Washington Ethical Society

Washington Ethical Society Platform Service - September 10, 2023 - "Opening Sunday: Welcome!" by affirming the worth of every person since 1944.

Washington Ethical Society Platform Service September 3, 2023 - "Laboring Together" by affirming the worth of every person since 1944.

Washington Ethical Society Platform, August 27, 2023 by affirming the worth of every person since 1944.

August 20, 2023.

"What Has Been"

Rev. KC Slack

As KC returns from vacation and study leave and we gear up for a new program year, we take a moment to reflect on our first year together, and the many histories that remain relevant to our community

"Rest and Urgency"

Robyn Kravitz

Join WES Staff Member Robyn Kravitz as she pulls back the veil on WES’ relationship with urgency. She will share her lessons from Rest is Resistance, MotherWorthy, and WES members’ own words.

"Our Future Is What We Make It"

Sunday, August 13, 2023

Adam Briskin-Limehouse, Karen Schofield-Leca, Levi Leca, Perry Beider, Robin Pfeifer, Teagan Nam, WES Members

At WES, we have before us the challenge and the opportunity of greater volunteer leadership. Karen Schofield-Leca will share a bit of WES history of staff- and member-leadership, and highlight ways that we each can help to make WES the vibrant community we desire. Adam Briskin-Limehouse will officiate and Perry Beider will provide themed music. We’ll also hear from our college-bound teens Levi Leca, Robin Pfeifer, and Teagan Nam and give them a celebratory send-off. We’ll end with a volunteer fair where you can learn more about opportunities and sign up to join teams of interest. And there will be cake!

Trans and Divine Feminine: the Art of Tuning in to Who We Really Are

Joy Ladin

Joy Ladin has long worked at the tangled intersection of literature, Judaism, and transgender identity. She has published ten books of poetry, including her latest collection, Shekhinah Speaks; National Jewish Book Award winner The Book of Anna; and Lambda Literary Award finalists Transmigration and Impersonation, reissued in a revised edition as a free PDF from DoubleBack in April. She is also the author of a memoir of gender transition, National Jewish Book Award finalist Through the Door of Life; and another work of creative non-fiction, Lambda Literary and Triangle Award finalist, The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective. Two new books – Family, a poetry collection, and Once Out of Nature, a collection of essays on the transformation of gender – are forthcoming from Persea in 2024. Her work has been recognized with a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholarship, an American Council of Learned Societies Research Fellowship, and a Hadassah Brandeis Institute Research Fellowship, among other honors. A nationally recognized speaker on transgender issues, she has been featured on a number of NPR programs, including an “On Being” with Krista Tippett interview that has been rebroadcast several times. Episodes of her online conversation series, “Containing Multitudes,” are available at JewishLive.org/multitudes; her writing is available at joyladin.com.

Showing Up to Change

Rev. KC Slack

Communities like WES, which are built on relationships, are communities constantly in motion. As we celebrate and induct the 2023-2024 WES Board of Trustees, we will consider how we as individuals and a community are shaped and changed by each person who shows up

Join WES member Mike Kravitz as he shares his thoughts and lessons from an 18+ month-long journey studying modern fatherhood and his own place in the world. Mike will share his observations of the WES community and places where we have room for growth. He also invites those that are interested in diving deeper to join the next fatherhood cohort with Dr. Jason Frishman at https://www.journeymenfoundation.com/.

Changing the World Using Social Media

Sunday, June 25, 2023. 10:30am

Emily Newman

Social media changes the way we communicate, the way we understand the world, and the way we are perceived by others. Although it has been used for bad, we can and should use it for good. Let’s spread a message of respect, caring, and action to make a more humane world online and in person.

Emily Newman became a member of WES in 2018 and is still a member of the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture, where she grew up. She has managed social media for several nonprofit organizations and led numerous workshops to help humanist communities get more engaged online.