Moving Traditions

By Shana Goldberg, Intermountain Jewish News, September 26, 2019

At Moving Traditions, not all those leading the educational programs are professional Jewish educators. Rabbis, cantors and Hebrew school teachers, of course, but they make up only part of the ranks. So do artists, social workers and young adults.

One of the latter is Tal Arnold, 24, who is leading a Shevet group for teen boys at Congregation Beth Evergreen. (Moving Traditions also has groups for girls, “Rosh Hodesh,” and nonbinary teens, “Tzelem.”)

Arnold is Moving Traditions’ first second-generation group leader. His parents, Rabbi Jamie and Marti Arnold, led Shevet and Rosh Hodesh groups, respectively.

By Simone Somekh, Forward, April 25, 2019

After coming out, Kollin thought it would have been great if the organization had an LGBTQ-oriented variation of its programming.

“They had it for guys and for girls,” they said. “What about the LGBT teens?”

Last year in October, Kollin’s wish came true when Moving Traditions partnered with another organization, JQ International, to start a new monthly social and educational program for LGBTQ Jewish teenagers in L.A.

I applied to Kol Koleinu with the hopes of turning my limited knowledge of feminism from RBG being a cool woman to a broader understanding of feminism. I quickly achieved these goals through slideshows and interactive conversations. Over the year, I learned about gender socialization, gender inclusion, body positivity, reproductive rights, and intersectional feminism. But more importantly, Kol Koleinu has been about exploring my own self, bridging the gap between my female and my Jewish identities.