Start Learning
– Julie Batz and Noah Westreich, SVARA Teaching Fellows
For two decades SVARA has offered immersive, joyful, and radical learning that centers queer and trans folks.
No matter who you are or how you identify, we invite you to dive into our offerings.
Explore what we learn and how we learn it
Our calendar of virtual gatherings
This season, we’re serving up something for everyone!
SVARA 101
No matter where you are in your learning journey, we want you to feel at home at SVARA.
Scroll through the sidebar to identify the starting point that most resonates with you. We’ll help you find a good place to dive in.
UPCOMING EVENTS
TRANSLATING TESHUVA: COMMUNITY SIYUM
September 12th, 2023
During this month of Elul, SVARA-niks of all backgrounds have been journeying through two dazzlingly distinct learning spaces focused on Rambam’s Hilkhot Teshuva—Laws of Repentance and Repair. On September 12th, we’re bringing together our entire community to share in each others’ wisdom and unpack what we gleaned from the text, our chevrutas, and from deep within. Special guests Rabbi Ari Lev and SVARA Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Benay Lappe will join us to drop some rad insights from their years-long chevruta on Hilkhot Teshuva. This is sure to be a memorable evening that will inspire us all into personal and communal transformation. Everyone is welcome – register here!
COMMUNITY-LED LEARNING
Check out these offerings led by folks who have found a home in the SVARA bet midrash.
Revolutionary Reading Group | Every other Wednesday
Offered collaboratively by The New Synagogue Project, Shel Maala, the Torah Studio, and Synagogues Rising
This year, the Trans Halakha Project released eleven glittering gems of brand-new knowledge into the world: ten teshuvot, practical papers on applying Jewish law to our lives, each written on a different facet of the trans experience, and Tefillat Trans, a pocket-sized prayerbook of Jewish blessings and rituals for moments of trans experience. Their authors create “euphoric halakha”—not dysphoric halakha—by bringing their own experiences of transness to questions of transness as has never been done before in Jewish history. Join the Revolutionary Reading Group as they hold one another accountable in learning from and bearing witness to these euphoric halakha resources.
FALL 2023
A dreamy season full of programs that give learners of all backgrounds the tools to shape Jewish tradition.
