Queer Shabbaton New York 2009
Presented in association with
The National Union of Jewish LGBTQQI Students
and Congregation Beth Simchat Torah
To offer or request transportation or housing, and to connect with other parents over childcare needs, visit our Ride, Housing, and Parent Boards.
Join us for an urban retreat of culture, creativity, and community for GLBT Jews, partners, and allies. This is a Shabbaton like you’ve never experienced before, featuring:
• Pluralistic, alternative community of queer Jews of all ages, religious stripes, and political affiliations
• Workshops and presentations on gender and Judaism, sexuality, politics, spirituality, and more
• Programs and pricing that ensure that everyone is included, with full scholarships for students
• A wide range of spiritual options, from yoga and meditation to traditional davening (prayer) and text study
• Lots of good food and free time to enjoy Halloween weekend in NYC!
Last year, 120 queer Jews (plus partners and allies) joined us for the second Queer Shabbaton New York, and we had to turn many people away. Don’t be left out!
Please click a link to learn more:
- Tachlis (Logistics): Cost, Transportation, Housing, etc.
- Schedule
- Sponsors
Tachlis (Logistics): Cost, Housing, Transportation, etc.a
Pricing
We are committed to enabling everyone to attend the Shabbaton, and look forward to a wide range of sexual, gender, economic, religious, and ethnic diversity. Thus, we offer sliding scale rates. If your wallet will allow, please consider registering at the regular or the supporter rate. Your generosity supports our current and future programming. Prices this year are:
Discount Price: $155
Regular Price: $185
Supporter Price: $215
Prices include all shabbat meals plus Sunday brunch, as well as all program costs for the shabbaton.
Housing & Location
The Queer Shabbaton will be held at the JCC in Manhattan, at 334 Amsterdam Ave. (at 76th St.).
We will not be providing housing or transportation to the retreat. Need a ride? Need a place to stay? Want to offer a ride or a place to stay? Are you a parent who will be bringing children, who would like to share childcare with other parents? Check out our Ride, Housing, and Parent Boards by clicking here.
We are pleased to have scholarship money available thanks to the generosity of our supporters. We are thrilled to be able to help you attend. Financial aid is available through a simple application process. If you would like to apply for a scholarship, please apply here (before you register online).
Friday, October 30th
2:00-4:00 Registration
4:00-5:00 Director’s Welcome and Opening Program
5:15-6:30 Friday night services (Actual candle-lighting time is 5:40pm)
*Please note that candle-lighting will take place immediately following the opening program.
6:45-8:15 Dinner and Singing
8:30-9:30 Mishpacha Group
9:45-11:00 Evening Program: Pumpkin Carving with Nehirim
• Tisch (song, drink, celebration)
• Women’s Coffee Hour
• 12-Step Meeting
11:00 Laila Tov! (Good Night!)
Saturday, October 31st
9:30-11:15
• Shabbat Morning Services
• Intimate Discussion Group, facilitated by Margot Meitner, M.S.W.
11:30-12:50 Lunch
1:00-2:00 Afternoon Session 1
•GLBT Jewish Leader Network
• Envisioning Queer Jewish Families-S. Bear Bergman and j wallace
• Jewish and Pagan Mysticism-Oli Stephano
• The Intersection of Israel and LGBT Identities-Dr. Caryn Aviv
2:10-3:30 Special Event
• Torah Queeries: Reading the Bible Through a Bent Lens-Gregg Drinkwater, Rabbi Jason Klein, Marla Brettschneider, Rabbi Jill Hammer
2:30-3:30 Afternoon Session 2
• Report from the Trenches-Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum
• Menschlekeit Bulldaggers and Balabusta Faggots: The Relevance of Traditional Jewish Gender Roles in our Queer Sexualities-Sasha T. Goldberg
• Yiddish Shamans in the City-Zvi Bellin
3:45-4:45 Afternoon Session 3
Snacks will be available for an early Seudah Shlishit (3rd meal)
• Living Positive: HIV and Faith-Marco Noam
• God Does Not Exist-God is Existence Itself-Jay Michaelson
• The Queer Political Divide: Why are we Fighting Ourselves?-Adrian Shanker
• Mincha at local area shuls
• Create Your Own Workshop
5:15-6:00 Mishpacha groups
6:10-7:20 Dinner
7:30-8:15 Maariv & Havdalah
8:30-10:30 Evening Program
• Premiere reading of The Material World, A Play by Dan Fishback
• Halloween Parade in the Village
11pm Laila Tov! (Good Night!)
Sunday, November 1st—Please note that Daylight Savings Time Ends
9:00-9:45 Sunday Morning Sessions
• Twice Blessed: A Visual Journey Through Queer Jewish History-Gregg Drinkwater
• Yoga-Zvi Bellin
• Hands-On Torah: Crafts for Parashat Lech Lecha-Ri J. Turner
• Manifesting Your Soul’s Desire-Chani Getter
10:00 am-11:00am Brunch
11:00-12:00 Keynote by Bob Morris, author of Assisted Loving: True Tales of Double Dating with My Dad
12:00-1:00 Closing program
Retreat Co-Directors
Sasha T. Goldberg, Assistant Director of Nehirim, Retreat Director
Sasha T. Goldberg is the Assistant Director of Nehirim. Prior to joining Nehirim in 2007, she taught grades K-12 in Religious Schools, led Jewish teen retreats, and worked with a wide variety of Jewish organizations in the Bay Area. Sasha holds a Master’s Degree in Judaism from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, and currently serves as President of the Board of Directors for NUJLS, The National Union of Jewish LGBTQQI Students. In addition to her work at Nehirim, Sasha has a long history of queer advocacy and social justice work, and, accordingly, has organized conferences, film festivals, fundraisers, workshops, and events, as well as having spoken extensively on sexuality, gender, and identity. A self-proclaimed masculinity enthusiast, Sasha particularly enjoys facilitating discussions and workshops about the intersections of masculinity and various elements of cultural, social, sexual, and religious identities. A city Jew in every way imaginable, Sasha is thrilled to direct the Queer Shabbaton New York.
Vanessa “Vinny” Prell, Retreat Co-Director
Vanessa “Vinny” Prell has dedicated one quarter of his life (and counting) to anti-oppression work, and continues these efforts as the Executive Director of the National Union of Jewish Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, and Intersex Students (NUJLS). An old hand at program development and workshop leading, she has conducted workshops on topics as varied as becoming an ally, sex education, religion and abortion, rape culture, and identity politics. His background in youth empowerment has led her to work with high-school- and college-aged youth. He graduated from UC Santa Barbara with honors, and degrees in Literature and the Study of Racism and is honored to serve on the social action committee of Bet Mishpachah, Washington DC’s egalitarian Synagogue embracing a diversity of sexual and gender identities.
Special Guests
Bob Morris
Bob Morris writes for The New York Times. He has been a commentator on “All Things Considered” and a contributor to The New Yorker, Elle, Vogue, Travel and Leisure and other publications. He is the featured commentator in You and Your Aging Parent, recently published by Oxford University Press, and he collaborated with Diahann Carroll on her memoir about aging, The Legs Are The Last To Go. His book Assisted Loving: True Tales of Double Dating With My Dadis an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book and Lambda Literary finalist. Click here to buyAssisted Loving now. Morris grew up on Long Island, attended Brown University, and lives in Manhattan.
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.
Teachers and Presenters
Sharon Kleinbaum
Rabbi Kleinbaum has been the spiritual leader of CBST, the world’s largest synagogue serving people of all sexual orientations and gender identities, since 1992, and is ranked among the top 50 rabbis in America. The subject of a profile in The New York Times, Rabbi Kleinbaum has worked, organized, protested, lectured and published widely and received numerous awards for her leadership. As a human rights advocate -for people of color, women, gays and lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people, immigrants and Palestinians -she has been jailed, arrested, vilified, and lauded, all with equal aplomb. She has been a leader in the struggle against the radical right wing’s use of religion as a weapon against LGBT people everywhere. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner, Rabbi Margaret Moers Wenig, where they raised two daughters, Liba and Molly.
Ayelet Cohen
Rabbi Ayelet S. Cohen serves as a Rabbi of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah (CBST), the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender synagogue serving people of all sexual orientations and gender identities. Prior to her ordination by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Rabbi Cohen served communities in France, England, and her native Montreal. Rabbi Cohen worked as a translator for Dr. Yossi Beilin when he served as Israel’s Minister of Justice and in his office in the Knesset. Passionately committed to progressive and feminist Judaism, she is an activist and an advocate for full inclusion and celebration of LGBT Jews in the Conservative movement and the larger Jewish world and an advocate for LGBT civil rights. Rabbi Cohen has been profiled in the New York Times and was named one of the “Heeb Hundred,” Heeb Magazine’s “hundred people you need to know about.” She was honored at the 2005 Ma’yan Seder as a leading young Jewish feminist activist.
S. Bear Bergman and J Wallace
S. Bear Bergman (www.sbearbergman.com) is an author, a theater artist, an instigator, a gender-jammer, and a good example of what happens when you overeducate a contrarian. Ze is also the author of Butch Is a Noun (Suspect Thoughts Press, 2006) and The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You (Arsenal Pulp, 2009), three award-winning solo performances, and is a frequent contributor to anthologies on all manner of topics from the sacred to the extremely profane. A longtime activist on behalf of anyone who wants to learn and be different at the same time (particularly queer/trans youth and students), Bear continues to work at the points of intersection between and among gender, sexuality, and culture, and spends a lot of time keeping people from installing traffic signals there.
j wallace and S Bear Bergman are Canadian homos looking forward to welcoming a small person in January. They’ve spent a lot of time in the last two years discussing and getting feedback (solicited and not) on their family planning. Both j and Bear, educators and activists by trade as well as by nature, are constitutionally unable to do anything with this much new information but teach about it (and since j has been part of Toronto’s Queer Parenting Network for a decade, he’s pretty much about to overflow). Find them online at sbearbergman.com and juxtaposeconsulting.com.
Jay Michaelson
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).
Dr. Caryn Aviv
Caryn Aviv is the director of research for Jewish Mosaic: The National Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity. She is also the Posen Lecturer in Secular Jewish Culture in the Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Denver, where she directs the Certificate Program in Jewish Communal Service and teaches courses about contemporary Jewish communities. Caryn is the co-author of American Queer: Now and Then (Paradigm Publishers 2006), New Jews: The End of the Jewish Diaspora (New York University Press 2005), and Queer Jews (Routledge 2002). Caryn is currently working on a book project that examines the role of American Jews in Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation movements, media, and philanthropy. She also writes an occasional blog about queer Jewish life for Ha’aretz.
Gregg Drinkwater
Gregg Drinkwater is Executive Director of Jewish Mosaic: The National Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity, an organization dedicated to helping Jewish institutions become more welcoming of LGBT Jews and their families. He is the co-editor of the book Torah Queeries: Weekly Commentaries on the Hebrew Bible (NYU Press, Oct. 2009), inspired by the online Torah commentary project launched by Jewish Mosaic in 2006, in collaboration with the World Congress of GLBT Jews. He has served as a volunteer, board member or advisor to a wide range of Jewish and LGBT organizations and is currently the president of Limmud Colorado. Drinkwater has worked in nonprofit communications, at a daily newspaper in Russia, and as the news editor for Gay.com and PlanetOut.com, the world’s most popular LGBT Web sites.
Marla Brettschneider
Marla Brettschneider is Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of New Hampshire with a joint appointment in Political Science and Women’s Studies. She has just stepped down from her post for many years as Coordinator of Queer Studies to take on the Coordinatorship of Women’s Studies. Marla has written widely on Jewish politics, queer and other diversity matters; her most recent book The Family Flamboyant: Race Politics, Queer Families, Jewish Lives (SUNY 2006) won an IPPY (Independent Book Publishers Award) in the GLBT category.
Jill Hammer
Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD, is the Director of Spiritual Education at the Academy for Jewish Religion. She is also the director of Tel Shemesh, a website and community celebrating earth-based Jewish traditions, and the co-founder of Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, a training program in women’s spiritual leadership. Rabbi Jill Hammer was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2001. She also holds a Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Connecticut. She is the author of The Jewish Book of Days: A Companion for All Seasons (Jewish Publication Society, 2006) and Sisters at Sinai: New Tales of Biblical Women (Jewish Publication Society, 2001).
Shoshana Jedwab
Shoshana Jedwab is a prize winning Jewish educator and the Jewish Studies Coordinator at the A.J. Heschel Middle School in NYC. She is the founding facilitator of the Makom Drum Circle at the JCC in Manhattan and is a percussionist and performance artist who has trained in bibliodrama and psychodrama. Shoshana has provided empowering drum circles to singles, student, training, and bereavement groups. Shoshana has performed with: Storahtelling, Chana Rothman, Debbie Friedman, Akiva Wharton, A Song of Solomon, Hebrew Mystical Chant withthe Kirtan Rabbi, Andrew Hahn, and Tel Shemesh seasonal events.
Jennifer Gravitz
Rabbi Jennifer Gravitz hails from Rochester NY. She and her wife of 15 years have 4 kids, 4 grandkids and two dogs. When she is not talking about queer sex, she keeps busy as a college professor, lawyer and rabbi-but her best “job” of all is being Bubbee!
Margot Meitner
Margot Meitner is a Boston-based psychotherapist currently studying towards rabbinical ordination at Hebrew College. She holds a B.A. in Women’s and Gender Studies and History from Yale University and an M.S.W. from Smith College School for Social Work. Margot is committed to accompanying people on their journeys toward emotional and spiritual health. She believes in the power of both psychotherapy and ritual to create change and inspire healing in people’s lives and approaches her work understanding the interdependence of individual healing with communal healing and social change. Margot strives to create ritual that explicitly honors diversity and helps people see the relevance of Judaism to their lives. Despite being sufficiently California-ized after 8 years on the Left Coast, Margot remains a sassy New Yawk femme at heart, and is excited to return home for the NYC Queer Shabbaton.
Adrian Shanker
Adrian Shanker is a Pennsylvania-based Queer and Democratic Party activist, serving on the boards of directors for the Pennsylvania Diversity Network, the LGBT Caucus for the Pennsylvania Young Democrats, and NUJLS (National Union of Jewish LGBTQQI Jewish Students) board. He is also Human Relations Commissioner for the City of Allentown, PA. Adrian is currently employed in the non-profit arts community as a fundraiser, but his previous employment includes a senior staff position on a city-wide mayoral campaign and a supervisor at a public opinion research organization. He graduated Cum Laude from Muhlenberg College with degrees in political science and religion studies, and as a student, held internships with the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition, Faith in Public Life, and the Institute for Jewish-Christian Understanding. His activism has been featured on CBS Evening News, CQ Weekly, Gay City News, The New York Jewish Week, and Diversity Matters Radio on Voice of America.
Chani Getter
Chani Getter, Nehirim Financial Officer, is both an experienced financial professional and a leader in the fields of personal growth and spiritual development. She has reached individuals and professionals in the U.S. and Canada through a series of workshops and panel discussions. Chani has led informational and support groups in parenting, single-motherhood, domestic violence, cross-cultural integration, issues of sexuality and identity. She creates original rituals for variety of occasions, and in addition to her administrative work for Nehirim, is a core member of the Nehirim faculty, coordinating “mishpacha” groups and facilitating the Ma’agal Womens’ Circle. Click here to visit her website.
Oli Stephano
Oli Stephano lives in NYC where he works as a cook and is pursuing his MA in Philosophy at the New School for Social Research.
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.
Jason Klein
Rabbi Jason Klein was born in NYC and raised mostly in Montclair, NJ. He is a 1997 graduate of Columbia University, where he founded Gayava, the queer Jewish group on campus, in 1995 and convened the first leadership conference for LBGT Jewish students from around the country in 1997. A 2002 graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC), he co-teaches an annual course to rabbinical students at RRC on creating inclusive Jewish communities. He currently serves as the director of Hillel at the University of Maryland, sits on the board of NUJLS, and on the faculty of Camp JRF. His particular Jewish interests include text study, liturgy, ritual, creative midrash, feminism, LBGT activism, Israeli-Palestinian peace and justice, and other issues of social justice.
Ri J. Turner
Ri J. Turner, Nehirim Operations Manager, holds a bachelor of arts in anthropology from Cornell University, and has been involved with LGBTQ organizing since zir junior year of high school. Ze has always felt deeply pulled by Jewish learning and community, and alongside zir work with Nehirim, ze is currently engaged with the Kohenet program, a Jewish women’s spiritual leadership training institute, and is on the board of NUJLS, the National Union of Jewish LGBTIQQ Students. Ri is also profoundly committed to intersectional anti-oppression work-anti-racism in particular-and believes in the potential of education, both formal and informal, to transform society.
Marco Noam
As an advocate of HIV education, Marco continues to tell his story so that he can help eradicate the disease through education.
