Society of Independent Spirituality

Maya Ben-Shushan's interview with Branden Yonah Johnson, an American Israeli who converted to Judaism and is in the process of becoming a Jewish educator.

Maya Ben-Shushan is a Cofounder of The Society of Independent Spirituality. She teaches classes at the Society and is finishing her degree in Social Work at Hebrew University.

Branden Johnson converted to Judaism through the Reform movement in the US, and is currently studying to become a Rabbi at the Pardes Institute in Jerusalem.

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Maya Ben-Shushan's interview with Branden Yonah Johnson, an American Israeli who converted to Judaism and is in the process of becoming a Jewish educator.

Maya Ben-Shushan is a Cofounder of The Society of Independent Spirituality. She teaches classes at the Society and is finishing her degree in Social Work at Hebrew University.

Branden Johnson converted to Judaism through the Reform movement in the US, and is currently studying to become a Rabbi at the Pardes Institute in Jerusalem.

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Facebook.com/SpiritualRevolutionofRavKook

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Maya Ben-Shushan's interview with Chava Hadari, an Ethiopian Israeli woman living in northern Israel with her husband and two boys. Her husband is a secular Jew of Ashkenazi descent, while Chava is a religious Ethiopian Jew.

Maya Ben-Shushan is a Cofounder of The Society of Independent Spirituality. She teaches classes at the Society and is finishing her degree in Social Work at Hebrew University.

Chava Hadari is a teacher living in northern Israel. She has helped run a program called "The New Way", which helps Ethiopian kids strengthen their talents and further integrate into Israeli society.

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Maya Ben-Shushan's interview with Chava Hadari, an Ethiopian Israeli woman living in northern Israel with her husband and two boys. Chava is a native Hebrew speaker and we thank her for doing this interview in English.

Maya Ben-Shushan is a Cofounder of The Society of Independent Spirituality. She teaches classes at the Society and is finishing her degree in Social Work at Hebrew University.

Chava Hadari is a teacher living in northern Israel. She has helped run a program called "The New Way", which helps Ethiopian kids strengthen their talents and further integrate into Israeli society.

➖Brief Summary of Hebrew Conversation ➖

English - 00:00 - 10:15

Hebrew - 10:15 - 22:53

In Ethiopia, they took purity very seriously. There was the ‘Red Tent’ where women would go once they felt they had their period and after childbirth (since it is their time of impurity). If they were hungry they’d eat on plates that would be destroyed after they finished because it held impurity. They would throw away the clothes they wore during this period since it held impurity. The Ethiopian community doesn’t believe that Israeli religious society takes purity and impurity seriously. In Ethiopia, they also held that if you touched a non-jew then you would be considered impure.

In the torah it says that Tziporah was the one who circumcised her son, so in Ethiopia only women would perform on the child the ritual of circumcision - not the men.

During shabbat, Ethiopian Jews would play instruments because the levites would play instruments in the temple. Shabbat is the most holiest of days, even more so than Yom Kippur. So if Yom Kippur would fall on shabbat, they would light candles of shabbat, drink a bit of wine eat a small piece of bread and then continued fast.

Also Kashrut looked different in Ethiopia. It was said that you cannot eat meat in the milk of its mother - but that doesn’t mean you can’t eat chicken with butter. That’s not what was written. Also with slaughter of meat - which Ethiopian Amharim Jews came out against the Israeli rabbinate’s slaughter and do not find it kosher. In the Ethiopian Aliyah, there were two main jewish communities; the Amharim (speaks Amharic) and the Tigrim (speak Tigris).

The Ethiopian community is a very strong community that, just with the rumors Aliyah in Sudan, left everything they had with the hopes to make it to Jerusalem. They are willing to be here even though they have given up part of their culture, their language, their beliefs, etc. There is not much information out there in both Hebrew and English about this community and each one of us can empathically and humbly ask to hear stories from the Ethiopian jews around us.

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Maya Ben-Shushan's interview with Chava Hadari, an Ethiopian Israeli woman living in northern Israel with her husband and two boys. Chava is a native Hebrew speaker and we thank her for doing this interview in English.

Maya Ben-Shushan is a Cofounder of The Society of Independent Spirituality. She teaches classes at the Society and is finishing her degree in Social Work at Hebrew University. Chava Hadari is a teacher living in northern Israel. She has helped run a program called "The New Way", which helps Ethiopian kids strengthen their talents and further integrate into Israeli society.

➖Follow us on Facebook ➖

Facebook.com/SpiritualRevolutionofRavKook

Facebook.com/IndependentSpirituality

Maya Ben-Shushan's interview with Chava Hadari, an Ethiopian Israeli woman living in northern Israel with her husband and two boys. Chava is a native Hebrew speaker and we thank her for doing this interview in English.

Maya Ben-Shushan is a Cofounder of The Society of Independent Spirituality. She teaches classes at the Society and is finishing her degree in Social Work at Hebrew University. Chava Hadari is a teacher living in northern Israel. She has helped run a program called "The New Way", which helps Ethiopian kids strengthen their talents and further integrate into Israeli society.

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Facebook.com/SpiritualRevolutionofRavKook

Facebook.com/IndependentSpirituality

Maya Ben-Shushan's interview with Larissa and Jeanne, a religious married couple living in Nachlaot.

Maya Ben-Shushan is a cofounder of the Society of Independent Spirituality. She teaches classes about Sexuality and Judaism, and is finishing her degree at Hebrew University.

Larissa and Jeanne are part of the Shabbat Shelach community in Jerusalem. In this podcast they talk a bit about how they built a religious same sex marriage ceremony, marriage counseling, and the wedding itself.

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Maya Ben-Shushan's interview with Larissa and Jeanne, a religious married couple living in Nachlaot.

Maya Ben-Shushan is a cofounder of the Society of Independent Spirituality. She teaches classes about Sexuality and Judaism, and is finishing her degree at Hebrew University.

Larissa and Jeanne are part of the Shabbat Shelach community in Jerusalem. In this podcast they talk a bit about their respective aliyot, the ups and downs of coming out as religious people, and the story of how they fell in love.

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Maya Ben-Shushan's interview with Ariel Hendelman, one of the co-founders of Shabbat Shelach.

Maya Ben-Shushan is a cofounder of the Society of Independent Spirituality. She teaches classes about Sexuality and Judaism, and is finishing her degree at Hebrew University.

Ariel Hendelman is a cofounder of Shabbat Shelach, a community for queer women based around the Shabbat table. She and her wife Esther live in the Nachlaot community in Jerusalem.

For more information about Shabbat Shelach, check out their facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/shabbatshelach/

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Maya Ben-Shushan's interview with Yared Stufflebeam, an Orthodox and openly gay man.

Maya Ben-Shushan is a Cofounder of The Society of Independent Spirituality. She teaches classes about Sexuality and Judaism, and is finishing her degree in Social Work at Hebrew University. Yared Stufflebeam just finished his army service in the special forces Nachal Brigade and is starting his degree in Special Education at Bar Ilan University.

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