Thank you for a wonderful 2009

It has been an extraordinary year for Limmud Atlanta+SE. After our second day-long program in March, we held our first multi-day "LimmudFest" over Labor Day weekend at Camp Ramah (Tumbling Waters) in the North Georgia mountains.

Two hundred Jews of all ages and backgrounds sang, danced, played, learned, shared, and even rapped together in a powerful example of community and shared values.

This month's Vodka and Latkes event, which helped us raise about $1000, drew a fun and eclectic crowd to a downtown Atlanta club. We enjoyed entertainment from the Atlanta Jewish Music Festival and Modern Tribe's "No Limits Texas Dreidel" competition, and were featured on Good Morning America.

Because of your support and involvement, almost 1,000 Jews from all around the Southeast were touched by Limmud this year.

The Atlanta Jewish community has been enriched by Limmud's creative and inclusive Jewish experiences. We are very close to reaching our fundraising goal for 2010, but we need your support to fully realize our vision. As you think about year-end giving, you can help Limmud close a critical gap by making a tax-deductible contribution--$180, $72, $36, $18 or any amount that is comfortable for you by clicking here. Thank you for your passion and support.

We look forward to celebrating Jewish life with you in the coming year. (So mark your calendar for Sunday, March 14th, 2010, when Limmud returns to Oglethorpe!)

LimmudFest News!

We already have a stellar presenter lineup for LimmudFest, and registration for the multi-day retreat taking place in North Georgia over Labor Day weekend is now open!

Register in April or May for the early-bird discount and a variety of payment plans/options.

http://www.limmudse.org

VOLUNTICIPATE!

Fest

Focus on Fest

Wow...our March Limmud was phenomenal, and most of us are still riding the wave. It's similar to how I felt after Limmud UK, and I'm eager to keep it going as long as possible. So it's time to FOCUS ON FEST!

Our volunteer recruitment party is next Tuesday at Broadway Cafe from 7:30-9:00, and we'll be shoring up our teams of volunteers, encouraging people to pursue their interests and do what it is they enjoy doing. Marketing, logistics, volunteer coordinating, programming, kids/teens, PR, and whatever else you can think of.

Then we get to the fun stuff, which is working together on making our first-ever multi-day Limmud ATL a big, fun, relaxing, intellectually stimulating, enjoyable success. Come be a part of it!

Introductory information about Limmud Fest

Information on Volunteer Recruitment Party

Limmud Everywhere

There has been a flurry of Limmud-related news in the last month or so, and here are a number of articles of interest. Of course, be sure to read the February 27th cover story in the Atlanta Jewish Times.

Philadelphia

• Beyond the Classroom: Limmud Prompts Food for Thought
  
• Limmud Philly: More than 70 Ways to Connect Jewishly

Toronto

• Jewish Learning Festival Draws over 400
• Limmud Toronto Conference 2009
  

Los Angeles

• Bible, yoga, and YouTube
• Bumping into Judaism

Scotland

• Changes at Limmud
  

1st Annual (?) LimmudFest

Once you've registered for Limmud 2009 (March 21-22), you can already start planning to join us for our first multi-day Limmud experience--LimmudFest--taking place over Labor Day weekend at Ramah Darom/Tumbling Waters.

Renee and I are co-chairing the event, and we're just getting started with a great group of volunticipants. Please join us--as volunteers and participants! As you know, or will find out in March, volunteering makes the experience infinitely more meaningful, rewarding, and fun even if you've never done Limmud before. There's something for everyone, so just shoot us an email and come to our purpose meeting this Sunday at 8pm.

Shabbat Shalom,
Noah

Limmud Article

Check out this article on Limmud from the Jewish Community Online – "the digital arm of The Jewish Chronicle Ltd, which publishes The Jewish Chronicle, the world's oldest and most influential Jewish newspaper."

"Why Limmud is now the Festival of Festivals"

LimmudFest

The effects of Limmud UK continue... I just got back from the first "volunticipation" interest meeting for our first-ever LimmudFest. Great turnout, great ideas, great people, and a great start overall. I'm so excited (but realistic and hopefully down-to-earth) about Limmud's growth in our community, and I'm thrilled to be a part of it.

At the meeting, I noticed that the spirit of Limmud UK drove many of my thoughts, and it's given me a sense of--and ability to share that sense--where we should go from here.

Noah

I went to Limmud for the first time this year. In fact, I had never even heard of Limmud until one month before the conference. I went with my friend Eli and his mom. Friday night was really fun, although we didn't sit next to people my age, we sat next to people from Switzerland and London. Saturday was an easy day, we just hung out, relaxed, and played some games. Eli and I started Young Limmud Sunday afternoon. It was really fun, we played get to know you games, and we listened to some presenters. I made a lot of new friends that are really nice. One night, my friends and I went to a grown up session called Sofia's Drawings. It was a puppet show of sorts about a girl in the Holocaust, Sofia. Sofia's granddaughter did the show. It was really amazing. On the last day of Young Limmud, the whole group went to a session about Zionism. It was supposed to get us ready for the regular conference. It was really interesting. The food at the conference was really good too, but the sandwich combinations were a little weird. I hope to go back next year.

                 Sydney Joffre                

Brilliant!

We're back in the States with a full-night's sleep, and I'm as invigorated, inspired, and excited about Limmud as ever. The UK experience was an amazing one on a personal level and as a Limmud Atlanta volunteer. Both of me is completely refueled for the new year.

I hope to keep posting and reflecting on what Limmud was, is, and will be for me, but I'm even more hopeful that I get to work and learn with more and more volunteers here at home to make our version the absolute best it can be.

Shabbat Shalom,
Noah

Reflections

I write this upon returning from Limmud Conference 2008 at Warwick University in the UK. I had an incredible exhilarating experience. I would describe it as the ultimate vacation for mind body and soul. Like a ski trip, I took it easy on the first couple days which included a relaxing Shabbat and as each day progressed I spent more time on the slopes and getting more comfortable with the expert slopes. Limmud UK took place on a large University campus during the holiday break. Limmudnicks totaled about 2400 and there were endless round the clock experiences for the beginner to the expert and everything in between. I quickly leaned that Limmud is as much about what you have to give up by choosing certain options as it is about you do attend. There were as many as 25 choices at a time and I found myself feeling like a student again at University with the most knowledgeable, engaging and informative teachers in the world. My days included no less then 8 sessions and included topics as diverse as A Muslims experience of Yom Kippur, How to Process Jesus , Jewish Identity in the US, the Four Megillot, How to end Poverty and Jews and Porn. At a time when war broke out in Gaza, you felt as if you were part of a White House advisors team meeting with leading world experts from all points of the spectrum including a Palestinian and an IDF official dialoging in open formats on the complexities of the issues. Evenings were spent till very late hours over pints of Guinness processing with our Atlanta team (7 of us) as well as representatives from Limmud's all over the world including places like Romania, Israel, FSU South Africa, France and Australia. When your mind needed a break from the intensive dialogue, the arts options were extraordinary with film, music, comedy and theater options that were exceptional. We were represented by some of our Atlanta own on the program including Deborah Lipstadt and Mel Konner both Emory professors and favorite presenters at Limmud UK.

So what does it all mean for Limmud Atlanta + Southeast? Here are my takeaways:

1) It is all about the VOLUNTEER. Limmud only happens with Volunteers like you empowered to make things happen. True success for Limmud is when all participants volunteer for some aspect of Limmud. They have coined a word in the UK called "volenticipation". If you want to be involved in Limmud, there is a place for you and we need to assure that you are engaged and feeling empowered. If you're someone who wants to be engaged and is not, please let me know because we have plenty to do.

2) DIVERSITY-it is something we have been pushing, but it deserves a renewed emphasis. Limmud ATL + SE needs to appeal to a diversity of the Jewish community in all aspects and everyone needs to feel welcome in both putting it together and participating.

3) Limmud ATL+SE must create dialog. We need to bring people from far and wide with different viewpoints together and give them a constructive format to share their perspectives and perhaps most importantly give everyone a chance to learn. We need lots of panels and discussions on a wide array of topics. We need to highlight our local gems, but also continue to introduce national and international teachers .

4) Limmud ATL+ SE needs to be a CATALYST for Jewish life here helping anyone to move our community members along their particular Jewish journey. We need to aim to empower everyone to be involved in making the world a better place by inspiring new projects, new learners, new teachers and a city of Jews that celebrates its placement as a world class Jewish community.

5) Lastly we need to create a Limmud where presenters want to be there as much as everyone else and they want to fully participate. I now understand why we don't need to pay well deserving experts; a great teacher wants to learn too and there is no better place to learn for anyone then Limmud.

In closing, I will update you on another exciting happening with Limmud ATL+ SE. We have decided to launch a mini "Limmud Fest" over Labor Day weekend at Ramah Draon in addition to our March date at Oglethorpe this year. It will be offered to only a limited number of participants with the goals of offering a true multi-day Limmud in residence. Limmud Fest is being chaired by Renee Rosenheck. We hope it will help us to continue to shape the best future for our Limmud. Stay tuned for details on how you can get involved.

It is 2009 and we are in the home stretch for Limmud ATL + SE 2009. Please if you're not engaged yet, let us know and we will help you along as we need everyone to assure this is a success and we have a lot to do in just over two months.

Happy New Year and Shabbat Shalom!

Eric M. Robbins

Co-chair, Limmud Atlanta + SE

It JUST keeps getting better and BETTER!!! -- Renee's Rashi

Really, I am just having so much fun here and have rarely enjoyed learning so much. Maybe I am really participating in a greater percentage of "edutainment" sessions, but so what? Where else can you see HILARIOUS comedian Deb Filler (from New Zealand and Toronto) play the Rolling Stones and Beatles on her guitar while singing the lyrics in Yiddish?? I'm going to try to bring her in for LimmudFest (Sept. 4-7 at Camp Ramah).

I also walked into what I wasn't sure might be a not-so-exciting diplomat session, and turned out to be FASCINATING. Ruth Lande is an advisor to Shimon Peres and was stationed in Cairo as a diplomat for 3 years. Her session was about living in Cairo, the nightclubs, trying to make friends with locals, the challenges she faced being an Israeli in Cairo, and told us that the Egyptian stereotype of Israelis is that they're all spies. Ruth was great to listen to, and her charming South African accent (she grew up there) only added to the intrigue. Top it off with the fact that she is young, blond and was wearing a black leather skirt held the audience captive.

Last tidbit for the day - I finally got to see Deborah Lipstadt, Emory's own UK celeb superstar tell a packed lecture hall about her experience defending a libel suit against a UK holocaust denier. Funny to think that I came all the way to the UK to hear the story of a woman who lives maybe 10 minutes from me in the ATL.

Happy New Year!
--Renee

No Ordinary Tuesday (Noah)

A session on incubating ideas for and from Limmud with a group of Limmudniks from Poland to Paris, the Galil to Johannesburg...grab a cheese and pickles sandwich...learn about the excavation of Bethsaida and Qumran (archaeology is so cool--did you know that in addition to the menorah, lulav, etrog, and shofar, ancient Jews also used insense (and therefore insense shovels) in their places of worship? It was only when other religions (Christianity?) started using it too that Jews gave it up!)...

...An hour-and-a-half expert panel on the Israel-Gaza situation real-time...a presentation by Deborah Lipstadt on her UK trial (in the UK with an adoring UK audience!) vs. David Irving ...an update on the state (and history) of Israel's intelligence community from an Israeli writer and journalist...four short films from the UK Jewish Film Festival...

...And I even SKIPPED a few sessions!

The rest of the group is off at a number of performances and presentations, but I'm gearing up for tonight's "Acoustic Cafe," where I might play a silly song with a new friend from L.A. (or an ordinary song by myself).

Yesterday I caught Shlomo Riskin, "We Are Together," and a bunch more I have to take a deep breath and think about before I remember...so much, so fast, but so great.

More later.. Cheers!

Jodi jumps in -- head first

Today I really jumped into Limmud in a big way. I arrived with the group on Friday but spent my time settling in and taking it all in.  As other members of the Atlanta group have commented, Limmud is as much about the overall experience of being here and meeting people from all over the world as it is about the incredible variety of sessions.   But with jetlag finally behind me, I decided to take on Limmud and check out the range of subjects that are being covered on any given day. 

I was hardly disappointed. Looking back at what I learned today, it's almost a comical assembly of topics. Rather than comment on any of these individually, I'm just going to list them with a short description so you can see for yourself the absurd variety that one can experience at Limmud.

• Pointless-a review of the mysterious Hebrew vowel sounds and what all those dots mean
  
• How to Process Jesus' Virgin Birth Stories -- taught by a Reform Rabbi
  
• Limmud International,  A Year in the Life of 20,000 People Worldwide
  
• All Change in the USA -- a panel about the recent US election and what it means to the US Jewish community
  
• Liturgical Music of Danny Maseng
• Planning for the Multi-Cultural City: The Case of Jerusalem
• Why Be Jewish-- taught by Shlomo Riskin
• The Making of Good Intentions -- a documentary about the making of a prime time drama series on Israel's Channel 2 in which two women, one Israeli and one Palestinian, are recruited to co present a television cooking program

Phew! I'm exhausted!

LOTS of Cultural Arts -- Renee's Rashi

I had such a great day today! Well, it really started late last night when I was shmoozing at the Limmud bar with our good friend Jason Caplin who came down to visit Atlanta a few months ago with Clive. So...I kind of overslept a wee bit this morning and missed the session on Challenges Facing the Israeli Army, but there will be another tomorrow. So, I grabbed some take-out food and Anthony and I made it in time to catch a fabulous flic from the UK Jewish Film Festival called Europa Europa, about a Jewish boy who spoke such fluent German that he was able to conceal his Jewish identity and become a war hero, then being sent off to join the Hitler Youth boarding school, which I know sounds horrible, but in reality, it saved his life.

I also went to a session about the Jewish sites that are still lingering throughout Spain, from before the Spanish inquisition in 1492. There is a synagogue in Toledo for you to visit, in case you are passing through! (Which I now realize that Brent and I totally missed when we were there for the Millenium New Years).

The BEST session that I went to today was called Sofia's Drawings and I think that Michal or Jodi may have already mentioned this. This play won first prize for the best play and music at the Haifa International Theatre Festival in 2007. The woman who wrote the play based it on her grandmother (Sofia)'s history in Amsterdam during WWII. The play was kind of an upscale, creative puppet and story show about how her mother made children's drawings and hid with other Christian families in Holland during WWII before rejoining her mother and sister in Israel after the war. This was a phenomenal cultural performance, and I am sure that my description does not do it justice.

Right now Joel from Limmud LA is singing dirty Jack Black songs to us while he continues drinking and taking pictures of us with Eric's pink camera (we're not sure why Eric decided to buy a pink camera, but I guarantee he will never make that mistake again). If you are familiar with Jack Black's repertoire, you can guess which song Joel is serenading us.

Okay, the last GREAT sesssion I saw tonight (which is not the last session I went to, but the last GREAT session), is when Anna, Noah and I went to see Joel Chasnoff from NY do his HILARIOUS stand-up comedy routine. Anna and I were laughing so hard, that we were wiping the tears from our eyes. Absolutely hilarious!

Battery's dying and the owners of this laptop are ready to go to bed. So, signing off until manana!

xoxo,
Renee

Some thoughts on variety-- From Anna

As usual, I am sitting in the bar with the LimmudATL crowd, schmoozing and debriefing on the day with other ATL folks and also with various other Limmudniks--this evening we are sitting with volunticipants from Limmud LA and Limmud NY.

I have been thinking about the variety here at Limmud and have seen some things that I definitely wish to take home to the ATL. Examples include panels (debating the coolest and lamest phenomena in contemporary Jewish culture), "Tell Me Text" sessions (in which big name speakers are interviewed in a panel settting to reveal their favorite texts in all of Jewish literature), interview sessions (Deborah Lipstadt being asked what are the ten quotes from Jewish literature that best define her Jewish identity), Jewish comedy, sampler sessions (an hour featuring a song or a joke by ten of the week's most exciting arts entertainers), and films. I have really enjoyed going to movies when my attention span can't handle a lecture. The variety here helps to keep my attention and allows different indiviuals to find a session that suits their interests. No one really feels that they are compromising during a time slot-- no one is forced to do anything but what they choose.

Noah: Yes, I came all the way here for this!

Another 1500 people came to the University of Warwick today, and thing really picked up steam. A full day of sessions--mine were led by Professors James Kugel, Deborah Lipstadt, and Mel Konnor; the Limmud UK leadership team; and a couple of local lay people--and plenty of social time. Limmud is almost like a mix between graduate school, where you choose your field of study and your classes, and camp, where just about everyone is happy to be there. Anna and I sat down next to an older man from Holland at dinner, and he excitedly described it as "Club Med for Intellectuals." I was flattered.

Eric Robbins comments on Chana Rothman

A cross between the Indigo Girls, Matisyahu and Ani Defranco, Chana Rothman is rocking the Limmud UK community. We can't wait for you to see her at the Atlanta+SE Limmud on March 21st on the green at Ogelthorpe. I had the pleasure of seeing her perform tonight and I was blown away. Chana has a style that captures and engages her audience and she glows with a neshama that had everyone mesmorized. As the show progressed, Chana had everyone dancing with a mix of regggae and rap influenced with a Hebrew vibe. Chana was joined by Coolooloosh from Israel which added an intense percusion and wind section and the whole place was rocking. Chana sings her own original music influenced by her adolescent experinces and her current life in Brooklyn. She also brings a new energy to some of the Jewish music so many of us love. Chana describes herself as a music teacher and her sessions here at Limmud have been about making your own music. I have not been to one of her sessions but those who have have given them rave reviews.

You can read more about her or check out her music at http://www.myspace.com/chanarothman/

A session by Aviva Zornberg-- Blogged by Anna

Today is the first official day of the conference--Shabbat was really just a pre-conference, with only 1/4 of the total conference-goers attending--and this uni is packed!!

This morning I attended a session with a speaker about whom I have heard great things--Aviva Zornberg--and all that I heard was correct, despite the fact that I was bracing to be disappointed (how could a speaker really appeal to everyone).

Dr. Zornberg, a teacher of Torah around Jerusalem and other places in the world, has a style of Torah analysis that speaks to me, I believe, because she treats Torah like a literary text. With her background as a professor of English literature, she references both great novelists and traditional and modern Rabbinic commentators as she trolls for insights on, in this case, the story of Esther. Today she quoted from Rashi (11th C.), the Rambam (12th C.), the Maharal (16th C.), the Talmud (5th-6th C.), the Sfat Emet (19th C.), Esther Rabbah (part of the works that make up the midrash, 4th C.), Pachad Yitzhak (20th C.), David Weiss Halivni (contemporary), Kafka (19th-20th C.), Henry James (19th C.), Hamlet (turn of 17th C.), and Yeats (19th-20th C.). What a range! What a great deal of preparation must have gone into this presentation!

During the session I was reminded of some of my greatest teachers, in particular those whose wide-ranging knowledge captivated me with insight and big ideas from a surprising array of sources, shedding light on the particular while taking inspiration from film, song, tradition, literature, literary criticism, art and more. This is the kind of preparation and opportunity for insightful, advanced learning that teachers must offer their students AND that all adults must be offered. (FYI I am a Jewish early childhood director, and thus this topic of inspiring children, teachers and parents is one that regularly motivates me, though I am only a novice). Some Jews may only remember the story of Esther the way they learned it as a child-- what a disservice we do to ourselves when we are limited by the simplicity with which we learned then. As adults we need to be challenged to learn in our own ways (al pi darko) and at our own levels, so that we gain maximal meaning from the stories we've learned over the years.