Global Shavuot Teach-in "From the US to Palestine: Solidarity is Holy"

Join the American Council for Judaism, Rabbis for Ceasefire, and our many partner organizations for our third annual global Shavuot teach-in “From the US to Palestine: Solidarity is Holy.” As the United States expands imperialist wars and Israel continues to inflict horrific violence in Palestine, Lebanon, and Iran, we must recommit to the Holiness of all life. 

Shavuot is traditionally observed through staying up all night studying. We will use our study to grow our solidarity through a 24 hour teach-in. Through text study, short films, songs, and other formats, our teachers from across the world will share their knowledge so we may all become more principled, learned, and committed to liberation. 

Drop in for one session or stay for the whole 24 hours; all our welcome and no prior Jewish text knowledge is needed. The event will begin on May 21st at 6:00 PM Jerusalem/4:00 PM London/11:00 AM NY and ends May 22nd: 6:00 PM Jerusalem/4:00 PM London/11:00 AM NYC

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Co-sponsored by: 

Achvat Amim - Solidarity of Nations
Asian Jews for Palestine 
Beyt Tikkun Synagogue
Boston Workers Circle
Botzina RVA
Center for Jewish Nonviolence
Christian-Jewish Allies for a Just Peace in Israel-Palestine
Cleveland Jewish Collective
Hartford Jewish Organizing Collective 
IfNotNow
Independent Jewish Voices Canada
Jewish Investor Network
Jewish Voice for Peace
Jews For Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ)
Jews for Tikkun Olam: Jewish social workers, therapist, spiritual leaders for social justice and Palestinian liberation
Kehilla Community Synagogue
Kesher Pittsburgh
Kol Tzedek
Narrow Bridge Candles
Northern Manhattan Minyan
Partners for Progressive Israel
Shel Maala
Shleimut
Solidarity of Nations - Achvat Amim
The Bushwick/Ridgewood Shul
This Is Not An Ulpan
Tzedek Chicago
Tzedek Tirdof Havurah
V'ahavtah: A Judaism Beyond Zionism Synagogue

Full Schedule (Times in EDT): 

5/21 11:00 AM Rabbi Margot Meitner, Student Rabbi Hadar Ahuvia, Student Rabbi Noa Baron, Rabbis for Ceasefire "Prayer, Protest, and Study Toward Liberatory Judaism" In this workshop session, Rabbis for Ceasefire members will lead an exploration of liberatory Judaism and how we can practice, embody, and lead Jewish life that is nourishing, compelling, and centers liberation of all people. We will put this into practice by creating a microcosm of liberatory Judaism through singing together, engaging in Talmud study, and sharing stories from recent organizing. We will reflect together about and the role of both prayer and protest in creating change. We aim to support participants to explore the connections between their own spiritual life and participation in movements, and how all of it - rituals, communal practices, study, and collective action - can help us build a Judaism and a world grounded in diasporism, hereness, racial justice, collective liberation, and solidarity with oppressed communities including Palestinians.

5/21 12:00 PM Emanuel Ovadia, Gazoz De Frambuaz "Ahl al-Kitab: SWANA Jewish Print Cultures and Zinemaking" Participants will learn how to fuse SWANA Jewish print cultures, research skills, and radical DIY practices to launch or further their zinemaking journey.

5/21 1:00 PM Hassan ElTayyab & Hani Almadhoun, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Gaza Soup Kitche, UNRWA-USA "Aid Not Arms: Gaza Update and Policy Landscape"

5/21 2:00 PM Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg, Jewish Diaspora Movement "Exploring Diasporism, Embracing Statelessness" Diasporism is currently being defined and redefined, wrestled with, embodied and embraced in our time, as a theoretical framework that can help us explain what we’re doing that’s not Zionism. Join Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg and hopefully some special guests to look at key texts and concepts in fleshing out what Jewish diasporism means in this time, what we want it to mean, how we can live it. We’ll explore how Jews in other time periods embraced statelessness, and how we can continue to build such a movement in our time.

5/21 3:00 PM Rabbi Aryeh Bernstein, Rabbis for Ceasefire "Liberatory Fellow Travelers or Derailing Banwagoners: Lessons in True and False Solidarity from the 'Erev Rav" How do members of an oppressive society show solidarity and alignment with oppressed people working for their own liberation? What are constructive and destructive outcomes of such attempts? The Torah briefly mentions some group of non-Israelites who joined our ancestors in the exodus, leaving the meaning of their joining ambiguous. In this session we will explore the minority of Rabbinic sources that interpret this scene positively and the majority of sources that interpret it negatively to sharpen our understanding of what's at stake in solidarity across chasms of positionality, as well as opportunities and pitfalls. Rather than choose which interpretation is "right", we will consider under which circumstances the political life of solidarity looks like which interpretation.

5/21 4:00 PM L.E. Simon & Rebecca Celli, "Where Do The Dollars Go? How American Jewish Institutions Fund The Israeli Military" "This workshop aims to demystify the landscape of US-based Jewish communal institutions and the often opaque ways that funding flows through them to Israel and the Israeli military. Our goal is to equip participants with the tools to understand where donations to major Jewish organizations are directed, to engage with family and community members about how their giving can become disentangled from the Zionist project, and to organize for greater accountability within institutions like Federations.

5/21 5:00 PM Rabbi Ellen Lippmann, Jamie Beran, Rebecca Vilkomerson, Bend the Arc, Rabbis for Ceasefire, JVP-NYC, "The New World Struggles to be Born: Paths to Libratory Judaism" What are the obstacles and opportunities of this moment to realize liberatory Judaism as a vibrant, viable alternative to Jewish supremacy? How do we grapple with Jewish communities' entanglement with Israel and its defenders while also building a new future for Jewish life? How do we as an American Jewish community have the tough conversations we need while navigating threats to our safety and the safety of so many communities? Join Rabbi Ellen Lippmann, Jamie Beran, Nadav David in a conversation moderated by Rebecca Vilkomerson to explore paths toward this new world we are all building together.

5/21 6:00 PM Rabbi Allen Lipson, Rabbis for Ceasefire "'Prison Without A Lock:' Herem and the Ethics of Boycotts" For a millennium, politically disenfranchised Jewish communities have looked to herem, the social boycott, as a source of nonviolent means of compelling consent, particularly in cases of violence and public endangerment. In this session, which will include chevruta study, we'll consider herem's relevance to the current BDS discourse; explore some medieval rabbinic objections to the use of social coercion, even for nonviolent ends, especially concerns over collective punishment; and analyze a recent application of herem as a remedy for violence against civilians in the West Bank by R. Ya'akov Epstein, a religious-Zionist decisor. You're welcome to join no matter your text background-- all texts will be in Hebrew and English.

5/21 7:00 PM Jewish Investor Network, Jewish Investor Network "The Torah of Money: Aligning Wealth with Values" Come learn with JIN about strategies to deploy your assets (including retirement funds) individually and collectively to support movement work. Learn how to avoid investing in corporations profiting from ICE, the genocide in Gaza, private prisons, and climate disaster (to name a few). We’ll demystify financial language so you can learn where you’re invested and how to take action!

5/21 8:00 PM Rabbi Andy Kahn + Dania Rajendra American Council for Judaism "Abolition Judaism and Ruth: Covenant, Solidarity, and the World to Come" We will investigate the Book of Ruth, the traditional reading on Shavuot, whose story of belonging across lines of people and place offers a Jewish model of solidarity grounded in covenant rather than ethnonationalism. We will draw on leftist thinkers to ask what it means to recouple Jewish culture with the political work of liberation. Alongside these thinkers we will hold the prophetic vision of olam habah as this world transformed, and examine how Ruth’s response to Naomi, and the various responses to her from the Israelites, along with her being the grandmother of King David, models the trials and tribulations inherent to a solidaristic covenant that refuses the false promises of "Judeo-Christian values" now being used to bind American Jews to genocide.

5/21 9:00 PM Sarah White, ACJ Affiliates Network, Hartford Jewish Organizing Collective "Havurah Movement - Building Judaism Beyond Zionism " Come learn with eft/anti-zionist havurot on the growing movement to build lay-led Jewish ritual spaces.

5/21 10:00 PM Jonathan Brenneman and Rabbi Alissa Wise, Christians for a Free Palestine and Rabbis for Ceasefire "Understanding Christian Zionism" Explore the specific consequences of Christian Zionism, and the harm that plays out when any religion marries itself to empire. Together, we will imagine a world free from empire, and ask how we can build collective power to resist religious nationalism in all its forms.

5/21 11:00 PM Rabbi Brant Rosen, Tzedek Chicago "Hannah Arendt, Albert Einstein and Hans Kohn: Letters from Jewish Binationalists" Our workshop will present letters written by prominent 20th century Jewish figures who fiercely opposed the creation of a political Jewish nation state in historic Palestine. We will explore their ideas in the context of their time as well as their continued relevance for us today.

5/22 12:00 AM Sydney Levy, CJNV & JSWANA Bay "Protective presence in the West Bank: Myth and reality" As internationals and Jews, what does it mean to put our bodies and privileges on the line in the West Bank? What works and what doesn’t? What are the risks and the benefits?

5/22 1:00 AM Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, Jewish Renewal, Rabbis for Ceasefire "Kabbalah for this Mystical Night" Zohar Study on Awakening followed by Guided Meditation.

5/22 2:00 AM Tal, Free Jerusalem, Jerusalem-Gaza Mutual Aid Collective "From Jerusalem to Gaza: Mutual aid and solidarity in the face of fascism and genocide" What does solidarity look like right now, from Jerusalem to Gaza? This workshop will share stories of street activism and mutual aid organizing on the ground in Palestine-Israel since the start of the genocide, and will reflect on the meaning of community building, faith, and resistance in fascist society."

5/22 3:00 AM Charlie Halstead, This Is Not an Ulpan "Decolonize your Hebrew - The Workshop" This interactive workshop invites participants to actively explore the deep-seated ties between modern Hebrew, Zionism, and state militarism to imagine a linguistic future beyond the national project. By tracing the historical processes that "streamlined" Hebrew into an instrument of the state, we will uncover the diverse expressions that were marginalized in favor of a standardized identity. Moving beyond theory, we will engage in hands-on practice with specific words, phrases, and linguistic structures to give a tangible taste of how a non-nationalized Hebrew can look and sound in daily life. Together, we will work to disentangle our speech from militaristic frameworks, reclaiming the language as a space for connection, creativity, and a life of its own.

5/22 4:00 AM Rabbi Robin Podolsky, IfNotNowNow, JVP "Make My Altar From What You're Made Of " I propose to crack open a text from Shmot featuring the mizbach Adamah, the first concrete command we get following the aseret hadibrot. When we look at the rabbinic texts derived from these verses, we get rabbinic Judaism, a tradition of praxis. We see how our Rabbis gave us a new method for making meaning. They gave us Judaism, turning from a localized sacrificial cult to a people whose homeland is our texts, our prayers, and our relationships with HaShem and one another. That is how we became what our enemies despise; a people whose skin runs to all the colors of the human and spoke many vernacular languages, who have lived for centuries with no borders and no army of our own. And we derive all of that from Exodus/Shmot 20:21,22."

5/22 5:00 AM Rabbi Lizzie Horne Mozes, Kol Tzedek Synagogue "Seventy Faces of Torah: A Practice in Perspective" What might it mean to take seriously the rabbinic idea that Torah has “seventy faces”? In this interactive, text-based workshop, we’ll explore classical sources that imagine revelation as multiple, layered, and contradictory. Then, we’ll experiment with giving visual form to different “faces” of Torah. This session invites participants to engage with Torah not only through textual interpretation, but through creative practice, as a way of encountering experiences beyond our own.

5/22 6:00 AM Susan Landau, Christian-Jewish Allies for a Just Peace for Israel/Palestine "Thou Shalt Not Bulldoze Thy Neighbor's House" This workshop is an invitation to reclaim, affirm, and reconsider the moral clarity of Jews of Conscience who, from the late nineteenth century through and beyond 7 October 2023, have expressed opposition to establishing and maintaining a Jewish homeland in historic Palestine.

Lifting these Jewish voices centers Judaism’s ethical tradition, allowing a clear critical distinction between Zionism and Judaism to emerge. This history of dissent to Zionism sets the call for Jewish safety in a new light – one with a focus on building an intersectional movement for collective liberation, rather than an ethno-nationalist state. Selected quotes from my book, ‘Thou Shalt Not Stand Idly By,’ Jews of Conscience on Palestine * will be presented via Power Point to introduce a range of poignant prophetic voices of Jews of Conscience. These will form the basis for facilitated individual and group participation in text study, reflection, and connecting conversations designed to inspire, strengthen, and mobilize today’s movement for collective liberation.

5/22 7:00 AM Rabbi Xava De Cordova, Shel Maala Yeshiva "Modesty, Dignity, and Universal Solidarity" What does covering our hair and wearing a kippah have to do with the fundamental value of human life, and the end of all wars? Find out in this workshop! We'll be exploring fundamental texts on the Jewish ideas of modesty and how they connect to a systematic analysis of agency and freedom for all.

5/22 8:00 AM Dove Kent & Fadi Quran, Diaspora Alliance "Moving from Fear to Dignity" Fadi Quaran and Dove Kent will each talk about the transformation that American Jewish communities can and must make from a position of fear to an orientation of dignity.

5/22 9:00 AM Dean Gottesman-Solomon, Asian Jews for Free Palestine, If Not Now "Stories of Asian Jewish Political Consciousness" Four stories of different Asian-Jewish experiences & identities and how they came to political consciousness & the fight for Palestinian Liberation. The program will include a Q&A at the end.

5/22 10:00 AM Sarah O'Connor, IfNotNow "Jewish Safety Beyond Bombs: The Case for Blocking U.S. Weapons to Israel" Join this workshop to explore our experiences and fears of antisemitism; process the failure of the strategy of protecting and arming Israel at all costs to keep Jews safe; and learn about how we can stop the endless flow of weapons and build instead a future of equality justice, and safety for ourselves, our neighbors, Israelis and Palestinians.

5/22 11:00 AM Emma Alabaster, Avi Fox-Rosen, JFREJ "Sing a New Justice Song: Singing from Jews For Racial and Economic Justice’s Song Book Project" Join Emma Alabaster, Avi Fox-Rosen and other member-organizers from Jews for Racial and Economic Justice’s Song Book project as they teach and sing many gems from this ongoing activist song project. We’ll share movement songs used in recent actions, songs collected from our Jewish diasporic roots including repertoire in Yiddish, Ladino, Arabic, and Hebrew. And we’ll sing many of our contemporary “tradaptations” setting new words and translations to traditional repertoire. You’ll leave with new songs to share in the places you need them!