For Times Such As These
Jewish Ritual Leaders Cohort
Join me for a year-long deep dive into bringing Jewish holidays to life in our communities. This monthly cohort group is for people who are organizing and leading rituals in their communities. Ritual leaders will meet monthly to discuss the coming months' holidays, deepen their learning about the history, texts, practices and traditions of the holiday, and discuss and build how to lead each coming month's holidays in their specific community settings.
The 5785 Ritual Leaders Cohort is now full!
Please fill out this interest form to get information on future learning opportunities.
Why
We are in a time of profound reckoning in the Jewish community. After decades of the majority of Jewish communal institutions assimilating into white supremacy, wealth hoarding, and explicit and implicit support for Zionism, a next generation of Jews are rejecting this path. Many of us were not raised with access to the depth and breadth of Jewish tradition, or were raised in expressions of Jewish tradition with oppressive values. Many of us are severed from training and mentorship in ritual leading. And yet we are uprooting chosenness theologies, practicing creative, vibrant, embodied rituals, and creating Jewish communities rooted in collective liberation for all people. We need more spaces to skill-up, and mutually support each other in creating Jewish rituals that reflect our values.
This cohort will be an opportunity to deepen our learning of Jewish holidays, strategize and collaborate on how to bring our tradition to life in ways that are spiritually moving and politically rigorous, while building our individual and collective capacities to care for one another, honor life and fight for liberation.
Accessibility
All classes will be on zoom, 90 minutes with a break. Participants will be asked to engage in small and large group conversation. Live CART captioning will be provided by Maryland Relay. Visual materials (slide decks, texts sheets), will be sent out in advance of class. In the registration form there is space to share about access needs, and as a group we will create further access agreements and zoom participation expectations.
Pricing
For more info about this pricing, see more in the FAQ, below!
Sliding Scale Tuition for yearlong cohort:
$360 - $1200 (suggested $540)
Free to Jews of Color, Black and Indigenous, Sefardi and Mizrahi Jews
No One Turned Away for Lack of Funds
Facilitator
Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg (she/her) currently resides on Dakota land, also home to the Anishinaabe, known as South Minneapolis. She was raised on Lenape land, in the Philadelphia suburbs, by Ken z”l and Shelley, accidental organizers who taught her that Jewish communities should be life-giving and values-aligned, and that it is up to us to build them. She became a rabbi in order to learn our people’s diverse and nuanced histories, and create spaces, ritual, and organizing that helps transform our relationships to past, present and future. She is a white, Ashkenazi, queer, cisgender, non-disabled femme with class privilege.
Ordained at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, 2018, Jessica is a founding collective member of the Radical Jewish Calendar project. She organizes with Matir Asurim: Jewish Care Network for Incarcerated People and on the Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council. She authored an Introduction to Trauma, Healing and Resilience for Rabbis, Jewish Educators and Organizers, published by Reconstructing Judaism, and co-authored, with Rabbi Ariana Katz, For Times Such as These: A Radical’s Guide to the Jewish Year, out now from Wayne State University Press.
Rabbi Ariana Katz, co-author of For Times Such as These, and founding rabbi at Hinenu Baltimore will join as a guest teacher for a few sessions.
Who
This group is for people who are organizing and/or leading rituals in their community. This can be in a household or with family, with a group of friends, in a havurah or synagogue, in a political formation, or any place where people gather. Focus of each session will be on putting the coming months’ ritual into practice in a group.
All are welcome, in particular folks often marginalized in many Jewish spaces, including: Black Jews, Indigenous Jews, Jews of Color, queer and trans Jews, disabled Jews, poor and working class Jews, Jews who converted, people reconnecting with Jewish lineage and identity. This cohort will root in an anti-oppression framework with attention to specific ways that racism, white supremacy and classism play out in Jewish communities. We will work to cocreate a supportive learning environment for all participants.
Participants are encouraged to sign up with friends, co-conspirators and collaborators. In between sessions there will be prompts for chevrutot and teams to deepen their learning, provide accountability and support. This could include friends, co-conspirators, and collaborators you are already in political or religious formation with, or loved ones you hope to build with in the future. People who register as individual participants will be matched with a chevruta to connect with between sessions.
All participants will have two individual sessions with the facilitator for one-on-one support.
Dates
All sessions will be on zoom, 5pm PST/6pm MST/7pm CST/8pm EST for 90 minutes.
There are TWO cohorts for this class, with different dates and times. Please pick the cohort that works best for you (meeting Wednesdays or meeting Tuesdays).
Class dates/times are bolded. Corresponding Jewish holidays are italicized.
Registration closes Monday, August 5 (Rosh Chodesh Av)
Tuesday Cohort
Tuesday, August 20th (16th Av): Welcome & Foundations
Tuesday, Sept 3rd (Rosh Chodesh Elul): High Holidays
Oct 2-4: Rosh Hashanah
Oct 11-12: Yom Kippur
Oct 16-23: Sukkot
Tuesday, Oct 29 (27 Tishrei): High Holiday Reflection
Tuesday Nov 26 (26th Cheshvan): Channukah
Dec 25-Jan 1: Channukah
Tuesday Jan 7th (7th Tevet): Tu b’Shvat
Tuesday Feb 4th (7th Shvat): Purim
Feb 13: Tu b’Shvat
Tuesday March 4th (4th Adar): Pesach
March 14: Purim
Tuesday April 1st (3rd Nisan): Pesach~Omer
April 12-20: Pesach
Tuesday April 29th (1st of Iyyar): Shavuot
June 1st-3rd: Shavuot
Thursday June 5th (9th Sivan): Spring Reflection
Tuesday June 17th (21st Sivan): High Holiday Seeding
Tuesday July 1st (5th Tamuz): Tisha b’Av
August 3rd: Tisha b’Av
Tuesday August 5th (11th Av): Elul & High Holidays
Tuesday Sept 2nd (9th Elul): High Holidays & Closing Reflections
Sept 22-24: Rosh Hashanah 5786!
Wednesday Cohort
Wednesday, August 21 (17th Av): Welcome & Foundations
Wednesday, Sept 4 (Rosh Chodesh Elul): High Holidays
Oct 2-4: Rosh Hashanah
Oct 11-12: Yom Kippur
Oct 16-23: Sukkot
Wednesday, Oct 30 (28 Tishrei): High Holiday Reflection
Wednesday Nov 27 (26th Cheshvan): Channukah
Dec 25-Jan 1: Channukah
Wednesday Jan 8th (8th Tevet): Tu b’Shvat
Wednesday Feb 5th (7th Shvat): Purim
Feb 13: Tu b’Shvat
Wednesday March 5th (5th Adar): Pesach
March 14: Purim
Wednesday April 2nd (4th Nisan): Pesach~Omer
April 12-20: Pesach
Wednesday April 30th (2nd of Iyyar): Shavuot
June 1st-3rd: Shavuot
Wednesday June 4th (8th Sivan): Spring Reflection
Wednesday June 18th (22nd Sivan): High Holiday Seeding
Wednesday July 2nd (6th Tamuz): Tisha b’Av
August 3rd: Tisha b’Av
Wednesday August 6th (12th Av): Elul & High Holidays
Wednesday Sept 3rd (10th Elul): High Holidays & Closing Reflections
Sept 22-24: Rosh Hashanah 5786!
FAQs
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Life happens! To build group cohesion, please sign up for this cohort if at this time you can attend the majority of sessions. Sessions will be recorded for participants.
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You’re welcome in this cohort! Prerequisite is the desire to lead Jewish ritual in community; one of the challenges we will work through is discerning who and how to bring people together for ritual.
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Yes, thank you for asking! The pricing of this course has options:
1) a sliding scale, $360 - $1200 (suggested $540) for people to self-assess what they can afford to pay. Here’s a tool to support self-assessment.
2) a No One Turned Away for Lack of Funds option, that I hope you will utilize! (yes you!)
3) Free to Jews of Color, Black, Indigenous, Sefardi and Mizrahi Jews. This is in acknowledgment of the ways in which Jews of Color, Black and Indigenous Jews are frequently marginalized and experience racist harm in Jewish spaces, especially ones led by white Jews. Offering this course as explicitly free to JOCSM, Black and Indigenous Jews, including folks who can afford to pay, is one small attempt to acknowledge and make repair for white supremacy in Jewish spaces, and my limitations as a white, Ashkenazi teacher. As a white, Ashkenazi descendent person, I profoundly hope to and will work to create an anti-racist space, to incorporate and uplift multiracial, multicultural, multilingual Jewish tradition into course materials, to respond openly and humbly to feedback and concerns. If you are a Jew of Color, Black, Sefardi, Mizrahi and/or Indigenous Jew who wants to pay any amount on the sliding scale for the course, you are very welcome to!
After you register for the class, you will be sent information on payment options, where participants can select payment rate and plan.
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Please ask them! Email fortimessuchasthesebook@gmail.com