We are delighted to celebrate the incredible contributions of our honorees Julia Watts Belser and Gwynn Kessler!
Julia Watts Belser (she/her) is a rabbi, scholar, and spiritual teacher, as well as a longtime activist for disability, LGBTQ, and gender justice. She is a professor of Jewish Studies in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Georgetown University and core faculty in Georgetown’s Disability Studies Program. Julia is also a proud member of the Communal Loss Adaptation Project (CLAP) Steering Committee. Julia’s work brings ancient Jewish texts into dialogue with disability studies, feminist thought, queer theory, and environmental justice ethics. She is a cultural historian of rabbinic Jewish literature and a contemporary Jewish feminist theologian who draws disability arts and culture into provocative conversation with Jewish tradition to challenge structural violence, deepen our capacity for social justice, and honor the sacredness of disabled people’s lives. Her latest book, Loving Our Own Bones: Disability Wisdom and the Spiritual Subversiveness of Knowing Ourselves Whole, won a National Jewish Book Award. Julia is an avid wheelchair hiker, a devoted gardener, and a lover of wild places.
Gwynn Kessler (she/her) is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Religion at Swarthmore College, where she teaches about and researches rabbinic theology and rabbinic constructions of gender and identity. She received her Ph.D. in Talmud and Rabbinics, with a specialization in Midrash, from the Jewish Theological Seminary. She has taught at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro and the University of Florida in Gainesville. She has also taught at the Harvard Divinity School as a Women’s Studies in Religion Program Research Associate. Gwynn is the author of Conceiving Israel: The Fetus in Rabbinic Narratives (UPenn, 2009), and co-editor with Naomi Koltun-Fromm of A Companion to Late Ancient Jews and Judaism (Wiley Blackwell, 2020). She is currently working on her second monograph that uses queer theory to examine rabbinic constructions of gender and the body. She lives in Mt. Airy, Philadelphia with her partner and two children.
Host Committee
Part of the magic of Shaping Tradition is our host committee, a team of dedicated folks who help spread the word (and the love!) in anticipation of our spectacular celebration on May 29th. We are so grateful for their partnership to help make this program happen. Thank you, Host Committee!
2024 Host Committee:
Rabbi Adina Allen and Jeff Kasowitz
Angel Alvarez-Mapp and Danielle Natelson
Ayana Morse
Rabbi Becky Silverstein and Naomi Sobel
Dr. Bianca Gonzalez-Lesser and Dr. Emma Gonzalez-Lesser
Dan Libenson and Beth Niestat
Rabbi Deborah Newbrun and Rabbi Sue Reinhold
Jaci and Craig Krandel
Joanna Ware
Leykn Schmatz and Maryasha Katz
LilyFish Gomberg
Marques Hollie
Sam Grosby and Darla Kashian
Sandy Sussman and Ron Schnur
Members of the Host Committee are asked to:
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Sponsor Shaping Tradition at or above $360
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Allow SVARA to list your name(s) or organization on the website and in our event materials
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Provide us with names and emails of at least 10 individuals or families to whom we can send invitations