Welcome to Lishma: a community of learners in our 20s and 30s
Whether you're a seasoned scholar or brand new to Jewish learning, we value the perspectives and experience you bring to the class.
In grateful recognition of J.B. and Dora Salsberg Fund for their support.
Semester 3 In-person @ Holy Blossom May 8 - June 19, 2024 (No class on June 12) 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Deeper Time: Ancestral Altars and Connections Beyond the Moment with Robbie Solway This course will follow the thread of co-creating an ancestral altar, exploring opportunities to develop our relationships with our ancestors, descendants, and relations across time. Connecting with beings out of this moment, in every moment. We will work with Jewish and non-Jewish understandings of the altar, time, and story. Each session will begin with a close reading practice as a group, followed by interactive activities to deepen our engagement including art, peer sharing, and prayer writing.
Robbie is a facilitator, learning designer, and Mazon Canada’s Community Lead, where they nourish strong, trusting relationships with Mazon’s partner network and engage our community in learning about food security, food justice, and food sovereignty. Exploring their own ancestry brought them to Belarus and Poland, and then back to Toronto, opening up meaningful
Shabbat Lab Presented in partnership with Jewish& + OneTable “More than Jews have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the Jews”. Shabbat Lab is our deep dive into the many facets of the Jewish day of rest. Whether you come from a life-long Shabbat practice or are thinking of taking one on for the first time, we invite you explore together this ‘palace in time’. Through insightful discussions, experiential learning, and meaningful rituals, this course offers a space for exploration, connection, and growth. The course will ultimately empower each participant to forge a deeper connection with their Shabbat experience, and with themselves.
About Jewish& We welcome you and everything you bring to the table at Jewish& - Miles Nadal JCC’s program that explicitly gathers interfaith, multi-cultural and mixed heritage folks and families for Jewish exploration, education and celebration.
About OneTable Inspired by ancient Jewish wisdom, OneTable is a national non-profit that empowers folks (21-39ish) to find, share, and enjoy Shabbat dinners, making the most of their Friday nights. OneTable provides simple DIY tools so hosts can get right to welcoming people to a Shabbat dinner in their home, so guests can savor a Friday meal, and for all to experience unique events for Shabbat dinners right in their neighborhood. They are led by the core values of joy, welcoming, and elevation, and envision a whole generation of young people slowing down, getting together, unplugging from the week, creating intention in their lives, and building meaningful communities.
Are You There, God?: Exploring Theology through the lens of Torah and Commentary with Lara Rodin What does God look like? Why is God called God? Can God hear our prayers? Why doesn't God protect us from harm and evil in the world? Join rabbinical student and Beth Tzedec Rabbinic Intern Lara Rodin in exploring theological questions and responses offered by our texts and sages. Try ideas on for size, explore your own theological vocabulary, and bring your best questions. Warning: Answers not guaranteed. I care about who you are and what makes you feel holy. Through building relationships, discovering the stories of our tradition, calling out in prayer, marking time through ritual, and exploring Jewish values in the outdoors, I bring people closer to Torah, to themselves, and to each other. Before beginning rabbinical school at the Jewish Theological Seminary, I spent two years learning at Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, where I completed a Masters in Jewish Education. For the past three summers I was the inaugural Program Director of Masa BaTeva, an outdoor adventure track at Camp Ramah in Canada. I am the rabbinic intern Beth Tzedec Congregation and Robbins Hebrew Academy. When I am not in the classroom or on the bimah, you can find me hiking or cycling in the Canadian Rockies, near my hometown of Calgary.
Costs and Funding Lishma is funded by student contributions and partnering organizations, providing us with coordination, teachers, facilitators and space. We strive to keep costs accessible and we use a sliding scale. The suggested contribution is $72 ($12/night). There is a minimum of $36 for the semester ($6/night). If you are unable to contribute at this time, please be in touch in confidence with Aaron Rotenberg at aaron@annexshul.com.
2023/24: Semester 1: Women Haunted: Yiddish Literature from Folklore to Modernism: with Julia Sharff If These Walls Could Talk: Archaeology as Source Material: with Amit Rozenblum
Semester 2: The Behemoth in the Wild: Compassion, Uncertainty, and the Quest for Meaning in the Book of Job with Benjamin Hackman Revisiting Israel from the Dawn of Modernity to Our Time with Dr. Meirav Jones
2022/23: Semester 1: Tools for Ending Antisemitism: Understanding Ourselves and the Canadian Context of Antisemitism with Aaron Rotenberg The Jewish View on Reproductive Rights with Cantor Cheryl Wunch
Semester 2: Tikkun-ing this Shattered Olam: Kabbalah 101 with Izzy Waxman Jewish Fabulous: Queer and Subversive Figures from Across Jewish Sacred Text with Toby King
Semester 3: Controversy and the Jewish Tradition with Dr. Ori Werdiger Tending the Jewish Garden with Elena Potter Marking Time: Creating a Jewish Calendar Together with Leah Gold, A Printmaking Course for Artists of All Levels and Experience
2021/22: Semester 1: ONLINE Shmita: Release, Rest, and Reset with Risa Alyson Cooper Spoken Word Poetry: Resistance and Resilience with Ayla Lefkowitz
Semester 2: ONLINE North African Jewish Storytelling: Miracles, Folk Tales, and Histories with Chaim Grafstein Diaspora Judaism & Reconciliation: Locating Ourselves in the Conversation with Sterling Stutz Tackling Talmud: Leadership and Society with Rabbi Jordan Shaner
2020/21:
Summer mini-mester: ONLINE Learning and Unlearning: Exploring the Experiences of Jewish People of Colour and Inequality in Canada with Sara Yacobi-Harris
Semester 1: ONLINE @ Beth Tzedec Hands-On Track: Middle Eastern Cooking with Ronnie Abraham Judaism +Modernity Track: Finding Our Place: Jews in the Struggle for Racial Equity with Tema Smith Text and Context Track: Exploring Sephardi Jewry through Rabbinic Texts with Chaim Grafstein
Semester 2: ONLINE @ Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre Multigenerational Trauma and Resilience with Carmelle Wolfson, MSW, RSW and Adrianna LeBlanc, MSW Punishment and Prisons: the Polemics and Politics with Dyanoosh Youssefi Homesteading the Holidays with Rabbi Becca Walker
Semester 3: ONLINE @ Holy Blossom Klezmer Crash Course with Lorie Wolf, Toronto Klezmer Society Hands-on History: The Early Years of the Toronto Jewish Community with Sharoni Sibony The Illustrated Pirke Avot with Rabbi Zachary Goodman and special guest, Jessica Tamar Deutsch
2019/20:
Semester 1: @ CSI Annex Tzedakah (Hands-On Track): Dyeing & Doykheit: An exploration of natural dyeing, connection to land and Jewish diaspora with Sarit Cantor T’shuvah (Judaism +Modernity Track): Returning, Repenting & Reconnecting with Yacov Fruchter T’fillah (Text and Context Track): Learning to Live Whole-Heartedly with Rabbi Julia Appel Semester 2: @ Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre Hands-On Track: Jewish Self-Care through the Arts with Or Har-Gil Judaism + Modernity: Faith Based Social Justice with the Lishma Team Text and Context: 6 Amazing Texts with Rabbi Zachary Goodman
Semester 3: @ Holy Blossom Temple Hands-On Track:New Jewish Film with Aaron Rotenberg Judaism + Modernity: Bad@$$ Sheroes with Rabbi Becca Walker Text and Context:Jewish Couplehood with Yacov Fruchter
Semester 4: ONLINE @ Beth Tzedec Hands-On Track: Creative Writing with Tikva Hecht Judaism + Modernity: Medical Ethics with Rabbi Steven Wernick Text and Context: Queer Apocalypse in the Jewish Imagination with Rabbi Andrea Myers 2018/19:
Semester 1: @ Miles Nadal JCC Hands-On Track: Hebrew Calligraphy as Jewish Art with Baruch Sienna Judaism +Modernity Track: Harry Potter and the Sacred Text with Jenny Isaacs Text and Context Track: Weekly Torah for Beginners with Rabbi Jordan Helfman Semester 2: @ Beth Tzedec Hands-On Track: Tachles! Learning (Beginner) Conversational Hebrew with Lior Sagi Judaism + Modernity: PJ Library/Melton Foundations of Jewish Living with Daniel Silverman Text and Context: People of the Book, People of the Land with Risa Alyson Cooper
Semester 3: @ CSI Annex Hands-On Track:Mindfulness in Silence and Song with Aviva Chernick / Jewish Music for the Healing of the Soul with Aaron Lightstone (split course) Judaism + Modernity:Jewish Couplehood with Yacov Fruchter Text and Context: Feminist Torah with Rabbi Denise Handlarski
Semester 4: @ Holy Blossom Temple Hands-On Track: Starting an Indigenous/Jewish Conversation with Leah Mauer Judaism + Modernity: Refugees, Judaism and Asylum with Howard Adelman Text and Context: Judaism and Happiness with Rabbi Baruch Frydman-Kohl