Havurah Shalom

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What is Coming Home to Solidarity? Coming Home to Solidarity is a workshop designed to help us create a culture and community where all members freely show up as their authentic selves; where all are valued, appreciated, and have a sense of belonging. The workshop is an opportunity for white-bodied or white-identifying congregants to come together in a supportive and caring environment to reflect, learn and unlearn, heal from the ways we have been impacted by white supremacy, and start to recognize new possibilities for taking action.

Earlier this year, Rabbi Benjamin recorded a brief but meaningful message about Coming Home to Solidarity. Click here for Rabbi Benjamin's message on Coming Home to Solidarity (two-minute video).

What is the subject matter of the workshop? We will be looking at the intersections of antisemitism, white supremacy and racism through the lenses of ancestral healing, collective liberation and safety through solidarity. We will explore the ways that white supremacy, anti-Blackness, and racial hierarchy have been the core injustice in the US since earliest days – a model of human hierarchy that inspired Hitler, Apartheid South Africa and that is now trying to take a firmer and official hold in the United States—and how that has impacted Jewish people in the U.S. who are white-bodied or who pass for white.

Who leads the Coming to Solidarity workshops? This workshop experience has been designed and will be delivered by a thoughtful, loving, spiritually rooted facilitation team, Jen Kiok and Catherine Bell. Jen and Catherine are experienced facilitators who have been hired by Havurah Shalom to guide us through the process of healing and collective liberation. Jen and Catherine have been engaged by Havurah as part of the work of the Anti-Racism and Belonging Committee in our ongoing project to address racial inequity at Havurah. You can “meet” Jen and Catherine via a video they have recorded about the Coming Home to Solidarity workshops. It is viewable here.

Who is Coming Home to Solidarity for? Havurah members who identify as white are encouraged to join a cohort!

What is the workshop process like? Your cohort will meet three times. Session 1 is called “Remembering the Journey to Whiteness” and is followed by “Showing Up for Racial Justice” and “Safety Through Solidarity.” Your cohort will study and discuss challenging material, all the while creating space to emotionally process it and be supported by each other, keeping in mind that the grief we feel over what we learn is an expression of our deep love and commitment to removing inherent bias and systemic oppression from our community, for every person in our community. And we will start to identify how this love and commitment can allow us to see with new eyes and take action for a healed community and planet.

I am not sure this is for me. Please consider joining a cohort anyway! However you experience the material, you will come out with tools to counter racism in the Jewish community, as well as a deeper knowledge of how our histories inform our identities. You will also be even more informed as our anti-racism work continues to take place at Havurah.

How do I sign up for a cohort? To register for a three-session workshop, you have three choices (Cohort B, Cohort C, or Cohort D), all on Zoom. After you register for a cohort, facilitators Jen and Catherine will be in touch as the cohort date approaches. Thank you!

I still have questions! We are happy to answer any questions! Please write to info@havurahshalom.org.

Scroll down to register for Cohort D.