Isabel Mata is a mindfulness teacher, writer, and the lead facilitator of Listening Labs, intentional spaces designed to help people reconnect with themselves and one another through deep, compassionate listening. Rooted in evidence-based mindfulness practices, her work invites participants to slow down, soften, and connect more deeply with themselves and others.

In this workshop, participants will be guided through a Listening Lab: a structured yet spacious experience that reimagines listening as a sacred act. Together, we will explore what it means to truly listen—not to respond, fix, or judge, but to witness and be with one another authentically. Through gentle prompts, guided reflection, and paired or small group sharing, participants will practice deep listening and being deeply heard.

This offering is especially attuned to the complexities of being in community during tender and uncertain times, creating space for multiple truths, emotions, and lived experiences to coexist. Participants will leave with practical tools to bring more presence, empathy, and connection into their relationships and communities. No prior experience is needed, just a openness to show up as you are.

This workshop is designed especially for people who feel distant from Judaism but sense there may be something meaningful waiting to be rediscovered. Through Jewish song and story, and the art of Council, we will explore how Jewish ancestral wisdom offers pathways back to soul, belonging, and spiritual depth.

Led by Daniel Schindelman Schoen, co-founder of MANNA Passover Festival, Shoov Ancestral Connection Course, and B’nai Nefesh Adult B’Mitzvah Program.

Long before supplements and herbal shops existed, there were the healers of the Ashkenazi shtetl: grandmothers, midwives, wise ones who knew exactly which plant to reach for and why. They whispered to them, bargained with them, and wove their medicine into the fabric of everyday Jewish life. In this hands-on workshop, we'll craft a medicinal infused honey using herbs that root us in two landscapes at once: the forests of Eastern Europe where many of our ancestors walked, and the living lands of the Pacific Northwest where we now stand. The plants in this honey were chosen intentionally, in resonance and alignment with the month of Elul and the fiery, heart-opening energy of Leo season. Together, we'll explore the historical relationship between Jewish folk medicine and the plant world, while getting our hands sticky making a delicious and healing herbal honey. All are welcome. No prior herbal experience needed.

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Jay Schwartz is a community herbalist, forager, menstrual cycle educator, and doula working at the intersection of plant medicine, women's wellness, and ancestral healing. Jay's path into herbal medicine began in 2018, rooted in a desire to explore body sovereignty, cyclical living, and healing outside conventional systems. Shaped by her Ashkenazi Jewish heritage and the Rocky Mountains she calls home, Jay brings a deeply bioregional approach to her practice. This was crystallized through a pivotal 2020 apprenticeship with Israeli botanist Elaine Soloway, whose work traces the wild plants of the Israeli desert ecosystem back to ancient and biblical medicine. Since then, working intimately with the plants of the land has been the beating heart of everything she does.

She Returns from Exile: A New Jewish Vision of a Future Rooted in Shekhinah, Matriarchy, and Sustainability

Rabbi Yohanna Kinberg is a Reconstructionist rabbi, teacher, writer, and feminist theologian in the Pacific Northwest. Her work explores Jewish spirituality, the Divine Feminine, ecology, matriarchy, and the sacred wisdom of midlife.

In this workshop, participants will explore a new Jewish spiritual vision for the future through the return of Shekhinah consciousness, the meaning of menopause and female leadership, and the science and symbolism of matriarchal societies such as orcas. Together we will consider how Jewish wisdom, ecology, and feminist thought can help us imagine a more sustainable, relational, and life-honoring future for humanity and the planet. Participants will engage in teaching, reflection, text, and discussion. The workshop will be a blend of learning, spiritual imagination, and shared conversation, inviting people into hope, tikvah, and a renewed sense of Jewish responsibility for the world we are building.

We gather in sacred circle to gently tend to and heal the collective trauma carried within our Jewish lineage—from ancient exiles and pogroms to the Holocaust and ongoing antisemitism. In this Quantum Energy Healing Ceremony, we will:
 

• Compassionately witness and hold the collective wounds woven into our ancestral field

• Release stored fear, grief, anger, and inherited survival patterns that no longer serve our highest expression

• Reclaim the resilience, wisdom, creativity, and spiritual fire that are our birthright

• Clear the energetic imprints of persecution so future generations may carry less burden and more freedom

• Realign our personal and collective field with the pure, radiant essence of what it means to be a blessing in the world.

As we mend the wounds of the past, we step more fully into our sacred calling: to be a “light unto the nations” (Book of Isaiah 49:6). This is the essence of Tikkun Olam—healing ourselves so that we may bring greater blessing, hope, and light to the world. We begin in an opening circle, sharing our intentions, prayers, and what we are ready to heal or release. During the healing transmission, participants are invited to rest comfortably—either seated or lying down—softening into a receptive state as we receive the healing energies and allow our systems to gently release, recalibrate, and restore.

Dr. Elisha Bokman is a Naturopathic Physician, Licensed Acupuncturist, Quantum Energy Healer and Spiritual Life Coach. For true healing to occur, Elisha believes that the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and energetic levels of a person all need to be addressed. Dr. Elisha creates unique, personalized healing blueprints for each of her clients and masterfully weaves together her healing modalities to get to the root cause of dis-ease.  

With Marni Loffman. Nigunim, wordless melodies, have emerged as a powerful, popular form of Jewish songwriting and community singing. While wordless melodies are a universal language, the nigun is a distinct Eastern European Jewish art, emerging from the 18th-century Hasidic revival. This spiritual practice bridges the human and the infinite. The nigun transcends words, unlocking a language of meaning that all of life sings.

During this workshop, immerse yourself in the nigun's powerful language. Sink into your personal practice to discover the collective wordless song that lives within us all.

Blood, Life, and Responsibility in Jewish Text

Rabbi Jesse Epstein is the Assistant Rabbi at Temple Beth Am in Seattle, the owner of Shmaltz Brewing Company, and the creator of Torah and Tourniquets, a program that brings Jewish text and tradition into conversation with real-world emergency response. As both a rabbi and a former trained EMT, he is drawn to the ways Torah speaks not only to ideas, but to the body, to crisis, and to the preservation of life.

In this text-centered session, we will explore the role of blood in Jewish tradition as a powerful expression of life itself. Through close reading of biblical and rabbinic texts, we’ll examine phrases and biblical idioms that include mention of blood, while also uncovering deeper connections between blood, people, earth. Together, we’ll ask what it means for blood to carry moral weight — and what responsibility emerges from various layers of interpretation.

Participants will engage in guided text study and small group discussion. We’ll aim to connect these ancient ideas to lived experience and the Jewish imperative not to stand idly by when life is at stake.

Dr. Yosef Rosen is the Director of Jewish Life & Learning at the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland (OR). A recipient of a doctorate in Jewish Studies (UC Berkeley), Yosef is a communal educator, historian of Jewish magic, and DJ. His public workshops merge what modern society often keeps separate: the contemporary and the ancient, the academic and the experiential, the religious and the secular, the spiritual and the somatic.

The Talmud teaches of four sages who entered a realm of overwhelming visionary experience. As they cross a threshold of altered perception, one gives a cryptic warning: “When you reach the place of pure marble, do not say ‘water, water.’” This workshop explores three interpretations of that warning as three distinct models of harm reduction. Together, we will examine how these models anticipate key dynamics of altered states, including self-doubt, misrecognition, and the urge to impose coherence too quickly. We will translate these insights into practical frameworks for moving through expansive consciousness with greater clarity, care, and groundedness.

Led by Malka Russell and Yehuda Lionchild. A unique and immersive concert that combines live performance, conscious movement, and sound healing- designed to uplift and inspire, creating a space of connection and healing- reminding us that LOVE is the most powerful medicine.
 

As siblings, best friends, and musical partners, Malka and Yehuda have always used music as a healing force in our lives and created the Calling In Love Experience to amplify this calling. Our mission is to inspire others to transform wounds into wisdom and fear into love, fostering deep connections and personal empowerment.

With Barukh Brian S.

All things are better when paired well. So says the cordage...come learn this essential craft, while we also learn to speak the language of the clouds and learn to understand the sweet whispers of the Sun with the Earth for weather prediction and more.  When wandering in the desert we followed spiraling clouds of glory, let's do it again!

The Torah describes how the first humans were shaped from the soil itself and placed in the Garden of Eden to "tend and protect" a thriving ecological food system. As the story unfolds, we learn how the emergence of agriculture profoundly destabilized our ancestors’ connection to the land and to one another, giving rise to patriarchy, famine, forced migration, and war. In response, the Hebrew people developed specific social, spiritual, and ecological practices designed to restore the world and create a regenerative way of life. In this workshop, participants will be studying Torah to explore how Jewish Traditional Ecological Knowledge can help heal the wounds of extractive agricultural patriarchy and guide us towards Olam Ha’Ba - a renewed world of peace, justice, and ecological abundance.

Mitchel Davidovitz is a documentary filmmaker highlighting permaculture, regenerative agriculture, and land restoration projects around the world. As a co-founder of Chavurah B’Eretz Kalapuya, a grass-roots earth-based Jewish community in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, Mitchel helps to co-create and facilitate Jewish rituals, land stewardship projects, and the reclaiming of traditional Hebraic earth-skills. Mitchel is passionate about exploring the intersections of regenerative ecology and Judaism to help develop an effective practice of Tikkun Olam (Repair of the World).

Step into the sacred energy of Elul—a time of return, reflection, and coming home to what truly matters in this one wild and precious life.
This conscious dance workshop is an invitation to move exactly as you are. No experience needed, no steps to follow—just the freedom to listen to your body and let it lead. Through guided invitations and spacious exploration, we’ll embody the themes and teachings of Elul together, allowing movement to open pathways for insight, connection, and renewal.

Aliza, an Open Floor movement teacher and counsellor, weaves ritual, dance, and creative expression to hold a grounded and transformative space. Having recently relocated to Vancouver, BC after over two decades in Berkeley, California, she brings a depth of experience and a warm, intuitive presence to her work.

Joanna Botvin is an agroecologist, herbalist, land steward, and environmental educator devoted to helping people reconnect with their role as stewards of the Earth. She is the founder of a regenerative landscaping company focused on restoring land through native, edible, and medicinal plants. Over the past decade, she has taught youth and adults about permaculture, herbalism, foraging, and ecological design through her work with nonprofits and botanical gardens.

Her work has taken her across the Americas, where she has learned from and collaborated with communities practicing traditional and regenerative land stewardship. In recent years, she has focused deeply on Syntropic Agroforestry, participating in projects throughout Brazil, Peru, Mexico, and Costa Rica, and leading initiatives in Texas to restore degraded land and support food sovereignty in underserved communities.
 

In this workshop, Joanna will introduce Syntropic Agroforestry as both an ancient and emerging approach to tending land—one that mirrors forest ecosystems to regenerate soil, increase biodiversity, and grow food and medicine in abundance. Rooted in ecological principles and Jewish wisdom, we will explore humanity’s role within the living systems we are part of, weaving together teachings on land stewardship, cycles, and Jewish mysticism. Through play, embodiment practices, shared learning, and hands-on planting, participants will co-create a small syntropic system and leave with a deeper understanding of how to cultivate regenerative relationships with the Earth.

Rabbi Linda Motzkin is one of the first generation of sofrot (female scribes) and the founder of the Community Torah Project - a long-term educational endeavor to make a single Torah scroll involving the hands-on participation of individuals of all ages in various steps in the making of a Torah scroll, from processing deerskins into parchment, to proofreading completed panels to sewing fully proofread panels together. 
 

​In this session, participants will receive an overview of the process of making a Torah scroll, including seeing and touching various materials used. We will reflect upon the experience of creating holiness out of ordinary materials, and being part of the sacred ongoing transmission of Torah. Participants will also have the unique opportunity to be part of this sacred process, as we sew together two panels of the Community Torah Project scroll in progress.

A deeply experiential workshop guided by Hannah Bubis, a therapist (MFT), songstress, and ceremonialist who weaves together earth-based wisdom, plant medicine traditions, and Jewish spiritual practice. Drawing from her work with Shipibo healers of the Amazon and her field studies with Bedouin communities in the Israeli desert, Hannah creates spaces that invite participants into connection—with themselves, each other, and the living world.
 

This workshop is an invitation to remember the body as part of the Earth, not separate from it. Together, we will explore what the Earth teaches us about softening, listening, and being with what is present, rather than resisting or fixing. Through guided practices, voice activation, movement, and intentional dialogue, participants will be encouraged to access their authentic self-expression and reconnect with their inner rhythms.
 

Participants will engage in group and partner exercises, somatic awareness practices, and ritual elements that center sharing, creativity, and release. There will be space to both create—through voice, intention, and presence—and to purge what no longer serves, allowing for a more grounded and truthful way of being. Rooted in reciprocity, we will explore how we give and receive resources—energetic, emotional, and communal—mirroring the natural systems of the Earth.
 

This is a space for those longing to slow down, reconnect, and remember how to live in deeper alignment with the wisdom that is already within and all around them.

In this workshop we will learn about ReWilding and how this Ecological navigation reunites us with our connection to the Natural World, and Root us in a different way to our Jewish Experience. These tools deepen our reality, and create familiarity in Nature.
 

Zahara Solomon, based out of Ashland Oregon, brings a lifetime of wild living immersed in Nature. From hiking, kayaking, backpacking, snowshoeing, to Gardening, wildcrafting and foraging for wild foods. A student of Kabbalah, and mother of two with decades of teaching, her goal is connecting everyone to their Natural Being in the Natural World.

Find her at Old Growth Life Coaching.

In this song circle, we will co-conspire with the new moon, a time of beginnings, to set an intention within a shared field of connection, presence, and voice. Participants will be taught simple, layered songs by ear—no singing experience required. We’ll weave together singing and moments of reflection, inviting you to listen inward, connect outward, and clarify intentions for the time ahead. This practice supports movement toward a life aligned with your values, toward what matters most. Participants are invited to show up as they are and connect with their voice in an authentic, embodied way.
 

Gabrielle Gelfand is a Seattle-based clinician and facilitator who believes in the transformative and healing power of song. She is completing her Master’s in Counseling Psychology with a concentration in Somatic Psychology and has been leading singing circles and sound-based gatherings since 2017. Her background spans mechanical engineering, user experience design, and performance, including cabaret and burlesque, informing a facilitation style that is both grounded and expressive. She creates spaces that weave together music, embodiment, and community to foster connection, authenticity, and aliveness.

With Rabbi Jonathan Rubenstein. Learn to make challah—or improve your skills—in this workshop that focuses on general bread-making tips, simple and advanced braiding techniques, and engagement with the mitzvah of hafrashat challah. This practice, which involves separating a small portion of the dough as an offering, has much to teach us about our relationship to both the production and consumption of the food that sustains us. We will be making the Shabbat challah for the Chavaya community and exploring some teachings from our tradition about the mitzvah of challah.

Rabbi Jonathan served for 36 and a half years as co-rabbi, with his wife, Rabbi Linda Motzkin, of Temple Sinai in Saratoga Springs, New York. There, he founded and operated a non-profit, all-volunteer charitable bakery, Slice of Heaven Breads, out of the Temple Sinai kitchen. Proceeds from the sale of its products go to direct aid to people in the community, hunger relief programs, and other charitable causes. Through the Bread and Torah Project, Rabbi Jonathan and Rabbi Linda – a soferet (Torah scribe) and Judaic artist – teach workshops and classes on bread making and scribal arts in Jewish communities in North America and abroad, exploring the connections between physical and spiritual sustenance.

Maddie Fontaine is a movement and dance facilitator, adventurer, explorer, student of life, counselor-in-training, and lover of co-creating spaces for meaningful community connection. Drawing from practices such as authentic relating, contact improvisation, yoga, mindfulness, authentic movement, and ecstatic dance, Maddie invites people into deeper relationship with themselves, each other, and the living world. Nature is her deepest teacher and greatest inspiration, continually calling her back to wander, wonder, create, play, revere, and enliven the inner child.

On a recent trip to Hawai‘i, Maddie witnessed the deep power of a land that is alive, dynamic, and ever-changing — a land that truly holds the ultimate power, and the final say. As humans, we often try to exert control over nature, and in this workshop, participants will be invited to soften that impulse and surrender to the land, allowing it to take the lead in our collective dance. Rooted in the reflective spirit of the Jewish month of Elul, we will gently soften into returning to the earth as we return to ourselves and to each other.

With Rebecca Schisler. Judaism conceives of “four worlds,” integrated aspects of reality that are associated with four levels of our experience: doing, feeling, knowing, and being.

This session will utilize a variety of contemplative practices and teachings to explore this ancient map and how its mystical and mundane applications can support us in infusing all dimensions of our lives with an intimate and embodied awareness of divine presence. 

Join community songleader Bex Lipps for a spiral journey of songs and practices to strengthen our hearts and souls for these times.

This song circle draws on the wisdom of Joanna Macy, whose life legacy—The Work That Reconnects—helps us to remember our inherent belonging within the web of life.

Together we'll sing easy-to-learn songs that celebrate the beauty of life, tend to collective grief, remind us of our interconnectedness, and fuel us with the courage to keep going in a good way. All voices are welcome!

A playful fusion of clowning and physical theater, this workshop invites you to channel your wildest creative impulses into expressive, hilarious, and delightfully strange performance. Drawing upon the Jewish traditions of the "sacred fool", this workshop explores comedy as a form of cultural resilience, as participants are encouraged to persevere through failure (known in clowning as "the flop") in order to discover their unique inner clown.

Through movement-based improvisation, clown-inspired exploration, and ensemble play, we’ll tap into the body’s instinct for joy, absurdity, and truthful expression. Whether you’re brand new or returning for more, Ecstatic Clowning is a container to get silly, get weird, and discover new dimensions of physical creativity—all through the magic of collective play.

Ren (she/they) is a multidisciplinary theater-maker who is currently pursuing their MFA in Theater Directing at UW. She devises ensemble-driven performance and facilitates theatrical workshops that tap into the shared creative impulse of the collective. Ren believes in theater as a tool for revillaging, and clowning as means of reigniting imagination, play, and connection.​

In this expressive art workshop with Debbie Shapiro, participants are invited to explore Or HaGanuz—the Hidden Light Within—through reflection, creativity, and play. Using the lighthouse as a guiding metaphor, we will consider how our inner light has illuminated our path, weathered storms, and continued to shine through decades of lived experience. As the years bring joy, loss, resilience, and transformation, that light is often called upon, tested, and at times obscured. Together, in a supportive and reflective space, we will gently uncover and honor the unique glow each of us carries.

Through hands-on exploration with acrylic markers, oil pastels, and colored pencils, participants will have the freedom to express their light using color, shape, and form—without pressure, judgment, or expectations. This workshop is designed for those who have lived through four or more decades and wish to reconnect with their creative spirit in a meaningful way. No prior art experience is needed—only a willingness to be curious. Please dress comfortably and come ready to engage with a childlike sense of wonder as we rediscover the enduring light within.