Formerly "Aytz Chayim: Deepening Roots, Growing Branches" Wisdom House Denver is a center for multifaith dialogue and spiritual inquiry.
Together with our core group of teachers and leaders, we explore the intersections of our different traditions, as we deepen our meaningful connections with our own.
02/17/2024
https://meetu.ps/e/MV9Yf/j9cb0/i
“Soul Brew: Crafting Bad Ass Communities” (LIVE Brew Theology Podcast Event!), Thu, Apr 4, 2024, 7:00 PM | Meetup Raise your MILE HIGH glasses & get ready to embark on another LIVE BREW THEOLOGY PODCAST EVENT! Soulfully sojourn on this interfaith spiritual journey with a Jewish Rabbi,
08/13/2023
Happily arrived at my spiritual home in Chicago (other than the lake).
12/20/2022
It was the eighth night of Chanukah in Kiel, Germany, a small town with a Jewish population of 500. That year, 1931, the last night Chanukah fell on Friday evening, and Rabbi Akiva Boruch Posner, spiritual leader of the town was hurrying to light the Menorah before the Shabbat set in.
Directly across the Posner’s home stood the N**i headquarters in Kiel, displaying the dreaded N**i Party flag in the cold December night. With the eight lights of the Menorah glowing brightly in her window, Rabbi Posner’s wife, Rachel, snapped a photo of the Menorah and captured the N**i building and flag in the background. She wrote a few lines in German on the back of the photo. “Chanukah, 5692. ‘Judea dies’, thus says the banner. ‘Judea will live forever’, thus respond the lights.”
The image, freezing in time a notorious piece of the past, has grown to become an iconic part of history for the Jewish community. But until just recently, not much was known about the origins of the photo. Both the menorah and photo survived World War II, with the Hanukkah finding its way to Yad Vashem through the loan of Yehudah Mansbuch. Mansbuch is the grandson of the woman who took the picture, and he retains the original snapshot. When Yad Vashem was putting together its plans to open the Holocaust History Museum, a team of researchers set out to learn more about this famous photo. Their inquiries led to Mansbuch, who explained how his grandmother and grandfather had lived under N**i oppression in Kiel, Germany, eventually fleeing to then-Palestine in 1934.
Yehudah Mansbuch, the grandson of the family who took the photo, remembers:
“It was on a Friday afternoon right before Shabbat that this photo was taken. My grandmother realized that this was a historic photo, and she wrote on the back of the photo that ‘their flag wishes to see the death of Judah, but Judah will always survive, and our light will outlast their flag.’ My grandfather, the rabbi of the Kiel community, was making many speeches, both to Jews and Germans. To the Germans he warned that the road they were embarking on was not good for Jews or Germans, and to the Jews he warned that something terrible was brewing, and they would do well to leave Germany. My grandfather fled Germany in 1933, and moved to Israel. His community came to the train station to see him off, and before departed he urged his people to flee Germany while there’s still time.”
The couple’s prescience saved an entire community; only eight of the five hundred Jews perished in the Holocaust, with the rest fleeing before the systematic slaughter began. Today, Yehudah Mansbuch lives in Haifa (Israel) with his family. Each Hanukkah, Yad Vashem returns the now famous menorah to the family, who light the candles for eight nights before returning the piece of history back to the Holocaust trust.
Source: https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/menorah-defies-nazi-flag/
09/04/2022
It may sound silly, but this show brings me to tears. So spiritual and true. Told by a Black man who loves wilderness, who shares stories of people deeply connected there, who are growing trees that will survive in our new climate, who share what it means to be a person of color in wilderness, and Anishnabe/Original People who share their connection as well. Whether you just like wilderness, or share or want to understand more about being a person of color there, or care deeply about the future of the planet, or just enjoy meeting people who live from a deep hearted/spirited place connected with nature….. I highly recommend this show. It is clearly designed to be accessible to the masses, but it is is also deeply radical and spiritual. (PS. This episode includes a visit to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) where three friends helped me begin my transition to rabbinical school so many years ago. Also the segment on wild rice takes place next to an area currently being explored for nickel mining (for our electric car batteries). Thank you Baratunde and PBS!
America Outdoors with Baratunde Thurston | Minnesota: A Better World | Episode 6 | PBS Baratunde travels to northern Minnesota to find out what the wild means to Americans today
07/12/2020
https://youtu.be/4CV-GB20fvg
Join us for our last live broadcast of July (feel free to look back to previous recordings on YouTube that you missed!). We will be hosted by Rev. Simon Shadowlight, Assc. Minister at Mile Hi Church in Lakewood, CO
Prayer in Unity - Lisa Pettitt - Multifaith Leadership Forum Prayer in Unity - Simon Shadowlight - Mile High Church - Multifaith Leadership Forum
06/30/2020
Join us Tues. night 7:30 Mountain time for a few moments of reflection, contemplation and inspiration.
Prayer in Unity - Rabbi Stephen Booth-Nadav - Tuesday, June 30th at 7.30PM - Multifaith Leadership Forum - https://mailchi.mp/7265e52c1f10/prayer-in-unity-multifaith-leadership-forum-4878153
06/15/2020
Join us tomorrow night for ten min. of contemplation and inspiration.
Prayer in Unity - Pastor Kathy Escobar - Tuesday, June 16th at 7.30PM - Multifaith Leadership Forum - https://mailchi.mp/efddda48da57/prayer-in-unity-multifaith-leadership-forum-4867457
06/10/2020
I help facilitate a great group of about 40 faith leaders in the metro Denver area called The Multifaith Leadership Forum. In response to the pandemic, and now the rise of (hopefully) powerful social change in the face of undeniable racism, a couple months ago we started something called "A Prayer in Unity." For about ten minutes every Tues. night at 7:30pm, a different faith leader presents reflections and offers contemplation and/or prayer from their tradition... all to help us in these challenging times. Tonight my dear friend Karen from the Church of Jesus Christ of the Later Day Saints is the host. Here is the link. Worth watching. And you can tune into this channel every Tues. at 7:30pm Mountain time.
Karen LaCouture Prayer in Unity Multifaith Leadership Forum Karene LaCouture is with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and serves as the Denver Area Communication Interfaith Director. Please consider don...
05/24/2020
Dear Friend,
In these trying and challenging times we need to connect. We need to experience inside ourselves the Source of Life, that Loving Presence that is constant and still with us. That Source that many of us call God sometimes comes through even more powerfully when we listen for it not only in our own tradition but through others as well.
The Multifaith Leadership Forum has initiated a weekly "Prayer in Unity." Every Tuesday night, starting at 7:30pm, leaders of different faith traditions will lead us in 5-10 minutes of prayer and contemplation for strength, inspiration, vision and sustenance during this awful pandemic.
Tuesday, May 26th at 7.30pm Father Patrick Dolan, Most Precious Blood - Catholic Church, will lead the "Prayer in Unity".
The Prayer in Unity will be Live Streamed on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/iNhzFr5lDTo
Please share the link with your friends.
RSVP is not required. Please click the YouTube link a few minutes before 7.30PM MT.
Here are previous weeks' Prayer in Unity:
- May 19th Dr. Ved Nanda
- May 12th Rev. Dr. Youngsook Charlene Kang
- May 5th, Rev Bonita Bock
- April 28th The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Cearley
- April 21st, Imam Muhammad Kolila
- April 14th, Rabbi Stephen Booth-Nadav
Prayer in Unity - Father Patrick Dolan - Multifaith Leadership Forum Prayer in Unity - Father Patrick Dolan - Most Precious Blood Catholic Church - Multifaith Leadership Forum
Two statements, the first by the Rocky Mountain Rabbinical Council, and the second from the Multifaith Leadership Forum of Metro. Denver
We, the members of the Rocky Mountain Rabbinical Council, stand united in our condemnation of the horrific terrorist attack at the Christchurch, New Zealand Mosque yesterday. Once again we have witnessed how an ideology of white supremacy, xenophobia and hatred has resulted in violence and the blood of innocents. The distance between our countries does not diminish the pain that we feel. While we may not share the same traditions, we believe that we are all children of God - created in the image of a beneficent Creator. We extend our support, love, and solidarity - coupled with a unified determination to both condemn and eradicate all forms of racism and violence in our world. We remember well how the Denver Muslim community rallied to show their support of the Jewish community in the aftermath of the massacre at the Tree of life Synagogue in Pittsburgh last November. We regret that it has taken yet another tragic event for us to once again unequivocally state that we stand united with our Muslim brothers and sisters. We know your pain. We share your grief. We extend our hands in love, solidarity and friendship. Today is the Muslim Holy day. Tonight and tomorrow we will begin our Shabbat. May our prayers and tears mingle together. May God’s love unite us in our common humanity. We pray for the day when hatred, bigotry and intolerance are banished.
Ken yehi ratzon - May this be God’s will. AMEN
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As leaders of many faith traditions in the Metro. Denver Area, the Multifaith Leadership Forum stands in support of Muslims and Muslim communities around the world in grief at the horrible massacre in Christchurch, NZ. We reject all forms of hatred and bigotry, including white supremacy, as an affront to God’s Holy Name. Today we stand with our Muslim cousins. Today we are all Muslims
