Celebrate Purim in 5784!

graphic courtesy of freepik.com, clipart library and the Library of Congress

Purim starts on March 23. I usually continue these annual blog posts by glibly remarking on Jews celebrating yet another failed persecution attempt. I’m not sure I’ll ever be in those spirits any time soon, and if you’re facing difficulties, too, here’s an article from JTA.

On Purim, people of all ages dress up, eat special sweets and wave noisemakers called groggers. Jews are called to listen to the Megillah (the book of Esther) and most communities follow the reading with a parody performance.

GatherDC has already compiled a variety of DC-area events for before, during and after Purim here! Allow me to add to their list, thanks to jconnect.

Wednesday, March 20

HerTorah: Strength Through Togetherness
Zoom event through SVIVAH to learn about Esther in solidarity with the hostages in Gaza.

Friday, March 22

Purim with a Twist!
For Etz Hayim families with young children, a Shabbat service with prayers, songs, a story and more.

Saturday, March 23: Erev Purim!

Oseh Shalom Purim Dinner
Featuring dinner, a wine tasting, and other events for kids and adults before the Megillah reading and spiel!

Sunday, March 24: Purim!

Early Childhood Purim: A Sensory-Friendly Experience
Join Shaare Torah for crafts, an interactive reading of the Megillah, a mitzvah project and treats! Costumes encouraged but not required. Meant to minimize the noise but maximize the fun.

Sunday, March 31

Sunday Funday: Celebrate Passover with Auntie A!
Auntie A from Rhythm n’Ruach promises a fun morning at the Edlavitch DCJCC for families with young kids! Featuring music and movement followed by a chance to shmooze.

***

The Adas Purim shpiel is, unsurprisingly, covered on GatherDC, but I thought I’d give a little bit of a behind-the-scenes take. I’m singing in the chorus, and the theme this year is Barbie! I wrote earlier about somberness this holiday season, but there is still room, not just for joy but for the “raw, unedited realness” of life, as Adas puts it.

…perhaps not the first thing you’d think of in regards to the Barbie movie, but we’re going all in on the theme of shirking off the “pink and perfect world” for something a little more challenging. One thing that sticks out to me, as we’re signing our rendition of “Dance the Night,” is that we’re supposed to admire Vashti for challenging the status quo. We don’t always imagine Vashti so complexly during the sphiel, especially while singing with such pep! 😛

Elsewhere, Esther sings “Closer to Fine” by the Indigo Girls, an ode to embracing insecurity that I’ve loved since forever. I think we encompass it all here—an unusually nuanced narrative for Purim AND a lot of energy. 😛 I’ll be wearing my ‘80s aerobics clothes and waiting for you-know-who to belt out the Ken song! 😛 Join us in person or online Saturday night!

Chag Purim Sameach.

More Than Just the Food: The Passover Seder w/ Sixth & I

Screenshot from the class worksheet / courtesy of Sixth & I

Continuing a tradition from last year, where I attend a Sixth & I event for Passover prep! This one, convened over Zoom last Thursday and led by Senior Rabbi Aaron Potek, also focused on the conversational aspect of the holiday.

Specifically, the class was about how to lead a seder, and in that vein, the rabbi zeroed in on the most persistent obstacle: “annoying relatives” who keep asking when the meal will arrive. 😛 In the traditional Passover seder, the meal (Shulchan Orech) is step 11 out of 15. So, it’s bound to be a late arrival in any instance, even in a short seder.

The difference between a 30-minute seder and an 8-hour seder, Rabbi Aaron continued, is step 5: the telling of the Passover story (Maggid.) Many haggadot, (plural of the book called a Haggadah, or “Telling”) contain long narratives from the Book of Exodus, parceled out appropriately amidst the asking of The Four Questions. It’s up to each seder group whether they will recite everything, recite some portion and then divulge into discussion, or whittle it down to “they tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat!”

For seders that incline more towards the longer options, the rabbi suggests sprucing up some of the other ceremonial foods. Particularly step 3, the appetizers (Karpas,) usually parsley (which is dipped into salt water to dramatize the tears of the Israelites during enslavement). But in fact, any vegetable is appropriate—even potatoes!

Food is a big part of any Jewish holiday, and with Passover we have a whole plate of symbolically rich edibles or thereabouts. But food isn’t really the main point of the seder, Rabbi Aaron said. Nor, per se, is the retelling of the Exodus story. Rather, it’s the reliving of that story, and interpreting the themes as befits our own lives and world. (In more traditional words, to experience the Exodus as if it happened to you…because in the cyclical nature of Jewish memory, it kinda did.)

It’s a message that sits well with me. I haven’t had an orthodox Jewish education—literally or figuratively—and am uncomfortable with being forced to merely recite a bunch of stuff in Hebrew. I like the idea of challenging myself to make the holiday more resonant, and participants more engaged in the act of retelling. Rabbi Aaron pointed to tract in the Babylonian Talmud (Pesachim 115b) when the rabbis discuss removing the Passover table so that guests may ask why it was taken away. Thus this becomes a unique interpretation of the Four Questions.

That being said, to argue with the Talmud, removing a table merely to incite questioning seems like a closed loop. It’s better, Rabbi Aaron said, to look at the Passover story psychologically. Broaden the scope to the major themes of personal redemption, freedom, justice and how to make change happen. As a participant pointed out, likely many seders this year will bear reference to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

One can also argue with the traditional aspects of the story, like judging the archetypal four children who ask the Four Questions, celebrating (and mourning) the drowning of the oppressors, and etc. This is an example of what the rabbi called “the paradox of the Passover evening,” in that it taps into both suffering and freedom. Like matzah, which is both a symbol of affliction and redemption. There are lots of niggles to discuss, or perhaps rewrite, as the case may be. Maybe the four children could be morphed into four different types of Jews today.

Rabbi Aaron’s remarks lasted for about an hour, followed by a half-an-hour of question and answer. At the end of it, I definitely felt ready to tackle this holiday and make it my own. Even better, to know that my style of unique engagement could be construed as authentic Judaism.

For DC (and worldwide) mishpacha: check out the Gather The Jews Passover Guide for upcoming events and ways to commemorate the holiday. Passover (or Pesach in Hebrew) begins this year on Friday evening. Chag sameach.

Sixth & I Zoom Classes, Fresh Seder Ideas, Second Passover of Covid-19!

^{Rabbi Shira starts off the Seder Says class on Zoom / photo taken by Rachel Mauro}

And Gd willing, it will be the last!

Had to dust off a few gears in order to write this post. Barring the (in-person!) Adas Israel Purim funhouse, I haven’t been attending many happenings in the Jewish DC community. It’s been months since I’ve “gone” to any Zoom events, like at all! But when Sixth & I touted a class on sprucing up Passover Seder conversation, which took place a little over a week ago, I couldn’t resist.

It was robust and fun, as well as being informative.  The five main presenters, as moderated by Senior Rabbi Shira Stutman, were obviously part of a tight-knit group with several of the 30ish people in attendance.  Conversation bloomed through the video and in the chat.  Certainly one of the most intrinsic examples I’ve found of community continuing to proliferate in this pandemically mandated virtual space.  And I gotta say: as much as I appreciated the presenter who had the parting of the Red Sea as his Zoom background, my heart went pitter patter over another one whose cats were present and lounging in a cat tree. 😛

These five speakers, aided by their Power Point presentations, were compelling and well-spoken, too.  They covered such topics as The Four Questions (and the always-active argument about what those four children represent,) the song “Dayenu” (and what is enough, or is it enough, in the Passover story and in our current reality,) and the phrase “L’shana haba’ah Yerushalayim,” or “next year in Jerusalem” (and how to reconcile that with complicated feelings about the modern state of Israel, or if the phrase has to be literal at all.) 

The topic that has stuck in my mind the most regards violence in the Passover story. Specifically, this discussion started by describing the Shfoch Hamatcha prayer. This is traditionally recited before opening the door to Elijah the Prophet near the end of the Seder (that being one of my favorite parts because the melody is so pretty. And because opening the door and singing out to the world reminds me that Jews are doing this everywhere, too.) But anywho, the prayer actually asks for Gd to “pour out thy wrath” on our enemies, eeesh.

My own thoughts gravitated towards the idea of vengeance, which is actually something I’ve been grappling with more when it came to the last majorish Jewish holiday, Purim. Purim is pretty standard when it comes to Jewish history; the Persian version of “they tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat.” But we talk less about this fact: once the bad guy, the one who wanted to commit genocide against the Jews, was executed, the people didn’t stop there. Megillat Esther maintains that they went on a killing spree against non-Jews. Vengeance is quite obviously a theme here.

The violence in the Passover story is different.  First of all, these acts performed by Gd (who is totally absent from the Purim story.)  But more importantly, the violence therein can largely be chalked up to self-defense.  Gd closed the Red Sea over the advancing Egyptian army, lest the Israelites be dragged back into bondage.  Then Gd commands said Israelites to not celebrate their deaths, since the Egyptians were still people, after all.

It’s just something I’ve been thinking about, and I’m glad the Seder gives space to grapple with these issues. Purim, in contrast, has a bit of a carnival air, and it can be difficult to take an introspective moment. (In terms of drunkenness, Purim=very drunk, and Passover=slightly buzzed. :P) Anywho, I’m very grateful to the Sixth & I class. Passover is now less than a week away, giving me limited time to perhaps hash out my own talking points on Hagaddot.com for my first Seder night (and second will be spent, virtually, with Adas!)

For DC (and worldwide) mishpacha: also check out the Gather the Jews Passover guide for upcoming events and other ways to commemorate the holiday. Chag sameach, and Next Year Without Covid!

10th Anniversary of JewishDC!

Thank you to all the people who came to my blog in 2018 from across the world! / graphic courtesy of WordPress

Ten years ago in the summer, I had the idea that since I was attending a significant number of local Jewish events, I should do something with that. I was also fresh off of my journalism degree and I liked to write, and thus JewishDC was born!

Things have changed a little bit in the interim. Some organizations have come and gone. Just recently the (now named) Edlavitch Jewish Community Center announced that it’s doing away with it’s old, multiple festivals and creating a whole new huge one. So much to choose from, so little time!

I used to post weekly events updates, but now I leave most promotion to organizational twitters (you can see my aggregated list in the sidebar!) and the awesome GatherDC. I’m not really so much of a community organizer as I am one Jewish DCer, whose tastes have likely changed a bit from her twenties and into her thirties, documenting events I attend in the Greater Washington Area. For example, I now also look at our local indie bookstores, as well as Jewish institutions, when an author of the tribe comes into town!

You can find compiled lists of my reviews of literary, music, film and theater events here and here. I’m also thinking of making a new page for religious content. But for now I thought I’d go into my stats page and list my top ten review posts from 2009 to today.

I’m so glad that I started this project, that I have records of all these great events. And I can share what an inspiring town this is for celebrating Jewish culture! Happy new year, everyone, and may 2019 be great for Jews in DC.

• 2009: “Zrubavel,” first fully Ethiopian-Israeli feature, depicts immigrant life
• 2010: Routes Conference Brings DC Jews Together for Jewish Learning
• 2011: Kol HaOlam National Collegiate A Capella Competition Starts off with a Bang at Adas Israel
• 2012: Kol HaOlam National Collegiate Jewish A Capella Competition Returns to Adas Israel
• 2013: The Smithsonian Folklife Festival: Jewish Culture in Unusual Places (Hungary, Endangered Jewish Languages, and Jewish Events Around the Festival)
• 2014: The Smithsonian Folklife Festival: Jewish Culture in Unusual Places (China and Kenya)
• 2015: Kol HaOlam A Cappella Contest Enters Its Fifth Year
• 2016: Black Jews Documentary and More at the Washington, DC Jewish Film Festival
• 2017: Local Writers Explore the Theme of Unexpected Journeys at the 2017 Washington, DC Jewish Literary Festival
• 2018: Chloe Benjamin Explores the Meaning of Life in THE IMMORTALISTS, w/ Jewish Family and Prophecy

Commemorate MLK Weekend and Tu B’Shevat 5777 in DC!

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel with Martin Luther King, Jr in 1965 / photo courtesy of wikipedia

Happy 2017! As this is my first post of the year, I thought I’d share a few stats from 2016. According to WordPress, JewishDC got 1,901 views and 1,356 visitors, with the largest numbers coming from the US, Brazil, Russia and India. Wow! My most popular post of the year was Black Jews Documentary and More at the Washington, DC Jewish Film Festival.

Thanks so much for your support, everyone, and I look forward to a fruitful new secular year! Let’s get into some holidays and community service.

As we enter the second half of January and the first half of February, one secular and one religious holiday crop up on the horizon. The long weekend set aside for commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. starts Saturday, Jan. 14, and Tu B’Shevat commences on Feb.10. Check out ways to get involved with the local community! Note: some events may be sold out.

Please feel free to add more events in the comments.

MLK Weekend

• Sixth & I’s Visions of Freedom and Justice. In conjunction with Turner Memorial AME church and featuring their two choirs. Also focusing on the work of Civil Rights activist Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.
• Washington Hebrew Congregation’s MLK Shabbat Dinner. Hosting partner churches and mosques, with special guest Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II. Rev. Dr. Barber was the architect of the North Carolina-based Forward Together Moral Movement and was a keynote speaker at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, amongst other things. Followed by Shabbat service.
• Adas Israel’s Weekend of Tikkun Olam. Featuring a Friday night Return Again Shabbat service, dinner, and a Saturday morning service with guest speakers. On Sunday, a service at the Peoples Congregational United Church of Christ with guest speaker Charles Cobb, former activist, senior analyst at allAfrica.com, and more.
• Also check out Monday days of service with WHC and the EDCJCC (links courtesy of GatherTheJews.com).

Tu B’Shevat

• Adas’s Tu B’Shevat Seder, led by the “Green Team,” Feb. 12, 10 am.
• EDCJCC’s Family Event, Feb. 12, 10:30 am

Chag Sameach!

DC Chanukah Happenings 5777!

Graphic courtesy of Webweavers

The multi-holiday season is upon us; weather is occasionally fluctuating towards the cold, and people are counting the days, if they’re not there already, until they get a little time off from work or school. It’s time to fry those latkes and kindle the Chanukah lights! Local Jewish groups are rolling out the red carpet for this well-known Jewish holiday, which will take place this year from sundown Dec. 24 to sundown Jan. 1. Check these out! Feel free to add more in the comments, and chag sameach.

Hanukkah Happy Hour on the Hill
Annual young adult shindig sponsored by several Jewish organizations. Bring warm clothing for collection boxes headed to DC homeless community, sponsored by the EDCJCC.
Tuesday, Dec. 20, 6 pm, Capitol Lounge and Hawk N’ Dove

Chanukah at the Ellipse
American Friends of Lubavitch starts off the holiday season with this annual ceremony on the White House lawn.
Sunday, Dec. 25, 4 pm, the Ellipse

Community Chanukah Lighting
Family friendly inclusion & disabilities programming event, featuring lighting the menorah, eating Chanukah foods, spinning the dreidel, and more!
Wednesday, Dec. 28, 6:30 pm, EDCJCC

Hanukkah’s Extra Flame
Adas Israel, the EDJCC and other organizations team up with Sephardic Heritage in DC to provide a holiday concert, featuring internationally recognized Syrian opera singer, Lubana Al Quantar. The event will also center around relief efforts.
Wednesday, Dec. 28, 7 pm, Adas Israel

Adas Israel Hanukkah Events
Featuring info about observance, themed community events and more.

Check out more events for young professionals provided by Gather The Jews here!

DC High Holiday Tickets for 5777 and some closer events!

Yemenite style shofar / photo courtesy of Olve Utne and wikipedia

High Holidays are late this year (October 2-4 for Rosh Hashanah and 11-12 for Yom Kippur) but it’s never too early to square things away with getting your tickets. J-Connect has in depth detail concerning fees, schedules and more for DC and area MD and VA synagogues. Gather The Jews focuses more specifically on young adults, and has links to services and other activities to help this cohort connect.

But the Hebrew calendar this year leaves us with strange gaps in late summer and early fall! The newly minted Edlavitch Jewish Community Center won’t host its annual end-of-year book sale until September 14! 😦 But Zemer Chai has already opened its auditions for the next season! 😀 They’re particularly looking for male singers, fyi.

And the Israeli-American Conference is coming to the Marriot Marquis in Washington September 24-26. Several famous guests, from politicians to journalists, activists and artists, have been confirmed to speak. You can register to attend by clicking here.

The long, humid days of August will recede soon enough, and I’ll be back to highlight some local high holiday classes. Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Commemorate MLK Weekend and Tu B’Shevat 5776 in DC!

Traditional Tu B’Shevat bounty / photo courtesy of wikipedia

Happy 2016! As we enter the second half of January, one secular and one religious holiday crop up on the horizon. The long weekend set aside for commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. starts tomorrow, Jan. 16, and Tu B’Shevat commences on Jan. 24. Check out ways to get involved with the local community! Note: some events may be sold out.

Please feel free to add more events in the comments.

MLK Weekend

• Sixth & I’s MLK Shabbat: Visions of Freedom and Justice. In conjunction with Turner Memorial AME church and featuring their two choirs.
• Washington Hebrew Congregation’s MLK Shabbat Dinner. Hosting partner churches and mosques, with special guest William Jelani Cobb. Professor Cobb is director of the University of Connecticut’s Africana Studies Institute, amongst other things. Followed by Shabbat service.
• Adas Israel’s Weekend of Tikkun Olam. This weekend of learning features a such guests as Imam Talib M. Shareef of Masjid Muhammad, the Nation’s Mosque; and Jared Jackson of Jews in All Hues. (I attended one of their programs a few years ago and wrote about it here.) Also a joint service at the Peoples Congregational United Church of Christ, and more!
• Gather the Jews compiled a list of links to sign up for various days of service this Monday.

Tu B’Shevat

• DCJCC’s Family Seder, Jan. 25, 5:45 pm.
• Sixth & I’s It’s Only Natural seder, Jan. 25, 7:30 pm.
• Check out the JConnect calendar, where synagogues and other Jewish organizations submit their events!

Chag sameach!

Jews Ring in 5776 Amidst DC Excitement!

Traditional high holidays regalia / photo courtesy of middlebury.edu

Shana tova and g’mar chatima tova! These last few days might go down in local history as the first visit by Pope Francis, but the 10th of Tishrei is always the holiest day of the year for us Jews. 😛 Hope you had a meaningful fast, and a good Rosh Hashanah as well.

Here are some of my highlights:

• I went to Adas Israel as usual, and got to see new clergy member, Rabbi Aaron Alexander, in action. He gave a moving sermon on Rosh Hashanah about ways, concerning Gd and humanity, that we can stop “being serious about taking ourselves seriously” and actually take ourselves seriously.
• The “Return Again” Kol Nidre service, which attracts thousands of people to pray on the steps of the synagogue, wasn’t rained out or prey to technical difficulties! 😛 We also sang “Adon Olam” to the tune of Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Boxer.”
• Supreme Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg spoke with Judge David Tatel for the Yom Kippur afternoon discussion. I really appreciated her measured, researched answers to the questions he posed; she didn’t seem like she just liked to hear herself talk, and she had a sense of humor, too. Kind of hearkens back to the first point. 😛

Next week, the autumn Jewish holidays-palooza continues on with Sukkot and Simchat Torah. Check out the GatherTheJews calendar for some events!

The DCJCC Jewish Literary Festival is scheduled this year for October 18-28. It features famous worldwide Jewish writers such as Etgar Keret, Alan Dershowitz and Shalom Auslander, to a local writers fair. Personally, I have my eye on two panels–Eastern Europeans and women writing in the 21st century. Hope to see you there!

DC Chanukah Happenings 5775!

Courtesy of mybergen.com

The winter season is upon us- the weather is occasionally colder and icier, and people begin to count the days until they get a little time off from work or school. Why not warm yourself by the kindling Chanukah lights? Local Jewish groups are getting ready to roll out the red carpet for this well-known religious holiday, which will take place this year from sundown Dec. 16 to sundown Dec. 24.
Check these out!

DCJCC Chanukah Party
Drop by the DCJCC for family fun, including a moon bounce, games, crafts and more!
Sunday, December 14, 10 am, $10-$15

Chanukah at the Ellipse
American Friends of Lubavitch starts off the holiday season with this annual ceremony on the White House lawn
Tuesday, December 16, 4 pm, tickets required

Hanukkah Happy Hour on the Hill
Annual young adult shindig sponsored by several Jewish organizations, this year at both Capitol Lounge, and Hawk and Dove. Collection boxes at both sites for donations to local charity.
Tuesday, December 16, 6 pm, free

Festival of the Daughters
Sixth & I brings Rabbi Sarah Tasman to Not Your Bubbe’s Sisterhood to talk about the Book of Judith and the North African tradition, Chag HaBanot, for honoring her, and Jewish women everywhere.
Wednesday, December 17, 7 pm, $10-$12

Chanu-Comedy: A Festival of Laughs
Stop by Sixth & I for an amusing show featuring Rachel Bloom and Danny Jolles.
Saturday, December 20, 8 pm, $20-$23