issue #010: crying out
and also hearing the cry
a couple weeks ago i traveled to california to attend a queer post-soviet jewish retreat i’d co-organized. the retreat was focused on our ancestral connection to samizdat — self-published, uncensored material (like modern-day zines!) popular in the soviet era and heavily criminalized. i keep thinking about vladimir bukovsky’s quote below about samizdat and reflecting on the dangers — and the absolute necessity — of expressing truth in this moment.
“I write it myself, I edit it myself, I censor it myself, I publish it myself, I distribute it myself, I sit in jail for it myself.” — vladimir bukovsky
what will happen to the generation of palestinians who survive this horror? each one of whom will have lost parents, siblings, children, friends… their homes, schools, hospitals, mosques destroyed, and their genocide celebrated. how will their intergenerational trauma manifest? what will they do with the pain and grief and anger?
“Prayer is me overhearing my neighbor. And by the way, my being overheard by my neighbor. So to the extent that my needs are in fact real, it makes me recognize that I can’t solve them without the response and the help of another. At the same time that I’m crying out, I’m also hearing the cry. […] The only icon of God in the world is the voice of the other person. If I’m really going to connect to God it requires that I hear the voice of the other.” — Rabbi Ira Stone
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
& lastly: help me get the word out about 🧿SHTETL CRIER! share this newsletter / tiktok / instagram reel / instagram post / facebook post
🇨🇦 canadian events
exhibit
We See Toronto: An Inclusive Viewpoint of OUR CITY (The Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre)
📆until February 29, 2024
📍Ontario > Toronto > 750 Spadina Ave.
The Disability/Visibility Photography Project is an arts-based program created for young adults, between the ages of 18-35, who identify with the lived experience of disability. These young and enthusiastic photographers show the viewer how they see your city, their city, OUR CITY! Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft
🤔Questions? deannad@mnjcc.orgevent
🆕Valentine’s Shabbat Chanting and Dinner (Kohenet Annie Matan)
📆February 16, 2024 / 6:30-10:30 PM ET
📍Ontario > Toronto > near St. Clair W station
We’ll bring in Shabbat with feminist, queer+, chanted prayers and intentions that can deepen our experiences of Shabbat, community and love in all its forms and then enjoy dinner and schmoozing (and maybe some more singing) together. Learn more
For: Adults, Queer & Trans Jews
Tags: 🥳Social, 🎶Music, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? floxyblu@gmail.comevent
🆕Downtown Jewish Teens' Skate Night + Havdalah (Makom)
📆February 17, 2024 / 7:30-9PM ET
📍Ontario > Toronto > 402 College Street
Have fun hanging out with new and old friends and skating at iconic Nathan Phillips Square, in front of City Hall and the Toronto sign. For high school students only! We'll start with havdalah, the short & sweet ceremony for ending Shabbat, led by teens. Then we'll skate together.
All Jewish teens in high school are welcome, including LGBTQ+ and interfaith-family teens! Learn more
For: Youth
Tags: 🥳Social, 🙏Religion & Spirituality, ✨Wellness
🤔Questions? info@makomto.orgworkshop / class
🆕Soul Candles: Ancestral Practice and Candle Crafting (Museum of Jewish Montreal)
📆February 18, 2024 / 2-4PM ET
📍Quebec > Montreal > Museum of Jewish Montreal, 5220 St-Laurent Blvd
Join us for a candle-making workshop that explores participatory ritual, tradition, and ancestral connection. Facilitated by artist Sof Kreidstein, this creative workshop is focused on the old Ashkenazi custom of making soul candles out of beeswax. This centuries-old practice, called feldmestn (Yiddish) was carried out by women in Eastern Europe who would measure the graves of their ancestors with wick thread, making candles as a connective channel between the dead and the living.
During the workshop, guests will learn all about this ancestral practice, and will be invited to engage in open discussion about themes related to ancestral connection. Guests will also be encouraged to consider the thematic overlaps between this workshop and our ongoing exhibition, BACK RIVER by Sonia Bazar, which contemplates loss and memory in the context of Montreal’s Back River Cemetery. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft, 📚Education, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? info@imjm.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?event
🆕Jewish& Hamentaschen Swap Shabbat (Jewish& at the Miles Nadal JCC)
📆February 23, 2024 / 6:30-9PM ET
📍Ontario > Toronto > Miles Nadal JCC, 750 Spadina Ave
Just when we really need some extra joy (though don't we always), the Jewish calendar gifts us a leap year, with not one but TWO months of Adar, the happiest time of the year. Join us for a delicious vegan Shabbat dinner in celebration of Purim Katan and stay for a hamantaschen swap, sure to delight and inspire you for the Purim season ahead.
For those in or of mixed heritage/interfaith/multicultural/etc identity or experience, and allies. Learn more
For: People in/of mixed heritage/interfaith/multicultural identity or experience, & allies
Tags: 🌚Holiday Observance, 🙏Religion & Spirituality, 🥳Social
🤔Questions? LaurenS@mnjcc.orgevent
🆕Mount Pleasant Single Mingle (YVR Yenta)
📆February 24, 2024 / 7-9:30PM PT
📍British Columbia > Vancouver > The Well, 2111 Main St, Suite 227
YVR Yenta - your modern matchmaking collective - will be hosting our third single mingle event filled with fun, games and opportunities for meaningful discussion. We hope to facilitate community members meeting one another and connecting - maybe you will make some new friends or maybe someone special will catch your eye.
The event will include different stations set up to help you meet new people including: sexy madlibs, swoon cards discussion game table, Yenta matchmaker intake and a DIY photobooth & polaroid station! Learn more
For: Adults, Queer & Trans Jews
Tags: 🥳Social
🤔Questions? madison.slobin@gmail.comworkshop / class
🆕JQT Dying & Death (JQT Vancouver)
📆February 25, 2024 / 1-3PM PT
📍British Columbia > Vancouver > Celebration Hall, Mountain View Cemetery OR virtual
Join us for a townhall conversation on the status of Jewish queer trans dying and death services in BC. This is an opportunity to explore commonality and find ways to fill gaps. Come to learn, bring your questions and voice your ideas. This hybrid event (in-person and virtual attendance) will be hosted by the JQT Seniors Initiative, and everyone is welcome, including those who are involved with Chevrah Kadisha (Jewish burial societies), synagogues, care and end-of-life services, funerals and burials. The goal of this community gathering is to provide a platform for the JQT community to find out what is and is not yet possible in BC in 2024, and to build bridges between various groups that are working towards making dying and death more inclusive for our community at large. We invite these groups to give a quick presentation to inform our community. Learn more
For: Queer & Trans Jews
Tags: 🥳Social, 🙏Religion & Spirituality, ✨Wellness
🤔Questions? info@jqtvancouver.cacourse
Adult Secular B'Mitzvah (United Jewish People's Order)
📆starts February 26, 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.orgworkshop / class
🆕Doikayt, On Being Here and Loving It: A Writing Workshop (Museum of Jewish Montreal)
📆February 28, 2024 / 7-9PM ET
📍Quebec > Montreal > Museum of Jewish Montreal, 5220 St-Laurent Blvd
Not tired yet of the back-and-forth thinking about what it means to be Jewish? Looking for connections with other “not Jewish enough,” “Jew-ish,” or “WIP” Jews? Well, this writing workshop might be just what you need.
Facilitated by Karl Ponthieux Stern, one of the Museum of Jewish Montreal’s (MJM) microgrant recipients, Doikayt, on being here and loving it is an interactive writing workshop dedicated to the complexities of navigating diasporic Jewishness. Meaning “hereness” or “diasporism,” the Yiddish term doikayt refers to how Jewish communities are strengthened wherever they may be. Centred upon creating a community around the idea of “hereness” and sharing our experiences on Jewish Montreal, participants will discover Karl´s zine, and will be invited to participate in writing activities. The workshop will include some time to share our writing and/or experiences. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft, 🥳Social, Writing, Diaspora
🤔Questions? info@imjm.calecture
🆕STEPS Public Art – Transforming our Neighbourhoods and Community (Miles Nadal JCC & Wagner-Green Centre for Access & Inclusion)
📆February 29, 2024 / 1-3PM ET
📍Ontario > Toronto > Miles Nadal JCC, 750 Spadina Ave OR virtual
STEPS Public Art transforms our urban spaces, fostering inclusive communities through vibrant, engaging and accessible public art projects. Learn about the importance of public art, how it supports local artists, increases public space accessibility, and transforms neighbourhoods through murals, installations, and special projects like the Accessible Art and Placemaking Project. For those attending in person, we will host an accessibility needs discussion over refreshments. This multi-access program - open and accessible to all - is presented as part of Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance, and Inclusion Month (JDAIM). Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft
🤔Questions? lisar@mnjcc.orgperformance
🆕The First Jew in Canada: A Trans Tale (Miles Nadal JCC, Ontario Jewish Archives, S. Bear Bergman)
📆March 31, 2024 / 7-7:55PM ET
📍Ontario > Toronto > Al Green Theatre, 750 Spadina Ave.
In 1738, a young transgender man named Jacques LaFargue set off from France to what is now Quebec City, determined to make for himself a new life. The First Jew In Canada: A Trans Tale is his largely untold story, embroidered onto the bones of nine verifiable facts about his life and existence, and interwoven with the modern experience of a trans and Jewish immigrant to Canada three hundred years later. A thrilling and illuminating tale, The First Jew In Canada takes its audience on a stubbornly Jewish journey of optimism, faith, and joy - including the joy and affirmation of finding an ancestor you never knew you had. Learn more
For: Youth, Adults, Queer & Trans Jews
Tags: 🌚Holiday Observance, ✊Social Justice, Theatre
🤔Questions? emunahw@mnjcc.org💻 virtual
workshop / class
Have You Made Art About It Yet? Love Edition! (Jewish Studio Project)
📆February 15, 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! We need more people in love! Not in love as in a romantic, gushy kind of love, but love as in it lights you up, it sparks your senses and softens your heart, it permeates your being and taps you into the beating heart of the world. These cozy winter months are a time to explore the soft and tender places in our heart and open our capacity to love. 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 draw on the power of creativity to reconnect us that which we love so that love may be the ground from which all of what we do comes and towards which all of what we do flows. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft, ✨Wellness
🤔Questions? info@jewishstudioproject.orgevent
🆕Queer, Anti-Zionist, Interfaith Shabbat (Making Mensches)
📆February 16, 2024 / 7-8:30PM ET, 4-5:30PM PT
💻virtual
This is a space for anti-zionist community to come together and share ritual space. We will share some shabbat prayers and protest songs together.
We welcome anyone who wants to join us in ritual and community. This space centers anti-zionist and queer folks. It welcomes folks from all faiths who wish to observe Jewish tradition and ritual with us. If you are not queer, feel free to join us as long as you’re respectful of the fact that this is a queer normative space.
Please don’t join us if you’re a zionist - we want to hold our grief together as people who explicitly oppose genocide. Learn more
For: Everyone, Queer & Trans Jews, Anti-Zionist Jews
Tags: 🌚Holiday Observance, ✊Social Justice, 🙏Religion & Spirituality, 🇮🇱Israel/🇵🇸Palestine
🤔Questions? makingmensches@gmail.comworkshop / class
The Crisis in Gaza: Navigating Difficult Conversations (Science and Nonduality)
📆February 16, 2024 / 12-1:30PM ET, 9-10:30AM PT
💻virtual
A Q&A with Dr. Gabor Maté & Daniel Maté
No statement, no words can speak to the immense suffering, devastation and horrendous humanitarian crisis intensifying in the Middle East. The current tragedy awakens existential fear, acute grief and deep despair. It also creates a rift among friends and families. Many are in a state of deep shock and in need of support, and the obstacles to communicating with loved ones only intensify the anguish.
In this Q&A session, Dr. Gabor Maté and his son Daniel will discuss ways to listen and communicate across different perspectives and narratives. They will draw on their personal experiences and professional perspectives to help us foster a compassionate dialogue, even when grappling with divisive narratives, intergenerational trauma and incapacity to face hard facts. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: ✨Wellness, 🇮🇱Israel/🇵🇸Palestineconference
🆕Farbindungen Yiddish Studies Conference 2024: Shtumer Alef (Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Program in Jewish Studies)
📆February 18-19, 2024
💻virtual
Shtumer alef: Beginnings, Silences, Partnerships / שטומער אַלף׃ אָנהײבן, שװײַגענישן ,שותּפֿותן
Join us as we look towards the futures of Yiddish and Yiddish Studies through showcasing the work of graduate students and early career scholars. Please note that registration is open to all: students, faculty, administrators, independent scholars, community activists, and community members are all welcome to attend. Learn more
For: Adults
Tags: 📚Education, Yiddish
🤔Questions? farbindungen@gmail.comworkshop / class
🆕Monthly Disabled Jewish Farmers Call: Zine Making! (Jewish Farmer Network)
📆February 18, 2024 / 3-4:30PM ET, 12-1:30PM PT
💻virtual
Calling all Disabled Jewish Farmers! We'd love for you to join our community of disabled (or crip, Deaf***, mad, mentally ill, neurodivergent, chronic pain, chronically ill, etc) folks to gush and kvell at our magic while sharing what it’s like to be a farmer (or to *want* to be a farmer) as disabled people—the woes, frustrations, victories, and connections we have with the land. We gather monthly with rotating facilitators and would love for you to join our next call! 🌸 Learn more
For: Disabled Jews
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft, 🥳Social, 🌿Nature, ✨Wellness
🤔Questions? liel@jewishfarmernetwork.orgworkshop / class
🆕Jewish Plant Traditions for Birth (bibi and ni)
📆February 18, 2024 / 2:30-4PM ET, 11:30AM - 1PM PT
💻virtual
Explore the rich array of customs and plant teachings connected with fertility and birth from across the Jewish diaspora. In this class, we will explore Jewish folk practices such as birth amulets, plant-based birth ceremonies, and communal care for expecting parents. We also will delve into the Jewish tradition of invoking the power of trees to enhance fertility, and learn about plant preparations associated with fertility and birth in Jewish folk healing traditions - from baking almond cakes to sewing amulets of salt into pockets to burning myrrh, and more. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 🌿Nature, 🙏Religion & Spirituality, ✨Wellness
🤔Questions? nspector@bibiandni.comcourse
Fire & Rain: Magical and Mythic Jewish Ecologies for Climate Crises (Judaism Unbound)
📆starts February 19, 2024 / 3-4:30PM ET, 12-1:30PM PT
💻virtual
In our current ecological crisis, wildfires & drought are no longer far-fetched biblical plagues, but an ever encroaching reality. What resources does the Jewish ecological imagination offer us to build new relationships to rain and fire? In the various climates Jews have lived in throughout the diaspora, how have they combined technology, ritual, and magic to increase irrigation and avert wildfires?
This course maps the ways that Jews engaged with the dangers of fire and the scarcities of water, both through action and creating animate ways of viewing water & fire. We'll encounter unknown histories of Jewish firefighting, myths of rain as an erotic ecological event, the evolution of theories of irrigation, the cosmology of water rituals in the Second Temple, salamander & challah fire-magic, angels of fire and ice, and explore why Jews in early-modern Ashkenaz were sought out by their Christian neighbors to use fire amulets to help extinguish urban wildfires. These various chapters in the history of Jewish ecology offer us animate ways of viewing our entanglements with water & fire and can help motivate new models of ecological solidarity and revolution. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 📚Education, 🌿Nature, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? hello@judaismunbound.comworkshop / class
🆕Radical Yiddish Poetry with Anita Norich! (Rad Yiddish)
📆February 20, 2024 / 7-8:30PM ET, 4-5:30PM PT
💻virtual
Dr. Anita Norich will lead a leyenkrayz (reading circle), focusing on the poem "Salute" by Moyshe Leyb Halpern and "Good Night, World" by Yankev Glatshteyn. We will discuss "Salute" in relation to Black History/Liberation Month.
CART captioning is available. The discussion will be mainly in English and reading aloud of Yiddish poems will be CART captured in transliteration. All Yiddish content is presented on screen in Yiddish, Yiddish transliteration, and English translation. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 📚Education, ✊Social Justice, Yiddish, Black History/Liberation Month, Poetry
🤔Questions? radyiddish1@gmail.comcourse
🆕Beginners Yiddish (The Learning Co-op)
📆starts February 21, 2024
💻virtual
A new term of small group, queer-inclusive, pay-what-you-can-afford, anti-zionist Yiddish classes!
Supportive beginners classes for anyone who would like to explore Yiddish and connect to the cultural treasures that learning the language can unlock. Whether you are interested in Yiddish as the language of struggle, folklore, literature or your own family, this is a great place to start. Other levels and 1-on-1 tuition also available. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 📚Education, Yiddish
🤔Questions? estherorama@gmail.comcourse
Jubilees: A Gateway into Jewish Apocrypha (Judaism Unbound)
📆starts February 21, 2024 / 8-9:30PM ET, 5-6:30PM PT
💻virtual
Over 2100 years ago, somebody looked at the book of Genesis. Their main takeaway? “This is an okay book. Maybe a 7 out of 10. But it could really use some edits if I'm being honest.” So they channeled all their chutzpah, and went ahead with tweaking it! They rewrote the book of Genesis -- keeping much of it the same but shifting many details, adding new characters, and orienting the whole thing around cycles of 49 years (called “Jubilees”).
In this interactive class, we'll journey our way through all 50 chapters of Jubilees, compare and contrast it with the book of Genesis (also 50 chapters!), and consider how books left out of our traditional canon nevertheless can help us envision our Jewish past, present, and future through more expansive lenses. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 📚Education, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? hello@judaismunbound.comcourse
Re-imagining Biblical Animals: Beyond the Talking Donkey (Judaism Unbound)
📆starts February 21, 2024 / 1-2:30PM ET, 10-11:30AM PT
💻virtual
Animals are part of the landscape of human life. So, as the Tanakh describes human life, it tells many stories about animals, too. Snakes and ravens share meals with people. Donkeys and sheep work alongside us. Eagles and lions inspire us; locusts warn us. How should we read their stories? What can they teach us about ecology, spirituality, and ethics?
Together we will look at Torah texts with fresh eyes. We'll discover the writers' respect for their fellow creatures. And we might even notice their sense of humour! As we read selected texts, we'll draw on personal experience, biology, Kabbalah, midrash, Indigenous wisdom, and appreciation for the artistic skill of Biblical writers. As we study, we'll combine discussion with lecture. We will draw on, but also go beyond, the teacher's book *Mouth of the Donkey: Re-imagining Biblical Animals.* The Sefaria website will be our source for biblical texts, but feel free to bring your favorite edition or translation. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 📚Education, 🌿Nature, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? hello@judaismunbound.comworkshop / class
🆕Torah Comix: The Workshop (The Torah Studio and Rena Yehuda Newman)
📆February 22, 2024 / 8-9:30PM ET, 5-6:30PM PT
💻virtual
Rena Yehuda Newman (They/Them), Jewish comix artist and zine maker, invites us into Torah in a whole new way through Jewish comix art practices. No drawing or writing experience required for this workshop. Get your Jewish creative juices flowing! Learn more
For: Adults
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft, 📚Education, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? Lexi@thetorahstudio.orgcourse
Fractals in Jewish Time (Judaism Unbound)
📆starts February 22, 2024 / 3:30-5PM ET, 12:30-2PM PT
💻virtual
Jewish time invites us to move in cycles within cycles, with deep imprints of fractal time. Across time and space, Jewish tradition marks time in various ways through mindful awareness, blessing and ritual, making meaning and beauty and, ultimately, uplifting the very holiness of the moment.
Join Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife for a creative exploration of time and ritual, bringing together the Jewish Studio Process with opportunities to examine our relationships to time and ritual. Each week, we’ll delve into a different Jewish ritual, considering both its origin and resonant modern application, and tying it to an aspect of time. By journeying together in this way, we’ll steep in deep time, engage embodied ritual, and reclaim creativity as a sacred act. This class is for those who love to make art or ritual magic, and those who yearn to wonder at the intersection of time and space. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft, 📚Education, 🙏Religion & Spirituality, ✨Wellness
🤔Questions? hello@judaismunbound.comcourse
Judaism In-Bound: An Introduction to Judaism for Everyone (Judaism Unbound)
📆starts February 22, 2024 / 7-8:30PM ET, 4-5:30PM PT
💻virtual
Take a deep dive into Judaism's core ideas, texts, and practices. In this class, explore what being Jewish has looked like in the past and scout ahead for what it could look like in the future. Judaism In-bound is a perfect course for those considering conversion, in multi-faith relationships, seeking to unlearn/relearn a new framing around Judaism, or just curious about Judaism.
This class is built around the notion that Judaism is constantly changing and is currently in a period of especially radical change. We believe that there is no singular way to teach “what Jews believe” or “what Jews do,” as Judaism and Jews are constantly evolving. Even more, it isn’t entirely clear how best to introduce people to something that may look very different before too long. As such, this class is a lecture series, a study club, and a spiritual laboratory; a class designed both to teach and to challenge mainstream Judaism. Learn more
For: Everyone, People Considering Conversion, People In Interfaith Relationships
Tags: 📚Education, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? hello@judaismunbound.comworkshop / class
🆕Jewish Witches Online Circle (Temple of the Stranger)
📆February 25, 2024 / 3:45-5PM ET, 12:45-2PM PT
💻virtual
Join Rabbi Jericho Vincent of Temple of the Stranger and Kohenet Or Har-Gil for this monthly circle, to explore the legacy, gifts, and practices of Jewish witches. Welcoming folks of all genders & backgrounds. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 📚Education, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? or.hargil@gmail.comcourse
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, 9-10:45AM PT
💻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
Psychics and the Occult in Modern Jewish Culture (YIVO)
📆starts March 3, 2024 / 11AM-12:30PM ET, 8-9:30AM PT
💻virtual
Many Jews in the early-twentieth century had a deep interest in the occult, both as practitioners and as patrons. Modern occultism emerged in the mid-nineteenth century as a loose collection of beliefs and practices concerned with hidden dimensions of reality, which were often articulated in scientific language. Jews held séances and consulted with psychics, analyzed their horoscopes and explored hidden powers of the mind. Jewish occultism flourished in a time of increasing modernization and often functioned as a spiritual bridge that linked the metaphysical unknown with an increasingly secular urban reality.
This course looks at Jewish engagement with modern occultism with a focus on eastern European Jewry and its diaspora. We will utilize primary, secondary, and digital sources to explore the social changes that led Jews in the early-twentieth century to engage with occult practices and beliefs; the role of the Yiddish press in the popularization of occultism; the Jewish psychics of Warsaw and New York City; Jewish participation in the spiritualist movement; representations of occultism in modern Yiddish literature; and rabbinic responses to Jewish occultism. We will end the semester with a discussion of the continued relevance of occultism and other alternative spiritualities in contemporary Jewish culture. Learn more
For: Adults
Tags: 📚Education, 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? info@yivo.orgcourse
🆕JeLiThIn’s OWNN the Text Groups (Jewish Liberation Theology Institute)
📆starts March 5, 2024 / 7:30-9PM ET, 4:30-6PM PT
💻virtual
I have put together a series to draw inspiration from the resistance to genocide of our ancestors: the Spring round of JeLiThIn’s OWNN the Text Groups will be looking at the midwives, Pharaoh’s daughter, and the mother, sister, and wife of Moses, who directly defied the edicts of the Empire, and did whatever was necessary to save lives.
We will meet via Zoom once a week for seven weeks. We will reflect on the themes of Women as Rescuers and Redeemers in the Book of Exodus from radical and feminist perspectives. We will draw on feminist traditions within Judaism to challenge the patriarchy embedded in tradition.
We will have bi-weekly reading assignments and bi-weekly writing assignments. Through sharing our beliefs, values, and needs with others, we are able to build a sense of community and belonging. Learn more
For: Adults
Tags: 🙏Religion & Spirituality
🤔Questions? info@jelithin.cacourse
Embodied Jewish Anti-Zionist Praxis: A Politicized Healing Group (Eliana Rubin)
📆starts March 8, 2024 / 12-1:30PM ET, 9-10:30AM PT
💻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.orgcourse
🆕Let Justice Well Up Torah Study Series for Jewish Women of Color (Erica Riddick and Mayyim Hayyim)
📆next one March 13, 2024 / 5-6:30PM ET, 2-3:30PM PT
💻virtual
This is for nonbinary & women Jews of Color. Let’s study together! Register for a justice-focused creative process text study experience with non-binary and women of color. We will look at Torah text alongside secular sources, tap into the Jewish Studio Process creative practice, and weave wisdom from our intersectional identities in ways that bring us to Torah and Torah to us. These interactive sessions approach text study with the belief that our lived experiences prepare us for study and we don’t need any special preparation. Each monthly session is designed for learners of all backgrounds and can be taken individually or as a series.
Session topics include:
• 3/13 Waters of Ritual: Intersectional Jewish Ritual for Modern Times
• 4/10 Bilhah & Zilpah in Modern Times: Ancient Womanist Wisdom for Justice
• 5/8 Waters of Home
• 6/12 Listening: Creative Practice for Justice
• 7/3 Choose Your Own Adventure: Resource Sharing & Closing Siyum
Learn more
For: Jews Of Colour
Tags: 🥳Social, ✊Social Justice, 🙏Religion & Spirituality, ✨Wellness
🤔Questions? danserica@gmail.comcourse
🆕Building our Brakhas: Uncovering the Fundamentals of Prayerbook Hebrew (Shel Maala)
📆starts March 13, 2024 / 8-9:30PM ET, 5-6:30PM PT
💻virtual
“When I pray, I know Hashem understands me - but I wanna understand myself” If you have ever thought or felt something like this, and wanna go deeper in your prayer journey by unlocking the fundamentals of prayerbook Hebrew, this is the class for you. Come join queer Jewish superstar brin solomon, as it guides you through the basics of nouns, pronouns, prefixes, suffixes, verbs, and more that you’ll find in the siddur as you connect with the divine, all with the aim to empower you to strengthen that connection with deeper understanding.
brin, who has written its own siddur (!!), in its first EVER Shel Maala class, will take it slow and steady over three Wednesdays - March 13, 20, 27 - to give you the grammar tools to not only understand the prayers we’ll go over in class, but also all the other prayers you’ll come across. If you’re new to davvening, new to prayerbook Hebrew, or simply want a refresher so you can more deeply connect to the words you say, this is the class for you. Learn more
For: Queer & Trans Jews
Tags: 📚Education, 🙏Religion & Spirituality, Hebrew
🤔Questions? shelmaalayeshiva@gmail.comworkshop / class
🆕Four Faces Of Purim: Drag Makeup Mastery (LGBTQ+ at the J)
📆March 20, 2024 / 7-8:30PM ET
💻virtual
Happy Adar - it's the season of mishloach manot, masks, and makeup, and LGBTQ+ at the J has you covered with a drag makeup workshop! Featuring two Jewish drag artists showcasing four archetypal characters from the Purim story, we will learn how to get made up for megillah. Everyone can be anyone this time of year - will you be a queen, a king, a villain, or something else entirely? We can't wait to see! Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft, 📚Education, 🌚Holiday Observance
🤔Questions? emunahw@mnjcc.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
workshop
🆕Krium Yachad: Diasporist Grief Work for the Long Haul (JVP Havurah)
📆Mondays / 8:30-9:45PM ET, 5:30-6:45PM PT
💻virtual
Kruim Yachad (Torn Together) is a weekly space for Jews to gather to metabolize our grief over the recent and (at the time of this writing) ongoing genocide in Palestine. Weekly sessions will incorporate a variety of Jewish grief technologies, including (but not limited to) prayer, kriah (tearing fabric), song, movement, lighting candles and work with sacred plants. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: ✊Social Justice, 🙏Religion & Spirituality, ✨Wellness, 🇮🇱Israel/🇵🇸Palestine
🤔Questions? elana.june.margolis@gmail.comannouncement
Shevet: A Jewish Mindfulness Community for Young Adults (Institute for Jewish Spirituality)
📆Mondays / 8-8:30PM ET, 5-5:30PM PT
💻virtual
Amidst the great challenges and joys of our ever-changing world, spiritual practice in community can nurture our capacity for wise response, compassion, resilience, and well-being. Join IJS and our growing young adult community for 30 minutes of weekly Jewish mindfulness practice for folks in their 20s and 30s. Hosted by IJS Core Faculty Rebecca Schisler, each live Zoom session is guided by a leading guest teacher of Jewish spirituality and mindfulness, and includes an additional 15 minutes of optional Q&A and sharing. Participants are invited to join our Shevet Jewish Mindfulness Community WhatsApp group to connect with other spiritual seekers. Learn more
For: Young adults in their 20s & 30s
Tags: 🙏Religion & Spirituality, ✨Wellness
🤔Questions? support@jewishspirituality.organnouncement / request
Zine Submission: Version(s) of the Queer / Lefty / Yiddish Future(s)! (Queer Yiddish Camp & Rad Yiddish)
📆Deadline February 29, 2024
The QUEER / LEFTY / YIDDISH FUTURES are multiplicitous - There is not one version but MANY co-mingled versions/visions/experiences/futures - and we want to experience yours!
Send us your collages, writing, poetry, digital art, photographs of your art, and more! Submissions will be open until end-of-day Thursday, February 29. Learn more
For: Everyone
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft, 📚Education, 🥳Social, ✊Social Justice, Yiddish
🤔Questions? radyiddish1@gmail.comannouncement / request
🆕Pillar of Fire: Queer, Pro-Palestine Haggadah Zine (Making Mensches x Pushcart Judaica)
📆Deadline March 5, 2024
The ceremony of Passover asks us, What is our freedom story? What does safety feel like? What does divine resource look like? How do we reach for liberation? In 5784, Pesach asks these questions to us in new ways as a war continues to rage in our name. Making Mensches and Pushcart Judaica are collaborating to create an art forward Haggadah that guides us through the sacred Order//Seder of questions as Jews, as queers, as faith-based peoples fighting for a free Palestine. We long for a Haggadah that not only reflects our politics but is also queer, creative, and meant for these times.
❤️🔥 Will you join us by offering a piece of art? A poem? A quandary? A photo? Channel your grief, your rage, your schemes for a world where Palestine, and all oppressed peoples and places, are liberated. Learn more
For: Queer & Trans Jews
Tags: 🎨Art & Craft, 🙏Religion & Spirituality, 🇮🇱Israel/🇵🇸Palestine
🤔Questions? info@pushcartjudaica.comyelling 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
Fuck you, traitor!!!
So grateful for you and this treasure trove of amazing events! Thank you, Vlada!!! <3