Limmud in the UK 2007 - From Todd Shotz

All day I kept forgetting it was Christmas...we were in the bubble of Limmud.

Tomorrow is our last full day of the Limmud London conference. This experience has prepared us well to come back and help in planning the first Limmud LA conference. I have learned that the spirit of Limmud is all for one and one for all – it has the inspiring idealism of the youth groups or camps, providing Jews a short safe escape to learn, meet, connect and grow. There is no way that anyone will leave this conference unaffected or unchanged.

For those of you who know me, I delight in small world stories – when the course of things comes full circle. This time here has proved to show how small the Jewish world can be. I had read in the program booklet that there was a representative from Yad Vashem and I also recognized the name but could not place it. Standing at the help desk a day or so ago, I recognized the woman next to me and realized that this was Tamara who was my guide last year at Yad Vashem and gave me and my parents an excellent semi-private tour of the film exhibitions in the new museum. She and I hung out in the lounge for an hour one of the days and became fast friends. She may be able to come to LA for our Limmud and I hope to help her look into this when I return. I also bumped into a friend who was on the year-long Federation leadership program in Israel, Project Otzma with me, who I had not seen in over 10 years.

When I first arrived, I read in the booklet that Reva L'Sheva, the incredible religious band from Israel made up of mostly ex-pat Americans, would be playing a concert and hosting sessions during the conference. Two summers ago, my brother and now sister-in-law were planning their wedding and my sister-in-law wanted to use a song called “Verastich Li / Wedding Rings” for the processional. She had heard the song during college when she spent a semester abroad at Hebrew Univ. and has always loved Reva L’Sheva since. As I was planning the music for the ceremony, I googled the group and ended up getting on the phone with the band leader/founder Yehuda Katz. He was happy to help and faxed me the chord sheet. The song has a haunting and beautiful melody and its words taken from the tefilin blessings speak of our betrothal to G-d and to one another. As she and my brother circled each other to this song – you truly got chills at how perfect it was. Back to Limmud - unfortunately, I missed their full-on concert last night as I was attending the Limmud International board meeting. But tonight, they had a more intimate just acoustic get-together with another band called Pshutei Ha’am. I got a seat in the front row and as they began to jam together, I realized that the niggun they started with sounded familiar …could it be? And then Yehuda Katz with his long beard, big smile opened his mouth and sang out “Verastich Li.” I was in heaven. It was a very spiritual concert. Yehuda announced that it was his plan to take us all to Yerushalayim for the next two hours. And he did or at least came very close to. Afterwards, I approached him and he remembered completely, gave me a big hug and made me promise to email him when I am next in Israel. They are going to be in Houston the weekend of Limmud LA but it would be great to host them for a future conference.

Then, Shira, Abby and I hung out at the bar with the Reva L'Sheva bassist Brian Levine and drummer Danny Roth – they are both from LA and now live in Israel. Each night, we were at the bar until at least 2am when it shut down in typical British fashion and adjourned with everyone else to the Main Hall. One night, members of Reva L'Sheva, the rapper Y-Love and other musicians had an impromptu jam session that started around 3am. It is these spontaneous events and small word stories that sum up what Limmud can be.

Limmud in the UK 2007 - From Abby Fifer

I've been volunteering with LimmudLA for months now, but I didn't
completely get it until now. Not having attended a Limmud conference,
I was attracted to being part of LimmudLA because of its values in the
abstract: pluralism, a committment to non-synagogue learning, and its
immersive educational quality. Now, seing all of those values play
out in realtime, I am so extremely anxious and eager for our first
conference, in just a few weeks.

Others have written on this blog about the sessions they attended. I
went to some wonderful sessions, but it is more the atmosphere,
outside of sessions, that strikes me. First, people are friendly!
And not just Brits-are-polite friendly. Kevin, the conference chair,
knows everyone here by name, it seems -- all 2,300 people. Why?
Because he has empowered most everyone to be a volunteer, and he
actualizes the Limmud belief that the volunteers ARE the conference.
Presenters attend each others sessions, and no one has a title on
his/her namebadge. I had a lengthy, meaningful conversation with
someone for a few hours last night, and only after Googling him (I
admit it!) did I discover he is a rabbi. Why is that significant? At
Limmud, everyone -- not just the most text-educated -- owns the
learning.

Last night, after attending Clive Lawton's session on "Jewish Ideas
that Have Changed the World" and recording an interview for a
documentary by a Quaker called "What Happens When We Pray?" I had
"the" Limmud experience I'd heard so much about. Ruthie, Shira, Todd,
and I hung out at the bar for hours, meeting new people and
connecting. People were genuinely interested in learning about me --
about Los Angeles, about what sessions I'd attended that day, about my
thoughts on what I learned at those sessions, I hadn't had one of
those-stay-up-all-night-discussing-really-intense-things-and-falling-in-love-with-the-beauty-and-agony-of-life
nights since college. And I'm doing it again tonight!

This morning, after getting two hours of sleep, I woke up to go
volunteer at a homeless shelter for Christmas day. After another full
day of sessions, and brainstorming with Todd how to make LimmudLA
work, I went to a concert put on by Craig Taubman, Josh Nelson, and
the drummer from Reva L'sheva. What started out as a room full of
quite English people turns into a full-on rave, with Craig sweating
and screaming and inspiring.

I feel so comfortable and strangely at home here, and so glad I came.
I can't wait until Feb. 15 in LA.

Limmud in the UK 2007 - From Shira Landau

As I write, a group of attractive English GenXers are sipping beer flipping through the enormous Limmud Conference booklet. I can't actually tell if they are attractive or if it is just those damm cute accents. Regardless there is an energy...a palbable vibe of anticipation- in the air right now. Shabbat has just ended, culimiating in a totally organic Israeli song fest, led by former band members of THE FOOLS OF PROPHECY- platinum selling Israeli artists.The official Limmud UK conference will start tomorrow. Our current group of 400 Limmud Shabbaton participants will morph into 2300+ Limmud UK revelers in less then 24 hours! Today, it being Shabbat and I being the spirtually inclined, semi hippie that I am - consisted of two totally different but equally satisfying Shabbat meditation sessions. One was led by Shira Kline, a beautifully talented singer and star of StorahTelling with multicolored hair and a desire to inspire. She led us through a series of Jewish chanting- the kind I had been craving for some time now. As way of background- I spent this past summer at a Buddihst monostary up in Marin county.( this is where my semi hippie side becomes apparent) I loved everything about the experience but felt allienated by the Kirtan chanting. Although I am at times challenging of Jewish conventions, I am overall, pretty set on my monothestics world view. I therefore found the devotional chanting to Tibetan gods and goddess a bit problematic. However, I was totally engaged by the devotional nature of the Kirtan and I wondered where this kind of inspired prayer could be found in Judaism. I began to seach for those who blended the devotional nature of Kirtan with Jewish psalms and poerty. Everything I found seemed inauthentic and shallow. However, Shira Kline, at Limmud UK got it right. She was/is able to integrate the very present and mindful nature of kirtan with the very alligned and deep Jewish liturgy. My second Limmud UK mediation teacher did not have multicolored hair but rather sported a velvet black Kippah. He had prepared a very thorough list of Jewish texts that referenced mediation. Together we discussed the Rabbinical understanding of the differentiation between prayer and meditation and he postulated that the Amidah was designed as the ultimate mediation experience. A lively discussion arose as to why mediation is not a key and integral part of Jewish experience in the twenty first century. Many in the group seemed to crave for its return. The session ended with the following quote from Exodus: "The entire people saw the thunder" What does it mean to see thunder? How can you get to a place in your life where you see thunder? As I sign off on this entry a beautiful woman's voice is piercing through the bar as part of the open mic session. So far I can say that Limmud, more than anything, is an eclectic mixture of voices, ideas, cravings,backgrounds, and accents. Not only English accents for that matter. Swedish accents. German accents. Argentinian accents. Israel iaccents and last but certainly not least Turkish accents from the lovely Limmud Turkey delegation! So much more coming soon!

Limmud in the UK 2007 - From Todd Shotz

Hello all from jolly ole London town! Well, from the Unversity of Warwick anyway...which is actually no where near it. I am sitting here in the bar listening to the great Israeli band Reva L'Sheva after a very full day and thought to write to you all about my experience so far here at the 2007 Limmud Conference. While the weather is as dreary as ever here, the warmth and the energy in this enormous gathering of Jews from all over the world more than makes up for it. Last night, I had the quintessential Limmud experience - the speaker for the session about Heschel I was supposed to attend never showed up and so after 20 minutes waiting, I simply went into the session next door which was entitled "Donkeys!!!" I know what you're thinking - yes, "Donkeys!" It was led by Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg who is a Conservative rabbi for a congregation called the New North London Synagogue. He had simply the most beautiful English accent I have ever heard - no joke - I want him to record books on tape. The session traced the treatment of donkeys through Torah, Talmud etc. and looked at the issues from the donkey's perspective. We were given insights about the overall sensitivity to animals that our liturgy implies. It was such a good session that I have asked Rabbi Jonathan to record a podcast for us that could be aired during Parashat Balak (think talking donkey).Today, I attended a Torah study session called "Taking the Yuck out of Vayikra," a Talmud study session on what if a husband cancels a get while it is being delivered to his wife, a reading by legendary poet/playwright Bernard Kops, and an Italian Jewish cooking lesson in which we learned about the history of Italian Jews while watching the instructor cook us pumpkin risotto. Can you imagine I did this all in one day? That's Limmud.But wait that's not all - as a delegate from LA, I then attended with my cohorts the International Limmud board meeting in which we learned about what the 38 other Limmud organizations are accomplishing around the globe. The speaker at the session, Steven Cohen from NY, pointed out that Limmud will help the Jewish people adapt to the 21st century with all of its technology which can either connect us or separate us. I cannot put perfectly into words how important this organization is and how energized I am to come back and continue recruiting for our conference in February.