Chesapeake Retreat
NHC Chesapeake Retreat!
March 12-14, 2010
Join the National Havurah Committee, havurot and minyanim from across the Mid-Atlantic region for the NHC Chesapeake Retreat.
At the beginning of parashat VaYakhel-Pekudei, the Israelites are told to set apart time and space for the holiness of Shabbat. By the end, they have used their community's possessions to create a shelter for the Divine to dwell along them "throughout all of their journeys."
Take a weekend to examine the tension between the holiness of distinction and the holiness of integration, while experiencing the holiness of a community in which everyone gives of themself. Individuals, families, and havurot of all ages will gather to sing, pray, eat, relax, dance, and learn together.
Download the 2010 brochure!
NHC Summer Institute 2010
August 2 - 8, 2010
Franklin Pierce University, Rindge, NH
The NHC’s flagship program, the week-long Summer Institute, is a unique opportunity for serious study, moving prayer, spirited conversation, late-night jam sessions, singing, dancing, swimming, meditation, and hiking – all in the company of more than 300 people from a wide range of backgrounds. Each year, participants leave the Institute reinvigorated and excited to return to their home communities to share new ideas, skills, and experiences.
The theme of this year's Institute is “D'ror Yikra: Freedom for All" . Read about this year's courses.
From the Havurah! Newsletter Blog...
Announcing the NHC Resources Site
Submitted by nhc on Fri, 01/29/2010 - 21:37If you want to know about the birth, feeding, and care of independent havurot or DIY minyanim there's no place better than http://resources.havurah.org, the resouroces website of the National Havurah Committee (NHC).
Report from the NHC Summer Institute 2009
Submitted by nhc on Sun, 12/27/2009 - 19:45
By Russ Agdern and Marisa Harford, Institute Co-chairs
Where in the world can you thresh wheat, learn about where electricity comes from and how to conserve it, sing the divine, practice mussar (Jewish ethical study), trade ideas about how to build a better Jewish community, discuss the Israel-Palestine conflict, and dance your tuches off, all in one week? The Summer Institute, of course!
Institute 2010: Featured Course
A16 - The Ground Where You Are Standing is Holy: A Jewish Theology of Place
Jill Jacobs
Description
What does it mean to live in a place as a Jew? How does that place, or our choice of it, affect our relationship with God—whether through the place itself or the people we encounter there? What obligations do we have to that place and those people? And what does place mean in a globalized world? In this course, we will examine concepts of space and place in secular and Jewish thought, and we will work to construct a theology of place that helps us to define our spheres of obligation to the world around us.
Jill Jacobs is the author of There Shall Be No Needy: Pursuing Social Justice through Jewish Law and Tradition (Jewish Lights 2009) and the Rabbi-in-Residence of Jewish Funds for Justice. She is currently at work on a book about the theology of place as a framework for effective social justice work, which she began while on sabbatical as a Jerusalem Fellow at the Mandel Leadership Institute. She lives in New York with her husband, Guy Austrian, and their daughter Lior.
Notes
Prerequisites: There are no prerequisites for this class. All Hebrew texts will be provided together with English translations.
Categories
- Contemporary Issues
- Spiritual and Religious Life
- Afternoon Course
About the NHC
The National Havurah Committee (NHC) is a network of diverse individuals and communities dedicated to Jewish living and learning, community building, and tikkun olam (repairing the world). Since the 1970s, the NHC Summer Institute has been bringing together Jews from across North America to envision a joyful grassroots Judaism and provide the tools to help them create empowered Jewish lives and communities. The NHC is a nondenominational, multigenerational, egalitarian, and volunteer-run organization.
Havurah Resources Site Sampler
The Havurah Resources Site contains practical advice about starting a new Havurah, governance, finance, leading worship, and other programming including a special section on social justice. Here's a sample: