Meet our Key Presenters
Keynote Speaker: Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD, author, scholar, ritualist, poet, dreamworker, mystic, and midrashist, is the Director of Spiritual Education at the Academy for Jewish Religion (www.ajrsem.org), a pluralistic seminary based in Yonkers, NY, and co-founder of the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute (www.kohenet.org), a spiritual leadership training program and community centering embodied, earth-based feminist Jewish leadership. 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 Omer Calendar of Biblical Women, The Jewish Book of Days: A Companion for All Seasons, Sisters at Sinai: New Tales of Biblical Women, and The Book of Earth and Other Mysteries.
Rabbi Hammer is also the author of articles published in journals such as Religion and Literature, Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies and Gender Studies, The Journal of Applied Social Psychology, and The Journal of Lesbian Studies, and anthologies including Best Jewish Writing 2002 and the Encyclopedia of Women and World Religions, newspapers, magazines such as Lilith Magazine, websites such as feminismandreligion.com, and beyond. She is the translator of The Romemu Siddur and of Siddur haKohanot: A Hebrew Priestess Prayerbook. She has written a children’s book, The Garden of Time.
Rabbi Hammer has led retreats, classes, workshops, and rituals around the country and around the world. Her students and colleagues praise her as “brilliant and accessible,” “a multi-gifted teacher, translator, and facilitator,” “among the most creative spiritual teachers in the Jewish world today.” She lives in Manhattan with her family.
Workshop: Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation and the Forming of Inner Space
Sefer Yetzirah, or the Book of Creation, is an ancient Jewish mystical work that describes God’s process of creating the universe, using the elements, the directions, and the Hebrew letters. This brief Hebrew book is composed of brief, cryptic, poetic passages that offer mythic images and directions for meditative practice. In this workshop, we’ll explore some of Sefer Yetzirah’s guidance around how to achieve a meditative state, and how to tap into the Creator’s creative forces. We’ll study powerful passages from the book about the world’s structure and our place in it, and we’ll engage meditative practices of centering and alignment inspired by the visionary images of the Book of Creation.
Rabbi Hammer is also the author of articles published in journals such as Religion and Literature, Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies and Gender Studies, The Journal of Applied Social Psychology, and The Journal of Lesbian Studies, and anthologies including Best Jewish Writing 2002 and the Encyclopedia of Women and World Religions, newspapers, magazines such as Lilith Magazine, websites such as feminismandreligion.com, and beyond. She is the translator of The Romemu Siddur and of Siddur haKohanot: A Hebrew Priestess Prayerbook. She has written a children’s book, The Garden of Time.
Rabbi Hammer has led retreats, classes, workshops, and rituals around the country and around the world. Her students and colleagues praise her as “brilliant and accessible,” “a multi-gifted teacher, translator, and facilitator,” “among the most creative spiritual teachers in the Jewish world today.” She lives in Manhattan with her family.
Workshop: Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation and the Forming of Inner Space
Sefer Yetzirah, or the Book of Creation, is an ancient Jewish mystical work that describes God’s process of creating the universe, using the elements, the directions, and the Hebrew letters. This brief Hebrew book is composed of brief, cryptic, poetic passages that offer mythic images and directions for meditative practice. In this workshop, we’ll explore some of Sefer Yetzirah’s guidance around how to achieve a meditative state, and how to tap into the Creator’s creative forces. We’ll study powerful passages from the book about the world’s structure and our place in it, and we’ll engage meditative practices of centering and alignment inspired by the visionary images of the Book of Creation.
Musician-in-Residence: Rabbi Deborah Sacks Mintz serves the Hadar Institute as Director of Tefillah and Music. An educator, practitioner, and facilitator of Jewish communal prayer, R’ Deborah serves and supports communities and individuals who seek to deepen, sharpen, and unlock their practice of empowered song and tefila. As a musician, Deborah has partnered creatively with a diverse array of voices in the Jewish soundscape; in addition to collaborating on over two dozen albums, she released her first record of original spiritual music, The Narrow and the Expanse, in 2020. Beloved ongoing artistic projects include Joey Weisenberg’s Hadar Ensemble, R’ Josh Warshawsky’s Chaverai Nevarech, and New Moon Rising with Elana Arian and Chava Mirel.
R’ Deborah received rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary, where she also earned her MA in Women and Gender Studies. She holds degrees in music and religious anthropology from the University of Michigan. Learn more about Deborah's work at www.deborahsacksmintz.com
Workshop: Yored Lifnei HaTeyva: Humility and Hutzpah in Tefila
Prayer-leaders and pray-ers alike must balance the dual inclinations to step up and step back - lean in and lean out - when navigating the complex practice of seeking connection to the Divine. How do we hold both the hutzpah of leadership alongside the humility to listen deeply and respond with an open heart? Through text study and collaborative song, we'll grow together in this experiential workshop.
R’ Deborah received rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary, where she also earned her MA in Women and Gender Studies. She holds degrees in music and religious anthropology from the University of Michigan. Learn more about Deborah's work at www.deborahsacksmintz.com
Workshop: Yored Lifnei HaTeyva: Humility and Hutzpah in Tefila
Prayer-leaders and pray-ers alike must balance the dual inclinations to step up and step back - lean in and lean out - when navigating the complex practice of seeking connection to the Divine. How do we hold both the hutzpah of leadership alongside the humility to listen deeply and respond with an open heart? Through text study and collaborative song, we'll grow together in this experiential workshop.
