Eshel Out Loud
News, Views, and Updates from the Eshel Community
Thinking About the Eshel Parent Retreat?
What is it? How do I know if it's for me? Eshel’s Parent Retreat is a supportive space for Orthodox parents with children who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. You may be feeling a lot of things about having an LGBTQ child. Parents come to this retreat for many different reasons, and [more]
A Seat at the Table for Everyone
Every year, on the 15th of Nissan, Jews around the world gather around tables, with their families and friends, in their own homes and as guests, to partake in the Seder—a meditation on our freedom. The Seder, while a meditation, is far from peaceful. The Seder, broken up into fifteen dramatic acts, full of ritual [more]
Rest, Reflection, Renewal
After fifteen years of holding Eshel - its vision, its people, its future - I spent three months letting it go. Not abandoning it, but doing something that can feel almost countercultural in the nonprofit world: stepping back. No emails, no meetings, no decisions. Just rest, reflection, travel, family, and the uncomfortable gift of unstructured [more]
Out in Shushan
The Megillah is, among its many faces, a story about the complexities of identity. A number of its characters are imposters of sorts, struggling to be something that they are not. However, according to Rabbi Yonason Eibshitz, while this may be true of Achashverosh, Haman and even Esther, Mordechai alone does not live a [more]