(Courtesy of CCE) The Center for Community Education (CCE) at the Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy of Connecticut is sponsoring an “Online Chanukah Block Party”—with two shiurim that will be given by Rabbi Avi Block and his wife, Dena Katz Block.

The program, which will be broadcast via Zoom, will be held on Monday evening, December 14 at 7 p.m.

“We are excited to organize a Chanukah program with not one, but two, scholars in the Block family,” said Michael Feldstein, co-chair of the CCE. “Those who haven’t heard Avi and Dena deliver shiurim should definitely take advantage of this opportunity, as they are both extremely skilled Torah scholars.”

Rabbi Block’s shiur is titled “Strength, Sovereignty, or the Supernatural? The Miracles and Monuments of Chanukah.” Dena Block’s shiur is titled “Shalom Bayit: A Prerequisite for the Chanukah Lights.”

Rabbi Avi Block is currently the mashgiach ruchani for the high school at the Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy of Connecticut. Before that he worked as the assistant rabbi at the Young Israel of Jamaica Estates. Rabbi Block graduated with honors from Yeshiva College and went on to pursue graduate studies at the Bernard Revel Graduate School for Jewish Studies while studying for semicha at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. Alongside his rabbinic work, Rabbi Block has also completed a Ph.D. in psychology from St. John’s University.

Dena Block teaches Talmud and Halacha at Maayanot High School in Teaneck, and serves as the school’s director of admissions. She received her bachelor’s degree in history from Barnard College, and her master’s in medieval Jewish history from the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University. She also is a graduate of Yeshiva University’s Graduate Program in Advanced Talmudic Studies (GPATS), and earned her yoetzet halacha certification from Nishmat. She currently serves as the yoetzet halacha for the Mount Sinai Jewish Center in Washington Heights and the Stamford Jewish community.

The Center for Community education is a new initiative of the Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy of Connecticut that aims to inspire thoughtful conversation related to the spectrum of Jewish issues.

To register for the Zoom program, please visit www.bchaupperschool.org/cce.