Limmud Bay Area 2016: Full Schedule

PLEASE NOTE: All sessions, no matter the size of the box they are in, are 70 minutes long. Last minute schedule changes may be needed.

3:00pm PDT

Who Needs a Jewish Newspaper Anyway?

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A century ago, Jewish newspapers gave a beleaguered immigrant population a sense of community solidarity and helped them become Americans. How has the role of the Jewish media changed since then? Is it keeping pace with the evolving needs of America's Jews? Join J. Editor Sue Fishkoff in a freewheeling conversation about the Bay Area's Jewish community publication; this is your chance to tell her what you'd like to see in its pages and online.

Presenter

Sue Fishkoff

Sue Fishkoff is the editor of J., the Jewish news weekly of Northern California. She lives in Oakland with her three cats and really loves her job.

Friday June 24, 2016 3:00pm - 4:10pm PDT
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Society & Community, Jewish Identity

4:30pm PDT

One Breath at a Time — Practicing Jewish Mindfulness Meditation

If you've always wondered what it would be like to meditate Jewishly, come join us! This session is geared toward beginners in meditation and those new to Jewish Mindfulness Meditation. Yes, there is a meditation tradition within Judaism. We will learn what Jewish mindfulness meditation is as well as practice different meditation techniques. There will be a Jewish mindfulness teaching linked to Shabbat, instructions about how to meditate and we will have a short meditation sit. Experienced meditators are welcome to join us, but the session is geared toward beginners. This is a lovely way to prepare for and enjoy Shabbat!

Presenter

Judy Fisher

Judy Fisher loves sharing the gift of meditation. Professionally, she was a technical writer and teacher for more than 20 years in the high tech world. During that time, she also taught Hebrew to children and adults. Judy moved to the Bay Area with her family about 5 years ago and... Read More →

Friday June 24, 2016 4:30pm - 5:40pm PDT
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Social & Life Experience, Spirituality-Meditation

6:45pm PDT

Contemplative Kabbalat Shabbat

Using niggunim, silence, chant, and movement we will experience prayer together in a spacious way, listening for the holy and the still small voice to emerge as we enter into Shabbat.

Presenter

Wendie Bernstein Lash

Wendie Bernstein Lash, M.S., is a spiritual director, supervisor, and mentor. Wendie is the Co-director of the Morei Derekh Jewish Spiritual Direction training program and the Yedidya Center for Jewish Spiritual Direction and is a board member of Spiritual Director’s International... Read More →

Friday June 24, 2016 6:45pm - 7:30pm PDT
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Services - Davening, Spirituality-Meditation

9:20pm PDT

'My Open Book' Live

"My Open Book" uses Jewish and general texts to achieve personal breakthroughs. Come to this UNREHEARSED session, meet participants and be a fly on the wall as they discuss their challenges with their coach, using literature to advance and progress on their journey.

Presenter

David Levin-Kruss

Rabbi David Levin-Kruss sees himself as a bridge between Jewish tradition and those wanting to connect to that tradition. He directs special programs and is on the faculty of the Pardes Institute in Jerusalem as well as teaching and helping to organize the Silicon Valley Beit Midrash... Read More →

Friday June 24, 2016 9:20pm - 10:30pm PDT
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Social & Life Experience

9:15am PDT

The Limits of Belief or Does God Care?

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In this session we will look at classical and contemporary Jewish texts (all in translation and accessible to all) to see how the Jewish tradition sets limits with regard to believing in the existence and behavior of God. In an age when inherited notions of the divine are increasingly hard to identify with, this session will present alternatives for the believer and non-believer alike.

Presenter

Darren Kleinberg

Darren Kleinberg is Head of School at Kehillah Jewish High School in Palo Alto, CA. Ordained in 2005, Rabbi Kleinberg received his doctorate in 2014. The working title of his forthcoming book is Hybrid Judaism: Irving Greenberg and the Encounter with American Jewish Identity. He is... Read More →

Saturday June 25, 2016 9:15am - 11:00am PDT
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Religion & Philosophy, Text

2:00pm PDT

The Unauthorized Autobiography: Taking a Humorous Look at Life, Including Your Own

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In this part-performance, part-presentation, part-Q&A, Marc will share pieces of the one-man show he’s been developing throughout his life, Marc Engel: An Unauthorized Autobiography, to demonstrate the value of humor for catharsis and connection. The thought-bubble over your head might read: “Yeah, that’s great. Why should I go watch some unknown schmuck work out his act when I could learn something more substantive in another session?” Why? Because this session promises lots of laughs, relatable themes, and opportunities for self-reflection—all with the intention of helping you find and stay connected to the funny in your life, whether or not it’s turned out as you expected (or was expected of you).

Presenter

Marc Engel

Founder & President, Engel Research Partners

Marc Engel is a two-headed monster: marketing researcher and comedian. Driven by a fascination with human behavior and the desire to empower and connect, he talks with—and more importantly, listens to—people from around the country to help his clients and audiences gain fresh... Read More →

Saturday June 25, 2016 2:00pm - 3:10pm PDT
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Arts & Culture, Humor

3:30pm PDT

We Connect, We Inquire, We Share, We Commune!

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Love meeting new people at Limmud but wish you knew more about them professionally and could form long-lasting connections to expand your network? This session is for you! We'll bypass the traditional networking format that results mostly in awkward conversations and instead engage in some light and imaginative teamwork that will help you learn about other participants and their core professional competencies. Everyone is welcome: professionals, students, retirees. Come and meet your fellow Limmudniks.

Presenter

Ivetta Starikova

Ivetta Starikova is a passionate community organizer with the goal to help others grow personally and professionally. She organizes group mentorship events and resume workshops for Russian-speaking women who work in high-tech. She runs a number of professional groups for Project Managers... Read More →

Saturday June 25, 2016 3:30pm - 4:40pm PDT
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Social & Life Experience

5:00pm PDT

The 11th Commandment - Innovate!

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The Jewish people have always been innovators. At pivotal moments in our history, visionary leaders have not just adapted (or adopted), they innovated. Innovation envisions a leap forward and takes our work, our product, or our community to the next level. Innovative thinking can be learned and practiced. When infused with Jewish values and narrative, we can bring Silicon Valley-caliber innovation to our programs and communities. Entrepreneurship tools (business model canvas and systematic inventive thinking) will provide our springboard. We will discuss case studies of innovation, both biblical and contemporary, to inspire our work. We will become a cohort of social entrepreneurs, looking to challenge assumptions, tradition, and cultural norms in order to transform our communities into living laboratories of Jewish life.

Presenter

Andrew Keene

Andrew Keene is an entrepreneurship student at Drexel University and formerly served as the North American President of NFTY, The Reform Jewish Youth Movement. He currently serves as an Executive Board member for the World Union for Progressive Judaism which supports two million progressive... Read More →

Saturday June 25, 2016 5:00pm - 6:10pm PDT
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Society & Community

7:50pm PDT

Memory and Narration: The Persistence of Jewish Identity in Conversion

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In my recent interviews with 25 family members, direct descendants of my parents, German Jewish refugees who converted to Roman Catholicism in the 1930s, I seek to ascertain the impact of a contested Jewish identity on the deconstruction and reconstruction of the Jewish self. I begin with a few family documents: poems by a paternal grandfather written just before his conversion to German Protestantism; a brief autobiographical sketch by my aging mother recounting her terrifying escape from Nazi Europe some sixty years earlier; an email from a brother's trip to Theresienstadt in homage to our maternal great-grandmother's death there. I follow with excerpts from recent interviews with 25 family members, all attesting in one way or another to the remarkable impact of my mother's role in preserving the family mythos of flight, escape,and survival. Taken together, these texts present an overwhelmingly Jewish story -- however tenuously held or understood.

Presenter

Angela Botelho

I am the Jewish daughter of German Jewish refugees who converted to Roman Catholicism in the 1930s. Following a career as an attorney in the California State Attorney General's Office, I began a course of studies at the Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological... Read More →

Saturday June 25, 2016 7:50pm - 9:00pm PDT
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Society & Community, Jewish Identity

9:30am PDT

Not Your Mother's Tay Sachs Test: A Modern Approach to Jewish Genetic Screening

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What does it mean to be genetically Jewish? What diseases are we at risk for and why? How can you get screened for these diseases without having to jump through hoops? It used to be that Tay-Sachs was the only disease Jewish couples would get screened for before having children. However, we now know of 19 different disorders commonly carried by people of Ashkenazi Jewish descent and more than 9 in the Sephardic population. We also know of multiple diseases carried by Jews that aren't exclusively Jewish diseases. For this reason, carrier screening has become much more expanded than just looking at Tay-Sachs disease. This fun and interactive talk will teach you what you need to know to make the best health decisions for you and your current or future family.

Presenter

Dena Goldberg

Dena Goldberg is a licensed and board-certified genetic counselor at UCSF. She has a BS in Integrative Biology from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana and an MS in Genetic Counseling from University of California, Irvine. She specializes in hereditary cancer syndromes and... Read More →

Sunday June 26, 2016 9:30am - 10:40am PDT
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Social & Life Experience, Science & Technology

1:20pm PDT

Horace Kallen, Forgotten Founding Father of Multiculturalism: Lessons for Jewish Community Builders of Today

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In 1900, Horace Kallen broke from his Orthodox Judaism to embrace secularism as a freshman at Harvard. The roots of his youth forged the foundation for what today seems normative, but was radical at the time: making an individual choice for Jewish education and community outside the synagogue. Credited with being an influential leader in the formation of Harvard's first Hillel, helping turn fellow-Bostonian Louis Brandeis to support Zionism, and forging the theory of Cultural Pluralism in a series of articles in The Nation opposing anti-immigrant movements of his day, Horace Kallen deserves our attention.

Presenter

Dean Goldfein

Dean Goldfein has served as the Head of the Contra Costa Jewish Day School in Lafayette since 2000. His Masters thesis in American History from The University of Virginia focused on Horace Kallen. He received a Frommer Fund Award from the East Bay Jewish Federation to study Kallen's... Read More →

Sunday June 26, 2016 1:20pm - 2:30pm PDT
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Society & Community, Social Activism and Justice

2:50pm PDT

Can Cancer be Jewish?

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Most cancers are caused by a variety of factors including lifestyle, environment, and overall genetic makeup. However, 5-10% of cancers are hereditary, meaning that they were caused by a genetic change or mutation a person was born with that was passed down from a parent. Of the 5-10% of breast and ovarian cancer caused by an inherited mutation, most cases are due to a mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes. These mutations increase the probability of developing certain cancers including breast, ovarian, pancreatic, prostate, or melanoma and 1 in 40 Ashkenazi Jews carries a BRCA mutation. This informative session discusses the options for BRCA mutation testing for people with or without a family history of cancer, who in a family should get testing, and what to do to prevent cancer if a person has a mutation.

Presenter

Dena Goldberg

Sunday June 26, 2016 2:50pm - 4:00pm PDT
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Social & Life Experience, Science & Technology