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
A22 - “Amish” Yisrael?— Technology, Radical Simplicity, and Jewish Freedom of Choice
Regina Sandler-Phillips
Description
What happens to freedom and community in the proliferation of technology and media? This course will begin with consideration of the simple (“plain”) living practiced within the “peace churches” of the Amish, Mennonites, Brethren and conservative Quakers. We will relate such Christian choices to those of both insular and integrated Jewish communities, especially in the decision-making context of musar (ethical discipline). Finally, we will listen to how “freedom calls” in the traditional observance of Shabbat, as we consider the individual and communal choices facing us as 21st century Jews. Come prepared to combine midrash (study, teaching) with ma’aseh (practical action).
Regina Sandler-Phillips grew up in contact with the insular Jewish communities of Monsey, New York, which informed a number of her subsequent life choices. She is the founding rabbi of Kehillat Tikvah, a trans-denominational Jewish “Community of Hope” in Jackson Heights, Queens and also serves as a hospice bereavement chaplain in her home borough of Brooklyn. Regina believes that we teach what we most need to learn, and has done both at 10 previous NHC Summer Institutes.
Notes
Prerequisites: None. Most texts are in English, with translations provided for those that aren’t (such as selections from Mesillat Yesharim and Ahavas Hesed).
Categories
- Spiritual and Religious Life
- Text for Everyone
- 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: