Calendar of Events

For screenings and other events related to our movie, Making Trouble, please visit the Making Trouble website.

All Rise!

Sunday, September 12, 2010
Contemporary Jewish Museum
736 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA
2:00 p.m.

Best-selling writer and activist Ayelet Waldman will discuss the overlap of Judaism, law and women’s voices with artist Helene Aylon, whose installation All Rise: An Installation of a Beit Din as a “House” of Three Women is part of the exhibition Reinventing Ritual: Contemporary Art and Design for Jewish Life.

For more information

Remembering Grace Paley, a panel discussion, with excerpts from Lilly Rivlin's new film, Grace Paley: Collected Shorts

Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY
6:30 p.m.

Grace Paley combined a life as a master short story writer, often compared to Chekhov, with political activism, motherhood, teaching and being a cherished friend. New York’s first official state author and past poet laureate of Vermont, her most important work was filtered through her passion for social justice and her love of humanity. Join filmmaker Lilly Rivlin, prize winning journalist, New York Times science writer and author Claudia Dreifus; writer and critic Vivian Gornick; Columbia University scholar Marianne Hirsch; and Vera B. Williams, children’s book author and illustrator - friends, colleagues and observers of Grace and her work – for an evening of stories and commentary mixed with excerpts from Rivlin’s newly released documentary Grace Paley: Collected Shorts.

For more information

Events from 2010

The Power of Our Stories—Institute for Educators, 2010

Sunday, July 25–29, 2010
Brookline, MA

Join the Jewish Women's Archive for four days of intensive professional development designed to enrich your teaching with the compelling stories of American Jewish lives, past and present. The 2010 Institute will focus on the rich history of Jews and the Civil Rights Movement in America.

For more information

Listen to your Mother

Thursday, May 6, 2010
The New Center for Arts and Culture
Temple Israel
477 Longwood Ave.
Boston, MA
7:30 p.m.

Just in time for Mother’s Day, award-winning radio documentarian and oral storyteller Dave Isay visits Boston to pay tribute to the most influential, fascinating, and indomitable figure in Jewish history--your Mom! Isay is the editor of the new book MOM: A Celebration of Mothers, a collection of oral histories of mothers and motherhood in America. He will talk about the women in the book and the importance of listening to the stories of ordinary people. He will also play recordings of mothers telling their own life stories and will be joined live by several special guests--some of Boston’s best-known and dynamic Jewish mothers, including Jayne Guberman, Ph.D., former Director of Oral History at the Jewish Women's Archive, and her mother-in-law and stepmother Millie Kravetz. Jayne and Millie were interviewed as a part of Storycorps in the fall of 2006 and their story will appear in MOM: A Celebration of Mothers.

For more information

Ernestine L. Rose Bicentennial

Sunday, April 25, 2010
Judson Memorial Church & Cultural Center
55 Washington Square South
New York, New York
2:30 p.m.

Actress/playwright, Janie Stockhamer will perform Ernestine Rose from her play, "Portraits of the Past: Jewish Women of Valor." Panelists Bonnie Anderson, Rosalyn Baxandall, Paula Doress-Worters, and Carol Kolmerten, all of whom have written and lectured on Rose, will discuss her remarkable life of visionary activism for women's rights, abolition of slavery and freethought, followed by Q&A. During intermission speakers' books will be available for purchase and signing by authors. After the break, we will enjoy Ernestine's birthday cake and honor her with a toast and small group discussion on activism for social justice.

For more information

Who Is Ernestine Rose?: Portrait of a New York Radical

Tuesday, Sunday, April 27, 2010
Museum of the City of New York
1220 Fifth Avenue at 103rd St.
New York, New York
6:30 p.m.

In honor of the bicentennial of Rose's birth, join leading scholars Paula Doress-Worters, author of Mistress of Herself: Speeches and Letters of Ernestine L. Rose, Early Women's Rights Leader, and Bonnie Anderson, author of Joyous Greetings: The First International Women's Movement for a presentation on Rose's work in New York City and her impact on the women's movement nationally and internationally on the rise of advocacy for women's rights and other progressive reforms.

Reservations required. $12 Non-Members; $8 Seniors and Students; $6 Museum Members. *A two dollar surcharge applies for unreserved, walk-in participants.

For more information

The Santa Fe Experience

March 3–7, 2010 Santa Fe, New Mexico

Join JWA's special trip to Santa Fe this March! Designed for us by our friends in Santa Fe, this exclusive trip offers intimate encounters with the Jewish women responsible for creating and collecting some of this charming city's most exciting art, craft, poetry and narrative.

Read the blog, view photos from the trip, and sign up to find out about future JWA trips.

Events from 2009

Today I am a woman?

A Symposium on Bat Mitzvah for parents and youth professionals
Presented by Ma'yan: The Jewish Women's Project
Featuring Judith Rosenbaum, JWA's Director of Public History

Sunday, November 1, 2009
2:30 – 6:30 pm
JCC in Manhattan
334 Amsterdam Avenue @ 76th Street
New York, NY

This symposium on Bat Mitzvah will consist of three sessions:

• A panel presentation by Ma'yan's Research Training Interns—a diverse group of nine tri-state area Jewish high school girls.
• Facilitated discussions for participants, with separate tracks for parents and professionals.
• A closing panel where experts in congregational education, Jewish women's history, and girls' development—including JWA's Judith Rosenbaum—will synthesize insights from the preceding sessions.

For more information, visit www.mayan.org.

Who am I, anyway? A conversation about race, religion, and adoption

Presented by Northeastern University's Jewish Studies Program
Co-sponsored by the Jewish Women's Archive

Sunday, October 25, 2009
2:30 – 4:30 pm
Congregation Kehillath Israel 384 Harvard Street
Brookline, MA

Northeastern University's Jewish Studies Program presents a conversation with Nicole Opper, director of "Off and Running: An American Coming of Age Story" and Adam Pertman, author of "Adoption Nation: How the Adoption Revolution is Transforming America." Featuring clips from Opper's acclaimed documentary about an African American girl adopted by a Jewish lesbian couple. Free and open to the public.

Bringing the Torah to Life: Contemporary Approaches

This Educator Workshop is presented in partnership with the Contemporary Jewish Museum, Jewish Milestones, and G-dcast.com

Thursday, October 22, 2009
5:00 – 7:30 pm
Contemporary Jewish Museum
736 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA

Join the Jewish Women's Archive at the Contemporary Jewish Museum for a multi-part workshop that uses the exhibition As it is Written: Project 304,805 as a springboard for conversation and learning. Tour the exhibition, share ideas with colleagues, and participate in mini workshops to examine the exhibition from its many facets: Judaism and Gender; Animating the Torah; and Personalizing Torah Ritual. Presenters include Emily Scheinberg from the Jewish Women's Archive, Sarah Lefton from G-dcast.com, and Rachel Brodie from Jewish Milestones.

Cost $15. Curriculum materials and resources will be provided, and a light dinner will be served.

Connecting to the Contemporary:
The Jewish Women's Archive's Toolbox for Non-traditional Text Study

This Educator Workshop is presented in partnership with the Bureau of Jewish Education

Monday, October 19, 2009
12:00 – 2:00 pm
Bureau of Jewish Education
639 14th Avenue
San Francisco, CA

Why are contemporary stories central to Jewish education? How can teaching with texts from our recent history enrich our curricula? What alternatives to traditional chevruta are out there? Join Emily Scheinberg, JWA's Assistant Director for Educational Outreach, at the Bureau of Jewish Education for an introduction to the Jewish Women's Archive's "toolbox," including new resources on social justice and on bat mitzvah. Together we will explore an expanded definition of what makes a Jewish text, and participate in "text" study using primary source documents such as newspaper articles, letters, photographs, and audio recordings.

Free. Please bring a vegetarian brown-bag lunch and the BJE will provide beverages and sweets.

"Heavenly Sex"—Dr. Ruth Westheimer

Co-sponsored by the Jewish Women's Archive and the New Center for Arts and Culture

Thursday, October 1, 2009
7:30 pm
Levi Auditorium at Temple Israel
477 Longwood Avenue
Boston, MA

Dr. Ruth Westheimer in conversation with Ted Reinstein. View event details or buy tickets.

NJDC Reception Honoring Ann F. Lewis

Tuesday, June 16, 2009
5:30 – 7:30 pm
National Museum of Women in the Arts
1250 New York Avenue, NW
Washington, DC

Join the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) and honorary event chair, President Bill Clinton, to honor JWA board member Ann F. Lewis who will receive the NJDC Belle Moskowitz Award. For more information or to RSVP, please contact Melissa Kaplan at 202.216.9612. To RSVP online, please go to www.njdc.org/forms/sign/annlewis.

Mistress of Herself: A Conversation with Paula Doress-Worters

Sunday, April 26
10:00 am – 12:30 pm
Nehar Shalom Community Synagogue
43 Lochstead Avenue, Jamaica Plain [map] [directions/parking]

Join the Jewish Women's Archive and the Hebrew College Salon Project for a conversation with Paula Doress-Worters, author of Mistress of Herself: Speeches and Letters of Ernestine Rose, Early Women's Rights Leader (Feminist Press, 2008), Resident Scholar at the Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis University, and founder of the Ernestine Rose Society, to explore timely questions: Is there a place for Rose's radical perspective within the Jewish conversation today? Where do individuals like Rose, who rejected organized religion, belong in the story of American Jewry?

$18.00 suggested contribution; $5.00 minimum.
Pay at the door.

Space is limited, so please RSVP.

Jewish Women's Prayers: A Woman's Secret Code

Tuesday, January 27
Kosher snacks will be served at 7pm and learning will begin at 7:30.
Congregation Eitz Chayim
136 Magazine Street
Cambridge, MA

Join the Charles River Beit Midrash (CRBM) and the Jewish Women's Archive for an evening of learning and conversation with scholar and writer Dr. Aliza Lavie. Dr. Lavie is a research associate at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute at Brandeis University and a lecturer in the Department of Political Studies at Bar-Ilan University.

Her book A Jewish Woman's Prayer Book (Tefilat Nashim) is a bestseller in Israel. The English edition was published this past year and won the National Jewish Book Award in Women's Studies. In addition to her academic pursuits, Dr. Lavie hosts a weekly television show on Israel's Channel 10. For more information on Dr. Lavie, visit www.alizalavie.com.

We hope you can join us!

This event is FREE and open to the public.