Nehirim | Nehirim East 2012

Nehirim East 2012

Nehirim East is coming up June 15–17, 2012!

Register here

The Nehirim East Spiritual Retreat is Nehirim’s flagship retreat weekend, bringing together over one hundred LGBT Jews from around the country to the beautiful Isabella Freedman Retreat Center in Connecticut. This year is our eighth annual retreat, taking place June 15–17, 2012, and is an opportunity to:

EXPLORE your connection to Judaism with spirited Shabbat services, workshops, and community-led programming.

RELAX and enjoy nature and a beautiful 100-acre site in the Berkshires, and

CONNECT with an inclusive and diverse community of LGBT Jews, partners, and allies. We are Orthodox Jews to atheists, students and seniors, men, women, and the rest of us. Whoever you are, there are people like you at Nehirim!

Learn More :

Registration Fee and Financial Aid Information

Registration Fee. We have several room types available. Prices shown below are per person and include all room & board for two nights, and all your program expenses.

Register before May 1, 2012 and SAVE $50 on any room type.

Deluxe Double (Weinberg building): $475

Deluxe Single (Weinberg building): $575

Standard Single (private bath): $450

Standard Double (private bath): $400

Economy Single (shared bath with one other room): $400

Economy Double (shared bath with one other room): $325

Dorm (bathroom down the hall): $250

Child in room: $150

Note: All prices go up an additional $50 on June 1, 2012.

Register here

Logistical Information

- Transportation. For directions and transportation information, please visit http://www.nehirim.org/isabella-freedman-retreat-center-information. To offer or request a ride to the retreat, visit our Ride Board. The retreat center is available by MetroNorth to Wassaic, and a shuttle is available for $15 (non-refundable) from the Wassaic train station — please email info[at]nehirim.org by June 1st to reserve a spot on the shuttle. For other pickup times or locations, Lakeville Taxi, (860) 435-8000, is available. Please note that 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. If you plan to arrive by plane, you must either find a ride via the ride board or pay for a taxi through lakeville (around $100). Because Hartford (Bradley) Airport is over an hour away from the retreat center, Isabella Freedman typically cannot provide a shuttle to/from the airport.

- Time. The weekend lasts from 4pm on Friday until 2pm on Sunday. In order to maintain the community dynamic, we do ask that retreatants stay for the entire weekend. That said, please let us know at info@nehirim.org if you will be arriving early or leaving late so we can plan ahead.

- Children’s Program. If there is sufficient demand, a childrens’ program will be offered. The decision will be made on May 15, based on the number of families registered. If you register with your children and a children’s program is not offered, we will refund 100% of your registration costs.

For more information, please email us at info[at]nehirim.org.

Last Year’s Schedule (for reference)

Friday, June 10

2:00 – 4:00 Arrival, snacks, and registration (Bookstore open too)
4:00 – 5:00 Welcome and Opening Ritual with Debra and Ken
5:15 – 5:45 Optional mikvas (bring a towel!)
6:00 – 6:45 Get ready for shabbat/ more mikvas
Pre-Shabbat Meditation (Michael Hopkins)
Intro to Jewish Spirituality (Suzie Schwartz)
6:45 Candlelighting and Shabbat services
8:30 Shabbos Dinner
10:00-10:50 Mishpacha groups
11:00-12:00 Night session
Tisch (Rabbi Michael Rothbaum)
Seeing Ourselves through Love (Michael Hopkins)

Shabbat, June 11

7:30-8:00 Coffee, fruit, and pastry available
8:00-8:50 Morning spiritual practice: Morning Chi Gong (Dr. Barbara Siminovich), Silent meditation (Participant-led)
8:15-9:15 Breakfast
9:15-11:30 Shabbat Morning: Traditional davening & Torah reading (Rabbi Joel Alter and Gella Soloman), Renewal davening (Rabbi Debra Kolodny)
11:45-1:00 Kiddush and Lunch
1:10-2:10 Afternoon Session 1 (choose one)
Bearing The Light of Our Gifts (Ken Page)
Transformative (Trans)Gender Ritual (Suzie Schwartz)
L’Dor Va’Dor: Building an Intergenerational GLBT Community (Penina Weinberg and David Bass)
2:20-3:20 Afternoon Session 2 (choose one)
The Mystical Journey of Shavuot (Rabbi Deb Kolodny)
Story Telling Workshop (Daniel Kertzner)
The Part of My Journey Where I Stumble, Trip, and Fall on My….
3:30-4:30 Afternoon Session 3: All Community Learning with Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Zvi Bellin: “Embracing Our Journey: Maintaining Meaning After Mt. Sinai
4:40-5:30 Afternoon Session 4 (choose one)
Naps, free time, frisbee, tennis, or nothing at all
Hike (Led by Freedman Staff)
Board Games
5:40-6:30 Afternoon spiritual practice (choose one)
Traditional-egalitarian Mincha (Rabbi Joel Alter)
Chi Gong (Dr. Barbara Siminovich)
HINENI: Entering The Vibrant Simplicity of Presence (Ken Page)
6:45-7:55 Seudah Shlishit (Dinner/Third meal)
8:00-9:00 Mishpacha groups
9:10-9:25 Traditional Maariv/ Evening service (Participant Led)
9:30-10:00 Havdalah (Ken Page and Rabbi Debra Kolodny)
10:00-11:15 Post Havdalah Dance Party (Rabbi Neal Kaunfer)
10:15-12:00 Film
11:00-12:00 Bonfire

Sunday, June 12
7:30-8:00 Coffee, fruit, and pastry available
8:00-8:45 Morning Service Shacharit
8:00-9:00 Breakfast
9:20-10:20 Sunday session 1
I’m the Real Thing — and So Are You (Corinn Adams) Israeli Dancing (David Siegel) Text Shop (Rabbi Michael Rothbaum)
10:30-11:30 Sunday session 2: Language Matters: Why We Should Stop Saying ‘Sodomy’ and Abomination’ (Jay Michaelson)
11:40-12:50 Closing session & final mishpacha group
1:00-2:00 Lunch

Retreat Director

Joel Alter

Rabbi Joel Alter lives in Boston where he serves as Rav Beit HaSefer (School Rabbi) and Assistant Head of School at JCDS, Boston’s 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 so he made that journey inside the Seminary closet. Shabbat, Hebrew, hiking, and good friends eating good food are among the things that bring him joy.

Faculty

Barbara Siminovich-Blok

Dr. Barbara Siminovich-Blok is a naturopathic doctor and an acupuncturist, specializing in pain management, nutrition, and complementary medicine. She also does research, directs a small clinical lab, and teaches biochemistry (not all at the same time). Part of what keeps all working together is her practice of Martial arts. She has been training in Qi Gong, Kuhapdo (Korean Sword arts), and Hapkido for several years, and integrates Qi Gong specific techniques to complement her Chinese Medicine cases.

Penina Weinberg

Penina Weinberg is an independent biblical scholar who serves as president of Congregation Eitz Chayim in Cambridge, MA, and on the Boston Keshet community events committee. Her masters studies at Hebrew College (2009) concentrated on women-centered readings of biblical texts. Her studying and teaching focuses on the intersections of power, politics, and gender in the Hebrew Bible. Penina teaches at her synagogue, at other Boston area shuls, and at Nehirim and Keshet.

Rick Frank

Bio to come.

Sandra Lawson

Sandra Lawson is a Rabbinical Student, Sociologist, Personal Trainer, Food Activist, Weight Lifter, Vegan, Writer, Public Speaker, and Queer. She is the first African-American student accepted into the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College Rabbinical Program and she really wants to make the world a better place and make the Jewish world a better place for Jews of Color, queer Jews, and all Jews.

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 with the Kirtan Rabbi, Andrew Hahn, and Tel Shemesh seasonal events.

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).

Jay Michaelson

Jay Michaelson is the founder of Nehirim. For the last ten years, Jay has been a leading advocate for the inclusion of sexual minorities in religious communities, and his work in this area has been featured on NPR, CNN, and the New York Times. Jay is also a contributing editor to the Forward, Associate Editor of Religion Dispatches magazine, and a regular contributor to the Huffington Post. In 2009, he was included on the “Forward 50” list of “the men and women leading the American Jewish community into the 21st century.” He is the author of four books, most recently God vs. Gay? The Religious Case for Equality.

Mimi Yasgur

Mimi Yasgur received her Master’s degree from Lesley University in Expressive Arts Therapy and Mental Health Counseling. She enjoys leading expressive arts groups is a variety of settings, with a particular interest in working with the elderly. In her own time, she does collage, creative writing, yoga, and dance. She looks forward to integrating the arts therapeutically in the mental health field and utilizing artistic expression within Jewish communities and other creative environments.

Still have questions? Please feel free to email us at info@nehirim.org