issue #008: our power
we know that together we are strong
i spent this past shabbes singing jewish liberation songs with about 50 other jews in a united church. we were learning how to lead song for movement-building, how to sing for ceasefire. it was beautiful and healing and a reminder of how powerful song can be. i find rena branson’s “our power” to be particularly inspiring (“we will not underestimate our power any longer”), and maybe it’ll feel that way for you, too. i’d love to hear what you’re singing or humming along to these days — please let me know in the comments.
we’re over 100 days into this horror now, and every day it feels like we sink further. just when it feels like it couldn’t get worse, it does. i have no words for the footage coming out of gaza. i recommend reading this recent Jewish Currents piece by Sarah Aziza on what it means to witness:
Our work as witnesses is to be marked; we should not leave it unscathed. We must make an effort to stay with what we see, allowing ourselves to be cut. This wound is essential.
some housekeeping
this newsletter post is “too long” for your email & will 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 progressive jews living outside toronto, please share this newsletter with them
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🇨🇦 canadian events
event
Bubie’s Tapes (Jon Hedderwick, presented by Public Energy)
📆starts January 17, 2024
📍Ontario > Peterborough > The Theatre on King, 171 King St.
While preparing a pot of matzo ball soup for his daughter, Jon Hedderwick recounts personal and family experiences from the Russian Revolution, through the Holocaust and beyond, as told by his Bubie Sarah in cassette tape recordings she left behind. Through these stories, Bubie’s Tapes reveals much about the history and ongoing impacts of antisemitism in Canada and around the world. The piece also explores the current rise in antisemitism alongside Islamophobia, and the ways that charges of antisemitism have been mobilized to forestall criticism of the State of Israel. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 🥳Social, ✊Social Justice, 🙏Religion & Spirituality, 🇮🇱Israel/🇵🇸Palestine, Food, Theatre
🤔Questions? admin@publicenergy.caevent
🆕Book Launch for Babyn Yar: History and Memory (Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies)
📆January 17, 2024 / 3-5PM ET
📍Ontario > Toronto > 100 Jackman Humanities Building, 170 St. George Street
Babyn Yar: History and Memory is a culmination of papers written by renowned scholars who have specialized in and/or researched the experiences of Babyn Yar in Ukraine during World War II. This new publication provides insights into the tragedy of Babyn Yar. Editor of the book Prof. Paul Magocsi will provide an in-depth presentation followed by an opportunity to ask questions. Learn more
For: Adults
Tags: 📚Education, Holocaust
🤔Questions? cjs.events@utoronto.caevent
🆕One Table Shabbat of Love (Kohenet Annie Matan at the Danforth Jewish Circle)
📆January 19, 2024 / 6:30-9:30PM ET
📍Ontario > Toronto > Danforth Jewish Circle, 310 Danforth Ave.
Come sit (or dance or lie down) in circle as we chant our way through the themes of Kabbalat Shabbat (e.g. slowing down, being present, being our authentic selves, delight) using a mix of familiar and new melodies, woven with kavanot (intentions) and opportunities for personal sharing. English translations and transliterations will be available for each Hebrew prayer and the chanting style involves lots of repetition to make it easy to catch on. No singing skill or experience necessary! Many prayers will be offered in feminine and gender-expansive Hebrew and translation. Dinner will be provided! Learn more
For: Adults
Tags: 🥳Social, 🌚Holiday Observance, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? contact@anniematan.comevent
🆕Israelism film screening (Independent Jewish Voices Calgary)
📆January 20, 2024 / 7-9PM MT
📍Alberta > Calgary > Bù Vintage Shoppe, 110 3 Ave SE
Join Justice for Palestinians Calgary and Independent Jewish Voices (Calgary Chapter) for a FREE screening of Israelism!
About the film: 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. Learn more
For: Adults
Tags: 📚Education, ✊Social Justice, 🇮🇱Israel/🇵🇸Palestine, Film
🤔Questions? calgary@ijvcanada.orgevent
🆕Procession for Palestine (Jews Say No to Genocide coalition)
📆January 23, 2024 / 8:30-10AM ET
📍Ontario > Toronto > Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park
Join us to bear witness and mourn the lives lost in Palestine. When the numbers of dead become as huge as they are, it can become hard to think of each person as an individual with fulsome lives, families, hopes, and dreams. Their humanity becomes further diminished by the vastness of this genocide. We refuse to forget that each death was not accidental. These were brutal and not natural deaths. The Israeli state’s genocidal intent is clear. And we refuse to let this obscure the human toll of it. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: ✊Social Justice, 🇮🇱Israel/🇵🇸Palestinecourse
🆕Hijaz: Tuning your Ear to the Middle Eastern of Jewish Music (Or Shalom)
📆starts January 23, 2024 / 7-9PM PT
📍British Columbia > Vancouver > Or Shalom, 710 East 10th Ave.
Join Charles Kaplan to explore this middle eastern musical mode, familiar to Jews all over the world. Called Hijaz in Sephardic and Mizrachi communities, Freygish in the Yiddish and Klezmer world, and Ahava Raba in Jewish prayer melody, it is a cultural Rosetta Stone! Come to listen, learn, and sing. With the help of a guitar to demonstrate the scale, and accompany us while we sing. We’ll also listen to a few magnificent recordings of songs that use the hijaz/ahava raba/freygish mode. After completing this class, participants will be able to recognize (and correctly sing!) melodies in this mode that they hear in the synagogue and at Jewish musical events. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 📚Education, 🎶Music
🤔Questions? programs@orshalom.caevent
🆕IJV Concordia General Meeting (IJV Concordia)
📆January 23, 2024 / 7-9PM ET
📍Quebec > Montreal > QPIRG Concordia, 2100 Guy Street (suite 205)
Independent Jewish Voices Concordia is hosting its first general meeting where we can all get to know each other and familiarize you with IJV as a broader organization. We're excited to meet you, enjoy some snacks, and delve into discussions about IJV Concordia's mission and goals. With your input, we'll collectively envision the current and future initiatives of IJV Concordia, exploring our role on campus. Learn more
For: Adults
Tags: 📚Education, ✊Social Justice, 🙏Religion & Spirituality, 🇮🇱Israel/🇵🇸Palestine
🤔Questions? ijvconu@gmail.comevent
🆕Queer Moms Nite Out! (The Museum of Jewish Montreal)
📆January 24, 2024 / 7:30-9:30PM ET
📍Quebec > Montreal > Museum of Jewish Montreal, 5220 boul. St-Laurent
Calling all queer moms for a night of snacking, drinking, wisdom from a queer Jewish parent, and semi-structured socializing. Organized by MJM microgrant recipient Talia Ralph, the Museum of Jewish Montreal is hosting a night for queer moms of all stripes to let their hair down, skip the small talk, and make a new friend (or four). On the eve of Tu-Bishvat, come plant some seedlings of a new community where we can be ourselves, together. Joined by special guest Rabbi Dini Lewittes, attendees will be invited to listen and share their experiences on being a queer parent, whatever that means to you. We'll talk about family, relationships, and perhaps get to know each other a little bit better. Learn more
For: Queer & Trans Jews
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft, 📚Education, 🥳Social, Parenting
🤔Questions? austin@imjm.caevent
A Very Fruity Tu B'Shvat (LGBTQ+ at the J)
📆January 25, 2024 / 7-9PM ET
📍Ontario > Toronto > Miles Nadal JCC, 750 Spadina Ave.
Celebrate the birthday of the trees with LGBTQ+ at the J! Jewish people around the world give their gratitude to plants and eat delicious fruit to welcome in the blossoming spring for Tu B'Shvat. We hope you'll join us to celebrate with your LGBTQ+ Jewish community, fruity snacks, and some holiday themed crafts. Learn more
For: Queer & Trans Jews
Tags: 🥳Social, 🌚Holiday Observance
🤔Questions? emunahw@mnjcc.orglecture
🆕Alma Heckman, Fascism and anti-Fascism: Jewish and Muslim Politics in Interwar Morocco (Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies)
📆January 29, 2024 / 4-6PM ET
📍Ontario > Toronto > 100 Jackman Humanities Building, 170 St. George Street
Interwar Morocco was home to a thriving anti-fascist political scene with intimate connections to France and Spain. Politically active Moroccan Jews and Muslims were found in the ranks of many different anti-fascist organizations, above all the International League Against Antisemitism, or the LICA after its French acronym (Ligue internationale contre l’antisémitisme). Through organizations like the LICA, Moroccan Jews and Muslims responded to rising fascism and antisemitism out of a sense of shared political values. Learn more
For: Adults, Moroccan Jews
Tags: 📚Education, ✊Social Justice,
🤔Questions? cjs.events@utoronto.cacourse
The Behemoth in the Wild: Compassion, Uncertainty, and the Quest for Meaning in the Book of Job (Lishma Jewish Learning Project)
📆starts January 31, 2024 / 7-9PM ET
📍Ontario > Toronto > 750 Spadina Ave.
This introductory course is intended for those seeking a foundational understanding of the biblical Job story, in which the phenomena and consequences of human suffering and uncertainty are explored at length. Drawing upon existential and archetypal modalities, course instructor Benjamin Hackman will seek to illuminate what the text has to teach us about cultivating acceptance to the unknown and to reconciling ourselves to existences in which bad things happen without discernible cause. Learn more
For: Adults (20s-30s)
Tags: 📚Education, 🥳Social, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? LaurenS@mnjcc.orgcourse
Revisiting Israel from the Dawn of Modernity to Our Time (Lishma Jewish Learning Project)
📆starts January 31, 2024 / 7-9PM ET
📍Ontario > Toronto > 750 Spadina Ave.
This course will explore some ways “Israel” has been understood in the modern world, by Jews and Christians from the sixteenth century to the twenty-first, and provide foundations for out-of-the-box thinking about the future of Israel/Palestine. Far from a comprehensive history, the course will offer a view into lesser-known approaches to “Israel” – the people, the concept and the place – that have played an undeniable role in shaping Jewish-Christian relations, messianic movements, Zionism, and Western understandings of the middle east. At the end of the course we will engage with a work of Palestinian history and its view of Israel, to consider the possibility that a more diverse understanding of “Israel” on our part may build bridges and provide connections that were initially harder to find. Learn more
For: Adults (20s & 30s)
Tags: 📚Education, 🥳Social, ✊Social Justice, 🙏Religion & Spirituality, 🇮🇱Israel/🇵🇸Palestine
🤔Questions? LaurenS@mnjcc.orgcourse
The Mitzvah of Pleasure: Embodied Sex and Relationship Education (Lishma Jewish Learning Project)
📆starts January 31, 2024 / 7-9PM ET
📍Ontario > Toronto > 750 Spadina Ave.
Grounded in the Jewish belief that pleasure is one of the core foundations to a healthy, fulfilling, spiritual life, this workshop series will provide the space for us to explore pleasure, both in theory and action, as it appears in our inter- and intra-personal lives. This course will be delivered through movement and body-awareness activities, poetry/text readings, self-reflection and group discussion, with the goals of increasing our mind/body connection, deepening our relationship to self, inviting more pleasure into our daily lives, and improving the health of our relationships. All activities will be accommodated for participants of any/all abilities (physical, emotional, etc.). Learn more
For: Adults (20s & 30s)
Tags: 📚Education, 🥳Social, ✨Wellness
🤔Questions? LaurenS@mnjcc.orgcourse
🆕Love at the Centre Chant Intensive (First Narayever Congregation)
📆starts February 3, 2024 / 4-6:30PM ET
📍Ontario > Toronto
It is time for us to place Love at the centre of our religious/spiritual practice and let the force of that love radiate out to penetrate every other aspect of our lives. Shir HaShirim is a hidden treasure that longs to be known. The Love of Shir HaShirim goes beyond the sentimental or romantic. This love is a force that connects the finite with the infinite, the known with the unknown mystery that lures us toward more expansive lives. This love reveals the beauty that is everywhere hidden in Nature, in relationships and in the depths of our hearts. This journey through The Song of Songs will be led by Alon Nashman, student of Rabbi Shefa Gold and chant leader at Narayever High Holidays. Email Alon to learn more: alon.nashman@gmail.com
For: Adults
Tags: 🎶Music, 🙏Religion & Spiritualityworkshop / class
🆕Listen & Be Heard (JQT Vancouver)
📆February 11, 2024 / 1-4PM PT
📍British Columbia > Vancouver > Or Shalom, 710 East 10th Ave.
Join your fellow Jewish queers, transfolk and enbys in an intentional space for sharing and listening to each other's perspectives on the Palestine/Israel conflict, including recent events in Gaza. Each person will be invited to share their experiences and views on a topic that can be difficult to discuss, and together we will open our hearts and listen to each other with presence and chasadim, loving kindness.
All perspectives are welcome. The goal of this gathering is to listen to each other instead of debate, and build our capacity as a community to create an intentional, supportive, safe, and healing space for our diverse voices to be heard. The session will be led by Alycia Fridkin, an experienced facilitator on equity issues and a member of the Vancouver queer Jewish community, and co-facilitated by Jewish therapist, Anat Kelerstein, who will be providing extra support to the group. Learn more
For: Queer & Trans Jews
Tags: ✨Wellness, 🇮🇱Israel/🇵🇸Palestine
🤔Questions? info@jqtvancouver.calecture series
Yiddish Radicals: Yiddish Literature and the Progressive Left (UJPO Winnipeg)
📆February 18 & March 3, 2024 / 10:30AM CT
📍Manitoba > Winnipeg > 825 Lanark St. OR virtual
UJPO Winnipeg invites you to take part in our Yiddish Lecture Series with Dr. Itay Zutra, and I. L. Peretz Folk School Yiddish Teaching Fellow.
This lecture series will feature Yiddish literature from late 19th Century Eastern-Europe to contemporary North-America. We will discuss various writers and literary texts examining the radicalization of Eastern European Yiddish speaking Jews and the complicated and innovative ways Jews on the left chose to reflect on their Jewish past and form a new progressive future.
Feb 18 - American Yiddish Proletarian Poetry from the Sweatshop to Proletpen
Mar 3 - Post-Radicals: Daniel Kahan and the Legacy of the Bund
Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 📚Education, ✊Social Justice, Yiddish
🤔Questions?course
🆕Adult Secular B'Mitzvah (United Jewish People's Order)
📆starts February 12, 2024 / 7-9PM ET
📍Ontario > Toronto
Did you miss the opportunity to have a B’mitzvah (bar/bat mitzvah)? Were you unable to have a B’mitzvah because of gender or were you misgendered at your B’mitzvah? Did you have a B’mitzvah but are seeking a different experience?
The UJPO/Morris Winchevsky School’s Adult Secular B’Mitzvah Program is a chance to cover big Jewish questions and some fundamentals of Jewish “ancestory”, history, and contemporary identity. Drawing on a set of Jewish texts from across the centuries and around the world, we will critically examine where “tradition” comes from and what it might mean to us in a secular Jewish context. Our curriculum explores Jewishness as a civilization of many diverse cultures and practices, and approaches our rich history & present from perspectives focused on social justice. We do not assume prior knowledge of Jewishness or Judaisms. Learn more
For: Adults
Tags: 📚Education, ✊Social Justice, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? info@ujpo.orgcourse
🆕Mathematics and Jewish Spirituality (Or Shalom)
📆starts February 13, 2024 / 7-9PM PT
📍British Columbia > Vancouver > Or Shalom, 710 East 10th Ave.
Many people have a mixed experience with mathematics, recognizing in it the potential for something fascinating and even spiritually meaningful, while also sometimes feeling judged or alienated by their school mathematics education. In this three-session course, we will find our way into a new relationship with mathematics through Jewish spirituality, both by learning about mathematical ideas within our spiritual tradition, and by using techniques of Jewish study and reflective practice to renew our own histories with mathematics.
All are welcome—in particular, all levels of experience and comfort with mathematics are welcome, from enthusiasts and experts to those who shudder at the memory of long division. Learn more
For: Adults
Tags: 📚Education, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? programs@orshalom.ca💻 virtual
event
🆕What's Happening in Gaza? (This is Not An Ulpan & Gisha)
📆January 16, 2024 / 12-1:30PM ET, 9-10:30AM PT
💻virtual
Join us in a discussion on the current humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, analyzing the impact of Israel's prolonged restrictions, recent military assault, impediments to aid operations, and the urgent need to stop continued atrocities. What is the situation in the Strip today, and how did we get here? What obstacles continue to obstruct the crucial operations of aid organizations in Gaza and block access to life-saving supplies? What has changed since October 7, and what needs to happen to prevent further atrocities? Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: ✊Social Justice, 🇮🇱Israel/🇵🇸Palestine
🤔Questions? notanulpan@gmail.comcourse
Hablando Torah: Hablando Torah: Conversations On God, Faith and Jewish Theology (Jewtina y Co.)
📆starts January 16, 2024 / 7-8:30PM ET, 4-5:30PM PT
💻virtual
We don’t talk much about God these days. For many, the word itself can be off putting. And yet, there is a palpable search and yearning for spirituality in our communities. Jewtina y Co. and Jewish Educator, Ruben Rais warmly invite you to a four-part learning series where we will attempt to revisit questions of God in Jewish thought. What do Jews believe in and how do we talk about the divine? What language and ideas in our ancient traditions resonate with us today?
Session 1 - Between Faith and Doubt - What Does It Mean to Believe?
Session 2 - How Do We Talk About God?
Session 3 - Dealing with Tragedy
Session 4 - Wrestling with God
Learn more
For: Latin Jews
Tags: 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions?course
Mishnah Unbound (Judaism Unbound)
📆starts January 16, 2024 / 8-9:30PM ET, 5-6:30PM PT
💻virtual
"Mishnah." It's a word that floats around a lot in Jewish spaces, but often without being defined. Maybe, at best, it is termed "the first part of the Talmud." This is...true. Sort-of? But it's also incorrect in a number of senses. And more than just being incorrect, there are ways in which this notion of the Mishnah -- where it is valuable only because it leads to a later text (the Gemara/Talmud) -- comes with many downsides. So we're gonna embody a different orientation to the Mishnah, through a participatory, interactive, 3-session class! Here, we'll treat the Mishnah not as a precursor to anything else, but as deeply wise on its own terms. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 📚Education, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? hello@judaismunbound.comcourse
Jewish and...Buddhist? Pagan? Christian? Can You Do That? (Judaism Unbound)
📆starts January 16, 2024 / 12-1:30PM ET, 9-10:30AM PT
💻virtual
Let's talk about the experiences of people practicing Judaism alongside another religion. Wait, what? Why? How? Actually, people all over the world are multiple religious practitioners. In Japan, historically people have observed both Shinto and Buddhist traditions. Across the Americas, people practice indigenous traditions, or African diasporic traditions, or both, alongside Christianity. How does this intersect with colonialism, other forms of non-binary or fluid identity, and intercultural or mixed race heritage? And, what are the benefits and challenges when one of your religions is Judaism? Join author Susan Katz Miller, the foremost expert on interfaith families practicing more than one religion, for a lively three-session conversation series on religious multiplicity. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 📚Education, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? hello@judaismunbound.com"\workshop / class
How to Hold an Inclusive B'Mitzvah (LGBTQ+ at the J)
📆January 17, 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? Simply curious about various kinds of b’mitzvah celebrations? You’ve come to the right place! Join LGBTQ+ at the J and Keshet for a workshop on inclusive b’mitzvah from an LGBTQ+ lens led by Rabbi Lonnie Kleinman. Learn more
For: Everyone, Queer & Trans Jews
Tags: 📚Education, 🌚Holiday Observance, 🙏Religion / Spirituality
🤔Questions? emunahw@mnjcc.orgworkshop / class
🆕Jewish Ancestral Healing Circle: G*d as Divine Source & Web of Life (Elah Zakarin)
📆January 18, 2024 / 1-2:30PM ET, 10-11:30AM PT
💻virtual
This monthly circle offers a blend of guided ritual, inquiry and group witnessing centered around a distinct Jewish theme each session. In characteristically Jewish style, we will not arrive at “answers,” so much as practice resting in paradox and question. Circles are held with reverence and an open heart, welcoming every part of us and creating a safe and sacred vessel for ritual practice, cultural healing and communal connection. People of all backgrounds, experiences and views are warmly welcome. No prior experience with Jewish tradition or ancestral healing needed. Learn more
For: Adults
Tags: 🥳Social, 🌿Nature, ✊Social Justice, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? elahzakarin@gmail.comworkshop / class
🆕Explore Tu b’Shvat (Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg & Rabbi Ariana Katz)
📆January 18, 2024 / 7:30-9PM ET, 4:30-6PM PT
💻virtual
Join us on January 18 for our first book event on Zoom! We’ll introduce our book FOR TIMES SUCH AS THESE, and get ready for Tu b’Shvat together, focusing on themes and rituals for the holiday (observed this year on January 24-25).
Tu b’Shvat, the New Year for the trees, calls us to be grateful for the earth and all that grows on it–in this year when we are witnessing unbearable violence in Palestine, we know that our Tu b’Shvat observance calls us to reflect on our relationships to land, and account for how we protect and nurture life. We’ll explore how Jewish rituals can strengthen us in our commitments and nourish us in our spiritual journeying and political organizing. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 📚Education, 🌿Nature, 🌚Holiday Observance, ✊Social Justice, 🙏Religion & Spirituality, 🇮🇱Israel/🇵🇸Palestinelecture
Two Tribes: The Story behind the Graphic Novel, with Emily Cohen (Yiddish Book Center)
📆January 18, 2024 / 7-8PM ET, 4-5PM PT
💻virtual
In her poignant debut graphic novel inspired by her own life, Emily Bowen Cohen embraces the complexity, meaning, and deep love that comes from being part of two vibrant tribes: she is both Jewish and a member of the Muscogee Nation. She spent her childhood in Okemah, OK, and her teen years in Montclair, NJ. Emily will share the story behind her new book. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: Jewish Identity, Race
🤔Questions? info@yiddishbookcenter.orglecture
Introduction to Demystifying Jewish Sacred Arts ~ A Virtual Salon (Pushcart Judaica & Aravah Berman-Mirkin)
📆January 18, 2024 / 8-9PM ET, 5-6PM PT
💻virtual
Join us for a virtual salon to learn more about the current industry of klaf (parchment) used for STaM (Sefer Torah, Tefillin and Mezuzot) and shofar production, and why we are invested in an alternative movement rooted in the diaspora for the creation of these sacred ritual objects. The salon will include an overview of the current status of the production of these judaica, special guest Yonathan Reches will share about his experience reverse engineering kosher vegan tefillin, include details about our upcoming retreat: L’Shem Kedushat: Demystifying Jewish Sacred Arts, and end with a Q+A. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft, 📚Education, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? info@pushcartjudaica.comcourse
Jews and Land Study Group - Season 1 (Jewish Farmer Network)
📆starts January 18, 2024 / 7:30-9PM ET, 4:30-6PM PT
💻virtual
The Jews and Land Study Group is a five-part weekly online gathering to explore a people’s-level history of Jews in relationship to land--from the creation myths of the Torah to the times of sovereignty in ancient Israel, from the diasporas to immigrant farmers in the US. Together we’ll explore books, articles, and other resources on these topics. We’ll learn how we can engage with historical and religious texts in a participatory way, uncovering what stories lie at the grassroots of the past and the truths that endure today. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 📚Education, 🌿Nature, ✊Social Justice
🤔Questions? liel@jewishfarmernetwork.orgevent
🆕Shabbat for Ceasefire (Rabbis for Ceasefire)
📆January 19 + 20, 2024
💻virtual
Our demand for an immediate, permanent ceasefire is a sacred calling. In answer to this call we turn to prayer, as did our ancestors throughout the millennia, to bind us together in holy community, and to hold the hope, grief and righteous indignation that fill our hearts at this time of moral crisis. Shabbat is a time out of time when we strengthen ourselves and each other through prayer and song to reenter the work of struggle.
All are invited to join Rabbis for Ceasefire weekend of Parshat Bo Shabbat services, Torah study and workshops offered by the now 240-plus Rabbis for Ceasefire. In this time of crisis, join Jews (and friends!) in the ceasefire movement to lift up our hearts in rage, grief, hope and connection. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 📚Education, 🌚Holiday Observance, 🙏Religion & Spirituality, ✨Wellness, 🇮🇱Israel/🇵🇸Palestineworkshop / class
Rooting into Tu Bishvat: An anti-Zionist ritual and learning space (Bear Roots Herbals)
📆January 21, 2024 / 1-2:15PM CT, 2-3:15PM ET, 11AM-12:15PM PT
💻virtual
This will be a space for anti-Zionist Jews, folks who would like to be in a Jewish learning space regardless of background, and folks unlearning or questioning Zionism who are seeking Jewish ritual practices. There will be an overview of the holiday of Tu Bishvat, the New Year of the Trees, its relationship to Kabbalistic teachings, a guided meditation, and some open discussion space about how to create a meaningful anti-Zionist ritual around this time. Learn more
For: Adults
Tags: 📚Education, 🌿Nature, 🙏Religion & Spirituality, 🇮🇱Israel/🇵🇸Palestine
🤔Questions? bearrootsherbals@gmail.comcourse
The Priests Eat At Midnight: A Sumptuous Dive into the World's First Mishna (Shel Maala)
📆starts January 21, 2024 / 2-4PM ET, 11AM-1PM PT
💻virtual
When the Rabbis compiled the Mishna, they weren’t just writing a book - they were creating a vehicle for diasporic survival and cultural transmission across all space and time. They were honing Judaism down to its DNA, putting it in a seed, and letting it loose in the wind. The teaching they chose to start this compendium, the first Mishna of Brachot (“blessings”) is an archetype of the work as a whole, and contains the radical drops that presage the revolutionary ocean to come.
Shel Maala’s Co-Rosh Yeshiva Binya Kóatz will be guiding us through the original text, rabbinic commentary and historical context to uncover the deeper meaning(s) of the first mishna, and the possibilities it contains. Five weeks, SVARA style, slow, deep, raunchy, gay and fun. Learn more
For: Queer & Trans Jews
Tags: 📚Education, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? shelmaalayeshiva@gmail.comworkshop / class
🆕Queer Yiddishist Shmueskrayz (Rad Yiddish + Queer Yiddish Camp)
📆January 22, 2024 / 8-9:30PM ET, 5-6:30PM PT
💻virtual
Queer Yiddishist Shmueskrayz is an informal conversation circle for 2SIAQTBLG+ & Questioning Yiddishists and Yiddish learners, with three self-selecting breakout rooms by Yiddish level (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced) and an English-speaking room in the main Zoom room. It's a chance to build rad Yiddish community, learn how to speak about issues we care about in Yiddish, and co-create contemporary Yiddish culture while improving (and improvising) our Yiddish. Learn more
For: Queer & Trans Jews
Tags: 🥳Social, Yiddish
🤔Questions? radyiddish1@gmail.comcourse
Adamah at Home Winter Series (Adamah)
📆starts January 22, 2024 / 8-9:30PM ET, 5-6:30PM PT
💻virtual
This is a 7-week course to build food skills and cultivate Jewish ecological wisdom in community. We will dig into content from the Adamah Farm Fellowship program where we have been cultivating the soil and the soul for the past twenty years. Over five hundred fellowship alumni have gone on to be earth-connected Rabbis, Jewish-connected farmers, food justice advocates, composters, healers, and everything in between.
Not everyone has the ability to join us on the land in Falls Village for the three-month residential fellowship, so we are offering the winter series to be accessed at home via the internet. Each session will blend the elements that we’ve found so transformative here on the farm – ritual, collaborative learning, and hands-on skills. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 📚Education, 🌿Nature, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? luna.manela@adamah.orgworkshop / class
Have You Made Art About It Yet? Tu B’Shvat Edition! (Jewish Studio Project & Dayenu)
📆January 25, 2024 / 12-1:30PM ET, 9-10:30AM PT
💻virtual
Explore the power of art making as a tool for personal and collective renewal with Rabbi Adina Allen! During Tu B’Shvat we take stock of our relationship to the earth, to the ecosystems that sustain us, to where we are as a species. We open our hearts to sit with our questions, our grief, our desire for change and ask: What may be possible that we can’t yet quite see? Using 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 feel into the grief of what has been lost, and tend to the wilds of our imagination to bring forth new visions of what yet might be. This session is offered In partnership with our friends at Dayenu: a Jewish Call to Climate Action. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft, 🌿Nature, 🌚Holiday Observance
🤔Questions? info@jewishstudioproject.orgevent
Tu B’Shvat Seder (Boston Workers Circle & Kavod)
📆January 28, 2024 / 2-4PM ET, 11AM-1PM PT
💻virtual option
Join us for a unique Tu B’Shvat seder, marking the “New Year for the Trees.” Readings, songs, and poems will reflect the origins of the seder adapted to progressive secular Jewish life in the 21st century. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 🌚Holiday Observance, ✊Social Justice
🤔Questions? info@circleboston.orglecture
Reading Ourselves Into History (SVARA)
📆January 28, 2024 / 7-8PM ET
💻virtual
How did we develop skills, language, and inspiration to see ourselves in traditions that were not clearly designed for us? What skills have we used in this process? What stories of tradition did we inherit and where did we create new stories? Featuring Rabbi Jill Hammer PhD, Joy Ladin, Shahannah McKinney Baldon, and Rabbi Benay Lappe
Part of SVARA's virtual conversation series that brings together Jewish thinkers, teachers, and learners to discuss how queer Jewish traditions continue to shape The Unrecognizable Jewish Future. Learn more
For: Everyone, Queer & Trans Jews
Tags: ✊Social Justice, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? ellik@svara.orgcourse
Ruach (Wendy Elisheva Somerson & Dona Hirschfield-White)
📆starts February 1, 2024 / 8:30-11PM ET, 5:30-8PM PT
💻virtual
Ruach means breath/spirit in Hebrew. Ruach is a Jewish body-based healing group for anti-Zionist Jews. In this group we will:
- Engage in body-based practices that build our understanding of ourselves, increase our sense of agency, and help us be more present and connected.
- Feel ourselves, each other, our ancestors, and spirit through our bodies.
- Connect with other anti-Zionist Jews through practice.
- Tell and honor our Jewish stories in an embodied way with ritual. Learn more
For: Anti-Zionist Adults
Tags: ✊Social Justice, 🙏Religion & Spirituality, 🇮🇱Israel/🇵🇸Palestine, ✨Wellness
🤔Questions? wsomerson@gmail.comcourse
🆕The Book of Worlds to Come (The Torah Studio)
📆starts February 4, 2024 / 5-8PM ET, 2-5PM PT
💻virtual
THE ONLY LANGUAGE-LEARNING GAME OF ITS KIND -- An immersive tabletop roleplaying adventure for learning Biblical and Rabbinic Hebrew. Designed and run by Lexi Kohanski, now in beta-testing.
Inspired by the high fantasy magic of Dungeons & Dragons and the collaborative liberatory storytelling of games like Dream Apart, Worlds To Come lets you harness the language of Torah and Talmud to imagine what it looks like to fight for a better world. Play as a group of spellcasters traveling Roman-occupied Judea/Palestine after the destruction of the Second Temple. Meet the peoples of the Land and help them as they reel from war and exile. Fulfill merit-generating mitzvahs, face the demonic consequences of sins, and use your newfound Hebrew knowledge to cast spells that will reshape your broken world. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 📚Education, 🥳Social, Hebrew, Games
🤔Questions? lexi@thetorahstudio.orgcourse
🆕In Our Strangeness: Exploring a Jewish Reckoning with Alienation (Sara Klugman and Risa Dunbar)
📆starts February 11, 2024 / 1-2:30PM ET, 10-11:30AM PT
💻virtual
How have Jews throughout history experienced and reckoned with alienation? How have Jews throughout history metabolized their own alienation? How might contemporary Jews aspire to experience, reckon with and metabolize a contemporary experience of alienation -- and what might be possible? As two rabbinical students and educators who fled Jerusalem for Europe during the War, and have since returned, we are motivated by the power of the lived experience of alienation – both personal and communal.
Through study and discussion, we will grapple with our core questions through multiple modalities. In addition to ancient and rabbinic texts, we will draw on philosophical texts, modern literature and poetry, visual art and media, and contemporary cultural critique. Our learning, too, will center our own reflections and personal narratives with the hope of helping us make meaning in relationship to these teachings and their wisdom. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft, 📚Education, 🥳Social, ✊Social Justice, 🙏Religion & Spirituality, ✨Wellness, 🇮🇱Israel/🇵🇸Palestine, Philosophy
🤔Questions? sara.klugman@gmail.com + risa.c.dunbar@gmail.comworkshop / class
🆕Creating with the Moon: Rosh Chodesh Adar (Jewish Studio Project)
📆February 11, 2024 / 1-2:30PM ET, 10-11:30AM PT
💻virtual
Nourish your creative spirit through art making! With Rabbi Bec Richman (for those of all genders!) Ground yourself in the power of the new moon! As the tiny crescent becomes visible in the night sky, Rosh Chodesh offers us an opportunity to refresh our dreams and desires. Together we’ll reweave ourselves into the cycle of Jewish time and nourish our creative spirit so that we might enter the month refreshed and renewed.
During this 90-minute, virtual session we’ll use the Jewish Studio Process, a unique methodology combining practices from the field of art therapy with a reimagined approach to Jewish learning, to cultivate our inherent creativity as a spiritual practice. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft, 🌚Holiday Observance, 🙏Religion & Spirituality, ✨Wellness
🤔Questions? info@jewishstudioproject.orgworkshop / class
🆕Explore Healing through the Jewish Yearcycle (Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg & Rabbi Ariana Katz)
📆February 11, 2024 / 5-6:30PM ET, 2-3:30PM PT
💻virtual
At least one of the layers of every multifaceted Jewish holiday is remembering, retelling, and embodying some part of Jewish collective memory and history. How did experiences of harm and violence, survival and resilience, shape Jewish holidays and the Jewish year? How can we, as ritual leaders interested in healing and resilience, work with the wisdom within each holiday to create experiences of sustenance and connection for diverse Jewish communities?
This workshop will focus on some of the tools and technology in the Jewish calendar that invite in healing to the months and our holiday observances, and invite us into considering how to call that healing into our own ritual practices. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 🌚Holiday Observance, 🙏Religion & Spirituality, ✨Wellness event
🆕Horizons Blossom, Borders Vanish: Anarchism and Yiddish Literature (YIVO)
📆February 12, 2024 / 1-2PM ET, 10-11AM PT
💻virtual
Spanning the last two centuries, Horizons Blossom, Borders Vanish: Anarchism and Yiddish Literature by Anna Elena Torres combines archival research on the radical press and close readings of Yiddish poetry to offer an original literary study of the Jewish anarchist movement. Torres examines Yiddish anarchist aesthetics from the nineteenth-century Russian proletarian immigrant poets through the modernist avant-gardes of Warsaw, Chicago, and London to contemporary antifascist composers. The book also traces Jewish anarchist strategies for negotiating surveillance, censorship, detention, and deportation, revealing the connection between Yiddish modernism and struggles for free speech, women’s bodily autonomy, and the transnational circulation of avant-garde literature. Join YIVO for a discussion with Torres about this new book, led by scholar Amelia Glaser. Learn more
For: Adults
Tags: 📚Education, ✊Social Justice, Yiddish
🤔Questions? info@yivo.orgworkshop / class
🆕Queering The Jewish Wedding (LGBTQ+ at the J)
📆February 13, 2024 / 7-8:30PM ET, 4-5:30PM PT
💻virtual
This event is the second in our Queer Jewish Lifecycle Events series. Wondering what you need to think about when planning a Queer Jewish wedding? Hoping to find ways to blend traditional and modern marriage practices to fit your needs? Attending a Queer Jewish wedding and curious about what you might encounter?
You’ve come to the right place! Join LGBTQ+ at the J and Toby King for a workshop on Queering the Jewish Wedding based on archival work during their time in the Queer Jewish Incubator. Toby conducted interviews with couples and clergy who have had, planned and officiated Queer-Jewish weddings and union ceremonies of all kinds and will offer their findings on this webinar. Learn more
For: Queer & Trans Jews, Everyone
Tags: 📚Education, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? emunahw@mnjcc.orgcourse
🆕SVARA Spring Zman (SVARA)
📆starts February 26, 2024
💻virtual
Join in for another unforgettable season of SVARA learning. Spring Zman runs from February 26th to April 18th and we can’t WAIT to get back to the bet midrash! Folks of all backgrounds and experience levels are welcome.
Course offerings include:
- Alef-Bet Basics
- Queer Talmud for Beginner's Mind
- Bet Midrash: All in One
- Bet Midrash: Chevruta Plus
- What Does Obligation Really Mean?
- Torah for the End (and Beginning) of the World
Learn more
For: Queer & Trans Jews
Tags: 📚Education, 🙏Religion & Spirituality, Hebrew, Text Study
🤔Questions?course
🆕From the Personal to the Political: Mizrahi & JSWANA Families' Migration Stories & Global Struggles for Justice (Mizrahi Left Project)
📆starts February 26, 2024 / 12-1:45PM ET
💻virtual
This workshop series is organized by a small group of Jews from across the US and Israel/Palestine interested in strengthening ties and solidarity among Mizrahi JSWANA Left and progressive movements, most especially the Palestinian freedom movement. We aim to deepen our understanding of the progressive values that are fundamentally intertwined with Mizrahi + JSWANA heritage/culture, and move into action. We will ground ourselves in our own family histories to better understand our way forward, combining cultural learning, community building, and changemaking. Learn more
For: Mizrahi Jews, SWANA (South West Asia North Africa) Jews
Tags: 📚Education, ✊Social Justice, 🇮🇱Israel/🇵🇸Palestine, Identitycourse
🆕Embodied Jewish Anti-Zionist Praxis: A Politicized Healing Group (Eliana Rubin)
📆starts March 8, 2024 / 12-1:30PM ET
💻virtual
The fight for Palestine is a fight for all of our aliveness. We cannot afford to be numb. The ongoing colonization of Palestine and current genocide we are witnessing can feel unbearably devastating. And yet, we must keep feeling so that we can keep fighting. As Jews, our trauma has been weaponized as a moral cover for genocide. We must keep feeling. We must keep resisting. We must keep transforming. Join this group to connect with our bodies in strengthening our resolve to organize for our collective liberation.
In this group we will:
- Disentangle from Zionist propaganda
- Root into anti-Zionist histories of resistance
- Explore inter-generational trauma
- Connect with queer, Jewish, and anti-fascist ancestors
- Workshop difficult conversations
- Debrief organizing experiences
- Tell stories as an embodied practice
- Create space for our collective grief
- Co-create a transformative environment through popular education and applied practice
Learn more
For: Adults
Tags: 📚Education, 🥳Social, ✊Social Justice, ✨Wellness, 🇮🇱Israel/🇵🇸Palestine
🤔Questions? eliana@sanctuaryembodied.org🌎 retreats outside canada
Legacy 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
fellowship
PUENTES Leadership & Resiliency Fellowship (Jewtina y Co.)
📆starts January 31, 2024
The PUENTES Leadership & Resiliency Fellowship provides participants with the opportunity to engage in a 10-month leadership and resiliency development program with other Latin-Jews. The experience includes in-person and virtual learning workshops and community gatherings, and aims to empower participants to spark change in their communities. Learn more
For: Latin-Jews
Tags: 🥳Social, ✊Social Justice, Leadership
🤔Questions? community@jewtina.organnouncement / request
🆕Jewish Herbalism at End of Life, Death, and Grief : Call for Submissions (A Collaboration of Jewish Herbalists)
📆Deadline February 15, 2024
This is a call for submissions of personal stories, anecdotes and recipes for using and connecting with plants during End of Life, Death, and Grief, to be made into a beautiful book. No story is insignificant, and what might seem small may hold immense power. Although much of our ancestral wisdom and connection to plants may have been severed over generations, it still grows and lives inside us, through impulses, feelings, yearnings, childhood experiences, we dig our hands and our souls deeply into the earth, searching. The plants bring us together. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 📚Education, 🌿Nature, 🙏Religion & Spirituality, ✨Wellness, Plant Medicine
🤔Questions? communitychevra@proton.meyelling 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