SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva-
Traditionally Radical
SVARA is a traditionally radical yeshiva dedicated to the serious study of Talmud and committed to the Queer experience. Our mission is to provide serious Talmud study as a spiritual practice to all who want to learn, in an environment that recognizes as crucial the insights of transgender, intersex, queer, lesbian, bisexual and gay Jews […]
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Serious Learning
At SVARA, no matter what your Hebrew level, you will be learning Talmud in the original, from the Vilna Shas. At SVARA, you will gain the skills to look at a page of Talmud – any page – and enter into the millennia-old conversation for yourself. Want to learn with SVARA? Contact us HERE. Susan […]
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Queer
SVARA is where we realized how traditional our radical queer selves really were, and how queer the tradition has always been. It’s where we realized that how we each understand our tradition and live out our Jewishness have an enormous impact on how we walk through the world. And ultimately, that’s why learning Talmud with […]
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Empowering
SVARA is the place where so many of us realize that we are not just going to be allowed to sit at the table of Jewish learning and decision-making, but that it is essential that we be there. SVARA is the place where we who once felt like outsiders, become insiders for the first time. SVARA […]
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Passionate
Rabbi Benay Lappe provides her students and the entire Jewish community with the opportunity to see that Judaism is smarter, more radical and sexier than we ever imagined. She models, teaches and demonstrates that — particularly to those of us who have not been the receivers of a Judaism that speaks to us or about […]
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Community Building
SVARA is devoted to building relationships among students and with other “Option 3” organizations. There are regular learning and social small groups to get to know each other and the Rabbi better. SVARA also partners with other organizations like Mishkan Chicago for the S&M Bet Midrash to foster growth for us all. To find out more […]
The CRASH Talk
“The CRASH Talk is the indispensable introduction to Talmud learning with SVARA. It is a lecture to end all lectures, a mind-blowing intellectual experience to end all…you get the point. Come hear how the Talmud—and all radical ideas—are born, crash, and are reborn anew. Discover your radical edge and how queer you really are (which, […]
Teacher Training
SVARA’S TRANSFORMATIVE TALMUD TEACHING FELLOWSHIP Last fall, SVARA launched the Transformative Talmud Teaching Fellowship, a teacher education program designed to train a cadre of gifted, experienced educators, rabbis, activists, community leaders and change-makers in both the SVARA method of teaching Talmud and the creation of radical bet midrash-centered communities of Jewishly rooted, svara-dik learners around the […]