Women’s Retreat 2011
Save the date!
The Third Annual Nehirim Women’s Retreat
March 4-6, 2011
Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center
Falls Village, CT
Here’s a look at last year’s retreat details. Come back and visit us soon for updates and registration. Also, make sure that you’re a fan of Nehirim on Facebook to find out the latest news, connect with old friends, and make new ones.
Join us for a weekend of rejuvenation, community, and fun…
Explore and refresh your relationship to Judaism and Jewish community in a warm and respectful setting.
Connect with 100 lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer Jewish women: families and singles, students and seniors, frum and secular — there are people like you at Nehirim! (Children and non-Jewish partners welcome.)
Daven and learn with scholars like Rabbi Jill Hammer & Professor Joy Ladin.
Nourish your body with delicious organic, kosher food.
Move with Jewish yoga innovator Rabbi Myriam Klotz, and open your heart with Nehirim teachers Chani Getter, Becky Emet & Shoshana Jedwab, or just …
Relax by the fireplace or in the hot tub, and take a walk in nature.
Click one of the following links for more info:
-Tachlis/Logistics -Financial Aid -Tentative Schedule -Halachic Information -Teachers and Presenters
-Questions? Contact Us!
Tachlis/Logistics
Registration
Click here to register securely online.
Location & Transportation Information
The retreat will be held at Isabella Freedman Jewish 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 also accessible 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.
To offer or request a ride to the retreat, visit our Ride Board.
Prices
We are committed to enabling everyone to attend the Women’s Retreat and look forward to a wide range of sexual, gender, economic, religious, and ethnic diversity. Financial assistance is still available for those in 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)
Child: $100, Children 2 and under are free
Childrens Program
We will be offering a full, free children’s program directed by Linden Grazier and Tiffany Shlain, who together have over 20 years of experience running childrens programming. We can also connect you to babysitters who have worked at Isabella Freedman before. We expect between 10-15 children, aged 5-10, in the program, plus 4 teenage assistants. Please contact us for more information.
Women’s Retreat 2010 Tentative Schedule
Note: The Children’s Program is co-directed by Tiffany Gordon and Linden Grazier. Children’s program events (adults welcome!) are indicated with a ☺
Friday, March 12th - the 26th of Adar
2:00-3:30 Arrival, snacks, and registration
3:30-4:30 Welcome and opening program
* Grownups with Chani Getter & Becky Emet
☺ Children’s program with Linden & Tiffany
4:45-5:15 Mikva/Preparing for Shabbat
* Mikva (Rabbi Jill Hammer)
* Alternative to Mikva (Sasha T. Goldberg)
☺ Children’s Early Dinner
5:30-7:00 Candle-lighting & Shabbat Services
(Rabbi Jill Hammer, Shoshana Jedwab & Chani Getter)
(Halachic candle-lighting time: 5:38)
7:15-8:45 Shabbat Dinner
9:00-9:55 Mishpacha Groups
☺ Children’s Program
10:00-10:45 Evening Program:
• Poetry reading by Joy Ladin & Miryam Kabakov
• 12-Step Meeting Chani Getter
11:00-12:00 Tisch with Miryam Kabakov & Esther Smigel
Shabbat, March 13st - the 27th of Adar
7:30-8:15 Cold breakfast available in dining hall
8:00-9:00 Morning Yoga (Rabbi Myriam Klotz)
8:30-9:15 Breakfast
9:30 Traditional Services (Rabbi Margot Stein)
9:30-11:45 Shabbat Morning Davening (Prayer)
* Traditional Davening (Chasiah Haberman)
* Renewal Davening (Rabbi Jill Hammer,
Shoshana Jedwab, & Chani Getter)
* At 10:30: Alternative to Services (Sasha T. Goldberg)
* Personal Prayer Space
☺ Children’s Service
12:00- 12:15 Children’s Parsha Play Performance
12:15 - 1:30 Lunch
1:45-2:45 Afternoon Session 1 (Choose one)
* Trans Jew 101 (Joy Ladin)
* Looking for a Nice Jewish girl? (Becky Emet & Laurel Wider)
* Shabbat Table Ritual & the Shape of the Jewish Family
(Chasiah Haberman)
* ☺ Children’s Program
3:00 – 4:00 Afternoon Session 2 (Choose one)
* Torah & Body Wisdom (Rabbi Myriam Klotz)
* Accepting the Pain & Joy of Life (Chani Getter)
* Mensches and Maidels: A Conversation on
Butch-Femme Jewish Identities (Sasha T. Goldberg)
☺ Children’s Program
4:15 – 5:15 Afternoon Session 3 (Choose one)
* Nap, walk, schmooze in the lounge
* Is the Bible Green? (Irene Riegner)
* What is Jewish and Why Does it Matter? (Marla Brettschneider)
* Mincha (self-organized)
* Yoga (Rabbi Myriam Klotz)
5:15-6:15 Mishpacha Groups
☺ Children’s Program
6:30-7:45 Seudah Shlishit (Third meal/Dinner)
8:00- 8:15 Maariv /Evening Service
8:15-8:30 Havdalah & Dancing (Chani Getter)
9:00-10:00 Talent Show (MC Becky Emet)
10:30 Nighttime Program
* Campfire and singing (Community)
Sunday, March 14 – the 28th of Adar — Please spring your clocks forward one hour!
7:30-8:00 Cold breakfast available in dining hall
8:00-8:45 Morning spiritual practice
* Silent meditation space
* 12 Step meeting (Chani Getter)
* Community-led Shacharit
8:30-9:30 Breakfast
Note: Please pack up and check out of your rooms by 9:30am
9:30-10:30 Sunday Session 1 (Choose one)
* Writing to God (Joy Ladin)
* Who knew? GLBT Themes in Yiddish Culture
(Amanda Miryem-Khaye Seigel)
* Breaking the Glass: Ritual & Jewish Celebration
(Chasiah Haberman)
☺ Children’s Program
10:45-11:45 Sunday Session 2 (Choose one)
* Text Study: Women Speaking to Power in the Bible (Irene Riegner)
* Moving Beyond Retreat: Taking Nehirim Home
(Becky Emet)
☺ Children’s Program
12:00–1:00 Closing Session & Final Mishpacha Group
1:00 Lunch
2:30 Tzeitchem L’Shalom! (Bon Voyage!)
2010 Retreat Co-Directors
Becky Emet, Retreat Co-Director
Having worked as a therapist with at-risk youth and families, Becky is currently pursuing an MBA in hopes of starting her own social enterprise one day. Committed to social justice and community building, and striving for an ever-compassionate, present-focused perspective, Becky brings her passion and warmth to the Nehirim community.
Chani Getter, Retreat Co-Director
Chani Getter, 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 is a core member of the Nehirim faculty, coordinating “mishpacha” groups and facilitating the Ma’agal Womens’ Circle. Click here to visit her website.
2010 Teachers and Presenters
Rabbi Myriam Klotz
Rabbi Myriam Klotz is a certified yoga teacher and Phoenix Rising Yoga therapist, teaching and studying Anusara, Iyengar and vinyasa methods. She is the Director of Yoga and Embodied Practices at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, and a spiritual director. Myriam has written about embodiment and Jewish spiritual life in many venues, and her recordings include Preparing the Heart: Yoga for Jewish Spiritual Practice and In All Your Ways Know God: Beginning Yoga for Jewish Spiritual Practice.
Professor Joy Ladin
Joy Ladin is the David and Ruth Gottesman Professor of English at Stern College for Women of Yeshiva University - and Yeshiva University’s (and the Orthodox Jewish world’s) first openly transgendered employee. A widely published poet and essayist, she is the author of three books of poetry from Sheep Meadow Press, Transmigration (2009), The Book of Anna (2006) and Alternatives to History (2003), as well as a collection of original psalms forthcoming in 2010. Since 2007, she has spoken and written widely about transsexuality, including writing a yet-unpublished collection of autobiographical essays, Inside Out: Confessions of a Woman Caught in the Act of Becoming.
Sasha T. Goldberg
Sasha T. Goldberg is the Assistant Director of Nehirim. A Jewish scholar, educator, and social justice activist by trade, Sasha brings a unique passion for creating radical Jewish programming, and building community around the intersections of Judaism and various cultural, social, sexual, and religious identities. 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, where she focused on issues of grief, loss, and pastoral care. In September of 2008, she facilitated Nehirim’s first Grief and Loss group, entied, “Bearing Witness: Sharing Grief in Queer Community.”
In addition to her work at Nehirim, Sasha has a long history of queer advocacy and activism, and, accordingly, has organized conferences, film festivals, fundraisers, workshops, and events, as well as having spoken extensively on sexuality, gender, and identity. Sasha currently serves as President of the Board of Directors for NUJLS, The National Union of Jewish LGBTQQI Students and as the Programming Chair for Butch Voices 2011.
Sasha hails from the good Midwestern stock of the United States, and has long since made her home in San Francisco.
Rabbi Jill Hammer, Ph.D.
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.
Miryam Kabakov
Miryam Kabakov, CSW, is Director of the Minneapolis Jewish Film Festival and editor of Keep Your Wives Away From Them: Orthodox Women, Unorthodox Desires, a forthcoming anthology of essays by and about lbtq 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 and two daughters.
Chasiah Haberman is a founding member of Tirtzah: A community of Frum Queer Women. She has taught at the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education, and various synagogues, retreats and jewish communal settings. She is a graduate of the Drisha Scholars circle and received her B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis. She currently lives and teaches in Boston MA.
Amanda (Miryem-Khaye) Seigel
is a Yiddish singer, songwriter, actor and accordionist. She is an original member of the Folksbiene Troupe, and co-creator (with Motl Didner) of the Yiddish musical comedy “Purim in Khelem” (National Yiddish Theatre - Folksbiene). In addition to presenting concerts and classes throughout the U.S., she taught Yiddish song at the Seminarium języka i kultury jidysz (Seminar of Yiddish Language and Culture) in Sródborów, Poland in 2007. Her work appears in Bridges: A Jewish Feminist Journal, Naye Vegn, Yugntruf-Zhurnal, and Yedies fun YIVO. Visit http://www.amks.wordpress.com
Irene Riegner, Ph.D.
Irene Riegner earned a Ph.d. in Religious Studies from Temple University in Philadelphia. She also completed courses at the Jewish Theological Seminary and at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Specializing in Hebrew bible, Riegner did her dissertation on prostitution and the Hebrew stem ZNH in which she challenged the meaning of that stem as a reference to prostitution. Her dissertation, “The Vanishing Hebrew Harlot,” has been published by Peter Lang Publishing. This summer, Riegner will be a presenter at the International Society of Biblical Literature.
Laurel Wider, LCSW
Laurel Wider is a psychotherapist with a private practice in New York City. Trained in psychodynamic psychotherapy and humanistic psychology, her approach centers on helping clients become more conscious, balanced, and whole. Laurel’s specialties include relationships, LGBT issues, gender, and sexuality. You can visit her website at www.laurelwider.com.
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.
Rabbi Margot Stein
Rabbi Margot Stein is an award-winning singer/liturgical composer with 6 albums of original Jewish music. Her work has been recognized by Shalshelet, the International Festival of New Jewish Liturgical Music, and published in Siddur Sha’ar Zahav, A Night of Questions: A Passover Seder, the Tu B’Shevat Anthology, and numerous supplemental liturgies and Jewish camp recordings. She teaches adults such topics as Jewish Bioethics and Jewish Mindfulness Practices and works with individuals in Spiritual Direction. Her work with families includes creating meaningful bar/bat mitzvah ceremonies for children with special needs.
Tiffany Gordon (co-director, children’s program)
Tiffany Gordon is a second year student at the Rabbinical School at Hebrew College. She finds pleasure in serving her community as a teacher in and director of the Beit Rabban Youth Program at Temple Beth Zion in Brookline. She worked as the director of children’s programming for Isabella Freedman in 2009. In her spare time, she volunteers with MAB Community services, reading to elderly blind women and leads Shabbat services at an assisted living home. Spending time with both children and the elderly gives her a full view of life which helps her engage her own wise discernment and appreciate the beauty and complexity of the gift of being.
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.