{"id":1,"date":"2025-08-01T15:02:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T19:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/template\/?p=1"},"modified":"2026-01-07T09:30:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T14:30:05","slug":"welcome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ideaslab\/2025\/08\/01\/welcome\/","title":{"rendered":"Join the community!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Hebrew term \u201c<em>beit midrash<\/em>\u201d refers to a communal setting in which learners discover and co-construct meaning through conversation with one another about texts that address significant ideas and raise essential questions. At Colby, these texts include classic and contemporary sources from the Jewish tradition and beyond. Participants of all backgrounds and perspectives learn to assess competing ideas critically, to read closely, and to present their ideas effectively within the context of a supportive community. They become sophisticated thinkers and empowered partners in the collaborative creation of knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Jewish Ideas Lab meets over dinner roughly every other Tuesday evening from 7-9 pm. Each session features a different question and facilitator, and many sessions are designed by Colby students. You can find this year&#8217;s source sheets <a href=\"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ideaslab\/thisyear\/\">here<\/a>, and source sheets from prior years <a href=\"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ideaslab\/prioryears\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ideaslab\/prioryears\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All students are welcome to <a href=\"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ideaslab\/js123\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"87\">enroll in JS123<\/a>, a 1-credit, nongraded course. Unenrolled students and other members of the Colby community are warmly encouraged to attend <em>beit midrash<\/em> sessions as well, and are free to leave at 8 pm if they wish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Hebrew term \u201cbeit midrash\u201d refers to a communal setting in which learners discover and co-construct meaning through conversation with one another about texts that address significant ideas and raise essential questions. At Colby, these texts include classic and contemporary sources from the Jewish tradition and beyond. Participants of all backgrounds and perspectives learn to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10120,"featured_media":220,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ideaslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ideaslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ideaslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ideaslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ideaslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ideaslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":257,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ideaslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ideaslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ideaslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ideaslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ideaslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}