Nehirim East 2010

Nehirim East Spiritual Retreat, June 4-6, 2010

Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, Falls Village, CT

Nehirim East is Nehirim’s flagship retreat, bringing together 140+ LGBT Jews from around the country to the beautiful Isabella Freedman Retreat Center in Connecticut.  This year directed by Dr. Zvi Bellin, Nehirim East is a unique weekend of spirituality and community.

This year, the 6th Annual East Cost Retreat, will feature some of our core community members, including  Becky Emet and Rabbi Joel Alter — and some exciting new talent to the Nehirim scene — Rabbi Alissa Wise, Erez Harari, and Ilana Kramer. As always we will have ecstatic prayer services, dynamic spiritual and intellectual workshops, and delicious food!

Financial aid applications are being accepted right now! The deadline is APRIL 25TH. So please do not wait. You can apply at: http://www.nehirim.org/aid .

The Nehirim staff is busy creating an amazing retreat for 2010. In the meantime, you can check out last year’s schedule and pricing information.

The Nehirim spiritual retreat is a warm, fun, and diverse gathering where you can connect with your community, relax and refresh, and explore your spiritual path. Register soon — as of May 5, 2009, we are almost completely sold out..

Our retreats feature:

- A wide range of spiritual options, from traditional shabbat davening to meditation, yoga, and dance.
– Connections with GLBT Jews of all ages, religious affiliations, and walks of life.
– Workshops and seminars featuring a wide range of teachers (see below for list)
– Opportunities to open your heart, participate and lead ritual, or just be yourself, be in nature, and be with a diverse, welcoming community.
– Dancing, singing, kosher (mostly vegetarian) food, an eruv, tennis courts, hot tub, a lake, and country roads.

Click one of these links for more info:

-Tachlis/Logistics
-Financial Aid
-Tentative Schedule
-Halachic Information
-This Year’s Teachers and Presenters
-Testimonials from Nehirim Retreat Participants
-Questions

Click Here to register online now!

Location and Transportation
-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. 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, May 12. There will be a $15 charge per person each way (non-refundable after May 12). Pickup is available on Friday, May 15 for the 2 PM train. Dropoff is available on Sunday, May 17 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.

Click here to apply.

Also, thanks to the generosity of Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston Young Adult Community Grant program, we are able to offer the CJP Boston Young Adult Scholarship for people aged 22-40 from the Boston metropolitan area. This scholarship pays between 50-100% of your registration costs for Nehirim East. Use the application link above, and indicate CJP-Boston when you apply.

Prices

Other Logistical Information

-The weekend lasts from midday on Friday until midday on Sunday. We do ask that retreatants stay for the entire weekend.

-Childcare and a childrens’ program is available free of charge — families come every year! Please see the schedule below for details. As of April 15 2009, we already have five children registered.

- Questions? email us at info[at]nehirim.org.

Friday, May 15 – 21st Iyar
2:00-4:00 Arrival, snacks, and registration
4:00 Welcome and opening program
* Welcome for Kids! Name Games & Jewish Geography
5:15 Optional mikvas
Women’s mikva (Jill Hammer)
Men’s mikva (Jonathan Vatner)
Alternative to Mikva (Becky Emet)
6:00 Get ready for shabbat/ more mikvas
Non-gendered mikva (Ri Turner)
12-step meeting (Rafi Daugherty)
Pre-Shabbat Four-Direction Meditation (Lizzie Kurtz)
Dinner available for Kids
*6:15 Kids’ Scented Candle-Lighting
6:45 Candlelighting and shabbat services (Jay Michaelson, Jill Hammer, and friends)
8:30 Shabbos Dinner
Dvar Torah by Rabbi Joel Alter
10:00-10:50 Mishpacha groups
* Bedtime Storytelling
11:00-12:00 Night session
Tisch (Zvi Bellin)
Being Present for Each Other (John Stasio)

Shabbat, May 16 – 22nd Iyar
7:30-8:00 Coffee, fruit, and pastry available
8:00-8:50 Morning spiritual practice
Morning yoga (Daniel Max)
Silent meditation with instruction (Ri Turner)
8:15-9:15 Breakfast
9:15-11:30 Shabbat Morning Davening (Services)
Traditional-egalitarian davening & Torah reading
(Cantor David Berger)
Renewal davening (Jill Hammer & Chani Getter)
* Kids’ Davening and Parsha Play Practice
11:30-11:45 Parsha Play starring the Nehirim Childrens Players
11:45-1:00 Kiddush and Lunch
Student scholarship recipients please eat together
1:10-2:10 Afternoon Session 1 (choose one)
John Stasio & Jay Michaelson, Gay Catholic/Gay Jew: Comparative Perspectives
Aaron Weininger, Torah Study on the Parsha
Chani Getter, Being with the Mystery
Jase Schwartz, Sexual Health & Communication
* Nature Walk for kids & grownups
2:20-3:20 Afternoon Session 2 (choose one)
Rebecca Alpert, Coming Out: Personal & Spiritual Dimensions of Telling Our Stories
Eli Kaplan-Wildmann, Bible at Play: Drama & Improv
Jacob Staub, Cultivating a Sense of God’s Presence: Advice from the Words of Hasidic Rebbes
Rafi Daugherty, Trans 101
* Kids’ “Fabrengen”: Learning Hasidic Melodies
3:30-4:20 Afternoon Session 3: Discussion Groups (choose one)
Jay Michaelson, Nehirim “Town Meeting”
Becky Emet, Exploring the Queer Jewish Body
Karen & Moss Stern, Being Bisexual and Jewish
Ellie Barbarash, Passing or Shining? Workshop on Class
Create-your-own discussion group
* Kids’ Gaga ball game
4:30-5:30 Afternoon Session 4 (choose one)
Naps, free time, hikes, frisbee, tennis, or nothing at all
Learn Some New Jewish Songs (Cantor David Berger)
Trust Games (Jase Schwartz)
Hike (Alyssa Finn)
Yechidus w/ Chani Getter, Jacob Staub, Rebecca Alpert, Jay Michaelson or Zvi Bellin (signup on bulletin board)
Snacks available near coffee machines
5:40-6:30 Afternoon spiritual practice (choose one)
Traditional-egalitarian Mincha (Rabbi Joel Alter)
Yoga (Daniel Max & Zvi Bellin)
How and Why to Meditate (Jay Michaelson)
More napping (this counts as spiritual practice)
* Kids Playtime: Board Games
6:40-7:50 Seudah Shlishit (Dinner/Third meal)
CJP Boston Scholarship people please sit together
Shalshelet Participants & Prospectives please sit together
8:00-9:00 Mishpacha groups
* Kids’ Brachot Competition and Jewish Jeopardy
9:10-9:25 Maariv/ Evening service
Alternative/Interfaith Maariv (John Stasio)
Traditional Maariv (Aaron Weininger)
(shabbat ends at 8:50)
9:30-10:00 Havdalah (Shoshana Jedwab)
10:00-10:45 Israeli Dancing (Eli Kaplan-Wildmann)
11:00-12:00 Night Program (choose one)
Heart Circle and music w/Zvi Bellin
Wine Bar w/Live Music and Performances by David Berger, Jay Michaelson, & more
Bookstore and hot tub will be open

Sunday, May 17 – 23 Iyar

7:30-8:00 Coffee, fruit, and pastry available at the coffee machines
8:00-8:50 Morning spiritual practice (choose one)
Yoga (Daniel Max & Zvi Bellin)
Shacharit (community-led)
8:00-9:10 Breakfast
9:15-10:30 Sunday session 1 (choose one)
Rebecca Alpert, Welcoming but not Affirming: the state of LGBT inclusion in the Jewish community
Jacob Staub, Creating a Personal Spiritual Practice
John Stasio, Introduction to Breathwork
* Kids’ Challah-Cover Making Workshop (til 1145)
10:45-11:30 Sunday session 2
Nehirim Networking: Make the Gay Jewish Mafia Work for You
11:45-1:00 Closing session & final mishpacha group
1:00-2:00 Lunch
2:00-4:00 Be interviewed for the Nehirim promotional video
Bookstore and Farmer’s Market will be open
Tzeitchem l’shalom!

Our Teachers for 2010

Dr. Zvi Bellin, Retreat Director

Dr. Zvi Bellin is the Engagement Associate for Nehirim and is responsible for student outreach, internal community relations, and programming at Nehirim retreats. He leads workshops and directs retreats that integrate body-heart-mind-soul in a variety of spiritual and religious contexts. Zvi earned a PhD in Pastoral Counseling and an M.A. in Counseling and Guidance. He is a Registered Yoga Teacher 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.

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).

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.

Esther Smigel, Operations Manager

Esther Smigel is the Operations Manager of Nehirim. She is a recent graduate of Smith College, where she focused on economics and Jewish studies. At Smith, she dedicated much of her time to the Smith investment club and two socially responsible investing committees as an advocate for ethical investing. Her Jewish learning while at Smith led her to a year in Israel, where she immersed herself in the study of Jewish texts, ethics, laws and values at Machon Pardes in Jerusalem. Esther joins Nehirim excited about building queer Jewish community and forming progressive and queer interfaith connections.

Becky Emet

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.

Rabbi Alissa Wise

Rabbi Alissa Wise joined Ma’yan, a non-profit think tank focused on the cultural challenges and identity issues that Jewish teen girls face, as Program Director in June 2009 upon completing her studies at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia. Before training for the rabbinate, Alissa worked as a tenant organizer with the Fifth Avenue Committee in Brooklyn and was a participant in AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps. As a rabbinical student she worked as a chaplain at Planned Parenthood, authored a pastoral counseling curriculum on queer reproductive rights and loss, and was the Education Director at both String of Pearls Hebrew School in Princeton, New Jersey, and Jews for Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ) in New York City. Alissa is currently also the Coordinator of Mussar and Social Justice with the Mussar Leadership Program in Philadelphia.  Alissa was recognized in 2009 as one of the “Heeb100”– Heeb Magazine’s annual roundup of “the 100 Jews you should know”.

Erez Harari

Erez Harari is currently pursuing his PhD in Clinical Psychology at Fordham University. His research focuses on religious and sexual identity conflicts, and the integration of these identities. Erez is currently teaching undergraduate courses in Psychology at Fordham, and is working as a therapist with parolees with histories of substance abuse. Erez’s past clinical experiences have included working with substance abuse and personality disorders in the LGBT community, and blending Eastern mindfulness practices with concrete behavioral change (Dialectical Behavior Therapy). Erez is also a co-founder of Jewish Queer Youth, a social and support group for LGBT Jews from Orthodox and Traditional backgrounds, ages 18-30. He has spoken on numerous panels on topics including being gay and Orthodox, “Reparative Therapy” for homosexuality, Ethical therapy with gay adolescents, and treatment of conflicting identities.”

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.