Other Classes and Opportunities
“Clothed in Holiness”
A Women’s Tallit Workshop
Thursday evenings, 7:00-8:30pm
January 10, 17, 24
Neveh Shalom, Room 127
Cost: Members No Charge; Non-Members $36, materials fee separate.
This mini-series for women will explore the mitzvah of the tallit, the prayer shawl, as encountered in ancient and contemporary texts, in the choreography of Jewish prayer, and as a tool for connecting to God, our community and the oneness of all things.
Participants will be given creative support and guidance as we make or embellish our own tallitot to reflect a sense of personal meaning. Contact Levia Friedman at levia.friedman@gmail.com with questions or to register.
Jennifer Greenberg has a degree in art education, teaching various forms of art to youth of all ages as well as adults. She excels at working with students at any level to make the creative process fun, enjoyable and successful.
Donning a tallit for the first time at her bat mitzvah as part of the transition to becoming a Jewish woman, Sarah Greenstein brings a progressive perspective to the conversation on women and tallitot. Sarah has a background in social work and Judaic studies, and has facilitated formal and informal educational experiences for both youth and adults.
Weekend in Quest
February 22-24, 2008
Astoria, Oregon
Gilgul, Spiritual Transformation and the Jewish Musical Voice with Rabbi Alan Berg
Join us for a Shabbaton to study and celebrate the Jewish musical voice. Beginning with a study of the Psalms, our own spiritual journey will take a close look at Gershwin’s revolutionary jazz opera Porgy and Bess, at the magnificent melodies and poetic words of Paul Simon, the winner of the Library of Congress 1st Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, and at the music and times of Jeffrey Klepper and Debbie Friedman, two of the most impactful contemporary Jewish musicians.
The Shabbaton will include a Saturday evening presentation by the dean of Portland’s jazz scholars, popular radio personality and Jewish leader, George Fendel.
Registration brochures will be available early November.
Sponsored by the Institute of Judaic Studies and Congregation Beth Israel, Congregation Neveh Shalom, and Havurah Shalom.
Introduction to Judaism
Thursday evenings, 7:00-9:00pm
Check schedule for dates
The Introduction to Judaism classes, taught by The Oregon Board of Rabbis, is offered twice a year. The nineteen sessions are taught by fifteen Portland-area rabbis at several different locations. A carefully constructed curriculum includes Jewish history, life-cycle events, holidays, ritual and daily practice, theology, mysticism, study of Torah and contemporary Jewish America.
Students come from a variety of backgrounds: some are Jewish reclaiming their heritage, some are people interested in converting to Judaism, while others are investigating different religions in search of a spiritual comfort level. All are people wanting to learn more about the Jewish faith and what it has to offer.
The “Intro Class” is open to adults over eighteen years of age and presents well-prepared lectures, stimulating discussions, break-out group activities and practice of some blessings and songs. While not a conversion class, most members of The Oregon Board of Rabbis consider this course a prerequisite before students begin conversion study with the rabbi at the congregation of their choice.
For more information about the classes and registration procedure, contact Sheri Cordova, Course Facilitator, at 503.639.0853 or lscord@comcast.net.
Florence Melton Adult Mini-School
The Florence Melton Adult Mini-School provides the entire Jewish community in Portland an opportunity to study together the basics of Jewish belief and practice in a pluralistic, non-denominational manner.
Classes are housed here at Neveh Shalom and the two-year curriculum is offered both on Tuesday mornings and evenings. For information and registration, contact Bonni Goldberg, Director, at 503.892.3015 or melton@jewishportland.org.
Writers & Scholars
Peter Cole
Sunday, October 14, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Portland State University
Cole is an award-winning translator of a new anthology: THE DREAM OF THE POEM: HEBREW POETRY FROM MUSLIM AND CHRISTIAN SPAIN, 950-1492.
Peter Cole has published two collections of poetry, Rift (Station Hill) and Hymns & Qualms (Sheep Meadow Press). A third volume, What Is Doubled: Poems 1981-1989, was recently published by Shearsman Books in the UK. Cole has worked intensively on Hebrew literature, with special emphasis on medieval Hebrew poetry.
Charlotte Fonrobert
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Reed College
Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert is an associate professor in the Religious Studies department of Stanford University. She specializes in Judaism, especially talmudic literature and culture. Her research interests include gender in Jewish culture, the relationship between Judaism and Christianity in Late Antiquity, the discourses of orthodoxy versus heresy, and rabbinic conceptions of Judaism with respect to Greco-Roman culture. She completed her graduate training at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA. Fonrobert is the author of Menstrual Purity: Rabbinic and Christian Reconstructions of Biblical Gender (2000), which won the Salo Baron Prize for a best first book in Jewish Studies of the year
John M. Efron
Sunday, March, 2008
(Date/Time/Place TBA)
John M. Efron is the Koret Professor of Jewish History at Berkeley, California. He received his B.A. from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. Among his publications are:
• Medicine and the German Jews: A History (Yale University Press, Spring 2001)
• Jewish History and Jewish Memory: Essays in Honor of Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi ed., with Elisheva Carlebach and David N. Myers (University Press of New England, 1998).
• Defenders of the Race: Jewish Doctors and Race Science in Fin-de Siécle Europe (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994).
