THE AQUARIAN MINYAN PRESENTS
POETRY NIGHT WITH AUTHOR ABBY CAPLIN
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 31
7pm Pacific Time
“A DOCTOR ONLY PRETENDS: POEMS ABOUT ILLNESS, DEATH, AND IN-BETWEEN”
Register Here
Please join us on Wednesday night, August 31, 2022, 7-8 pm, for an evening with Abby Caplin as she reads from her poetry. Her poems offer insights and reflections on the human condition— our predicaments, joys, sorrows, as well as topics related to Jewish identity. She'll be including poems from her new book "A Doctor Only Pretends: Poems About Illness, Death, and In-between", recently reviewed online in Tikkun Magazine.
Abby Caplin is the author of "A Doctor Only Pretends: Poems About Illness, Death, and In-between" (May, 2022). Her poems have appeared in AGNI, The MacGuffin, Midwest Quarterly, Moon City Review, Pennsylvania English, Salt Hill, Spoon River Poetry Review, The Southampton Review, Tikkun, and elsewhere. Among her awards, she has been a finalist for the Rash Award in Poetry and the Anna Davidson Rosenberg Poetry Award, a semi-finalist for the Willow Run Poetry Book Award, and a nominee for Best New Poets, Best of the Net, and the Pushcart Prize. Abby is a physician and practices mind-body medicine and counseling in San Francisco, California. She lives with her husband Ami and cat Cosette. www.abbycaplin.com
The Sacred Feminine:
In her Jewish Form and Universal Manifestations
with Uma Ginsburg Bikel
6 Thursdays, Sept 1- October 13 with the exception
Of October 6 (Yom Kippur)
12PM Pacific Time
In this course we will immerse ourselves in the joyous topic of our Holy Sacred Mother, in those times and in this day, in our own Jewish culture and in the religious traditions worldwide. From the voluptuous Venus of Willendorf to the innocent little Shin on our mezuzahs and our glorious Sabbath Queen, who is She? Who is She to me? Is She still here with us? And if indeed I was created in HER image, what does that mean? Over our six sessions, we will examine some of the art and textual records, and hear the myths and poetry of God in her female form and other manifestations of the sacred Feminine in Jewish, Indian, Sumerian, Indigenous North American, Celtic and African culture. We will read our old Jewish stories listening for clues of what has been hidden from us, between the lines and in plain sight. Musical offerings as well! Introducing our special guest star! Amtlai bat Carnevo, the mother of Abraham, our forgotten grandmother whose memory is being revived today.
About Uma Ginsburg Bikel
Uma (Aimee) Ginsburg Bikel is an American/Israeli award-winning author and journalist, and a lifelong student of the Great Mystery. She was the India correspondent for Israel's largest daily newspaper, Yediot Achronot, for 15 years. While living in India, Aimee spent many years in the Himalayas, among the ancient Nath Yogis, and is one of the few Western women initiated into their Tantric lineage. Aimee's Yogi name is Sri Yogi Uma Nath Ji. Besides her work as a writer, poet, and community organizer, Aimee/Uma has conducted workshops on the Divine Feminine and has offered one -on-one spiritual counseling for over 30 years. In Israel, she is considered one of the mothers of the women's spirituality movement and was invited to speak before the Knesset on the ideas of Ecofeminism. Aimee/Uma is the founding director of the Theodore Bikel Legacy Project, promoting the Tikkun Olam work and music of her late husband, Theo Bikel Z"l.
Past Events
Abortion: The Aftermath and Challenges after the end of Roe v. Wade with Bob Jaffe, Hap Ponedel and Rabbi Barry Silver
Monday July 25 2022, 6 - 8 pm Pacific time
A closer look at the challenges and obstacles facing women and their families after the Supreme Court decision overruling Roe v. Wade. We will examine the abortion pill and other strategies including litigation push back in some states. Our program features an in depth live interview with Rabbi Barry Silver of Dor v Dor synagogue in Southern Florida. Rabbi Silver, an accomplished civil rights lawyer, has filed a state court legal challenge to Florida’s restrictive abortion statute. The lawsuit alleges that Florida’s own constitution provides a state constitutional right to abortion.
What is remarkable in Rabbi Barry’s law suit is the claim of First Amendment religious freedom to fully pursue abortion as a religious practice, which is first found in the Babylonian Talmud and expanded in the medieval codes. This issue is of great interest to Jewish women and their families as well as other religious faiths which have similar religious beliefs. Religious belief and practice may be a powerful tool to deal with the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on abortion. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was an eloquent spokesperson for this principle. Please join us to explore how this might be used in the future.
“The destiny of the woman must be shaped to a large extent on her own conception of her spiritual imperatives and her place in society.” Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Casey v. Planned Parenthood.
Our program will have time for discussion among the attendees and our speakers.
Speakers
Barry Silver
Rabbi Barry has served Congregation L’Dor Va-Dor since 1996, emulating his father, Rabbi Sam Silver’s devotion to interfaith harmony, rational Judaism and social action. Barry performs Jewish and interfaith weddings, life cycle events, lectures, debates, discusses current events, is an op-ed writer for the Jewish Journal and is a motivational speaker. Barry is the founder of Cosmic Judaism, which merges Judaism and science and is a “Rockin’ Robe” rabbi, offering inspiring and fun Jewish adaptations of rock music. conducts spiritual Shabbat celebrations on Friday nights serving Congregation L’Dor Va-Dor, where Judaism is treasured, reason is cherished, interfaith harmony flourishes, science is honored and outreach is extended to all.
Attorney
Barry practices civil, constitutional and abortion rights, public interest, environmental, and personal injury law. Barry was named Feminist of the Year by Broward NOW after winning a landmark case in defense of abortion rights, was honored by the Black Police Officers of America for advocacy of civil rights and has received many other awards.
Barry successfully defended a former marine’s right to fly the flag at his home, helped Native Americans save a sacred site from bulldozers in Miami, successfully sued a phony psychic and the City of Delray Beach for conspiracy to defraud, protected citrus trees from the State’s eradication program, sues the police for wantonly shooting dogs, helped keep Scripps off of Mecca Farms to save agricultural lands, blocked anti-abortion legislation from taking effect and has handled many other public interest cases. Former Florida Legislator Barry served from 1996 to 1998 in the Florida House of Representatives where he was named “Most Effective Environmental Legislator” by the Sierra Club and “Consumer Champion” by Florida’s largest consumer group. Since 1990, Barry has been included in Who’s Who of American Law for significant contributions to the betterment of society.
Community Activist Barry founded the Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition and Interfaith Justice League and has organized many interfaith rallies, demonstrations and legal efforts on behalf of the environment, civil rights, animal rights, Israel, Native Americans, the homeless and was a local leader of the anti-Trump resistance. National Appearances Barry has appeared on MSNBC, FOX News, Hannity & Colmes, CNN, 48 Hours, the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, and other national and local media. Singer/Songwriter Barry sings original adaptations about politics, social issues, current events and Judaism. Family Barry is married to Francine and has two activist children, Ari and Brandon.
Hap Ponedel
Originally from west Los Angeles, Henry M. Ponedel holds a BA in Biology and Zoology from Humboldt State University (1978). He worked as a licensed plumbing contractor in California and Oregon for 35 years, continuing to serve as bal koreh and lay prayer leader at Temple Beth Israel in Eugene, Oregon, Temple Har Zion in Mt. Holly, New Jersey and at the Aquarian Minyan in Berkeley, California. Former member of the Board of Trustees of Temple Beth Israel, and Talmud Torah tutor for fifteen years, Henry “Hap” has authored a website: http://easteurotopo.org/, An Atlas of the Shtetl, that features over 3000 historical maps of central and eastern Europe and numerous articles, historical references, and external links to the history of Jewish life in eastern Europe. He is married to Hazzan Dr. Evlyn Gould, and they have two children, Ben and Jesse.
Robert Jaffe
Robert (Bob) Jaffe has been a practicing attorney in California and the Federal courts since 1969. A graduate of Hastings School of Law by way of UC Berkeley, Bob’s career has ranged from defending Vietnam draft resisters in Federal Courts to bankruptcy law, civil litigation and personal injury. He was honored to be of counsel in Hedges V. Obama, a case challenging martial law for US citizens in 2012. Bob currently practices wills, trusts, and personal injury at his home office in the Bay Area. He has served the Aquarian Minyan in many capacities over the last two decades as is one of the stalwart Torah teachers both at his Beit Ya’akov setting and in the Renewed Virtual Aquarian Minyan
A dazzling debut novel—set in early 1970's New York and rural India—the story of a turbulent, unlikely romance, a harrowing account of the lasting horrors of the Second World War, and a searing examination of one man's search for forgiveness and acceptance.
New York City, 1972. Jaryk Smith, a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto, and Lucy Gardner, a southerner, newly arrived in the city, are in the first bloom of love when they receive word that Jaryk's oldest friend has died under mysterious circumstances in a rural village in eastern India.
Traveling there alone to collect his friend's ashes, Jaryk soon finds himself enmeshed in the chaos of local politics and efforts to stage a play in protest against the government—the same play that he performed as a child in Warsaw as an act of resistance against the Nazis. Torn between the survivor's guilt he has carried for decades and his feelings for Lucy (who, unbeknownst to him, is pregnant with his child), Jaryk must decide how to honor both the past and the present, and how to accept a happiness he is not sure he deserves.
An unforgettable love story, a provocative exploration of the role of art in times of political upheaval, and a deeply moving reminder of the power of the past to shape the present, A Play for the End of the World is a remarkable debut from an exciting new voice in fiction.
JAI CHAKRABARTI’s short fiction has appeared in numerous journals and has been anthologized in The O. Henry Prize Stories, The Best American Short Stories, and awarded a Pushcart Prize. Chakrabarti was an Emerging Writer Fellow with A Public Space and received his MFA from Brooklyn College. He was born in Kolkata, India, and now splits his time between Brooklyn, NY and the Hudson Valley. A Play for the End of the World is his first novel.
Kabbalah and Sex Magic with Marla Segol
Wednesday October 6, 2021
The Aquarian Minyan’s Author Night Series is excited to welcome scholar Marla Segol, presenting her new book, Kabbalah and Sex Magic: A Mythical-Ritual Genealogy. This provocative new book explores the development of the kabbalistic cosmology underlying Western sex magic. Drawing extensively on Jewish myth and ritual, Segol tells the powerful story of the relationship between the divine and the human body in late antique Jewish esotericism, in medieval kabbalah, and in New Age ritual practice.
Kabbalah and Sex Magic traces the evolution of a Hebrew microcosm that models the powerful interaction of human and divine bodies at the heart of both kabbalah and some forms of Western sex magic. Focusing on Jewish esoteric and medical sources from the fifth to the twelfth century from Byzantium, Persia, Iberia, and southern France, Segol argues that in its fully developed medieval form, kabbalah operated by ritualizing a mythos of divine creation by means of sexual reproduction. She situates in cultural and historical context the emergence of Jewish cosmological models for conceptualizing both human and divine bodies and the interactions between them, arguing that all these sources position the body and its senses as the locus of culture and the means of reproducing it. Segol explores the rituals acting on these models, attending especially to their inherent erotic power, and ties these to contemporary Western sex magic, showing that such rituals have a continuing life.
Marla Segol is Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University at Buffalo. She is the author of Word and Image in Medieval Kabbalah: The Texts, Commentaries, and Diagrams of the “Sefer Yetsirah” and coeditor of Sexuality, Sociality, and Cosmology in Medieval Literary Texts.
Psychedelics and the Future of Judaism with Rabbi Zac Kamenetz
Wednesday September 1 at 7pm Pacific Time
Ketamine clinics, endowed research centers, impending FDA approval of MDMA therapy, celebrities talking about ayahuasca on TV— the psychedelic renaissance is here and moving fast. As the plants and compounds become more widely available through legal means, what might be the religious and spiritual significance of their use and the insights gained by those seeking their allyship? How might Jewish maps of the cosmos and consciousness aid Jews in their journeying and healing? What might integration look like when it draws from Jewish spiritual practice?
Join Rabbi Zac Kamenetz, founder and CEO of Shefa: Jewish Psychedelic Support for an evening of presenting a brief history of psychedelic use in sacred settings, models of expanded consciousness from Hasidic and Kabbalistic lineages, and an exploration of conscious psychedelic use in Jewish contexts.
Zac Kamentz is a rabbi, community leader, and aspiring psychedelic-assisted therapist based in Berkeley, CA. He holds an MA in Biblical literature and languages from UC Berkeley and the Graduate Theological Union and received rabbinic ordination in 2012. A sought-after educator and qualified MBSR instructor, Zac’s work has been centered on seeking answers to life’s essential questions within the Jewish tradition and embodied spiritual practice. As the founder and CEO of Shefa, Zac is pioneering a movement to integrate safe and conscious psychedelic use into the Jewish spiritual tradition, advocate for individuals and communities to heal personal and inherited trauma, and inspire a Jewish religious and creative renaissance in the 21st century.
Aquarian Minyan’s memoir writing group
invites you to
an evening of spoken word
Wednesday, July 21, 7 PM Pacific Time
Writers include Laurie Savran, Minnesota; Rabbi Charna Klein,
Seattle and Palm Springs; Dan Howard, Concord, CA,
and Julia Gilden, Berkeley.
Our evening of personal story telling is dedicated to former class
member Moish (Mikel) Estrin, z"l, a remarkable musician and
writer, who left us on Tuesday, July 29.
We look forward to seeing you and your friends!
For more information, contact Julia Gilden, wildcat@well.com .
“Dancing in God's Earthquake: The Coming Transformation of Religion"
an interactive evening with Rabbi Arthur Waskow
June 2 , 2021
5-7 pm PST
Rabbi Arthur Waskow;s newest book, Dancing in God's Earthquake: The Coming Transformation of Religion, has been praised by Gloria Steinem, Bill McKibben, Marge Piercy, Rabbi Arthur Green and Rabbi/ Kohenet Jill Hammer. This special interactive “happening” is designed to engage readers of the book with the author and each other in creative community.
We ask that you purchase, borrow, or obtain the book and read it prior to the event so that you might fully participate together with Rabbi Waskow.
The format of this event is as follows:
Rabbi Waskow and Rabbi Jonathan Seidel will begin the discussion of his book in a 20-minute conversation, followed by a break-out session of 15 minutes with three people in each session. Then will follow an hour-long general discussion about the book.
Through the process, participants will intimately and interactively engage with the transformational energy of “God’s Earthquake” and together, emerge with a clearer sense of mission and direction for the future of our faith in the 21st Century.
The book can be purchased before the session from its publishers, Orbis Books, or from your favorite bookseller.
You may order “Dancing in God's Earthquake: The Coming Transformation of Religion" by Rabbi Arthur Waskow from Afikomen Judaica’s online bookstore HERE
About Rabbi Arthur Waskow:
Rabbi Arthur Waskow received a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin (Madison) with a dissertation on “The Race Riots of 1919.” He then served as Legislative Assistant to a US Congressman, and as Resident Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and then the Public Resource Center. He has written seven books on US public policy on racial justice, military strategy and arms control, and energy policy beyond coal, oil, and unnatural gas. He was among the leaders of the movement to end the US War Against Vietnam.
Since creating the original Freedom Seder in 1969, he has been one of the creators and leaders of the movement for Jewish renewal. That same summer, through a long visit to Israel with some journeys to the early occupation of the Palestinian territories, he became convinced of the importance of a Palestinian state living freely and peacefully alongside a free and peaceful Israel, and became one of the earliest American Jews to urge that solution.
In 1982, he was invited to teach at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and in 1983, he founded and has since been director of The Shalom Center <www.https://theshalomcenter.org> -- a prophetic voice in Jewish, multireligious, and American life that draws on Jewish and other spiritual and religious teachings to work for justice, peace, and the healing of our wounded Earth. In 1978 he co-founded the National Havurah Committee and founded the journal Menorah: Sparks of Jewish Renewal.
He taught at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College from 1982 till 1989 and again in 2018. During those years he wrote another 17 books on religious history, thought, and practice.
He has been arrested about 26 times in protests against racism, the US Wars against Vietnam and Iraq, the oppression of Jews by the Soviet Union, Federal budgets that ignored poverty and the poor, US oppression of immigrant and refugee families, and governmental inaction on the climate crisis.
In 1993 Waskow co-founded ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal. In 1995, after five years of study and action, he was ordained a Rabbi by a transdenominational beit din chaired by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi under the auspices of ALEPH. In 1996, he was named by the United Nations one of forty “Wisdom Keepers” -- religious and intellectual leaders from all over the world who met with the Habitat II conference in Istanbul.
In 2005, he was named one of the "Forward Fifty" by the Forward, a leading American Jewish newspaper. In 2007, Newsweek named him one of America's fifty most influential rabbis. He spoke at the Interfaith World Dialogue called by the King of Saudi Arabia and at the World Interfaith Summit Conference on the Climate Crisis called by the Church of Sweden in 2008, as well as at many other interfaith conferences on peacemaking and healing of the earth.
Together with Rabbi Phyllis Berman, he wrote Freedom Journeys: The Tale of Exodus and Wilderness Across Millennia (Jewish Lights, 2011), a midrashic reexamination of those stories in the light of the present world crisis of top-down pharaonic power, planetary plagues, and efforts to create new forms of shared community.
He and Berman were co-authors, along with Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister, OSB, and Sufi Murshid Saadi Shakur Chisti, of The Tent Of Abraham: Stories of Hope and Peace for Jews, Christians, & Muslims (Beacon, 2006). The book emerged from an ongoing dialogue-and-action group of Jews, Christians, and Muslims called "The Tent of Abraham, Hagar, & Sarah" that was initiated by The Shalom Center. Its sessions were facilitated by Rabbi Berman.
The two also co-authored A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven: The Jewish Life-Spiral as a Spiritual Path (Farrar Straus & Giroux); and Tales of Tikkun: New Jewish Stories to Heal the Wounded World. (Rowman & Littlefield).
Waskow's other books include Seasons of Our Joy on the Jewish festival cycle; Godwrestling and Godwrestling -- Round 2 on new interpretations of Torah; and Down-to-Earth Judaism: Food, Sex, Money, & the Rest of Life and most recently, Dancing in God's Earthquake : The Coming Transformation of Religion .
Rabbi Waskow is now leading The Shalom Center's Green Menorah Covenant campaign to combat the danger of global climate crisis, involving religious communities in addressing both the personal and household addiction to oil and the political and economic structures that feed and intensify this addiction. In 2009 he wrote the New Interfaith Freedom Seder for the Earth that was used by congregations and communities all over America. He has edited two major anthologies on Jewish ecological thought, one published by Jewish Lights and the other by the Jewish Publication Society.
In 2002 he joined in founding Rabbis for Human Rights/ North America (now Truah) as secretary of its Board and steering committee, and was instrumental in urging it to work on human rights issues in the US (especially torture) as well as supporting RHR /Israel's work on human rights in Israel and Palestine.
In 2008 at the Hebrew Union College in NYC he taught the first class on eco-Judaism ever given at any rabbinical seminary; and he has taught as a Visiting Professor in the departments of religion at Swarthmore, Vassar, Temple University, and Drew University.
In 2014 he was honored by Truah for his lifetime achievement as a “human rights hero.” In 2017 he was granted the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (which had fired him in 1989 for too vigorous an assertion of the need for a peaceful Palestine alongside a peaveful Israel).. He has also been honored by several Muslim organizations for his affirmation of Muslim rights and value in US society.
Wednesday April 7
7pm Pacific Time
Leaving Memel: Refugees from the Reich
Film Screening followed by Q&A with Fred Finkelstein
Judith Golden owned and ran a small hotel and her husband, Leo Fleischmann had a successful textile business in Memel, Lithuania. Being Jewish was not a liability in this port city on the Baltic Sea, yet Adolf Hitler had ambitions beyond what anyone could know when he ascended to power in 1933. "Leaving Memel - Refugees from the Reich" tells the story of Judith Golden's family and what they experienced when times changed and Hitler began demonizing Jews, homosexuals and Romani in Europe. It's a small, personal memoir tucked inside a much larger, darker tale and has strong resonance today as issues around immigration still occupy our thoughts. It's also a story of survival, great timing and strong family bonds that make the difference between life and death.
Wednesday March 31
Antisemitism; How to Understand It. How to Respond to It, With Rabbi David Zaslow
7pm Pacific time
Sexism, racism, and antisemitism are the trinity of hatreds in Western cultures. Join Reb David as he takes us on a historical journey into the sociology and psychology of the hatred of Jews. Starting with the Good Friday narratives read and acted out in most churches, to the antisemitism that is systemic to both the far right and the far left on the political spectrums. Before World War 2 the Stalinists accused the Jews as being exploitative capitalists while the Nazis accused the Jews of being communists. There are indications that this perfect storm of hatred of Jews is rising up once again. In Charlottesville the white supremacist chant “Jews will not replace us” indicated the trope that Jews are so powerful that they want to replace the “white race.” And at the other extreme the chant “From the Jordan to the Sea, Palestine will be free” is an example of how delegitimizing Israel’s right to exist. Come learn some of this sad history and how we might respond to it in our own communities. With Good Friday coming up just a few days after this talk it is a good time to learn about this ancient hatred.
Rabbi David Zaslow was ordained by Reb Zalman zt”l in 1995 and has been the spiritual leader of Havurah Shir Hadash since 1996. He is the editor of the popular Renewal siddur “Ivdu et Hashem B’simcha. ” Her recently released the “L’cha Dodi” siddur for Friday evenings comprised of all of Reb Zalman’s translations in one volume. Additionally he is the author of “Jesus: First-Century Rabbi” which attempts to build a bridge between Jews and Christians by understanding how deeply committed Jesus and his followers were to their Judaism.
Wednesday March 17 Jews, Whiteness, Power and Privilege, with Dr. Marc Dollinger
Wednesday March 17, 2021
Join Dr. Marc Dollinger for an examination of the relationship between Jews and whiteness since the late 19th Century which frames some of the larger questions of power and privilege in an American Jewish context, informing the vocabulary and assumptions of social justice movements today.
Dr. Marc Dollinger holds the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies and Social Responsibility at San Francisco State University. He has served as research fellow at Princeton University’s Center for the Study of Religion as well as the Andrew W. Mellon Post-doctoral Fellow and Lecturer in the Humanities at Bryn Mawr College, where he coordinated the program in Jewish Studies. Professor Dollinger is author of four scholarly books in American Jewish history, most recently Black Power, Jewish Politics: Reinventing The Alliance in the 1960s.
Joan Schwartz Presents: Eva Herzberg Schwartz, The Story of a German Jewish Refugee
Wednesday February 3, 2021
7pm Pacific Time
Joan Schwartz presents the story of her mother, Eva Herzberg Schwartz, who was born in Trier, Germany in 1921. She and her parents fled the Nazi regime in 1937 and immigrated to the SF Bay Area, where they had relatives. Joan's talk will focus on her and her family's lives in Germany before and during the Nazi era, and their lives as new immigrants in the Bay Area and San Diego. She will also speak about the history of her mother's town and the Jewish community there, and about the effects those experiences had on both mother and child. Joan's presentation will include photos to illustrate people and places covered in this heartfelt, fascinating talk, spanning decades, continents, and lifetimes.
Joan Schwartz PhD is a retired Clinical Psychologist who has led groups for sons and daughters of Holocaust survivors.
Tuesday January 12, 2021 at 7:00 PM Pacific Time
Sephardic Women and their Role in Preserving Sephardic Heritage, with Rivka Amado
After the expulsion from Spain in 1492, women came to play a central role in preserving Jewish--and Sephardic--culture. In the far-flung Spanish disapora, women used songs and story-telling to transmit cutlure and as a form of educating their children.
Their songs reflected the values of the Sephardic culture-- longing for the return to Spain, and universal concerns of love, loyalty, and tradition. Their songs also reveal the earthy secularism that was part of the Separdic tradition. In those tens of thousands of households which outwardly converted to Christianity, but secretly continued to practice Judaism, women played an especially crucial and unique role. In traditinoal Judiasm the synagogue was the domain of men and the home was the domain of women, but after "conversion," the household replaced the synagogue as the spiritual center for Conversos, and as a consequence women ascended to many roles previously held by men: teachers, ritual slaughters, transmitters of ritual and tradition. In the contemporary era, as some of these families and communities have re-embraced Judaism and returned to the synagogue, the change has generated deep strains within family and communal life as men have asserted greater authority at the expense of women.
In her talk, Rivka will explore the role of women in both types of communities, the religious communities in the wake of the Spanish disapora, illustrating some of her points with Sephardic songs and legends.
Singer, Poet and Artist Rivka Amado is a retired Professor who earned her PhD in organizational ethics and education in 1990 from University of Toronto, and has held postdoctoral fellowships in medical ethics at the Hastings Center in New York, and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Rivka maintained an active musical career inspired by her Sephardic heritage. She has performed in Australia, Spain, Israel, and throughout the United States, including the New York City Sephardic Festival, singing traditional Ladino songs and her own compositions.
Sliding Scale Donation Requested HERE
Wednesday January 6, 2021 at 7pm Pacific time
Referendum on the Deli Menu: American Jewish Religion and the Deli Revival with Rachel B. Gross, PhD
In recent years, there has been a nostalgic resurgence of interest in the Jewish deli menu. Restaurateurs and purveyors of Jewish food are deliberately making American Jewish food fit for the twenty-first century, emphasizing sustainability, local produce, and a nostalgic longing for family and communal histories. By selling and consuming a revitalized deli cuisine, American Jews express their longing for authentic Jewish pasts, build community in the present, and pass on their values to future generations. Engaging in the deli revival provides an alternative, under-appreciated way of practicing American Jewish religion.
Prof. Rachel B. Gross is Assistant Professor and John and Marcia Goldman Chair in American Jewish Studies in the Department of Jewish Studies at San Francisco State University. She is a religious studies scholar whose work focuses on twentieth- and twenty-first-century American Jews. She is the author of Beyond the Synagogue: Jewish Nostalgia as Religious Practice (New York University Press, January 2021).
Wednesday Dec 16, 2020 07:00 PM Pacific Time
Rabbi Diane Elliot: The Voice is Movement
Rabbi Diane Elliot will read selections from her latest work, "The Voice is Movement: A Life in Poetry" on Wednesday December 16 at 7pm, which is the 7th candle of Chanukah. Rabbi Diane will be incorporating the lights of the menorah with poetry, movement, chant, as well as debuting some new and unpublished poems as well.
Rabbi Diane Elliot is a spiritual teacher, ritual leader, dancer, and spiritual director who inspires her students to become clearer channels for Presence through awareness and movement practices, chant, and nuanced interpretations of Jewish sacred text. From 2007–2009 Diane served as the Aquarian Minyan’s spiritual leader and later as its teaching rabbi, and from 2011–2018 she directed the ALEPH Alliance for Jewish Renewal’s Embodying Spirit, En-spiriting Body program in embodied Judaism. She currently serves on the stewardship team of Taproot Gathering and is the author of three books of spiritual poetry.
Wednesday Dec. 2 at 7pm Pacific Time
Sacred Space and Prayerful Resistance – Lessons Learned at Standing Rock
With Dr. Ami Goodman
In December 2016, retired physician Ami Goodman volunteered as a physician at Standing Rock at a time when militarized police threatened action to overrun the encampment. During his transformative experiences there, he learned much from the community of courageous and wise "water protectors" and "red warriors" standing in resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline scheduled to cross and invariably pollute their sacred waters and lands. In the process, he found that living and working in the spiritual vortex of the encampment deepened his connection to his Judaism. Additionally, his understanding of the honored approaches of a variety of healing arts and the power of comprehensive health care was broadened. Ami will share those sacred experiences and lessons learned as a Jew and a physician.
Ami Goodman is a retired pediatrician and neonatologist at Kaiser San Francisco. He continues to volunteer, most recently in his hometown of El Paso, Texas in 2019 helping provide care for newly arrived asylum seekers from Central America. He enjoys exploring and finding new meaning, teaching, challenges and continually renewed guidance in Jewish prayers and the liturgy.