About
In celebration of the 125th anniversary of the founding of Chosen People Ministries, the topic of this year’s Charles L. Feinberg Lectures is “The Life and Times of Leopold Cohn.” The program will focus in part upon Rabbi Cohn’s relationship with Hungarian Hasidism, the sect of Judaism he grew up with, which emphasized an intensified Messianic expectation.
Other aspects of this multi-faceted examination of Cohn’s life and work will include an overview of the establishment of Chosen People Ministries and its expansion over the decades, the history of evangelical missions to the Jewish people, and Chosen People Ministries’ relationship to the church, Zionism and the State of Israel.
The panel of speakers will include Israeli scholars Yaakov Ariel, Motti Inbarri and Menachem Keren Kratz, as well as Chosen People Ministries President Mitch Glaser and staff member Alan Shore.
Schedule
Wednesday, December 4, 2019
| 7:30 PM | Lecture #1:
Topic: “Leopold Cohn: His Life, Labors, and Vision for Chosen People Ministries” |
| 8:30 PM | Film |
| 9:15 PM | Snack and Conversation |
Thursday, December 5, 2019
| 8:00 AM | Bagel Breakfast |
| 8:45 AM | Lecture #2:
Topic: “Hungarian Hasidic Messianic Expectations and their Possible Influence on Leopold Cohn.” |
| 9:45 AM | Lecture #3:
Topic: “Chosen People Ministries and the Larger Context of Evangelical Missions to the Jews.” |
| 10:45 – 11:00 AM | Break |
| 11:00 – 12:00 PM | Lecture #4:
Topic: “The Second Generation: Challenges and Growth Under Joseph Hoffman Cohn.” |
| 12:00– 1:00 PM | Lunch on your own |
| 1:00 – 2:00 PM | Panel Discussion (All Speakers) |
| 2:00 – 2:15 PM | Break |
| 2:15-3:15 PM | Lecture #5:
Topic: “Chosen People Ministries and the Fog of War.” |
| 3:30 PM | Visit the LES |
| 5:30 PM | Dinner on Own at Katz’s |
Featured Speakers
Mendi Keren
Mendi Keren is a researcher of Hungarian Orthodoxy and of contemporary Haredi society in the State of Israel. Dr. Keren holds a PhD from Bar-Ilan University in Yiddish Literature (Summa Cum Laude), and another in Jewish History from Tel Aviv University. His first dissertation, Maramaros-Sziget: Extreme Orthodoxy and Secular Jewish Culture at the Foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, was recently published by the Dov Sadan Publishing Project of the Hebrew University and is a groundbreaking text on the inner world of Hungarian Hasidism. His second dissertation is titled, Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum—The Satmar Rebbe (1887–1979): A Biography. Dr. Keren’s field of interest lies in Jewish Orthodoxy and especially Hungarian Jewry in the modern era; Yiddish literature and press; Haredi society in Israel and the United States; the Old Yishuv of Jerusalem; Agudath Israel; Jewish folklore; and Jewish and rabbinic genealogy. Dr. Keren also works as a part-time dentist in Ramat-HaSharon, Israel.
Dr. Moti Inbarri
Motti Inbari is an associate professor of religion at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Dr. Inbari’s research focuses primarily on Jewish fundamentalism, mostly in Israel, but also in the United States and Europe. He is the author of three books: Jewish Fundamentalism and the Temple Mount (2009), Messianic Religious Zionism Confronts Israeli Territorial Compromises (2012), and Jewish Radical Ultra-Orthodoxy Confronts Modernity, Zionism, and Women’s Equality (2016). Dr. Inbari earned his PhD at the Institute of Contemporary Jewry—currently part of the Department of Modern Jewish History—at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has also served as a fellow at the University of Florida and at the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University.
Dr. Mitch Glaser
Dr. Glaser has served as president of Chosen People Ministries since 1997. He is an alumnus of Northeastern Bible College, the Talbot School of Theology and earned a Ph.D in Intercultural Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary, School of Intercultural Studies. His dissertation explored the history of the Messianic Jewish movement in Continental Europe during first half of the 20th century. Dr. Glaser is recognized as an expert on the role of Messianic ministries during the Holocaust period. He is the co-author of The Fall Feasts of Israel with his wife, and co-editor of To the Jew First, The Gospel According to Isaiah 53, and The People, The Land, and The Future of Israel, published by Kregel Publications. Dr. Glaser’s book, Isaiah 53 Explained, is now in fourteen languages with over 200,000 copies in print. He has written many articles for a variety of periodicals and has taught at leading schools such as Talbot School of Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary and Moody Bible Institute. Dr. Glaser lives in Brooklyn which he whimsically describes as the true Holy Land.
Yaakov Ariel
Yaakov Ariel is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Chicago, where he completed a doctoral degree on Christian Messianic groups and their relation to Jews and Zionism. His research focuses on Protestant Christianity and its attitudes towards the Jewish people; on Judeo-Christian relations in the modern era; and on the Jewish reaction to modernity. His second book, Evangelizing the Chosen People, was awarded the Albert C. Outler prize by the American Society of Church History. Dr. Ariel is a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and co-director of the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies.
Dr. Alan Shore
Dr. Shore has pursued a multi-faceted vocation for over forty years that includes service in ministry and educator. From 1991 – 1995, he was adjunct instructor in biblical studies at Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia. He holds a Master of Divinity degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA (1991) and a Ph.D. in Modern Jewish History and Culture from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA. (2016). Since 1998, he has served on the staff of Chosen People Ministries in a number of roles including staff writer and National Ministries Representative. He is presently Special Assistant to Dr. Glaser.
