HIGHER HOLIDAYS INNOVATION WORKSHOP 2018 August 15, 2018 • 4 Elul 5778 Stephen Wise Temple 8:15 AM REGISTRATION AND BREAKFAST 8:30 AM GREETINGS Rabbi Sarah Hronsky, Temple Beth Hillel; Chair, Higher Holidays Innovation Workshop Zeldin-Hershenson REMARKS Becky Sobelman-Stern, Executive Vice President, Chief Program Officer, The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles INTRODUCTION Rabbi Jason Weiner, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; President, Board of Rabbis of Southern California/Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles WELCOME/HAZKARAH Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback, Stephen Wise Temple 9:00 AM The Arc of the Holy Days Reimagined: From Rosh Chodesh Elul to Simchat Torah – Rabbi Sharon Brous, IKAR Zeldin-Hershenson CREATIVE MODALITIES Bibliodrama/Nigun – Rabbi Adam Kligfeld, Temple Beth Am Meditation/Blessings – Rabbi Naomi Levy, Nashuva 10:00-10:50 AM When and Why Forgiveness is Not the Best Answer? – Rabbi Amy Bernstein, Kehillat Israel Zeldin-Hershenson HOT TOPICS Israel – Rabbi Jonathan Jaffe Bernhard, Adat Ari El PREVIEWS Infertility – Dvora Entin, LCSW Gun Control – Rabbi Jason Weiner, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; President, Board of Rabbis of Southern California/Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles Grappling with Our Own Imperfections – Rabbi Zachary Shapiro, Temple Akiba Homelessness – Rabbi Noah Farkas, Valley Beth Shalom Taub When and Why Forgiveness is Not the Best Answer? – Rabbi Amy Bernstein, Kehillat Israel 11:00-11:55 AM Udko Israel – Rabbi Jonathan Jaffe Bernhard, Adat Ari El Udko B Infertility – Dvora Entin, LCSW HOT TOPICS Plotkin Chapel Gun Control – Rabbi Jason Weiner, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; President, Board of WORKSHOPS Rabbis of Southern California/Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles Chapel Study Grappling with Our Own Imperfections – Rabbi Zachary Shapiro, Temple Akiba Zeldin-Hershenson Homelessness – Rabbi Noah Farkas, Valley Beth Shalom Outside Dance the Spirit of Your Jewish Soul – Sara Tanz, Tanz Dance 12:05 PM LUNCHEON Zeldin-Hershenson HAMOTZI Rabbi Michele Lenke, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles BIRKAT HAMAZON Rabbi Lynn Brody Slome, Wilshire Boulevard Temple ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Rabbi Ilana Grinblat, Vice President of Community Engagement for the Board of Rabbis & INTRODUCTION of Southern California/Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles 1:00 PM Thinking Outside the Box: Integrating Nature and the Senses into the High Holidays – Rabbi/Cantor Judy Greenfeld, Nachshon Minyan Zeldin-Hershenson INNOVATIONS Yizkor for Healing – Rabbi Anne Brener, Academy for Jewish Religion, California Disruptive Ritual – Rabbi Lori Shapiro, Open Temple Dance the Spirit of Your Jewish Soul – Sara Tanz, Tanz Dance 2:30 PM CLOSING Rabbi Joshua Hoffman, Valley Beth Shalom Zeldin-Hershenson Board of Rabbis of Southern California/Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles Higher Holidays Innovation Workshop 2018 ‐ PRESENTATIONS & BIOGRAPHIES CREATIVE MODALITIES 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM ZELDIN‐HERSHENSON HALL The “Creative Modalities” Session will focus on innovative techniques which can be integrated into services or teachings during the high holiday season. RABBI SHARON BROUS THE ARC OF THE HOLY DAYS REIMAGINED: FROM ROSH HODESH ELUL TO SIMCHAT TORAH Rabbi Sharon Brous founded IKAR in 2004. It quickly became one of the fastest growing and most influential Jewish communities in the country, and a model for inspiring Jews from the most marginalized to the most engaged. Rabbi Brous takes an innovative approach to the high holiday season as a whole as well as each of its components. She will begin our morning by sharing how she approaches the holidays from Rosh Hodesh Elul to Simchat Torah. Rabbi Brous will share tangible ways to invite people to a journey through the spiritual arc of the holidays. She will discuss how to give congregants a sense of where they’re headed and how to make meaning where they are – making the whole experience feel more enriching, stimulating and coherent. Rabbi Sharon Brous is a leading voice in reanimating religious life in America, working to develop a spiritual roadmap for soulful, multi‐faith justice work in Los Angeles and around the country. Brous is the senior and founding rabbi of IKAR which was started in 2004 and has become a model for Jewish revitalization in the US and beyond. IKAR’s goal is to reinvigorate Jewish tradition and practice, inspiring people of faith to reclaim a moral and prophetic voice in counter‐testimony to the small‐minded extremism now prevalent in so many religious communities. IKAR quickly became one of the fastest growing and most influential Jewish congregations in the country and is widely credited with sparking a rethinking of religious life in a time of unprecedented disaffection and declining affiliation. Brous’s 2016 TED talk, “Reclaiming Religion,” has been viewed by more than 1.2 million people and translated into 19 languages. In 2013, she blessed President Obama and Vice President Biden at the Inaugural National Prayer Service, and in 2017, she spoke at the Women’s March in Washington, DC. Brous was named #1 on the Newsweek/The Daily Beast list of the most influential Rabbis in America, and has been recognized numerous times by The Forward and the Jerusalem Post as one of the fifty most influential Jews. She is in the first cohort of Auburn Seminary‘s Senior Fellows program, which unites top faith leaders working on the frontlines for justice. Brous also sits on Mayor’s Interfaith Collective and on the faculty of the Shalom Hartman Institute‐ North America and REBOOT, and serves on the International Council of the New Israel Fund and the national steering committee for the Poor People’s Campaign. She is a graduate of Columbia University, was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary, and lives in Los Angeles with her husband and three beautiful children. 2 Board of Rabbis of Southern California/Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles Higher Holidays Innovation Workshop 2018 ‐ PRESENTATIONS & BIOGRAPHIES RABBI ADAM KLIGFELD BIBLIODRAMA/NIGUN Rabbi Adam Kligfeld has developed and led a rhythmic, intimate, soulful, spiritual and dynamic creative service called Hama’alot at Temple Beth Am since 2014. This service takes place on Shabbat mornings throughout the year, as well as on the 2nd day of Rosh Hashanah. Rabbi Kligfeld will demonstrate some of the techniques used in Hama’alot – such as bibliodrama and nigun‐‐which can be incorporated into high holiday services to help people connect more deeply with the Torah readings, prayers and the spirit and meaning of the moment. Raised in a traditional Conservative home in Connecticut, Rabbi Adam Kligfeld brings to his work at Temple Beth Am a commitment to Jewish ritual, his love for Israel and his enthusiasm for Jewish education, teaching Torah and creating community. Rabbi Kligfeld came to Beth Am in 2009 after serving for 9 years at Congregation Eitz Chaim in Monroe, NY where he reinvigorated Eitz Chaim's Kabbalat Shabbat service, turning it into a spirited Carlebach‐style approach to davvening, and revamped the Bnei Mitzvah program in order to teach all students the ongoing skills for reading Torah and serving as shaliah tzibbur on Shabbat. Over a four‐year span, Rabbi Kligfeld helped Eitz Chaim to envision, plan and ultimately implement their dream of constructing a brand‐new synagogue building, placed strategically in the center of several residential neighborhoods in Monroe, fostering growth, and an even greater sense of a local Shabbat community. Since arriving at Beth Am, Rabbi Kligfeld has been focusing on enlivening the Shir Hadash service that takes place on Shabbat morning in the sanctuary and building and enriching the overall musical culture of the entire institution. Rabbi Kligfeld is leading the initiative within Temple Beth Am for an exciting campus expansion, developing new properties for TBA’s growing ECC and Day School, as well as evolving a vision for a full renovation of the TBA’s sanctuary and ballroom. Rabbi Kligfeld teaches regularly in the Pressman Academy Day School and Religious School, along with being a teacher and story‐teller in the ECC. In addition to teaching a regular, weekly class on Humash with Rashi, Rabbi Kligfeld teaches throughout the Rabbi Joel Rembaum Institute for Adult Education and Family Programming. Rabbi Kligfeld is an active member of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California and participated in a unique cross‐ denominational mission to Israel with 18 other colleagues. One of his passions is building bridges and connections within the Jewish community, and he has been instrumental in organizing joint events for Selichot, Shavuot and Tisha B’Av bringing together members from myriad local congregations from a variety of denominations. In 2006, Rabbi Kligfeld was selected to serve on the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement and in that capacity stimulated a process of self‐review for the CJLS, now culminating in a series of recommendations for its future work and progress. Rabbi Kligfeld is a 1995 graduate of Columbia College, magna cum laude, with a degree in psychology and Jewish history. He was ordained as a rabbi in 2000 by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, with a focus on Talmud. 3 Board of Rabbis of Southern California/Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles Higher Holidays Innovation Workshop 2018 ‐ PRESENTATIONS & BIOGRAPHIES RABBI NAOMI LEVY MEDITATION/BLESSINGS Rabbi Naomi Levy is the founder and spiritual leader of Nashuva, a groundbreaking Jewish spiritual outreach organization based in Los Angeles. Rabbi Levy leads inspirational high holiday services which reach thousands – in person and by worldwide webcast each year. Along with inspiring sermons and uplifting music, her services include guided meditation as well as a unique approach to the Torah Service where a thousand souls become engaged as one in blessings during the Aliyot to the Torah. Rabbi Levy will lead us in a mediation and in Aliyot blessings which can be incorporated into high holiday services or teachings. Rabbi Naomi Levy has dedicated her rabbinate to issues of soul, spirituality, comfort, healing and personal prayer.