When Margie Patlak heard about Moving Traditions’ Rosh Hodesh program several years ago, she decided to start a group for her daughter, Eva Chudnow, and her friends. Margie wanted to help the girls build strong Jewish female identities in the face of challenging messages from the media and society.
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An Interview with Dr. Shira Tarrant, Associate Professor in the Department of Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies at California State University, Long Beach is a nationally recognized expert on issues of gender politics and popular culture. She is currently working on her fifth book, New Views on Pornography.
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This week as hundreds of Rosh Hodesh: It’s A Girl Thing! groups gathered in the United States to celebrate the new month, we at Moving Traditions were upset to learn that our supporter, Anat Hoffman, Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), was arrested in Jerusalem on Rosh Hodesh as she prayed the Sh’ma out loud with Women of the Wall and with Hadassah women celebrating their centennial.
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Continue Reading →For the nearly 900 families belonging to Congregation Beth El in Voorhees, New Jersey, programming to engage young girls in Jewish life is pretty much the norm.
But for the boys, not so much.
That’s why the synagogue’s assistant rabbi, Noah Arnow, was in Philadelphia recently, training as a group leader for Shevet Achim: The Brotherhood, an initiative of Moving Traditions as it works to engage Jewish youth through gender-specific programming.
Moving Traditions is pleased to announce that we will offer two National Training Conferences this year:
Los Angeles: June 2-4, 2013
American Jewish University
Brandeis-Bardin Conference Center
1101 Pepper Tree Lane
Simi Valley, CA
Boston: July 28-30, 2013
Embassy Suites Boston Logan Airport
207 Porter Street
Boston, MA
Engaging Jewish Teenage Boys: A Call to Action We now have the tools to reverse the loss of Jewish boys after bar mitzvah. Moving Traditions’ comprehensive report, Engaging Jewish Teenage Boys: A Call to Action, offers Seven Lessons…
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By Rahel Musleah, Hadassah Magazine, October, 2012
Continue Reading →Robert Riemer, 16, went reluctantly to the first meeting of Shevet Achim: The Brotherhood at his synagogue. The program for ninth-grade boys at Larchmont Temple in New York advertised itself as a place to explore what it means to be a Jewish man.
By Meredith Jacobs, Washington Jewish Week, August 1, 2012
Continue Reading →It starts with a game. One that’s cooperative and not competitive.
Or it starts with food preparation. Food is always a good way to begin. Bottom-line, it starts with something physical. It can’t start with talking. It can’t start with stillness. The banter that occurs during the activity breaks the ground for the deeper conversation.
The Bat Mitzvah Comes of Age exhibit was launched in the Laurie M. Tisch Gallery at the JCC in Manhattan March 6, 2012 and ran until April 27, 2012.
A benefit event honoring Karen Adler and Phyllis Teicher Goldman was held on Monday, April 23, 2011 at the JCC in Manhattan.
Continue Reading →Rabbi Daniel Brenner writes in the Huffington Post:
Continue Reading →As this video goes viral, there will be many who watch this video and wonder if there is anything redeeming about a tableau in which Jewish ritual is mixed in with braggadocio regarding testicles. I was not surprised that on YouTube, one of the more than 3,000 commentators said, “this is making a mockery of Judaism.” Another one said, “I am disappointed in YOU DRAKE! I would have thought YOU of all musicians had more respect for your religion. This video, placed with this song is COMPLETE BLASPHEMY! I WAS a HUGE Drake fan until I watched this video.” This song is, after all, verse about young men who romanticize a world of excess and alcohol and drugs and sex-crazed women — the very things we hope our young men are mature enough not to romanticize. Drake and Lil’ Wayne don’t have much to say other than the catchy chorus “HYFR” and the subtext of the song is something akin to “now that I made it, why are you always asking me about my personal life?”
