Jewish Life

An evening of three guided meditations by religious leaders from the Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist traditions. Led by Rabbi David Shneyer, Sr. Farhanahz Ellis, and Klia Bassing.

Rabbi David Shneyer is the founder, director, and spiritual leader of Am Kolel.
Sr. Farhanahz Ellis is the Interfaith and Outreach Director of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society.
Klia Bassing is a teacher with the Insight Meditation Community of Washington.

A program of theInterfaith Meditation Initiative.

A guided, nonjudgmental space for Jews and their non-Jewish partners to talk, learn, and grow – together and as individuals. We’ll explore:
Practical conversation and personal support
Case studies and best practices as presented by participants
Religious and secular text study

This 4-part series will be held from 7:30 – 9:00 pm. For the benefit of all participants involved, attendance is expected at all four sessions.

Facilitated by Rabbi Shira Stutman, Sixth & I’s Director of Community Engagement. For more information, contact [email protected].

Come celebrate Shabbat with themes and traditions from the Bene Israel Jewish community of India. Enjoy chicken curry, samosas, and challah!

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Since 1991, photojournalist Irene Fertik has been working on a book project documenting the absorption of Ethiopian Jews in their new/old homeland of Israel. The title, From Tesfa to Tikva, incorporates the word “hope” in both Amharic and Hebrew. Most Ethiopian Israelis immigrated less than thirty years ago, moving from small, isolated mountain villages to modern technological society. Today, Israel’s nearly 120,000 Ethiopians are still in a transitional period, where old ways continue to be practiced, but are making way for the new.

Through photos and text, Fertik tells the story of these early years of change through the contrast of an ancient African people in a mostly white modern society. Most families live below the poverty line, yet there are over 2,400 Ethiopian students in higher education studies, 100 Ethiopian small businesses, and 24 Ethiopian rabbis have been ordained. These graceful, reserved people are enduring from tesfa to tikva.

Welcome Shabbat and Sukkot with a picnic under the stars and music by Israeli jazz musician Oran Etkin. Etkin will lead us in Shabbat blessings and perform music from his children’s album, Wake Up Clarinet!, as well as selections for adults. Arrive at 5:00 pm to help decorate the sukkah. Dinner and the concert will begin at 5:30 pm.

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Mothers Circle is an education and support group for non-Jewish women raising Jewish children. Come meet other moms and learn more about the new circle forming this summer.

ON DISPLAY: Monday – Friday, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm, through June 30.

Visit a powerful photography exhibition that explores the history of the rescue of Danish Jewry in 1943 and provides a striking narrative of individual and collective resistance. The photographs are the work of Judy Ellis Glickman.

Excerpt from the exhibition:
Susse Pundik, whose portrait is in the exhibition, says “ I was 14 when we had to fell from Denmark. We were five, my grandparent and my parents. The resistance people had organized our escape. Everyone body was tense. Daylight was approaching. Suddenly the head of the group informed us that there was no room for all five of us on the boat. My mother was paralyzed. She did not know whether to stay with her old parents or join my father and me. In the end the fisherman made up her mind. ‘You must go with your husband and child,’ he told her gently but firmly. ‘We shall take care of your parents.’” They did. The family was reunited in Sweden.

Presented in partnership with Humanity in Action.

Steve Roberts has been interested in the immigrant experience his whole life. His grandparents were Eastern European Jews who settled in Bayonne, N.J. (although one grandfather took a detour as a Zionist pioneer in Israel and then lived briefly in Washington near Sixth & I), and he grew up hearing their tales of the Old Country.

In From Every End of this Earth, Roberts chronicles the lives of 13 immigrant families who are living the journey today that his grandparents made almost 100 years ago. He captures the difficulties of starting over among strangers and the pursuit of hope within the American dream. Roberts will speak with NPR’s Diane Rehm about his book and the ongoing debate on immigration reform.

WATCH THE EVENT here.

12:30 – 1:30 pm

This four class course, taught by Rabbi Harold White, will cover: views of Jesus; views on the Revelation: Divine or human; theological similarities and differences; and the interpretation of the book of Genesis, including views on human sexuality. These four topics will be discussed in relation to how Judaism, Christianity, and Islam view these subjects.

Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and many other familiar characters are central in the Koran as well as the Hebrew Bible. In this class, instructors Afroze Mohammed and Stephanie Lowitt will trace the stories about Joseph, or Yusuf, through both scriptures, and you’ll learn how this always fascinating character is pivotal to both Jewish and Muslim traditions.

Afroze Mohammed is an independent management consultant who grew up in Washington, DC and Islamabad, Pakistan and has a strong interest in interfaith understanding. Stephanie Lowit runs her own marketing and communications consulting business, Maestro Marketing.