From Harif UK - Preserving the history and culture of Jews from the Middle East & North Africa:
Sephardi Jews, with their diverse roots spanning the Iberian Peninsula, North Africa, and the Middle East, bring rich traditions and practices to the observance of Tisha B’Ab, the fast day in the Jewish calendar which commemorates tragedies in Jewish history...
Rabbi Daniel Bouskila will be explaining the background to a Moroccan Kina, or lamentation, while Dayan Daniel Kada will talk about how Syrian Jews observe this solemn day. We also hope to hear how Yemenite Jews mark Tisha B’Ab.
Listeners will be able to share their specific memories of Tisha b’Ab, the food eaten before and after the fast and folk customs.
Start-Time: Saturday, June 8th, 5 pm ET/2 pm Pacific/10 pm UK
Conclusion: Sunday, June 9th, 5 pm ET/2 pm Pacific/10 pm UK
We’ve invited an incredible slate of presenters, who will collectively teach for 24 straight hours, beginning at 5 pm Eastern on Saturday, June 8th and concluding at 12 pm Eastern on Sunday, June 9th.
You can come for just 1 session, go to 3 or 4, or shoot for 24 in a row! Whatever works for you, we want your Shavuot to be special, and full of learning!
Featuring Dr. Susie Tanchel, Shira Schiowitz, Naomi Oxman MSW LICSW, Elizabeth Mandel, and R’ Aliza Sperling
Mentors. Role Models. Following. Being Followed.
What does it mean to guide others on their life journey? What do we look for what we seek guidance for ourselves?
We’ve been reflecting lately on how often we find ourselves saying, “This is a moment in history like never before.”
It is unnerving to be navigating such uncharted territory. And we often find ourselves wishing we had someone to show us the way. A thoughtful guide to help us find clarity and our own voice in the middle of so much noise.
And how do we guide people in colleges or public high schools? How can we guide them well when we’re not experiencing what they are; we’re not there with them on the ground? What is our role? How are we supposed to show up?
YOM RISHON is a virtual service open to all, featuring meditation, traditional Jewish prayer, music & the 32 Paths of Presence (Hebrew letters and the Tree of Life).
From Aleph:
Shabbat is a Mishkan (a sanctuary) in time. A Mishkan is a dwelling place for Divine Presence. And it is the nexus point between the finite world and the Infinite. On Shabbat we have the opportunity to open the doors between worlds, receive the gifts of our souls and return renewed, refreshed, re-created. Shabbat is a joyful time that is dedicated to Love. We take time away from our busy lives to focus our attention on the heart and to open up the places of silence and spaciousness within us. In this Shabbat Retreat we will enter into the Mysteries of Love through the practices of chant, meditation, sacred conversation and the sanctification of pleasure.
Join Rabbi Julie Hilton Danan to connect to your soul by connecting to the beauty of the natural world & Jewish wisdom about nature. Just as the earth has her seas, gardens, rivers, and mountains, inside each of us is our sea of the unconscious, our garden of toil and pleasure, our streams of flow, and our peak experiences. Our inner world is a reflection of the planet & of ancient teachings left for us by our ancestors.
[This class] will explore “the shore” in nature, Jewish wisdom, and your own life; from sea caves to sand, seashells, and life on the edge of mystery. We will experience media including stunning original nature photography, text discussion, ritual, guided meditation and mitzvah ideas. The practices we will learn may lead not only to a richer inner life and a heightened sense of awe, but to a deepened commitment to stewardship of the Earth & its inhabitants as the dwelling place of Shechinah.
Vancouver comics festival bans Jewish artist Miriam Libicki over past IDF service By Andrew Lapin May 30, 2024
"...In her own statement, Libicki, who explores Jewish identity in her work, called the ban “illegal” and said it was “bad for all artists of all political orientations and backgrounds.” She added, “I have consistently, publicly been pro-peace” and supportive of the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“Because of the vulnerable populations I work with, I prefer not to discuss my specific political views in public,” she wrote in a statement shared...by Jesse Brown, a Canadian Jewish publisher and journalist. “I believe all policing of artists’ personal identities and nationalities is wrong.”
But after the CJN article was published on Wednesday, the festival deleted its “Accountability Statement.” It has not responded to a JTA request for comment..."
Get your tickets to see Nell Adkins in
"Esther Made Me Do It"
at the Cincy Fringe Festival!
A heart-felt comedy about best friends auditioning for a Purim shpiel
Synopsis: Best friends, Naomi and Ruth, are preparing to audition for their local Purim shpiel. Naomi, gunning for the part of Esther, hopes to kick start her theatrical career. Ruth questions her feelings for Naomi and how long she’s willing to put Naomi’s desires before her own.
LOCATION:
Art Academy of Cincinnati
1212 Jackson St.
Cincinnati, OH 45202
We know many of you are already busy planning for your next program year. So, please consider this a save-the-date for Repro Shabbat 5785: February 21-22, 2025.
Repro Shabbat takes place annually when we read Parshat Mishpatim — the portion of the Torah containing verses used as the foundation of Judaism's approach to reproductive health, rights, and justice.
SAVE THE DATE and SIGN UP NOW so you'll be the first to hear when we are fully launched. You can learn more by visiting the 2025 Repro Shabbat web page.
The Repro Shabbat Team
National Council of Jewish Women
Good news: Stephanie is expanding ESCAPE FROM TEHRAN, into a full length play, from its current One Act format, and it will be showcased as part of the PLAYGROUND SHOWCASE, in November, 2024, in preparation for a full run, in the Bay Area, in June, 2025.
“The former head of the #Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, allegedly threatened a chief prosecutor of the international criminal court in a series of secret meetings in which he tried to pressure her into abandoning a war crimes investigation, the Guardian can reveal.”
This is yet another reason why the government of #Israel does not represent all of #Judaism.
"...For generations, Jewish women in Eastern Europe utilized threads to measure cemeteries & graves. These threads were used to create special soul candles known as neshome likht... Typically overseen by skilled women called feldmesterins, activities such as feldmestn (cemetery measuring) & kneytlekh leygn (laying wicks) were most prevalent during Elul to prepare soul candles for Yom Kippur.
...The session will include...Yiddish songs, reciting tkhines (Yiddish prayers) and reading poems, some of which are focused on this ritual. Delving into the history of this tradition will shed light on how cemeteries were perceived in shtetl society, serving as a means to communicate with the deceased & seek their assistance. At the end of this Immersion, you will be able to host a cemetery measuring event in Elul or any other time of the year..."
"...A BRIEF TOUR OF THE BROAD HORIZON: WORLD-WIDE HYPER-CRISIS
I intend this essay to be...a pointer to how it could fit together into not only a renewal of Judaism but a transformation of it — of us. That...could meet our own needs and the needs of a multi-level, worldwide crisis.
In some countries, the crisis of globalization has so tormented parts of the people who feel excluded from it that they have turned to hyper-nationalism.
...The long-powerful communities — white, Christian, and male — are also entitled to a place and shared power in an expanded democracy. They are not entitled to exclude the newly visible communities, as some politicians have trumpeted with a silver trumpet often made of cash and contempt, not a sacred shofar.
The result of all this: Two world-wide crises: the Democracy Crisis and the Climate/ Extinction Crisis..."
There is no such thing as the Judeo-Christian tradition. It is a figment of the supersessionist imagination. It is a term meant to co-opt Jews and Jewish history into a #Christian narrative to give legitimacy to that narrative. It is a term that erases #Jews and #Judaism. Everyone should stop using that term.
Israel’s Jewish humor show offers a serious message for a dark time: We will survive By Ben Sales May 23, 2024
"...So the show’s catalog includes spoofs of the story of Purim and the invention of the mezuzah, but it also features joke after joke about the Nazis, the Spanish Inquisition, the Yom Kippur War, the destruction of the Second Temple in ancient times and any number of other lachrymose episodes of the Jewish past.
...So after Oct. 7, the program confronted a question: What to do when the tragedy isn’t historical but current and — for many Israelis — ongoing?
This week, we got our answer: In unprecedented times, “The Jews Are Coming” did something unprecedented: It got serious..."
In Egypt, a piece of Jewish pottery suggests a woman’s role that was stolen from history - Rabbi Jill Hammer May 23, 2024
"...While the Temple in Jerusalem is the only Jewish temple mentioned in the Bible, there were other Jewish temples, including one in the Egyptian city of Elephantine. Built in the 6th century BCE and destroyed in 410 BCE by priests of the Egyptian god Khnum, the temple was a place where local Jews, often Israelite soldiers hired by Egypt, could offer sacrifices. According to some scholars, the description of the temple at Elephantine is similar to the mishkan, or tabernacle, described in the book of Exodus.
One of the interesting features of this community, aside from that it performed Jewish sacrifices outside of Jerusalem, is the presence of female functionaries in the temple..."
This story was originally published on My Jewish Learning.
#Students with DU chapter of #JewishVoiceForPeace speak on DU’s “failure to consider the entire student body, only prioritizing the voices of the #Zionist sect of #Judaism on campus” & how #JewishStudents who support the encampment are “continually being overlooked & misrepresented by upper administration & peers,” according to the encampment’s media representatives.
Extraordinarily proud to have been the editor on this book. The author is a wonderful soul and her deep dive into the lives of her mother and father really resonate. It was an honor and a privilege.
All for You: A World War II Family Memoir of Love, Separation, and Loss https://a.co/d/iF1GlHd