1) The World
Congress through 35 Years: Challenges Then and Now
Presenters: Michael Levine, William Wahler, Sandy Warshaw, Beth Cohen, Scott
Gansl, Priscilla Golding, Harvey Cohen, Bonnie Kantor, Lo Woudstra, Barrett Brick
This session is a panel discussion among World Congress elders who have been in
leadership positions since 1975. Participants will engage in old-fashioned
reminiscences about the past accomplishments of the World Congress and will
talk about where it should be going so that future generations will have
accomplishments to reminisce about. A question and answer period with audience
participation will follow presentations by panelists.
2) Reclaiming Torah: A Lesson in Modern Day Tikkunim
Presenters: Rabbi Jocee Hudson
Together, we will explore how Jewish mystics developed their own system of
theurgy (affecting change in God) and tikkun or repair. The mystics had no
qualms about disagreeing with the actions of characters in the Torah and
created ceremonies to repair (or rework) their actions. Together, we will study
the basic concepts of tikkun and suggest our own repairs or reworkings of
biblical “mistakes.”
3) Spiritual Play with Zvi Bellin, Nehirim's Engagment Coordinator
Presenters: Zvi Bellin
Experience Judaism off the pew. In this workshop you will survey cutting edge
Jewish practices that can be integrated into congregation services and personal
practices. Learn the fundamentals of Jewish meditation and seeing the Divine
right in your own body. We will also look at two forms of Jewish chanting from
the Renewal and the Mussar movement. Come, settle in, and get electrified about
Jewish spiritual practice. Special emphasis will be placed on creating a safe
container for vulnerable practices.
4) The LGBT Movement in Israel: The 1980s to the Bar Noar shooting – Lessons
learned
Presenters: Mike Hamel
Starting with the new documentary Gay Days (Hazman Havarod) (Dir. Yair Qedar)
learn about how Israel’s gay community came of age when an unlikely coalition
of academics, hairdressers, prostitutes, transsexuals, singers and military
officers shook up the religious state by bringing queer visibility out of the
underground discos and into the national conversation. Then jump to the
present, a year after the shooting at the Aguda’s
5) Na’aseh v’Nishma: Excerpts from a Queer Jewish Memoir
Presenters: Sarah B. Burghauser
Na’aseh v’Nishma (working title) is a lyrical autobiography about growing up
queer in an Orthodox Jewish home, and the bitter, yet sometimes amusing
experiences wrought by living in the crossfire of seemingly conflicting
communities. True to the title, Na’aseh v’Nishma (literally, “We will do and we
will hear”, or, “Do first, understand later”), we follow the narrator as she
works her way toward a non-traditional kind of understanding of her self in
relationship to her context, through encounters with emotional violence,
unmerciful criticism, secret meditations, fervent prayer, and occasional family
tenderness. Her journey, which is not linearly progressive, is one fraught with
erotic wonderment, fierce piety, sexual revelations, absurdist delights, and
violent spiritual awakenings by way of language.
6) Faith for Equality: How to Engage Diverse Faith Communities in Policy Change
Presenters: Kerry Chaplin
This session is intended for those interested in interfaith organizing for
policy change, especially those planning or currently involved in such organizing, this workshop will teach you how to engage
communities of faith across diverse religious denominations. The workshop is
based in experience largely garnered from marriage equality campaigns, both
educational and political.
Saturday Session B
1) Reclaiming
Leviticus: Why Levitical Texts Pose No Problem for Embracing and Empowering
GLBT People
Presenters: Rabbi JB Sacks
This session will look at current scholarship on the verses in Leviticus which
have been perceived as precluding an inclusive approach toward GLBT lives
within the Jewish community. Rabbi Sacks will debunk the myths, relate newer
approaches and show how the Jewish Bible can be understood to offer a GLBT-positive
approach.
2) Best Practices for LGBT Inclusion in Jewish Institutions
Presenters: Asher Gellis and Dr. Joel Kushner
So you want to change your camp, your congregation, your Jewish Community to be
more open and welcoming of LGBT Jews but don't know where or how to start? This
workshop is the place for you. We will give you tips and techniques to make
radical change along with the current research on inclusion. Find out what
works, what doesn't and where our community needs your help.
3) Kweer Words-Writing New Liturgy and Telling Scared Stories
Presenters: Andrew Ramer
The Qu’ran calls us a “People of the Book” and for many of us this description
is appropriate. We define our lives through books, words, stories, jokes,
gossip, conversations, and we continually revisit ancient and old texts to help
us explain ourselves as Jews. This process hasn’t been as clear for LGBT folk.
Our stories have been hidden, kept secret, lost, destroyed, or never preserved.
But all of this has changed. We are creating new works that celebrate our
lives, both sacred works and secular ones. In this workshop participants will
learn about Sha’ar Zahav’s siddur, the process though which we published it in
2009, and also hear about the decade-long journey that led to the writing and
publication of Queering the Text. Prayers, blessings, and stories from these
two works will be read in session one. In the second half of the session
attendees will have the chance to do some writing of their own, both free-form
writing and structured writing, of prayer and midrash.
Those who feel comfortable will have the opportunity to share their words with
the group.
4) Telling Our Stories, Healing our Wounds, Finding Our Souls
Presenters: Rabbi Carla Howard
This workshop will offer a format, structure and context for the
self-reflective process that underlies the creation of an autobiography. It
will have both writing and sharing components for those who desire feedback and
support.
5) How Do I Advocate For My Kids In a Mainstream World?
Presenters: Tara Rose and Robin Berkovitz
What are the Jewish values that help us as parents?
The values that help us be strong in the world, not only as Jews, but also as
LBGTs? What do we draw on for strength and courage in order for us raise our
children? We look to torah, traditional teachings about parenting, and our
Jewish LGBT community for ideas and support. Can we lean on Jewish values such
as kavod, respect, and tikkun olam for clues to raising our kids in a
mainstream environment? Join us for a lively discussion as we look to bring to
together ideals of Judaism, the LBGT community and parenting
Saturday, Session C
1) Queer Jewish
Improv
Presenters: Terry Baum
We will play theater games and do improvisations that explore our experiences
as gays and lesbians and as Jews. Prepare to move. No theater experience
required.
2) What LGBT Jews Need from LGBT and Jewish Communities as We
are Aging
Presenters: Sandy Warshaw, Lo Woudstra
This session will delineate many of the issues facing LGBT Jews as they are
aging in the LGBT and Jewish communities. Among the issues are “ageism,” family
and community homophobia, discrepancy between Torah teachings of homosexuality
as an “abomination” and LGBT synagogue teachings that we are all created in
God’s image.
3) Persecution and Refugees: What International LGBT Community Must Learn from
the Jewish Experience
Presenters: Neil Grungras
The twenty-first century has brought shocking levels of violence against LGBTs
worldwide. At the same time, many nations have lifted legal restrictions
against the community, have recognized same-sex relationships, and have
accepted refugee claims by LGBTs applicants. These conditions have prompted
unprecedented numbers of LGBTs to escape to the West, where they request safe
haven. A leading international expert on LGBT refugee issues in the
4) Playing the Game: Men who loved Men in the Middle Ages
Presenters: Maggie Anton
Contrary to what most people think about medieval times, homophobia not only
didn’t exist during the 12th-century Renaissance, but many at that time found
love between men admirable. Sex between men might be a sin, but apparently a
less serious sin than one might think, and the desire for it was considered
normal, not perverse. Men who loved/desired men were called
‘Ganymedes’ [after the Greek myth], a rather positive term. The
pejorative term ‘Sodomite’ did not come into use until quite later.
5) Be Fruitful and Multiply: Sperm Donors, Surrogates, and what you need to
Know about making Mishpocha
Presenters: David Eden
The desire to have children is not limited to straight people, and over the
years, gays and lesbians have found alternate ways to create their own
families. With a combination of personal anecdotes, interviews and research,
this session will examine how GLBT Jews have navigated various reproductive
methods and technologies, and how they have networked to find like-minded
individuals and supportive environments. This session will also examine changes
in reproductive laws that are making it more difficult to do so.
6) Building A Wider Bridge
Presenters: Arthur Slepian
We will discuss both the need for and the strategies
for building stronger ties between LGBTQ Jews in the
Sunday, Session D
1) Film: Ruthie and
Connie Every Room In the House, Part 1
Presenters: Ruthie Berman and Connie Kurtz
The award-winning documentary, Ruthie and Connie: Every Room in the House,
takes us into the lives of two wonderful women who balance their worlds with
humor, care and wisdom. Jewish, lesbian grandmothers from working class
2) Film: Gay Revolt At Denver City Council –And The Beginnings Of An Organized
Gay Community, Part 1
Presenters: Gerald A. Gerash and Joseph Hawkins
A new documentary about an astonishing landmark in the history of gay rights
and gay liberation ideology --- how a powerless community, organized from the
grass roots, fought the police and city hall, changed the laws, won a lawsuit
against the police and built a strong gay community. Highlights:
speeches at City Council supported by 300 gays and lesbians demanding justice
in the face of threats of mass arrests, but ultimate victory.
Jerry Gerash, there from the beginning, was an organizer and also a gay rights
lawyer fighting in the courts.
3)
Same Gender Marriage: Issues of Jewish Law, Justice, and Activism
Presenters:
Robin Podolsky, Steve Krantz, PhD, and Rabbi JB Sacks
Same-gender
marriage: what is it? Robin Podolsky and
Rabbi JB Sacks will lead a discussion of same-gender marriage focused on issues
of halachah, minhag, and evolving moral understandings in Judaism’s varied
movements. The session will address
legal issues such as kiddushin and kinyan with a focus on how those discussions
guide an understanding of same-gender marriages according to Mosaic law. In the second
part of the presentation, Dr. Steve Krantz will present how Jews for Marriage
Equality organized and strategized to achieve a 78% Jewish vote against
4) Building Community: The California Men’s Gathering Model
Presenters: Barry Schoenfeld
The California Men's Gatherings (CMG) started out as an idea in a few men's
minds over 30 years ago. Their goal was to bring together men of all faiths,
orientation, ages and political outlooks to create a "gay community"
outside of what existed at that time...bars, clubs and bathhouses. In this
session, we will explore how it was created; what has been created; and what is
yet to come...and how it can be "re-created" in other states and countries
around the world.
5) The Science of Sexual Orientation
Presenters: Dr. Richard Lippa
A discussion of the science of sexual orientation: e.g., studies of physical
and psychological traits related to sexual orientation, childhood predictors of
sexual orientation, and the genetics of sexual orientation. Also, a discussion
of the social and political implications of such research—e.g., do scientific
findings about the “causes” of sexual orientation influence public opinion,
GLBT self-identity, and GLBT people’s quest for civil rights?
6) “Thou Shalt Not Put a Stumbling Block Before the Blind": Privacy,
Homophobic and Anti-Semitic Assault, and Jewish Laws of Speech
Presenters: Corinne Blackmer
This session will explore the impact that Jewish prohibitions against lashon
ha-ra (the evil tongue), constructed to protect embattled Jewish communities
against communal self-destruction through invidious disclosure have contributed
to the success of LGBT Jews and their allies in eradicating anti-LGBT interpretation
and practice in the normative branches of contemporary American Judaism. This
session will use audiovisual materials (video and photographs) to explore the
prohibitions against rechilus (or
trading in a person as an article of merchandise), and their relations to
blunting the force of homophobia.
Sunday, Session E
1)
Film:
Ruthie and Connie Every Room In the House, Part 2
Presenters: Ruthie Berman and Connie Kurtz
A continuation of the film and discussion.
2) Film: Gay Revolt At Denver City Council – And The Beginnings Of An Organized
Gay Community, Part 2
Presenters: Gerald A. Gerash and Joseph Hawkins
A continuation of the film and discussion with Professor Hawkins and Q and A.
3) Signal Through Noise
Presenters: Howard Rosenman
In this session, Howard Rosenman will give an inside look at his life of
activism both in the Jewish world and in fighting for the rights of GLBT
Americans. From the time he served as a volunteer medic in the Six Day War to
the making of his three groundbreaking gay documentaries to his film and TV
work to his founding Project Angel Food, his life is a life of activism in the
Jewish world and the gay world and where they intersect. In showing clips of
his films and recounting the impact that the media had in conjunction with his
efforts on behalf of the LGBT community, we will discuss how to best utilize
media and the arts to achieve the goals and mission of your organization or
movement.
4) Getting Our History Out of the Closet
Presenters: Mark Bowman
History is written from the perspective of those who preserve their records.
The LGBT Religious Archives Network (LGBT-RAN) is a unique electronic resource
(www.lgbtran.org) that assists LGBT religious leaders and groups to get their
papers out of closets and files and into archives. This workshop will present
ways you and/or your congregation can help ensure that your voices and stories
are preserved for future generations.
5) Funny, You Don’t Look Jewish!
Presenters: Davi Cheng
Come and find out what a Jew looks like. In this session we will take a look at the
Jews around the world, and our own identities.
Davi Cheng will share her personal experience as a
6)
Beyond the Pink: The Next Generation of Young Jewish Lesbians
Presenters: Elissa Barratt and Janelle Eagle
Who is the next generation of Jewish lesbians and how
are they forming their identities? What does this mean for the services they
will seek and the organizations they will look to - what are they looking for?
7) Summer Joins the Past: Deserted and Abandoned Jewish Summer Camps
Presenters: Albert J. Winn
Through visual imagery of deserted and abandoned Jewish summer camps, the
session will address the issues of grief and loss and long term survivorship of
AIDS.