Eshel Online

Orthodoxy in the 21st Century
2020-08-27 19:30 - 21:00 (America/New_York)
Register here!
Speaker Bios
Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz,
Founder & President, Uri L’Tzedek
Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz has twice been named one of America’s Top Rabbis by Newsweek and has been named by The Forward as one of The Most Inspiring Rabbis in America as well as one of America’s 50 most influential Jews. Rabbi Yanklowitz is the author of seventeen books on Jewish ethics and his writings have appeared in outlets as diverse as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Guardian, and the Atlantic among many other secular and religious publications. He has served as speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and a Rothschild Fellow in Cambridge, UK.
Rav Shmuly received a Masters from Harvard University and his Doctorate from Columbia University. He serves as the President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash (Torah learning center), the Founder & President of Uri L’Tzedek (the Orthodox Social Justice movement), the Founder and CEO of Shamayim (Jewish animal advocacy), and the Founder and President of YATOM, (Jewish foster and adoption network). Rabbi Shmuly, his wife Shoshana, and their four children live in Scottsdale, Arizona. They are also foster parents.

Rabbi Maccabee Avishur,
Senior Director Prizmah Services
Academic Dean and Principal of General Studies, Yeshivat Heichal HaTorah, Teaneck, NJAs Senior Director of Prizmah Services Rabbi Avishur leads Prizmah’s approach to providing services to schools in the areas of leadership and governance, strategic planning and educational excellences. He consults with schools on board development, placement, school culture, curriculum, educational excellence and 21st century learning.
Rabbi Aaron Frank
Head of School, Kinneret Day School, Riverdale, NY
Prior to coming to Kinneret, Rabbi Frank was the Associate Principal at SAR High School. Before moving to New York, he worked at the Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School in Baltimore for twelve years, serving as Lower School and then High School Principal. In addition to his work in education administration, Rabbi Frank has served as a High Holidays rabbi at Beth Sholom Congregation in Potomac, Maryland since 2001. A graduate of the Jerusalem Fellows program at the Mandel Leadership Institute in Jerusalem as well as of the Principals’ Center at Harvard Graduate School of Education, Rabbi Frank serves on the board of the International Rabbinic Fellowship and on the Rabbinic Advisory Board of Yeshivat Maharat. He served as Associate Rabbi of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale under the mentorship of Rabbi Avi Weiss from 1996 until 2000 and was a founding member of Congregation Netivot Shalom in Baltimore. A musmakh of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, Aaron holds a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Michigan and an M.S. from Columbia University School of Social Work. Rabbi Frank is married to Laura Shaw Frank. They have four children; Ateret, Yanniv, Elinadav, and Neri.
Mindy Sager Dickler,
Co-Founder JPride Baltimore & Eshel Baltimore
Mindy Sager Dickler refers to herself as the “proud Jewish mother of a gay son.” Soon after her son came out in 2011, Mindy co-founded JPride Baltimore, an organization devoted to LGBTQ outreach and support, through education and advocacy. Mindy was also instrumental in the formation of a local Eshel monthly meet-up group, which supports people who identify as Orthodox and LGBTQ and parents of LGBTQ children. Mindy was the co-chair of JPride for many years and was instrumental in creating a new awareness in Jewish Baltimore about the needs of its LGBTQ members. As the co-leader of the local Eshel group, Mindy offers support to parents at various points in their journeys of having their children come out, and how to navigate that in the Orthodox community.
Rabba Rachel Kohl Finegold,
Director of Education and Spiritual Enrichment, Shaar Hashomayim, Westmount, Quebec
Rabba Rachel Kohl Finegold is the first female member of the Clergy at Congregation Shaar Hashomayim. Rabba Rachel (pronounced “Rakhel”) focuses on engaging young families, supporting youth educational programming, working with the congregation’s schools, and connecting with young professionals in addition to a wide array of pastoral duties and lifecycle events. Rabba Rachel is one of the inaugural graduates of Yeshivat Maharat, the first institution to train Orthodox women as spiritual leaders. She received her B.A. in Religion from Boston University, and she completed the Scholars’ Circle program at the Drisha Institute in New York. Rabba Rachel is a board member of the Bronfman Jewish Education Centre (BJEC) and is active in the International Rabbinic Fellowship (IRF) and the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA). She previously served for six years as the Education & Ritual Director of Anshe Sholom B’nai Israel Congregation in Chicago. Originally from New York, Rabba Rachel lives in Montreal with her husband, Rabbi Avi Finegold, a native Montrealer, and their three daughters, Kinneret, Nedivah and Hadar.

Sound and Sense: The Why and How of Shofar
2020-08-27 16:00 - 17:00
Sound and Sense: The Why and How of Shofar
Live Demo with R. Steve Greenberg & Steven Goldstein
Register Today
In preparation for Rosh Hashanah this year, Steven Goldstein and Rabbi Steve Greenberg are teaming up to teach a Shofar Blowing Class! As many vulnerable Jews this year will need to hear the shofar without going to shul, it’s a great year to learn how to properly blow a ram’s horn.
BYOS: It’s best to bring your own shofar if you really want to learn!
Steven Goldstein is a Professor at New England Conservatory. Steven played trumpet in high school and knows how to make a ram’s horn sing. He served for many years as the baal tokeah at Makom in Toronto and will instruct us in proper technique both musically and halakhically. His husband, our Founding Director, Rabbi Steve (Greenberg), will begin the session with an exploration into the foundations of the mitzvah of Shofar, its historic, halakhic, imaginative and literary roots and then Opera Steve (Goldstein) will give us all a Shofar tutorial!
Purchase a Shofar!
J. Levine Books & Judaica
Small Shofar
(Eshel receives $6 for every purchase)
Medium Shofar
(Eshel receives $10 for every purchase)
Kolbo Fine Judaica Gallery
Add the Eshel logo to your cart and 10% will go to Eshel on any purchase.
The class is free but you may make a suggested donation of $18 or sponsor the class for $120. Thank you!

LA Orthodox Group: New Year, New Me
2020-08-25 19:00 - 20:00
LA’s Orthodox and formerly Orthodox LGBTQ+ group is back for another virtual happy hour! Join us for New Year, New Me, as we connect and look forward to the year 5781, on Tuesday, August 25th between 7 – 8pm PT!
This online gathering welcomes you to connect and share in a private virtual space. Together we will catch-up, and share what our goals and hopes for what the New Year will bring. Anonymity will be honored so please don’t hesitate to reach out. Zoom link will be sent upon free RSVP using the form below – BYOB and catch you online!
For more information, go here.

Trans-In-Sight: On Gender, Borderlands, and Radiance with Dr. Benjamin Baader
2020-08-25 12:00 - 13:00
Trans-In-Sight: On Gender, Borderlands, and Radiance
with Dr. Benjamin Baader
3-Part Series
Dates: August 25, 2020 – September 1, 2020 – September 8, 2020
Time: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm ET
Register Today!
“Male and female, he created them.” (Genesis 1:27) Indeed, the Bible seems to author a world of twos: light-dark, earth-heaven, day-night, man-woman. The Torah introduces us to God, first with a strange plurality (Elohim) and then with male pronouns and verbs. The more personal name of God, YHVH conveys more ambiguity as it employs the typically feminine ending letter, hey. However, you read it, creation from the start is occupied with questions of gender.
Dr. Ben Baader is an associate professor of European and Jewish history at the University of Manitoba. Ben has long been addressing questions of gender, sexuality, and religion with the tools of a historian and the soul of a religious seeker. He will discuss conceptual frameworks, share some of his personal narratives, reflect on rabbinic Judaism and lived spirituality from a trans perspective, and invite us to explore how transgender experience might enrich the fabric of Orthodox communities
The three-part series is entitled: “Trans-in-Sight”: Gender, Borderlands and Radiance and will occur on three Tuesdays 12-1pm, August 25, Sept 1 and Sept 8. Please register soon for the whole series (or any part of it).
The series is complimentary. However, a suggested donation of $54 will be greatly appreciated. You may also sponsor the series.
Part 1: The Paradox of Gender: Both Real and all Air and Light
In this session, I will discuss the workings of gender, based on scholarship of gender theory. I will also compare gender to how Jewishness operates, and I like to draw attention to the dazzling shininess and complexity of these configurations. The very sturdiness of male, female, and Jewish seems to be grounded in the fact that these concepts are fluid and evade narrow definitions. Like the Sacred expressed in Jewish textuality, they are multivalent and radically contingent in their core.
Part 2: Transgender as an Opening into Radiance
This session will be heavily autobiographic, using and expanding on my published text. In my experience, transgender and transcendence are made of the same fabric. The fright and awe of liminal spaces, moments, and bodies can create openings for the flow of intense light and joy. Gender instability and indeterminacy can be luminous, and I like to talk about how I try to cultivate this access to the Holy.
Part 3: Trans People and the Rest of Us In this session
In this session, I wish to think about the role of trans people in Orthodox communities. I argue that transness is not only something to be overcome by successful gender transition, to be accommodated on compassionate grounds, and to be hidden from sight, but it is also a space from which we have something to give and to teach. Both the heterosexual and patriarchal norm, and the liminality of transness and queerness are sites of divine presence.
Register Today!

Love on Tu B'Av with R. Steve Greenberg
2020-08-05 13:00 - 14:00
In honor of Tu B’Av
Romantic Love as a Religious Value: The Teachings of R. Yitzchok Eizek of Slobodka
by R. Steve Greenberg
In a twenty-five page pamphlet written in the early 1900s for his students, this key figure in the Mussar movement opens up a discourse of sexual expression grounded in love that is radically different from his peers. While he does not make the translation to LGBTQ+ relationships for us, he offers a portrayal of romantic love that is both deeply religious and profoundly human.
Please click here to register to receive the login details.

Eshel Brooklyn Women's LBTQ+ Meetup
2020-06-30 20:00 - 21:00
Women’s New York Area Meetup on Zoom
What: Meet other individuals who identify as female and who are exploring their Orthodox LGBTQ+ identities.
When: Meeting Weekly: Every Tuesday from 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Where: For notifications and sign-in information, register below. (You only need to register for this group one time.)

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Orthodox Educators Webinar
2020-06-30 13:00 - 15:00
An Educators Symposium
LGBTQ+ Inclusion in Orthodox Day Schools

All Are Welcome to Attend this Webinar
June 30th at 1 pm Eastern
Register Here

Join us as we learn with and from three educators who have broken ground in their day schools to include their LGBTQ+ students.
We will explore what worked, what were the challenges they faced, and how others can adapt these strategies in their own day schools.

Amanda Pogany is in her eighth year as the Head of School at Luria Academy of Brooklyn. She has worked in the field of Jewish education as a teacher, consultant, mentor and coach. Prior to joining Luria, Amanda spent two years working with new teachers and administrators across the country, running professional development seminars, and working with them on best practices in building classroom communities, classroom management, and developing curriculum. She taught elementary and middle school Judaic studies for 7 years. A trained mentor through the Jewish New Teacher Prt, Amanda mentored teachers for the Davidson School at JTS, the Pardes Educators program, and the Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan. In her role as a consultant, Amanda has worked with The Covenant Foundation, Mechon Hadar, JDub Records, The Six Points Fellowship and a number of Jewish Federations. Amanda is a graduate of the Pardes Educators Program, has a Masters in Jewish Education from Hebrew University and a BA from Barnard College. She co-founded Altshul, an independent egalitarian minyan in Brooklyn, in 2005.

Rabbi Ari Segal serves as Head of School at Shalhevet High School in Los Angeles CA. Rabbi Segal speaks widely about time management, innovation and leadership development in Jewish schools. He holds an MBA from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University and an MSW in Communal Organization from Yeshiva University’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work.

Dr. Michelle Waldman Sarna is a School Psychologist at SAR Academy and Camp Psychologist at Camp Stone. Previously, she served as the Director of the Early Childhood Center at Educational Alliance and as the Associate Director of JLIC Professional Development and as a JLIC educator at NYU. She also founded the Downtown Family Jewish Experience. She received the “36 Under 36” honor by the Jewish Week for launching the Orthodox Leadership Project to empower Orthodox women in Jewish communal life. Michelle completed a post doc at the Tikvah Center – NYU Law School, focusing on Emerging Adulthood in Jewish and Muslim populations. She is blessed with 6 children and resides with her family in the Gramercy Park neighborhood of Manhattan.

More information:
This gathering will engage educators from Orthodox day schools who come together to discuss best practices in making their schools more LGBTQ inclusive in a culturally relevant and appropriate way.
Building on Eshel’s past success of the High School Pledge Project, and the subsequent Wellbeing Tour, we are continuing the work we began by providing an open forum for dialogue, learning, and discussion. After we launched the High School Pledge campaign, we worked closely with yeshiva day school alumnae to appeal to their alma maters to create open inclusion policies. Ten out of approximately 50 modern Orthodox day schools in the US have since adapted inclusion policies for the LGBTQ students. We consider this a great success of the campaign, but there is still more work to be done.
This gathering will bring together a number of dedicated educators who work in Orthodox day schools. These attendees have already given thought to inclusive policies and practices in their day schools and will share how they created LGBTQ inclusive spaces.
This symposium will also be open to others for whom LGBTQ inclusion is not an obvious nor easy step to take but who want to get ideas about how to move forward.

Community-Wide Kabbalat Shabbat
2020-06-26 19:00 - 19:30
Join a community-wide Kabbalat Shabbat in honor of Pride.
Sign up here to receive the Zoom login details.

Let’s Go Synagogue Shopping: Finding LGBTQ+-Friendly Congregations
2020-06-25 18:00 - 19:00
with Dr. Sunnie Epstein and Miryam Kabakov
Going to a synagogue for the first time can be intimidating, especially if you are a member of the LGBTQ+ community. Will they accept me? Will they accept my partner? Will they use the correct pronouns for me and my loved ones? Join LGBTQ+ rabbis from across the United States for a conversation about what to look for and what questions to ask when you want to explore congregational life, both while in college and beyond.
Go here to register.

Eshel Parents Kabbalat Shabbat
2020-06-19 19:00 - 19:30, 2020-04-24 18:00 - 19:00
Join Eshel parents every Friday for Kabbalat Shabbat at 6 PM.
Sign up here to receive the Zoom login details.

Baltimore/DC Virtual Pride Happy Hour
2020-06-17 19:00 - 21:00
Join Baltimore/DC for a Virtual Pride Happy Hour/Parade.
Show off your pride! An evening of joy and celebration.
Please fill out this form to RSVP.

Eshel LGBTQ+ Toronto Weekly Monday Virtual Meetups
2020-06-15 20:00 - 21:00
Hello dear community,
I hope you are all staying healthy and safe. Due to the COVID-19 public health guidelines, we are practicing social distancing, and so we hope to continue to support the community virtually in a few ways:
1. We now have a discord server for Eshel TO community members (i.e. LGBTQ+ folks who come from Orthodox communities)! You can join and read more about it at this link: https://discordapp.com/invite/xDT3yzC. You will need to read the rules and introduce yourself before being added to the server.

2. In specific, we will be using Discord to gather remotely via a voice chat on Monday evenings at 7 PM. Click the link above and come hang out with us on Monday!
Thank you to a very cool community member who is setting up all these ways to virtually connect during this wacky time!
And of course, please don’t hesitate to reach out if there are other ways we can support you, if you need resources, or if you’d like to just chat.
Take good care,
Mira
For notifications and sign-in information, please register here.

Eshel Thursday Happy Hour!
2020-06-11 16:00 - 17:00
Join Us
Eshel’s Thursday Happy Hour

4 PM EST – 3 PM CST – 2 PM PST

Sign Up

Eshel Happy Hour with Special Guest, Yavilah McCoy

Yavilah McCoy, is the CEO of the Diversity consulting group DIMENSIONS Inc. Through Dimensions, Yavilah services an international portfolio of clients in the areas of Education, Philanthropy, and Social Justice. As an anti-racism activist with an international platform, Yavilah provides training and consulting to numerous social justice projects that span multiple identities and communities.
Yavilah serves on the steering committee of the national Women’s March and has been a core part of many large-scale national movement teams, bringing a uniquely intersectional perspective to the ongoing work of racial justice and collective liberation. Yavilah is a pioneer of the Jewish diversity and equity movement and is an advocate and mentor for the empowerment of a transglobal community of Jews of Color. Yavilah was an inaugural recipient of the Spielberg Foundation’s Joshua Venture Fellowship and directed the launch of the “Ruderman Synagogue Inclusion Project” for Combined Jewish Philanthropies and the Ruderman Family Foundation. Yavilah also directed the Bronfman Philanthropy’s Curriculum Initiative in Boston, where she provided educational consultancy to 600 prep schools across the nation.
Yavilah was voted one of “16 Faith Leaders to Watch” by the Center for American Progress in Washington, DC, is a certified coach for the Auburn Theological Seminary’s Pastoral Coach Training Program and an inaugural fellow of the Sojourner Truth Leadership Circle. Yavilah is a renowned national speaker, educator, and spiritual practitioner and in celebration of the musical traditions passed down to her from three generations of her African-American Jewish family, is also the writer, producer and performer of the Jewish Gospel theatrical production “The Colors of Water.”

Try Our
Eshel-tini
Ingredients:

Vodka
Grenadine
Champagne
Blue Curaçao
Orange Juice

How to:

First, mix a 3-to-1 ratio of orange juice and vodka, using mostly orange juice.
Pour a desired amount of grenadine down the side of your glass and let it sink to the bottom.
Mix some Champaign and at least 0.25 oz. of Blue Curaçao together. Use a spoon to slowly pour the champagne mixture on top of your OJ layer.

Interview with Joy Ladin
2020-06-10 14:00 - 15:00
Interview: Transgender Religious Discourse – June 10th 2pm

R. Steve Greenberg will lead a discussion with Joy Ladin on her book: The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective.

Joy Ladin holds the Gottesman Chair in English at Yeshiva University, and, in 2007, became the first (and still only) openly transgender employee of an Orthodox Jewish institution.

Her memoir, Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey Between Genders, was a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award; her recent book, The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective, was a Lambda Literary Award and Triangle Award finalist.

She has also published nine books of poetry, including, most recently, The Future is Trying to Tell Us Something: New and Selected Poems. Her work has been recognized with a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholarship, an American Council of Learned Societies Research Fellowship, and two Hadassah Brandeis Institute Research Fellowships, among other honors.

A nationally recognized speaker on trans and Jewish identity, she serves on the Board of Keshet, an organization devoted to full inclusion

RSVP at

https://eshelonline.z2systems.com/eventReg.jsp?event=159&

Eshel Chicago Parents Meetup
2020-06-09 19:30 - 21:00
What: A confidential support group for observant/Orthodox Jewish parents of LGBTQ+ individuals who may be struggling with their child’s sexual orientation or gender identity and/or wish to connect with other parents like themselves.

Where: Please fill out this contact form. If you have filled out this form before, you are already on a list to receive an email reminder with details about this group. There is no need to fill this out more than once

Eshel Thursday Happy Hour!
2020-06-04 16:00 - 17:00
Join Us For
Two Important Conversations
During Eshel Thursday Happy Hour

4 PM ET – 3 PM CT – 1 PM PT

Sign Up

with Guest Speaker Rabbi Daniel Geretz and Yavilah McCoy

Rabbi Geretz is the rabbi of Maayan, an Orthodox minyan in West Orange, NJ. He also works for the Jewish Federation of Greater Metrowest NJ as a chaplain at Morristown Medical Center in Morristown, New Jersey.
A native Minnesotan who grew up in the Jewish community on the Northside of Minneapolis, Rabbi Geretz remembers the “long hot summer” of racial tension and civil unrest. He will discuss the need for listening to each other, and how we, as members and family of the LGBTQ+ Orthodox community, can use our experience to understand experiences outside of our own.

Join us next week, June 11, with guest speaker Yavilah McCoy
Yavilah McCoy, is the CEO of the Diversity consulting group DIMENSIONS Inc. Through Dimensions, Yavilah services an international portfolio of clients in the areas of Education, Philanthropy, and Social Justice. As an anti-racism activist with an international platform, Yavilah provides training and consulting to numerous social justice projects that span multiple identities and communities.
Yavilah serves on the steering committee of the national Women’s March and has been a core part of many large-scale national movement teams, bringing a uniquely intersectional perspective to the ongoing work of racial justice and collective liberation. Yavilah is a pioneer of the Jewish diversity and equity movement and is an advocate and mentor for the empowerment of a transglobal community of Jews of Color. Yavilah was an inaugural recipient of the Spielberg Foundation’s Joshua Venture Fellowship and directed the launch of the “Ruderman Synagogue Inclusion Project” for Combined Jewish Philanthropies and the Ruderman Family Foundation. Yavilah also directed the Bronfman Philanthropy’s Curriculum Initiative in Boston, where she provided educational consultancy to 600 prep schools across the nation.
Yavilah was voted one of “16 Faith Leaders to Watch” by the Center for American Progress in Washington, DC, is a certified coach for the Auburn Theological Seminary’s Pastoral Coach Training Program and an inaugural fellow of the Sojourner Truth Leadership Circle. Yavilah is a renowned national speaker, educator, and spiritual practitioner and in celebration of the musical traditions passed down to her from three generations of her African-American Jewish family, is also the writer, producer and performer of the Jewish Gospel theatrical production “The Colors of Water.”

Eshel Thursday Happy Hour!
2020-05-28 16:00 - 17:00
Join Us
Eshel’s Thursday Happy Hour

4 PM EST – 3 PM CST – 2 PM PST

Sign Up

Join us with Yocheved & Nathan Lindenbaum for a COVID Kvetch.

Yocheved and Nathan Lindenbaum live in their empty nest in Teaneck. They like wine and love to whine. They wish their 5 children, 4 in law children and bunch of grandkids would call and visit more often. Especially Yitzi, the gay kid.
Eshel Thursday Happy HourJoin us with Yocheved & Nathan Lindenbaum for a COVID Kvetch.

Bring blank paper.
A magic marker or crayons.
A glass of wine or some tea (Twinnings?)
Something to whine about.

Join us as we explore this fun wine label “Unorthodox”; hear about how we are going to put the Fun into Unorthodox!

Try Our
Eshel-tini
Ingredients:

Vodka
Grenadine
Champagne
Blue Curaçao
Orange Juice

How to:

First, mix a 3-to-1 ratio of orange juice and vodka, using mostly orange juice.
Pour a desired amount of grenadine down the side of your glass and let it sink to the bottom.
Mix some Champaign and at least 0.25 oz. of Blue Curaçao together. Use a spoon to slowly pour the champagne mixture on top of your OJ layer.

Phone-In LGBTQ+ Support Group
2020-05-27 21:00 - 22:00
What: Join this anonymous phone-in support group for LGBTQ+ individuals who are unable to attend one of our in-person sessions.
When: Fourth Wednesday of every month | 9:00 PM EST
Where: Please fill out this form to receive the call-in number. If you have filled out this form before, you are already on a list to receive an email reminder with details about this group. There is no need to fill this out more than once.
Questions? Email info@eshelonline.org
For more information visit our website.

Baltimore/D.C. Pre-Shavuaton for LGBTQ+ and Parents
2020-05-26 19:00 - 21:00
WHAT: We will be doing some learning together, as well as discussing the recent film Flawless which featured a discussion with Abby Stein and Jo Ivester.
Where: Please fill out this form to RSVP and for location information.

Eshel Thursday Happy Hour!
2020-05-21 16:00 - 17:00
Register Today
Join us this Thursday for a conversation with Adam Eli who will discuss his new book:
The New Queer Conscience
In The New Queer Conscience, Voices4 Founder and LGBTQIA+ activist Adam Eli offers a candid and compassionate introduction to queer responsibility. Eli calls on his Jewish faith to underline how kindness and support within the queer community can lead to a stronger global consciousness. More importantly, he reassures us that we’re not alone. In fact, we never were. Because if you mess with one queer, you mess with us all.
Adam Eli is a community organizer and writer in New York City. He is the founder of Voices4, a nonviolent direct-action activist group committed to advancing global queer liberation and was included in Out Magazine’s100 most influential queer people of 2018.

Eshel Thursday Happy Hour!
2020-05-14 16:00 - 17:00
Join Us
Eshel’s Thursday Happy Hour

4 PM EST – 3 PM CST – 2 PM PST

Sign Up

This week: Guest speaker Naomi Seidman on Unorthodox.

Join us for Happy Hour with Professor Naomi Seidman, who will discuss her take on the Netflix film Unorthodox and the depiction of the OTD community.
Read her review here before we gather: Telling the OTD Tale; or, My Scandalous Rejection of Unorthodox
Naomi Seidman is the Chancellor Jackman Professor of the Arts in the Department for the Study of Religion and the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto, a Guggenheim Fellow and, most recently, the recipient of the National Jewish Book Award.
Her publications include Faithful Renderings: Jewish—Christian Difference and the Politics of Difference (Chicago, 2006), The Marriage Plot, Or, How Jews Fell in Love with Love, and with Literature (Stanford, 2016), and Sarah Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov Movement: A Revolution in the Name of Tradition (Littman, 2019). She is presently working on a study of Freud in Hebrew and Yiddish translation.
If you have not signed up for the Eshel Thursday Happy Hours, you may do so here.

Try Our
Eshel-tini
Ingredients:

Vodka
Grenadine
Champagne
Blue Curaçao
Orange Juice

How to:

First, mix a 3-to-1 ratio of orange juice and vodka, using mostly orange juice.
Pour a desired amount of grenadine down the side of your glass and let it sink to the bottom.
Mix some Champaign and at least 0.25 oz. of Blue Curaçao together. Use a spoon to slowly pour the champagne mixture on top of your OJ layer.

Wrestling with God and Men with R. Steve Greenberg
2020-05-13 14:00 - 15:00
Wrestling with God and Men: A Six-part Series on Sex, Gender, Power and Love
with Rabbi Steve Greenberg
Register here!
In 2004 Rabbi Steve Greenberg’s groundbreaking book appeared on shelves in the US and created a new starting point for exploring the Jewish tradition’s engagement with same-sex love and relationship. Join Rabbi Greenberg in May and June as he lays out in six sessions the key insights of his book, along with an interview with Joy Ladin on her new book. The series closes with a presentation on what’s been accomplished and what remains to be done.

In the Beginning: Creation and Sex – May 13th 2pm ET

Starting with the key texts in Genesis and Leviticus we will begin our exploration in order to lay out the fundamental questions that the texts raise, both for us and in us. Close reading will help us meet the twin challenges of personal meaning making and society building which these verses offer us.

The Body and the Mind: Making Sense of Sex – May 20th 2pm ET

Employing a little known medieval reading of Leviticus that rationalizes the purpose of the law in Leviticus, we will embark on a journey of discovery that highlights the powers and the threats of the mind and the body.

Social Order and Marriage: Women, Wandering and the Problems of Desire – May 27th 2pm ET

An aristocratic rabbinic wedding becomes a scene of bawdy humor and bedtime worries about female sexual desire invite an array of questions on wealth, gender, marriage and most importantly, sex. These two key texts on male and female homosexuality will be studied side by side to see what can be discovered.

Gender and Identity: The Trans-formation of Difference – June 3rd 2pm ET

The tradition understands bodies as ordinarily either male or female. However, reality proves more slippery that the binary frame articulates. We will explore an array of texts that attest to multiple grey areas and at moments, with some anxiety, actively highlights the power of difference.

Interview: Transgender Religious Discourse – June 10th 2pm ET
Steve will lead a discussion with Joy Ladin on her book: The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective.

5. Gladiators and Kings: Stories of Love and Violence between Men – June 17th 2pm ET
This session introduces us to two very powerful narratives of male same-sex sexuality that helps to clarify the concerns we discovered in Genesis and the law we have been exploring in Leviticus. This last rationale for the prohibition will be explored for its redemptive possibilities alongside others.
6. Goldilocks and the Three Orthodoxies: Facing the Challenges of Same-Sex Relationships – June 24th 2pm ET
While the work is still in motion, over the past decade of Eshel’s work, real substantive movement can be seen. On the basis of contemporary rabbinic responses and alongside recent Eshel Surveys of 175 Orthodox congregational rabbis we will discover how far we’ve come, where resistance still thrives and the way forward toward a more embracing Orthodoxy.

Eshel Thursday Happy Hour - Scotch Tasing with the Brimms
2020-05-07 16:00 - 17:00
Join Us
Eshel’s Thursday Happy Hour

4 PM EST – 3 PM CST – 2 PM PST

Sign Up

This week: Scotch Tasting with Anna & Rob Brimm. Bring your own bottle of Scotch and join in the tasting!

The Brimms live in Chicago, and have 8 children, and joined Eshel because of their two LGBTQ sons.
The Scotch tasting will start with a brief overview of the Scotland landscape, then a brief overview of the Scotch making process from fermentation, distillation, and cask aging. Included in the discussion will be the kashrut issues associated with Scotch aged in Sherry casks. Followed by a tasting, Rob will provide an overview of the flavor profiles from his collection.

Try Our
Eshel-tini
Ingredients:

Vodka
Grenadine
Champagne
Blue Curaçao
Orange Juice

How to:

First, mix a 3-to-1 ratio of orange juice and vodka, using mostly orange juice.
Pour a desired amount of grenadine down the side of your glass and let it sink to the bottom.
Mix some Champaign and at least 0.25 oz. of Blue Curaçao together. Use a spoon to slowly pour the champagne mixture on top of your OJ layer.

Baltimore/D.C. Meet Up for LGBTQ+ and Parents
2020-05-06 19:00 - 21:00
Get together with our Baltimore/DC Eshel family. Join us in this intimate, confidential setting to meet others, like yourself, in the extended Eshel network.
WHAT: A private gathering for LGBTQ+ individuals who are Orthodox, Ortho-curious or formerly Orthodox and for traditional Jewish parents of LGBTQ+ people who may be struggling with their child’s sexual orientation or gender identity and/or wish to connect with other parents like themselves.
WHEN: Meetings are usually held on the first Wednesday of every month, 7:00-9:00 pm.
Where: Please fill out this form to RSVP and for location information.

Parents Meet Up in Chicago
2020-05-06 19:00 - 20:00
What: A confidential support group for observant/Orthodox Jewish parents of LGBTQ+ individuals who may be struggling with their child’s sexual orientation or gender identity and/or wish to connect with other parents like themselves.

When: Wednesday, May 6, 2020 7:00-8:00

Where: Please fill out this contact form. If you have filled out this form before, you are already on a list to receive an email reminder with details about this group. There is no need to fill this out more than once

Questions? Email chicago@eshelonline.org

Sefirat HaOmer - Making Every Day Count
2020-05-06 14:00 - 15:00
with Sunnie Epstein, Director of Eshel’s Welcoming Shuls
Sefirat HaOmer – Making Every Day Count
We are counting days in our lives now as citizens of the world — how many days of social isolation and missing the normalcy we all know. How can we reframe this during this period of Sefirat HaOmer, where each day has special meaning; and compare that to systems used in other cultures and religious groupings?
RSVP here.

Women's New York Area Weekly Meetup
2020-05-05 19:30 - 21:00
Women’s New York Area Meetup on Zoom
Meet other individuals who identify as female and who are exploring their Orthodox LGBTQ+ identities.
Meeting Weekly: Every Tuesday from 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Sign up here for details.

Eshel Thursday Happy Hour!
2020-04-30 16:00 - 17:00
Join Us
Eshel’s Thursday Happy Hour

4 PM EST – 3 PM CST – 2 PM PST

Sign Up

Learn about Eshel’s Ally Month! Bring an Ally!

NEW!Ally MonthAt Eshel, we are holding up our allies during the month of May. In honor of Allies month, raise a glass during Happy Hour Thursdays, tell your story about how an ally has been there for you; bring an ally with you.

Try Our
Eshel-tini
Ingredients:

Vodka
Grenadine
Champagne
Blue Curaçao
Orange Juice

How to:

First, mix a 3-to-1 ratio of orange juice and vodka, using mostly orange juice.
Pour a desired amount of grenadine down the side of your glass and let it sink to the bottom.
Mix some Champaign and at least 0.25 oz. of Blue Curaçao together. Use a spoon to slowly pour the champagne mixture on top of your OJ layer.

From Memory to Celebration: Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzmaut
2020-04-30 13:00 - 14:00
with Sunnie Epstein, Director of Eshel’s Welcoming Shuls
From Memory to Celebration — Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzmaut
We are in the month of “the days” — historical markers of pivotal events in our lives as Jews; filled with memory and sadness and loss as well as celebration and joy. How are these two dynamics joined? A historical perspective and lessons for our lives collectively and individually.
RSVP here.
