Queer Shabbaton 2007

Queer Shabbaton New York
October 19-21, 2007
New York, NY

The Queer Shabbaton is an urban retreat of culture, creativity, and community for GLBT Jews of all ages, religious stripes, and political affiliations. This is a Shabbaton like you’ve never experienced before, a weekend of:

- Noncoercive, alternative community for queer Jews
- Workshops and presentations by some of today’s leading scholars & artists on queerness and Jewishness
- Programs and pricing that ensure that everyone is included, with full scholarships for students
- A wide range of spiritual options, from yoga to traditional davening, meditation to
- Films, music, media, lots of good food — and time to go out and enjoy NYC

The Queer Shabbaton represents a new kind of programming for Nehirim, and, we hope, the first of many such weekends. It is based on the Queer Shabbaton Amsterdam, a unique forum for community and discussion, which for the last three years has brought together Jews from all over the world for a weekend of consciousness-raising workshops, concerts, services (traditional, alternative, and non-religious), and lots of time to connect.

Please click a link to learn more:

Tentative Schedule for the Shabbaton
Presenters and Educators for the Shabbaton
Tachlis: Logistics, cost, financial aid
Register Now: Click here to be taken to the JCC Site to Register
Housing Board: Please sign up to request or offer housing
Halachic information

Schedule for Queer Shabbaton New York

Friday, October 19

3:00 Arrival, snacks, and registration
4:00 Welcome/opening program/mixer
5:00 Time to change clothes for Shabbat (JCC locker rooms available)
5:30 Candlelighting/Shabbat all together [actual candlelighting: 5:52]
6:00 Shabbat option 1: Shabbat services w/Shoshana Jedwab & Jay Michaelson
Shabbat option 2: Movement exercise
7:30 Dinner and singing (Mishpacha leaders meet at 8:30)
9:15 Meet your Mishpacha Groups
10:15 Evening session
- Sara Felder & Naomi Seidman, God of Vengeance: Lesbian ‘Scene’ as Performance of Traditional Jewishness (workshop and performance)
- Zmirot (without musical accompaniment)
11:30 Go home

Saturday, October 20

9:30 Shabbat option 1: Storahtelling RituaLab and Maven Torah Reading Ritual w/ Jill Hammer,Shoshana Jedwab, Shira Kline, Shawn Shafner and Jake Goodman
Shabbat option 2: Traditional shacharit at area shuls
Shabbat option 3: Meditation w/ Zvi Bellin (9:30-10:15)
Torah Study w/ Gregg Drinkwater (10:20-11)
Yoga (11:00-11:45)
12:00-1:20 Lunch
1:30-2:30 Afternoon Session 1 (choose one)
- Ann Pellegrini, Queer Notes on Jewish Camp
- Gabriel Blau, Today We Don’t Ask: Shabbat and Activism
- Zvi Bellin, Healing the Wounded Deity
2:40-3:40 Afternoon Session 2 (choose one)
- Naomi Seidman, The Ghost of Queer Loves Past: Ansky’s Dybbuk and the Sexual Transformation of Ashkenaz
- Rabbi Joel Alter, Somewhere between Nothing and Everything
- Sasha T. Goldberg, Sects In The City: The Single Queer Jew
3:45-4:30 Mishpacha groups
4:45-5:45 Afternoon Session 3
- Naptime/ shmooze/ walk in the park
- Sara Felder, Jewish Juggling
- Vinny Prell and Zvi Bellin, Students Caucus
6:00-6:45 Evening spiritual practice
- Naptime continued
- Mincha at area shuls
- Rabbi David Dunn-Bauer, ‘Et Ratzon’/Time of Desire
6:45-8:00 Dinner (Students eat dinner as a group)
8:00-8:15 Traditional Maariv with Rabbi Joel Alter
8:15-8:45 Havdalah [actual end of shabbat: 6:52]
9:00-10:30 Evening Program: Outtakes from Tarnation by Jonathan Caouette
11:00 Night program 1: Go out in New York (coordinate places)
Night program 2: Contact Improv w/Paul Fischer

Sunday, October 21

8:00-8:50 Sunday morning spiritual practice
- Yoga w/Danny Arguetty
- Shacharit at area shuls
9:00-9:50 Breakfast at the JCC
10:00-10:50 Sunday Session 1
- Gideon Querido van Frank, Sexual Diaspora
- Michael Kelly and Jay Michaelson, Gay Christianity, Gay Judaism, Gay Spirituality
- Marla Brettschneider, My Gender Workshop
11:00-11:50 Sunday Session 2
- Ann Pellegrini, Queer Theory and the Jewish Question
- Chani Getter, Acknowledging Yourself
12:00-12:50 Closing program/ Last mishpacha group
1:00 Lunch at area restaurants

Our presenters and educators (list still in formation!) include:

Naomi Sheindel Seidman
Professor Seidman is Koret Professor of Jewish Culture and Director of the Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. Her many publications on Jewishness, queerness, and language include A Marriage Made in Heaven: The Sexual Politics of Hebrew and Yiddish (University of California Press, 1997), “The Ghost of Queer Loves Past: Ansky’s “Dybbuk” and the Sexual Transformation of Ashkenaz,” in Queer Studies and the Jewish Question (Berkeley, 2004), and “The Erotics of Jewish Tradition,” in Studies in Contemporary Judaism.

Ann Pellegrini
Professor Ann Pellegrini’s interests include queer theory; religion, sex, and the law; psychoanalysis and culture; religion, performance, and community-formation; confessional culture; secularism; and Jewish cultural studies. Dr. Pellegrini is the author of several publications including Queer Theory and the Jewish Question, co-editor (Columbia University Press, 2003), and Love the Sin: Sexual Regulation and the Limits of Religious Tolerance, co-author (NYU Press, 2003).

Jonathan Caouette
Jonathan Caouette is the award-winning director of Tarnation (2003), an original and astounding autobiographical film produced by John Cameron Mitchell and Gus Van Sant. His next film is All Tomorrow’s Parties (2008).

Jay Michaelson
Jay Michaelson is the founder and executive director of Nehirim. He is also the chief editor of Zeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture, a columnist for the Forward, a Ph.D. candidate in Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and 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 recent academic articles include “I’m Just Not That Kind of God: Queering Kabbalistic Gender Dimorphism” in Jewishness and Sexuality, Danya Ruttenberg, ed. (NYU Press, 2008) and “The Idea of Order vs. Key West: Homosexuality as Liminality” (also forthcoming).

Rabbi Jill Hammer
Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD, is the director and co-founder of Tel Shemesh, a website celebrating and creating Jewish earth-based traditions, and the author of The Jewish Book of Days: A Companion for All Seasons (forthcoming September 2006). She is a poet, writer, myth-maker, and midrashist who has been published in many journals and anthologies, and is the author of Sisters at Sinai: New Tales of Biblical Women, a collection of modern midrash. She received a doctorate in social psychology from the University of Connecticut in 1996 and was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2001.

Rabbi David Dunn-Bauer
Rabbi David Dunn-Bauer is the rabbi of the Jewish Community of Amherst. A graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, he also completed a yearlong, intensive weekly internship at Congregation Beth Simchat Torah in NYC, the world’s largest gay and lesbian synagogue. While studying in Israel in 1999, he led regular Torah study at the Jerusalem Open House, the gay and lesbian community center, and served as cantor for Yom Kippur services at Hebrew Union College’s Jerusalem campus. He has also led innovative sessions integrating Judaism and bodywork.

Gideon Querido van Frank, Queer Shabbaton Director
Born in Tel Aviv in the sweet seventies, Gideon Querido van Frank graduated from the University of Utrecht and Amsterdam in Cultural Studies and Literary Theory and at New York University received an M.A. in Performance Theory. In New York he worked for The New York Annual Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and as a journalist for BBC World. Back in Amsterdam Gideon worked as a freelance journalist for several magazines and writes mainly about film, politics and culture. Gideon is head of the press and publicity department of Cinemien ( www.cinemien.nl), a film distribution company of Indie movies. Gideon has organized two Queer Shabbatonim in Amsterdam, to be followed by one in New York in October, 2007.

Sasha T. Goldberg, Assistant Director
Sasha T. Goldberg is a professional Jewish educator who, in the past two years, has worked five different Jewish jobs, taught six different grades in Hebrew School, led eight Jewish teen retreats, served on a Jewish Board, davenned in at least seven different shuls, and spent four months living in Israel. Accordingly, Sasha is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Judaism at The Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. Out in the queer world, Sasha has organized conferences, presentations, and workshops, and she has spoken extensively on sexuality, gender and identity.

Rabbi Joel Alter
Rabbi Joel Alter recently settled in Boston where he serves as Rav Beit HaSefer (School Rabbi) and Assistant Head of School at the Jewish Community Day School, a K-8 pluralistic school. In 1991, just as he began his rabbinical and masters studies at JTS he was coming out to himself, and made that journey inside the Seminary closet. Since his ordination in 1996 Joel has been a teacher of young people and adults, with an emphasis on Tanakh (Bible) and TÕfillah (Prayer), along with school administration. In each of the three schools where he has worked Joel has cultivated a culture of Jewish pluralism, committed to the idea that there are many ways to live in response to the call that Judaism, the Jewish People, and the Torah have on us.

Sara Felder
Sara Felder is a juggler, playwright and performance artist. She has performed at Festivals of Jewish/Yiddish Culture around the world. Her popular solo play June Bride tells and juggles the story of a traditional Jewish lesbian wedding and has toured to 35 venues. Felder’s most recent solo play Out of Sight brings circus tricks, shadow puppets and a Jewish queer perspective to questions of family loyalty and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Website.

Chani Getter
Chani Getter holds a BA in Human Development from Empire State College. She is a Motivational Speaker as well as a Certified Holistic Life Coach. A single mother of 3 children, she has led parenting workshops and is currently facilitating a Single-Mother’s support group in her community. Chani has spoken on numerous panels to tell her story of growing up Ultra-Chasidic and of her eventual acceptance of her identity. Chani follows an eclectic spiritual path that allows her to connect to the source of life within. In her work, she strives to creates a safe space for people to explore the paradoxes in their own lives.

Zvi Bellin
Zvi Bellin has, for the past six years, led a variety of workshops on Jewish spirituality and mysticism. He holds an M.A. in Counseling and Guidance from NYU, and is studying for his PhD in Pastoral Counseling at Loyola College, Maryland. 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 the spirituality of “dark places” and the formation of meaning outside the “normal and acceptable.” He is a co-founder of the Silver Spring Moishe House, a Jewish community house sponsored by the Forest Foundation.

Gregg Drinkwater
Gregg Drinkwater is director and co-founder of Jewish Mosaic, a national center for sexual and gender diversity. He is the co-editor of the book Torah Queeries (NYU Press, forthcoming). Drinkwater has served as a volunteer, board member or advisor to a wide range of Jewish, LGBT, and social justice organizations, including Limmud Colorado, and the World Congress of GLBT Jews.

Shawn Shafner
Shawn Shafner is an actor, director, singer, and storyteller. He has been collaborating on creating Jewish ritual and theatre work with the Storahtelling company for the past two years. Shawn has most recently appeared in the Philly Fringe Festival with Stone Soup Theater Arts. Also an educator, Shawn recipieved The Spielberg Fellowship in Theatre Ed from the Foundation for Jewish Camping in ’05.

Michael Bernard Kelly
Michael Bernard Kelly is known internationally for his work in integrating Christian spirituality and gay experience. He is a writer, activist, and retreat leader who has worked in the US the UK and Australia. He is the author of The Erotic Contemplative: the spiritual journey of the gay Christian, a ground-breaking video-lecture series exploring gay Christian mysticism, and the new book, Seduced by Grace: contemporary spirituality, gay experience and Christian faith. He co-founded the “Rainbow Sash Movement” an organization that publicly challenges the Catholic Church’s treatment of queer people

Shira Kline
Shira is a New York based performer and music educator. She travels with her band, ShirLaLa, throughout the country and internationally bringing a dynamic, fully participatory program of joy and spirit, story and song, not to mention all out rock-star dancing and grooving! Shira works with communities to deepen rituals, holiday celebrations, and love for Jewish life and prayer. Visit her online.

Gabriel Blau
Gabriel Blau is the founder of The God & Sexuality Conference, an annual gathering of scholars devoted to issues of religion and sexuality. He has spoken in the US and Israel to camp groups, yeshiva students, colleges and graduate schools and at open lectures. Both the general and gay Israeli media have covered his work as an activist. He is the author of Two Truths: Living as a Religious Gay Jew in Lawrence Schimmels book Found Tribe, (Sherman Asher Publishing, 2002.) Gabriel received his BA in Theology from Bard College. He is currently editing the upcoming book Homosexuality and the World Religions: Traditional Views and Modern Responses.

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; er 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.

Tachlis: Logistics, Cost, etc.

Thanks to the generosity of the Manhattan JCC and the Charles & Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, the price for the entire weekend will be on a sliding scale from $60-100, including all meals, programming, everything. (Housing is on your own; click the link for the housing board for out-of-towners to connect with locals willing to house them.) 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.

Click this link to register now. You will be taken to the website of the JCC of Manhattan. Note the website only lets you register at the $100 rate. For a sliding scale registration cost of between $60 and $100, please call the JCC at 646-505-5708. No questions asked! If you would like to apply for a scholarship to cover the full retreat cost, please send us an email explaining a little about yourself and why you’d like to come to the Queer Shabbaton. We are pleased to have scholarship money available thanks to the generosity of our supporters, so please don’t hesitate to ask.

Looking for a place to stay? Want to offer a place to stay? Check out our Housing Board. Or check out neighborhood hotels and hotels including the Candy Hostel on West 95th Street, or the Riverside Suites.