Queer Shabbaton - A Retreat for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgeder & Queer Jews October 18, 2007

The Queer Shabbaton is an urban retreat of culture, creativity, and community for GLBT Jews of all ages, religious stripes, and political affiliations. This is a Shabbaton like you've never experienced before, a weekend of:

- Noncoercive, alternative community for queer Jews
- Workshops and presentations by some of today's leading scholars & artists on queerness and Jewishness
- Programs and pricing that ensure that everyone is included, with full scholarships for students
- A wide range of spiritual options, from yoga to traditional davening, meditation to
- Films, music, media, lots of good food -- and time to go out and enjoy NYC

The Queer Shabbaton represents a new kind of programming for Nehirim, and, we hope, the first of many such weekends. It is based on the Queer Shabbaton Amsterdam, a unique forum for community and discussion, which for the last three years has brought together Jews from all over the world for a weekend of consciousness-raising workshops, concerts, services (traditional, alternative, and non-religious), and lots of time to connect.

**Tentative Schedule for Queer Shabbaton New York**

Friday, October 19
3:00 Arrival, snacks, and registration
4:00 Welcome/opening program/mixer
5:00 Time to change clothes for Shabbat (at JCC)
5:30 Candlelighting/Shabbat all together [actual candlelighting: 5:52]
6:00 Shabbat option 1: Shabbat services w/Shoshana Jedwab & Jay Michaelson
Shabbat option 2: Movement with w/Danny Arguetty
7:30 Dinner and singing
9:30 Meet your Mishpacha Groups
10:30 Evening session: Queer Yiddish Theatre & Performance with Sara Felder & Naomi Seidman
12:00 Go home!

Saturday, October 20
9:30 Shabbat option 1: Shacharit w/Jill Hammer, Shoshana Jedwab & Storahtelling
Shabbat option 2: Traditional Shacharit at area shuls
Shabbat option 3: Meditation w/Zvi Bellin (9:30-10:15), Torah Study w/ Gregg Drinkwater (10:20-11), Yoga w/ Danny Arguetty (11:00-11:45)
12:00-1:20 Lunch
1:30-2:30 Afternoon Session 1 (choose one)
- Yoav Sivan, Gay Politics in Israel: between Or LaGoyim and Gay-bashing
- Rabbi Joel Alter, text study
- Zvi Bellin, heart workshop
- Sasha T. Goldberg, Seminar on Intergenerational Issues
2:40-3:40 Afternoon Session 2 (choose one)
- Ann Pellegrini, Jewish Camp
- Gabriel Blau, Shabbat and Activism
- Michael Kelly and Jay Michaelson, Gay Christiannity, Gay Judaism
3:45-4:30 Mishpacha groups
4:45-5:45 Afternoon Session 3
- Naptime
- Marla Brettschneider, Politics, race, and class workshop OR workshop on transexual issues
- Sara Felder, Jewish Juggling 6:00-6:45 Evening spiritual practice
- Naptime continued
- Mincha with Rabbi Joel Alter
- Rabbi David Dunn-Bauer, 'Et Ratzon'/Time of Desire
6:45-7:45 Dinner (Students eat dinner as a group)
8:00-8:15 Traditional Maariv with Rabbi Joel Alter
8:15-8:45 Havdalah [actual end of shabbat: 6:52]
9:00-10:30 Evening Program: Film by Jonathan Caoette
11:00 Night program 1: Go out in New York (coordinate places)
Night program 2: Contact Improv w/Paul Fischer

Sunday, October 21
8:00-8:50 Yoga w/Danny Arguetty
- Shacharit at area shuls
9:00-9:50 Breakfast
10:00 Sunday Session 1
- Naomi Seidman, Gender Divisions in Orthodoxy
- Gideon Querido van Frank, European and American Communities
-Gregg Drinkwater, Jewish Sexual Ethics
11:00-11:50 Sunday Session 2
- Ann Pellegrini, Queer Theory and the Jewish Question
- Chani Getter, Seminar
12:00 Closing program/ Last mishpacha group
1:00 Lunch; and bookstore open

**Tachlis: Logistics, Cost, etc.**

Thanks to the generosity of the Manhattan JCC and the Charles & Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, the price for the entire weekend will be on a sliding scale from $60-100, including all meals, programming, everything. (Housing is on your own; click the link for the housing board for out-of-towners to connect with locals willing to house them.) We are committed to enabling everyone to attend the Shabbaton, and look forward to a wide range of sexual, gender, economic, religious, and ethnic diversity.

Click this link to register now: http://www.jccmanhattan.org/category.aspx?catid=1370#16042 . You will be taken to the website of the JCC of Manhattan. Note the website only lets you register at the $100 rate. For a sliding scale registration cost of between $60 and $100, please call the JCC at 646-505-5708. No questions asked! If you would like to apply for a scholarship to cover the full retreat cost, please send us an email explaining a little about yourself and why you'd like to come to the Queer Shabbaton. We are pleased to have scholarship money available thanks to the generosity of our supporters, so please don't hesitate to ask.

Can't find a place to stay? Want to offer a place to stay? Check out our Housing Board (http://www.nehirim.org). OR check out the Candy Hostel on West 95th Street.

Official Website: http://www.nehirim.org/qsny/