identity, community and culture. In my master's research, I focused on the staging of Talmud and Rabbinic texts, analyzing their interpretive nature and dialogic qualities. Currently, in my Ph.D. research, I delve into the performative modes through which different generations relate to and negotiate their identity in connection with the memory of the Shoah.

Learning, for me, is the art of asking questions, evoking curiosity, and fostering reflective and complex thinking. It involves acquiring knowledge and tools to contextualize ideas, to craft insightful answers, and even more precious - to develop a set of new, more nuanced questions. Whatever topic you're curious to learn about or whatever questions you wish to explore further (Jewish history-rituals-calendar-texts, Hebrew, art, and performance, or any Israel-related topics...), in my learning I find it essential to integrate raw facts, historical and cultural context and engage in discussions to explore the implications of our learning for our lives.

Looking forward to learning with you!