The Aquarian Minyan Yeshiva
CURRENT & UPCOMING CLASSES*
*All classes are offered virtually via Zoom, unless stated otherwise. Class times listed are for Pacific Standard Time
NEW FOR WINTER 2025!
Understanding Jewish Identity in a Changed World: Honoring and Celebrating our Diversity with Yoreshet D’vorah Grenn, Ph.D
Wednesdays at 12pm Pacific/3pm Eastern
January 8, 15, 22 and 29
To Register Click HERE
*There is a suggested minimum donation of $60 for all four sessions of this class (those who registered last month for this class under the previous title“Who Is A Jew..with Dvorah Green do not need to re-register)
How do people of multiple Judaisms connect with God and the Jewish people? There are cultural Jews, secular Jews, religious Jews, Jews by birth, Jews of color, Jews by choice, political Jews, Goddess Jews, “Jewitches”, Jewish pagans, and those who describe themselves as Jews who may not affiliate with any religious organization or who identify with any categories. In addition, this class taught by author Yoreshet D'vorah Grenn we will explore multiple and intersecting theologies: the ways we imagine, construct and connect with God? What are the limits of self-definition as “Jewish”? Come explore the exciting contemporary challenges of Jewish identity with an outstanding educator who brings a brilliant and inclusive perspective to the topic.
About Yoreshet D’vorah Grenn
Yoreshet D’vorah Grenn, Ph.D (she/her) is an educator, writer, Mashpi’ah Ruchanit / Spiritual Guide and Yoreshet. She founded The Lilith Institute, A Center for Feminist Spirituality in 1997, Co-Directed the Women’s Spirituality MA Program at ITP/Sofia University for eight years, and was a founding theorist of the Kohenet movement. She has taught Jewish Magic and Folklore, and The Sacred Feminine in Judaism for Hebrew College and Ner Shalom/Cotati, and Humanities and Philosophy classes at Napa Valley College. D’vorah also just completed a Women’s Sacred Conversations with G’d class for Hebrew College as well.
Flavors of The Diaspora: Exploring Jewish Foodways, Herbal Wisdom and Women with Naomi Stein and Rabbi Jonathan Seidel PhD
Tuesdays 12pm Pacific
January 21, 28, February 4,11,18 and 25 and March 4
To Register Click HERE
*There is a suggested minimum donation of $72 for all seven sessions of this class. Please contribute what you can. Recordings of these sessions will be provided to all who register along with weekly resource documents with recipes, and other resources.
Come along with Rabbi Jonathan Seidel and Balabuste Naomi Stein as they unpack food as culture bearer, as medicine and as memory holder. We will follow the journey of Jewish foods, with a focus on plants and herbs, as they migrated from our Biblical homeland throughout the diaspora. Come explore the influence of neighboring communities as well as the skillful adaptation of the Jewish cooks and herbalists of the diaspora, the importance of geography, agriculture, and the issue of “cultural appropriation.” We will reveal treasured history embedded in recipes, and share the stories that flavor our foods. Learn from Rabbi Jonathan as he illuminates little known aspects of Jewish foodways in history, holidays, Shabbat,and family gatherings. We will include the relationship of cuisine, commensality (who we eat with) and Kashrut. We will explore how dishes and recipes "traveled" and evolved. We will also consider Naomi Stein's bold assertion that Jewish women have and continue to treat our families and communities through the foods we serve, as we investigate the relationship between the healing properties of common Jewish foods and the particular medical concerns of Jewish communities.
We will dive into the diets of a variety of diasporic communities, from the Mediterranean to Africa to Europe and the Americas. Our topics will include a discussion of Jewish culture, ethnicity and Kashrut, and current work in “foodways” and ethnographic research into diet and cuisine as well as these specific areas of Jewish food in history:
We will address these issues through the lens of a specific set of foods each week in the following order:
Week 1 : Bread
Week 2: Beef and Beans
Week 3: Noodle Dishes
Week 4: Chicken and Eggs
Week 5: Herbs and Spices
Week 6: Fish
Week 7: Garlic and Vegetables (explored through their botanical families)
About Naomi Stein
Naomi Stein is a culture keeper, researching, studying and teaching about Jewish Ethnobotany. She worked for the Lawrence Hall of Science, U.C. Berkeley’s public science center, for close to two decades, leading environmental education, theatre and science programming, funded by the National Science Foundation, the State of California and the National Institute of Health (among scores of others). Her work has been published by the University and WestEd. As a Backcountry Programs Director, she led over 1,000 youth through the Sierras and California coast.
Naomi taught Biblical Ethnobotany at the Berkeley Jewish Community Center with Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Seidel in the ‘90’s and is delighted to have reconnected in 2023. Naomi & Rabbi Jonathan have co taught several courses since then from Jewish Magic to Ancestral Green Wisdom through the Aquarian Minyan. She has also taught Jewish ethnobotany at Kehilla Community Synagogue, Chadeish Yameinu, the Peninsula JCC, Urban Adamah, the Jewish Herbalist Network, the Northern California Women’s Herbalist Symposium and with Kids in Gardens about culturally relevant gardening techniques. She serves on the Sacred Land Committee at her shul, engaging in education and equity efforts, and re-landscaping the synagogue grounds with solely Native and Jewish ethnobotanically significant plants. She is most proud of her work creating The Old World Plant Project, in which she interviews Shoah survivors about their pre-war plant memories. You are welcome to reach out to her directly at jewishherbalist@gmail.com
About Rabbi Jonathan Seidel
Rabbi Jonathan Seidel PhD is the Rabbi in Residence at the Aquarian Minyan and the Rosh Yeshivah. He has taught a variety of Jewish food history and Foodways courses over the last 10 years and enjoys Jewish cuisine from all over the globe. Rabbi Jonathan Seidel is also visiting Prof at the University of Portland where he teaches Comparative Religion, Bible and Theology. His High School Religious School project, written under the guidance of Rabbi Charles Kroloff was devoted to post Holocaust theology. At Oberlin College Rabbi Seidel studied Religion and Music, inter alia, and worked extensively in Interfaith programs. A Fullbright Scholar at the U. of Cambridge Jonathan holds a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. Rabbi Seidel is in his 41st year of teaching at the University level and has served as Rabbi for much of the past few decades as well. He is currently Chair of the Oregon Board of Rabbis and President of the Oregon Interfaith Hub. He divides his time between Oregon , the San Francisco Bay Area and the New York Metropolitan Area
Shir L’Shalom - A Song to Peace: Modern Israeli Poetry and Writings on War & Peace, Pain & Healing with Rabbi Moshe Halfon, MHL, DD
Wednesdays 12pm Pacific/ 3pm Eastern
February 5, 12, 19, 20 and March 5, 2025
To Register Click HERE
*There is a suggested minimum donation of $75 for all five sessions of this class. Recordings will be provided to all who register.
In Hebrew the word shir or shira can mean both “poem” ,and “song.”
Join Rabbi Moshe as he shares a carefully collected selection of poems and short written pieces from 20th and 21st century Israeli writers who struggle with the perennial and timely topics of war and peace, life and death, faith, justice, Israel itself, and their own souls. During this five week long class, writings of notables such as Yehuda Amichai, Natan Zach, Ehud Manor, Zelda, Rachel Bluwstein, Natan Yonatan, and Amir Gilboa will be explored. In addition to sharing these writings in spoken word form, Reb Moshe will also perform some of the poems which have been put to music. These works will be presented in Hebrew and English translation in a way that will be enjoyable and accessible for those without a background in Hebrew language. At the same time, these readings will be enriched by frequent reference to the sense of the original Hebrew, including the nuance of translation possibilities, that should prove stimulating for those with a more extensive background in Hebrew.
About Rabbi Moshe Halfon
Rabbi Moshe Raphael Halfon has been in the vanguard of spiritual and musical exploration for forty years, and has taught Kabbalah, Midrash and Middle Eastern dance at retreats throughout North America, Brazil and Israel. He is currently rabbi of Mt. Sinai Congregation in Cheyenne, WY, having "played every position on the rabbi baseball team" including pulpit rabbi, cantor, Hillel director and chaplain. His album of Jewish healing chants "Let There Be Light” is used by communities worldwide. Rabbi Moshe was ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia, completed a Masters degree in Educational Psychology at Temple University, and studied closely with Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. He received his BA in Jewish Studies at UCLA, where he also studied dance and Hebrew and Yiddish literature, founded the UCLA Bayit, and ran UCLA’s first Jewish Arts Festival. Rabbi Halfon has also studied at the Hartman Rabbinical Program in Jerusalem over the last several years and has taught previously for the Aquarian Minyan Yeshiva.