Cosmos and Poetry: An Exploration of Home and Exile

In this course, astronomer Professor Merav Opher and poet Deborah Leipziger share their work and exploration of our search for home. Weaving science and art, this workshop reflects on Jewish journeys from the diaspora for meaning, connection, and purpose. Professor Opher will share insights of her pioneering work exploring the heliosphere, the cocoon around the sun. Poet Deborah Leipziger will share poems from her new poetry collection, Story & Bone. We will examine the places where science and poetry intersect and how we create and re-create home.

This class will be in person at Temple Sina and via Zoom. Contact the temple office at 617-277-5888 or office@sinaibrookline.org to obtain the Zoom link. It will also be available in the Sinai Update email.

Temple member Deborah Leipziger is an author, poet, and advisor on sustainability. Born in Brazil, Ms. Leipziger is the author of several books on sustainability and human rights. Her collection of poems, Story & Bone, was published in 2023 by Lily Poetry Review Books. Her chapbook, Flower Map, was published by Finishing Line Press. Her work appears in numerous anthologies, including Tree Lines: 21st Century American Poems. She is a 2023- 2024 Community Creative Fellow, sponsored by the Jewish Arts Collaborative. Her poems have been published in eight countries, in such magazines and journals a Pangyrus, Salamander, Lily Poetry Review, and Revista Cardenal.

 Merav Opher, also a Sinai member, is a professor in the Department of Astronomy at Boston University. She is interested in understanding the cocoons around stars, called astrospheres, which are generated by the stellar winds as they move through the interstellar medium that surrounds them. In particular, her research focuses on understanding the heliosphere, the cocoon around the solar system that creates the foundation to predict habitable astrospheres. Professor Opher was born and grew up in Haifa, Israel. When she was 8 years old the family moved to Brasil. Professor Opher earned her PhD in astrophysics from University de Sao Paulo. She came to the United States at the age of 29. She loves art and in particular poetry, and participated in the Favorite Poem Project at Boston University.