Men’s Retreat 2010
The First Annual Nehirim Men’s Retreat
March 5-7, 2010
Isabella Freedman Retreat Center
Falls Village, CT
Registration will be opening in January 2010! Please check back soon for more details!
The First Annual Nehirim Men’s Retreat is a weekend of community and spirituality for queer Jewish men. We are the nice Jewish boys your mother warned you about. We are sexual and spiritual, proud to be queer and proud to be Jewish. Our retreat is open to all self-identified men, and features workshops, pluralistic services, outdoor activities, and indoor activities. Our presenters include playwright Dan Fishback, performance artist Amichai Lau-Lavie, and Israeli writer Gideon Litchfield.
Click one of the following links for more info:
-Tachlis/Logistics
-Financial Aid
-Tentative Schedule
-Halachic Information
-Teachers and Presenters
-Questions? Contact Us!
- Tachlis (Practical Information)
Registration
Online Registration will be opening in January 2010! Please check back in soon to sign up for this retreat online!
Location & Transportation Information
The retreat will be held at Isabella Freedman Retreat Center in Falls Village, CT. For directions and transportation information, please visit the Isabella Freedman website. Transportation is “on your own” — we cannot assist with transportation requests. To offer or request a ride to the retreat, visit our Ride Board. Isabella Freedman is alsoaccessible by train from NYC. If you need to be picked up or dropped off at the Wassaic train station (for MetroNorth service from New York City), a shuttle will be made available for a $15 charge per person each way. Details will be posted in February.
For other pickup times or locations, Lakeville Taxi, (860) 435-8000, is available. Lakeville Taxi is a reservation service; 24 hours advance notice required, and reservations are nonrefundable within 24 hours.
Prices
We are committed to enabling everyone to attend the Men’s Retreat and look forward to a wide range of sexual, gender, economic, religious, and ethnic diversity. Financial aid is available for those in financial need; click the link to apply. Prices shown below are per person and include all room & board for two nights, and all your program expenses — it really is a steal, no?
Basic: Triple/Quad $225, Double $325, Single $375 (very simple, shared bathrooms)
Private Bath: Triple $275, Double $350, Single $450 (nice, rustic)
Deluxe: Triple $325, Double $400, Single $475 (swanky)
Register before February 1st and receive a $50 Early Bird discount — just enter the coupon code at the end!
Schedule
Friday, March 5
2:00-4:30 Arrival, snacks, and registration
4:30-5:30 Welcome and opening program
5:30 Mikva/Preparing for Shabbat
6:45 Candle-lighting & Shabbat Services
7:15-8:45 Shabbat Dinner
9:00-10:00 Mishpacha Groups
10:00-11:00 Evening Program:
• Tisch
• 12-Step Meeting (Rafi Daugherty)
Shabbat, March 6
7:30-8:15 Cold Breakfast available in dining hall
8:00-9:00 Morning Yoga
8:30-9:15 Breakfast
9:30-11:45 Shabbat Morning Davening (Prayer)
— Traditional Shacharit
— Renewal Davening (Zvi & Amichai)
— Alternative to Services
12:00 - 1:15 Lunch
1:30-2:30 Afternoon Session 1 (Choose one)
— My Spiritual Porn Star Journey (Mike Dreyden)
— Aging and the Gay Man (Jacob Staub)
— Creativity Unleashed (Dan Fishback)
2:45 – 3:45 Afternoon Session 2 (Choose one)
— The Life of a Gay Israeli Journalist Gideon Litchfield)
— You are God (Jay Michaelson)
— Bottoming 101 (David Dunn-Bauer)
4:00 – 5:00 Afternoon Session 3 (Choose One)
— Exercises for Sexual Health (Daniel Max)
— Spiritual Direction (Jacob Staub)
— Transgender 101 (Rafi Daugherty)
5:15 – 6:00 Afternoon Spiritual Practice
— Nap, walk, schmooze in the lounge
— Torah Study (Amichai)
— Self-organized mincha
— Yoga (Zvi Bellin)
6:15-7:30 Seudah Shlishit (Third meal/Dinner)
7:30-8:30 Mishpacha Groups
8:30- 8:45 Maariv Evening Service
8:45-9:00 Havdalah
9:00-10:00 Evening Program
— Sensual Massage (David Dunn-Bauer)
— Performance (Dan Fishback)
10:15-11:30 Night Program: Campfire
Sunday, March 7
7:30-8:00 Cold breakfast available in dining hall
8:00-8:45 Morning spiritual practice
— Yoga (Zvi Bellin)
— 12 Step meeting (Rafi Daugherty)
— Shacharit (self-organized)
8:30-9:30 Breakfast
Note: Please pack up and checkout of your rooms by 9:30am
9:30-10:30 Sunday session 1 (tba)
10:45-11:45 Sunday session 2 (tba)
12:00–1:00 Closing session & final Mishpacha group
1:00 Lunch
2:30 Tzeitchem L’Shalom!
Retreat Co-Directors
Amichai Lau-Levine, Retreat Co-Director
Amichai Lau-Lavie is the Founder, Executive and Artistic director of Storahtelling. An Israeli-born teacher of Judaic Literature and performance artist, he is described as “one of the most interesting thinkers in the Jewish world” by the NY Jewish Week. Amichai has studied at the Shalom Hartman Institute and the Elul Center in Jerusalem and he has directed the summer programs at Melitz: the Jewish Zionist Centers in Jerusalem (1992-6), focusing on the integration of Jewish education via the arts. His theatrical experience as a writer and performer includes the Theatre Company Jerusalem, The Acco Theatre Group in Israel and the Avodah Dance Ensemble in the U.S. He has also served as Artist-in-Residence at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in New York City (1997-2000). Amichai is a Jerusalem Fellow at the Mandel Leadership Institute in Israel (2008-2009) and is a consultant to the Reboot Network and a member of the Synagogue 3000 Leadership Network, and serves on the Advisory Council for the Six Points Fellowship, the Advisory Board for faithhouse manhattan , and the Board of Directors of Zeek Magazine.
Jay Michaelson, Retreat Co-Director
Jay Michaelson is the founder and executive director of Nehirim. For the last ten years, Jay has been a leading advocate for the inclusion of sexual minorities in religious communities, and writes and teaches frequently on issues of sexuality and religion. His work on the subject has appeared on NPR, and in Tikkun, the Jerusalem Post, the Duke Law Review, the Michigan Journal of Gender & Law, and anthologies including Mentsh: On Being Jewish and Queer (2004), Righteous Indignation: A Jewish Call for Justice(2007) and Jews and Sex (2008). Jay is a columnist for the Forward newspaper and Reality Sandwich magazine, a featured contributor to the Huffington Post. He is the author of God in Your Body: Kabbalah, Mindfulness, and Embodied Spiritual Practice (Jewish Lights, 2006) and Another Word for Sky: Poems (Lethe Press, 2007). His next book is Everything is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism (Shambhala, 2009).
Teachers and Presenters
Rabbi David Dunn Bauer
Rabbi David Dunn Bauer has served as the rabbi of the Jewish Community of Amherst (Massachusetts) since graduating from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 2003. He came to the rabbinate after a 15-year career as a stage manager and stage director of theater and opera in the U.S., Europe, and Israel. In his congregational work he has directed a number of plays for services and holiday events, including his own translation of Hannoch Levin’s Akeidah. Prior to his ordination, Rabbi Bauer served for two years as the student rabbi and spiritual leader for Congregation Ahavath Shalom, a Reconstructionist congregation in Great Barrington, MA. As a student in Israel in 1999, he served as cantor for Yom Kippur services at Hebrew Union College’s Jerusalem campus and led regular Torah study at the Jerusalem Open House, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community center. He was a 2000-2001 Cooperberg-Rittmaster intern at Congregation Beth Simchat Torah in NYC, the world’s largest LGBTQ synagogue. Rabbi Bauer received training in pastoral counseling as a rabbinical intern at the Philadelphia Geriatric Center in 1998 and 1999. With life coach Michael J. Cohen, he created and led “Celebrating the Body Judaic: a Body Electric Shabbaton for Gay and Bisexual Jewish Men” in 2006 and 2007. Beyond his congregational work, he is sought out as a speaker and leader in many cultural, religious, and spiritual contexts, teaching on topics that range from opera and Jewish theatre to sexuality and images of the body in Jewish liturgy and sacred text.
Zvi Bellin
Zvi Bellin, Nehirim Engagement Associate, leads workshops and directs retreats that integrate body-heart-mind-soul in a variety of spiritual and religious contexts. Zvi holds an M.A. in Counseling and Guidance from NYU, and is studying for his PhD in Pastoral Counseling at Loyola College, Maryland. Zvi is a 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) with the Yoga Alliance. He has worked as a therapist in a number of mental health settings, and has interned as a Psychiatric Chaplain. Zvi’s most recent interests include exploring the raw experience of meaning in life, and the integration of personal spirituality into a practice of holistic well-being. He is a co-founder of the Silver Spring Moishe House, a Jewish community house sponsored by the Schusterman Foundation.
Rafi Daugherty
Rafi is a queer transman living in what the Jews call Flatbush. He describes himself as a non-practicing orthodox Jew with strong spiritual leanings. He’s been a 12th step enthusaist since 2002 and enjoys the color orange and curly hair. He is honored to be a teacher for Nehirim East and hopes to learn a little something from everyone he meets.
Mike Dreyden
From gogo boy to model to porn performer, Mike Dreyden has become a star in the gay adult entertainment industry and continues on a trajectory toward superstardom. He has appeared and can be seen dancing at events such as Saint at Large parties including the Black Party as well as local NYC bars including The Eagle, The Cock and others. Mike won the coveted 2008 GLAMMY award for go-go boy of the year.
Dan Fishback
Dan Fishback has been writing and performing in NYC since 2003. He is a recipient of the 2007-2009 Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists. The resulting play, You Will Experience Silence, debuted in April 2009 at Dixon Place, where Fishback was an Artist-in-Residence. The following summer, he began a fellowship at the MacDowell Artists Colony to develop two new plays, The Material World and The Mattachine Project. Fishback’s band, Cheese On Bread, has toured Europe and North America, and released its sophomore album, “The Search for Colonel Mustard,” in 2007, in the United States and Japan. As a solo artist, he will drop his new full length studio album, “Mammal,” in 2010. Fishback fronts grunge band The Faggots, and has shared stages with Ani Difranco and Kimya Dawson as part of the punk dance troupe Underthrust. He regularly visits colleges all over the country to speak on queer and Jewish issues.
Daniel Max
is a Nutrition and Health Counselor, Shiatsu Practitioner, and Yoga Instructor. He began his studies in holistic health in Israel, his home country. Leaving Israel, Daniel traveled through Far East Asia studying various modalities of healing arts such as Chinese medical and Indian Ayurvedic therapies. Once settling in the US, Daniel completed his studies in the fields of shiatsu, nutrition and health counseling. Daniel is a graduate of Columbia University affiliated Institute Of Integrative Nutrition and of the former Boston Institute of Shiatsu. Daniel is a nationally certified massage therapist as well as certified by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners.
Rabbi Jacob J. Staub
Rabbi Jacob J. Staub is Professor of Jewish Philosophy and Spirituality at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia, where he served as Academic Vice President for 17 years and where he was ordained. He served as editor of the Reconstructionist magazine. He is the founder and director of the first program in Jewish Spiritual Direction at a rabbinical seminary. He teaches medieval Jewish studies, Jewish meditation, and Jewish spirituality. He is the author of The Creation of the World According to Gersonides and the co-author of Exploring Judaism: A Reconstructionist Approach. He came out as a gay man in 2000.
If you would like more information, if you would like to volunteer to teach or lead services, or if your organization would like to cosponsor the retreat, you can always email us at info[at]nehirim.org.