Unity Through learning.
Study Torah with a partner and make connections with Jews from across Portland. Hot drinks, light snacks, and study resources will all be made available.
Join Portland as we learn one on one. Bring your learning partner or ask us to provide one.
Shmirat Haguf – Jewish Yoga for Women
Focus on deepening the bond between your physical body and your vitality of spirit. Cultivate a curious and compassionate relationship with yourself as a spiritual act. This practice will offer a safe space to explore our breath, functional movement, fluidity and resistance, strength, and relaxation in a community of women. Women of all ages and experience are welcome. Instructor: Rachel Stern
Made possible by a grant from the Women’s Giving Circle of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland.
Tuesdays
Sept. 3, 10, 17, 24
8:00 – 9:15 pm, FIT126A
Cost: $40. Member Cost: $32.
Drop-in Cost: $12. Member Cost: $10.
Thursdays
Oct. 3, 10, 17, 24
8:00 – 9:15 pm, FIT126B
Cost: $40. Member Cost: $32.
Drop-in Cost: $12. Member Cost: $10.
Tuesdays
Nov. 5, 12, 19, 26
8:00 – 9:15 pm, FIT126C
Cost: $40. Member Cost: $32.
Drop-in Cost: $12. Member Cost: $10.
SilentHikes are a new form of meditation in motion, combining music, verbal guidance, silence and nature to help participants find purpose and connection. While traditional forms of meditation are an isolated experience, and constitute a sort of retreat, this one is an exercise in exploring and being present in the evolving world around us. Participants have described their experiences as “transcendent” and “rocking their world.”
Hidary is a composer and concert pianist and a former tech guru with a passion for physics. His MindTravel concept draws on his expertise across all these disciplines. He loved music from an early age, but truly discovered its powers when it was the only thing that helped him heal after the tragic loss of his sister in a motorcycle accident.
July 15, 2019, article in the JERUSALEM POST described Hidary like this:
The 47-year-old Jewish-American multidisciplinary artist has performed the fruits of his creative continuum to all sorts of audiences in all sorts of locations. The concept of “release,” of relinquishing control and preconceptions about our lives and the physical world around us, is central to the thematic ethos.
A monthly discussion covering a wide range of topics that draw on our experiences.
Thursdays: 11:30 am – 12:15 pm New Time!
Thursday, September 12
Topic: Returning Lost Items – What the Torah Teaches about finders-keepers
Thursday, October 10
Topic: Preparing for Sukkot – Who will you invite to your sukkah?
Thursday, November 14
Topic: Giving Thanks
Thursday, December 12
Topic: Finding Light – Hanukkah learning
Free and open to the community.
In partnership with Congregation Neveh Shalom
Come study and discuss the Bible with Rabbi Isaak at Neveh Shalom.
This 18-week course is taught by members of The Oregon Board of Rabbis, representing a variety of Jewish affiliation. A carefully constructed curriculum includes Jewish history, life cycle events, holidays, ritual and daily practice, theology, study of Torah and contemporary Jewish America. While not a conversion class, most OBR members consider it a prerequisite for students beginning study for conversion. Classes 7-9 pm, Thursdays, at rotating Portland area synagogues. Register here, https://oregonboardofrabbis.org/introduction-to-judaism-class/
RSVP required! RSVP here.
Please join Judith Arcana, author of Grace Paley’s Life Stories, for a conversation with poet and publisher Carl Adamshick, and for readings by both writers from the book. Grace Paley’s Life Stories is the only biography of renowned author and activist Grace Paley and explores the roots of her political consciousness and traces her work as an activist as it grew into her work as a storyteller. It was recently reprinted in a glowing 2nd edition by Eberhardt Press in Portland.
Arcana and Adamschick will discuss the importance of this book, and of Grace’s life and writing, and will read passages and answer audience questions. Judith Arcana will be available afterward to sign books.
Carl Adamshick has worked for 10 years as editor of Tavern Books, a non-profit publisher dedicated to poetry and the preservation of books and book culture. In addition to Birches (2019, Four Way Books), his published works include Curses and Wishes, recipient of the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets, Saint Friend, and Receipt. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
Unity Through learning.
Study Torah with a partner and make connections with Jews from across Portland. Hot drinks, light snacks, and study resources will all be made available.
Join Portland as we learn one on one. Bring your learning partner or ask us to provide one.
Willa Schneberg teaches (guides) a six-session overview of “Literature of Modern and Contemporary Jewish American Women Writers” through Literary Arts’ Delve Seminars begins Sept. 17.In this seminar, we will discuss the “other” Jewish American writers — not Bellow, Roth, Pinsky or Chabon, but work by Jewish American women writers who have created a different canon. We will discuss work by Susan Sontag, Cynthia Ozick, Adrienne Rich, Marge Piercy and others arguably of their stature. These Jewish women writers are not defined by the Jewish male writers’ gaze. They do not perpetuate stereotypes of the Jewish mother as martyr, or as the controlling Jewish woman. They are writers who may be mothers or child-free, partnered or not, straight or non-heterosexual, observant or secular, of Ashkenazi, Sephardic or Mizrachi backgrounds. We will explore the particular light Jewish women writers shine on the American Jewish experience and why their profound contributions to literature have often been overlooked.
READING LIST:
I, Etcetera: Stories by Susan Sontag
Cannibal Gallery by Cynthia Ozick
Split at the Root: An Essay on Jewish Identity by Adrienne Rich
He, She and It by Marge Piercy
A Few Words in the Mother Tongue by Irena Klepfisz
The Moon is Almost Full by Chana Bloch
Divinity School by Alicia Jo Rabins
Paper is White by Hilary Zaid
Getting Home Alive by Rosario Morales and Aurora Levins Morales
Willa Schneberg is a poet, ceramic sculptor, interdisciplinary artist, photographer and curator. She is the author of five collections and received the Oregon Book Award for In the Margins of the World. Her poetry and visual art have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including American Poetry Review, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review and the Tikkun anthology.