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January 24, 2026
2:00 PM
Big Jewish Gathering: Rerooting Judaism
100 Sutton Studios
100 Sutton St 2fl, Brooklyn, NY 11222, USA
Welcome to the Big Jewish Gathering – a two-day spiritual convening in Brooklyn weaving immersive ritual, embodied learning, and creative renewal.
On January 24–25, we’ll gather with spiritual leaders, teachers, and artists from across Jewish time and tradition — converging through mystical and ancestral pathways of awakening.
This year's theme, Rerooted Judaism, invites us to journey between our collective past and ever-expanding future. What Jewish practices, ancient and emerging, can help us meet this moment?
The Details
January 24 - 25, 2026
Saturday, Jan. 24 | 9:30 AM - 9:30 PM
Sunday, Jan. 25 | 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
100 Sutton Place (Greenpoint, Brooklyn)
Registration includes access to all of our programming and meals for the two days of the retreat. You can learn more about Big Jewish Gathering HERE.
The Team
Big Jewish Gathering is created and produced by The Neighborhood: An Urban Center for Jewish Life and Miriam's Tent, in collaboration with a group of practitioners, community conveners, and Jewish organizations platforming one another as we collectively explore ancient and innovative modes of Jewish life. Read more about our partners and guides below!
Featuring
Shira Abramowitz
Shira Abramowitz is a meditation teacher, social impact leader, and community-builder. She completed the Institute for Jewish Spirituality JMMTT teacher training program, and teaches meditation for various programs online and in-person. She is the founder of Summit Impact, a 501(c)(3) focused on activating the power of community for social good. and a co-founder of Up & Up Creative, an agency focused on program design, events, and social impact campaigns. Shira holds a bachelors in commerce from McGill University and a masters degree in Mind, Brain, and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she focused on social cognitive neuroscience and adult group learning.
Shira Averbuch
Named "the golden-voiced singer" by the New York Times, Shira Averbuch, is a NYC based fairy-folk singer-songwriter and sacred musician. She serves as the Artist-in-Residence at B'nai Jeshurun Synagogue in NYC and is a Beit Toratah Fellow. Shira moved to NYC where she studied music, theatre and music therapy at The New School. Shira met music producer Paul Carbonara (Blondie) when she starred in his Off Broadway musical, Solitary Light, to much critical acclaim. Together they recorded two EPs, creating a live fairy-folk-acoustic sound so raw you could almost hear the wooden floors creaking under their feet. Since her song Am I Beautiful, following her friend's battle with stage 3 breast cancer, went viral, Shira has been touring across the US, Europe and Israel playing heart stopping music bringing people together in joy and healing both the Jewish world and the world at large. “Shira presents an authentic narrative of longing for places we call home, as we head toward new frontiers — a metaphor we can all relate to right now.” -Americana Highways.
Jessica Tamar Deutsch
Jessica Tamar Deutsch is a visual artist based in Brooklyn. Her work explores mysticism, lore, illustration and judaica. Her work aims to create many entryways to meaning.
Keshira haLev Fife
Keshira haLev Fife (she/they) is a bi-racial, queer Kohenet (Hebrew Priestess) who lives delights in serving as a facilitator, teacher, consultant, lifespiral ceremony/ritual creatrix, davennatrix (shlichat tzibbur), liturgist and songstress. She serves as Founding Kohenet of Kesher Pittsburgh and Core Faculty Member with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, and also enjoys working with Beloved, Jewish Studio Project, Kirva, and the Jewish Learning Collaborative, among other Jewish organisations. Though both the lands of the Osage & Haudenosaunee people (Pittsburgh, PA) and the Gadigal people (Sydney, AUS) feel like home, Keshira and her beloved have been in an extended period of travel since January 2023. www.keshirahalev.com
Jessie Gerzon
Jessie Gerzon is a ritual artist and entrepreneur dedicated to fostering connection and openness, empowering people to contribute their unique gifts to the world. Inspired by her journey with Crohn's Disease, healing, and growth, Jessie thrives in creating spaces where others can slow down, connect with their inner wisdom, and find grounding.
Rabbi Yosef Goldman
Rabbi Yosef Goldman is a composer, prayer leader, and ritual artist whose work lives at the intersection of sacred music, ritual, and healing. He weaves ancient devotional music from his Mizrahi and Ashkenazi heritage together with contemporary Jewish traditions through immersive singing—Hasidic nigunim, sacred poetry (piyyut), and original compositions—creating transformative communal experiences through embodied song and deep spiritual presence. His music opens pathways for connection, grief, joy, and awakening—honoring the fullness of the human journey.
Becca Goldstein
Becca Goldstein is an urban mystic, strategist, field builder, and spiritual guide who designs experiences at the intersection of culture, embodiment, ritual, and legacy. With an MBA from Stanford and a background in real estate, philanthropic advisory, and Jewish ancestral imagination, she guides people toward deeper alignment with their values, purpose, and power. Her work integrates somatic practice, ritual design, and modern organizational frameworks to create spaces where transformation becomes communal, courageous, and actionable. Becca imagined the Big Jewish Gathering into reality as a living experiment in reclaiming sacred spaces for learning, celebration, and connection.
Rabbi Jill Hammer
Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD, author, scholar, ritualist, poet, dreamworker, midrashist, and priestess, is the Director of Learning and Ritual at Beit Kohenet, a house of Jewish, mystical, earth-based, feminist seeking (beitkohenet.org), and the Director of Spiritual Education at the Academy for Jewish Religion (www.ajr.edu), . She is the author of Undertorah: An Earth-Based Kabbalah of Dreaming, Return to the Place: The Magic, Meditation, and Mystery of Sefer Yetzirah, The Hebrew Priestess: Ancient and New Visions of Jewish Women’s Spiritual Leadership (with Taya Shere), The Jewish Book of Days: A Companion for All Seasons, The Omer Calendar of Biblical Women, Sisters at Sinai: New Tales of Biblical Women, and The Book of Earth and Other Mysteries. Her fantasy novel is called The Moonstone Covenant. She is also the author of academic articles, essays, and poems and the translator of The Romemu Siddur and of Siddur haKohanot: A Hebrew Priestess Prayerbook. She lives in Manhattan with her family.
Charly Jaffe
Charly Jaffe is a creative producer, facilitator, and experiential storyteller who creates transformative spaces for people to meet—and make—the moments that matter. Working at the intersection of story, strategy, and spirit, Charly is the co-writer, creative director, and host of DIASPORA by StoryCourse, the hit theatrical culinary experience acclaimed for its emotional power and nuanced Jewish complexity.
Walking between worlds, her background spans suicide hotlines, corporate boardrooms, rural classrooms, and keynote stages. She has co-led a tantric yoga school and holds a master’s in Clinical Psychology and Education from Columbia University, with a certificate from the Spirituality Mind Body Institute. She is also a best-selling author, with work featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the BBC, and more.
Weaving together science and spirit, story and systems, Charly crafts communal experiences that are honest, brave, and defiantly joyful.
Walking between worlds, her background spans suicide hotlines, corporate boardrooms, rural classrooms, and keynote stages. She has co-led a tantric yoga school and holds a master’s in Clinical Psychology and Education from Columbia University, with a certificate from the Spirituality Mind Body Institute. She is also a best-selling author, with work featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the BBC, and more.
Weaving together science and spirit, story and systems, Charly crafts communal experiences that are honest, brave, and defiantly joyful.
Yael Kanarek
Yael Kanarek is an Israeli-American artist and the founder of BeitToratah.org, an initiative that regenders the Hebrew Bible by centering women in the narrative and locating men within the domestic sphere. Through this work, she expands Biblical Hebrew from within the language itself, using its feminine forms to reopen meaning in the foundational stories.
Her ongoing creation of the Toratah library includes regendered translations of Biblical books, public learning, and collaborations with educators, artists, and spiritual leaders. Last year, she introduced ZimraTah, a collaborative album of songs drawn from Toratah’s language. Together, these works challenge long-standing interpretive assumptions and propose a Torah that speaks to a broader humanity.
Kanarek’s artistic practice informs her textual work. Trained as a visual artist and fluent in Hebrew, she bridges sacred language and contemporary art, treating the act of regendering as both creative methodology and cultural intervention. Her artwork has been exhibited internationally, including at the Whitney Biennial, SFMOMA, The Jewish Museum in New York, and the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens. Her work has been covered in The New York Times and in other major publications. She teaches, writes, and presents widely in progressive Jewish contexts. Alongside Toratah, Kanarek maintains an active studio practice and designs fine jewelry.
Her work can be viewed here:
beittoratah.org
yaelkanarek.com
Kanareknyc.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yael_Kanarek
Her ongoing creation of the Toratah library includes regendered translations of Biblical books, public learning, and collaborations with educators, artists, and spiritual leaders. Last year, she introduced ZimraTah, a collaborative album of songs drawn from Toratah’s language. Together, these works challenge long-standing interpretive assumptions and propose a Torah that speaks to a broader humanity.
Kanarek’s artistic practice informs her textual work. Trained as a visual artist and fluent in Hebrew, she bridges sacred language and contemporary art, treating the act of regendering as both creative methodology and cultural intervention. Her artwork has been exhibited internationally, including at the Whitney Biennial, SFMOMA, The Jewish Museum in New York, and the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens. Her work has been covered in The New York Times and in other major publications. She teaches, writes, and presents widely in progressive Jewish contexts. Alongside Toratah, Kanarek maintains an active studio practice and designs fine jewelry.
Her work can be viewed here:
beittoratah.org
yaelkanarek.com
Kanareknyc.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yael_Kanarek
Shira Kline
Shira Kline is an internationally acclaimed performance and ritual artist, recognized as a revolutionary educator and named one of the new re-engineers of Jewish life today. Known on the kiddie-rock stage as ShirLaLa and in the sanctuary as a spiritual adventurist, she practices in the field of sacred play where she weaves radical imagination, expansive heart and collective soul. With her unique combination of spiritual leadership, immersive artistry and education, she has toured extensively for almost three decades. In 2024, she received the Covenant Foundation Award for her profound impact on the field of Jewish Education. Her award winning music has been featured on NPR, XM Radio, JKids Radio, Disney and Hulu. She is a frequent guest of numerous international leadership conferences and seminaries with a series of vibrant professional development and musical invitations to connect, for a new and realized conscious world. Visit her in her primary playground, artist driven, experimental and God-optional Lab/Shul NYC, where she is a Co-Founder and serves as Spiritual Leader.
Shaul Magid
Shaul Magid is Professor of Modern Judaism in Residence at Harvard Divinity School, a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard, the co-editor of Harvard Theological Review, a contributing editor to ARC Journal, and the rabbi of the Fire Island Synagogue in New York. He studied for his M.A. in Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University and earned his Ph.D. from Brandeis University in 1994. His rabbinical ordination is from Jerusalem in 1984.
He is the author of many books and essays, including Hasidism on the Margin (University of Wisconsin Press, 2005); From Metaphysics to Midrash (Indiana University Press, 2008); American Post-Judaism: Identity and Renewal in a Postethnic Society (Indiana University Press, 2013); Hasidism Incarnate: Hasidism, Christianity, and the Construction of Modern Judaism (Stanford University Press, 2014); Piety and Rebellion: Essays in Hasidism (Academic Studies Press, 2019); The Bible, the Talmud, and the New Testament: Elijah Zvi Soloveitchik's Commentary to the New Testament (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019); Meir Kahane: The Public Life and Political Thought of an American Jewish Radical (Princeton University Press, 2021); The Necessity of Exile: Essays from a Distance (Ayin Press, 2023); and Jewish Anti-Zionism as Political Theology: The Major Writings of Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum (University of California Press, 2026).
He is the author of many books and essays, including Hasidism on the Margin (University of Wisconsin Press, 2005); From Metaphysics to Midrash (Indiana University Press, 2008); American Post-Judaism: Identity and Renewal in a Postethnic Society (Indiana University Press, 2013); Hasidism Incarnate: Hasidism, Christianity, and the Construction of Modern Judaism (Stanford University Press, 2014); Piety and Rebellion: Essays in Hasidism (Academic Studies Press, 2019); The Bible, the Talmud, and the New Testament: Elijah Zvi Soloveitchik's Commentary to the New Testament (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019); Meir Kahane: The Public Life and Political Thought of an American Jewish Radical (Princeton University Press, 2021); The Necessity of Exile: Essays from a Distance (Ayin Press, 2023); and Jewish Anti-Zionism as Political Theology: The Major Writings of Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum (University of California Press, 2026).
Benjamin Richman
Benjamin Richman is the founder of Openlev, a Brooklyn-based community nonprofit that cultivates purpose and belonging in daily life, rooted in ancestral Jewish wisdom. Openlev brings together curious minds for inspiring programming, intentional coworking, and intimate gatherings. Benjamin also serves as VP of Digital Assets at Nexus, a technology startup based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Lex Rofeberg
Lex Rofeberg (he/him) is a Jewish educator and activist. He works as senior Jewish educator for Judaism Unbound, co-hosting and producing its flagship podcast, along with overseeing (and teaching in) its UnYeshiva: a digital center for Jewish learning and unlearning. In addition to his work with Judaism Unbound, Lex serves on the boards of Tikkun Olam Productions, The Shalom Center, and Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations. A native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin now living in (divine) Providence, Rhode Island, he is a graduate of Brown University and was ordained as a rabbi through ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal. He thinks sacred Jewish experiences can be found in synagogues -- but tries to also find them in the woods, at an IHOP, on Zoom, or while going bowling.
Rebecca Schisler
Rebecca Schisler is a meditation teacher, artist, and Jewish educator. A devoted contemplative practitioner, she is a full-time core faculty member at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, where she founded and directs the Shevet Jewish Mindfulness Community, a space for folks in or near their twenties and thirties to dive deep into Jewish spirituality and mindfulness practice in online and virtual spaces. Rebecca has taught with Or HaLev, Stanford School of Medicine, Wilderness Torah, Urban Adamah, HaMakom, Awakened Heart Project and the Pardes Center for Jewish Educators, where she co-authored the Mahloket Matters Schools Curriculum. A rabbinical student at ALEPH, Rebecca is passionate about integrating ancestral wisdom traditions with innovative approaches to personal and collective healing and liberation, and teaches Jewish spirituality as an embodied, transformational, and accessible path, with relevant and timely wisdom for all. Learn more at www.rebeccaschisler.com.
Yoshi Silverstein
Yoshi Silverstein (he/him) is a Chinese-Ashkenazi-American Jew, founder and executive director at Mitsui Collective, and creator of the Mitsui Method system of Jewish embodiment. A student of the human body and spirit, he has over 25 years of experience as a Jewish educator, facilitator, and creative practitioner in disciplines including movement and somatics, martial arts, music, outdoor education, and landscape design. Yoshi is a recipient of the 2022 Pomegranate Prize from the Covenant Foundation, and a 2021 “Grist 50 Fixer” building a more just and equitable future. He earned his Masters Degree in Landscape Architecture at University of Maryland with a thesis exploring Jewish landscape journey and experience, and holds certificates in spiritual entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, permaculture design, and environmental education. Yoshi holds a 2nd degree blackbelt in Lotus Kajukenbo and currently studies Chinese martial arts – including Tai Chi, Baguazhang, and Shuai Chiao (Chinese wrestling). In October 2024, Yoshi was a member of Team USA competing at the World Shuai Chiao Games in Baoding, China, followed by ten days of intensive martial arts study in the Wudang Mountains. He lives in the Cleveland area in Shaker Heights, OH on Erie, Mississauga, and Haudenosaunee land with his wife and daughter.
DJ Noah Souder-Russo
Noah Souder-Russo is an artist, liminal space holder, and frequency guide. His DJ sets attune to resonance and joy, helping you to remember yourself amidst the cacophony of these times. Noah has been producing music and DJing for over 15 years including a long-term residency at his favorite Brooklyn establishment, House of Yes. Noah also holds an MA in Women's and Gender Studies and is a reiki practitioner and energy worker.
Rav Jericho Vincent
Rav Jericho Vincent is the founding rabbi of Temple of the Stranger, a flourishing Ivri community in Brooklyn, New York. Raised in an ultra-Orthodox rabbinical family, they earned a master’s in public policy from Harvard University and ordination in the lineage of Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi from the Aleph Ordination Program. Rav Jericho is a Wexner Fellow, a member of the Schusterman ROI Community, and a recent fellow at Atra: The Center for Rabbinic Innovation. They serve as an advisor to Beit Kohenet and The Shalom Center. Rav Jericho has been named to the Forward 50, and in 2025 they received the Young History Maker Award from the LGBTQ Religious Archives Network. Their inclusive Kabbalistic teachings can be found on Instagram, @thealef.
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