Category: Events

A Breath Lab Full Moon Workshop: Moving On and Holding On with Rabbi Ebn Leader

Please join us for Breath Lab’s next workshop: “Moving On and Holding On” with Hebrew College Rabbinical School faculty member Rabbi Ebn Leader on May 27 from 4-5:30 p.m.

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:

One of the keys to Rabbi Nahman of Breslav’s practice of liturgical prayer is developing the capacity to move on to the next thing that needs to happen without rejecting or leaving the beauty of the current moment. In this meeting I will attempt to guide people through Rabbi Nahman’s description of this practice as it applies to prayer, and to an awareness of the physical embodiment of this practice in the relation between the ongoing rhythms of our breath and pulse, and the external movement of our body.

About Our teacher

Rabbi Ebn LeaderRabbi Ebn Leader grew up in Jerusalem and was a “talmid” (student-disciple) of Rabbi David Hartman, where he learned Talmud, and of Amos Hetz, where he studied movement and movement notation. He is currently a talmid of Hebrew College Rector Art Green, from whom he has received smichah. Leader has a growing international reputation as a Jewish spiritual teacher in the neo-Hasidic tradition and is an authority on Jewish prayer. He is co-editor, with Rabbi Or Rose, of “God in All Moments: Mystical and Practical Wisdom From Hasidic Masters” (Jewish Lights Publishing, 2011).

Breath Lab, soon to be Beit Neshama on Hebrew College’s new shared campus, is a home for breath, movement, and contemplative practice, and a pair of lungs for the heart of the Beit Midrash.

Faith — Here & Now: An Interreligious Exploration (Part 3)

Faith — Here & Now: An Interreligious Exploration

What does the word “faith” mean in this liminal moment between quarantine and a return to public life?  How have we held and expressed our faith commitments—religious and secular—over the course of the pandemic? What roles do doubt and questioning play as we sort through the collage of emotion that we carry with us daily?

Please join us for the final offering in this three-part opportunity for an interreligious exploration of notions of faith through text study and discussion with leaders from Boston’s Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities.

This session will open with a brief video presentation from the photographic exhibit “Faith in Isolation Expressed,” curated by Brenda Bancel, and close with a musical selection and silent meditation.

>> View the flyer

This free program is a collaboration of the Miller Center of for Learning & Leadership and the Arts Committee of Hebrew College.

Date & Time

Tuesday, May 25 — 1-2 PM

Register for the free session here.

Participants will receive the Zoom link one day prior to the session.

Moderator

Or RoseRabbi Or Rose Rabbi Or Rose is the founding director of the Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leadership of Hebrew College. Rabbi Rose is the author or editor of various scholarly and popular works, including Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi: Essential Teachings (Orbis Books).


Teacher

Rev. StendallReverend John Stendahl (May 25)
Lutheran Church of the Newtons

 

Faith — Here & Now: An Interreligious Exploration (Part 2)

Faith — Here & Now: An Interreligious Exploration
A Three-Part Series

What does the word “faith” mean in this liminal moment between quarantine and a return to public life?  How have we held and expressed our faith commitments—religious and secular—over the course of the pandemic? What roles do doubt and questioning play as we sort through the collage of emotion that we carry with us daily?

Please join us for the second offering in this three-part opportunity for an interreligious exploration of notions of faith through text study and discussion with leaders from Boston’s Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities.

Each session will open with a brief video presentation from the photographic exhibit “Faith in Isolation Expressed,” curated by Brenda Bancel, and close with a musical selection and silent meditation.

>> View the flyer

This free program is a collaboration of the Miller Center of for Learning & Leadership and the Arts Committee of Hebrew College.

Dates & Times

Wednesday, May 19 — 1-2 PM
Tuesday, May 25 — 1-2 PM

Register for one or both sessions here.

Registration for this free series is required. Participants will receive the Zoom link one day prior to each session.

Moderator

Or RoseRabbi Or Rose Rabbi Or Rose is the founding director of the Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leadership of Hebrew College. Rabbi Rose is the author or editor of various scholarly and popular works, including Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi: Essential Teachings (Orbis Books).


Featured Teachers

Imam - Tufts
Imam Abdul-Malik Merchant (May 19)
Tufts University

Rev. StendallReverend John Stendahl (May 25)
Lutheran Church of the Newtons

 

Faith — Here & Now: An Interreligious Exploration

Faith — Here & Now: An Interreligious Exploration
A Three-Part Series

What does the word “faith” mean in this liminal moment between quarantine and a return to public life?  How have we held and expressed our faith commitments—religious and secular—over the course of the pandemic? What roles do doubt and questioning play as we sort through the collage of emotion that we carry with us daily?

Please join us for a unique opportunity for an interreligious exploration of notions of faith through text study and discussion with leaders from Boston’s Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities.

Each session will open with a brief video presentation from the photographic exhibit “Faith in Isolation Expressed,” curated by Brenda Bancel, and close with a musical selection and silent meditation.

>> View the flyer

This free program is a collaboration of the Miller Center of for Learning & Leadership and the Arts Committee of Hebrew College.

Dates & Times

Tuesday, May 11 — 1-2 PM  [EVENT PASSED]
Wednesday, May 19 — 1-2 PM  [EVENT PASSED]
Tuesday, May 25 — 1-2 PM

Register for any or all of the sessions here.

Registration for this free series is required. Participants will receive the Zoom link one day prior to each session.

Moderator

Or RoseRabbi Or Rose is the founding director of the Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leadership of Hebrew College. Rabbi Rose is the author or editor of various scholarly and popular works, including Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi: Essential Teachings (Orbis Books).


Featured Teachers

Rabbi Marcia PlumbRabbi Marcia Plumb (May 11)
Congregation Mishkan Tefila

 

Imam - Tufts
Imam Abdul-Malik Merchant (May 19)
Tufts University

Rev. StendallReverend John Stendahl (May 25)
Lutheran Church of the Newtons

 

The Queer Jewish Arts Festival

The Queer Jewish Arts Festival, is a new series of programs celebrating LGBTQIA+ stories and experiences through film, theater, music, and dance. This festival will highlight local and national queer Jewish artists who are making art with Jewish content and examine intersectional identity and creative expression. The festival will take place June 1-13th.

monica-gomeryFeaturied session with Rabbi Mónica Gomery `17

Shaping Worlds with Words: Two Emerging Queer Jewish Writers in Conversation
Tuesday, June 8, 2021 at 7:30 pm

A mystery-novelist-community-organizer and a poet-rabbi walk into a bar… Join Rachel Sharona Lewis and Rabbi Mónica Gomery `17 (right) for a conversation about writing at the intersection of Judaism and queerness. The authors will reflect together on the creative process, their latest projects, and the shared themes that run between their work. What stories feel important to tell, as we write new paths toward the world we dream of? Lewis and Gomery will read from their recent books, and explore this and other questions.

Rabbi Mónica Gomery is a rabbi and poet, living on Lenni Lenape land in Philadelphia. raised by her Venezuelan Jewish family in Boston and Caracas, Her work explores queerness, diaspora, ancestry, theology, and cultivating courageous hearts. She is the author of Here is the Night and the Night on the Road, and the chapbook Of Darkness and Tumbling.  Learn more about Mónica on the Hebrew College podcast Speaking Torah episode “Stop Making Sense.”

Rachel Sharona Lewis is an (accidental) mystery novelist based in Watertown, MA. She recently published her first novel, The Rabbi Who Prayed With Fire, inspired by Harry Kemelman’s best-selling Rabbi Small mystery series. By day, she organizes faith communities in the Boston area around local social justice efforts. In her free time, she enjoys reading fiction and non-fiction alike, watching women’s basketball and playing the trombone in her community brass band.

Sponsors

JCC of Baltimore, Hebrew College & co-sponsors

Hebrew College Spring Prozdor Alumni Reunion

Prozdor students throwback

Reconnect with your Prozdor classmates and other alumni at our virtual Hebrew College Spring Prozdor Reunion on April 27th from 7:30-8:30 p.m. EST. Join us for this special evening of learning with Prozdor teachers Mr. Norm Finkelstein,  Mr. Matthew Lowe, and Rabbi Laura Bellows`18.

This event is open to all Prozdor grads — please share with your former classmates! We also encourage you to update your information so we can stay in touch as Hebrew College gets ready to celebrate our Centennial in 2022.

Breakout Sessions (You may choose one)

Inside the Golden Gate: When the Holocaust Came to America
with Mr. Norm Finkelstein, Prozdor alum and current faculty member

In 1944, at the height of World War II, 982 European refugees found a temporary haven in Oswego, New York. They had spent frightening years one step ahead of Nazi pursuers and death. They spoke nineteen languages, and, while most of the refugees were Jewish, some were Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Protestant Christians. From the time they arrived at the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter they began re-creating their lives. In the history of World War II and the Holocaust, this “token” save by President Franklin D. Roosevelt was too little and too late for millions. But for those few who reached Oswego it was life changing.

Life is Unpleasant – Wisdom from our Sages
Matthew Lowe, Prozdor faculty 2007-2017

When even the Rabbis say it would be easier if we hadn’t been created (Eruvin 13b), how do we live with that? A lesson with Matthew Lowe, who is now a therapist in NYC if you can believe it (you can).

How to Stay Hydrated While Crossing the Sea: What one Midrash Can Teach Us About Responding to Climate Change Today
Rabbi Laura Bellows, Director of Prozdor and Teen Learning

It was 1730 in the Ottomon Empire when Rabbi Yaakov Culi started printing the Me’am Lo’ez, intended as a user-friendly Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) commentary on the Tanakh for his rapidly assimilating community. In it he tells of no less than 50 miracles (including access for all to safe drinking water!) that helped the Children of Israel cross the Red Sea. Using the Me’am Lo’ez’s midrash at the sea as our source text, we will explore what wisdom it may offer for building a just, accessible, and climate resilient society today.