Program
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Who Counts as a Jew? Hebrew Israelites and American Judaism
Most Americans first encounter the words "Hebrew Israelite" through a street corner encounter, a news story, or a Southern Poverty Law Center label. Rabbi Walter Isaac, PhD, has spent two decades documenting an entirely different reality: a global, centuries-old tradition with roots in the Atlantic slave trade, ties to figures from throughout United States history, and a population the Manhattan Institute conservatively estimates at 22 million in the United States alone. In this conversation, Rabbi Isaac will walk us from the foundations of the tradition through its painful entanglement with the slave and sex trade, the wide variety of people who claim Hebrew Israelite identity today, and what an honest truth-and-reconciliation process between Hebrew Israelite and predominantly white rabbinic Jewish communities could actually look like.
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- Streaming
Hosting with the Shabbat Haggadah
Want to host Shabbat but not sure where to start?
Join us for Hosting with the Shabbat Haggadah, a live class on using ACJ's monthly Shabbat guide to bring people together around your table.
We'll walk through the blessings, talk through the questions hosts run into (What about the Hebrew? What if my guests have very different backgrounds? What if I'm the least experienced person there?), and help you plan your own Shabbat meal.
No experience or Hebrew required. You'll leave with a worksheet, a marked-up guide, and a plan.
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- Streaming
- Brooklyn, NY
Anti-Zionism: A Jewish Tradition Book Release Event
Join us for the book release event, in partnership with Jewish Currents, McNally-Jackson, and Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, of Anti-Zionism: A Jewish History by Benjamin Moser, in conversation with activist and writer Jasper Nathaniel. The two will discuss the history of Jewish Anti-Zionism, its current iterations, and what it means to actively involve yourself in this tradition today.
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- Event
- Streaming
Tashlich Guide 5787
The ritual of Tashlich—casting bread into water while reflecting on the wrongdoings of the previous year—is a potent, tangible way to reset and recommit for the year ahead.
This Tashlich guide uses the four worlds of Kabbalah, the layers of reality our ancient mystics saw as integral to human existence, to engage with different forms of wrongdoing. Each page of this guide invites you to reflect on one world of wrongdoing, providing a Kavanah (intention), an excerpt from the high holiday liturgy, a responsive reading (to be split between individuals or groups), and an invitation to cast off our wrongdoings in the past year.
This ritual can be done alone, with family, in a havurah, or with a large group any time during the 10 days of Teshuvah between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
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