To participate in any of our virtual offerings, you
will need to have a Zoom account and register for the program. Email
[email protected]
for details on how to get Zoom and register.
Pride Havdallah Service
Rabbi Goldberg and Paula Wolfson
Saturday, June 13, 7:30-8:30 pm
Please join us for our annual Pride Havdallah service. Led by Rabbi Goldberg and Chazzan Paula Wolfson, this year’s pride will be a virtual celebration. At these most difficult times, we will focus our words, songs and prayers on the themes of diversity, healing and repair of our fractured world. All are welcome.
Healing Our Hearts from Intergenerational Trauma Through Presence
Judith Mintz
Wednesday, June 17, 7:30-9:00 pm
The concept of
tikkun halev
in Judaism refers to
the repair and opening of our hearts. For trauma survivors, this can be a big ask, but there are opportunities where we least expect it.
In this presentation and discussion, Judith will share the story of her journey from rejecting her identity as a Jew as a result of the effects of the Holocaust on her family, to embracing her role as the family of survivors. Last August, Judith travelled to Łódź Poland for the week-long 75th anniversary commemorative ceremonies of the closure of the ghetto (Litmanstadtt Ghetto).
Through an anti-racist feminist lens of a visual presentation of her photos and video footage she collected on the trip, Judith will speak about how she found
tikkun halev
in Łódź. Not only has Judith’s family been touched by the holocaust, but Łódź is the same city where her family had lived both before the war and also from where they were deported to Auschwitz.
Judith Mintz, PhD, in addition to being a member of the Shir Libeynu community and mother of two, is a Quality Assurance and Decolonization Analyst with Native Child and Family Services Toronto. She taught yoga for two decades and in 2019 completed her dissertation on healthism, cultural appropriation and yoga in North America for her PhD in Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies at York University.
Jewish Gratitude Practice in Troublesome Times
Lorne Blumer
Sunday, June 21, 4:00-5:00 pm
There’s a tradition that Jews are to recite a hundred blessings a day. And while this might be an ambitious number for most, one could certainly make the case that engaging with gratitude, even or especially in these troublesome times, benefits both us and others.
In this workshop, among the everyday Jewish gratitude practices we’ll explore are those for what we eat, what we see, the “mere” act of waking and putting on a facemask before stepping outside. Along the way, we’ll look at some of the barriers that get between some of us and tradition, including God-language (and God-as-masculine language), Hebrew and the sense of merely going through the motions.No prior knowledge of Hebrew or Jewish tradition is required.
Lorne Blumer, in addition to being a long-time member of Shir Libeynu, is the leader of Hineinu, a community for Jewish contemplative practice, and a graduate of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality’s program in Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training.
