Coursebook on Biblical Ethics Launched

Media Release

Contact:

Sergiu S. Simmel
Founder & President
Our Learning Company LLC
Phone: 617-731-3132
Email: SSS@Our-Learning.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Innovative Adult Learning Courseware Publisher Announces

Follow-on Audio Coursebook Featuring World Renowned Brandeis Professor

Brighton, Massachusetts, 27 November 2006 – Our Learning Company LLC (OLC) – a start-up publisher of innovative Adult Learning courseware with Jewish content – announces its follow-on audio coursebook featuring Dr. Reuven Kimelman, world-renowned professor at Brandeis University. “The Moral Meaning of the Bible – The What, How and Why of Biblical Ethics — Volume I” is an 8-part series featuring studio-recorded audio sessions, study text and uniquely colorful mindmapped graphic summaries.

Reflecting a significant increase of interest in the Jewish heritage of highest quality teaching and lifelong learning, OLC’s mission is to bring the highest quality Jewish teaching into the hands of learners, Jews and non-Jews, in a convenient, portable, and flexible format. “Learning from the enormously rich Jewish tradition should not be limited to the classroom experience that may not fit either the location or the schedule of today’s busy adults,” says Sergiu S. Simmel, OLC’s Founder and President. “Having personally benefited from the gift of some of the best teachers world-wide, I set out to solve a simple question: How can we make this superb teaching available to the widest possible Jewish audience?”

Following the ground breaking audio coursebook on “The Hidden Poetry of the Jewish Prayerbook – The What, How and Why of the Jewish Prayerbook,” this new title is geared to learners whose experience in learning from Jewish sources ranges from none to comprehensive. The course examines well known Biblical episodes, such as Adam and Eve’s eating from the Tree of Knowledge, the failure at the Tower of Babel, Moses’ argument with God on Mount Sinai to save the people of Israel in spite of the golden calf episode, or Abraham’s binding and near sacrifice of Isaac. The first volume focuses on eight such narratives. In each session, “we explore its historical background, highlight its literary artistry, and uncover the ideological motivations of the text by asking three questions: what is said, how is said, and why is said. In doing so, we show how historical issues, literary considerations, and ideological factors converge to illuminate the full meaning of the Biblical text,” writes Dr. Kimelman in the Introduction to the course.

The package combines a professionally recorded audio track with substantial visual support and reference materials, suitable for both individual and group learning. The audio part is organized in short sessions under 30 minutes each, designed for listening in both informal (such as during commutes, trips or exercise routines) and formal (such as individual or group learning) settings. Each session includes opportunities for discussion or introspection, depending on how one uses the resource. The study text is based on the NJPS translation, and is laid out as “stage scripts” to make it more readable and to facilitate greater involvement through role playing. Each session is summarized by a multi-colored “mindmap,” a unique technology for knowledge representation, gaining widespread use in many educational and business applications. The printed and audio materials are bound by an elegant hard cover into an audio coursebook, suitable for gifting and active study.

In reference to OLC’s first title with Professor Reuven Kimelman, Rabbi Mark Bisman of Scottsdale, Arizona wrote: “Reuven Kimelman’s course on the hidden Poetry of the Siddur is superb. Not only have I learned from it, but a lay leader whom I gifted a copy reported that [it] changed the way he looks at a prayer book. Thanks for your pioneering efforts.” “I find [it] very clear, well organized, and easy to listen to. Often I have to go back and repeat sections because they are so densely packed with material,.” remarks Rabbi Michelle Missagieh of Los Angeles, California. Barry Shrage, President of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston, and a pioneer in adult Jewish learning, notes that “After a decade of growth, Boston’s revolution in adult Jewish learning has helped prepare the ground for yet another high quality resource for Jewish learners everywhere. Professor Reuven Kimelman’s recent audio coursebook gives learners and teachers alike a uniquely new modality for study and understanding.”

OLC distributes its audio courses through a number of channels, including Jewish organizations fostering adult Jewish learning, congregations, retail outlets as well as directly to Jewish learners worldwide. Its recently launched B’al Peh Program through several such organizations, such as the Synagogue Council of Massachusetts and the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School, is designed to reach both active and inactive learners and teachers, and offer them alternative learning and teaching opportunities.

More information at: www.MoralBible.com

Our Learning Company LLC of Brighton, Massachusetts (OLC), was formed in 2004 with the focus of bringing top-quality teaching to adult Jews worldwide. OLC’s products, initially offered as audio-courses with a rich suite of support materials, enable today’s busy adults to enjoy the studio-recorded content wherever they are and whenever they can dedicate 30 minutes to a new topic. They also enable Jewish educators and study groups to benefit from such rare, top-quality resources in group learning settings.

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If you’d like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with Sergiu S. Simmel or Brandeis Professor Reuven Kimelman, please call Our Learning Company at 617-731-3132 or e-mail at Info@Our-Learning.com.