Ancient Wisdom for Contemporary Ethics
The Ethics Breakfast is a series of conversations exploring pressing ethical questions with guest presenters in conversation with a rabbi, comparing contemporary approaches with Jewish perspectives.
Past Ethics Breakfast Event
Art Kleiner - Who is responsible for AI?
Alan Astrow - The Right to Die: Ethics of Assisted Suicide
Heela Capell - Suspending the Law and Muting the Facts: Ethics of Compromise
Ernest Davis - Artificial Intelligence and its Urgent Ethical Challenges
Anna Cantor - Precision Parenthood: Creating Designer Families
David Rothberg - The Crime of Punishment: Ethics of Incarceration
Michael Walzer - Morality and War
Jeffrey Hollender - It's legal, but is it ethical?
Muhammad Faridi - Privacy vs Security
Past Ethics Breakfast Event
Bruce Green - Is Criminal Justice About Truth?
Lisa Schreibersdorf and Yung-Mi Lee - Mental Health and Crime: What can we do?
Alana Newhouse - Media Integrity and Bias in a Changing World
Yael Eisenstat - Social Media, Polarization and Democracy
Elana Banin - Mercy, Morality, and Security
Kathryn Wylde - Tax the Rich?
Past Ethics Breakfast Event
October 22, 2023
Who is responsible for AI?
With Art Kleiner, Professor at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program Principal at Kleiner Powell International (KPI) and co-author of The AI Dilemma: 7 Principles for Responsible Technology.
November 19, 2023
The Right to Die: Ethics of Assisted Suicide
With Alan Astrow, Chief of the division of hematology and medical oncology at New York–Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital and professor of clinical medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, where he focuses on the care and medical treatment of breast cancer. He is also an adjunct clinical assistant professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary where he teaches Jewish medical ethics.
December 17, 2023
Suspending the Law and Muting the Facts: Ethics of Compromise
With Heela Capell, NYC Civil Court Judge, Nominee for NYS Supreme Court.
January 21, 2024
Artificial Intelligence and its Urgent Ethical Challenges
With Ernest Davis, Professor of Computer Science at NYU. Co-author of Rebooting AI:Building Artificial Intelligence We Can Trust.
March 3, 2024
Precision Parenthood: Creating Designer Families
With Anna Cantor, Board Certified Genetic Councelor
April 7, 2024
The Crime of Punishment: Ethics of Incarceration
With David Rothberg, Broadway producer, Founder of The Fortune Society.
September 22, 2024
Morality & War
With Michael Walzer, Professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and one of America’s foremost political thinkers. He is the author of over 25 books including Just and Unjust Wars; War, Politics, and Morality; and Arguing About War. Currently, he is working on issues having to do with international justice and the connection of religion and politics, and on a collaborative project focused on the history of Jewish political thought.
November 17, 2024
It's Legal, But Is It Ethical
With Jeffrey Hollender, Entrepreneur, Author and Sustainability Advocate.
December 15, 2024
Privacy vs. Security
With Muhammad Faridi, President, NYC Bar and Civilian Representative to the NYPD Handschu Commitee.
January 15, 2025
Is Criminal Justice About Truth?
With Bruce Green, the Louis Stein Chair at Fordham Law School, where he directs the Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics. He chairs both the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination drafting committee. He is also a member and past chair of the NY State Bar Association’s Committee on Professional Ethics. And Joel Cohen, senior counsel at Petrillo Klein & Boxer. He is a former prosecutor who is an adjunct professor at Fordham Law School, and his essays and columns have been published in the New York Law Journal, The New York Times, Slate, Huffington Post, The Hill and Law & Crime.
February 23, 2025
Ethics Breakfast Series: Mental Health and Crime: What can we do?
With Lisa Schreibersdorf and Yung-Mi Lee, Executive Director and Legal Director of Brooklyn Defender Services.
May 18, 2025
Ethics Breakfast Series: Media Integrity and Bias in a Changing World
With Alana Newhouse, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Tablet, a daily online magazine of Jewish news ideas and culture which she founded in 2009. A graduate of Barnard College and Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, Newhouse has contributed to the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and Slate.
November 9, 2025
Ethics Breakfast Series: Social Media, Polarization and Democracy
With Yael Eisenstat, Director of Policy and Impact at Cybersecurity for Democracy and former VP at ADL, CIA officer, White House advisor, and Facebook executive, as we explore the moral questions shaping our online lives.
February 8, 2026
Ethics Breakfast Series: Mercy, Morality, and Security with Elana Banin
With Elena Banin, a policy advisor, researcher, and communications specialist with over 15 years of experience working across humanitarian response, global governance, and conflict-affected settings. She has worked with the World Bank, the International Rescue Committee, UNICEF, and PATH, and currently serves as Director of Communications at the Burnes Center for Social Change/Governance Lab, Senior Partnership Advisor to the Multifaith Alliance, and a Visiting Fellow at the think tank Capita.
March 15, 2026
Ethics Breakfast Series: Tax the Rich? with Kathryn Wylde
With Kathryn Wylde serves as President & CEO of the Partnership for New York City and has spent decades working at the intersection of business, civic institutions, and public policy, advising on issues related to economic development, competitiveness, and inequality.