issue #002: grief upon grief upon grief
we need community more than ever right now
i’m not sure what to say and i will never have the right words. i have spent this week filled to the brim with grief, as i imagine you have as well. i have wept for the lives of israelis and palestinians, for the ways that my grief is being both weaponized and rejected, and for the horror that is currently being enacted by the israeli government against palestinians in gaza. i know i’m not alone in all of this, and i hope you know you’re not alone either.
a few things have brought me some comfort this week: this piece by Jewish Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel, this piece by Naomi Klein, this letter campaign by IJV demanding a ceasefire, and all the opportunities there have been (and will be!) for us to gather in shared values to hold each other’s pain and rage and take action.
grief can be so isolating, but judaism offers us a lot of ritual to grieve together. i hope the events, courses, and workshops in this issue offer you community in this horrific time. i particularly want to list off a few offerings and events specific to this moment (with more info in the proper listings below):
Sit Shiva for Justice in Toronto - TODAY (oct. 15)
Daily Meditation in Challenging Times from Or HaLev - virtual all week
Daily Community & Art Space from Jewish Studio Project - virtual all week
Calling on our width and depth: A virtual somatic practice space for anti-zionist Jews and friends - virtual on oct. 17
“There is no whole heart but a broken heart. If your own suffering does not serve to unite you with the suffering of others, if your own imprisonment does not join you with others in prison, if you in your smallness remain alone, then your pain will have been for naught.”
— Rabbi Tirzah Firestone
some housekeeping
newsletter posts will always be “too long” for your email & get cut off. go to shtetlcrier.substack.com to read the entire post
new events that haven’t appeared in a prior issue are marked with 🆕
an event appearing in this newsletter is not an endorsement of said event
this newsletter is free & compiled with love for community. and i wouldn’t say no if you ever wanted to buy me a coffee
i would love to see more canadian events outside of toronto in future issues. if you know cool jews living outside toronto, please share this newsletter with them
& lastly: help me get the word out about 🧿SHTETL CRIER! share this post / tiktok / instagram reel / instagram post / facebook post
🇨🇦 canadian events
art exhibit
Into the Orchard: An exploration of Judaism in honour of the MNJCC’s 70th anniversary (Miles Nadal JCC)
📆until October 29, 2023
📍Ontario > Toronto > 750 Spadina Ave.
This series of forty art pieces by artist Ya’ara Eshet encapsulates narratives from the Bible, the Kabbalah, Jewish folklore and mysticism, modern Israeli poetry, and Yiddish verses. Free! Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft, 📚Education, 🌚Holiday Observance, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? deannad@mnjcc.orgart exhibit
The Synagogue at Babyn Yar: Turning the Nightmare of Evil into a Shared Dream of Good (Koffler Gallery)
📆until November 12, 2023
📍Ontario > Toronto > Koffler Gallery, 180 Shaw St.
The first major massacre of the Holocaust took place over two days in September 1941 in the Babyn Yar ravine, Kyiv, Ukraine. 80 years on, honour was paid to those murdered during those unspeakable events through the creation by the visionary Swiss architect Manuel Herz of an extraordinary, jewel-like, wooden synagogue which now memorializes the history and horror of Babyn Yar, a living sanctuary of hope for humankind.
The free exhibition at the Koffler Gallery will run to the end of Holocaust Education Week on November 12th, 2023. It links three moments in time of exceptional global resonance – the original 1941 massacre, the creation and dedication of this extraordinary, jewel-like, wooden synagogue and the current Russian war against Ukraine. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft, History, Holocaust
🤔Questions? admin@kofflerarts.orgevent
🆕Sit Shiva for Justice
📆October 15, 2023 / 6:30PM ET
📍Ontario > Toronto > Matt Cohen Park, Bloor & Spadina
Come together as a Jewish community to grieve and demand the Canadian government take action to prevent more deaths in Gaza. The framing is a communal sitting shiva, with lighting yahrzeit candles, saying kaddish, and leaving some banners/notes at Chrystia Freeland's office. The issues we will address are: mourning, demanding a ceasefire, and justice and freedom for all.
For: Everyone
Tags: ✊Social Justice, 🙏Religion & Spirituality, 🇮🇱Israel/🇵🇸Palestine
🤔Questions? aaron.g.rotenberg@gmail.comworkshop / class
Restorative Creativity (Miles Nadal JCC)
📆October 21, 2023 / 1-3PM ET
📍Ontario > Toronto > 750 Spadina Avenue
Shabbat is a great time to slow down and get closer to the world around you, to engage your senses and your sense of wonder by observing and processing our experiences through mark- and art-making. Using the Jewish Studio Process, we’ll gather in textual inquiry and art-making, ground ourselves with restorative creativity, let our minds wander with materials in hand, and nourish ourselves with deep play. Learn more / Register
For: Everyone
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? LaurenS@mnjcc.orgevent
Knobl un Honik Yiddish New Year Festival (Knobl un Honik Kollectiv)
📆October 22, 2023 / 1-6PM PT
📍British Columbia > Vancouver > Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture, 6184 Ash St.
This festival is inspired by the gorgeous rootedness of garlic heads growing deep in the earth, liberatory garlic cloves that add flavour and hominess to any dish, and the sticky sweet healing properties of honey, things we have shared over millenia that have always connected us across generations. We'll have films, music, Klezmer Kapelye, Yiddish dance, an interactive fermentation workshop, light refreshments, and a showcase of community art and projects. Learn more
For: Everyone, Yiddish Enthusiasts
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft, 🥳Social, 🎶Music, Yiddish
🤔Questions? sylviagreen@protonmail.comevent
🆕Split Screens Film Festival: Israeli Filmmakers Confront Colonialism (United Jewish People's Order)
📆October 22 & 29, November 5 & 12, 2023 / 2-5PM ET
📍Ontario > Toronto > OCAD University, 100 McCaul Street, room 190
This unique mini-festival will feature award-winning, provocative works by Israeli filmmakers, exploring multiple aspects of group denial and inaction in the face of chronic injustice. Each screening will include discussions and panels with activists and experts, exploring issues from the films. Learn more
For: Adults
Tags: 📚Education, ✊Social Justice, 🇮🇱Israel/🇵🇸Palestine, Film
🤔Questions? program@winchevskycentre.orgevent
🆕NAKBA: The Struggle to Decolonize Israel - Book Tour (Independent Jewish Voices)
📆October 23, 2023 / 7-9PM ET
📍Ontario > Hamilton > Workers Arts & Heritage Centre, 51 Stuart St.
📆October 24, 2023 / 7-9PM ET
📍Ontario > London > ReImagineCo, 206 Piccadilly St.
📆October 25, 2023 / 7-9PM ET
📍Ontario > Toronto > University of Toronto Anthropology boardroom (room 246), 19 Ursula Franklin St.
📆October 26, 2023 / 7-9PM CT
📍Manitoba > Winnipeg > First Unitarian Church of Winnipeg, 603 Wellington Crescent
📆October 28, 2023 / 7-9PM ET
📍Ontario > Ottawa > Churchill Seniors Centre, 345 Richmond Rd.
📆October 30, 2023 / 7-9PM ET
📍Quebec > Montreal > Cité-des-Hospitalières, 251 Ave des Pins
We are honored to be hosting Eitan Bronstein Aparicio and Eléonore Merza Bronstein for the launch of their new book Nakba: The Struggle to Decolonize Israel. The book explores the experience of Eitan, a leading voice for political change in Israel, and his journey from young Israeli kibbutznik and left-wing Zionist to radical anti-Zionist and co-founder of Israeli NGO Zochrot. What emerges is the hope that a new generation of Israelis will free themselves from a collective colonial identity and will conceive of a way of cohabiting legitimately, in a way that is fair for all. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: ✊Social Justice, 🇮🇱Israel/🇵🇸Palestine
🤔Questions? info@ijvcanada.orgcourse
Lishma Jewish Learning Project (Lishma Jewish Learning Project)
📆Starts October 25, 2023 / 7-9PM ET
📍Ontario > Toronto > 1700 Bathurst St.
Join us for meaningful learning and community building for folks in their 20s and 30s. Our fall semester offerings include:
- The Spirituality of Secular Music with Rabbi Ryan Leszner
- Women Haunted: Yiddish Literature From Folklore To Modernism with Julie Sharff
- If These Walls Could Talk: Archaeology As Source Material with Amit Rozenblum.
Learn more
For: Adults, Folks in their 20s/30s
Tags: 📚Education, 🥳Social, 🎶Music, 🙏Religion & Spirituality, Yiddish
🤔Questions? LaurenS@mnjcc.orgevent
🆕Israelism Film Screening and Q&A (Israelism)
📆October 30, 2023 / 7-10PM PT
📍British Columbia > Victoria > Vic Theatre, 808 Douglas St.
The Victoria premiere of Israelism, the award winning documentary on the quickly changing North American Jewish relationship to Israel. Featuring interviews with Noam Chomsky, Cornel West, Peter Beinart, Noura Erakat, Simone Zimmerman, Jeremy Ben-Ami, Abe Foxman, Sami Awad, and many others, Israelism primarily follows two young American Jews – Simone and Eitan – who are raised to defend the state of Israel at all costs. Eitan joins the Israeli military. Simone supports Israel on ‘the other battlefield:’ America’s college campuses. When they witness Israel’s mistreatment of the Palestinian people with their own eyes, they are horrified and heartbroken – the Jewish institutions that raised them not only lied, but built their Jewish identity around that lie. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: ✊Social Justice, 🇮🇱Israel/🇵🇸Palestineevent
🆕Tattoo guest spot in Montreal (Joey Ramona)
📆October 30 & 31, 2023
📍Quebec > Montreal > Tattoo Lounge Montréal, 3672 St. Laurent Blvd
2-day tattoo guest spot! Joey Ramona is a Jewish feminist tattoo artist who has gained recognition in recent years through social media and word of mouth. Joey explores Jewish iconography and experiences through designs with a queer/feminist twist. Learn more
For: Adults
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft
🤔Questions? Bookingsbyjoey@gmail.comevent
🆕Israelism Film Screening and Q&A (JSpace Canada)
📆November 1, 2023 / 7-10PM PT
📍British Columbia > Vancouver > VIFF VanCity Theatre, 1181 Seymour St
When two young American Jews raised to unconditionally love Israel witness the brutal way Israel treats Palestinians, their lives take sharp left turns. They join a movement of young American Jews battling the old guard to redefine Judaism’s relationship with Israel, revealing a deepening generational divide over modern Jewish identity.
Following the film, we'll have a Q&A with one of the film's creators. We encourage you to show up with an open mind, challenging questions, and a desire to engage. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: ✊Social Justice, 🇮🇱Israel/🇵🇸Palestine
🤔Questions? info@jspacecanada.cacourse
🆕The Jewish Heretic's Ritual Lab (The Winchevsky Centre)
📆starts November 4, 2023 / 2-4PM ET
📍Ontario > Toronto > TBD
Where do our Jewish holiday and life cycle rituals come from and how can we make them our own? What rituals do we need in our lives right now? And how can we create objects and language that will help us facilitate the experiences we need for hope, comfort, care, and solidarity? Carve out some Shabbat time to deepen into contemporary thinking and hands-on making on the value of ritual and the meaning of ritual objects. With humour and one raised eyebrow, we’ll unpack the layered histories of some of our most vital Jewish rituals from a decolonial perspective focused on social justice. We’ll look for new ways to express older rituals and we’ll look for old ways to create new rituals. The lab will empower you to make meaningful choices that resonate with your secular Jewish life today and even to lead rituals with your families and friends. Learn more
For: Adults
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft, 📚Education, 🥳Social, ✊Social Justice
🤔Questions? ed@winchevskycentre.orglecture
Dara Horn, "Dreams for Living Jews" (Beth David Synagogue)
📆November 6, 2023 / 7:30-9:30PM ET
📍Ontario > Toronto > 55 Yeomans Rd
Beth David Synagogue invites you to attend the Rabbi Philip S. Scheim Inaugural Lecture co-sponsored by the Sue and Stan Goldfarb Family Endowment featuring DARA HORN, acclaimed scholar, novelist and author of People Love Dead Jews. Dara Horn will address the topic "Dreams for Living Jews." Registration is recommended. Learn more / Register
For: Everyone
Tags: 📚Education, ✊Social Justice
🤔Questions? info@bethdavid.comevent
🆕Israelism Film Screening and Q&A (Independent Jewish Voices Hamilton)
📆December 6, 2023 / 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM Eastern
📍Ontario > Hamilton > 1014 King Street West
Award winning documentary on the quickly changing North American Jewish relationship to Israel. Featuring interviews with Noam Chomsky, Cornel West, Peter Beinart, Noura Erakat, Simone Zimmerman, Jeremy Ben-Ami, Abe Foxman, Sami Awad, and many others, Israelism primarily follows two young American Jews – Simone and Eitan – who are raised to defend the state of Israel at all costs. Film screening will be followed by a Q&A with the director and panel. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: ✊Social Justice, 🇮🇱Israel/🇵🇸Palestine
🤔Questions? hamilton@ijvcanada.org💻 virtual
course
🆕From the Shtetl to the Kettle: Ashkenazi Herbalism (Brunem Warshaw & Ayelet Hashachar)
📆starts October 15, 2023 / 1-3PM CT, 2-4PM ET, 11AM-1PM PT
💻virtual
Herbalists and educators Ayelet Hashachar and Brunem Warshaw are collaborating to offer a series of 4 online classes informed by Deatra Cohen and Adam Siegel’s book Ashkenazi Herbalism: Rediscovering the Herbal Traditions of Eastern European Jews (2021). We'll weave together the content of this important book with our shared grounding in anti-zionist politics and queer trans identity. We aim to support our community in deepening our collective knowledge and practice with our herbal tradition. This series will be both cerebral and experiential with a mixture of lecture, group discussion, and embodied practice with ancestral medicines. Learn more
For: Adults
Tags: 📚Education, 🥳Social, 🌿Nature, ✊Social Justice, ✨Wellness
🤔Questions? welldeepremedies@gmail.comworkshop / class
🆕Daily Meditation in Challenging Times (Or HaLev)
📆October 16-20, 2023 / 1:15-1:45PM ET, 10:15-10:45AM PT
💻virtual
We are in the midst of an immensely difficult time. Cultivating safety and love and support is how we all move through this with our humanity intact. Join the Or HaLev Community for a daily 30 minute virtual meditation Monday through Friday. Each day will have a different teacher. We’ll keep this going as long as we need. This is a free offering available to everyone. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: ✨Wellness, 🇮🇱Israel/🇵🇸Palestine
🤔Questions? carrie@orhalev.orgworkshop / class
🆕Jewish Studio Process: Daily Community Space (Jewish Studio Project)
📆October 16-20, 2023 / 9-9:30AM PT, 12-12:30PM ET
💻virtual
During this 30-minute, virtual session we will engage with the power of art making to process emotions during this time of crisis. Using a shortened version the Jewish Studio Process - a unique methodology combining practices from the field of art therapy with a reimagined approach to Jewish learning and spirituality - we will tap into the potential for connection, regulation, and healing that creativity can offer in the most difficult of times. This program is offered free of charge and will take place on Zoom with closed captions. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft, ✨Wellness
🤔Questions? info@jewishstudioproject.orgworkshop / class
🆕Calling on our width and depth: A virtual somatic practice space for anti-zionist Jews and friends (Dara Silverman, Jules Pashall, Jay Tzvia Helfand)
📆October 17, 2023 / 8-9PM ET, 5-6PM PT
💻virtual
We as anti-zionist Jews and friends know this time requires us to feel and to act. We call on the revolutionary lineages of somatics to ground us in our width and depth, as we meet the current political moment and root for the long haul. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: ✨Wellness, 🇮🇱Israel/🇵🇸Palestine
🤔Questions? darasilvermanus@gmail.comworkshop / class
Creative Rest with Mara June (Jewish Studio Project)
📆October 19, 2023 / 6-7:15PM ET, 3-4:15PM PT
💻virtual
Nourish your creativity to sustain yourself in the work of collective liberation. Come relax into reverie, replenish and unwind in Creative Rest with Mara June! Together we will explore grief as an organic, transformative, and creative process, which invites us to make home in the unknown together. We’ll start with a spiritual framing grounded in Torah from Rabbi Adina Allen before hearing from our guest presenter. Free and over Zoom with closed captions. Learn more / Register
For: Everyone
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft, ✊Social Justice, 🙏Religion & Spirituality, ✨Wellness
🤔Questions? info@jewishstudioproject.orglecture
Compiling the Next Trans Codex: Learning from the Writers of the Trans Halakha Project (Shel Maala & Trans Halakha Project)
📆October 19, 2023 / 8-9:30PM ET, 5-6:30PM PT
💻virtual
In March of 5783, the Trans Halakha Project released two groundbreaking projects: a series of Trans Teshuvot (Jewish legal responses), answering core questions of Jewish law for and about trans people; and Tefillat Trans, a book of blessings and rituals written by and for trans people. Join the Trans Halakha Project and Shel Maala for a shiur (lecture) series by the creators of these incredible new pieces of Torah, where we will dive deep into their works: Learn about their process, unearth their insights, reveal their questions, and ask your own. Brilliant Teshuva-writers and the editors of the Tefillat Trans will be on-hand to help you explore the world of trans halakha and tefilla, to give you the chance to bring them into your practice and life.
These are 9 standalone lectures happening once a week on Thursdays. Learn more / Register
For: Everyone, Queer & Trans Jews
Tags: 📚Education, ✊Social Justice, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? shelmaalayeshiva@gmail.comworkshop / class
Disability Justice as Spiritual Text (SVARA)
📆October 19, 2023 / 2:30-4PM ET, 11:30AM-1PM PT
💻virtual
Disability Justice as a Spiritual Text is a monthly workshop for people who identify as disabled or chronically ill to explore disability justice teachings as they intersect with our Jewish lives. We will gather to build a well of ‘svara’ around disability justice and spirituality by seeking the Torah — animating teachings — inherent in the work of a range of disability justice leaders, and bringing those teachings into conversation with our own experiences. Texts will be in English and from a variety of disabled writers and activists.
This Fall we are reading Let This Radicalize You by Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba! While this text is not explicitly about disability justice, we are intentionally bringing it into conversation with disability justice & Torah. Learn more
For: Jews who identify as disabled or chronically ill
Tags: 📚Education, ✊Social Justice, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions?course
The Sheydy Bunch: A Halloween Talmud Series on Amulets, Song & the Demons Next Door (Shel Maala)
📆starts October 22, 2023 / 2-4PM ET, 11AM-1PM PT
💻virtual
Olivia Devorah Tucker, our beloved superstar teacher of magical Jewish content, returns to Shel Maala with a story of what it was like to live alongside the sheydim (or “demons”) in Talmud times. This 5-week SVARA-style Talmud course will help you learn in xevruta to uncover the emotional stakes and practical advice needed to work with the Jewish Supernatural - just in time for Halloween. Along with deep text study, this is going to be a hands-on, artistic adventure. Creative interpretations (visual art, performance, poetry, amulets, etc.) based on our learning will be celebrated throughout the 5-weeks, culminating in a Sugya Show-and-Tell in the final week! Learn more / Register
For: Queer & Trans Jews
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft, 📚Education, 🙏Religion & Spirituality, Text Study
🤔Questions? shelmaalayeshiva@gmail.comcourse
🆕Dungeons & Dragons & Dreidels: Exploring Big Jewish Questions Through Roleplaying (Judaism Unbound)
📆starts November 5, 2023 / 2-4PM ET, 11AM-1PM PT
💻virtual
Dungeons and Dragons and Dreidels uses roleplaying games to explore the biggest questions and issues facing Judaism today. For this course, we'll be creating our own story with a colorful cast of characters and a location that sparks the imagination. Who they are, where they are, and what they do is up to you. Wanna play members of a JCC facing an alien invasion? Cool! Teachers at a fantastical yeshiva dealing with monsters and students? Awesome! Wanna put a Jewish spin on your favorite movie, TV show, or video game? Fantastic!
This course is open to all experience levels, from complete beginners who've never roleplayed before to veterans of the hobby. What matters most is your imagination, enthusiasm, and appreciation for the power of playing pretend. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 🥳Social, Games
🤔Questions? lex@judaismunbound.comcourse
🆕Drawing Close, Drawing Boundaries: Jewish Demons and Protective Ritual (Hebrew College Open Circle)
📆starts November 5, 2023 / 11:30AM - 1PM ET, 8:30-10AM PT
💻virtual
In this course, we will explore historical and contemporary Jewish understandings of the demonic, and ancestral practices of ritual protection. We will explore how social and cultural location – particularly gender, sexuality, class identity, and geographic location – inform how Jewish communities have imagined and interacted with the demonic. The class will incorporate texts from within and beyond the Jewish tradition – including queer and feminist theory, poetry, visual art, and secular literature. In addition to learning through text study and conversation, we will be engaging artistically. Throughout our 7 week class, through a supported process of creative and multi-modal inquiry, we will also be researching our own experience with, and relationship to both the demonic and ritual protection. Learn more
For: Everyone, including non-Jews
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft, 📚Education, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? sara.klugman@hebrewcollege.eduworkshop / class
How to Hold an Inclusive B'Mitzvah (LGBTQ+ at the J, Keshet)
📆November 7, 2023 / 7-8:30PM ET, 4-5:30PM PT
💻virtual
Wondering how to plan an inclusive b’mitzvah for a queer child in your life? Hoping to find ways to blend traditional and modern b’mitzvah practices to fit your family’s needs? Just curious about different kinds of b’mitzvah practices? Join LGBTQ+ at the J and Keshet for a workshop on inclusive b’mitzvahs from an LGBTQ+ lens. Learn more
For: Everyone, Queer & Trans Jews
Tags: 📚Education, 🌚Holiday Observance, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? emunahw@mnjcc.orgcourse
The Torah of Farming (Jewish Farmer Network)
📆starts November 7, 2023 / 7:30-9PM ET, 4:30-6PM PT
💻virtual
The Torah of Farming is an introduction to the foundational texts of Jewish agricultural wisdom, developed specifically by and for Jewish Farmers. Join us for a 7 week online educational journey through ancient, visionary Jewish agricultural wisdom! Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 📚Education, 🌿Nature, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? liel@jewishfarmernetwork.orgcourse
Midnight Radio - an Experimental Punk Song Writing Workshop Series (Feral Queen Apothecary)
📆starts November 8, 2023 / 4-6:30PM CT, 5-7:30PM ET, 2-4:30PM PT
💻virtual
A queer, feminist, Jewish, experimental + therapeutic take on punk song writing. Sessions will include a combo of checking in + getting to know each other; framing / inspiration / prompts; structured parallel play; and time for processing + optional sharing. This project honors the POC invention of punk, and a portion of proceeds will go to the band Fuck U Pay Us and to the Movement for Black Lives.
No singing, songwriting, or musical experience necessary. No prior familiarity with punk music necessary. Learn more / Register
For: Everyone -- centering femme folks, transwomen, transfemmes, AFAB nonbinary + agender folks, & cis women.
Tags: 🥳Social, ✊Social Justice, 🎶Music, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? feralqueenapothecary@gmail.comcourse
Becoming the Schlemiel: Investigating Yiddish Humor (The Clown School)
📆starts November 9, 2023 / 8-10:30PM ET, 5-7:30PM PT
💻virtual
Join us for a four-week class investigating the significance of foolishness and humor within Yiddish culture. We will examine works by Yiddish writers and storytellers, such as Sholem Aleichem, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Rabbi Nachman, identifying the different types of fool archetypes present in their work and what makes their writing, their work so inherently Jewish. We will also study the humorous dichotomy of the Schlemiel and the Schlimazel, exploring how these archetypes have shaped Jewish comedic expression. No exploration of Yiddish humor would be complete without an encounter with the Holy Fools of Chelm; we will meet and work with them, too. Learn more / Register
For: Everyone
Tags: 📚Education, Theatre, Yiddish
🤔Questions? danielle.levsky@gmail.comimmersion program
🆕The Taproot Immersion (Taproot)
📆starts November 26, 2023
💻virtual (with in-person elements)
The Taproot Immersion is mobilizing Jewish individuals as communal stewards of radical Jewish futures deeply rooted in ancestral wisdom. Our eight-month cohort program is an in-depth learning and healing experience designed for white-assimilated Jews who long for both a justice-oriented spiritual life and a spiritually-enlivened justice practice. Registration closes Oct. 23rd. Learn more
For: Ashkenazi Jews, White Jews
Tags: 🥳Social, ✊Social Justice, 🙏Religion & Spirituality, ✨Wellness
🤔Questions? taproot@commonweal.orgevent
🆕A Cabaret Fundraiser for the Queer / Lefty / Yiddish Future (Rad Yiddish & Queer Yiddish Camp)
📆December 3, 2023 / 2-4PM ET, 11AM-1PM PT
💻virtual
Join us for a cozy afternoon of live performances, poetry, comedy, and more to support Queer, Yiddish, Lefty community! This fundraiser is crucial to ensure the continuity of your two favourite sibling organizations: Rad Yiddish and Queer Yiddish Camp, to build our organizational capacities and to keep creating online and in-person spaces for our community to connect from around the world. CART live captions will be available. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft, 📚Education, 🥳Social, ✊Social Justice, 🎶Music
🤔Questions? radyiddish1@gmail.com🌎 retreats outside canada
Viva Nefesh: An Embodied Jewish Experience of Breath, Body, and Balance (Jewtina y Co. & Mitsui Collective)
📆November 26 - December 1, 2023
📍El Salvador > El Tunco > Balancé Yoga Retreat center
Join us for a truly one-of-a-kind Jewish exploration of place, community, and identity across the global Jewish diaspora through the context of five incredible days immersed in the unique beauty, culture, ecology, and history of El Salvador.
This unique program will center the multiracial, multiethnic, and multicultural experience of the global Jewish diaspora. With deep encounter of Central America as the backdrop, we'll guide you both in the exploration of the particular places and communities of El Salvador we'll visit, as well as through your own exploration of personal and ancestral lineage, rootedness, and connection. Along the way, we'll build community with our fellow sojourners as a micro-reflection of the many Jewish communities we are a part of building and sustaining back home, wherever home may be. Learn more
For: Adults
Tags: 🥳Social, 🙏Religion & Spirituality, ✨Wellness, Identity, Diaspora
🤔Questions? info@mitsuicollective.org🆕2023 Adamah Meditation Retreat (Adamah)
📆December 24-29, 2023
📍USA > Connecticut > Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, 116 Johnson Rd.
A week of silence, awareness, and insight. Slow down and explore life’s deepest truths in a warm and supportive Jewish environment with Rabbi Jay Michaelson, Miriam Eisenberger, Rabbi Shir Feit, and Bob Pileggi.
Our daily schedule includes several hours of sitting and walking meditation, soulful Jewish prayer (davennen’), interviews with teachers, and optional yoga. The retreat is held in warm, supportive silence, and we ask that you turn off your devices and refrain from communication during the five days of retreat. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 🙏Religion & Spirituality, ✨Wellness
🤔Questions? freedman@adamah.orgLegacy Trip Alabama: Jewish Edition with Kohenet Dr. Harriette E Wimms (Legacy Trips)
📆May 3-5, 2024
📍USA > Alabama > Montgomery
Together, we will face the truth of America's history of anti-Black racial terror and violence, self reflect on the ways each of us have upheld and perpetuated white supremacy in our lives, and embrace our ability to affect change and dismantle racism, first within ourselves, and then in our families and communities. Our purpose is to listen to and learn from Black leadership, utilize antiracism tools and resources to strategize ways to do less harm, be better co-conspirators to BIPOC and develop ways to move forward with mindful action toward collective liberation. Learn more
For: Everyone, Black Jews
Tags: 📚Education, 🥳Social, ✊Social Justice📢 announcements
🆕Dreaming the World to Come Hebrew Planner (Nomy Lamm & collaborators)
The 5784 Dreaming the World to Come planner is a tool for touching into ancient timekeeping while tracking emerging magical practices of connecting with the earth, the heavens, and the stories of our lives and dreams. This is the fourth year we have offered this planner, which combines Hebrew, Gregorian, and moon calendars along with monthly wisdom related to the seasons and holidays. Use it to track your dreams, plan daily tasks, record gratitudes, goals, and intentions, or start a Rosh Chodesh circle and use this as your guide. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft, 📚Education, 🥳Social, 🌿Nature, 🌚Holiday Observance, ✊Social Justice, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? elementalactivation@gmail.com🆕Daily Nechama Minyan (ALEPH Alliance for Jewish Renewal)
📆every night except Fridays / 9PM ET, 6PM PT
💻virtual
The Nechamah Minyan meets nightly, providing nechamah (comfort) beyond time and space. Serving to connect people across denominational lines; people who need a place to pray; to heal; to grieve; to experiment with different forms and modalities of prayer; the Nechamah Minyan is a container for the end of the day and to say kaddish. It has helped attendees relax into the night, soothe sleepless souls, and connect with one another. It is different every night - depending on who is leading — so come a few times to get an array of musical, liturgical, meditative, and poetic styles. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? rrayzel@shechinah.com🆕Apply to Perform at a Cabaret Fundraiser for a Queer/Lefty/Yiddish Future (Rad Yiddish & Queer Yiddish Camp)
📆by October 20, 2023
Lend your talents to help fund the Queer/Lefty/Yiddish future we all want by performing at the December 3rd RAD YIDDISH & QUEER YIDDISH CAMP Cabaret Fundraiser! If we have more interest than cabaret slots, we may not be able to accept everyone. We will be getting back to you by end of October. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft, 🥳Social, ✊Social Justice, 🎶Music, Yiddish
🤔Questions? radyiddish1@gmail.comSubmit to Niv magazine's winter issue! (Niv magazine)
📆until October 23, 2023
Niv magazine is currently accepting pieces or pitches (news, opinion, arts & culture, variety) for the upcoming Winter issue! Based in Toronto, Niv is an online quarterly magazine that focuses on Jewish culture and creative work. Submit by October 23 to be considered! Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft, Writing
🤔Questions? team.nivmag@gmail.comVerklempt! magazine submissions for issue ג on Seudah are open! (Verklempt! magazine / Havurah)
📆until December 15, 2023
It’s the dizzying aroma of chicken soup when you come back from shul on Friday night, it’s the taste of boiled potatoes dipped into salt water at your grandparents’ seder down in Boca, it’s the techina dripping down your thumb as you gorge down the best falafel of your life on the streets of Paris. Seudah — which loosely translates to meal/feast/dining — is what happens when the act of eating is elevated into something beyond mere consumption. As any good Jewish host knows, a Seudah is not just about the food — it’s also about everything surrounding the food.
We are seeking submissions (fiction, poetry, translation) that contemplate these ideas related to Seudah, with the care and nuance they necessitate. Submitters are encouraged to approach the theme from any angle they wish. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: Writing, Food
🤔Questions? verklempt@havurah.artyelling into a virtual megaphone 📣
while ringing a virtual bell 🔔
while unfurling a long parchment scroll 📜
— and sending love as i do it,
💖 vlada, AKA your shtetl crier