Learn Jewish storytelling techniques and stories with Master Storyteller, Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb in a collaborative and joyous setting.

Date: Mondays, 5 - 6:30 PST,  Oct 31 - Dec 19 (8 sessions)    

Who can apply?  Self-identified Jewish performance artists and artists from all traditions who want to be in a space devoted to the art of Jewish storytelling: welcome.  Storytellers, magidim, puppeteers, poets, musicians, dancers, clowns, circus and theater folk, badchaniot, tanyaderas, balladeers, folk singers, comedians and professional schmoozers: welcome!  Speakers of Ladino, Yiddish, Hebrew, Arabic, sign language and otherJewish diaspora languages: welcome.  

This class is a shomeret shalom space.  Shomeret Shalom practices are performed in steadfast solidarity with communities owed reparations in the spirit of teshuvah for systemic and ongoing harms associated with white supremacy, patriarchy and colonial settlerism.  Sacred tales cannot be used for the further entrenchment of systemic harms.

Cost: $150 via PayPal registration. if you’re interested, email [email protected] for more info 

Curriculum: Classes include Jewish storytelling resources, break out into small collaboration groups, and storytelling with R. Lynn and guests. 

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Session 1: Introduction to the Art of Jewish Storytelling and Each Other ( bring ‘an opening’ to a story  to share with the class in performance - or a way you might envision announcing a story) 

Session 2: Biblical performance legacies: oracle givers, prophets, seers and voices of lament
(bring a percussive instrument, or the instrument of your choice)

Session 3: M’targaman: The art of simultaneous translation of sacred text into living story: key words and themes, and the transformation of living text.   Bring a single line of Torah you want to translate in your performance style.  

Session 4: Flipping the Script: Techniques in Jewish storytelling that deconstruct conventional narratives for the sake of liberation.  Bring a line ofJewish story whose script you wish to flip. 

Session 5: Start with a Joke: Clever wit traditions, riddles & proverbial discourse. (Talmudic passover mouse in the house story)  
Were proverbs spoken in your house? Bring family or community proverbs and/or jokes that were/are part of your personal legacy. 

Session 6: Pageantry and the art of collective storytelling in Jewish life.   Bring/make a puppet that represents something from one of the seven days of creation that fits your zoom screen. You can use cardboard, paint or any materials that inspire your creation.    

Session 7: At the Gathering of Nations:  Jewish Performance art in multi-heritage ritual settings on the front lines of solidarity. Bring a story and blessings for an indigenous land back ceremony, or other occasion which aligns with your activism.  

Session 8: Telling the story - collaborative or individual tellings of a 3 minute Jewish tale; closing ceremony.  

BackYard Mishkan: Welcome to an earth loving, non-binary, diasporic, intergenerational, justice centered, art-filled, joyous Jewish culture rooted in a torah of nonviolence and radical hospitality.

Backyard Mishkan observes the following values: We act in steadfast love and solidarity with communities who are owed reparative justice for ongoing systemic harms. We support multi-lingual, multi-heritage and queer households and individuals. No theology necessary.

BackYard Mishkan offers monthly Sabbath celebrations, Weekly Jewish School, b’mitzvah preparation, on-line education, art and storytelling, & life cycle ceremony.

​BackYard Mishkan: Bay Area Weekly Jewish School
& B’Mitzvah Training

Weekly Jewish School tuition and B’Mitzvah for Bay Area Families includes:

*Once a month Shabbat Morning Services, 10 - 11 AM, 3rd Sat of @ month:
Sept 18, Oct 16, Nov 20, Dec 18, Jan 15, Feb 19, March 19, Apr 16, May 21, June 18
Comes with R. Lynn’s Prayer book in pdf form

Monthly Shabbat Morning services are an integral part of Jewish School education, where youth and families put learning and leadership into practice so that students and families become active caretakers of their own culture.
*Erev Rosh Hashanah Big Puppet Creation Pageant, September 6th, 4:30 - 5:30 PM, where new born babies receive blessings, creation stories are told and we honor the birthday of the world with community blessings for the coming year.

*Monthly resource packet, delivered on line on Rosh Chodesh for adults as well as children for use at home or in community havurot.

Weekly Jewish School Logistics: 2 Cohorts, 8 kids per cohort, grades K - 6

Either: Thur, 4 - 5 PM or Sat, 10 - 11 AM
(except Shabbat in Park, start time is 9:30 A)
Families can choose their preferred day.
Thur cohort begins Aug. 26 & Sat cohort begins Aug 28
32 sessions, end of Aug - end of May
No instruction over spring break, winter break, Thanksgiving week. No school Thur Sept 16th (Yom Kippur). Thur cohort can gather with Sat cohort on September 18th before services.

Each cohort is open to 8 children, grades K-6, working together in a one room schoolhouse style. Children gather at Rabbi Lynn’s home. Enjoy visiting your Rabbinic Safta! Learn Hebrew language, calligraphy, values, family & communal history, storytelling, ceremonial literacy and read from Rabbi Lynn’s 550 year old Torah.
On the third Shabbat of the month, Sat cohort gathers at park before Sabbath services, at the usual time 10a-11a. Families can stay for services.

Price: Yearlong Tuition

$1200 First child
$600 Second child
$450 Third+ child
$100 supply fee for the year per family

No sliding scale or scholarships available.*
Tuition for Weekly Jewish School to be paid in 12, monthly increments via Patreon. ($100 per month for one child, $150 for 2, $188 for 3)

B’Mitzvah Preparation
Youth start their B’Mitzvah training one year prior to the ceremony and are welcome to enroll in Jewish school for any # of months of the school year that fall before their one-year date. Example, if you want your child to Bat Mitzvah in January, they could attend Jewish School from August-January and then start the B’Mitzvah program.

B’mitzvah preparation: 30, one hour long individual sessions, every other week,
moving to weekly sessions about 6 weeks before ceremony. Families set a consistent day and time with Rabbi Lynn.

Sessions include: Approximately 8 weeks Hebrew Language Tutoring,
12 weeks Prayer & Liturgy, 6 weeks Chanting Torah, 4 weeks Drash/ Dvar Torah writing, Dress rehearsal before Ceremony. Sessions consistently hold space for Big Conversations, Developing Jewish Identity, and Social Justice within a Jewish Framework.

B’Mitzvah year includes:
Parental support and guidance
Consultation in crafting the ceremony.
A family membership to Backyard Mishkan.
Participation in a B’Mitzvah Cohort Service Project to meet 3x year (Fall, Winter, Spring) to implement a Mitzvah Service Project centered on food insecurity and serving the community through feeding. Includes conversations about acts of service, mitzvot, and social equity.

B’Mitzvah Year Prices:
Tuition $2,500
Ceremony and Dress Rehearsal $1,100
Friday Night Blessing (optional) $250


No sliding scale or scholarships available. If anyone has leads for a foundation that offers B’Mitzvah financial assistance for families, please share.
Tuition + Ceremony will be paid monthly through Patreon, 12 payments of $300.


BackYard Mishkan Monthly Shabbat Package

Monthly Shabbat Services @ Live Oak Park, Saturday 10:30 A - 11:30 A
Includes:
*Once a month outdoor Sabbath ceremony led by Rabbi Lynn, (maybe Ariela Jinich Ronay), youth mentors, special guests, Ladino, English, Yiddish and multi-heritage Jewish prayers/stories, songs. Enjoy a spacious, joyful Jewish multi-generational, multi-heritage experience.

*Monthly Resource packet of storytelling, home liturgy and essays

with Dr. David Ragland and Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb
Thursday, September 24 @ 6:30pm
co-sponsored by JCCSF, The Truth Telling Project, The Community of Living Traditions, Boston Worker’s Circle, and Tzedek and The Grassroots Reparations Campaign
Tickets
$9 Chochmat members and members of cosponsoring organizations
$18 General Public
Explore the intersection of the ancient Jewish method of atonement in light of the call for reparations as a healing process for the history of anti-blackness with Dr. Dave Ragland and Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb  Jewish spiritual culture contains a mechanism for ongoing repair to help our communities collectively take action to heal wounds and restore equity and peace. We call this teshuvah. The call for reparations is a critical aspect of healing the profound injustice continually perpetrated by a culture of white supremacy upon black people. Learn from two dedicated community organizers what reparations entail when black lives matter.  Ceremony and presentation followed by community break out groups and final reflections.  

Dr. David Ragland is director of the campaign for Truth and Reparations as well as the  co-founder and co-director of the Truth Telling Project, which began in the early days of the Ferguson Uprising to shift the narrative of the protests and police violence. David co-authored of Systemic Humiliation in America and recently published a chapter on Radical Truth Telling and Ferguson in the Handbook on Violence in Education. David was recently inducted into the Martin Luther King Jr. Collegium of Scholars in the International College of Ministers and Laity at Morehouse College.
Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb is director of Youth & Family Programming at Chochmat Halev and board chair of Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity. Lynn works in support of the Campaign for Truth and Reparations and traveled with Dr. Ragland to present a case for Teshuvah and Reparations to Hebrew College.  

 
Introducing the 2020-21 Youth & Family Program!
Created and led by Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb

We are excited to announce that our 10-month Youth & Family Program is open for registration. Classes start September 10. 

Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb has designed a program that connects our families virtually to participate as our youth develop their own distinct Jewish identities. Within the framework of building a better world, our youth and families will explore the Top Ten Mitzvot for These Times. Each mitzvah furthers the student’s Hebrew language capacities, as well as an understanding of and connection to essential Jewish prayers, texts, and stories. Each mitzvah is a portal to developing deeper insight as to how we can be better human beings and create the community in which we want to live. Our program supports every student to find study buddies and play partners in our earth- and peace-based expression of Jewish life. https://chochmat.org/youth-family/