BackYard Mishkan - Jewish School, classes, visual & performing arts

25/10/2024

https://peacemagazine.org/archive/v31n1p16.htm I want to share this short interview with Mubarak Awad from 2015 before the weekend and encourage you to email/message me if you're interested in being part of a cohort for a two year Shomeret Shalom Ordination Program which will include guest speakers from the world of nonviolent resistance and study of both Jewish and Palestinian conflict transformation methodologies.

Meir Amor: Mubarak Awad on Nonviolence in Peace Magazine Jan-Mar 2015

24/10/2024

Dear friends,
I am hosting a zoom event on November 7th at 4PM PST for people interested in learning more about my/our two year Shomeret Shalom Ordination Program. If you would like to be part of this conversation in support of your deliberations about whether to join the program in Feb, please email or message me for the zoom link! I feel now more than ever it is critical to create communities of revolutionary nonviolent practice dedicated to intergenerational healing, peace culture tending, nv skill building, transformational solidarity and commitment to repairing the harms of zionism. If you are interested in a deep dive for the next two years, join the call to learn more. Below is an atonement altar I created for Sukkot - an example of a Shomeret Shalom altar for religious occasions that are dedicated to keeping Palestine a priority until the genocide ends and recovery is accomplished.

16/10/2024

NEW PROGRAM! Shomeret Shalom Ordination Program is a two year course of study for individuals and communities who want to practice Jewish nonviolence as a spiritual way of life in solidarity with Palestine and other collective liberation struggles. The First Cohort begins Feb 2025. Email me for more info.
The two year curriculum focused on four areas of competency:
Soul Tending - daily healing practices such as water ceremonies and breath work to heal from personal, collective, and ancestral traumas
Culture Tending - land Rematriation and Earth-based Judaism, diasporic multi-lineage folk arts traditions (music, ceremony keeping, and storytelling)
Wisdom Tending - peace and conflict transformation legacies based in the writings of our ancestors in Torah and beyond, as well as their application to contemporary movement building
Tending Transformational Solidarity- nonviolent action tactics, building movement networks, and pilgrimage practices

Each area of study comes with specific practices including learning the art of Jewish water ceremonies, shomeret shalom storytelling and ceremonial leadership, study of the written and oral legacies of The Torah of Nonviolence and participation in multifaith pilgrimages to sites of atrocity, nonviolent resistance and transformative healing. The model of learning is based in mutual mentorship and building a culture of repair that is accountable to the harms of systemic violence and contemporary atrocities, including the genocide of Palestinians in our name.

Program Values
Social Justice- Integrate and be transformed by the righteous demands of feminism, racial, trans, disability justice, indigenous land back advocates, and water protectors
Teshuvah- Repair the massive harms of the Palestinian genocide that has been committed in the name of Jewish safety as a normative part of Jewish ceremonial and political life
Intergenerational Networks - we connect to living legacies of carriers of nonviolent struggle and welcome all ages and stages as wisdom teachers
Community of practice- we come together to do the work and build relationship through food, song, dance, story and ceremony
Joy - cultivate courage through curiosity and celebration of creative expression
Convivencia- honoring and uplifting cultural lineages from across the diaspora
We are all leaders- A supportive environment with room to live into each of our gifts and teach one another
​
The first cohort begins February 2025 and is open to rabbis, storytellers, artists, educators, movement activists and Jewish folx from all walks of life who want to explore and deepen their knowledge and practice of Jewish nonviolence and become ordained as a practitioner of a shomeret shalom way of life.

If this pathway appeals to your heart and soul, reach out to R. Lynn for an initial conversation at [email protected]

16/10/2024

House of Dates Zoom event with R. Lynn on Thursday! TRANSFORMATIONAL SOLIDARITY: BUILDING THE MOVEMENT FOR A LOVING WORLD, OCTOBER 17, 12:00-1:30 PM PT/3:00-4:30 PM ET Presented in collaboration with From the Deep. On this first day of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, join multifaith movement elder Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb in the House of Dates for a conversation on transformational solidarity, woven song, story and prayer. Register Here!https://sksm edu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rTB5PniSSAO0a5Q0d3YWkw #/registration

14/10/2024

Anas, from Gaza spoke to us in a tent from Jabalya in the dark. He said, "All I have left is my phone and this tent. Food is difficult to find and I don't have enough money to buy food." Day by day, life becomes a genocide within a genocide. Anyone living in the United States who opposes ceasefire and an Israeli arms embargo is supporting genocide - because that is what is happening! With our tax money. This level of suffering is never ever ever justified. If it is, all has been lost. Our ancestors suffered to preserve a culture of peace for nothing.

14/10/2024

https://peterbeinart.substack.com/p/two-final-thoughts-about-ta-nehisi?utm_source=podcast-email&publication_id=105260&post_id=150189988&utm_campaign=email-play-on-substack&utm_content=watch_now_button&r=25hcuo&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email Two important points: nonviolence & international law, PLUS the lack of complexity and knowledge in those who are arguing for Israel. Worth the listen.

What Critics Mean When They Say He’s Ignoring Complexity

11/10/2024

A blessing upon everyone who has taken to the street, and or engaged in acts of courage and every day decency to end the genocide of the Palestinian people. We must persist and be the hope, even as we rage against the refusal of our government to halt the weapons flow. We must prepare ourselves for the long haul by strengthening our communities of faithful practice - the practice of standing up for love, equity and freedom. Below - in Santa Fe, NM erev selichot - a few weeks ago. Blowing the shofar in the street with colleagues I've known for decades, and the newest generation of people who love freedom.

08/10/2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgWt-QcPYMo&t=410s A book for writers with a clear moral compass. He is challenged by a Jewish reporter who came off as racist, condescending, zionist oriented white reporter (yuck) - and evoked in Ta-Nehisi a clear moral response of seeing Israel as an apartheid state and clarifying the 'right to exist' argument - every country in the world establishes its ability to exist through force, not rights. Israel exists - and has established an apartheid state that has now evolved into genocide.

Acclaimed author Ta-Nehisi Coates joins "CBS Mornings" to talk about his new book, "The Message," and about the banning of his work in South Carolina.Each we...

07/10/2024

Holding those who did not survive and hostages awaiting liberation in my heart and actions. Our route to freedom is together. End the warrior mind. Turn toward the future of children. May peace come quickly, even as we remain sumud, steadfast to the work of collective liberation.

04/10/2024

Replanting Seeds of Jewish Revolutionary Nonviolence after October 7

On Tuesday, October 8, at 7:30 PM Eastern Time (4:30 PM Pacific Time), I will be hosting a conversation with Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb about her new book, Replanting Seeds of Jewish Revolutionary Nonviolence after October 7. In this event, we will explore Jewish nonviolence through the sevenfold pathway of Shomeret Shalom and the five-step process of repair and Teshuva. We will reflect on how we can work toward healing from the ongoing harm of settler colonialism and genocide and how to build a Jewish practice grounded in integrity after October 7.

This session, scheduled just before Yom Kippur, will provide you with a unique opportunity to ask all the big questions, emotional questions, troubling questions, passionate questions.

Yom Kippur is about restoring our relationship with the divine. But we cannot do this without first restoring our relationship with other human beings. How do we restore and repair our relationships with others when we find ourselves being born in a situation of privilege that includes massive harm against oppressed peoples?

Register here to join this conversation.

02/10/2024

Shana Shomeret Shalom Tova - may we continue to build the movement for transformational solidarity. Be the hope you desire. Channel your grief into action. Be sumud - for the sake of the future. This is the atonement altar I set up at Nahalat Shalom in ABQ and tonight with Beyt Tikkun in Berkeley where I'll share a conversation with Rabbi Cat Zavais on what The Torah of Nonviolence, Shomeret Shalom can humbly contribute to transforming this moment of atrocity, genocide and war crimes into seeds of healing and hope for a world whose foundation is love.

26/09/2024

VIRTUAL TALK with R. Lynn: As we approach these days of reflection and remembrance, especially with Rosh Hashanah fast approaching, it’s more important than ever to be grounded in communities of practice. The High Holidays are a time for turning inward, gathering strength, and stepping back out. We do this best in the warmth and power of community. Register to take part in a meaningful conversation about the resources Jewish nonviolence can offer us in this time of genocide. Your presence is deeply appreciated. Jewish Liberation Theology Institute's conversation with Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb will take place on Tuesday, October 8, at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time. You can register through https://jelithin.ca Together, we will explore Rabbi Lynn’s wisdom and the possibilities for Jewish revolutionary nonviolence. If you haven’t yet had the chance, you can find her book available for purchase here: https://pushcartjudaica.com/products/shomeret-shalom-chapbook-replanting-the-seeds-of-jewish-nonviolence
Wishing you a meaningful Rosh Hashanah and looking forward to learning together, Rabbi Lucía Pizarro, Jewish Liberation Theology Institute, Building community through text study

This year Rosh Hashanah begins on the evening of Wednesday, October 2, and Yom Kippur on the evening of Friday, October 11, 2024.