• NHC's Summer Institute: July 29- August 4, 2024. Registration opens April 25th

    This year’s theme of עִיר מִקְלָט “Ir Miklat: City of Refuge” can be found in a small corner of parshat Matot-Masei (Numbers 30:2 - 36:13). It epitomizes how we want this year’s institute to feel: a space where both the individual and the community at the heart of the Havurah ethos can come together in a safe space to create something meaningful, where our connections are welcoming and inclusive, fun and exciting, relaxing and energizing, and insightful and spiritually significant for our diverse community of participants.

    The Core Team envisions Institute as our City of Refuge--a place that’s safe--this year more than ever. What is it YOU need refuge from? We welcome you to join us at Pearlstone Center for sanctuary and refuge, to renew and refresh, and to play, rest, create and learn with us!

Institute 2018

The NHC’s flagship program, the week-long Summer Institute, will take place July 23 – 29, 2018 at the University of Hartford, providing a unique opportunity for serious study, moving prayer, spirited conversation, late-night jam sessions, singing, dancing, and meditation – 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.

Find this year’s complete program guide here!

Theme

דַּבְּרוּ עַל־לֵב

“Speak to the Heart”
– Isaiah 40:2 

The theme for this year’s Institute is“Dabru al Lev – Speak to the Heart”(Isaiah 40:2, Haftarah for Shabbat Nachamu).  When we “speak to the heart” and connect with one another with compassion and authenticity, we open ourselves to real relationship and to new perspectives.  Speaking gently yet honestly, no matter how challenging the subject matter, is a courageous act that plants seeds of transformation. We are excited to gather with you at NHC to co-create a dynamic, intergenerational community that fosters curiosity, love of Torah, and heart connection. We look forward to seeing you in July!  

~The Institute 2018 Core Planning Team

Community

At the Summer Institute, every teacher is also a student and every student is a teacher. People who are usually called “rabbi” or “professor” throughout the year go by their first names here. And people who rarely take active leadership roles in their communities discover that they, too, can teach and contribute to the community.

One of the NHC Summer Institute’s greatest strengths is the diversity of its participants. We are musicians, doctors, students, furniture makers, retirees, Jewish professionals, homemakers, teachers, activists, and just about everything else:

Intergenerational: At the 2016 Summer Institute, the youngest participant was a month and a half old, while we had 9 folks in our midst with the wisdom of over 80 years. Participants from all age groups shared meals, stories, teachings, songs, and talents all week long.

Pluralistic and Inclusive:The NHC Summer Institute includes people committed to various forms of traditional and non-traditional Jewish practice, Jews from birth, Jews by choice, Jews with multiple religious heritages, non-Jews, and people exploring Judaism.

Diverse backgrounds and lives: NHC Summer Institute participants hold a variety of identities including LGBTQ and straight; people of color, Sephardi, Mizrachi and Ashkenazi; urban, rural, and suburban; Conservative, Orthodox, Reconstructionist, Reform, Renewal, secular, and Jewish without labels.

Learning for Everyone: NHC Summer Institute participants also have a variety of Jewish learning backgrounds, from those with no formal Jewish education to those with Ph.D.s in Talmud.

The dynamic process of exploring together what Judaism and Jewishness means in our lives is a highlight of the Summer Institute.

Schedule Outline (more details below)

7:00 – Traditional Egalitarian Minyan Shaharit/Morning services
8:00 – Breakfast
8:30 – Minyanim
9:25 – Workshops
10:35 – Classes
12:30 – Lunch
1:40 – Classes
3:20 – Workshops
4:30 – Less structured time (go for a walk, play with kids, take a nap, study Mishna, meet up with a group that shares a particular interest or identity, find a partner and follow the contra dance caller’s instructions, investigate participants and visitors’ wares at the shuk, give feedback at the Board meeting, meet the Zeitler Fellows, etc.)
6:15 – Dinner
7:15 – Mincha /Ma’ariv Evening Services
8:00 – Evening Programs
10:00 – Late Night Happenings

Minyanim

Every day at the Summer Institute, participants lead each other in a different menu of spirited prayer options in many styles, including daily traditional egalitarian morning services with full Hebrew liturgy, plus meditative, movement, and musical services, with and without instruments, both indoors and outdoors, as well as mincha (afternoon) and maariv (evening) services. All minyanim organized and sponsored by the NHC are fully egalitarian, with equal participation regardless of gender or sexual orientation.

Workshops

One way in which we share ourselves with each other at the Summer Institute is through hour-long workshops that occur each morning and afternoon during the week. Anyone can propose a workshop, and it’s a great place to try out a new idea or experiment with teaching and leading. This is a great way to share something with our community. Workshops can be presented in any format that the teacher/facilitator can imagine, from discussion to hevruta/paired learning to lecture to shared activity (e.g., group run).

In 2016, a toddler co-led a workshop on appreciating ants, concurrently with others’ workshop discussions of The Best (and Worst) of Big Biblical Epics, a trip to Budapest, Warsaw, and Krakow to study the legacies of the Jewish life, antisemitism, and resistance in these cities, Shabbat Menus for Busy People, Bhakti: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Lord, and Admission to Olam Haba: A Post-Temple Rabbinic Power Grab? Other options included Yiddish Dancing to Live Music and a Birth/Parenting Story Slam. And that was just one of 8 workshop slots during the week!

Classes

Courses are a central part of the Institute experience. Each Institute participant may enroll in two courses, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Courses meet Tuesday through Friday for 1.5 hour sessions. Each course has a maximum of 20 students and is led by a teacher who is also an Institute participant, presenting material that they love in an inclusive style that encourages everyone to participate.

Evening Programs

Each evening after dinner, the community gathers for programming as a large group. Some of these programs may be led by the Timbrel ‎Artists in Residence, Hollander Social Justice Fellow, or the Liturgist in Residence. Some may be serious discussions of issues with which we want to engage as a community. Some will be lighter-hearted ways to connect – a talent show, a dance party.

Late-Night Happenings

The community that gathers for Summer Institute wants to make the most of our time together. Each evening after our large-group program, we offer other structured opportunities to enjoy each others’ company: making music (American folk singing, sharing niggunim, instrument jam session), playing games (board, card, improv), dancing (cardio, Israeli folk), singing along to movie musicals, additional studying, and other sorts of merry-making. All participants can volunteer to lead a late-night program in their registration.

And whatever else you want to make happen! 

Looking to make contact with folks from your home geography? Want to explore the themes of Harry Potter through a Jewish lens? Are you an early riser who wants to circumnavigate campus with others before breakfast? Seeking support for building your crochet or Torah reading skills? Need a haircut? Put up a notice about your interest and where and when others can meet up with you. We are the ones who build our community! We are the ones who decide what that looks like!

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