SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva
SVARA’s Teaching Kollel
SVARA’s Teaching Kollel is a two-year learning and teacher education program designed to train a cadre of experienced, queer and trans educators, rabbis, activists, community leaders, and facilitators 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 world.
SVARA’s Teaching Kollel combines intensive Talmud study with training in pedagogy and facilitation to equip teachers to model public learning in SVARA’s method. Upon graduation from SVARA’s Teaching Kollel, Fellows will be equipped to implement ongoing SVARA-method bet midrash learning in their home communities, making empowering and transformative experiences of Talmud study as a traditionally radical spiritual practice accessible to all.
SVARA’s Teaching Fellows emerge with a new lens through which to view the Talmud, the bet midrash setting, the pedagogy of Talmud teaching, the teacher-student relationship—and the Jewish tradition itself. Over the course of two years, Fellows gain the skills and experience to allow them to upend the educational power dynamics of all-too-many conventional Jewish educational settings, shifting the focal point from teacher to learner, and transforming the bet midrash environment to one of critical pedagogy, clear methodology, rigor, love, and empowerment.
Program Overview Meet Our Fellows
The SVARA Teaching Kollel provides comprehensive training and individualized mentorship to support SVARA Fellows to:
• Teach daylong and ongoing, weekly learning sessions in SVARA’s method
• Develop, nurture, and facilitate bet midrash communities for mixed-level learners
• Address the unique experiences of queer and under-represented learners in their teaching and facilitation of Talmud study
• Bring the values present in SVARA’s methodology into their lives, teaching practice, and leadership beyond the bet midrash setting
Each graduated SVARA Fellow will implement a local, ongoing SVARA-method bet midrash community. These batei midrash will support a movement of Talmud learning that invests in those who have been denied access to the tradition to become empowered to grow into their role as interpreters and shapers of our tradition and the world in which they live.
Applications for Cohort 5 of SVARA’s Teaching Kollel, which will run from Fall 2022 – Spring 2024, are due on May 1, 2022.
This fellowship is generously supported by the Jim Joseph Foundation.