We've just finished our 31st annual summer institute and, in line with our grant, provided many opportunities during the week for participants to learn about strategies for supporting and sustaining their home communities. We held 9 different workshops that connected to this track, on topics as varied as skill development (how to gabbai the Torah service) to liturgy (community-based evolution of tefilah) to programming to models of governance. The notes and ideas from these workshops were recorded and will be posted on the havurah resource website. We also had a fantastic full week of programming from our Hollander Social Justice
Fellow, Joelle Novey, who facilitated a series of programs about sustainability and consumption, using Jewish texts and ideas as a starting point to explore practical ideas about how to consume in a more just way-- include work on electricity, ethical & green simchas, and fair trade.
We were so pleased to have 12 BYFI alumni in attendance, many of whom had Shabbat lunch together. Five alumni were selected as NHC Everett Fellows: Rachel Farbiarz, Ilana Lapid, Raysh Weiss, Adina Gerver, and Yona Gorelick