I Am My Beloved’s: Navigating Life’s Journey For Young Adult Couples

Course Title: I Am My Beloved’s: Navigating Life’s Journey for Young Adult Couples (5 sessions)
Program: Open Circle Jewish Learning Young Adult
Partner Organization: Modern Jewish Couples
Instructor: Rabbi Jen Gubitz
Day and Time: Wednesdays, 6:30-9:00 pm * includes Havdalah get together and Shabbat dinner.  All Wednesday sessions include dinner starting at 6:30.
Dates: October 18, 25, November 1, 8, 29; Havdalah Saturday, November 4th; Shabbat dinner, Friday, December 8th,  2023
Location: In-person, Village Works, Brookline, MA
Fee: $125 per person * $100 per person through Modern Jewish Couples. Financial scholarships are available.

 

Connect with your partner and other couples to explore essential conversations for navigating life’s journey, such as ritual, money, rest, and legacy. This cohort is designed for beloveds – young adult couples on the road to committed partnership or early years of marriage. Whether you identify as Jewish, Jew-ish, interfaith, queer or are in a relationship with someone who identifies as such, Jewish tradition offers a framework for meaningful conversations between partners committed to their shared future, with love. Through guided questions, texts, and discussion prompts, we’ll engage in deep conversation and reflection! Each gathering begins with dinner and an opportunity to connect with other couples, and the chance to dive into Jewish learning and conversation. Registered couples will be asked to fill out an introductory questionnaire and will be offered a 30-minute session with Rabbi Gubitz so she can get to know you! Our session focused on money will be in partnership with Ariel Nathanson from Finances for Feminists.

This experience is generously supported by CJP, the Covenant Foundation and the Natan Fund.

Using Judaism’s 10 Best Ideas to Grow our Souls

Course Title: Using Judaism’s 10 Best Ideas to Grow our Souls
Program:
 Hebrew College Open Circle Jewish Learning: Texts and Traditions
Instructor: Cantor Lorel Zar Kessler (Read bio)
Day and Time: Wednesdays, 7:30-9pm Eastern Time
Dates:  Postponed to Winter/Spring 2024, Dates TBD
Location: Online via Zoom
Fee: $200 Financial scholarships available

How can we deepen our understanding of Judaism’s powerful core teachings of thought, feeling and action – and bring them to life for us in our contemporary experience?

Utilizing the framework of Rabbi Art Green’s concise and powerful book, “Judaism’s 10 Best Ideas: A Brief Guide for Seekers,” we will explore some of the most crucial underpinnings to our traditional and contemporary investment and engagement in our lived Judaism. Topics include: Shabbat, Halacha, Joy, Torah, Tikkun Olam, affirming Life and Accepting Death….

We’ll share Rabbi Green’s teachings as a foundation, supplementing texts from the liturgy, classic texts, and philosophical guidance to help us learn from teachers of our history and teachers around our own table; helping us broaden and deepen our connection to the fullness of our Jewish heritage.

Rabbi Art Green’s book, “Judaism’s 10 Best Ideas” is recommended but not required for this class. All source texts will be provided.

Hebrew College Open Circle Jewish Learning is for learners of all backgrounds.

Canadian and other registrants from outside of the US: please email Cindy Bernstein to complete your registration. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Parenting With Mussar

Course Title: Parenting with Mussar
Program: Open Circle Jewish Learning: Parenting and Grandparenting
Instructor: Rabbi Marcia Plumb
Day and Time: Wednesdays, 9:15-10:45 a.m. Eastern Time
Dates: Nov 8, 15, Nov 29, Dec 6, Dec 13, Dec 20, 2023 (6 sessions)
Location: Online via Zoom
Fee: $150 Financial scholarships available.

Parents often wish for an instruction manual as they raise their children, especially in challenging times. Parenting is one of the hardest jobs, and we need all the help we can get. Mussar is an ancient Jewish method for inner spiritual development. It gives us texts and guidance for finding balance, calm and objectivity in all aspects of life. In this course, we will use Mussar to help us become the best parents, and people, we can. Parents of all ages and stages are welcome. No prior experience with Mussar is necessary. Texts will be available in English.

Hebrew College Open Circle Jewish Learning classes are for learners of all backgrounds.

Canadian and other registrants from outside the US: please email Anna Katsevman to complete your registration. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Drawing Close, Drawing Boundaries: Jewish Demons and Protective Ritual

Title: Drawing Close, Drawing Boundaries: Jewish Demons and Protective Ritual
Program: Hebrew College Open Circle Jewish Learning: Texts and Traditions
Instructor:
Sara Klugman (Read bio)
Day/Time: Sundays 11:30am-1pm Eastern Time
Dates:  >Postponed start, revised dates<  November 5, 12, 19, 26, December 3, 10, 17, 2023
Location: Online via Zoom
Fee: $280 Financial scholarships available

In this course, we will explore historical and contemporary Jewish understandings of the demonic, and ancestral practices of ritual protection. We will explore how social and cultural location – particularly gender, sexuality, class identity, and geographic location – inform how Jewish communities have imagined and interacted with the demonic.

Some of our core questions include:

  • Where – in both ancient texts, and ancestral and contemporary experiences, have Jews experienced the demonic?
  • Who are the particular characters, roles, and personalities of Jewish demons?
  • How have Jews, throughout history, participated in and understood their own ritual protection?

The class will incorporate texts from within and beyond the Jewish tradition – including queer and feminist theory, poetry, visual art, and secular literature. In addition to engaging in our learning through text study and conversation, we will be learning artistically, through writing, and somatic practice. We will be engaging in a class-long research project, drawing on multi-modal inquiry.

Hebrew College Open Circle Jewish Learning is for learners of all backgrounds.

Canadian and other registrants from outside of the US: please email Cindy Bernstein to complete your registration. We apologize for the inconvenience.

 

“Sarah’s class, like all of my Hebrew college courses, has been excellent! She’s not only knowledgeable but also an extraordinary educator.” David Arfa, participant in Sara Klugman’s Winter/Spring 2023 Open Circle Jewish Learning Course, Peril and Protection: Demons and Protective Ritual in the Jewish Collective Imagination.

 

Zivug: Transition to Marriage

Program: Hebrew College Open Circle Jewish Learning: Young Adults
Instructor: Rabbi Getzel Davis (Read bio)
Session: Summer
Day and Time: Thursdays, 8-9:30 p.m.
Dates: June 22, 29, July 6, 13, 20, 27, 2023 (6 sessions)
Location: Zoom
Fee: $108

Join Rabbi Getzel for a 6-class series directed toward couples on love, the meaning of “bashert” (our intended one), and the conscious transition to marriage. Through Jewish wisdom, guided exercises, and frank conversations, we will explore the growth and maintenance of vibrant relationships. Open to couples (all gender and multi-faith expressions of partnership strongly welcome) in the year preceding or following a wedding. Topics will include: What Changes When We Marry? How to Fight Better, Money, Assets, and Debt, Religious Differences, Sex and Intimacy, Sharing Responsibilities

Hebrew College Open Circle Jewish Learning is for learners of all backgrounds.