The First Nehirim Women’s Retreat
March 20-22, 2009
Elat Chayyim/Isabella Freedman
Falls Village, CT
Register Online Now!
To offer or request a ride to the retreat,
visit our Ride Board.
Please join us for our inaugural Nehirim Women’s Retreat. The Women’s retreat, for LBTQ Jewish women and their partners and allies, will be a soulful, heartful gathering where you can connect with your community, relax and refresh, and explore your spiritual path, forming connections that last a lifetime. It will feature:
-Stimulating workshops designed to rejuvenate mind, body & spirit
-A top-notch faculty including Miryam Kabakov, Dr. Mara Benjamin, and others
-Delicious organic Kosher food
-Children’s programming for all ages with Camp JRF’s Shulamit Izen & music with ShirLaLa
-Hot tub & fireplace nestled in a Berkshire Mountains setting
-Inclusive community of women of diverse identities & experiences
-Supportive social activities
-Prayer, study, music & much more
All self-identified women are welcome.
Click one of the following links for more info:
-Tachlis/Logistics
-Financial Aid
-Tentative Schedule
-Halachic Information
-Teachers and Presenters
-What People Are Saying about Nehirim
-Questions
Tachlis: What does it cost, where do I register
-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. To offer or request a ride to the retreat, visit our Ride Board.
-If you need to be picked up or dropped off at the Wassaic train station (for MetroNorth service from New York City), you must email info[at]nehirim.org and let us know by close of business on Tuesday, March 17. There will be a $15 charge per person each way (non-refundable after March 17). Pickup is available on Friday, March 20 for the 2 PM train. Dropoff is available on Sunday, March 22 for the 2:30 PM train.
-For other pickup times or locations, Lakeville Taxi, (860) 435-8000, is available. Lakeville Taxi is a reservation service. Voicemails for the purpose of reserving rides must be left before 5pm and at least 24 hours in advance. Credit card information must be provided with your reservation. Your card will be charged if you cancel a ride with less than 24 hours notice.
-The weekend lasts from 2:00 on Friday until 2:00 on Sunday. We do ask that retreatants stay for the entire weekend.
Prices
We are committed to enabling all self-identified women to attend the Women’s Retreat and look forward to a wide range of sexual, gender, economic, religious, and ethnic diversity. Please note that we do offer some financial aid on a first-come, first-served basis.
| Early bird (by Feb. 1) | Regular | |
| Triple Room (price per person) | $150 | $200 |
| Double Room with Shared Bath (price per person) | $200 | $250 |
| Double Room with Private Bath (price per person) | $275 | $325 |
| Single Room with Shared Bath (price per person) | $300 | $350 |
| Single Room with Private Bath (price per person) | $375 | $425 |
| Child (Children 2 and Under are Free) | $75 | $100 |
Tentative Schedule
Blue text indicates children’s programming
Friday, March 20th - the 24th of Adar
2:00-4:00 Arrival, snacks, and registration
4:00 Welcome and opening program with Chani Getter and Shoshana Jedwab
4:00 Making a Moon-Coming into the Newness
5:00 Get ready for shabbat/ optional mikvas
5:15 Adult Women’s Mikva with Rabbi Jill Hammer
5:15 Kids’ Mikva in Pool – Jumping into Shabbat (for Elementary School and older)
5:15 Mishpacha Facilitators meet with Chani Getter
5:45 Tots’ Mikva with their grown ups – Shabbat Shalom Dippers
6:00 Adult Human’s Mikva with Ri
6:45 Candle-lighting with Dr. Mara Benjamin (6:51)
Shabbat Services with Shoshana Jedwab and Shir Lala
8:00 Shabbos Dinner, Kiddush with Chani Getter
9:30 – 10:20 Mishpacha Group
9:30 – 10:20 Kids’ Mishpacha Group – tweens and teens
10:30 – 11:30 “Joining a club that will not have you as a member-traditional LBTQ women” with Miryam Kabakov
11:35- 12:00 Hanging out and building community
Shabbat, March 21st - 25th of Adar
Parashat Vayakhel-Pekudei — Shabbat Parshat HaChodesh
7:30-8:15 Cold breakfast available in dining hall
8:00-8:50 Morning spiritual practice
* Morning yoga with Rabbi Tzipi Radonsky
* Silent meditation with instruction with Ri Turner
* 12-Step meeting with Chani Getter
* Kids’ Playtime
* Board Games (older children)
8:15-9:15 Breakfast
9:00-9:45
* Secular Torah Study with Judy Hollander
* Shir Lala Shabbat for Tots and their grown ups
10:00-12:00 Shabbat Morning Davening
* Cafe Planet
* Traditional Egalitarian Minyan with Dr. Mara Benjamin and Julie Seltzer
* Renewal with Shosh, Shira, Chani, Rabbi Jill Hammer
* Babysitting for the tots
* Kids’ Davennen and Parsha play rehearsal
12:00 – 12:15 Children’s Parsha Play Performance
* All are welcome
12:30-1:20 Lunch
1:30-2:30 Afternoon Session 1
* Dina Has Four Mommies and other tales of co-mothering in the Torah with Dr. Mara Benjamin
* Shabbat nature walk – learning about hitbodetut for upper elementary and older kids
* Shabbat in our bodies – making Hebrew letters with our bodies and other songs and movement games about shabbat
2:40-3:40 Afternoon Session 2 (choose one)
* Balance yourself with Miryam Kabokov
* Betzal’el: Maker of the Mishkan with Julie Seltzer (Torah Study)
* Kids’ Guided Sensory Meditation with Laura Evonne Steinman ALL AGES
3:50 – 4:50 Afternoon Session 3 (Choose one)
* The Divine Feminine with Rabbi Jill Hammer
* Kids’ ultimate frisbee
* Session TBA with Becky Emet
5:00 – 5:50 Afternoon Session 4
* Create Your Own Discussion Group
Sign up Board where coffee is..
* Shabbat Nap
* Shabbat Nature Walks
* Shmooze N Lounge
* Babysitters available at sign up board
* Sat night program leaders meet
6:00-6:50 Seudah Shlishit (Third Meal/Dinner)
7:00-7:50 Mishpacha Groups
Kids’ Mishpacha Groups with Shulamit Izen
8:00-8:50 Havdala ALL AGES
8:50- 9:05 Maariv/ Evening service
* Traditional Maariv with Dr. Mara Benjamin
9:05 - 10:30 Talent Show, MC’d by Judy Hollander
Sunday, March 22 - 26 Adar
7:30-8:00 Cold breakfast available in dining hall
8:00-8:50 Morning spiritual practice
* Silent meditation with instruction with Ri Turner
* 12-Step meeting with Chani Getter
* Shacharit with Julie Seltzer
* Board Games (older children)
* Adults hang out
8:00-9:10 Breakfast
9:00-9:30 Pack up and checkout of rooms
9:30-10:30 Sunday session 1 (choose one)
* In the beginning, God created the Aleph-Bet with Julie Seltzer
* Is it DRAG or is it YOU with Chani Getter
* Fabric Arts PART I (must be at both sessions) (Challah covers) with Laura Evonne Steinman
* Passover Holiday Family singalong for tots and grownups with Shir Lala
10:45-11:45 Sunday session 2 (choose one)
* Writing the erotic with Corinn Adams
* Fabric Arts PART II (must be at both sessions)
* Passing or Shining? A workshop on class with Ellie Barbarash
12:00-12:50 Lunch (Mishpacha leaders have lunch together)
1:00-2:30 Closing session & final mishpacha group (ALL AGES)
Teachers
We will be joined this year by the following Visiting Faculty members (list still in formation!):
Nehama Benmosche, Retreat Co-Director
Nehama Benmosche is a rabbinical student at the Reconstructionist Rabbincal College and a doctoral student in education at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Her doctoral work focuses on dimensions of difference, pluralism and diversity in a Jewish summer camp. She has worked for many years in the Jewish communities of New York, Atlanta, and Philadelphia. Her background ranges from primary school education in day schools, to adult education courses in Hebrew and Judaism. She spent the last two years working as a rabbinic intern at a small Conservative congregation in Woodbury, NJ. Next year she will begin working at the West End Synagogue, a Reconstructionist congregation in New York City, coordinating the teen communal service projects and a 3rd and 4th grade family education program. She recently received the Tikkun Olam award at RRC for her work in organizing and maintaining the davening community at the college and will serve on RRC’s Keshet Committee on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Mara Benjamin
Dr. Mara Benjamin is Assistant Professor of Religion at St. Olaf College, in Northfield, MN. She received her doctorate in modern Jewish thought from Stanford University and has held fellowships at the University of Washington and Yale University. Her book, Rosenzweig’s Bible: Reinventing Scripture for Jewish Modernity, is due out from Cambridge University Press this spring. She and her partner, Miryam, live in St. Paul, MN with their daughter, Rayzel.
Miryam Kabakov
Miryam Kabakov, CSW, is Director of the Minneapolis Jewish Film Festival and editor of a forthcoming anthology of essays by and about lbt women and Orthodoxy. Previously, she was National Program Director of AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps and Coordinator of LGBT programming at the Manhattan JCC. She lives in Minnesota with her partner Mara and daughter Rayzie.
Rabbi Jill Hammer, Ph.D.
Rabbi Jill Hammer is Director of Spiritual Education at the Academy of Jewish Religion, as well as 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. Rabbi Hammer teaches in Manhattan and around the country on ancient and contemporary midrash, bibliodrama, ritual-making, and the cycles of Jewish time, and is currently an instructor at the Academy for Jewish Religion. She received a doctorate in social psychology from the University of Connecticut in 1996 and was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2001.
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.
Laura Evonne Steinman
Laura Evonne Steinman is a Community Artist who creates arty/spiritual spaces with people of all ages. She believes: “In each of our hands we hold gifts to share with others; let our hands be open wide to all the experiences we encounter in our world community.” Laura lives in Somerville, MA and is the Art Teacher at The Gifford School (a school for kids with emotional, learning and behavioral challenges) in Weston, MA. In the evening and weekend hours she teaches fabric collage, makes prayer flags with community members of the Moishe/Kavod Jewish Social Justice House, organizes women’s Rosh Chodesh gatherings, and sews a bunch of Colorful Matters. Laura’s spiritual journey is informed by her mixed-faith background. Raised in the Unitarian Universalist tradition, she is nurtured by both her father’s Jewish family with Russian roots, and her mother’s Polish-Catholic experience.
And by these members of the Nehirim Staff and Faculty:
Chani Getter, Retreat Co-Director
Chani Getter is a Motivational Speaker as well as a Certified Holistic Life Coach. As a single parent she leads informational and support groups in parenting, single-motherhood, domestic violence, cross cultural integration, issues of sexuality and identity. In addition she coaches individuals and offers workshops in the areas of life-balance, self-acceptance, transition, spirituality and living your dreams. Chani has spoken on numerous panels to tell her story of growing up Ultra-Chasidic and her eventual acceptance of her identity. Chani follows an eclectic spiritual path that allows her to connect to the source of life within. She crafts rituals and brings people together for prayer service. In her work, she creates safe space for individuals to explore the paradoxes in their own lives. Click here to visit her website.
Shoshana Jedwab, Retreat Co-Director
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 with the Kirtan Rabbi, Andrew Hahn, and Tel Shemesh seasonal events.
Questions? 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.