Tazria
Hello everyone! Let's jump right in.
Jewish Calendar
This week's torah portion is tazria! We're introduced to tzaraat (biblical leprosy), and talk some about tumah (ritual impurity).
I think bird kashrut was last week, but here, have some funny birds anyway.
https://twitter.com/synanthropy/status/1508150107157401600
It's almost Pesach!
https://twitter.com/red_loeb/status/1508483143950643200
Happy april fools day! Moderntribe has a candle for you.
JIMENA has a lovely little pesach and mimouna guide highlighting several countries' traditions, and Sephardic Brotherhood emailed out a pesah guide as well. SAMI Campus also has an overview of various minhagim on their instagram.
Seder plate as pedagogy for belonging is a new one for me!
https://twitter.com/jh_swanson/status/1509932834072453124
Omer counting
Color the Omer came out last year and looks super cute!
I will be putting together a daily email reminder with some kabbalah stuff in it (not written by me, sourced from elsewhere). Currently I am planning to have it not feature the number in the subject line, and will say something like "starting at sunset on [gregorian calendar date], it will be the [number]th day of the omer".
Rabbinical school mishegas
Remember how last week we talked about Ziegler (a Conservative rabbinical school) slashing tuition and Reform rabbinical school HUC possibly closing their Cincinnati campus? Well, I wasn't the only one noticing this as a potential trend. Arno Rosenfeld in the wrote about it in the Forward.
The conversations I saw about this article on social media have tended to fall in a few categories:
Sure would be nice if they trained people without a bachelor's degree. (As far as I know, the reason most rabbinical schools don't is some kind of mutual recognition with military and other chaplaincy programs. In my opinion, though, if you're taking five years to study you have at the very least achieved the equivalent of a bachelors degree somewhere in there and probably should not require one for entry--surely there could be a BA-and-MA path as well as the MA path? A degree in jewish-related topics is not required, just any BA. What knowledge would an electrical engineering graduate bring that someone with equivalent life experience but no bachelor's degree wouldn't?)
Sure would be nice if they were more willing to train people in interfaith relationships. (Most do not allow this.)
Sure would be nice if they were openly affirming to trans people. (In most cases non-orthodox schools and movement policies have no problem with ordaining trans people, but the environment may or may not actually be friendly in practice.)
Sure would be nice if they let nonzionist or antizionist Jews in. (I have heard, by the way, that if you are barred from entering israel for being a member of JVP or other organizing actions, some non movement rabbinical schools that generally require a year in israel will let you figure out an alternate arrangement.
Rosenfeld does note in his article that ALEPH's Renewal ordination program and the main modern orthodox yeshiva didn't respond in time for inclusion in the article, but only briefly referred to Reconstructionist Rabbinical College at all. My guess is RRC is not having the same crisis of enrollment that Reform and Conservative rabbinical schools are, and it is not coincidental that (along with non-movement-affiliated schools) they are more flexible on educating nonzionists, those in interfaith relationships, and others who don't fit into more classic modes of judaism so well.
All that being said, I am going to give the same blanket advice I give to people considering graduate school in any arena: Be really, really, really sure that you want to go to grad school. Make sure what you want is five years of going into debt while intensely learning, including moving to Israel for a year, even if the end does not guarantee you a job as a rabbi. Graduate school is very stressful and expensive and does not guarantee you a job at the end. I went to study something else, not Judaism, but I do have a masters' degree so I know of what I speak. I also know socially a number of rabbis with smicha who do non-rabbi jobs to earn a living.
I feel like I see many people in non-orthodox environments, particularly those also outside of Conservative or Reform Judaism, develop a desire to learn deeply and live more jewishly than they currently are, and then interpret that as a desire to be a rabbi. You do not have to become a rabbi to live a beautiful full jewish life outside of orthodoxy, or outside of any given movement, whatever that means for you. Explore and make sure the rabbinate is what you want before you commit.
Miscellaneous
https://twitter.com/chrisilver1/status/1509875050748551168
Nesi Altaras writes about what Ottoman Sephardim thought of Ashkenazim in Naming Other Jews: Looking at Yiddish Speakers Through Ladino.
Jewish Disability community lost a leader this week. May Sheryl Grossman's memory be a blessing.
Masters student Hannah Berman is "attempting to analyze how internalized Jewish victimization is perpetuated through standard Jewish history educations." She has a survey you can fill out specifically for people who attended Jewish elementary or high schools if you have thoughts. Unfortunately there's binary radio buttons for gender but this does sound like an interesting enough project that I linked it anyway.
There is a lot going on here but it boils down to: new mexico's jewish community is a little bit of a mess right now and there's possible consequences for sephardim seeking spanish citizenship.
Wanna watch some movies? The Judy Levis Krug Boca Raton Jewish Film Festival has copious online options, as does JCC Rockland International Jewish Film Festival.
I haven't explored it yet, but Jewish Quarter Ankara Digital Platform (JQA) sounds extremely neat. Learn more about it in this article in Middle East Eye.
https://twitter.com/rabbicreditor/status/1508114962652270599
An in-progress graphic novel about growing up gay in and Orthodox community? Don't mind if i do!
Whom needs a femme tzitzit pic? Most of us, I think!
Another Jewish country music roundup podcast episode from Rachel Cholst at Adobe and Teardrops. I'm excited to see whatever you do next, Rachel!
Moment magazine profiles Susanna Heschel, including (yes) the classic orange on a seder plate thing.
Learning from our elders very much includes our jewish weirdo elders, so I subscribe to Alte's newsletter and appreciated Lawrence Bush's musing about psychedelics.
https://twitter.com/TheRaDR/status/1510003426398244868
Classes (and a conference) coming up
New additions bolded! trying something new!
Jewish Anarchist Salon, a series of talks and discussions, every other Sunday 3/13-5/15 (drop-in)
Unyeshiva mini classes (3 weeks each, 4/25-5/15 or 5/16-6/5). Isaiah, Karaites, psychedelics, gender, whatever.
Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes, taught by Rebecca Chess, 4/7-6/30 Thursdays
Cooking Class: Cooking for a Sephardic Pesah Seder, 4/7, with Susan Barocas and Sibel Pinto
Planting Cucumbers By Magic: or, How to Get Away with Jewish Witchcraft, 4/24-5/15 Sundays, taught by Olivia Devorah thru Shel Maala
Pirkei Avot for Goths 4/25-5/31 Tuesdays with Sophia Zohar
Sefer Yetzirah: Meditation, Magic, & The Cosmic Architecture with R' Jill Hammer through Kohenet, April-June (check out their other spring classes too!)
Queer Yiddish Camp, an online intensive, 5/15-5/27. More info at the website. As featured in the Forward!
Events!
4/2 Queer Yiddish Camp Cabaret Fundraiser! Two hours of live music, poetry, dance, burlesque, and queer antics!
4/3 Sustaining Justice: Maintaining Hope & Conviction for the Long Haul from Kehilla Community Synagogue, with Aurora Levins Morales, Naomi Ortiz and adrienne maree brown
4/3 Seattle Limmud Pesach Mini-Festival
4/3 Singing the Haggadah: learn about Anglo-Jewish and Baghdadi seder song traditions (UK time)
4/5 More Than Jewels: A Judeo–Muslim Potential History, an event about the history of Algeria
4/7 In Conversation With - Rob Adler Peckerar & Anthony Russell: MY OWN PERSONAL ROBESON. The Robeson tribute event was amazing so I bet this will be too.
4/10 Perspectives on Cosmopolitan Istanbul in the Hit Netflix Series “The Club”
4/13 Translation, Migration, Mobilization: What does it mean to bring a text across languages? How might translation help make visible, collaborate with, and contest other forms of movement, migration, and mobilization? From Jewish Currents
4/17 Pink Peacock trans liberation seder!
5/3 The Hebrew Bible and Disabilities from Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, RespectAbility, the Hunter College Jewish Studies Department, and ROSIES. (more info)
6/7-6/10 Yidstock
6/12-6/14 Kavod v'Nichum North American Chevrah Kadisha and Jewish Cemetery Conference
Jewish Pet of the Week
The Jewish Pet of the Week this week is a non-chametz loaf named Florence.
https://twitter.com/yair_eitan/status/1503783247473524736
Shabbat shalom,
<3
Meli