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June 4, 2020 | 12 Sivan 5780
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PsalmSeason Concert Kicks-Off 18-Week Miller Center & Interfaith Youth Core Initiative
“The beauty and ferocity of the Book of Psalms provide us with a rich and time-honored resource through which to reflect on the current crises and our pursuit of justice, compassion, and healing. Like so many of the ancient poets in this time-honored text, we seek meaningful ways to express our deepest thoughts and feelings in a time of upheaval.” — Rabbi Or Rose
In response to the unfolding global pandemic and upheaval over racial injustice, the Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leadership at Hebrew College and Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) are launching a major digital initiative, PsalmSeason: An Online Encounter with the Wisdom of the Psalms. PsalmSeason will begin with an online concert, followed by 18 weeks of reflections, poetry, music, and words of inspiration by over 50 spiritual and cultural leaders. Miller Center Director Rabbi Or Rose envisioned the project and enlisted colleague Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, Senior Advisor at IFYC, to help bring it to life.
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PsalmSeason Concert: A Playlist for Our Times
PsalmSeason begins on Monday, June 8, 7:30 pm EDT US with a concert featuring 18 musical and poetic expressions by artists of diverse races and religions from around the world. Each performer will share a piece from the Psalms or inspired by its themes of lament, longing, comfort, strength, gratitude, and hope. Performers include Sweet Honey in the Rock (above, left), David Broza (above, right), Neshama Carlebach, Joey Weisenberg, Abayudaya: The Jews of Uganda and others.
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PsalmSeason 18-Week Project: Online Reflections on the Psalms
Contributors are musicians, artists, poets, storytellers, scholars, and activists representing a range of religious, spiritual, and secular traditions, including: Krista Tippett (NPR); Father James Martin (America Magazine); Sharon Salzberg (Insight Meditation); Marilyn Nelson (Poet Laureate, Connecticut); Imam Taymullah Abdur-Rahman (Massachusetts Department of Correction); Rev. William Lamar IV (Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, DC); Sarah Hurwitz (senior White House speechwriter for President Obama) and many others.
“We hope PsalmSeason will offer accompaniment for all who are feeling disconnected, discouraged, degraded, or alone," said Rev. Raushenbush. "Reaching out over the millennia, the psalms offer us a soundtrack for this time of illness and injustice, reminding us of our intimate connection to the Divine and our divinely mandated commitment to one another."
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Hebrew College offers Jewish educators resources for this moment
When the pandemic hit and schools and synagogues went virtual, Hebrew College’s graduate education faculty took action, launching a series of web-based professional conversations and webinars for educators.
Congregational Education Institute (CEI)
CEI hosted online conversations to provide leaders and teachers with a virtual community, a source of spiritual nourishment, and an oppportunity to explore new virtual learning tools and content. Each session included a teaching by a Hebrew College faculty member, a panel with practitioners, and a closing bracha led by a cantorial student or alumnus. Next session: June 15. Email Marion Gribetz (above, left) for information.
Interreligious Godly Play
For the first time, Hebrew College offered educators a Jewish-Christian Interfaith Godly Play webinar.
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Celebrate with us this Sunday, June 7
Join us online as we honor our graduates.
12 pm: Celebration of Our Graduates
Honor those becoming rabbis, cantors, and Jewish educators. Graduates will be welcomed back on June 6, 2021 to march with the class of 2021.
1 pm: Cantorial Ordination
School of Jewish Music graduates will be ordained as cantors.
2 pm: Rabbinic Ordination: Stage I
Rabbinical School graduates will be honored and have the title of "Rabbi" conferred upon them. The second stage of rabbinic ordination will be held when we can safely gather in person.
Learn more about our graduates and help us recognize the Class of 2020 with a contribution to support Hebrew College's future.
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New! Prozdor Summer Online Class:
"Jewish Teens Talking To Jewish Teens"
Thursdays, June 25 – July 23, 7:30-8:30 pm, via Zoom
With Rabbi David Ehrenkranz
This first-ever Prozdor summer course will meet weekly for five weeks, convening a diverse group of Jewish teenagers to discuss issues like dating, Shabbat, fasting, Jewish law and women, pluralism, and what it means to be a Jew. Open to any Jewish teenager in Massachusetts.
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JTFGB Awards $58,000 of Grants
On May 27, teen leaders in The Jewish Teen Foundation of Greater Boston program awarded grants to eight organizations that focus on education inequality, substance use disorder, environmental justice, and gun violence. (Above, left: JTFGB student Howie Brown explains the grant-making process; above, right: members of Sandy Hook Promise thank JTFGB for their grant.)
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Cantorial Capstone Recital
On May 31, cantorial student Rachel Slusky performed "The Amidah Explored: God Wants the Heart" for more than 100 viewers via YouTube. Rachel structued her program around the core parts of the Amidah and included works in Hebrew, Yiddish, English, Italian, and Ladino. Accompanists: Yukiko Oba on piano and Susan Miron (above left) on harp. Watch now.
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There is no Seventy Faces of Torah post this week.
In sorrow and protest, we dedicate this space to the memory of lives lost to the systemic racism that has plagued our country for 400 years. Over the coming weeks, Seventy Faces of Torah will feature the voices of Jews of color from within and beyond the Hebrew College community.
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Learning, Loving, & Losing: The Torah Of Trees
By Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman `14
Director of Professional Development, Rabbinical School of Hebrew College
This year, as what we call the world fell apart faster than we’d expected, I fell in love with trees. Like in love, in love. Not the crush of my girlhood when I admired them and fancied myself the child at the end of Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax. In love like I dream about them. I see their bodies when I close my eyes, branches and trunks of different species trace my insides depending on the mood: the arch of the redbud’s trunk in joy and pleasure. The tight winter huddle of the spruce in fear.
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June Virtual Events
June 7
A Celebration of Our Graduates: Noon-12:45 pm
Cantorial Ordination: 1 pm
Rabbinic Ordination: 2 pm
Learn more
June 8
PsalmSeason Concert & Event Kick-Off
7:30 pm | Learn more
June 10
Virtual Taste of Me'ah
Co-hosted by Temple Israel of Sharon & B’nai Tikvah in Canton, MA
Facilitated by Me’ah Instructor Rabbi Leonard Gordon
9:30 am | Learn more & register
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