Kadima Women’s Torah Project
The Kadima Women’s Torah, the first Torah in history to be created and embellished by an international community of women and the first to be sewn together in community, will be the centerpiece of a week of study and celebration February 22-29, 2012, at Jewish congregations and community organizations in the Bay Area.
In 2003, the Kadima Reconstructionist Jewish Community of Seattle, WA wanted to commission the first Torah to be scribed by a woman. (Women may have written Torahs in ancient times but the record is unclear.) To do that, Kadima underwrote the training for two of the world’s first women Torah scribes. Eventually, six scribes on three continents contributed to the Kadima Women’s Torah, including Julie Seltzer, who completed a Torah scroll while in residence at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco.
All of the items that are used with the Kadima Women’s Torah—rollers, belt and clasp, cover, crowns, pointer, bima (altar) cloth, and wine goblet—were also made by women from all over the world, including San Francisco metal artist Aimee Golant, who created the Torah’s crowns. The Kadima Women’s Torah Project is about more than creating a sefer Torah, although that would have been enough. It is about more than opening doors for women called to meaningful work that has been denied them for millennia because of their gender, although that, too, would have been enough. It is about transformation, about building connections, about bringing people closer to Torah by bringing Torah closer to them.
Scribes, artists and others associated with the creation of the Kadima Women’s Torah will offer a variety of programs at several different venues during this groundbreaking Torah’s week-long residence in the Bay Area.
Temple Isaiah will host The Kadima Women’s Torah Project on the following occasions:
Shabbat Service: Friday, February 24, 8:00 p.m.
A Stitch into Time: Sewing Torah in Community with Wendy Graff
Wendy Graff is Director of Kadima’s Women’s Torah Project. During our Shabbat service Wendy will describe the transformative process of coming together as a group to sew the Torah panels together, and how bringing community to that simple and ancient task profoundly changed personal relationships to Torah. Wendy has written extensively on working in community and is editing an anthology about the Kadima Women’s Torah Project. The Oneg following the service will be sponsored by Women of Isaiah.
Religious School Workshop: Sunday, February 26
Temple Isaiah Religious School students will have the opportunity to view the Torah and learn about the Kadima Women’s Torah Project.
Women of Isaiah’s Rosh Chodesh Adar with Artist Laurel Robinson
Monday, February 27, 7:00 p.m. in the Beit Knesset
Tashmishei Kedusha: Holy Objects, the Women’s Torah Project and the making of a Torah Yad
Artist Laurel Robinson will explain some of the history of Torah Scrolls and their ornamentation, including the development of Torah pointers. She will also highlight the other Torah ornaments created by the artists of the Kadima Women’s Torah Project (yad, rimonim, mantle, mappa). As part of her presentation, Laurel will describe the artistic process of creating several other Torah pointers which she will bring to the program. We will then get to hear members of our own Rosh Chodesh group chant from the Kadima Women’s Torah using these special yads.
Temple Isaiah members are also invited to the following event:
Diablo Valley Hadassah Meeting with the Kadima Women’s Torah Project
Thursday, Februray 23, 6:30- 8:30 p.m at the Contra Costa Jewish Day School
Join us for Torah viewing, discussion and an art sale benefiting the Kadima Women’s Torah Project. Rabbi Jane Litman, Project Director Wendy Graff, and Metal Artist Aimee Golant will be present to discuss the Kadima Women’s Torah Project.