Meet our Key Presenters
Keynote Speaker: Rabbi Laura Duhan-Kaplan
Rabbi Laura Duhan-Kaplan is a professor, author, mystic, animal lover, and interfaith activist. Currently, she is Director of Inter-Religious Studies and Professor of Jewish Studies at Vancouver School of Theology, Rabbi Emerita of Or Shalom Synagogue, Professor Emerita of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and faculty
member at ALEPH Ordination Programs.
She holds a B.A. in Philosophy (Brandeis University), M.Ed. in Adult Education (Cambridge College); Ph.D. in Philosophy and Education (Claremont Graduate University), Rabbinic Ordination (ALEPH), and Graduate Diploma in Spiritual Direction (Vancouver School of Theology). Rabbi Laura loves to bring people together for learning and community dialogue. Her work has been recognized with the American Academy of Religion’s Katie Geneva
Cannon Award for Excellence in Teaching, Visioneers Lifetime Achievement Award for Peace and Community Well-Being, American Association of Philosophy Teachers Award, Carnegie Foundation’s U.S. Professor of the Year, UNC Board of Governor’s Award for Teaching Excellence, Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence, and nomination for BC’s Multiculturalism Award.
Rabbi Laura’s scholarship draws on philosophy, kabbalah, depth psychology, bible, educational theory, and current events. She is author of Shechinah Bring Me Home: Kabbalah and the Omer in Real Life (2023), Mouth of the Donkey: Re-imagining Biblical Animals (2021), and The Infinity Inside: Jewish Spiritual Practice Through a Multi-Faith Lens (2019). With her colleagues, she recently co-edited the scholarly anthologies Multireligious Reflection on Friendship, Visions of the End-Times, Spirit of Reconciliation, and Encountering the Other. Rabbi Laura, a dual Canadian-American citizen, is married to psychologist Charles Kaplan. Together they are musical partners, parents of two young adults, and caretakers of a changing array of companion animals. Rabbi Laura blogs at www.sophiastreet.com.
Rabbi Laura Duhan-Kaplan is a professor, author, mystic, animal lover, and interfaith activist. Currently, she is Director of Inter-Religious Studies and Professor of Jewish Studies at Vancouver School of Theology, Rabbi Emerita of Or Shalom Synagogue, Professor Emerita of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and faculty
member at ALEPH Ordination Programs.
She holds a B.A. in Philosophy (Brandeis University), M.Ed. in Adult Education (Cambridge College); Ph.D. in Philosophy and Education (Claremont Graduate University), Rabbinic Ordination (ALEPH), and Graduate Diploma in Spiritual Direction (Vancouver School of Theology). Rabbi Laura loves to bring people together for learning and community dialogue. Her work has been recognized with the American Academy of Religion’s Katie Geneva
Cannon Award for Excellence in Teaching, Visioneers Lifetime Achievement Award for Peace and Community Well-Being, American Association of Philosophy Teachers Award, Carnegie Foundation’s U.S. Professor of the Year, UNC Board of Governor’s Award for Teaching Excellence, Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence, and nomination for BC’s Multiculturalism Award.
Rabbi Laura’s scholarship draws on philosophy, kabbalah, depth psychology, bible, educational theory, and current events. She is author of Shechinah Bring Me Home: Kabbalah and the Omer in Real Life (2023), Mouth of the Donkey: Re-imagining Biblical Animals (2021), and The Infinity Inside: Jewish Spiritual Practice Through a Multi-Faith Lens (2019). With her colleagues, she recently co-edited the scholarly anthologies Multireligious Reflection on Friendship, Visions of the End-Times, Spirit of Reconciliation, and Encountering the Other. Rabbi Laura, a dual Canadian-American citizen, is married to psychologist Charles Kaplan. Together they are musical partners, parents of two young adults, and caretakers of a changing array of companion animals. Rabbi Laura blogs at www.sophiastreet.com.
Artist-in-Residence: Sofer Kevin Hale
Sofer Stam Rabbi Kevin Hale a teaches about Judaism’s sacred scribal traditions, evaluates, appraises and restores Torah scrolls, writes megillot, mezuzot and. A RRC graduate and Aleph musmach, he is authorized to restore rescued Czech scrolls from the London Memorial Scrolls Trust. A deeply curious tinkerer, gleefully grounded in the world of Assiyah he builds (and invents!) musical instruments, bakes matzah, delights in learning and sharing life stories as well as the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet wherever they are found.
Workshop: The Barefoot Sofer: Sacred Craft of Emergency Torah- Once upon time, most communities had local scribes who wrote torah, tefillin, mezuzot and other sacred documents, and also maintained community's existing torah scrolls to keep them kosher and fit for public use. We dream of the day when professional scribes as well as citizen-scribes are writing torah all across the Jewish landscape. Until then, the pressing need, especially far from Israel a handful of large cities outside Israel, is to restore the capacity of a local community to determine the condition of a scroll and whether (and why) a scroll is pasul or still kosher, and to perform essential repairs in order to keep on reading from a kosher scroll. Some scrolls need minor repairs, some major and beyond the scope of a "barefoot" sofer, and some are beyond repair. But frequently, sewing a seam, patching a tear or rewriting a letter can return a scroll to kosher service. This class will be an overview of and introduction to the craft and halachah involved with applying such first aide.
Art Installation- The 16 words, Emet vYatziv are a vehicle for exploring 16 different styles of writing (ktavs or "fonts") reflecting the scribal customs of different Jewish cultures spanning hundreds of years. Imagining a ktav ( "Ktav Emet" or "Ktav Hadash") that reflects this very community. Can we crowd-source that ktav such that two hundred years from now, one could look at a torah scroll and notice, "ah, this must have been written by a Renewal scribe writing in North America in the mid-21st century!" These 16 words in 16 styles may serve as grist for the mill, food for thought, for developing such an authentic Renewal ktav.
Sofer Stam Rabbi Kevin Hale a teaches about Judaism’s sacred scribal traditions, evaluates, appraises and restores Torah scrolls, writes megillot, mezuzot and. A RRC graduate and Aleph musmach, he is authorized to restore rescued Czech scrolls from the London Memorial Scrolls Trust. A deeply curious tinkerer, gleefully grounded in the world of Assiyah he builds (and invents!) musical instruments, bakes matzah, delights in learning and sharing life stories as well as the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet wherever they are found.
Workshop: The Barefoot Sofer: Sacred Craft of Emergency Torah- Once upon time, most communities had local scribes who wrote torah, tefillin, mezuzot and other sacred documents, and also maintained community's existing torah scrolls to keep them kosher and fit for public use. We dream of the day when professional scribes as well as citizen-scribes are writing torah all across the Jewish landscape. Until then, the pressing need, especially far from Israel a handful of large cities outside Israel, is to restore the capacity of a local community to determine the condition of a scroll and whether (and why) a scroll is pasul or still kosher, and to perform essential repairs in order to keep on reading from a kosher scroll. Some scrolls need minor repairs, some major and beyond the scope of a "barefoot" sofer, and some are beyond repair. But frequently, sewing a seam, patching a tear or rewriting a letter can return a scroll to kosher service. This class will be an overview of and introduction to the craft and halachah involved with applying such first aide.
Art Installation- The 16 words, Emet vYatziv are a vehicle for exploring 16 different styles of writing (ktavs or "fonts") reflecting the scribal customs of different Jewish cultures spanning hundreds of years. Imagining a ktav ( "Ktav Emet" or "Ktav Hadash") that reflects this very community. Can we crowd-source that ktav such that two hundred years from now, one could look at a torah scroll and notice, "ah, this must have been written by a Renewal scribe writing in North America in the mid-21st century!" These 16 words in 16 styles may serve as grist for the mill, food for thought, for developing such an authentic Renewal ktav.
